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The main diet of barn owls is mice, and when you read about the cats, you learned just how bad an infestation of mice could be.
The "wise old owl" is a myth, however. Owls are some of the dumbest animals around. But they're still kind of neat, because they can turn their heads almost all the way around. Now what other animal can do that?
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What is a baby owl called?
 Owlet
They have excellent night vision, which they need to hunt the mice that come out to eat every night.
But enough about owls. We're here to finish up our discussion about the family farm - a place where one family of farmers could grow everything they needed to eat and wear, and if they were lucky they might sell a bit of their extra produce to buy a trinket or two.
 
The farming couple, hard and strong, reaped the corn with horses.
Imagine a bustling family farm, with chickens strutting around everywhere, pecking at the ground - even out on the old dirt road that passes by the house. And imagine a horse pulling a plow, while a few cows and a calf are lazing up there on the pasture.
The pigs are in a sty attached to the side of the barn, and only mud and dirt are left for the floor, since they have eaten every shred of vegetation possible. There is, however, some food in the pig trough that they are avidly eating. A few sheep are in another field, grazing on the fresh grass, while two dogs are playing nearby with each other - yet they remain ever watchful of danger to the sheep.
 
The well - a milk can for the family and a trough for the livestock housed in the sturdy barn.
The cats are mostly sleeping on the bales of hay around the barn, while the kittens play and play and play. In the small pond down near the stream are the ducks and a large swan. One mother duck has a brood of seven ducklings, which keep her very busy.
A goat is tied on a leash to the clothes line. This way he can walk back and forth from pole to pole. But goats get in way too much trouble nibbling on every little thing, so the farmer keeps it from roaming the yard. And in a special pen is a large tom turkey, which the farmer is fattening up for the next big holiday.
The house was buried in the ground;
warm in the winter, cool in the summer.
The man and woman who manage the family farm and all their children, everyone has to work from sun to sun collecting eggs, milking cows, slopping the pigs, taking the cows and sheep out to pasture and bringing them back again. And the farmer and any boy big enough to handle the plow must plow the fields to plant the seed, and then continue to plow the fields to hold down the weeds during the hot summer months. They all have to put hay into the barn after it is cut so that the animals have plenty to eat during the long winter.
And then there is the family vegetable garden, planted and weeded by whoever was handy. Peas, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, and on and on. It is up to the wife to preserve as much garden produce as possible so that the family, like the farm animals, will have plenty of food through the winter, too. Potatoes, carrots, apples, turnips and such can be stored in a cellar and do well during the cold months, but tomatoes and peaches and peas and other such fruits and vegetables must be boiled for long hours in canning jars.
And then mechanization took over.
There are always fences that need repairing, and shingles that must be fixed to keep out the rain. And the older ladies will get a churn to turn the fresh milk into butter - a tough job. There is not much money to spend, but just about everything the family needs is right here on the farm.
Most family farm houses did not have running water inside, but the well with a hand pump beside the house provides them with crystal fresh and cold drinking water. And another deep well with a windmill on top pumps water to the ground level for all the animals. As the wind turns the big blades, water is slowly brought up from the well. (It's a lot better than throwing in a bucket and pulling it up one bucket at a time.)
The family farm became a well organized business.
And so on the family farm everybody goes to sleep each night weary from the hard day's labor. But it is also a life where the man and wife are king and queen of their domain, and all the kids are princes and princesses. They are all proud of their farm, and life is good.
New economics are causing
family farms to slowly fade away.
And now for the big test: Just click on the old barn above, and get ready to listen! See how many of the animals you can recognize, now that you have listened to them individually on the other farm pages.
Return to the Barn.
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