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Resourcefulness
by Joy Richter

During the late 1990s, while living at my in-law's farm, I had many occasions to observe my father-in-law, Marvin Richter, toil for hours, even in his advancing years. He would arrive from town (he and the family had moved to O'Neill in the 1960's, but they kept the farm) early in the morning to disc, plant, combine, work cattle, fix machinery, cut musk thistle, fix fence, bale hay, or any other chore that was necessary to keep the farm running and producing. After sliding out of his car, he'd step into the house to say a "Howdy-do" and briefly discuss what he had planned for the day. I would top off his coffee (he had a McDonald's breakfast McMuffin on the front seat of his car), and after a bit of mild arguing with my husband (the really loud stuff came later in the day), he'd be out the door and off to the task at hand.

Marvin purchased a secondhand combine, which had been manufactured in the 1940s, from a farmer in Ewing. I'll never forget the day I saw it come lumbering up the drive full bore at around three miles an hour. He claimed he had put the pedal to the metal and it had topped out at a breezy 13 mph on the highway between Ewing and the farm. I was positive that it wouldn't make it half way through the next harvest, but I was wrong.

One morning, I looked out the kitchen window to see him driving up the lane in his light blue, Chevy “LUV” pickup, the bed loaded with plastic trash cans and lids, stacked within each other. (My husband and I always enjoyed shouting, "Don't take your LUV to town!") Now, Marvin is a spontaneous sort of fellow...he'll come up with an idea and be ready to jump right on it. This morning, despite storage and equipment limitations, Marvin was going to fan some alfalfa seed — 130 acres of it, give or take an acre or two.

The previous fall, he had let his alfalfa crop go to seed, wind rowed it, and then combined the seed. He purchased an old fanning mill from an even older friend and was determined to separate the “seed from the chaff”. Various weed seeds needed to be removed — sand drop seed, foxtail, sunflower, and a bit of brome grass. This fanning mill had originated from between the 1920s and ‘30s, and Marvin had to craft and replace a few pieces so the mill would operate. Of course, this would not prove a difficult task for him, as he was not only a farmer, but also an excellent carpenter.

He set up shop in the “garage”, which had been built in the early 1900s by his father as the original home. After building the present house on the property, this building was converted into a two-car garage for the family's Model T Ford.

I don't pretend to understand how machinery works, but it appeared to me that Marvin would dump the alfalfa “horns” (and other weed seed) in the top of the mill, a belt would turn a wheel which shook a tray which had a screen on the bottom that separated the alfalfa seed from the chaff. The chaff would fly out of the chute and onto the ground, leaving the finished product — the minute alfalfa seed — ready to go into the plastic trash cans for storage. This clean seed, of course, could be sold for an enormous profit.

Marvin labored for two days until his project was completed, only stopping for a bite of lunch on our screened-in porch and a bit of a snooze (while sitting in a chair) afterwards. Then, as the afternoon turned to evening, and as Marvin's strength and energy played out, I would see him slowly walk to his pick-up and drive away into the sunset.

Marvin turned 86 years old this past October. He is the father of six children, 13 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and three more on the way, if my figures are correct. He's a West Nile Virus survivor, an “Energizer Bunny”, wonderful father-in-law, and avid fisherman. His current hobby is wine making. He still does some occasional farming and within the past couple of days, he assisted in moving cattle out of his pastures. With deer hunting season upon us, he'll most likely be out to get a deer also.

Joy Richter is also the author of two blogs: www.goodmorningmarysunshine.blogspot.com and www.freshairlife.blogspot.com. She can be reached at richter.joy@gmail.com

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