Kline - The round of a country year a farmers day book

Works by David Kline

Scratching the Woodchuck:
Nature on an Amish Farm

Great Possessions:
An Amish Farmers Journal

Letters from Larksong:
An Amish Naturalist Explores His Organic Farm

The Round of a Country Year

Copyright 2017 by David Kline

Preface copyright 2017 by Wendell Berry

First Counterpoint paperback edition: July 2017

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission from
the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names : Kline, David, author.

Title : The round of a country year: a farmers day book / David Kline.

Description : Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers : LCCN 2017015112 | eISBN 978-1-61902-924-8 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Amish farmersOhioHolmes CountyDiaries.

Classification: LCC S417.K556 K55 2017 | DDC 630.92dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015112

Jacket and interior designed by
Gopa & Ted2, Inc.

COUNTERPOINT

2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318

Berkeley, CA 94710

www.counterpointpress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed by Publishers Group West

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Dedicated to the memory of
Maurice and Jeannine Telleen
Gene Logsdon
Paul Kline

Contents

The people mentioned in the following pages are my family and neighbors. To avoid possible misunderstanding, it might be helpful to the reader if the people and animals were identified, or else it might be as confusing as a Tolstoy novel in keeping the characters straight.

First is Elsie, my wife, who has been my friend, spouse, and partner on this farm for almost fifty years. We look back fondly on those years. When I mentioned to her that we did hit some rough spots in that journey, she quickly said, At least it wasnt boring.

In our family of five childrentwo sons and three daughtersAnn is our middle daughter. She and her husband, Kevin, live here on the 120-acre farm. Their four children are Seth, who is gradually replacing me as the main field hand, Laurel, Claire, and Ben. We see a lot of them.

David and Emily Hershbergers eighty-acre farm borders our farm on the east. Emily is our youngest daughter. Noah and Eve round out their family, and Noah, at thirteen, is becoming quite a farmer in his own right. A field lane connects our two farms. The lane sees a lot of travel.

Our oldest daughter, Kristine, and her husband, Nathan, and their nine children live near Canastota, New York, where they have a grass-fed dairy. Their daughter, Emily, and her husband, Lonnie, have a baby. We are now great-grandparents.

Tim, our oldest son, and his wife, Katie, and their four children, Ryan, Erin, Demi, and Kara, have a 140-acre farm five miles west of our farm. They milk sixty Jersey cows. Ryan, at seventeen, is already a very capable farmer. He helps a neighboring organic grain and hay farmer in his spare time. Erin teaches in a local parochial school.

Michael, our youngest son, and Martha, his wife, live on ten acres twelve miles southwest from us, where they raise beef, broilers, turkeys, and four boys, Drew, Chris, Tyler, and Jackson. Mike works for Organic Valley.

All of us are farmers involved with the Organic Valley CROPP family, a farmer-owned cooperative based in La Farge, Wisconsin.

Now the neighbors. Living on a two-acre property (which my sister built in 1965, originally from this farm) are David Anthony (D.A.) and Sandra Miller. They have one daughter, Demi. They are relief milkers for Kevin and Anns dairy herd when needed.

Roman and Mary (Mary is my cousin) Troyer and their two daughters, Sharon and Renita, live on the 115 acres adjoining our farm on the north. Kevin and Ann farm three of their fields, around thirty-four acres, and David and Emily farm twenty other acres. David and Emily also rent their fifteen acres of permanent pasture, where they graze heifers and dry cows.

Jerry, my oldest brother, and his wife, Lovina, have a 120-acre farm a mile and a half northwest of our farm. Jerry started farming there in 1949 and, though hes retired now, was an excellent farmer and cowman, a true landsman. He knows more of this neighborhoods history, which includes the Calmoutier French Catholic community, than anyone I know. And he is a wonderful storyteller with a keen sense of humor, as my dad was. On his farm is the cemetery where our family is buried.

Roland, or Rollie as he is often called, moved to this community in 1990 when he and his brother Raymond bought the eighty-eight-acre (ten adjoining acres were acquired later) Philips farm a mile downstream from us. They both worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer as accountants and, as lovers of the natural world, upon retirement desired to move to the country. After Rays death, Roland continued to take care of the five-hundred-tree orchard (the farm fields are tilled by a neighbor) until his knees gave out. When he replaced his one knee and then two years later the other one, I began helping with the orchard and other chores around his farm. Our family does some plantings in his large and excellent gardenmostly potatoes, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and popcorn. Roland has a top-notch root cellar where we store his, our, and Kevin and Anns, and Michael and Marthas potato crop.

I started working on the Philips farm in the autumn following my fourteenth birthday as a hand with the silo filling crew. I spent many enjoyable days working on the farm with different tenant farmers. Going back there today in my semiretirement from our own farm continues to bring me pleasure, as the place is so secluded and interesting.

Now the animals I encounter daily on our farm. The draft horses are seven Belgians: Chip, Mark, Ike, Hank, Don, Dick, and Blake. I do the first cultivation of corn using Hank, Don, and Dick, since they are older and walk at a slower pace, which helps young plants from being covered over with soil. The second time through, Kevin will tell me to use the younger team that will walk at a faster clip. Like shifting up a gear.

For transportation, we have Shirley, a Standardbred mare that was raised and broke to drive by a local farm family. Kevin and Anns driving horse is also a Standardbred named Chip (almost all horses that are bought come with a name; thus, we once had a driving horse named Hook Shot). In the automobile society, Shirley would be a Chevy and Chip a Thunderbird. Chip is a big horse and sometimes almost more than Ann can handle, but just right for Kevin.

Two poniesToby, for the three younger grandchildren, and Daisy, Seths pony, which is the size of a small Standardbred and is spotted. He uses her to run many errands. Sometimes I go with him. Daisy is expecting a foal this summer. The grandchildren are very diligent in providing Toby and Daisy all the amenities needed for a good life.

Most of my town business is done with Shirley taking me to Mt. Hope, four miles away. The little village, or shtetle as we call it in our Pennsylvania German dialect, has practically everything we needtwo banks, a post office, an excellent hardware store, a feed mill, grocery and bulk food stores, a shoe and quilt shop, a fabrics store that also tailor-makes mens suits (sort of an Amish Brooks Brothers), an auction barn where more horses and ponies are sold than anywhere else in the world (almost 10,000 annually), and a fine restaurant, Mrs. Yoders, where Elsie and I will eat when we are out on the town. The food and service is excellent and the atmosphere convivial.