Animals on "D" Farm, part one

Everyone knows Old Macdonald’s Farm was teaming with animals.  According to my internet research there are versions of the children’s beloved nursery song that list as many as eight species; to wit, cows, pigs, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, mules and lambs.


On the other hand, animals have been conspicuously absent at “D” Farm over the last 25 years.  It is understandable since, as a practical matter, it is almost impossible to maintain animals where there is not a fulltime resident.  Thus provides me with one of the most compelling reasons to move here. 


Animals were central to my Grandparents’ life on the farm.  My grandfather raised Hereford cattle, a beef cow most easily recognized by its red color and characteristic white face and dorsal stripe along the crest of its neck.  He had an especially handsome bull that he was quite proud of; Virginia made an art piece modeled after a photograph of him feeding that bull from a bucket.  My Uncle Don tells me Forrest was also found of Shorthorns, but that was “before my time”.


My grandfather was also a horseman.  My first experience with horses was on “D” Farm with Forrest’s cow pony, Pepper.  She was a big, gentle quarter horse mare, at least 16 hands, I’m sure.  My business card is derived from a photograph of Forrest and I on Pepper taken at “D” Farm in 1957.  We have photos of all the grandkids on Pepper at one time or another.  When we were very young we’d ride with Forrest, myself seated behind the saddle on Pepper’s rump, and my brother seated in front of Forrest.  After my granddad passed away in 1963, Pepper was sold to one of his good friends who allowed us to borrow her during our stays at the farm in the summer.


At one time there was an apple orchard east of the house.  Forrest liked to let Pepper graze out there.  Sometimes he would take her out there with a halter and lead rope, then let my brother and I sit on her bare back while she was busy munching away on the grass.  ( Pepper had a reputation for her love of food.  I heard others laugh about how Forrest never needed to tie her when they were working cattle, just  leave her where there was something to eat.)  


Although I don’t recall the incident itself, I do remember him telling of the time my brother Dale and I both came flying off her when she stopped and shook herself  as if to rid herself of some pesky insects and that we sounded like a couple of pumpkins when we hit the ground.  


My grandmother, Maud, enjoyed keeping chickens, mostly bantams as I recall, although there was one big white hen.   Because I liked her best, we called her Donna.  If I remember right, my cousin Cathy had one named for her, too.


Maud had a large chicken house west of the house.  The gathering of eggs was an assignment that very often fell upon the grandkids when they visited.  For us, going into that big henhouse in search of the day’s eggs was like a treasure hunt.  The real adventure began when there was a hen still sitting in the nesting box.  Maud insisted that even the eggs beneath her be collected.  


I keep chickens now and have learned, at least as an adult, that a chicken’s peck, when resisting either being lifted off the nest or someone reaching beneath her for eggs, is not life-threatening.  But it certainly seemed so as a child. So I found some large black rubber gloves.  I have no idea for what use they were originally designed but they were thick and practically reached my elbow.  I always used them when on egg duty.


I remember the time when it was decided that the old hen house needed to be torn down.  Evidently Maud grew weary of waiting for someone else to do it so she proceeded to do it herself.  You might say that that was her style.  And she got it done, too.  Of course she didn’t have to take on the entire job.  Once “the men-folk” took notice of the fact that she had one wall down, they swooped in to finish the job, fussing about how you need to start by removing the roof, before you take down the walls.  If you ask me, Maud’s approach was quite effective.
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