818-Lanctster Farming, Saturday, February 1, 1992
The year 1961 stands out in my
mind at the present time because
I’ve just spent several hours read
ing my diary for that year. Our
children’s ages were one, four,
seven, ten and twelve. Not only
did I read but I wrote 18 pages of
tiny writing so that each child got
a run down of their activities that
year.
It is interesting for Philip and
Lisa to compare toeir son’s activi
ties to the things that his father did
at the same age. Their son is a bit
heavier and taller and walked a
little sooner.
Social Sec
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) What steps can a farm
woman take to help ensure finan
cial security in retirement? One
important step is to build up social
security eligibility, said Debra
Bryant, Wayne County extension
director.
' Workers and self-employed
individuals pay a social security
tax throughout their productive
years, then draw a monthly benefit
after retirement until death. Farm
couples who operate, a farm
together usually find that the hus
band is considered to be self
employed and the income from
the farm is credited to him. The
wife’s work on the farm then
results in no social security contri
bution in her name.
An exception to this rule occurs
in a family partnership between
husband and wife. The partnership
agreement is usually written.
Signs that a partnership exists
include:
* The intent of the parties to
Ida’s
Notebook
Ida Risser
Our four-year-old girl was
mother’s helper. She was anxious
for kindergarten to start so she
could go to school too. Her
brothers made a sandbox for her
and she entertained the baby. She
asked questions like, “When I die,
how will Got get my soul out of
my body?” What a question for a
four year old!
Now, the seven year old was a
real boy. He drilled a hole down
through the bam floor. He lay
under a tree in the meadow when
he was supposed to be pulling
weeds. Often he fell into manure
urlty For Farm Women
form a partnership.
* The contribution of all parties
of land, money or services.
* Participation in management
by all parties.
* The sharing of profits and
losses.
* Mutual agency, in which each
partner can act for the other.
* Joint liability.
For social security purposes in a
husband-wife partnership, each
spouse reports his or her share of
the profits on separate schedules.
The procedure holds even if they
file their income tax returns
jointly.
Another way to build the wife’s
social security contributions clas
sifies the husband as a self
employed farmer. He pays his
wife a salary for her farm-business
work. Her social security tax as an
employee will be deducted from
her paycheck, and her husband, as
her employer will be required to
match her contribution.
Although this arrangement
as he chased calves into pens. He
lost things so many things. His
brother and he liked to make pan
cakes for breakfast, french fries
for dinner and cookies for supper
whenever they got the opportuni
ty. He also helped to unload hay.
The ten year old drove the big
tractor and was very careful but in
later years he did have two acci
dents. He was generous to a fault
He took his earn money and
bought his classmates a basket
ball. He made a mistake and told
his sister what her birthday gift
was going to be and then took five
dollars off of his “earn sheet” and
told me to buy myself a dress to
pay for his error. We took him to
so many Little League baseball
games and 4-H dairy meetings.
His older sister always said that
she had to work too hard and I
guess she did. I too was the oldest
of seven and had to be a big hel
per. She cooked, baked, hoed,
tended calves, and hated cleaning
her room. But, she was taken to
Lancaster every week for violin
lessons. She made nice clothes by
going to a 4-H Sewing Club and
had girl friends visit overnight.
Life really wasn’t that bad as at
the end of a hot day we could all
go swimming in the Conestoga
River.
decreases the income available for
current use, it can have advantages
in retirement
Typically, benefits to a non
contribution spouse are lower than
benefits to a contributing spouse.
Paying the spouse a salary, there-
fore, and paying both the employ
ee’s and the employer’s contribu
tions can result in higher retire-
merit benefits for the couple than
if the retirement benefits are based
solely on the earning of the self
employed farmer. In addition, the
spouse could be eligible for bene
fits in case of disability.
It’s a fact! Contaminated water can have a costly effect on your livestock and
poultry performance. Our years of experience plus hundreds of farm related
treatment systems has proven the validity and practicality of correcting con
taminated water.
(Continued from P«fl» B 16)
ously as her sister had done.
The Colemans bribed the church
into accepting $5,000 in exchange
for dismissing the young minister.
The church took the money, the
minister left the area but, like
Buchanan, he never married.
As caretakers to the mansion,
the Grubes refuse numerous
requests for tours of the mansion
since it is co-owned by descend
ants of Robert Coleman who had
purchased the land from Stiegel.
Francis Coleman of Washington
D.C. and his nephew William of
Philadelphia, now own the
property.
While the Grubes live in the
Stiegel side of the mansion, the
Coleman side is reserved for
weekend visits from the
Colemans.
It is Judy’s job to polish the an
tique furniture and dust the vol
umes of ledgers that trace the his
tory of the Coleman estate from the
1700 s until recent times. Large
matted deeds, indentures of ser
vants and portraits, many of the
Coleman family, hang on the walls
or are stored in the attic that at one
time served as servant quartos.
While the kitchen has been
updated, most of the mansion
remains in its former state. One
room has hand-blocked wallpaper
that dates to about 1815. The
downstairs hallway is inlaid with
six different types of wood. Sever
al fireplaces in the mansion are still
used by weekend guests.
Judy cleans the mansion week
ly, and annually she hires friends
to help give the mansion a thor
ough housecleaning.
One of the main reasons the
Grubes love living on the secluded
grounds is for horseback riding.
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548 New Holland Ava.
Lancatlar, PA 17802
(717) 383-3812
Along Rla. 23
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Family
The family has two quarter horses
and Sheree. who is a junior at War
wick High School, competes in
4-H horse competition.
For several years, the Grubes
kept 12 pygmy goats on the farm to
help trim the grass, but the goats
kept escaping and it was hard to
keep the fences repaired. Occa
sionally the family also raises tur
keys and a few chickens for their
own use.
About 1,750 acres of the origi
nal acreage remain on the Coleman
estate. Three-hundred acres are
planted with Christmas trees for a
wholesale and retail operation.
During the Christmas season, the
farm offered a horse-drawn wagon
ride to the fields where families
chose their own tree. Sheree
helped form the fresh wreaths sold
on the farm.
The Grubes said that it was a
family decision to be caretakers for
the Mansion especially since the
whole family needs to help keep
the grounds in shape. Leaf cleanup
is especially time consuming.
When the children entered high
school and wanted to become
involved in sports, the family
reached the joint decision that each
:hild needed to limit their involve
ment to one sport a year.
“We told them we could move
to a house that required less main
tenance so they would have more
dme for sports, but the children
decided that they’d rather stay liv
ing on the grounds so that they
could enjoy horseback riding,
three-wheeling, and motorcycle
riding on the grounds,” Judy said.
The history of the Coleman
estate chronicles the changes in
society and the use of the land, but
thq beauty of the remaining 1,750
acres remain unchanged.
740 E. Lincoln Ava.
Myanlown, PA 17087
(717) 888-7555
Along Rla. 422