Oh, did we raise chickens! It was a major source of income for the Scheckel family on the Oak Grove Ridge farm in the heart of Crawford County…
“Nothing is better than agriculture, nothing richer, nothing sweeter, nothing more fitting for a free person.” Cicero 56 BC
The older I become the more I appreciate the little things about Christmas and cherish memories of Christmases past.
“It’s alright. Take your skates to school and walk to the rink from there. Dad or I will pick you up when it gets dark. That’s about 5:30 and …
Free shows were a blessing to the Scheckel kids growing up in the 1940s and 1950s on the farm outside of Seneca in the heart of Crawford Count…
My earliest recollection of a stone quarry is the one on the Hans Westlie farm about midway between Hardies Creek and Crystal Valley, at the t…
The Scheckel farm out on Oak Grove Ridge near Seneca in the heart of Crawford County saw REA string electric wires on poles in 1941. The house…
Life is measured by the passage of time and the season of deer hunting gives me plenty of moments to reflect on past memories.
In May of 1952, I graduated from high school and looked forward to the end of my formal education. I was 17 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy with…
Phillip, Lawrence, and Bob anxiously looked forward to the Crawford County Fair in Gays Mills. The fair was held in late August or early Septe…
There are wonderful surprises and discoveries on the farm. This is especially true in springtime when everything seems to be happening at once…
On September 14, 1814, at about 6 a.m., a lawyer/poet named Francis Scott Key would capture the scene before him in a poem titled “the Defense…
I am generally an optimistic fella who sees the H2O in the vessel as half-full most days.
In the middle of one of my ridgetop clearings stands a large shagbark hickory tree that’s nearly 100 feet tall.
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It’s apple harvest season with community festivals celebrating the fruit and many commercial orchards open for picking and family fun.
I’ve always been fascinated with bridges, ever since as a youngster our family drove across the Mackinac Bridge for the first time.
Why are the cardinals the last birds to leave the bird feeders at the end of the day?
“Which is better, one or two?”
I live near a phone.
They discovered the dried remains of a long-dead bird in a keepsake box.
It’s too hot, too humid, too rainy, too cramped.
No doubt many older folks are sometimes asked by their grandchildren what was their favorite fast food. Of course, the grandparents did not ha…
Continuing from last week, the Scheckel boys had plenty of wildlife all around them growing up. But every now and then there was still a surpr…
Wildlife on a farm? Yes, indeed. Not the exotic jungle animals of Africa or those of a zoo, but plenty of creatures to interest the nine Schec…
Cheap gas!
I was certain it was a trap to lure me out of hiding and bring me to justice for not turning in my slide rule.
I was skipping across the yard.
My Grandma Waller was born in 1886 on a farm in Dakota Territory. Her family spent the decade of the 1880s on this homesteaded farm where thre…