TWIN GROVE - A day on the farm proved to be much different from the remembrances of a group of Aster Retirement Community residents Thursday.
Anne Krahenbuhl, life enhancement coordinator for the community, said this is the second year Aster has provided its residents a trip to Alan and Yvonne DeVoe's farm south of Twin Grove. Yvonne suggested the trip as an extra activity for Aster residents, which includes her mother Lucille Thommen, Krahenbuhl said.
The DeVoes and a host of youths served the visitors lunch before taking them on a tour of the farm, where the peacocks, baby chickens, guineas, goats, a pony, and a baby calf named Ollie greeted them.
The residents also got a tour through the milking parlor.
The DeVoe farm tour showed farming is a different type of business and lifestyle than it was 100 years ago.
Most of the visitors, now in their 80s and 90s, said they grew up on farms and went into farming as adults. Many were also cheesemakers.
"I can't believe farming like this," said Cleo Kundert, 90.
"It's a good life ... still," said Ron Edler, 79, whose children and grandchildren have followed his path into farming.
Edler milked about 60 cows on his farm near Browntown until the early 1970s when he said he "got tired of milking" and turned to raising beef cattle. In his younger years, Edler also worked on threshing machines, getting a bumpy ride while manning the straw blower chute. He fully retired in 1993.
Those farming days "are a thing of the past," Edler said.
"Little farms are going away, which is sad to see," Kundert said. Farmers used to work together, she noted.
"Women got together, too," added Ruth Kaster, 87, who grew up in Fayette.
Kundert agreed. When the men came together to help each other thresh, the women joined forces to cook big meals for the crew, she said.
As a child, one of Kundert's chores on her father's farm was herding the cattle along the road so they could eat grass in the ditches. She had to ride her pony to do that job. The job was a bit scary in the early spring, she said, because the cows got spooked easily and were excited about all the new grass to eat. They tended to run when first let out. But eventually, they learned the routine and settled down, she added.
Kundert and her husband farmed and made cheese near Hay Hollow Road in the Town of York. They started out making about four small Swiss wheels a day, with milk from about 16 farms. Their cheese co-op business eventually grew to include the milk from 50 farms.
"There was a cheesemaker every couple of miles," she added.
It was back in those days when she met Harrietta Paulson, whose father-in-law supplied milk to the Kunderts. Now nearing 97 years old, Paulson lived in the Village of New Glarus, where her husband worked for Pet Milk.
Margaret Kubly, 91, recalled her father, Alfred Galanzman, retired as a cheesemaker because of arthritis and went into dairy farming and growing crops to feed them north of Gratiot.
Those were the days when all the crops went into feeding the livestock, Elder said.
"And sometimes you had to buy more," he added.
Ruth Kaster's dad, Jim McDonald, raised cows, pigs and chickens.
"And we used to take a case of eggs to town (to sell in Darlington) to buy groceries," she said.
Anne Krahenbuhl, life enhancement coordinator for the community, said this is the second year Aster has provided its residents a trip to Alan and Yvonne DeVoe's farm south of Twin Grove. Yvonne suggested the trip as an extra activity for Aster residents, which includes her mother Lucille Thommen, Krahenbuhl said.
The DeVoes and a host of youths served the visitors lunch before taking them on a tour of the farm, where the peacocks, baby chickens, guineas, goats, a pony, and a baby calf named Ollie greeted them.
The residents also got a tour through the milking parlor.
The DeVoe farm tour showed farming is a different type of business and lifestyle than it was 100 years ago.
Most of the visitors, now in their 80s and 90s, said they grew up on farms and went into farming as adults. Many were also cheesemakers.
"I can't believe farming like this," said Cleo Kundert, 90.
"It's a good life ... still," said Ron Edler, 79, whose children and grandchildren have followed his path into farming.
Edler milked about 60 cows on his farm near Browntown until the early 1970s when he said he "got tired of milking" and turned to raising beef cattle. In his younger years, Edler also worked on threshing machines, getting a bumpy ride while manning the straw blower chute. He fully retired in 1993.
Those farming days "are a thing of the past," Edler said.
"Little farms are going away, which is sad to see," Kundert said. Farmers used to work together, she noted.
"Women got together, too," added Ruth Kaster, 87, who grew up in Fayette.
Kundert agreed. When the men came together to help each other thresh, the women joined forces to cook big meals for the crew, she said.
As a child, one of Kundert's chores on her father's farm was herding the cattle along the road so they could eat grass in the ditches. She had to ride her pony to do that job. The job was a bit scary in the early spring, she said, because the cows got spooked easily and were excited about all the new grass to eat. They tended to run when first let out. But eventually, they learned the routine and settled down, she added.
Kundert and her husband farmed and made cheese near Hay Hollow Road in the Town of York. They started out making about four small Swiss wheels a day, with milk from about 16 farms. Their cheese co-op business eventually grew to include the milk from 50 farms.
"There was a cheesemaker every couple of miles," she added.
It was back in those days when she met Harrietta Paulson, whose father-in-law supplied milk to the Kunderts. Now nearing 97 years old, Paulson lived in the Village of New Glarus, where her husband worked for Pet Milk.
Margaret Kubly, 91, recalled her father, Alfred Galanzman, retired as a cheesemaker because of arthritis and went into dairy farming and growing crops to feed them north of Gratiot.
Those were the days when all the crops went into feeding the livestock, Elder said.
"And sometimes you had to buy more," he added.
Ruth Kaster's dad, Jim McDonald, raised cows, pigs and chickens.
"And we used to take a case of eggs to town (to sell in Darlington) to buy groceries," she said.