Ok,Geo. I'll try and help out with the topic. I lived in a rural area. WE had a farm of 65 acres. ONly about 15 acres were cleared for hay fields, gardens and pasture land. We had 2-3 cows at a time--some pigs and chickens. A couple of times a cow dropped a bull and we would raise it for beef. When spring came it ws time for sowing seed for the hay fields and planting crops for the humans. If I remember correctly we would buy 100 pounds of seed potatoes. When May 30 came we cut up the seed potatoes and several of us would plant them. Then there was the usual veggies to plant. After that came the weeding---harvest time was busy because we would pick and my mother would can. AGt the back of our property we had a swamp where blueberries grew in abundance. We would go down several times and pick the berries and Mom would can them. One year she canned 88 quarts od blueberris. Many pies that year. We lived 5 miles outside town--there was a small general store about 2 miles away.Saturday nite Mom did the weekly shopping. I grew up in the 40'&50"s and from what I have heard on the list we would have been considered having a posh house because we had indoor plumbing.Because there were so many of us--9kids,Mom&Dad and my grandfather sleeping arrangements were cramped--some bunck beds--and my sister and I slept on an open porch. In winter time we would shake the snow off the sleeping bags--we also had soap stones that we heated in the oven and put in our beds to warm them up before getting in--they were good for keeping your feet warm. Should have put this earlier--Our earleist tractor was a Model T Ford which my brothers put together from other car parts.BY the time I was about 13 we had a regular John Deere which I drove along with my older sister. When your feet could reach the pedals you were aloud to drive. There was a lake a little ways from our house and when our chofres were done we could go swimming---In the winter we would play hockey. There were always sand lot games going on during the summer thru the fall--usually baseball or American football. Having 4 older brothers I played football and baseball. Hope this adds to the other information that you have. Jean USA "Geo." <[email protected]> wrote: Just a gentle reminder... We have had four submissions on this month's topic and very interesting they were too. If anyone else as any stories, anecdotes, descriptions of life, customs, etc. in a village, farm or rural area won't you please share them with us? They can relate to any era. Do you know anything of the places your Ag. Lab. or farmer ancestors lived? Did you live in a village or on a farm yourself? For all those folk who know nothing about village life, do you have any questions on the subject? Geo. . . "IS THE SUBJECT LINE STILL RELEVANT? If not, PLEASE change it." ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message