My grandfather was in Nebraska when the dust bowl hit and the family lost the farm. He said the ground cracked from being dry so bad that he was afraid the horses would break a leg in the crevasses.

He briefly worked on a WPA project building roads. He got a dollar a day and an extra dollar a day because he had a mule that he worked on the project. He was in his early 20's and heard through his church that there was work in NJ. He road his motorcycle to NJ. Said the motorcycle was too big for him and he fell off at every stop street. Fortunately there weren't may stop streets between Nebraska and NJ. He sent a letter home to let the family know there was work available and my great grandfather and the rest of the family followe
When he got here he rented some farm land and worked it with a team of horses. He said that most of the farmers had a tractor. Farming with horses was a thing of the past but he didn't have the money for tractor.

He got married, built a house, bought a farm, had 5 sons, was a deacon in our church, taught me how to sharpen a saw, and took me hunting every deer season since I was 10. A few times, when I was little, he and I walked to church service through the woods instead of driving. It was an adventure and felt like 100 miles of wilderness. I now know that there are about 3 miles of woods between his farm and our church.

He passed away 18 years ago.

My dad was born in 1909 and started farming on his own in 1932. Broke horses to harness, to do his farming.

I asked him once about having good broke horses, and he said he never had 'good broke horses'.

What? I said, I thought you were a 'horse breaker'. He said he was, when he got them broke good, he sold them and started over.

I asked why he didn't keep the good broke teams, and he said "Ya can't make money that way."

Any time I mentioned 'upgrading' to 'more efficient' equipment, he said that takes money we didn't have, and the stuff we had took more work, but we had plenty of that.

He and Mom put 720 acres together with HARD WORK, and being frugal with what they had.

Dad passed away in 1990, and he is still getting smarter.


Charlie

I store all my potatoes and flower bulbs in sacks in the well every fall. I suspend them in sacks a few feet above the water surface. The humidity is just right, it’s cool, but nothing will ever freeze. I pull sacks of taters out the next June and the are still sprout free.

Maintenance Guy, would you know what part of Nebraska that was? My Dad talks about being in school during the dust bowl and they asked the teacher to light the lamps, but it didn't help any.

My Dad passed last November at the age of 92. He had a great long term memory but didn't know his children sitting beside him talking to him.
About 1934, Dad was 6 yrs old. That was during the Depression, and there was a bad drought at the time to boot. Apparently the wells were hand-dug and not very deep. There probly weren't any ponds and the creeks were dry.
Anyway, one of Dad's most vivid memories was the cows that had no water or grass. Some guys cut down trees so they could eat the leaves. Eventually the cows were shot and buried in a pit. 86 years later, Dad said he could still hear those cows bawling for water and food. The Govt paid a small amount for each animal. Folks today don't know what bad times are! Yet.

Great stories. My Dad caught a skunk and his Mother skinned it for him. That's love!
Back in those days when a man earned $1 a day, a great mink would bring $30.