The Buckwell home

Here I was on the Buckwell farm. I had met the family and now it was time to settle in. I was determined to do my best and learn all I could about running the ranch, to help out as much as possible and try to become part of the family. So far, I had no regrets about being there. Before going on, I think it would be good to describe the Buckwell home.

The ranch house had five bedrooms, four upstairs and one downstairs. Downstairs there was a large sitting room with a big potbelly stove, a large dining room, and an immense kitchen. Off the kitchen was another large room with a milk separation machine and storage. Across the front of the house was a porch, with chairs and two couches. I soon found out that the house had no electricity and no running water. Just outside the back of the house was the pump that provided all the water for the house. There was no basement, hence no furnace. In winter all the heat came from the big potbelly stove in the sitting room. There were registers in the upstairs floor that could be opened to let the heat come up.

There was a full bathroom on the main floor; however it was reserved for the ladies of the house. In the bathroom was a large barrel that was kept full for flushing the toilet or bathing. The men were only permitted to use the bath for their weekly bathing. The men also had a very nice two- seater out house about a hundred yards down toward the barn. In the evening you had to light the lamps, which were propane and had to be "pumped up". In the sitting room there was a radio that was powered by a large car battery; the battery was covered by a small padded bench, hiding it from sight. There was a beautiful music box, which had to be cranked with each usage. The music was obtained by putting in metal discs, which were made of thin metal with punched holes. Sounds funny when you describe it, but it sounded great. I'll be writing more about the ranch house. I grew to love it, but it did have its drawbacks, especially in winter.

A few hundred yards from the house was a large barn with stalls for horses and another section with stalls for milking cows. There were several horses and about 10 cows for milk. Leighton sold any excess milk to the farm co-op. Behind the barn was an area where they raised pigs to be sold at the market in town, and also butchered for home consumption. There was a fairly large hen house for eggs. Next to the barn was the corral. All of these buildings were between the house and the large creek that I had seen as we drove into the farm. Getting down closer to what I thought was a creek, turned out to be more of a river. It was about 100 feet across and I would guess about two to three feet deep.

On the other side of the house was the family garden. It was a very large garden; everything grown in the garden was consumed in the home. Just about every kind of vegetable including potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbage, and lettuce, beets, cauliflower and more. Close by the garden was the underground vegetable storage, which was covered and about six feet deep, it was used to store all the root vegetables in large bins. They would then be covered with earth. The farm was pretty well self sufficient. The Buckwell's maintained a frozen food locker in the town. This was a large facility as it served several farm families. Leighton butchered calves, pigs, chickens, and sheep. This was all packaged, marked, and stored in the freezer lockers for family consumption as needed. Some was sold to a local market. The Buckwell's often donated food to many needy men and women in the area. They were very generous in many ways.

Mrs. Buckwell canned a great deal of the garden produce. For this purpose, another building was located close behind the house. It was called "the summer kitchen". There was a large stove, tables, shelves and counters. There was also a wood storage area for firewood. Another room was reserved as a laundry room. There were several tubs and buckets used for heating water and there was a wringer machine that had to be turned by hand. Also, not far from the house was the storage building for the farm machinery.

The whole house, barns, and other buildings were located on several acres of land. Rising behind the house was a hill. There was a gradual rise to the top of the hill, which was higher than the house. In front of the house and buildings were several acres of flat land that stretched out to the access road. In other words the house and buildings were set in a low area that was protected by the land behind. When you climbed the hill, the land behind it stretched for miles and was very flat. This is where the fields of wheat, barley and other crops were planted. On adjoining land were the cattle and on another section, a herd of sheep. About a half mile from the house, the hill had a gentle slope down to the flat land in front of the house. This provided access to bring livestock down to the barn and taking equipment up the hill.

I had no idea of the vast amount of work it takes to run a working farm. This was just the beginning of what I was going to learn.