Farmer Nyel
We are busy getting our ducks (or rather, in our case, our chickens and cat) in a row for the upcoming days and months that Nyel (and on some occasions, I) will be otherwise occupied. A complex surgery and a three-month period when Farmer Nyel will be immobilized take some planning ahead.
There are lawns to mow and chicken coops to clean, to say nothing of trash to recycle and various types of equipment to maintain – all those things that come within Nyel’s bailiwick in our marital division of labor. All the hard stuff. And, in some cases, the yucky stuff.
I can’t help but think of the letters written back and forth between Oysterville and elsewhere a century ago when, for various reasons my grandparents (Mama and Papa) had to make arrangements for absences from home. In November 1911, for instance, when they were both in Olympia awaiting the birth of my mother, the oldest child, Medora (who was 12), wrote:
Mr. Kistemaker has fixed the stalls in the barn across the street and put the colts and Dolly in there and he has the other horses in the big barn at the ranch. He gave the cows turnips.
Espy Ranch Foreman’s House
Mr. Kistemaker (who, years later, would become Bud Goulter’s grandfather) occasionally worked for Papa on his dairy farm, acting as foreman when Papa had to be gone for extended periods. As for duties connected with the household, Mama’s younger, unmarried sister often stayed with the children and took charge of domestic duties. Sometimes, grandmotherly Mrs. Matthews from Ocean Park was pressed into service. …it is a blessing to know that they are with dear Mrs. Matthews… Mama wrote on more than one occasion.
One of the most memorable employees ever – although, strictly speaking I have no memory of him as he was working for Papa before my time – was B.G. Gove, my friend Dan Gove’s great-grandfather. The one surviving letter from B.G. to Papa, written on November 12, 1925, begins:
Dear Frend, I have bin threating to write you for som time but when ever I have time I think that I probely feal more like it to morrow and when tomorrow comes I find som other excuse,,,
He goes on to discuss a petition for the Herd Law and in a P.S. speaks of Papa’s cranberries – the only reference anyplace to my grandfather having had a bog: Mrs. dye did not pick the C.Berries on your place so sent Iver up to scup them he got five boxes. Doo you know what kind they are they doant loock like any I have ever seen,.
Well, at least we don’t have cows or cranberries to deal with during the next few months. I am thankful that four chickens are the extent of our livestock!
I love that house and didn’t realize the connection to your family! Best of luck to farmer Nyel and his nurse!