[Magdalen] Old MacDonald had a farm....

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

I had a long phone chat with my Cousin Connie, who was raised with 
me essentially as a sister.  She is the widow of an ELCA pastor,  and
has four great sons, one of which, Andrew, is named after our  immigrant
grandfather/great grandfather, b. Trondheim, Norway 1870.
 
They live in a small rural village at the edge of the unglaciated  
"Driftless"
area of Wisconsin, and Andrew is a modern dairy farmer.  The  landscape
is indescribably beautiful.
 
Gone are the days when a decent living could be extracted from 40  acres
and 30 cows.  Connie allowed that Andrew was now milking over  2,000
Holsteins (Guernseys, Jerseys, and even Brown Swiss are a thing of  the
past).  This on about 3,000 acres.
 
We kids used to walk the mile daily to one 40 acre farm, the
Wicklund Farm near the lake cabin to pick up unpasteurized milk in  those
bottles with the bulbous top where the cream could separate.   Farmer
Wicklund had a rather nasal voice, and spoke with heavy accents of
the local "Falun Swedish brogue (think German brogue/Lawrence Welk)
 
Mother would scoop off the cream for cooking and for breakfast  cereal.
 
No one developed brucellosis or GI tuberculosis, fortunately.
 
Anyway, Wisconsin is dotted with the lovely red 40 acre small barns.  
Most of them have been bought, the farm house razed, and a modern
home built.  I would love to have such a barn in my back yard.
 
And it better be red with white trim.
 
 
David Strang - Feeling nostalgic today.