Chapter 158
10/25/2007
Olmsted Homestead
feeding the hogs
Continuing on with my new found hobby, videography (and perhaps short-lived, I really don't like taking movies), I was able to find a cheap $40 "Dazzle" input device where I can convert my Hi8 movie video tapes into computer files. I'm planning on a series of short stories figuring that the average attention span out there may be quite narrow. I'm starting with my more dramatic existing footage of Virgil neighbor, Pete Van Gorder, feeding the hogs. It has suddenly? dawned on me that Pete's farm had been the original Olmsted Homestead and that 5 maybe 6 generations have either actively worked or at least visited the property.
Grandpa Hayden here with a team of Percherons, I believe on the banks of Virgil Creek with his Dad, Philo's (then Pete) old house to camera left. From this spot they could store the potatoes in the cellar under the house. Dick Matson said they used the potato shovel under there. The dirt floor and laid up stone foundation kept them cool all year. They'd go down and grab the tatoes to eat at any time. A board with a knife sticking up would be used to halve or quarter the spuds with eyes to make seed potato. Looking up stream to our house (that Kathy sold, ending a tradition). The farmstead had been dairy, then chickens (30,000 or so), then finally hogs and now all gone and burned down like it never existed. I'm glad I documented at least a small piece of the history for our legacy and to share on the Internet.
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