Eden.

I remember when we were kids we used to up to Aunt Freda and Uncle
Lawerence's farm in Eden for a week or so in the summer. They always
raised a huge garden. My Uncle was a farmer after the war. The farm
was only 40 acres but they seemed to always make it work out for them
until the late 50's.
They had two big draft horses , a couple of milk cows, pigs, chickens
and a beef animal.
I got to drive the horse team when they gathered hay, or at least I
thought I did. I had the reins, but Uncle Lawerence gave the verbal
commands to the horses and they listened to him, and paid no attention
to me. Weldon, Fred and I were just on the hay wagon to tromp the hay
down as the horses pulled the wagon along and Uncle Lawerence, and a
helper, forked the hay up onto it.
Back at the barn, the hay was hoisted up to the hay loft with a big
claw that hung from the loft beam at the top of the barn. The claw was
attached with a rope to a pully from the beam that extended from the
loft door. The other end was attached to the horse collar and the
claw was lowered to the hay wagon, clawed up a big batch of hay and
closed together when the horse pulled the rope out, making the claw
with hay go up and into the loft door. Some times I rode the horse,
there again thinking I was doing all the work and sometimes I was in
the barn tromping down the hay a helper was taking from the claw and
forking into place in the loft. Uncle Lawrence opperated the claw rope
that made it grab the hay.
The draft horses were very smart animals. I used to ride it quite a
bit when it was doing chores. My Aunt Freda would send us out to the
mail box at the end of the road, about a quarter mile from the house.
We would go out there, get the mail and the horse would always go back
to the house, no matter how much I would try to make her go over to
the neighbors house to play with a girl who lived there. It listened
to my Aunt when it took us down to the creek to swim. It go there and
nowhere else. If you didn't tie her up good. she would go home and
leave you down at the creek, and you would have to walk home. No fun
if you are barefoot. Hay stubble hurts your feet.
When it was time to go home, we would pick gunny sacks of corn, boxes
of tomatoes. boxes of green beans, and gunny sacks of potatoes and
carrots. This stuff was taken back to Grandmas house where all of the
families pitched in to prepare it and can it up. We had a garden,
but it was very small compare to what was grown up at the Eden farm.
Home garden was mainly for use as ir was ready to eat. In the summer
and fall the fruit was done the same way. Harvested, prepared and
canned by the whole family. In those days the vegtables and tomatoes
were canned in cans. The cans were canned with a machine that closed
them up itght. All of us kids got to turn the handle of the canner
after an adult put the lids on them. One got the cans in a big box
from Sear's . Fruit was mainly put into jars. Sometimes apple butter
was put into cans as well."