Another fun place to play was the apple barn {anytime but apple season}. There was a dummy with a head on a hinge that they used to take to the Grange fair every year. People would throw balls at it and try to win prizes. There was also something that was supposed to be a goat, it had bicycle handle bars for horns, we could get onto it and pretend to ride.

     In the same barn was a great place to play in the hot summer months, although we usually got sent away from there if we got caught. It was the place where they kept the ice, down in a pit covered with sawdust. It was lovely and cool on a hot day and surprisingly the ice kept very well under those conditions.

     Speaking about ice, one of the fun things to do on a hot day was make ice cream. One year Bud and Doc took the wheel off Grandpa's Model T and made a pulley that would turn the ice cream freezer. That year we had ice cream nearly every day. The freezer made a gallon at a time. There weren't many electric iceboxes in those days and the ones they had only had space for a couple of trays of ice cubes, nowhere to store ice cream. So making homemade was a big deal and it was so good, especially the dasher when it came out. But that was a favorite with everyone so that was hard to come by. My favorite was peach when they were in season but strawberry was good too and my mother's favorite was coffee. But plain vanilla hit the spot too.

     One day when Uncle Leon was driving along a busy route, but away from any houses or people, he came across a baby pig in the road. He stopped and picked it up and brought it to the farm. Ruthie made a regular pet of him. She led him around on a leash like a dog and he lived in a box on the side porch. The trouble was he grew up and then he turned mean. One day he chased Ruthie and I up on the porch and we were telling Toby {Ruthie's dog} to chase him away. Instead Toby hopped up on the dog house with us and as it wasn't very big, we did a lot of screaming and the pig was trying to get up there too. My father finally came out and chased him away.

     Every year in the spring Uncle Leon would get in the baby chicks. They were kept in a separate house under a round curtain in the middle of the coup that had an electric light under it to give them heat. They would huddle together under there but they would run around the outside of the curtain too. I could go into the coup if there was somebody with me and cuddle the baby chicks. It was the only time I ever held or even went near to the chickens as I was afraid of them when they got big. They always had a few Bantam chickens running around the dooryard and once Teddy chased me with one. I fell down and he put the chicken on me. Of course it flew off immediately but Teddy was not one of my favorite people for quite a while.