Fishing at McDaneils-Barb Wire Swapin-Seguls & Earthworms-Trail Rides & Parades

    FISHING AT McDANIELS---The favorite fishing spot for our family was in a pasture south of the Dairy Farm owned by Rex McDaniel who lived across the Chicaskia River and raised Hereford Cattle.  Beavers had built a dam across a little creek that emptied into the Chicaskia River.   At first we fished there at all times of the day, usually Saturday or Sunday.  I discovered that for about 30 minutes before sundown & 30 minutes after sundown was when the fish were really biting.  So we only went fishing for an hour around sundown.  A lot of relatives would come out sometimes, Melvin's family, Loren's family, Maurice & Juanita's family from Wichita, we’d have a picnic and fish.  We did this even after Mary and I were married. Once, I think Mary & I, Mom & Dad, Alan & Cheryl, Cheryl’s brother Pat & family, maybe Lee & Betty [Cheryl’s Folks] & others went down.  I had dug worms by the drain from the Dairy Barn, the ground was always wet there & worms were plentyfull.  I had 4-5 cans of worms.  We started fishing & the fish were really biting.  People were running out of worms so I started passing the cans around.  I was giving them to others so Mary just tossed her hook in without a worm.  She had caught 2-3 fish by the time I got back.  When all the worms were gone I told them, “’Mary’s been catching fish on a bare hook.”  The others tried it & started catching fish too! On an empty hook. We caught so many fish we went back to Mom & Dads where I cleaned the fish, maybe with some help.  Mary & Mom, maybe others, put 2-3 skillets on the stove and fixed the fish for supper.   Eventually Rex pulled out the beaver dam with a tractor & chain, the beavers rebuilt it, but the 2^nd time he pulled it out they didn’t rebuild. Fishing was never any good after that.

At a Barbwire Swap at Lacrosse, Ks.

BARBWIRE  & KS. HISTORICAL MARKERS--When I was in my 20's and living alone at the Dairy Farm I started the hobby of Barbwire Collecting.  I would go out on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and drive around looking in tree rows or  in the draws near the creeks looking for old barbwire.   The standard length was 18 inches for a collector’s piece. I was driving a school bus at the time that went south of Milan, Ks.  One of the bus riders, Eddie Shaffer said there was a lot of barbwire just laying in a pasture of theirs that was close to the Chicaskia River, so I went out one weekend to check it out.  It had an S-shaped barb. It was not extremely rare but rare enough that everyone I contacted was interested in trading for a few pieces.  I would wrap up 4-5 pieces in brown paper and mail them for about 30 cents.  I built a collection of over 250 pieces of barbwire by trading the S wire.  I also picked up some old barbwire tool at farm sales.  I went out to LaCrosse, Ks. that calls itself the 'Barbwire Capital of the World' to a swap meet.  I also bought a rock fence post that is found all over that part of Kansas.  It was at this time that I started driving around Kansas looking at the Kansas Historical markers.  As time went by everybody wanted to sell their barbwire and make money instead of trading so I just kinda quit.  I could have sold wire but that just didn't seem like fun.  I enjoyed writing and visiting with people along with the trading.

     I once went out to La Junta, Colo. to see a collector that had a store downtown. He invited me to come home with him for supper.  When we got to his house he had me go in the house first. The wife thinking it was the husband made some bright remark about his coming home.  So I thought of something smart to say just as I walked through the door. Of course she looked up to see a stranger walking through the door. I apologized shortly thereafter, but told her I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.  She said that’s OK, her husband was always bringing home a barbwire collector unannounced, and so she was use to it.

   
 PHEASANT, QUAIL & RABBIT HUNTING--Dad and I neither one were avid hunters but when Edward & Lynette Logsdon's boys, Roger and Gale were in High School they would come over each fall and we would go pheasant and quail hunting on the Dairy Farm.  We would get a few pheasant but along the creek on the east side of the Dairy Farm there was always an abundance of quail.  We always sent every thing home with Edward and the boys. I really think Edward was the one that enjoyed eating them. I think the boys just liked the hunting part. They always had fairly nice pump shotguns.  Dad and I just had old single shots that had to be reloaded after every shot.  Usually a 20 gauge.

       I remember Dad and I doing a lot of rabbit hunting in the wintertime when the snow was on the ground and rabbits would be sitting in the tree rows.  Our late winter meat supply consisted a lot of rabbit and chicken, when the beef or pork in the Locker at Argonia, that we had gotten butchered would run out.  We would drive along the roads with a rifle looking for rabbits and always watching to see if there were any cattle close by. If there were cattle to close  we would skip that one and go on to look for another.  I remember the first one I shot, Dad had insisted I shoot it in the head, in the eye, so there was no powder burns in the meat. The thought of shooting it in the eye sounded really gross to me so I shot it in the shoulder, which got me a good lecture from dad.  I learned that I could sight in, close my eyes just before I fired off a round and I didn't have to see when the bullet hit the rabbit. I never told dad that I started doing it like that and I'm not sure he ever realized it. I think it was important to him that I could hunt my own food and we ate a lot of rabbit and squirrel in the late winter months.  I only remember dressing one or two.  Dad usually did that using a wooden Cloths Line Pole in the back yard.  I do remember rabbit tasting pretty good, I just didn't like the hunting part.

    I mentioned chickens. Dad would usually get 3-4 flats of chicks in the Spring. For years we got them over at Winfield, Ks.  The last few years I remember we went to Wichita as Winfield had gone out of business.  We would feed and raise them and then in early summer we would dress them.  It seems like there would be 50 or more.  Dad's sisters, Lela and Juanita and Juanita's daughter Sandy would come down from Wichita to help.   We would put the chickens in the Locker at Argonia too.  Most times we had a laydown freezer but not always.  They would always last longer than the beef or pork but they might run out and before winter we would be having an old hen or rooster on the farm for stewed chicken, something I never learned to like.  To this day I am not a real lover of fried chicken, I guess I just ate to many growing up, once it a great while,  I will get in a mood for fried chicken.

     
 GETTA & LADY--Getta [Gee-tuh] was the first horse we got. Dad got her from a horse trader that lived near Conway Springs. She was an older horse, but was good for going after the milk cows instead of having to walk, which could wind up being about a mile if they were in the far pasture.  After a few years Edward Logsdon, Aunt Alice's son-in-law, told us of a relative at Granola, Ks, that had a horse for sale, which was Lady.   We went over and looked at her and I bought her.  The person that owned her lived about a half mile from Granola and the grandkids would come out, let her run to town, they would ride around town for awhile and then let her run home. So Lady loved to run. However my sister Arlene didn't love it.  Lady had been trained to a Hackamore instead of bridle and bit and she was so big and strong that if she broke into a run Arlene couldn't stop her.  I tried at one time to get her used to a bridle and bit but she constantly slobbered & acted like she was trying to spit out the bit so I gave up.     Lady had a bad habit of chasing the milk cows so there was a time that we kept Lady in different pens, some that didn't always have water.  When the milk cows were safe in the holding pen we would let Lady out to go drink from the water tank.  
     This story happened after I had gotten my Chevy El Camino pickup. I had gotten a tarp made for the bed and it had twist snaps so that the tarp cover could be put on and taken off easily. One night I had gone somewhere, Alan had milked and I had come home late.  I knew Lady probably hadn't been let out to get water so I pulled the El Camino into the lot.  The headlights were on and the pickup was parked at somewhat of an angle.  When I opened the gate Lady took out on a dead run.  She ran by the headlights I guess assuming that the pickup was sitting straight. I was away from the pickup when I heard the loud thud as she hit the bed of the pickup.  Of course I was upset thinking there was going to be a big dent in my 
practically new pickup. I had a flashlight in the El Camino so I check out the pickup. No dents whatsoever but what I did find was horsehair on all the buttons. So then I got concerned about Lady.   I could imagine a big gash down her side where the buttons had torn her skin all along her side and she would be bleeding.  So I anxiously took the flashlight and went over to the water tank where Lady was drinking,  fully expecting to see a big cut in her side but there was none.  So neither the horse nor pickup had a scratch or dent, which I found totally amazing.

       This next story involves my Dad and not me, but I can play it in my mind like a video & it had a funny ending so I'm going to tell it.  Lady was pretty good at working cattle.  It involves a small lot that went from the large pen that we held the milk cows in at night, to the old wooden barn that led to the  North pasture.  There was a water tank that sat about 10 yards from the wooden barn that the cows drank from  while in the north pasture.   It was fenced on both sides making it long & narrow.  A cow had gotten into the lane about milking time & was headed for the north pasture, dad didn't want her to go there. I was standing near the house, getting ready to go to the milk barn, so I could see everything that happened.  Dad was on Lady, riding bareback, we rode bareback a lot. I had a saddle but only used it to ride in parades.  Anyway, Lady & the cow were on a dead run with Dad and Lady trying to get ahead of the cow to turn her.  Dad & Lady were both concentrating on the cow when I realized 
if they didn't change course Lady was going to run into the water tank.  It's amazing how many thoughts can run through a persons mind in just seconds.  First I imagined Lady hitting the water tank at a dead run with dad on her which had disaster written all over it.  At what seemed liked about two steps from the tank Lady jumped sideways about 3-4 feet at a full run, missing the tank. However Dad didn't make the 3-foot sideways adjustment, he kept going straight. I saw his head go down and his feet come up in a summersault fashion.  Then I began to imagine him hitting one side of the tank or the other on his back, head or neck which would have broken any of them.  Instead he landed in the middle of the tank full of water, flat on his back, with a huge splash.  When neither he nor Lady was hurt I could laugh at how hilarious it had all looked but it could have been a disaster instead of one of the funniest things I ever saw.

    
SEAGULLS AND EARTH WORMS--- ‘’Gold is just a windy Kansas wheat field’’---There was something I never did understand but after wheat harvest  and we started plowing the fields.   A strange thing could occur.  If the ground was moist so that the earthworms were in like the upper 6 inches of the soil you didn’t have to make more that a couple rounds with the plow and seagulls would begin to appear.  At first there would be one or two.  By the time you had gone 3-4 rounds there might be a dozen seagulls or more. They would circle around the tractor and plow and when they would see a worm appear in the furrow behind the plow they would swoop down and snatch it up.  They would show up each day as long as you plowed and the moisture was there.  If the ground was a little dry and the worms were below 6 inches the gulls would never show.  You could plow for 2-3 days and no gulls. What I never could understand though was how they sensed that first day that you were plowing and that there was enough moisture in the ground for the worms to be near the top. Another puzzle was where did they come from.  Gulls are usually found around the ocean.  With the Dairy Farm it could happen several times a year.  After wheat harvest, cutting silage, milo harvest.  We would plow after each crop was harvested, so there was a chance the gulls would come.

       
PLOUGH A LITTLE DEEPER----My Dad was a stickler for ploughing and cutting wheat.  We always used 2 tractors & plough and 2 combines.  I always made sure I was ploughing 2 inches deeper and cutting wheat at least 2 inches lower than Dad.  But when he would check to see how I was doing & it was often, it was never deep enough or low enough.  For several years I just shrugged it off but the older I got the more I protested.  One year when I was in my  20's we were eating lunch  & was some distance from the two combines.   Dad noticed that there was about 3 inches difference and his first response naturally was directed at me,  ‘‘You’re not cutting low enough.''  I responded, ''What.''  Pointing at the difference in the two swaths he said again,  ‘‘You're not cutting low enough.''  I replied, ''Dad, that lowest one is mine not yours.''  Of course, he didn't believe me.  I suggested walking over to the combines, but Dad declined, but I kept insisting and he finally agreed.  We walked over and I pointed out the swath heights.  I walked at an angle so we would be right behind the combines.  I pointed to the swaths behind the combine and said,  ''See mine is the shorter one." This was the first time I think I heard dad at a loss for word.  He kinda stammered,  ''Well-----Well ---- Well, you’re still not cutting low enough.''  I probably just threw my hands in the air and got on my combine.  I did however remember making a vow, actually I made it many times, that I would admit to my sons when I was wrong.  Of course they don't think so but I seemed to remember doing it a lot.  A lot of it was when Patrick & Jason was little.  I would see one do something to the other & would issue some sort of discipline.   Mary would call me aside and ask,  ''Did you see what Patrick/Jason did.''   I would have to admit I didn't.  She would inform me that the one I had sitting in the corner, or whatever, was not the one who started it.   I would go apologize to the one but leave him sitting in the corner for what he had done, but the other one would be disciplined too!   It kinda reminded me of football coaches.  '' Don't be the second one to make a questionable hit.’’  The first one  just catches the referee's eye.  He knows something happened but don't always know what.  When the 2nd player retaliates the ref sees what happens & throws the flag.

A 20th Malaby Pushers Trail Ride

   

      TRAIL RIDES & PARADES---Members of 20th Malaby Pushers 4-H had a lot of horses so we had couple of trail rides. The best one was when a  farmer that had a team of mules and an old chuck wagon went with us. His name was Elvis Johnson and he lived north and east of Argonia.  He had it fully outfitted with all the old cooking utensils of a Cattle Trail Cooks Wagon.  We met at his place with all the horses and rode over to a pasture by the Chicaskia River.  We played games and played in the River while he fixed some bacon, beans and other things that cowboys would have eaten on trail rides over a campfire.  4-H moms brought some food too.

     I took Lady to Conway Springs to the Parade a few times when they still had their fair. I probably put stock racks on the wheat truck and took her to Conway; she would have been to big for a pickup. I think we made a pretty striking parade entry. Lady was a big horse. Eighteen hands or a little more, and she had a beautiful reddish-brown color.  My favorite clothes to wear were almost a Johnny Cash, 'Man in Black' type outfit.  At least I always wore a black felt cowboy hat and black pants and black cowboy boots. If not a black shirt then a bright colored one.