HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1975-10-23, Page 17Checking on cattle is Isobel Gibson's job (gexpositor
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(Editori noo : A ot of women
who smite people society see as
newsworthy are being written
about in this International
Women Year. Many more other
women regoing about their lives
and eir jobs as they have always
done and are getting no special
credit from anyone. Farmer's
wives are probably typical of
this group.
Expositor reporter Nancy
Andrews interviewed five rural
women about their lives and their •
'work. Although she talked to e
few individuals, her story is
meant as an appreciation •to all
farm wives and to help explain to .,
urban people what being
farmer's wife • can mean-)
Gayle Campbell, Who grew up on a farm, feeding +:31110
•
V
SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, OCTOBER 23, 1975 —SECOND SECTION PAGES 1A — 8A
Involved with the farm
Five rural women talk ab ut their lives
ii
(By Nancy Andrews)
International Women's Year is
as good a time to talk about farm
women as any:
This year, the modern "ms"
has been given a lot of media
coverage with her success stories
on how she managed to get
ahead.
Other women, are equally
deserving of praise, although
their contribution-. may seem
hardly newsworthy.
Farm wives have the same
pioneer.• spirit as their predeces-
sors who accepted the challenges
of necessity and did what had to
be 'done. This is probably the only,
itharacteristic all farm wives)
share. s •
It is probably not an
inappropriate time to salute farm
wives, because with mechaniz-.
ation, the possible extinction of
the family farm, the expansion of
farm's into large businesses she
herself may become a figure 'of
the past.
As one woman said,, instead of
the farm being a partnership
Itetween a farmer and his wife,
the large farms are in partnership
with the banker.
This. reporter visited with
several farm wives in the area,
and one of the first things she
learned was that there is no such
.thing as a typical farm wife.
The work they do, the number
4, of hours they work outside in the
fields or in the barn depends on
the type of farm operation,
whether mixed farming; or a sow
operation, the degree of-
mechanization, and the wishes 'of
both the wife, and farmer.
Cleaning out the barn, pitching
manure is ,one of the rather
unpleasant tasks around the
farm. One farm woman was
aghast when asked if she cleaned
out. She said never, her husband
always did that, yet another
woman said she does that but
never drives the tractor.
Some farm wives admit that the
farm is a partnership, with
decisions being made between
them. Another said her husband
makes all the decisions and she
mates her plans from there.
One woman worked off the
farm after she was married, but
• never liked it because she always
worriled about what her family
was doing. The family and farm
ran smoother when she was
around to help out, she said,
Another women said her
husband would never let her get a
job off the farm, if ,sheever did,
he said she could get an
apartment too.
6 One wratan who got a job off
the farm, said during 'the spring
she ,regtets not being able to
work in the fields and feel the
wind in her hair, the grit in her
teeth. But' the job came in the
winter, when there wasn't much
doing on the farm, she said.
All the women interviewed
never thought about the duties of
being a farmer's wife, before they
4), got married. They just accepted
them.
The phrase, "I'm a farmer's
wife," has a subtle meaning for
rural people who h ear it. They
realize that being a farmer's wife
means more than just being
married to a farMer, it's almost a
trade.
Salute
Not all women who are married
to farmers work on the farm, but
this is a salute to those who do.
The typical response of the
farm women when called for an
interview was to laugh and say
why me, "What should I say, I'm
not doing anything
extraordinary?" Half way
through the interviews, they
usually say they know exactly who
should be interviewed too, ,
someone who single handed runs
a farm, rides tractor all day and is
known throughout the
neighborhood as a hard-working
farm woman,
The women were interviewed
not becuase they were
extraordinary, but because they,
like many other womep,work aid
share the load of running a farm.
Florence McLlwain lived in
Colborne township as a girl and
later, moved to Goderich.
Although they lived on . the
outskirts, they still had horses
and chickens. Everybody, had
—them then, she said. ,
When she married George', he
was working in town, but later he
bought the 100 acres in Hullett
whieh they farmed for '33 years.
He died a year ago in June and
4 •75 acres were sold which left 25
that she still farms with the help
of her son.
The purchase of the farm was a
joint decision but what he said
went, he was the head of the
house, she said. •
,,nl worked right along with him.
On 100 acres, you don't make
enough to hire any more than you
have to," she said.
Did Milking
"He wasn't very fond of
milking, I always did it," she
remembers. ,.
"There were very 'few who
didn't 'work. If they didn't go to
the field, they looked after pigs
and chickens. Any of the ones
who lived around here went to the'
barn.lt was expected of your. You
just did."
"When it came to pitching in,
everybody helped. Some were
school teachers who came home
and did chores.' It, just seemed the
natural thing to do when they
were on a farm," she said.
Besides raising her children
and helping .out on the farm, she
worked at a grocery store a couple
days a week, and did papering
and housecleaning.
In addition to that the family
picked* cucumbers. The meney
she said went to pay off the farm.
They ,made a living out of it, she
said.The money would be pooled,
and it would go into a general
fund. Her husband was a
woodsman unloaded bats in
Goderich and worked threshing.
She never used to get up very
early she remembers. She'd get
up abOut 6:30 a.m., but it was
about eight o'clock before she got
to the barn. "A lot would have
their chores done by then, " she
said. The kids had to be gotten
ready for school and breakfast
was usually over by then.
Does Chores
She has six cows, calves, ducks
and ehickens.She does the chores
but her son helps with the tractor
work. Her son would have
purched the farm if he had the
means
c
13
ut he enjoys his job with a
feed cdmpany, she said.
Her daughter she said told her
if she had to go to work, it
wouldn't be on a farm, and
promptly set about becoming 'a
nurse. '
'They had about three horses,
and had one until about a year
• ago. The horses were used to cut
'hay, for hauling logs, and Stones
and for Cleaning out the barns.
Near-the end, it came to the point,
they had nothing to hitch the
horses to„ the tractor being able
to do most the work.
In 1972, one of the horses they
had for over 30 years' died.
Because ,of the size of the barn
doors,, a tractor can't be used to'
clean the barn, so' she uses a
wheelbarrow and throws the pig
manure out the barn window.
Mrs. McLlwain said it takes
about two hours in the morning
and at night to do her chores.
In her area, she has seen a lot .
of family farms taken over by the
Hullett Conservation Authority
and can name the farm houses
and barns that used to dot the
area.
' There used to be a lot of big
dairy herds in the area, but they
have all gone, not too many milk
now, she said. Statistics show,
she said, the young don't want to
be tied down with milking cows.
Women's Liberation, she said:
"It's not meant for me. It didn't
really interest me. I don't know
that much about it."
"I think if women thought they
were supressed they would up
and beat it," Mrs. McLlwain
said.
Kathleen Beattie of Winthrop
does outside chores which
includes driving the tractor and
baler when needed, helping
innoculate the pigs on the
Beattie's 300 acre farm and doing
"anything there is to do."
Mrs. Beattie said there are no
set hours she works in the barn
because during seeding and
harvest and when the sows are
farrowing or having piglets both
farmer and wife work all hours.
For any extra help, "sure you
give them their meals" besides
doing a lot of canning and
freezing," she said. •
"There is not too much time to
think about yourself. I wouldn't
trade my job with, anyone,
because it's different every day."
Mrs. Beattie has been married
32 years, and has three children.
She was raised on a mixed farm,
where "you'd rather be outside
than inside."
Never T ought
She never ought about
whether she nted to be a
farmer's wife, since she and her
husband went together
throughout their youth.' They
lived just mile& from one another
and area• kids like themselves
used to meet at the church's
annual Christmas Concerts.
Mrs.Beattie would have liked
-to have been a nurse, because her
mother was sick so much but that
was imposSible, she remembers
because she didn't go to high
school as she :was needed at
home.
In those days, you boarded with
someone in town to attend high
school or travelled that distance
daily. Maybe if she wanted her
education more, she said, she
would have been like a neighbor
girl who drove a horse and cutter
from Winthrop to Seaforth to
attend high school.
Seamstress
Her mother, she remembers,
was a seamstress in town and "no
way, was she a farmer's wife..."
When Mrs. Beattie was a
bride, it was the accepted thing to
work out on the farm, opt a lot '
don't today, she said. Times
change and in those days women
looked. after the chores which
included milking cows, feeding
ducks, and chickens. Then farms
had a little bit of everything, ,but
that has changed and quantity
and specialization is stressed.
"I feel I'm liberated. I do what
I want to do. I don't feel I'm tied
down." She and her husband Ken
sit down and talk about any kinds
of plans or changes for the farm,
and both of them help to make the
final decisions.
Whether a woman helps out on
her husband's farm depends on
whatever a person enjoys doing.
"I like animals. Everybody doing
their own thing as they talk
about," she laughed.
\When this reporter called Mrs.
Beiffie, a woman answered the
phone, said she wasKathleen
Beattie. She coulgt have an
interview with the reporter that
Morning. because ,,,„she wasn't
home; she was collecting for a
shower.
Later, Mrs Beattie laughingly
explained she was at a
eighbor's collecting for a
community shower, and since the
woman was on the same party
line she answered her own call.
The church, she said, is still the
center of the community with
showers being held for engaged
girls, and tfie ham suppers. The
community is like a big happy
family, she said.
Still Intact
Until about five years ago, they
had never been away. "We didn't
think the place could get along
without us, but it was,intact when
we got home," she said.
Since then she and Ken have
been 'out West, to Ireland,
Scotland, Holland and Florida.
"It's an interesting world. It
certainly givek ,yepti a different
outlook". It banishes the attitude
"Us for, no more," nevertheless'
"the farm is a good place to come
back to," she said.
"The farm'is a partnership if
you're going to make a go of it,"
Mrs. Beattie said. Womens
liberation, would do a lot of good if
it gave' urban women a better
knowledge about the relationship
between consumer and producer
"Buy cheaper and buy better,"
she recommended. A lot of
woman could do well to bypass
the middlem6n.
Many of the food shortages are
man-made, she said, and people
contribute to them by stock-piling
things when they hear of an
impending shortage. She
recommended people saying: "I
don't need sugar, I'm not going to
buy it, and just aid off."
"You know that shortages are
being created when the price for
beef for instance sky-rockets, due
Supposedly to shortages, and in
three months the bottom falls out
of the market."
In one case, it was explained by
a lot of part-time farmers entering
the market, but any farmer knows
' it takes at least three years to
raise a steer.
Mrs. Beattie said a farmer's
wife is "a handy girl to have
around." She's "a doctor,
lawyer, Indian chief," because
ne cares for the sick animals,
gives them their shots, keeps the
books, and runs here and thessif .
anything breaks, and a part has to
be found.
Mrs. Beattie said she has all
the modern conveniences, except
a dishwasher. Ken joked that if
she had been away a day longer
while their daughter was being
born, he would have got me
Foi: a farmer and hiwife, there
is no such thing as an eight-hour
day. If you :want to :take an
afternoon off you. can. On the
other hand, other times you work
day and night.
This reporter remembers
meeting one farm wife who had
moved to town, and said she' felt
lost without the outside work to
do.
"I'd think you'd have to have
an outside interest. If I had to stay
in the house, 'I'd be .up the
walls," Mrs. Beattie said.
Never Obsolete
The farmer's wife, she said: "I
'don't think she'll ever be
obsolete, there are too many
meals to get. Some might not like
to do that type of thing," she
added. Mrs. Beattie mentioned
the many barns that are empty
now, because farms have got
larger. So there seems to be fewer
farmers and farmers wives in the
rural community than before.
Ruth Papple is well-known as•
an "Institute member in the
Seaforth area, and forty years ago
was taken to her first meeting
when she was 16 years old.
Ruth and Gordan , who have
two grown up children, hu' 24
cows on their 100 acre farm. Mrs.
Papple was born on the same
farm, and although a lot of people
are trying to buy the farm,
"they'd have a hard time moving
me," she said.
Mrs. Papple was an only child,
and she had to be interested in
the farm,b ecause money wasn't
floating around then, she said.
Both Gordan and herself are
active in the community, and
although they have never been
away for a long vacation, they've
enjoyed many Of the attractions of
the area.
"I drive the car. I think all farm
women should know how to drive.
It's difficult to depend on
someone to drive you all the time,
" she said.
Mrs. papple 's day usually
begins around- 7 or 7:30 a.m.
when she Res to feed the fowl.
After that it's straight to the barn
where she helps feed the calves,
helps milk and clean up. An hour
and a half later she returns to get
breakfast, and do the general
housework.
At about five o'clock, site helps
bring the cows in, washes them
up, and milks them which takes
another two hours. •
Every night, the Papples have a
big meal after they return from
the chores and when extra men
are working on the farm that
means 2 big meals.
A custom has changed in the
county for casual labor always ate
at the farmhouse when they were
working on the farm; but, now
they sometimes bring their lunch.
"I love cooking and baking",
extra mouths never bothered her,
she said.
Mrs. papple, who has a garden,
said: "It's really pleasant work,
to see things grow' and pick your
own vegetables. Of course it's
work. We work on the garden as a
family, we all love it. There is
nothing like a patch of ground.
It's unbelievable what you can get
out of a small garden."
A farm, she, said, it's on a
fifty-fifty basis. Both the husband
and wife have to enjoy country
living, and their kids too.
"On big mechanized farms,
you can see how kids can be
driven away by toll much work,
We're past wanting a big farm,"
she said.
Much aoser
Farm women have always been
a part of tilt farm, but urban and
rural. women have come much
closer, and are on equal
footing, with modern
conveniences, she said. Years ago ,
farm women didn't have hydro, or
telephones, or indoor plumbing.
"That was changed," she said.
About farm women who do
work away from the farm, she
said: "I think it's quite alright
and it could be ,a great financial
help to their husbands."
"It's too bad for a girl to get a
good education and not take
advantage of it," she said.
"In the city, women just have
their houses. I think I'd miss the
outside work. I'd cert ainly have
to get out, It would get to me."
Town people can't understand
how farmers and farm women can
get to like their animals, she said,
but the Papples have all their
cows named. Guernseys look
much the same, so .people ask
how they tell them apart. She tells
them the same way you recognize
a neighbor on the street. Each has
some little . thing that
distinguishes' it from the others.
. In the country, you have a
real friendship with your
neighbors. Of one set of
neighbors, she said: "If they
need help we're there and if we
need, help they're here. They are
marvellous neighbors."
Mrs. Papple said it used to be
'that women didn't have anything
to do with the finances and would
only be given grocery money to
handle.
Farm women are much more
vocal and know a lot of the
ins-and-outs of the farm's
operation, she said. The
difference is probably education..
"My mother wouldn't know when
the insurance was due, trivial
things. These things that weren't
very important, are very
important now." she said.
Mrs. Papple said she thinks
country people enjoy the simple
pleasures like a quiet walk more
than town people. A niece, who
had spent a lot of time on the farm
as a child, came to visit when ,no
one was horrie, with her husband
and kids and left a sign on the
door, that said, "Sleeping under
the maple trees, see you in the
morning."
Several lawn chairs were out on
the Papple's lawn, and she said:
"There is nothing like an evening
in the country, you sit on the lawn
and watch the sun set."
Mrs. Papple said one evening
their granddaughter spent the
night, and they let her stay up to
see the moon rise.They told her to
watch real carefully. She watched
and was fascinated when the
moon rose over her grandfather's
barn.
See the Moon
So the next day, when her
mother came to pick her up, she
told her mom to sit down in the
lawn chair, watch real carefully
and the moon would rise over the
barn.
Gayle Campbell was raised on a
farm, and even when she had a
job with an insurance company,
would help out in the hay on her
vacations. "I've always done it, I
dOn't mind," she said.
Mrs. Campbell has three kids,
ages 11, 9 and 8 and laughs when
she remembers being told her
* husband always 'said' his wife
would •never work out. This is the
first year she hasn't milked Cows.
She 'and her husband, Les, mix
farm 385 acres. They used to have
milk cows, but now have a couple
of sows, beef cattle, 'chickens,
rabbits and a goat.
In the spring she helps
cultivate and rake' cuts their
(Continued on Page 8A)