On being
a farm
i *
Joyce Bupp
-And other
hazards
Little bubbles of anticipation
are busy running around inside
me. They’re effervescent with
eagerness about seeing old
friends, perhaps making a few
new ones and sfieer enthusiasm
for the sense of excitement that
goes with it all.
“On the other hand...,” to bor
row the favorite phrase from the
lead character, Tevyev, in the
musical Fiddler On The Roof.
On the other hand, a sense of
dread, of impending doom, stalks
the bubbles of anticipation, like
little monsters chasing Pac-Man
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Invited
around the video gameboard.
Farm Show stirs in me a whole
host of conflicting emotions.
Balancing the anticipation, fel
lowship and fun of competition is
history. History supposedly
repeats itself - which means the
likelihood of something weird
happening this week plays to
pretty good odds.
Often these occurrences are the
sort of things that are taken in
stride when The Farmer is home.
Often, too, they’re stirred by the
“typical” Farm Show weather. Of
course, even without Farm Show,
Swine & Poultry Systems Specialists
24 Hour Service
the probability of cold, snow,
sleet, ice and freezing rain in Janu
ary is pretty high.
One recent year, for instance,
the water pipes in the dairy barn
froze under the bam floor. This
has happened only a few times in
the eight years since the bam was
built, and only when a certain,
rare, combination of cold and
wind direction combine. Farm
Show week? Of course!
Then there was another year in
which my absolutely faithful, not
jven-a-hint-of-a-problem car bat-
Jtry died midway through Farm
Show week.
Still, in fairness, the weather
loesn’t deserve all the blame.
One vivid non-weather-incident
nemory still "sends shivers crawl
ng up my spine. We had piled the
truck high with supplies, to begin
moving in for the week’s duration.
Bales of hay and straw were
slacked tightly together on the
back of the pickup and tied down
securely for the 40-mile trip north.
For some unknown reason, a
tie-down rope worked loose
moments after we entered the
right lane of the interstate and
were getting up traveling speed. It
took but a second for several bales
INC.
PH 71 7-866-7565
to tumble from the stick and land
in both northbound lanes.
In one of those moments when
you absolutely feel the sense of
being guarded by a higher power,
there woe no vehicles in either
lane traveling behind us. And,
even in the few seconds it took us
to halt and back up, an alert track
er had halted traffic and helped
toss the bales - every one still
unbroken - to the roadside.
But the “Year of the Pigs”
remains as vivid a Farm Show
week in my memory as any I can
recall.
At age 12, our youngest had
become intrigued with the hog
business, and acquired for himself
two gilts. Only in the vision of
hindsight - which became painful
ly clear about early January that
year - did we realize that their visit
with a neighbor’s boar had been
incredibly ill-timed.
Those baby pigs were due late
in Farm Show week.
Naturally, ahead of schedule.
WEST CHESTER (Chester)
The Chester County Cooperative
Extension is offering a morning
and an evening session of Basic
Microwave Cooking on Tuesdays,
February 21 and 28 and March 14.
The morning session will be from
9:30-11:30 a.m. and the evening
session will be from 7:00-9:00
p.m. at the Extension office on the
third floor of the Dague Building,
235 W. Market Street, West Ches
ter. There is a fee of $2O for each
session, either morning or even
ing.
Fran Alloway, freelance home
economist and instructor for the
class, will teach the essentials of
using a microwave oven. The clas
ses will include basic cooking
principles, actual meal preparation
and methods for converting favo-
Count on us from
seeding to feeding
From seeding through
feeding you can depend
on Pioneers brand alfalfas
and silage Inoculants to
help you be an efficient
silage maker.
Pioneer alfalfa varieties
provide tons of protein
yoar after yoar. And whan
Inoculated wtth 1174 water
sohiMo Inoculant and 1177
silage Inoculant, you can
count on more nutritious
forage for your livestock.
PIONEER
Pioneer invites all those attending thjs
year’s Farm Show to visit their exhibit.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 7,1989-B5
on a cold, damp Sunday morning,
piglets began labouring their way
into the light of day. Unprepared,
save for some hasty instructions
given the day before, one young
pig owner and his mother deliv
ered, dried, tied cords, and begged
heat lamps from dear farm-friends
nearby.
By evening, the second litter of
piglets was arriving. Confidence
which came with the success of
eur first delivery lay shattered
lours later, after the second gilt
experienced serious problems and
ost most of her babies.
So, once again, we clip cows
md collect papers, plan work
ichedules and pack up half the
household - and double check the
tie-downs on the pickup loaded
with bales. And hope the bubbles
of Farm Show anticipation can
manage to elude the more mon
strous memories of history.
Comforting, too is the know
ledge that the only pig on the place
is in the freezer.
Basic Microwave
Cooking Ciasses
rite recipes to use in the micro
wave oven. Microwave oven fea
tures and cookware will be dis
cussed and recipes will be
distributed.
Deadline for registration is
February 10. For further informa
tion, contact the Extension office
at 696-3500.
Stop by or give me a call
to talk about how those
products can provide you
with top quality silage
from seeding to feeding.
Pioneer brand products are sold subiecl to the terms
and conditions of sale when are part ot the labeling
and sale documents
Pioneer is a brand name numbers identity products
•Registered trademark o f Pioneer h* Bred international
Inc Des Moines lowa USA