Fences

When Martha and Jacob Oye were farming south of Winner, South Dakota, they had cattle for milking and some cattle they raised for beef. So, we had fences. The cheapest fence to hold cattle in a large field was, and still is, barbed wire fences. The attached story will tell you about how many kinds of fence there were. They were always in need of repair. To repair a broken wire in a fence, you strung a new wire. You had to have the wire tight so it would not sag. Some farmers would pull the wire tight by wrapping it around a heavy stick and pulling, while some one else would staple the wire to a post.
Our Uncle Henry, Pa, and the older boys would all get involved in this process. On today's cattle ranches, a pick up truck with a winch on the back would pull the wires tight and some easy method would be used to attach the wire to the wood or steel post. If you don't know it, those barbs were sharp and long enough to get you. If you tried to crawl through a barbed wire fence, you did it carefully, and more often than not, you caught your clothes on a barb.
Fixing fences was just another part of life in the country 30 miles from town.
Good fences make good neighbors.



Christmas reminds us we are not alone. We are not unrelated atoms, jouncing and ricocheting amid aliens, but are part of something, which holds and sustains us.
As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family.
 
Norman & Marilyn

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