.“..’A .V Vi // 84-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, August 13, 1988 Onbeing a farm -And otherlj^^nj Joyce Bupp mHI Somehow, it seemed the appro priate, final touch. Matter of fact, the buzzard stag gering around the yard merely capped the day of back-to-back close calls. Actually it had begun days before, with the Fanner using power-grinding tools repairing a piece of equipment. When his right eye turned an irritated-red shade a day or two later, he attributed it to a bit of metal that had flown from the grinding site and “probably scratched it.” No, he wasn’t wearing his safety glasses. It was just a quick job that would only take a minute... Insisting the eye was getting better, he had rejected suggestions to see our family doctor, whose office is the lengthy distance of a good quarter-mile up the road. But, here it was, Saturday morning, and the eye was definitely worse. And, under very close scrutiny, a pin point of metal was visible near the edge of the blue cornea. Prepared for a visit to the hospi tal emergency room, I chanced a call to the doctor. His answering service caught him as he prepared to mow his office lawn; the Farmer was to come immediately. In minutes, not one, but four, tiny fragments of metal had been removed from the badly-infected eye. A special antibiotic ointment was needed - immediately - from Ford Credit - Low Rate Financing available with Ford Motor Credit /.-i v. 1 ,V» the pharmacy to complete the treaunent. I hustled off to town, prescription slip in hand. “You may have trouble finding this,” I was informed by the drug gist, who had none in slock. She did, however, make a quick call to a sister-store a half-dozen miles away, where it was found to be on hand. His eye treated and patched, the Farmer rested it at least a half-hour or so, before disappearing. When I caught up with him, a mechanic friend was departing. Instead of a hoped-for simple repair, the spray truck required the major transplant of a new timing chain. Naturally. And, though driving wasn’t advised, the Farmer was soon spot ted behind the wheel of the towing pickup, “just to bring back a wagon on the field road.” Cleaning seemed more produc tive than nagging. Waging war with the vacuum cleaner against the endless dirt, dust and cobwebs, I still heard the announcement of the youngest as the front door banged and he beclined to the refrigerator. Fire? What was on fire?? “The chopper.” But it wasn’t really on fire. A bearing got hot and started smoldering the hay dirt around it. “Did you have a fire extinguisher?” “Yeah, but it was in the truck.” We have a gutsy performer for you—the Ford Model 5610 with 62 PTO horsepower. It’s got a beefy 256 cu. in. diesel engine—the largest in its class. So it takes on tough jobs, • Hardworking hydraulic performance with 18.2 gpm pump capacity and up to four, four-position remote valves. • Shift on the go with the optional Bx 4 synchromesh transmission. • Optional mechanical front wheel assist for extra traction • Optional Whisper-Quiet cab for a great place to work. That’s real helpful; his sister had taken that earlier to use in towing filled wagons. Imagine. Two rounds of farm safety nagging in the same day. With a hint of storm clouds on the horizon, attention moved from dusty cobwebs to the straggly lawn. A heavy, gray cloud front silently sped over the farmstead as the last rakeful of lawn grass was tossed on the perennial border. Gusty winds briefly cooled the air in the bam, bringing a gentle, but steady rain. Worst of the ominous-looking, thunder-laden section of weather front slipped east toward the river, leaving us with two-tenths of an inch of mois- ture. Enough to at least rinse dust from our emergency plantings of Sudan grass for extra winter feed. Milking underway, we shooed “One-Eye” toward the house to rest his sull-irnlatcd eye hiding under the patch. His wild gesturing at the bam door brought us hus tling. There in the yard, sur rounded by a dozen stalking, curi ous, but cautious cats, was a juve nile turkey buzzard. Slowly approaching the bird, our eldest was quickly “grossed out” as the buzzard rallied it’s unique enemy defense: regurgitation of its last meal. Carefully corralled and set high on a limb by our tall son, the vul ture dried its feathers enough to eventually flee the indignity of our amusement, and stalking by the cats, which were totally fascinated with this giant bird. * Your Southern Lancaster County Ford New Holland Dealer The eye is improving. The truck is being repaired. Not a bearing, but something simpler was ailing the chopper. Last month 4-H’ers from Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties gathered for Presen- Look for a new yogurt product in the dairy case. It’s plain nonfat yogurt. It’s available in 8 oz. and 16 oz. containers. Eight ounces contain 0 grams of fat, 45 percent of the RDA for calcium and 110 calorics. The texture is just as creamy and rich as its lowfat counterpart. y performer. | Is your tractor built as well as a Ford? HAPPENINGS Presentation Night S s rav**j Later, word came out that a tor nado had reportedly touched down in the county. All we got was a sog gy buzzard. It seemed like a good omen. 4-H la lion Night, below are a list of the gold winners. Gold Winners Cumberland County Jerome Beas, Sarah Stets Dauphin County Kristin Brubaker Franklin County Jennie Shelly, Jason Mowery, Kelby Mowery Lancastar County Tanya Dawson, Jett Kreider, Eric Wenger Kandi Mullen. Anita Meek Brian McLaughlin Lebanon County Stacy Habecker York County Vanessa Debnam, Hannah Stauffer, Kendra Miller, Wendy Debnam, Tina Shaffer. Gail Rishel | T I Sept, t,--' m Are I r Demonstration R Months nn □□ jp -1