Wanted! (the trouble with a Jersey)

For the second time in a year the Glenview Police came to the farm to let us know that they had gotten a call that one of our cows was out. This time the cow was reportedly running through the Cook County Forrest Preserve just east of Wagner Road. The caller was frantic that the cow be captured before something bad happened so Jeff, Beth and I took off in great haste. Beth was the first to report that all our cows were present and accounted for. Then Jeff called to say that he had glimpsed what he thought was the reason for the call, a deer was running along the pathway in the Preserve. I'm glad they don't allow deer hunting in Glenview or BC would sure be in trouble !

John and Paul

Our volunteer farmer Paul put our 1952 Johnny through a good workout plowing this year's corn field. During the 1920's you might not have seen a tractor rolling through the fields but instead possibly horses. Farmers were continually looking for ways to increase productivity and tractors we one of the prime means used to achieve this. The hesitation that a farmer of the era might have had was not so much the issue of the change in technology but on economics. With the depression and the dawning of WW2 resources were in short supply to make a big change. After the war things did change and by the 1970's and 80's staple tasks like plowing even seemed to be up for debate. While I do remember riding with my dad and grandfather in the fields plowing I also remember when we switched the operation over to the no-till and reduce-till procedures. By not plowing the land the corn and bean stubble stayed on top of the soil and greatly reduced wind and water erosion. However, it wasn't until 1998 that the number of acres that were no-till passed the number of acres that were conventionally tilled.

Thanks for the help Paul!

The trees arrive

I know this isn't something I should share with the world but unloading trees isn't fun. At about 8:30 AM the first of two semi-trucks came to the farm to unload almost 300 pine and fir trees. As Andy's expression conveys, the sight of a 53 foot trail jam packed with these green beauties is impressive. With the help of a good crew we managed to get the two trucks unloaded in about 90 minutes. The one nice thing was the great weather to work in.

Here are some tree facts that I found interesting.

It takes six to ten years of fighting heavy rain, wind, hail and drought to get a mature tree.

In the United States we use between 30-35 million trees a year to celebrate the season.

22% of United States households have a real trees, 48% have artificial trees and 32% have no tree.

The first Christmas tree retail lot in the United States was started in 1851 in New York by Mark Carr.

The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510. There is also a legend that Martin Luther was the first to adopt the use of the tree into Christian traditions.

Making noise

Today's task was nice to get done. It was the annual Christmas tree post pounding event. A bunch of our volunteers came to the farm and helped us put in about 250 steel posts that we will then tie trees to. In the seven seasons that we have done this job the weather this year was by far the best. On Monday we will unload two semi-trucks full of trees. Then we'll shake them out and put them on the tree stands. We also got in a large shipment of greenery and wreaths. The sales will start on the Friday after Thanksgiving so if you are looking for decor come over to the farm. All the earnings go to taking care of the Wagner critters!

Doggie Power

This is a bit of a follow up to a post that I made a while back when I first got the new livestock treadmill. One of the great things about going to history conferences is you can talk to people about all kinds of miscellaneous trivoids. Being the proud owner of a treadmill I started asking around about the types of attachments that one might commonly see animals working at. My friend Terry said, "I know just what you need." He even sent pictures. In this case the treadmill would operate a butter churn. Terry documented that the Davis Swing Churn company of New Hampshire made these churns from about 1877 to roughly the middle part of the twentieth century. The price for a churn was about $8. For an additional $16 you could get the matching treadmill. How many husbands do you think got this for their wives for Christmas? How thrilling it must have been!? Now imagine your favorite type of dog trying to make this thing go. For some reason a Corgi makes me laugh.

Museum Conference

Over the last two weeks I feel like I have been living out of my suitcase. Pretty much as soon as I got back from DC I took off for Archibald, Ohio to attend the Fall 2009 Midwest Open Air Museum conference. The attendees are made up educators, administrators and volunteers from museums in the Midwest. It is a great chance to learn about new trends and network with others in the field. Our own Jim Bloomstrand presented a session with Dr.s Deb Reid and Joe Anderson on the evolution of farming in the postwar era. Jim brought a personal perspective to the program when he shared home movies from his family farm. The movies perfectly illustrated the changes in equipment, livestock, crops and manpower that marked the middle part of the twentieth century. I'm hoping I can get Jim to give an encore presentation for a future volunteer meeting, he did a great job. I've also included a shot of my friend Terry Sargent giving a talk about interpreting period harvesting techniques.

The keynote speaker was Joe Anderson who spoke about his newest book on agriculture. Joe is a professor at Mount Royal University in Canada. I first met Joe about 15 years ago when he was working at Living History Farms in Des Moines. A couple years later he gave me my first supervisors job at the 1900 era farm at LHF.

I don't want to give the wrong impression that the conference was all stuffy academic reports and speeches. On Friday night there is a dinner and dance. Each conference picks a theme and many of the participants dress accordingly. This year's theme was "Going Green". Wagner Farm was well represented by Jim who won best use of green, and Carlin and Joyce who won best green couple! Great job guys.

New job for the ponies

With people rides over it was time to task the horse to their new job, hauling manure. With about a dozen bovine, 14 sheep, 10 pigs, 2 horses and a bunch of chickens we create a lot of fertilizer. While our goal isn't to operate the farm as organic it is a by-product of farming like they did in 1920. Just don't stand down wind or let Jeff talk you into walking behind the wagon to see if it is working.

Last ride for the season

I got the chance to take the team out for the last rental ride of the 2009 season. After the strangely wet and cold fall the evening was just perfect. I even got a good moon. I still think driving the ponies is one of the funnest parts of my job.

Ike says...

I saw this recently scribbled on a wall and thought it was pretty relevant.

A little trip

Some of you might have noticed that I have been away from my computer for a while. While not exactly Wagner Farm related I hope you don't mind if I tell you about it. I took my family on a trip to see friends in Washington D.C. . Like every good citizen we dutifully toured the nations capital and museums however some of the neatest things we saw were the most unexpected. As an example, while walking by the White House we noticed that assembled on the south lawn was the entire Army band and color guard. Then all the sudden a black limo pulled up and Angela Markel, the Chancellor of Germany(or at least that was what we were told) got out, greeted the US delegation and went into the White House.

Representative Mark Kirk arranged for us to have a special tour of the Capital. The tour was great with the highlight being the chance to watch history making votes from the congressional gallery. When leaving the Capital we saw yet another form of democracy with the protest that was taking place on the grounds.

We also made sure to hit a handful of the Smithsonian museums. At the end of the day Cassidy spotted a perfect rainbow that ironically ended at the Smithsonian Castle. What a great trip!