BManeastar Farming, Saturday, July 8, 1985
;er family is the eighth generation of Oberholtzers to live on
the Elizabethtown farm since 1718. Shown are parents Clair and Lavem with
On The Farm With Lancaster Coun
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
ELIZABETHTOWN (Lancas
ter Co.) Heather Oberholtzer is
the eighth generation to live on her
family’s farm.
“I love it,” said Heather, who is
Lancaster County’s recently
crowned dairy princess.
The family’s ISO-acre Eli*
zabethtown dairy farm is home for
Heather, her parents, Clair and
Lavem, and siblings, Jesslyn, 19,
twins Brent and Brian, 14, and
Delmar, 12.
It’s also home for 75 pampered
cows.
“I always say that I’m a Equal
Opportunity Employer,” Clair said
of the herd that has about two
thirds of the Holsteins registered.
“If a grade milks good, she stays. I
have one grade family that is as
good as any registered one.”
Perhaps there is a bit of prejud
After the children took over outside chores, Lavern tackled exposing the logs in th Is
room. Behind her Is the home’s original comer cupboard that required endless hours
of sanding to restore the sheen of old wood. She also stitched the window valance.
iced shown between the grade and
registered cows. The grades are
duped numbers while the regis
tered cows are thoughtfully christ
ened such names as Nancy, Tonya,
or Hillary. There is also a cow fam
ily with names that carry on bank
ing terminology such as Cash
Flow, Credit, Loan, Master
Charge, Visa, and Vault Then
there’s the soap family line with
names such as Dove, Dial, and
Zest
ice children insist that the
bovines often live up to their
names. For example, Nancy and
Tonya were at one time both amic
able cows, but after the Tonya
Harding and Nancy Kerrigan fias
co, Tonya the cow developed a
nasty streak and consistently
attempted to pin the siblings to the
wall and buck them. Tonya the
cow ended up as hamburger and
beef jerky.
children Jesslyn, Heather, Brent. Brian, and Delmar.
“She tastes as good as she
looked,” Brian said and the others
agreed.
With a farm that dates back to
1718 and has several original
buildings still standing, the Ober
holtzers always have plenty of do
it-yourself projects.
Some of these projects havc (
almost cost a life.
In 1981, Clair was jacking up
the bam wall when a beam flew out
and hit the side of his head.
“I technically died on the way to
the hospital,” Clair said.
The Life Support ambulance
pulled to the side of the road to,
work on stabilizing his vital signs.
Clair was told that that after all
his body systems shut down, his
body revitalized itself and started
up again.
‘They said that it only happens
occasionally to young, athletic
’$ Dairy Princess
As the recently-crowned Lancastei y -iry
cess, Heather, right, relies upon her sister Jesslyn, who was
a former county alternate, for hints on compiling a scrap
book of activities.
people.” Clair said.
Three years later, Clair uncx
pectently suffered severe pain in
his head that resulted in loss of
hearing in one ear, which was
diagnosed as a side effect of his
former concussion. When he lost
his hearing, he also lost his sense
of balance for about sue weeks and
couldn’t work.
During these episodes, Lavem
capably carried out the milking
duties. But she confessed that she
needed to throw a whole tank of
milk away when she unwitiedly
milked a dry cow.
Local farmers and friends ral
lied around the family.
“We never put hay away so
fast,” Clair said of the time neigh
boring farmers showed up with
three hay balers.
As the children grow older,
Laveme helps less in the bam and
fields. In addition to Working full
jpMESTEADfpTES
time as a secretary for a hospital,
Laveme tackled exposing the
wooden chestnut logs in one room
of the rambling farmhouse.
“It took me three winters. SO
gallons of elbow grease, and lots of
filler” Laveme said.
The whole family helped with
hauling out wheelbarrows of old
plaster and debri. An offset grinder
wire brush and bleach were used to
clean the logs. Insulation was
added to the plaster to make the
room more heat efficient
It was a lot of work. But the
room now has the warmth of huge
timber walls, a built-in comer cup
board, and two other built-in cup
boards, and wide floor boards.
Laveme would like to tackle the
rooms in the rest of the house, but
it’s expected to be a life-long pro
ject Laveme said that the side of
the double house that they live in
(Turn to Pago B 3)