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There are 4 siblings in our family. 7 years apart.

Raised on a dairy farm. A MYRIAD OF CHORES & ANIMALS....and ADVENTURES. Making ‘forts’ in the hay stack-—snowball fights-—”catch in summer until we cannot see the ball”.

Even the youngest one could spread ‘scratch’ for the chickens. OR gather eggs carefully.

We all had our chores-—based on age & strength. WE moved oats off the ‘elevator’ from one large bin into the further one with “tools built like rakes”, but built with solid boards. DUSTY work and hot in upper parts of a barn in summer.

We carried full 10 gallon milk cans from the barn to the milk house cooling tank.....at every milking....twice a day EVERY DAY.

We stacked hay bales on the wagon coming out of the baler, racing the weather to get the hay out of the fields.

We climbed into silos to throw down hay & corn silage. We added a scoop of grain on top of each serving of silage at each milking stall.

We shoveled manure out of the barn into a spreader, pulled by the tractor.

We shoveled snow in winter.

We fed cows-—sheep—7 boarded horses—pigs—chickens & broods of Labrador pups & wild barn cats.

ALL of our chores had to be done BEFORE WE HAD BREAKFAST & CHANGED CLOTHES to get onto the school bus to high school. We attended a ONE ROOM SCHOOL 1/2 mile from the farm earlier.

In summer, we gathered cows for evening milking & again-—every chore was done before WE ate supper & then did all of our homework.

WE learned that ALL those items HAD TO BE DONE & DONE CORRECTLY. NO getting a ‘day off”.

I would NOT trade any of that for ANYTHING kids have available to them today.

ALL 4 of us have been self employed-—running our own businesses...one with as high as 62 employees & I was self-employed—working alone.

We now are all retired—altho I get accounting questions all the time.

I actually feel somewhat sorry for today’s SNOWFLAKES.

When the SHTF, they are the first ones gone.