Bonar's Rules
Bonar's Rules
Copyright 2007, Harris B. McKee
My father, T. Bonar McKee shared practical observations with me as I was growing up. Occasionally, I am still reminded of these and their source when I am carrying out some activity around our home such as preparing for a freeze warning or even for an early morning golf tee time. I’ve named the ones that I can remember, Bonar’s Rules. Also, within the limits of my memory, I’ve identified the instance in my childhood when a specific rule was shared.
1) The temperature will usually drop 10 degrees (from the ten o’clock news) until morning. Like the frost rule below, this typically requires that the night be clear. I’ve added the parenthetic phrase about the ten o’clock news because that was part of the family ritual. My father might fall asleep on the davenport after supper but he would always rouse to listen to the news on the radio at ten o’clock before going to bed for the night.
2) Drain a hose by elevating it from end to end not by blowing through it. Winter in Iowa was hostile on the farm.[1] Our water distribution system from our deep well in my earliest memories was solely through hoses laid above ground. We later had a limited underground piped system that carried water to the house and t the cow barn where there were freeze-proof hydrants. Even with the hydrants, there was still a need for some hoses. It was never too cold to use the hoses but if they were not drained immediately when the water was shut off, they would freeze; thawing required bundling them up and carrying them into the basement to thaw so they could be drained before being reused.
The rule on draining was promulgated in a conversation between Bonar and one of our hired men at a time when a hose to the calf tank at the south end of the cow barn needed draining. The hired man was a husky fellow who probably should have tried out with the bag pipers for he claimed that he could clear the hose just by blowing through it; my dad insisted without explanation that simple end-to-end elevation was more effective. It took only a few frozen hoses after his blowing to conclude that elevation was more effective. (I later recognized that blowing could fail when blow-by took place in a hose curve leaving water in the hose but allowing the air stream to flow past.)
3) Frost will be experienced on a clear still night if the temperature drops to 38 degrees or below. I took this on faith and observation for years and didn’t focus on the paradox of 38 degree frost and 32 degree water freezing until I was a Ph.D. mechanical engineer conducting heat transfer calculations for space craft at McDonnell Douglas. One day I realized very belatedly that frost was frozen water! How could this happen?
With my knowledge of radiation, natural convection heat transfer, and the 4 degree Kelvin temperature of deep space, I calculated the heat balance on a blade of grass positioned between the earth and deep space. Sure enough the calculated blade temperature was 32 degrees when the still air temperature was 38 degrees.
4) Frost will occur on the bottom land first. The phenomenon observed regularly in the fall between our farm and the Middle River bottom a mile away takes place primarily through massive but almost unnoticeable air movements as the heavier cold air slides into the lower elevations. It doesn’t take much breeze to break up this flow.
5) When you release a horse in the pasture, stand between the horse and the pasture, not between the horse and the gate. This interesting and helpful rule was based on the expectation that the horse would be so pleased to get to the pasture that it would wheel if facing the gate and literally “kick up its heels”. By allowing the horse to face the pasture the holder would avoid being kicked by those heels.
6) Don’t squirt milk into a cat’s mouth. Another practical suggestion based on the premise that should the cat get used to this practice, it might very well try to remind you and the cow to start squirting. Daddy didn’t think that the cow would respond well to the cat’s clawed reminder.
7) You can tell one’s energy level by watching them walk. Our hired man lived in a house across the road from our house and the barns. He could thus be observed returning to the barn yard after breakfast as he walked in from the road. A brisk walk was a good sign indicating an energetic disposition A slower walk suggested that the person might not be a very good worker. This probably has contributed to my own tendency to walk faster than many.
8) Remember that you are a McKee. This was mentioned often as a way of stressing appropriate behavior. McKees lived to a high standard and one did not want to let the family down in any endeavor!
Milk a cow on the right side, mount a horse from the left side. Not much to discuss here except that it pointed out the value of habit when dealing with the farm animals. Indeed, habits were important. Our barn was designed with stalls of slightly different lengths accommodating cows of different size. It was surprising how quickly they learned the specific place in the barn that was their stall.
[1] Our deep well was 340 feet deep and the water produced by the pump jack efficiently operated by a 1/3 hp electric motor was very hard. It wasn’t good drinking water but it was fine for live stock and if you were acclimated to it, it no longer caused loose bowels so we men folk drank it although we hauled drinking water for the house from a well with fine tasting water across the road.