Our place

My father worked civil service and my mother was a stay

at home mom... Which was the norm for the 40's and 50's.

With just my brother and I.

Around back of the house there was a small yard and a

cement patio, which joined the back steps to the back

door.  We had chairs on the patio.. but no umbrella,

or cover.  It border the barn. When you left the patio,

and stepped down, to the direct right was a gate to

the horse area. A small place we let the horses out

in the winter, while we clean stalls. Unless the doors

were snow blocked. We also had two geese. The

meanest suckers you ever saw.  The male wasn't

too bad.. he was an odd one.. as he would sink

when in water. We had a 8 foot long water  tank there.

And when ever the male goose got in there, by

choice or not..(little brother) he sank and we would

have to rescue him.  Inside the barn was 4 stalls.

One on one side which shared the wall with the

feed room/ mini tack room and garage.  On the

other side was 3 stalls. Above was the loft for hay for

the winter.  I say for the winter, as we had a hay stack

outside for the rest of the year.  Of which we would

run across the roof of the barn and jump on the hay

stack and slide off.. Which of course, would take

hay with us.. and usually ended up a tail end whipping

for our fun. Starting out with a loose hay that we stacked

there. Our job, my brother and I... was to stomp it down

while Mom and Dad threw had on top. Later bales of hay.

Outside of this fence where the hay stack stood, was

all open. Which had a large ring that my mother would

practice for her shows.  She started out with 3 gaited

horse, dabbled in a 5 gaited horse, and then ended

up in the 50's with jumpers. Beyond that was the manure

pile. With a ramp. Which when I got old enough to clean

stalls was a wonderful exercise of running with a wheel

barrow full of manure, across the area to the ramp and

up.. You really had to have a good run by the time you

got to the ramp or you would die mid way up with the

wheel barrow going off the ramp and dumping the stuff.

Not a good thing.

more tomorrow...