Good Neighbors

February 22nd, 2021

Years ago, no farmers posted their property with “Keep Out” signs.  Our neighbors knew their men could hunt deer in our woods and nearby fields.  As the years went by, people we did not know hunted through our woods.  That is when Dad had Hari bring in the three brown cows from the pasture.  They were then kept closer to the barn.  Some hunters would shoot anything brown that moved.  My brother and dad did not hunt but we did not mind if the deer was going to be used for food.

Farmers were smart even without book learning.  Some had learned to plant by the moon phases.  One farmer had recorded in writing what crops he planted, where and when he did his planting, the weather and the moon phases.  His books were at an auction and I wish I had been older and knew how to bid on them.  Perhaps the Amish farmers still use nature in that way.