Farm Family In Winter (1967)

life slows down on a farm in Winter I know I've lived on one all my life I've seen a lot of new machines come to the farm in my time like this snow buggy best replacement for a horse that's come along yet works pretty good once you get it started this is my son I've kind of turned the farm over to him in the last few years he's one of the new generation of farmers doesn't operate the way we used to does things a little more scientifically keeps kind of a report card on all the animals one of our most valuable Cavs has been acting sick lately when she grows up she can mean a lot of milk for the farm I hope nothing happens to her these are my grandchildren Dale Pam and Steve they're on their way to Bluff Hill for a ride on the toban hi Grandpa Grandpa hi [Music] now if I can get old Betsy started I'll show you what it's like around here at this time [Applause] [Music] here life doesn't come easy in Winter most plants stop growing food gets scarce and sometimes it's hard just keeping warm wins are pretty hard on the deer some have been known to starve to death before spring the fox is probably hunting for mice in the snow if he's quick he'll get a meal otherwise he goes hungry it's not likely that we'll see a chipmunk or woodchuck in the woods this time of year they're taking a long winter sleep under the snow I've seen this raccoon around here all winter he'll eat most anything including the buds off my elm tree [Music] every year I pick out a good Christmas tree from our Evergreen Grove lots of farmers nowadays think it's easier to buy one in town but the grandchildren like to help cut it down so that's what we're going to do this morning back in the barn the morning milking is all finished I wonder how Sally is doing in wintertime we have to take extra special care of the livestock or sickness can spread to all the [Music] animals when I was boy Farmers could lose everything in one bad winter but that was before modern medicines and veterinarians like Doc [Music] Morton hello doc Morton hi red what's on your mind it's Sally doc I think she's pretty sick oh really how long's she been that way oh about 3 days today she looks worse that doesn't sound too good does she have any particular symptoms seems to be having trouble breathing I'll leave right away okay then we'll be seeing you I planted most of these Evergreens myself the year that Pam was born couldn't get anything else to grow growing this sandy [Music] soil the trees in this Grove Stay Green all year long but that's not true of all types of trees take the apple tree for example picked apples off at last summer now it's covered with ice if we look closely we can see Tiny leaves rolled up with the blossoms Yet to [Music] Come sometimes right after a heavy snow the county road from our farm to the main Highway doesn't get plowed it's situations like this that make Doc Morton glad he has a radio telephone in his car this is 75b this is 75b go ahead 75 hello Central give me Brier 4937 please say red I've run into a little trouble out here on the road you going to be able to make her dock I'm on the the main road but your road won't be cleared for some time and I think I'll have to go on foot no no don't do that Grandpa's got the snow buggy here he isn't here right now but I think I hear him coming I Used to Know doc Morton when he was just a kid on one of the farms in our County even then he was taking in sick cats or birds with broken wings always reading about animals in his spare time after he graduated from State University he came back here we think pretty highly of our veteran here if anyone can help Sally he can she's in here doc okay well she doesn't look too good red no doesn't feel very good this morning at oh we'll listen to her lungs I believe she's got a little pneumonia it's a good thing we have her in here where she's by herself now I'll uh I'll give her a shot of penone and then you give her one uh tomorrow the same way if she isn't better by uh tomorrow night you give me a ring and I'll come on look at her again all right while the medicine does its work on Sally we've got to get back to our chores nowadays machines help us do a lot of work on the farm the conveyor belt is used to carry manure out of the barn and into the spreader manure is good fertilizer makes the soil richer that means more corn at picking [Music] time when I was a kid we had to shovel snow by hand no Dale gets it done by practicing on the tractor he's still not too sure of himself but he's learning next spring we may teach him how to plow while we were working outside Pam is doing her chores inside the house she wishes we had a machine to do dishes but uh I think that's going a little too far in Winter we let the pigs run loose on the back 40 they can't find much to eat out there we have to feed them the corn we grew Last Summer [Music] [Music] the Hogs put on enough weight we'll send them to market the money we make will help buy supplies to run the farm cars can't eat corn right off the cob the way pigs do so we grind it up with a machine [Music] after it's all ground up it comes out ready for the cars to [Applause] eat we store hay upstairs in the barn bur last summer we cut tall grass with a machine that bundles it up into Bales use tractor power to get the Bales up in the Loft and boy power to get them down [Applause] comes you can stti that one up comes since cars can't get fresh grass in Winter Hay is mighty important food for them but winter isn't all hard work in fact here's one of the nicest jobs of the year [Music] it's morning and Sally still hasn't eating we can just get her back on her feet come on Z up up come on [Music] s y [Music] when I was a boy on the farm a calf might have died from pneumonia things have certainly come a long way since then but even with all our fancy bookkeeping powerful machines and medicines the modern farmer can't change the weather and maybe that's good I've had my share of winters some of them pretty hard but I never complained cuz I know that sooner than we think spring comes and then everything bursts open with life for