Barefoot Memories of A Hillbilly -Things Learned in Farming 101 (Free Access)

After we finished putting out several more rows of taters, we worked up the ground ready for planting beans and corn, and fixed hills for maters, and even a few hills for melons. It's still just a might too early to get some things in the ground, cause there's still the danger of frost running into mid-May. There were a couple of 5-gallon buckets setting at the end of the row, and Pap sat down on one, but Mom took a seat in the grass near his position. What's this, Mom, one young'en asked, holding up a broad-leafed grass, she says 'that's Plantin (plantain). That's curly dock, and pursely, and lamb's quarters.' Gee Mom knows all the kinds of grasses and weeds." She says she's mowed and stacked enough hay and grass to know what's what.

Pap with his red seed planter that he puts over his shoulder and walks back and forth plants the seeds he wants to come up to feed and bed the animals, and ones that are good for the ground. Sometimes he puts out fescue, sometimes Timothy, orchard grass or clover. He changes it up. Mom reaches over and breaks off a young blade of fescue and putting it between her thumbs that she places side by side, she forms a little opening and blows thru the space onto the side of the grass. Out comes a noise that sounds like a goose with a sore throat. She shows each of us how to do it, some quickly master the skill, others just use up a lot of breath and blades of grass. Pap shows us how to back our fingertips up in our mouth and whistle. I'm not too good at that, but I can whistle really big between my two fingers.

Other Brother cups his hands and blows out a sad, lonesome sound like the dove makes in the quiet of the evening. Brother can make the whippoorwill sound when it's calling for corn to be planted, and the best I can do is whistle for the Bob white like Old Man Neighbor taught me. Seems like there's always something new to learn on a farm, but most especially this farm. Mom and Pap never tell us we can't learn things, they are really good about teaching us stuff. Once, Mom showed us jewel weed growing along a bank, and she showed us how to rub it on us to stop the poison ivy from itching and spreading. She also showed us how the touch-me-nots would pop open and spit seeds at you if you touch it. Witch hazel will spit at you too. Other Brother and Brother sometimes go out and bring in tea berry to chew on. I like it. They taught us that you shouldn't let your cows eat leaves from a wild cherry tree cause it will poison the cows. And cattle shouldn't be allowed to eat green apples cause they don't know when to stop and could die from a belly ache.

Mom says when we plant the maters we shouldn't plant them near the taters cause they are cousins, and don't produce to their best ability if too close, and can also share disease and blight from each other. Blight is bad. She says they are also cousins to the deadly nightshade we see out in the fields. Granny plants big ole sunflowers on the edge of her garden, but she's careful, cause sunflowers put toxins in the ground that kill other garden plants. To get really big sunflowers, you have to change their growing place each year to give the ground time to get healthy. Pap says black walnut trees and some kinds of evergreen toxic the ground too, that's why grass doesn't grow well under them.

Mom says break time is over, time to put away our tools and head to the house to bake some cornbread and fry the taters. Pap takes the bigger tools and puts them away and we drag hoes and such to be cleaned and put away. We learned lots of stuff today, including how to whistle with grass, the names of some weeds, and that farming makes your back tired from bending.

I wear shoes now, but sometimes I have barefoot memories.