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Show 58 Once up, there was practically a full day's work to be accomplished before the real work of the day began. Cows had to be milked, watered and fed, the horses watered and fed, the pigs "slopped, " and the milk separated. A breakfast of steak, bacon or ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, a big bowl of germade mush, biscuits and bottled fruit was the usual m e n u . The grub box had to be filled, and Mama did this while Papa and his helpers harnessed and hitched the horses, sharpened and repaired our tools for the day. It would be eight o'clock by time we got to the field, but the sun would be already high above the hills. "The day's gone, and we're just getting to work," Papa quoted each morning. The season began with manure-spreading, plowing, harrowing, seeding, furrowing, watering and weeding. First crop hay came on in June sometimes conflicting with beet-thinning. There was a second and then a third crop, each one smaller than the last, but the big barn would be filled to the roof, some stacks over. Fruit picking and vegetable harvesting followed on each other. Potato digging came after the first frost had nipped the vines, so the potatoes would be "ripe" and not cook to mush. Threshing was almost simultaneous with beet-topping. A continuous round of pleasure, Mama said. In October the cattle started down off the mountains of their own volition, those for which Papa had government permits for summer grazing, |