Sheriff Without a Gun

This is a touching story from Doug.  I think we can all appreciate his sentiments.

“Sheriff Without a Gun”

              In “The Andy Griffith” show Sheriff Andy Taylor refuses to carry a gun. Many find this so odd and so outrageous that a Sheriff would not carry a gun that they; print newspaper articles about it, make TV shows about it and a movie about it. Andy Taylor is a man you can trust. He is a friend to everybody. And he will always do the right thing and never let you down. Andy Taylor does not need a gun, he is respected.

              Having been raised on a Dairy I was taught that when you die there are four Kingdoms of Glory. I would imagine that most are familiar with these but for those who weren't aware of the fourth let me just say that it is a special place prepared for the Dairymen. Where God having realized the hardships associated with dairy cows allows a few more things to slide. Most common among these is swearing. Now it is just impossible to work with an animal as stubborn as a milk cow and not cuss just a little bit, or so Dairy Lore would have you believe. Even more incredible to me than a "Sheriff without a gun" is a dairyman who will not swear. Earlier on it came to my attention that Uncle Ross did not swear. I had my doubts as to whether or not that was even possible for a dairyman so I began to pay close attention.  Ross has never let me down. As I saw his example I thought to myself, if he can do it then I can do it. Turns out as colorful as a milk parlor can be some nights, construction job sites can be much worse. And when I am in those situations, still, I think of Ross.

              This may seem like a very small and insignificant thing to some of you, but for me it is huge it has allowed me to have a much greater degree of self-respect and to think that at least in one thing no matter the situation you can count on me to do the right thing.

               I have often thought, “Wouldn't it be nice to raise my kids in Mayberry.” As I have pondered on this I have realized that I can. I just have to surround my kids with people like Uncle Ross who, like Andy Taylor, is a man you can trust. A friend to everyone. And who no matter what will always do the right thing and never let you down.

“The Dairyman Who won’t Swear”

Thank You Uncle Ross

Forts

I love, Love, LOVE this one from Crystal.  Forts were a big part of growing up Juniper style.  Where else would kids be allowed to exercise such creativity?

From Crystal:

I think we should give mention to the many clubs and clubhouses/forts that accounted for so many of our days.  I particularly remember being a small child and being excluded from the “big” kid’s club house.  Where if I remember right Jami was queen and Aaron was king ….dang they were cool. 

But I do believe that when we became the “big” kids (Doug, Brad, Laura, Jerica, Myself and occasionally the younger boys Jason, Forest and Levi) is when the real fort building took place.  The “old house” or old church farm grain bin was really a carpentry experience training facility.  We were not shy about stealing old slabs of wood and less old buckets of nails and hammers to turn our “old house” into a three story mansion.  

Of course accomplishing this feat did not come without some painful learning experiences.  For example: If you slip while standing on the bar which stretches across the rooms (the only way to reach the third floor area with your hammer) you should make sure to gracefully fall in front of or behind said bar and not take it up the center.  

When building a swing use enough twine.  

When building a floor use enough support boards and nails.

The best feature of our fort was the trampoline swing.  We found the frame of an old one man jumper; you know the kind the little trampolines that are about two feet wide and 8 in off the ground.  The frame had only two legs remaining.  Simply by hanging the legs on the bar that ran through the center of the house we had the best swing man has ever built (we just had to remember not to swing to high or the entire thing would jump of the bars….which happened many a time).  

Second best feature was probably the toilet in the corner …don’t know what that was ….Doug?

Does anyone have a picture of the “old house?”  Remember the lean on that thing?  …haha, and yet we had no qualms about standing on the roof.

The “old house” was not our only fort, just the most popular.  We also had “the valley,” and old pig pen …the one where we lost the hammers and made Dad and Ross not too happy, we had forts in the mountains and forts in the straw stacks (remember picking buckets of carrots, who knew that 10 gallons of carrots was not a feasible lunch for 5 kids).   

P.S.  If any of you do have a pic of said house send it my way and we will get it attached to this post.  jami_c_hurst@hotmail.com

Real Life Tonka Trucks

From Jerica:

Forrest, Doug, Brad, and I were riding our bikes down the road toward Rushton's farm. It was right after Forrest got his bike and it still had the training wheels on it. We were going around the corner by the tree just down the road from the dairy and when we got about half way between the corner and Rushton's farm a huge mine crawler thing came around Rushton's corner. It was taking up the whole road. Doug, Brad, and I all saw the thing coming but Forrest was nonchalantly riding his bike down the middle of the road. After much yelling, he saw it coming, hopped off his bike and ran him and his bike to the borrow pit. I never did know why he didn't just ride it to the side of the road. Not a very good story, but it's one I came up with.

----------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Jer!

Those things are massive!  I remember Dad telling me the only thing you go off the road for in a loaded hay truck is an airplane.  However, when we came across a semi hauling one of these giants, we managed to get our loaded truck off the road rather quickly!  I also remember Ross asking the crew in said truck if we could use their monster Tonka truck to haul the rest of our hay.  The fellows said they would be happy to haul our hay if we could load the truck... needless to say, we spent the rest of the summer hauling hay the usual way!  

The True Crop

If this was a sponsored blog, today's post would be sponsored by Kleenex.  Doug has always been a very gifted writer, I think most of you will identify with his perfectly worded sentiments.  We each owe a great deal to Juniper Dairy and the men who's spirits embodied it.  Grab a tissue and enjoy!

From Douglas:

I have been slow and even hesitant to post on this blog, not because I have nothing to say but because the farm has meant so much to me. Juniper dairy has always been more than just another farm I believe it is so special because of the two great men that ran it. Some might say that the farm failed, but I wonder, has there ever been a more successful farm? I believe that milk was a byproduct and that you and I were the true crop.

So I would like to share with you a few things that I learned on the farm from two great men and how they still help me.

Broken things.

If you are like me then I am sure that you have at one point or another complained about the broken things on the farm or the equipment that no longer works quite right. I have since learned to be grateful for those broken things because they represent fathers and bosses who were willing to let me work and learn.

Above is a picture of a very familiar auger on the farm. (It is not the latest model but no auger has ever looked so good) What many of you do not realize and don’t see is that the fly wheel on the top has been snapped in half.

It was early one summer morning and I was out doing the morning chores. One of my assignments that morning was to move the auger from one grain bin to another. I gave the auger a real hard tug to get it out of the first bin, as the auger had been set in motion I soon learned how slippery the end could be. Needless to say I lost hold of it and watched helplessly as the heavy motor pile drove the end into the ground and the fly wheel snapped. What a start to a beautiful morning and I now had to go explain to Dad what I had done. I found him at the mill and told him simply that I had broken the auger. In classic Dad fashion he asked if it was the fly wheel that I had broken. I confirmed that it was and he off handedly mentioned ‘they can get away from you pretty easily can’t they.’ He then said “notice how I knew exactly where it had broken.” 

I then headed off to feed the cows I needed to move some hay and needed to pull the ford ten wheeler up the edge of the hill to get some hay, as most of you know the ford’s brakes consisted of turning the key off at the right moment, which I did. The truck then fell out of gear though and I began rolling down the hill past the grain mill. I tried mashing it back into gear but was unsuccessful as I rapidly gained speed. I tried pumping the brakes but to no avail. As I came to the barn I then had to decide if I should try to get on the dirt road at that speed or take out the fence between the manure pit and the evaporation pond. Not having faith in my ability to maneuver onto the dirt road with no brakes at that speed I decided that the fence must go. As I rounded the barn I saw a new, tall pile of sand that looked like a good runaway truck barrier to me so I drove straight into it. After wiping the sweat from my brow I then proceeded to explain to my dad what I had done to the truck. Memory fails me now but I do know that there was one more thing that I broke that morning and had to tell my father about. (I feel like it involved one of the tractors that I tried to move the hay with but can’t remember for sure.) And I remember thinking as I headed to explain the last one to my Dad, “I have broken all this and I haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

Dad and Ross knew full well that letting us inexperienced kids work would result in many mistakes and some of them costly. But I firmly believe that raising good men and women was way more important to them than a business was. After breakfast Dad then had me in the shop fixing the fly wheel as you will notice in the picture that follows it has been welded all the way across. Ross walked into the shop as Dad was showing me how to fix it and just laughed when he saw what I had done. They not only gave us a chance to work and make mistakes they taught us how to fix them. This I think relates to every aspect of our lives.

Juniper Transit Authority

From Juel:

HAY, anybody know how many people you can put in the front of Old Blue?

From Crystal:

Rides back home to the farm were often uncomfortable.  Getting there, there was plenty of room for all to ride in the cab or on the bed, but once the trucks were full we all had to fit somewhere.  At the end of one crop of hay we sent home a truck that was not quite full and Doug and I, just kids, were thrilled when Dad said that we could ride on the top.  Before taking off Dad reminded us again that before we crossed under the highway we needed to get in the hole.  I remember thinking, ‘well, we’re not stupid.’ 

Douglas and I sat at the front of the truck enjoying the breeze and talking and laughing.  We were completely distracted.  All the sudden Doug yelled something and laid on his back.  I looked forward to see a cement wall coming fast toward my face, mere feet away.  I laid back just in time and watched as the cement roof of the underpass sped past a few inches above the end of my nose.  We were just kids, I remember giggling with Douglas as we rode underneath and again as we recounted the story to my father, who must have been sick to the stomach.

I recently reminded my father of this story and mentioned that my memories were probably distorted and that the underpass was probably not as close to my face as I remember it being.  He told me that the reason we stack our trucks as high as we do is because we cannot fit one more row of bales on.  I don’t think that wall could have been more than 6 inches above us. 

(Editor's note: And they think farming is unsafe for children... pssshh) :)

From Jami:

While old blue is a fine choice in transportation.  The 10-wheeler offers more comfortable, more luxurious, more passenger area.  As a kid I loved to ride on the overshot with my little fingers curled around the front of the worn planks.  Clearly, there is more space when not loaded with 7 (right?) layers of hay, however I can assure you, this fine piece of antique farm machinery could haul just as many bodies from the field as it did to the field.  Seating configurations were creative to say the least.  

I recall one day in particular we were riding back from the flat, there must have been 10-12 passengers in this 3 passenger vehicle.  Dad drove, I was in the middle, and I believe Doug and Brad were in the cab with us.  I'm not exactly sure who all was with us that day (Joe, Sam, Aaron, Steve, Jim, John, seems like maybe Tim that day...anyway), but it seems like we had a passenger on each running board (possibly two), and 4-5 boys on the hood of the truck   What's more impressive is that Dad handled all 3 pedals himself-which was not always the case in a crowded truck...lol.  I think I was in charge of the stick shift... teamwork folks, teamwork.  

Leave a comment for all to enjoy... what are your most memorable "transportation" moments???

Also, if anyone has a pic of old blue, send 'er my way... I'd love to have a visual!