Martin family farm operated for five generations

Continued from page 3 above the straw mow and they figure a bird brought a cigarette butt in to make a nest with and that is what started the fire,” Bob said.

The family rebuilt the barn, which still stands on the property today, although it took some time.

“My brother actually built barns for a living at this time,” Bob said. “But they were going on holidays to Europe the next day after the fire. So, we spent a month basically looking at other barns, deciding what we wanted.”

“We went from an old tie-stall barn, where the cows all knew which stall was theirs, and after we rebuilt the barn we changed into a completely different way of farming,” Susan said.

The barn that the family rebuilt is a free-stall double parlour barn, set for a capacity of 80 cows.

It wasn’t just the barn layout that changed – they also made the change from square bails to round bails.

“Our daughter was in high school at the time and when we bought this big round bailer she was so excited,” Susan remembered. “She said, ‘If anything ever happens to that bailer I will pay to fix it,’ so she didn’t have to move square bails ever again.”

Susan added that it was also during this time that things became very regulated in the agriculture industry.

“It was just a whole new way of feeding and caring for the animals and just very different,” Susan said.

Bob said the new barn, based on square footage, was not that much bigger than the old barn.

“Bob used to always say, ‘if we got big enough that we needed to hire another person then we were too big,’” Susan said.

She added that for many years they only had 40 cows. When they built the new barn, they built it to house 80 cows, and today Tim has it nearly filled to capacity.

Building the New House

“We had actually planned on building a new house before the barn, but it just didn’t happen that way,” Bob said. The family decided to tear down the old house and build a new one in its spot, all while they continued to live on the farm and tend to their animals.

“I bought a trailer from a guy up the road, who had just built a new house as well,” Bob said. “We moved the trailer in June and we planned on having the house done before it got real cold. But that didn’t happen.”

At this time their oldest daughter was going to university. Typically, she would have come home but that summer she spent the entire season visiting friends, to avoid sleeping in the trailer.

Susan said there wasn’t much room but they had planned for the two girls to share a room that also housed the furnace and water heater. Their son, Tyler, didn’t have a much better spot. Susan remembered while they were living in the trailer in the colder months, when he would wake up there would be snow on his head despite all the windows being closed.

“When you’re watching your new home get put up beside you, you can put up with almost anything,” Susan said.

Moving Off the Farm

Twelve years ago, Bob and Susan built yet another house. This time on a former grass farm which was previously owned by Bob and his brother. This was the first time in a long time that Bob had a commute to work.

“It was very strange moving off the farm and only because of silly little things,” Susan said. “For example, we hardly get any mail over here. On the farm every day the mailbox would be filled.”

Bob added that the mail would come every day, while in their new home they are lucky if they get it once a week.

This move was the final transition in their son Tim taking on the operation of the century-old farm.

Tim, who worked as a mechanic for several years before turning to farm

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