On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other
hazards)
Joyce Bupp
And I’m supposed to believe
this tale 7
You go away for a day and
come home to these stones.
Highly unlikely stories Stories
with no documentation Stones
with no rhyme or reason
Except this one is too unlike
ly to have been made up And
the tellers are The Farmer and
our daughter.
Not that it was an unusual
time for stories. After all, it was
the first week of buck deer sea
son in Pennsylvania. The week
when every one that got away
weighed 200 pounds and sported
a 10-point record rack.
But this was not a whitetail
buck-that-got-away story. This
was a bird story.
Bird tales (no pun intended)
are routine in our bird/wildlife
loving family. At least once a
week one of us relates the latest
antic of our resident fisher-bird,
the great blue heron. Like the
day when he/she (how does one
tell?) erupted into flight out of
the dying cattails which rim the
goldfish pond, just ahead of The
Fanner headed out to move cows
with the fourwheeler.
And landed up on the hill, in
the middle of where the cows
X-Series Pulverizer
AND HAS LONG BEEN THE INDUSTRY LEADER.
* Available in widths from 6’ to 46' to accommodate any size farm operation * Choice of 20” notched or crowfoot ductile iron roller wheels with five year
* Create an ideal seedbed with fewer trips across the field limited warranty against breakage
■ Choose the roller wheel that is best suited to your soil conditions " Telescoping drawbar reduces drawbar length as desired from 19'5" to 12'11 ’
on the XL and XXL
graze every day A strange place
for this skinny, steely-colored
fisherman with the wide wing
spread and feathery long neck
It obviously intended to monitor
the meadow and beat a hasty
retreat back to waterside the
moment that fourwheeler was
over the hill When not spearing
The Farmer’s goldfish, Mr. Blue
Heron spends much of its time
terrorizing the creek minnows
which live in the stream in the
meadow.
Strangely enough, it also
likes to hang out on top of the
silos and spent most of one
recent day enjoying the view
from atop the old, empty one on
the adjoining farm where our
daughter’s family lives.
Livin’ here is so good that
occasionally it even brings a
friend along for lunch.
Nor is it unusual for someone
to relate sightings of the king
fisher swooping over the water
to snag a snack and flap away.
Or to hear the shriek of the red
tail hawks as they float over the
fields hunting mice. Or to spot
kestrels, doves or bluebirds,
nuthatches, woodpeckers, tit
mice, chickadees, blue jays or
cardinals. Mockingbirds stealing
BRILLION HAS MANUFAC
blueberries Or finches gobbling
seeds from the hanging heads of
the sunflowers in late fall
Not much about birds sur
prises us anymore since wo live
m close company with our back
yard feathered friends
Actually, The Farmer thought
what he saw was a new cat
joined up with our assorted and
colorful collection And puzzled
over where this strange, plump,
dark-striped tabby had come
from, since we currently have
none of these favorites And it
was sitting on the corner of the
deck —outside the railing —this
strange “cat” was
Which on closer investigation
proved to be an owl 9 A very large
owl A very large, very beautiful,
very fat, great-horned owl
Sitting on the corner of our deck
in the middle of the yard in
broad daylight
Yeah, right. Whooooooo does
he think he’s kidding 9
He related that the stunning
discovery stopped him in his
tracks and he backed off so as
not to scare the visitor. A few
hours later, the owl had disap
peared, but a racket stirred up
in the backyard by several crows
sent him to the other side of the
house. There, in some ever
greens along the woodshed, sat
the owl, unperturbed by the
irate crew of crows.
When The Farmer tried to
sneak closer to show the big bird
to grandson Caleb, the owl had
enough of being the center of
attention. It soared off over the
meadow and perched, very visi
bly, not very high up in a big, old
tree.
Our daughter says she has
the evidence, a photo snapped
with her camera as she headed
home on the field road, right
URED PULVERIZERS SINCE 1895
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 11, 1999-B3
under when the owl was keeping five been harassing them
watch It was so busy eyeing about having made up this
Darrah the Dog, sniffing around whooooooole owl's tale
at squirrel trails, that it ignored But j g ra h binoculars everv
the two-legged critters time I hear crows
Ida’s
Notebook
isser
December is another month
full of birthdays and anniver
saries. Too bad that I do not own
a greeting card factory. It seems
that I’m always trying to calcu
late when to send a card so that
it will arrive in Atlanta or
Richmond or somewhere else on
the right day. I don’t even want
to count how many extra cards
are sent in a year. But, I do know
that I buy four rolls of 100
stamps each year.
There are sisters to write to
and both children and grand
children to be remembered. The
cards in the stores are quite
expensive and so at Valentine I
make cards for the 14 grandchil
dren. It is almost like being a
child again as I cut out flowers
and draw hearts on construction
paper. When I was younger my
mother had me make scrap
books out of old magazines. And,
my oldest children also pasted
pictures in scrapbooks to keep
them busy as we did not buy the
latest toys for them at a store
As a youngster my sisters
and I played a game called
“Snap ” It consisted of numbers
cut out of a big calendar and
then pasted on cardboard - no
money spent at a store Just
recently I found the small box of
cards that we used to play “Old
Maid ” That game led to bad
feelings sometimes
Recently, I attended a birth
day party for a friend of mine.
She will be 90 on Christmas
Day As she lives in a retirement
community there were many
guests in wheelchairs. However,
she is quite nimble and jumped
up from a chair to greet every
one. Should we attain such
years, one can only hope that we
too will be as nimble in mind
and body.
Contact your local
jJyJJI
dealer for details.
• i2msrai;.r
AD^MSTOVyN
Equipment
Co
EASTON., _ .
Geo. V. Seiple
ELIZABETHTOWN
roiessickTarm Equipment
Co
INTERCOURSE
Hbooer, me
GF l^eyirsTmplement
GR Jl«&merv Co
LE &m6erger’s of Fontana
0/S^eop?es & Service
OL P Seville Equipment Inc
Service
Snyder Inc
EnnsnoHi
Equipment
Q2J!|]]2QBH!
EL & E Pe Tavern Equip. Sales
Corp
'SJJJ