Life at the farm – 50 years ago

Then, as now, regular working hours are not possible on a farm. In summer when haymaking was on the schedule, we started to work at 5 o'clock in the morning and worked all day till 8 o'clock in the evening. The winter was less stressful, when grain treshing and woodwork were completed.

In spring

As soon as the meadows were free of snow we started to fertilize the fields. Next step was to plough the meadows. One person led the horse and another person was responsible for the plough. When a horse was sick or pregnant we borrowed one from the neighbors. We used two horses to dispense the dunghills over the meadow. Those dunghills have been prepared in the winter.

When we finished plowing, we started to seed and harrow. During this procedure we had to take care of stones, which were lying on the field and had to bear them away. We did this to make the harvesting easier.

Another job, which had to be done, was to repair the fences. Our forefathers made an appointment with all neighbors to make clear, which neighbor had to maintain which part of the fences. Those agreements have not changed since generations.

The last part after planting the potatoes was to chop the so-called "Servitutsholz". This means to chop trees, which were previously selected from the forester.

Summer and autumn

Hay-work started around the 29th of June and around July 20th we begun cutting the corn. Barley was cut in the middle of August and oat at the end of September. Oat had to be cut with a sickle. The same time was the beginning of the second hay-crop (called "Grummet" in German).

After that the potato harvest started. Than in September and October it was time for cutting the fern and raking leaves, which were used as bedding. Cutting fern was an important job that had to be done. Cattle don't eat that plant but it grows like everywhere and avoids the growth of "good" grasses.

Around the St Nicholas' Day the grain had to be treshed. We already had an electrical treshing machine and an electrical fan mill. I remember the awful steam and noise very well, and the mice, running for their lives.

Winter

After the first snowfalls and during the winter the hay was brought to the farm by horse from the surrounding hay barns. On the verge of Christmas we had to slaughter the pigs, one part of the meat was used for our special Christmas sausages, everybody loved. After New Year's Eve it was time for chopping and selling some part of our wood and finally when spring came closer everything started all over again.