GRANDDADDY'S FARM
When we grandchildren came along, the old original house the Peppers once lived in was just a pile of rotted boards, but Grandmother showed me where it had been. Only a thicket of wild plums grew among the remains amid waist-high weeds. Granddaddy's barn, housing old Jack and Margaret, his two mules, was perhaps a hundred yards from the house, with outside stairs leading up to the hayloft. Most of my time was spent sitting on those stairs out of the way so, as Granddaddy said, I wouldn't get kicked by Margaret or Jack. I believe JW did get kicked, which is why they were more careful of me.
The government instituted many programs to help the people who had been devastated by the collapse of the economy following the stock market crash in 1929. One program of the Civilian Conservation Corps was building stock ponds for farmers and ranchers. A nice pond with spillway, the size of a small lake, and stocked with fish, was built for Granddaddy.
A dirt road ran beside Granddaddy's house. On the opposite side, a large orchard of pecan trees stood, and, even today in my mind's eye, I can see the acres upon acres of Drummondi phlox growing in wild profusion in sparkling colors under all the pecan trees. I've tried over the years to achieve the same effect by scattering packages of phlox seed, like wildflowers, without success.
In those days before lawnmowers were available, people kept their yards shorn of grass by hoeing, leaving a yard of hard-packed dirt over a period of time. Grass will not grow over hard-packed earth, a fact made known to me by my yardman, a professional lawn man who shaved the grass under the shrubs with his line trimmer, leaving the dirt packed down repeatedly by the mower wheels. Now several years later, the grass still doesn't grow under them, and probably won't until the ground is tilled. Grandmother kept her yard swept with a brush broom she made from limber dogwood branches. She would wrap and tie twine around the end, making a dandy broom.
Chickens and guinea fowl roamed freely around the yard. Guinea fowl, which we called guineas, make excellent watch birds; they really make an unusual racket when strangers come around. I've been told that geese serve the same purpose, and geese will also keep the grass "mowed." Goats will too but my grandparents didn't have goats.