Some Observations from the Hill
by H H "Hub" Brown  

 Sometimes parents of a small child who wants a pet will be told, "Oh, he needs a small pony." Fritz Rudin, our son-in-law, says that is about the last thing he needs as most small ponies are wily and full of tricks. He said the small pony the three younger boys had to share was like that but as they got older and more experienced he soon cut out a lot of that. Hugo the pony that Bob and I had when we were little, had had quite a spell of inactivity and so seemed to be glad to be played with. I remember one afternoon we had gone to bring the cows in and Donald, our only cousin, who was visiting us on the farm. Some lumbermen, wh had been cutting logs had asked Dad if they could pasture their horses there that summer. So with our own horses out there, it made quite a herd of horses. Donald, who was always coming up with some new form of excitement, suggested that we each catch a horse and race to the barn. Hugo was the only one I could catch or climb on so I got him. The other boys finally each caught and climbed on a horse and then away we went for the barn. Hugo seemed to know what was up for he headed for the barn and though he was tiny compared to those big work horses he could really move his feet. We were first to the barn but then we all had to go back and get the cows.

 Fritz said that when he worked at Arthur Godfrey's ranch in Virginia, every morning if there had been a storm or a high wind, riders would be sent out to insect the fence lines, looking for fallen wild black berry limbs that might have fallen in the pastures. A lot of people, even people that keep animals that would eat leaves, don't know that any kind of cherry leaves, when wilted produce Prussic Acid which will kill an animal that eats them, quickly.

 The weather this summer makes me think of the year that we moved from Wyoming County to Susquehanna County. Dad said that he was able to get corn, oats, and potatoes planted but it rained so much he couldn't cultivate the corn and potatoes, had a bad time harvesting oats and didn't finish haying till September. I was only ten years old and didn't know what kind of a deal he had with the owner. I know we found that he was a very stingy man. He had two hen houses in different locations in the edges of the woods. It was quite a trip to gather eggs in the late afternoon. The hen houses were far apart and I never remember carrying any grain out to those hens. They were supposed to scratch around in the woods and find enough bugs, worms, and berries to live on and lay some eggs. That was a very frugal family. I remember Mom telling that the housewife offered her some brown beans. Told her they were the best beans she never had to put any salt pork in with them. Mom started looking them over and soon discovered the beans were full of weevils.

 When Dad's year was up there he hired out as a hired man on a farm right at the edge of Tunkhannock. Dad had a driving mare which he sold to this dairyman and they trained her for milkwagon horse.