My
job on the farm was to help out doors. The second year we bought
a cow, and more cattle were bought as the years passed. As long
as I was home with Father and Mother, my job was to milk the
cows, churn the butter, wean the claves, and yoke the cattle
to keep them from straying off as the fences were poor. At first,
only one strand of barb wire was used for a fence but later
two woven wires were used. For a long time, I milked from five
to twelve cows every morning and night. When any cattle were
sold, I rounded them up and started them out because when the
buyers came, the animals would get scared and run and jump the
fences ....
Brother
and I worked at haying time, and in harvesting the grain. I
helped haul in the hay from the meadow and stack it in the racks.
One time the team ran away when we drove over a nest of bumble
bees that swarmed up and stung the horses. I shocked the bundles
of wheat in the field, helped scoop up grain into the wagons
and haul it into the bins….
My
brother, Herman, and I did the plowing.We would come in from
the field in the evening at seven o'clock, and feed our horses.
First, we would brush the horses and wash their shoulders. Then
I milked the cows, while brother would look after the plows
and get them repaired for the next day. I drove three horses
on a plow. It took six weeks to finish plowing 160 acres. Besides
the grain crop, we would raise corn and use the cobs to burn
in the stoves at the house as well as wood. Father fed corn
to his hogs and we cured our own meat.
Source:
Fannie L. Eisele, We Came to Live in Oklahoma Territory,
61