By Craig – Grade 5
Ruth was born in 1942, in a farmhouse that had been built by her great grandparents in 1869. She was the fourth generation to live in the farmhouse.
When Ruth was 5 years old she started to do chores around the farm. Most of her jobs were inside, like cleaning the house, cooking and making beds. She also learned how to sew, because the family made their own clothing, and also repaired their own clothing when it was torn or worn out.
Not all of her jobs were inside though. She did a little bit of milking the cows. The other farm animals included about 10-12 pigs, 3 horses, and 100 chickens, and they all had to be taken care of.
Ruth and the other children helped out with harvesting too. The children would take their horse drawn wagon and load the crops that their Dad had harvested. Since Ruth had started all of this work so young, her family joked that she had learned to walk in a potato patch!
Although the farm had been past down from generation to generation, when Ruth was 18 she moved away after getting married. Today Ruth misses the farm life, because the farm is no longer “in the family”. Ruth’s father decided to sell the farm, because all of his children were too busy with so many other jobs.
