Red sky in the morning, ….
Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. How many times have I read and said those old verses? This morning the sky was as red as I’ve ever seen it just before sunrise. I was heading to the Marshfield Clinic to have my hearing aids checked and cleaned and a little after nine I was pulling out of the driveway when the first raindrops started falling. I will be paying attention the next time I see the red skies.
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I must say the election returns were a bit shocking. Over 3,000 voters in Clark County voted for a senator who didn’t want to look into the riot at the nation’s Capitol and admitted his staff had circulated false election results to try and and throw out the real election results in 2020.
As for governor, I wonder why we would want a millionaire who has spent 12 million in the primary election alone to get a job that pays $152,000 a year salary? Poor Governor Evers has a problem. The state has a huge surplus and they are trying to decide the best place to put the money?
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Enough complaining. I need to pass along something Danny Meyer had on Facebook the other day. I’ve had to adapt it a bit but it goes like this. I’m not old. I’m just sweet sixteen with 76 years of experience.
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I mentioned last week about seeing an Amish farmer cutting a field of oats and it appeared the binder had broken down. When I went down to see Shelly on Sunday, the field was all cut and the bundles placed into shocks.
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The other day, when I was out of my room for a bit, when I came back a copy of a Farm Tech Days supplement laid on my table from June 27.
One of the girls who works in the activity section explained she had found it and figured if it had something to do with Loyal it must belong to me. I was surprised and tickled to see it. I’d read what was printed about the Farm Tech Days in the regular TRG and just assumed that was it. But the special section was 24 pages and when I read it I figured Cheyenne and Dean must have blisters on their fingers after doing all that typing. Then on the next to last page was an article of how Farm Technology Days, or Farm Progress Days as it once was called, got started.
It probably doesn’t interest anyone but myself, but I was surprised and happy with what I read. For many years the University had been holding some sort of plowing demonstration in Madison at the University. It caused a problem for one of the people involved, a man by the name of Henry Ahlgren, in charge of Farm and Home Week. There was a problem getting farmers to drive into Madison where parking was almost impossible.
He envisioned some type of farm show and spread across the state. You might say it was the start of Farm Progress Days. The first was held in 1954, and was held in Waupaca County, near Manawa, on Sept. 30 and Oct 1. The show only drew 15,000 people and only produced a profit of $500. It was considered a flop, partly due to weather conditions. Rain amounting to 8.8 inches fell the week of the show and it was also held in competition with the National Mechanical Corn Picking Contest held in Wisconsin the same week.
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Now move along a few years and things began to happen somewhere else. Seems the National Council of Churches were concerned with the churches in the fourcounty area of Barron, Polk, Burnett and Washburn Counties. Churches had been organized in the late 1800s and early 1900, generally to serve a certain part of the people moving into the area. By the 1940s and beyond people began moving around and moving out of the area.
A meeting of 300 people from 83 Lutheran congregations involving over 24,000 members was held. It was pointed out the Catholic churches had realized there was a problem and began to consolidate their members.
So a special committee was appointed - a layman and a pastor from the American Lutheran Church (ALC), the Lutheran Church of America (LCA) and the Lutheran Church-Mo. Synod. This group went to the University Extension Department in Madison, I being one of the three laymen. Who should we meet up with, but Dr. Henry Ahlgren, now the Assistant Chancellor, the same man who had created Farm Progress Days.
A native of Amery, Wisconsin, he was more than willing to help us. He and several others from the University came and spoke to a crowd of almost 100 people. They were County Extension people, farmers, businessmen and just a good cross section from the four counties.
In a nine-week series of meetings we learned that the area was a cutover from the logging days with poor soil and a short growing season. However, they felt there was help. They foresaw a growing trend in farming with the farmers of tomorrow becoming like the Cadillac of cars.
To say I was impressed and inspired would be putting it mildly. But how was I going to get the word out? There was no way I could condense nine meetings into a five minute report and who would be listening?
So like many other times in my life, I had a brain storm. I’d write a series of articles and the local newspaper would publish them. At the time I had left the Turtle Lake Times newspaper and was employed as the postal clerk in the post office. So my former boss said, go ahead and even made copies and sent them to several other newspapers in the area.
By the time I got done, I was enthused and had some good feedback from some people in town.
So a column called “Over the Back Fence” was born and here I am, not sure if I should quit, or just keep going? You know my goal, 100 years and at 92 and counting that isn’t so far away. See you next week.
