PITCH FORK
Up until I had finished high School I used any fork that was handy, some were straight and would not hang good others were lopsided, So I bought my first and only pitchfork of my entire life. It was a beautiful fork with just the right curve a
nd balance to handle either loose hay or bundles. It was my pride and joy. Many is the load of hay that we loaded, that fork and I. And many of callus , yes and a few blisters that we experienced together. One time I was helping the neighbor put up hay a
nd the hay loader chain came off so I stuck the handle in to pry it back on causing a scar to be gauged in the handle. From that time on it was like a brand had been burnt into it. I could always pick out my fork from all others. That fork and I went thro
ugh a lot of work over the next fifteen to twenty years. In about 1950 we bought our first baler and the fork was partially retired being replaced with a baling hook. A few years later the grain binder was replaced by the combine so the
retirement of the fork was almost complete. For many years my dad insisted in doing all the raking on the farm and he would carry a fork along so as to straighten out the corners, He carried the fork hooked on the rake. One fall after the last hay was ha
rvested the rake was pushed back into a corner to pass the winter months. The fork was not noticed so it stayed out in the weather for the whole year. In the spring when it was discovered the handle had warped out of shape and
one of the tines was bent out of shape to the extent that the fork was no longer useable. It had lasted through several decades and its demise was like losing a member of the family.
Another tool that I purchased that first year out of High School was an axe. My dad and I had been cutting up tops on the Viebrock farm after the loggers had finished . There were no chain saws in those days so most of the small limbs und
er four inches were chopped off with an axe, and put on the buzz wood pile. I had been using an old blunt worn out axe that required several whacks to cut a limb off. The first day after buying the new axe I went to cut my first limb. a limb that would
have required several swings of the old axe. I came down hard and the axe went right through the limb and continued down in an arc hitting the top of my shoe. My rubber was sliced and the top of the toe of my shoe had a two inch cut but my sock was not to
uched. How lucky can you get. from that moment on I had a real respect for an axe.