We have been spending the past few days doing spring clean up on the farm. This is where we start clashing personalities. Some of us are the "save it, you never know when you might need it" type and some of us are the "toss it, why clutter up the place with it?" type. It all works out in the end, and what we don't take to the scrap yard this trip will eventually get there on one of the next trips!
What's on this farm now is NOTHING compared to what used to be on this farm.
On August 9, 1994 there was a public auction here at our farm to sell Paul's grandfather's estate. Oh was there ever an estate!
We had four small children at the time. Blake was 4, Maria was 3, Logan was about 17 months old and Audrey was 4 weeks old. It had been, as I remember, a really hot summer up until then, but on the day of the sale it was down right chilly! Paul and I both were handing out all the sweaters and jackets we owned to his relatives that day. Who knew it could get that cold in August? I remember walking around with baby Audrey zipped into my coat to keep her warm enough!
I saved a copy of the auction notice that was in the paper announcing the "Burkholder Estate Auction".
The field to the west of the buildings became the auction grounds and parking lot. There were over 500 buyer's numbers issued for that sale and the auctioneers sold double all day and for a time there were three auctioneers selling at once. There was a lunch stand and I still remember Leroy Beachy saying, "Looks like you'll be having lots of people over for lunch today."
Parts of the ad read:
"ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES: Box wagon with new box; several wooden wagon seats; JD water cooled engine; approx. 12 cast iron seats"
There was a copper boiler, a rope bed, mantel clocks, railroad lanterns, lots of crocks and jugs, wooden beam plows, pitcher pumps, riding plows, walking plows, horse drawn farm machinery, a tedder, hay mowers, cultipackers, cultivators.
"TOOLS, PARTS & SCRAP IRON: Piles and piles of iron and machinery parts; chains and boomers; air compressor; anvils; top links; handyman jacks' lots of jacks; DeLaval separator; milk cans; dozens and dozens of eveners and neck yokes."
"NOTE: Eli had been a well known machinery dealer and collector for years. This will be one of those auctions where anything could turn up. We'll be selling double most of the day. Enjoy a long day with us."
I can attest to the fact that there were piles and piles of all sorts of things. For many weeks before the auction, Paul, his parents, his aunts, uncles, and cousins dragged things out of all nooks and crannies of buildings and out back in the orchard getting ready for that auction. In life, I don't know how Eli managed to stack all the things he did in all those places. I can still imagine him slowly driving that little Massey tractor with the boom up, always hauling something from one place to another out there in the lane.
We tell our children how it used to be, but it gets hard to remember ourselves sometimes, but it has been a long 18 years of trying to dig out from beneath, so to speak! We've literally moved whole buildings since that man is gone.
I don't think we bought very much at that auction, but I do recall that at the spur of the moment Paul bought Doddy's blue 1979 Chevy pickup truck. We drove that thing for quite a few years and after that gave it to our young friend Daniel who also drove it for a few years until he sold it to someone else.
Doddy had passed away in February of 1994, about six months before the public auction. Paul's mom Sarah had been taking care of him the evening he fell. Sarah rang the emergency bell between the Doddy house and ours that had been installed for just such an event for the first and only time. I quickly went over to the Doddy house. She and I decided we'd better call an ambulance. When the EMT people came in, Doddy had revived enough that he was joking with them about the bruise on his arm. Sarah and I exchanged a worried glance across the room. Had we made a mistake in calling for an ambulance? Doddy passed away in the wee hours of the next morning. He really was as bad as we thought he was.
For quite a long while after this, ambulances scared my poor little children. In their limited experience, they were convinced that if a person left in one they would never come back! At the sound of one in the distance, they'd come running to our arms for some reassuring words before they'd go play again.
Looks like it is going to be another nice day. We're trying to keep the boys focused on their school work, but it's a challenge when all the fresh air and sunshine outside keeps calling their names!
~Colleen
