The Meinhard Farm at Buena Vista

Alfred and Wilhelmina Meinhard's Farm Buildings

During a visit in 2001, I asked Uncle Bob if he was continuing to write up his family history. He said yes, he had been, and had a number for pieces he was writing. But, he said, he didn't know how much more work he was going to do because he got a new computer and didn't know how to open his files. His new computer had so many unknowns he said. Did I know how to open this file? He asked me to just take it. He didn't think he would get back to it.

I opened the file and extracted his text but without his older word processing program, the text is jumbled with strange characters. Where I couldn't reconstruct something, I left it in the text. I worked out everything but the reference to something old sometimes stored in the machine shed.

Maybe you could comment on this piece. Some of you remember the farm. What did he mean the garage in the basement? Do you remember other details?

I linked to A.O.'s profile Doris posted. I'll add a link to Minnie's profile when she posts,

Farmyard

by Robert Meinhard

The farmyard was about 100 x 150 yards in area. The orchard was in the northwest corner. We did not have many fruit trees, about three or four apple trees and a couple of cherry trees.  Besides the house, there was the barn, hog house, chicken house, granary, blacksmith shop, and privy. It was a fine set of building, as good as any of our neighbors. 

The barn was a large one, much wider than most were. The west side had stalls for eight horses, plus another pen in the rear of the barn, where I kept my baby beeves. The east side was the cow barn with stalls for eight with another pen in the rear. Sometimes sheep, or the bull, were kept in this pen. At one time we had a few steers that we fed, and they were kept in this pen during harsh weather. In between the horse and cow barns, was storage for hay or straw. Above the cow and horse barns were hay lofts.  

The hog house was a well-built structure with a capacity of 15 or so sows and their pigs. Dad farrowed about 100 pigs each year in the early spring that were fattened and shipped to market the next winter. Hogs were the main cash crop for many Iowa farmers at that time.  On the east side of the hog house, was a cement feeding platform where the hogs were fed corn and "slop".

The chicken house was just north of the hog house and housed the 100 to 150 hens and roosters that Mother kept for eggs and meat. Mother had a registered flock of Plymouth Rocks and received a premium for the eggs from hatcheries. She hatched about 150 chicks that were raised for meat and to replace laying hens. We often had chicken for dinner on Sunday and other times as well. The chicken house was built to Iowa State College specifications and had plastered walls.

The Granary located east of the house had bins for grain on one side and a corn crib on the other. In between was a driveway that was used to store wagons and later automobiles.  Attached to the east side was the machinery shed where most of the farm machinery was stored.  This included the tractor, plow, binder, disc harrow, and tooth harrows, mower, and sometimes the old Ç@ @ @[1] was kept in the machine shed during winter. Above the driveway of the granary was a storage area, and one item that I remember being kept there, was the fanning mill used to clean weed seeds from the oats before seeding. Other items were a hand corn sheller and an old captains' chair, which may have been from the old Meinhard Mill[2] at Troy Grove.  Unfortunately, it was never saved.  It would be a prized heirloom today.

The blacksmith shop was located south of the machine shed and contained a forge, anvil, and other blacksmith tools, which Dad used for sometime.

When the basement garage was built, Dad shifted his work shop to the garage.

The privy was located just east of the house and guarded by a large lilac bush.  It was a three holler with two large and one small hole. After the bathroom was installed, the privy was used by us children in the warmer months, using pages from the Montgomery Catalogue for toilet paper. Better than corn cobs. No kidding, cobs were used in emergencies.

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[1] Again, any guesses? I can’t interpret this old word processing program Uncle Bob was using. Maybe look at ASCII code to get a clue. If he wrote this in 1980’s, the most popular program was WordStar. Electric Pencil had a much smaller following. If probably wrote this piece after 2000 before he died in 2013. I downloaded the file in 2001; he said he had not edited it and probably would not get back to it.

[2] The program showed, “old Ç @ @ @ Meinhard Mill”.