Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! tells us that "we know we belong to the land" but the gravity of that knowledge is lost in the pep and pride expressed in song. When one dedicates a life to improving a homestead they literally give themselves to the land: their time, health, strength, love, and hopes are imparted irrevocably. These things cannot be sundered nor can their depth be perceived externally. To know the connection to the land is to have lived it and there is no other means to impart such knowledge.
For my part, there is no better time to recount the give and take that a land-steward experiences then after a meadow is fresh-cleared of hay. The slope and the grade of the land as well as curves of shape of the years can be surveyed without impediment and examined in the most revealing summer light. One such summer day found my dad and myself making the rounds to see our home in its most pure form. I reached there one conclusion: no one beyond my father, my mother, and myself could fathom what has happened on this 40 acres since it our became our place and we became its tenants.
That saddens me most because I want my daughter to know these things, for they are a history not only of the land but a testament to the character of her grandparents and the tenacity of the human spirit. Thus, I provide the following insufficient recounting:
- For 25 years, 10-12 rick of wood were cut every fall to heat a house built in the early 1900s through the winter. This amounts to 32,000 cubic feet of wood or a stack of wood 4 ft tall, 4 ft wide, and 2,000 ft long.
- Untold pickup-loads of sandstone rocks were pulled out of the ground by man, woman, and child in order to create a sweeping meadow of native prairie grasses. Every one of us were stung by scorpions multiple times. On one day my mother was strung thrice. For the record, she's tougher than me and she's tougher than you are too.
- Every year, square (in the earlier days) or round bales (more recently) were hauled in the blistering Oklahoma heat--almost always when it was 100 F+ or hotter.
- A veritable ark-load of animals were raised, including but not limited to: registered paint horses, mules, a shetland pony, Angus, Maine-Anjou, Brangus, Longhorn, Gelbvieh, Holstein, Charolais, and Watusi cattle, turkeys, guineafowl, peafowl, quail, bantam chickens, game chickens, laying hens, Boer goats, rabbits, Border Collies, coonhounds, greyhounds and staghounds, Jack Russell Terriers, assorted other dogs, Berkshire, Hampshire, Duroc, and cross pigs as well as honeybees.
- We watched an appaloosa mule throw someone so hard that it broke a championship belt buckle into two pieces. We sold the mule at a loss and were glad to do so.
- One to ten deer every year for 25 years were butchered in a horse barn
- Countless days were spent fishing for bass, crappie, catfish, and perch. We caught 9 lb bass and 3+ lb crappie and even have the photos to prove it.
- A pond was rebuilt and another pond was built. At least two baptisms occurred in the first pond.
- One of us was almost killed by an angry cow and had to be life-flighted to an emergency room which required a helicopter to land in a hay field.
- One of us was almost killed by a tractor rolling backwards and pinning us against a root ball.
- We saw flash floods, wildfires, blizzards, tornadoes, ice storms, and record temperatures from - 18 F to 114 F.
- Our house almost burned down due to a cracked flue tile, but we saved the taxidermy if nothing else.
- In the spring and summer we grew the best sweet corn you ever ate, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, okra, peppers, watermelons over 63 lbs and pumpkins over 100 lbs.
- In the fall we grew turnips, mustard greens, and kale. Complete strangers stopped on the road and asked if they could pick greens. Of course they were able to help themselves.
- We planted an orchard in the hopes that our children may one day rest under its shade and rejoice at its fruiting.
- One of us received a college acceptance letter from Oklahoma State and became a first generation college student.
- We spent hours practicing archery with friends until our hands were numb and we actually started placing in tournaments.
- We had massive Independence Day celebrations that lasted into the wee hours of the morning and everyone managed to keep their fingers.
- Three generations of us sat on the porch and thanked God for what we had.
- We lived, loved, laughed, fought, and cried as a family.
