Kentucky Folk / Tales All In A Day's Work  

 All in A Days Work
Times In Adair County
As Published In The Kentucky Explorer
Volume 16, Number 7 - December/January 2002


 
In the spring of the year there was a lot of activity for each member of the family.
The day usually started about four o'clock in the morning, each member of the family knew what they were responsible for, It ranged from fixing the breakfast, feeding stock, milking cows, separating milk, gathering wood and carrying in water.

After a good meal at breakfast such as home made biscuits, country ham or some time squirrel and gravy or pork chops, eggs, fried potato sorghum molasses or black berry jelly and etc.
The ladies would start the chores of the day in the house and the men would start by gearing up the team and farm equipment for the work to be done.

 I remember when I as eleven years old. Plowing with the team of mules and a walking plow. The big flat bottom plow lay over a twelve inch strip of sod, which would take about a days work to plow one acre of ground. I soon learned that if I would stop the team at the right place it was easy to turn the plow to start the other direction. With the bottom plow one would plow in a rectangular but since much of the ground was a hill, the bottom plow could not be user because, the rows must go across the hill, or the plowed ground would wash away when a hard rain came.

 The hillside plow was user for the plowing the ground on a hillside. The plowshare was hinged as to reveres (flipped) when changing directions. Since the plow must be lifted to flip the plowshare is was quite a chore for an 11-year-old boy. But soon the lesson was learned to flip the plow while the team was still moving which made it much easier.

Whither plowing or cutting wood with a chopping ax or crosscut saw there was lessons to be learned as to make the work easy as possible.
As a small boy sometime I would get tired, I was told, I needed a saddle if I was going to ride the saw. :)

The lunch break was at about 11:30 and lasted until 1:00 which gave time to feed the work mules and have a good meal with a time of rest which was usually a nap after eating. If the boys didn't get into some kind of scuff of sorts.
Then we went back to the field and work until near dark, before quitting to do the evening chores much like the morning except gathering eggs as slopping the hogs.

The even meal was mostly home made cornbread made with buttermilk, I remember one time there was no milk of any kind to use in making the cornbread, so pure cream was used to make the bread and It was the best cornbread that I have ever had. I often requested it to be made that way but always hear the reply “It cost too much to make that way”. (no butter needed) even the butter milk bread was good with real churned butter, made from  milk after it turned from aging mostly setting in the heat waiting for it to be dashed in the old country churn. Some time pure cream would be shaken in a fruit jar until it became butter. That was mighty good eating with sorghum molasses, honey, homemade jelly or jam.

After the even meal was finished it would be a time for togetherness which usually involve listening to the radio and playing games or telling stories or singing and having time for each other. As the day would wind down the smaller children went to bed for the night and the older ones would play cards or checkers. In those days there was no TV, Computers or electronic games like today.

The day ended with a good nights rest, then another day started with all it challenges of farm life in Adair County Kentucky.

_Carlis B. Wilson

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