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www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
THE LAND — MAY 1/MAY 8, 2020
Mom’s contributions were lessons of a farm wife Dear Mom, machines, clothes dryers, cake mixes, sewing You are the first farm wife machines with mending I ever knew. And now that I arms, and artificial have been one for the past Christmas trees. You must three decades, I can only have swept acres of dirt out understand in part all you of your house because of went through to do your job. that south wind that blew Coming from the east all the dirt in. coast to (eventually) TABLE TALK And when you had to Northwest Iowa — and living in town all of your child- By Karen Schwaller wash ‘sick’ laundry, there was plenty of it to do, since hood — you knew nothing of when one person got the flu, life on the farm until you most everyone else followed. married Dad. You made more than 150 birthday Yours was a gutsy decision. Learning cakes in your years on the farm. And how to be a farmer’s wife was a sinkit doesn’t account for any birthday or-swim proposition for you. But you cakes made for you, which I don’t eventually got the hang of it. often remember us doing. You were the woman of the farm and I now understand your quiet panic your contribution mattered. You didn’t that time when you burned the steaks have a job outside the home because you were grilling for supper. You knew your job was the home … and seven kids … and all the things Dad needed Dad wouldn’t be happy, and you quietly ordered them to be taken out to the you to do. It was a big job that rarely grove, while you found something else offered you time off just to be you. for the main entrée. You helped bring forth a brood of Finding and thawing something else children to help Dad get not only the for that many people had to be no farm work done, but also to help you small feat. in the house … not that we girls did it very willingly, as you know. Even family vacations were not that It was no easy task to cook and clean much fun for you, because the only in a house in which nine people lived. way you and Dad could afford to do that was to go camping. I remember And those were in some of the days before microwaves, automatic washing you saying, “The first thing I had to do was sweep the mouse poop out of the
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camper.” Then you had to stock it with all the essentials: food, bedding, cooking utensils, dishes, towels, etc. You said, “All that did was take my job and put it on wheels.” And yet, I never knew you didn’t like camping until you told me. It’s been said that a smart person knows to delegate the work. You did that when you gave me the job of rinsing out my baby brother’s soiled diapers. I’m pretty sure I was snarky about it then, but when my husband and I couldn’t afford disposable diapers when our twins came along, I wasn’t afraid to use cloth diapers and get my hands dirty rinsing them out. You were a genius. Quietly, amid all the work you had to do to keep the farm going, society — and even your family — often overlooked your true value. There are many things that would not have happened had your work on the farm not been done … the never-ending pile of
blue jeans you mended (which saved a lot of money); running to town to get tractor parts and groceries; doctor and dentist visits; Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas mornings, clean clothes on an endless clothesline; three meals a day; cleaning chickens; clean flannel sheets all winter long; tending to our illnesses and injuries; and your discipline so we wouldn’t grow up to be the ungrateful brats we sometimes were at home. Your job as a farm wife and mother was hard, never-ending and thankless. But now I say thank you for being my first example of how to be a farmer’s wife. And thank you for being my beautiful angel on earth … even if your wings were a little dirty from that south wind blowing towards the house. You’ve carried that look very well. Karen Schwaller can be reached at kschwaller@evertek.net. v
Compromising too much? LAND MINDS, from pg. 2 ture crises very shortly. I think he simply has to. You might have viewed a Fox News interview earlier this week with Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China.” Yes, this huge country, now the equal of the United States in economic productivity, has huge internal malfunctions according to Chang. He accuses the Chinese government of pushing business imperatives before telling the truth. And he wonders if our government is doing too much compromising for the sake of doing business with China. Yes, he acknowledged the proposed agricultural trade package with China could be significant for American farmers. But he also asked, “How much will actually happen? And what pressures — other than more tariffs on products purchased from China — will our government attempt to enforce?” He credits our president with being the first American president to challenge the Chinese government on their unfair trading policies of the past. Chang also said eliminating China as a major source of health products for American consumers has to happen and hurriedly. “This action
will accelerate the coming collapse of China in my opinion.” I think I will check with our local library about this book. It must indeed be intriguing reading based on how China and U.S. relations appear to be questionable again. My concerns? Trivial stuff like when can I reconnect with my coffee drinking friends at the Round Table at the Chatterbox Café. As I’ve said before, we all talk; the next day we pretty much talk the same stuff again. But this daily exchange of intelligence whet’s my soul. And we all agree we could certainly slow the aging process if it had to work its way through Congress. The ugly reality is that American agriculture is in severe crisis right now. Hog and beef markets have crashed; thanks to schools’ shut down across America, we have a surplus of milk; some dairy farmers now having to dump their milk. And there’s simply no quick recovery for anyone. Let’s pray that as America starts reopening in the next few weeks, Covid-19 starts sliding into history. May your troubles be less, may your blessing be more, and may nothing but happiness come through your door. v
