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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1975-10-23, Page 24THi HLIRCik EXPOSITOR, OCTOBER 1915 ' • • " • I Cherry or Blueberry 4 be in the same position, "Maybe women . in general need MOte protection," she said. Farbiershlp Mrs. Gibson asked: "Is it a eal marriage, if you wouldn't help him, if you could? It wouldn't be a . real partnership." Mrs. •Gibson said she usually leaves the decisions up to her husband "more or less" but they always talk about any plans for the farm. As she said: "This is our life, our business, our livelihood." "A lot of farm wives complain when all the profits go back into the farm, but you really have to do this," she said. ' "People don't realize •a farmer is also a consumer, Everything has gone up, but his returns, haven't kept' pace with his expenses." She said the farmer needs his wife most for moral support. All his time and money is invested in the farm, then the returns are less than you would like, and if he had a coniplaining wife, he'd just give up. "The future in farming will h e to brighten up or there won't be any larmers." "i think a lot of boys would stay on the. farm if they thought it Would pay,, but you can't even guarantee you will break even,' she said. Mrs. Gibson has been a 4-H Club leader for six\ years and has both her daughters in her club This year, they both had garden ,projects so they looked after the garden!• she said. This fall, she will be teaching the girls to bake bread. She learned this on her own since she was married like she has learned a lot about country living. As she was giving a tour of the farm, • she, pointed with pride to the silo she helped put up. A neighbouring farm wife with her boy Caine over and helped an old man himself, and daughters to put it up. Mrs. Gibson shook her heacr"13. (on don't get many neighbors like: that". She's always liked horses, but has only started to• ride in, the last few years. They have a race horse, and one day it decided to take a race around the pen. She was doing all the wrong things, just trying to keep her mount, when the horse reached the fence, turned west, and she flew north. Since then she has lost a lot of her nerve, but she -is still determined to ride, she said. When she first came to the country, she was afraid to go Out, in the dark. Now the Only thing she might worry about is staring otii .Or , •Fte, • era .0 0 0 A4,; saiNEEDERs , LUNCHEON MEATS ,wr:,•••••• • • • : • • • • • • •-• • • togitart, "Doig aid Co , Chartered Accountants Resident Partner , ARTHUR W. READ 268 Main St., Exeter Bus. 235-0120 Res. •2'38 8075'. Butcher Your BEEF or PORK at DUBLIN MEAT MARKET WE: -kill -hang -cut -trim -wrap . -freeze WE ALSO: -make your lard -sausage -headcheeie -cure meats CUSTOM. KILLING DAYS (, REEF -- WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS PORK MONDAY AFTERNOONS TEL. 3454360 BY APPOINTIVIENT • • • done .much travelling but sister who lives in the city, she Some farm women work out "you've got on .a farm, what a lot • Saldt"'She lives a life of riley", all more than others, and the last few of pbople go away to get - ' she has to do is keep the grass years she has been heloingout in sunshine, the outdoors, 'cut, the pool cleaned out, and she the field more than ever. Whe relaxation," doesn't even have a garden or can their four kids were small, her On the farm, you don't have to anything. . husband always trold her she-was watch the clock , and there is not People don't stay for (meals, more help looking .after the - always the pressure to get like they used to.' They re getting children.. everything done all at once. away from that now, but "I've . "Everyone was amazed that a A lot of women carry more than "always.enjoyed cooking." girl from the town could come to their share-of the load, "and you Mrs. Campbell said she_ might the country and like it," she said, wonder where they get the as well pitch in and help out as one friend who came"out for the strength to keep it up," she said. have to pay someone to do what •day:. still talks about her running Farm women aren't any worse .she•tould do. "I enjoy being out from the barn where she -was off, than other women with driving tractor, there's n o job ' helping with the hay to the regard to their rights, she said, that I hate." ' kitchen were she was peeling Everyone remembers the farm • The one thing all the farm carrots and potatoes for supper wife who worked with her women seem to dislike about and back out to the barn. husband on their farm for years, working in the fields, is- that they She works on the farm as much and in . a divorce settlement, get behind in their housework. as she does because her husband didn't' get anything rpm the Mrs.Campbell said she cleans always expected it of her. He had • farm. out the pens, but doesn't usually a mother who worked right A woman working in her - drive the big machinery like the alongside his father on the farm; husband's hardwa.0 re store could combine. She never drove the and he expected the same from , told her, "I like Joe, but don't Mrs. Gibson said farm people marry a farmer." are much more informal, and if If she had any impression of someone , drops in around farmers' wives before coming to 'suppertime, you naturally set a the farm, it was that they seemed - place for them and don't let it to be happy and busy. worry . you. ARound a farm, "I'd sooner be outside than you've got a big garden, and inside. I really enkiy-Poughing there is always pletit3 of food. ' because it's" a job that stays She laughed When she done." In the winter, she can look rmemberecl a, magazine article across a field, and the furrows are which told how to feed a family still there. It's not like the kitchen for $16 a week. floor that has to be continually "She's stingy", Mr Gibson • washed and waxed, she .smiled, said almost in a shocked tone. Mrs. Gibson at first greeted the " You read how she does it, an51 reporter in a blue pant suit, but you see why it's' impossible for later Changed_ into her work you to do it". She feeds her clothes to giye a tour of the farm. family for '',next to nothing". She She and her husband, Joe, have showed the' article and laughed at about 125 head of beef cattle, and a meal which was comprised of 235 acres. egg salad on soda ,biscuits. At first it was hard getting used Isobel has been working in the to farm life she said. "I 'didn't field for eight years: "Once yOu know which were hiefers and do it one year,then yqu'rel hooked, next year •it's "your which were steers, so I called them cattle.— She always spoke in job.Sometimes you're smart if genefalities like the cattle are in you don't learn to do . ' the grain'everything," she said: instead of the hay or• barley because she couldn't tell because even when you're in .a the difference. deep sleep, 'a loud honking Later, on a tour of the barn, she occurs, and you get up to look to„. Proudly pointed to a pen of see if perhaps a 'steer is on the'` heifers and steers-, she got it ' road. straight. "At times, you think isn't this Isobel is proud of being . a awful, you're so hot, but by this farmer's wife, as anyone can tell. time, you're done and -the next Unlike those raised on the farm, job comes and it's a change," she everything was new, and she had said. ' nto learn the hard way. She proudly considers their She, remembers plowing the . operation a family farm4 where field, and looking back and not any of the kids or herself could - understanding why the dirt fell on relieve the other if it was the opposite side of the furrow."' required. Besides working the They never let you forget it, she family canoes, snowmobiles and laughed. "Afferyft,get laughed hunts together. gtass, cans and pickles. Albout, . up", she said. harvester until that Monday. So her, she said. many things can go wrong, she One of,her jobs is to check on said, as she remembered stalling the cattle to see if any are calving the tractor. or neglecting any of their young. She said she doesn't feel as tied She does this on a dirt bike. Later to the house now the kids are' • she drove a jeep,' to check on the older, although the kids were cattle in a field back of the barn. always taken to 'the barn and can Before she was married, her get to' the field more often. husband taught her, to drive "now During the winter, there are I know why", she laughed. two hours of chores, plus the time , She said she never felt people it takes to clean out the pens. She in the. community were said she doesn't go out at night disapproving wish the attitude, when the kids are at school, well-what-do-you-expect she's a ecause the kids have homework town girl? Maybe subconsciously, to do. I worked harder to 'prove a town Mrs: Campbell said she enjoys girl could do it, she said. the winters, because if you work Wear Out hard in the summer most of the When she came out as a bride, work is done, except for two hours she saw other women helping out, of chores. and her grandmother always said, Tdwn Girl "It's better to wear out than rust Isobel Gibson was raised in out". Clinton, and was definitely a town "I like the outside, and if you . girl, but after 24 years of living on go outside and hang around on a a farm, she can say: "I really 'like farm, you get a job," she said. it, 1 prefer the farm to town." The' first -time she had to serve She ai4o said she never thought a dozen men at a bean threshing, about the duties of being a 'farm she was really nervous for she wife before' getting married, was driving a wagon, too. "I although her _grandmother, who don't worry about it anymore," had a rough life as a farm wife, she said. (Continued from Page IA) at a couple times, you smarten She and her husband haven't DIETRICH'S , 100% whole wheat 24 oz. loid 2/ • WHITE GRANuiATED... KRAFT .SINGLES CHEESE..SUCES 2 lb. pkg. NIBLETS KERNAL CORN 11 oz. ,IymNARcH C A K E.MIXES CLOVER LEAF SOLID WHITE TUNA , 7 oz. ' k • KNECHTEL COFFEE CARNIVAL L EA af 128 oz. COL4 24 - 10 oz. tins SCHWARTZ, USTARD 16' oz. , CHRISTIE'S .PREMIUM 1 lb. ti kg. Plain, Salted or Saltines face to face vith a rat,41tell she flicks, the light switch at the barn. When they moved to "the' country, there was plenty to do, for there. ;wasn any indoor plumbing • or el ctricity, Her husband sat wit her the first time she saw a s w farrow, and it was a "thrill", she ,remembers, But then, he left ;her to look' after another sow that was having its litter, but there was nothing quiet or 'Peaceful about the next birth: The'sow startd rooting around,, and squealing, and she ite afraid it was going to eat its young, she 'remembers. "They do that," she added. She put them in a •vardboard box, the sow started to ,charge, but she cleared the partition without even putting a hand on the partition. She then went over to get help from the neighbor. "Did he 1at4,1*" she smiled. She has , learned how to- cope. - Tales of how a rabid fox came iiliheli garage,. and bit a cat, are accepted. She said all six cats were' bagged and taken to the vet to be killed because she didn't see which cat was bitten. That is one of 'the first things you look for when an aninial gets _ sick, -she said. . ° • One thing abdut these'women is that they do what must be done and don't expect to be canonized. Mrs. Gibson looked the picture of leisure when she was met by ther,eeporter at the door;sbut after giving, a Jour, back in her work clothes, 114 husband laughed at how his wife got out of work that afternoon. Her. son and husband were building9tshed. She agreed ,she would lave had g hammer ' in hand, if( thi,s, reporter hadn't called. 4 "4 emg4T,....,4imm.,:g.., 4y,•• • •%%'''''••S':1,*,,,,,t.,-.4*..,*,:}tro:•,rtik •:••6•,>" ••*'"i0.0•;•'' 0 • 0' 454,PPFAR/ ii For .Your Shopping Convenience We Are 'Open Every THURS. and FRI. Night 'Till 9 o'clock. PRICES EFFECTIVE 'TILL TUESDAY. OCT. 28,1975 BROWN BEAR ,••••• :4•MOSA,:;: 1* - f • • t • • • •• 4, 4 • • • •;: • • • 6 O '