July 27, 1986
George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself left Chariton at 2 p.m. and arrived back at 5:45 p.m. Traveled mostly northwest. Went by McCrosky bull farm and by where Ruth Ruddell was born and raised. We forded a creek and then went down to Swede Hollow. The old red barn on the Vic Peterson farm is gone. It stood halfway out in the road. It was built in 1909 by Vic’s father before the road was put there. Mark Frazier owns it now and will let it go back to its original state of timberland. We went on some roads today that made me think of the old fairy tale where they left bread crumbs behind so they could be found if they got lost. That is stretching it a little bit. We searched for a huge hornets’ nest that we saw last year but it was nowhere to be found. We usually check out one or two cemeteries on our rides. This week it was Brownlee Cemetery about a mile straight east across the fields from Esther Karn’s. Very interesting place because of the old, old, old dates on the stones. Lots of dates over one hundred years old and a few back to the 1860’s. It was pretty well kept up. Down the old roads you see many killdeers especially this time of year. When they lay their eggs they don’t build a nest, just lay them on the path or in some coarse rock. It’s a beautiful bird and calls constantly. Heard true rain crows and cuckoos but couldn’t spot them. Same with Maryland yellowthroats. We have been working some on the sunflower family. There are dozens of them. We did identify cup-weed that is of that family. It’s more flower like. Saw evening primrose, bouncing Bet, four-star bellflower, butterfly weed, field milkwort or better known as candy root. Acres of partridge peas. Have also been working on the song of the cardinal. I have concluded the female sings too, same song as the male, but not always from a high perch.
I have never mentioned this before in the newsletter, but we always have something to discuss. Words of phrases. Sunday we discussed which word to use in this phrase: The new rules infringed or impinged on one’s usual privileges. Also the difference between blatant and flagrant. Altogether it makes a pleasant ride.
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SLIDING ON BAKERY HILL
The hill is pretty tame now as the top has been cut down ten feet and the bottom has been filled in a good fifteen feet. It was mostly small sleds as the bigger bobsleds went out to the Mallory place two blocks north. The hill was a popular one as we usually could find broken cookies at the bakery for snacks. One could also get warm too. Last week I talked of our mules and the one jack that wouldn’t stay sold. We put him to work on the hill. We put a light shoulder harness on him with a rope dragging behind. He would run down the hill with us and then we would hang on to the rope and he would pull us back because he always got a bite of cookie. Once he got enough cookies and he wouldn’t pull anymore until he was hungry again. We could get a few more pulls by using raisins, then a few more pulls with a marshmallow as a treat.
We used four teams for delivery work. I spoke of these mules in an earlier article. Joe Howard and myself hitched them up before school time. We hooked the wagons tandem, no driver, and they went nine blocks to town where they knew their food and water was. At night it was reversed as the feed was at home and they would come. They usually went the same route to town but not always. Sometimes in the spring they cut through someone’s garden. Father always paid the damages. Once in a while they would cut a corner too close and get hooked up on a post. Sometimes we had to go free the wagon. People knew they went every day and would ride free and often drove them. A few years back a man stopped in the store and said he worked for us in 1914. I somehow doubted that he had. He said he could name the mules. They never had names and were not the same pair each day. You must have a jenny and a jack to get them to work. We also had three horses and this man named them in the order of their age. So he must have been around. Kate was first and she had Mary and Mary had Daisy. Before leaving the mules I want to say that they didn’t bray. They were lazy and this probably took too much effort.
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