Ranch Journal Update
Contrary to what we were told...
We were told, in the beginning, that it was impossible to inherit land as a clan, to hold on to it collectively and steward it as a family while keeping love in the center. That verbiage stirred not a little unrest in me. First off, I love and treasure my family and I will fight for cohesive resilient relationships. I also love the RW Ekstrom Ranch, the meaning and the memories it holds. We are all fighting for what matters. Love. Memories aren’t nothing either. They hold meaning and can give direction, cohesion and purpose and can be a kind of glue that holds together, because tearing a family apart for money and greed seems such a shame.
Leave it to us Ekstroms to be stubborn and contrary. We are transcending those negative words. We are determinedly working together and we are getting along! Connecting. Learning. Growing in Grace and love as we build, restore, plant and tend.
As we’ve applied many loving hands, begun to clean and organize the RW Ekstrom Ranch this past year I have had a renewed appreciation for connected family, for old things, for things that need repair, attention and love. Not just any old thing, but our things, us, and things that our precious family touched and used. Big hearts full of love and heavy things made out of hardwood and thick steel like the old stone blade sharpener grandpa used to sit behind, pictured below. That thing isn’t going anywhere soon and neither are we.
We have a lot in common with this place and it is more than shared grandparents. Talk about contrary (in a good way); sassy brittle buildings that refuse to fall down no matter how hard they lean, built by grandpa Roland and great grandpa John that hold family secrets, a few cuss words (I’m sure) and that can-do Ekstrom history in their walls. Tough. Pieces that should be in a land fill offer themselves up to us, like the horse drawn implements just sitting in the field…waiting. A banged up white and black enamel pitcher found inside of a rusty potbelly stove filled with sawdust and familial value that has seen better days. I’m certain my grandpa and grandma’s hands touched it daily. An ancient manure spreader used by grandpa. These are treasures. Could these pieces fit into our lifestyle today? I sure think they could, but they also fit into the Ekstrom museum. Who knows whether they will be needed in future generations or not. We are the current stewards and it is up to us to use our wisdom and knowledge as to what to keep and what to get rid of. I can see future generations looking over the same interesting pieces and wondering as we are; will these be useful one day?
I’ve learned a considerable amount over this past year about how quickly economic tides turn, about ranching and farming, about grandpa and uncle Ray’s farm equipment, hydraulics and engines, as I sip coffee and watch from the truck bed, my brothers and husband restore and repair discs, seeders and tractors.
I’ve learned more about herbs and plants of all kinds. Growing a useful garden, harnessing the power of this rich earth and the sacredness of a particular plot of land. These are all things our grandparents valued and it is starting to rub off the longer we walk this century old soil. They valued hard work and being self sufficient. They loved the out of doors, wildlife, holistic healing and a quiet lifestyle.
I’m learning to appreciate their values, the aroma of this living soil when it is stirred up, strong bodies, nutritious food grown by family hands and these colorful sturdy bovine of ours, a herd started by our grandfather and propagating still today. Rescue dogs that provide comfort and keep the critters away from our prized-gardens. And now half-grown chirping chickens, mooing cows and a wide variety of newly planted fruit trees (transplanted in honor of those that have gone on) swaying, waving above the barley field in the expanded orchard. All healthy, beneficial improvements.
Last year, sitting amongst piles of trash choking on the dust we’d converse about having picnics, chickens (our family loved their chickens), canning outside and having the outbuildings cleaned out so we could use them as grandpa intended and here we are a year later… after having ingested buckets of familial dust, adding chickens to a coop that was filled to the rafters with old (I mean old) aluminum cans and an entire library of burned nature encyclopedias (wish we could’a saved those) along with eons of accumulated dirt and dust that had to be shoveled and swept out the door.
Star thistle covered fields were run over with the disc, grandpa’s antiquated buck rake and planted using Uncle Ray’s repaired tractor and Grandpa’s simple seeder. Today, florescent greens are ripening and rippling in the spring breezes (no fertilizer used, just healthy soil). Beardless Barley just hanging out and being beautiful. The land is relieved I think. Feeling frisky, vital perhaps as we use it for that which our ancestors intended. To show the simple strength and beauty of healthy soil as it grows cultivated things after being left alone, wild for decades. We will gladly harvest our clean crop in due time. Grandpa’s growing herd will be so grateful for tasty healthy cud in the cold winter months.
We’ve enjoyed bending over grandpa’s rusty farm and garden implements. We wonder how old they are and imagine grandpa wrangling the beasts using brute strength and draft horses. They have moving parts these rusty metal things, but not nearly as many as the new equipment these days. There are no computers on grandpa’s ol Johnny Popper. We pull levers and push knobs trying to figure out what they were used for over seven decades ago. It’s like being nine again and crawling under and over daddy’s heavy equipment. I am pretty sure these ancient rusty dragons can be repaired as well as used as intended.
Tools and farm equipment that don’t rely on a computer, or even fuel, well…the kind you buy in a gas station anyway, hold value as do those minds and hands that hold the knowledge to make them work again (we have those people in our family). It may require some sort of energy be it human or animal, but that is a prize these days. Can we use things that don’t require a computer? I think we can. It is so fun digging these pieces out of the soil and seeing all the moving parts that are not electronically animated. Amazing designs these heavy beasts of equipment that tilled, spread and made farming easier than it was for my grandparents parents who traveled from Sweden and Norway to find a better life here in the United States. Most of these hand foraged pieces are quite steadfast. They may be showing the hand of time, but they still move and with a little repair, I think they can be used.
Chicken coops, both large and small await some repair. It is all so interesting to investigate and to wonder if these sheds were part of great grandpa’s design written about earlier in Hand Me Downs and Rust? I think they all may have his prints on them. This ranch, the RW Ekstrom ranch, is a family museum to quote my brother-in-law, Brad.
This is a century old living mausoleum to our ancestors and as we clear out the cobwebs and dust, unearth household and farm implements and equipment parts we are all a little unsure about what we should keep and what we should toss. It all seems a little sacred and to have served our family at some point. Just to hold and touch them imparts something of time and family history.
Grandpa, like his son, our Daddy had many dreams concerning horticulture, agriculture and husbandry. Perhaps these pieces may come in handy in the years to come as we dream a little ourselves. Who knows where this old world is headed. I’d welcome a simpler time. I really would. Less distraction, more connection to land and folks. I’m grateful for these ancient relics that sat silent all these decades waiting to perchance serve once again the same bloodline they once toiled for all those years ago. If our grandfather could use them, so can we.
We had such fun pulling the old manure spreader out of a wood pile the other day. The heavy metal wheels turned easily as though this antique had been waiting, begging for someone to move it, they turned as though rolling newly off the lot, but we know they’ve been still as a mouse for at least a handful of decades. Obviously it needs some repair, but we are excited to start that process and we may use this piece to spread fertilizer over our fields. Not the kind you purchase in bags, no, not that kind, but rather the kind that drops out of the backside of a cow. With shortages and the price of manufactured fertilizers these days that seems like a pretty smart move to me. The cows make it naturally and all we have to do is scoop it up and use it. Cost; manual labor.
We are working to become stronger in our seventy’s so we can continue improving Grandpa and Grandma’s prized place for generations to come. No gym, no equipment needed; work hard, pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, long walks and stretching…it is never too late.
We push forward to bring our visions to fruition; grandma and grandpa’s dream, that the ranch stay in the family, is coming true and we will do our best to make them proud. Will the old house get some kind of face lift? I think they would not only like that, I think they would love that. Will the barn be used as it was intended, as a barn instead of an owl house (this will be a huge undertaking)?
I can’t wait to write about this coming year and all the fun, work and improvements. Especially when we seventy year olds harvest our beardless barley, bale it, buck it and stack it into the barn (this could be a comedy).
We will tenderly move the old battle worn equipment to a more permanent place awaiting its turn to be repaired.
Tear down tired fences and construct new.
Dismantle and rebuke a gazillion decaying boards lying in disorderly wood piles between the chicken shed and the barn.
Dusty, sweaty and setting down for lunch ideas and designs begin to fly from nine brains if we are all together. Each personality offering insight and wisdom. It is sort of like feeling whole when your siblings and their spouses come together regularly and all our brains are firing. We think similarly. I couldn’t have imagined anything so wonderful as what we are experiencing with this land we’ve been gifted that pulls us together nearly every week with a bagged lunch and smiles that reach all the way to the top of our ancient walnut tree. There are so many happy dreams surfacing from our company. There is so much camaraderie, working together and healthy compromise going on and contrary to predictions, relationships are being built.
Excitement rises as we collectively design what will be our outdoor kitchen using mama’s old wood fired cook stove that is standing in the chicken shed decorated with an assortment of Ekstrom museum pieces; wooden duck decoys and grandmas spice tins. Once we get her cleaned off and set up again, we can put our produce up outside like mom and grandma.
We have a long table and an outdoor sink to go with our cook stove. This long table built of reclaimed lumber will be used for drawn out al fresco meals; conversation filled with meaning and lots of laughter. This simple build and usage of outdoor space is a point of connection, not just for the living, but we feel our cloud of witnesses that have gone on before cheering us on to return to simplicity, resoluteness and an appreciation for this particular land. These connections to our parents and our grandparents, each other and our uncles will, I think, live on forever. All we are doing is for our family, those coming after us and those that have gone before.
The Dream…that our children and theirs will stand on this rich soil our grandfather tilled, worked and raised a family on. That they will feel the gladness and the laughter, the good and the hard growing under their feet just as we have as we’ve tamed the wild, worked the soil, planted and rebuilt something lasting for them to carry on, dreaming all the while that they will all work together one day just as we are. That they will learn that love takes presidents. That they too will be contrary and stubborn and will work hard to keep love in the view finder and kick negativity off the property. That our families will sit down for long al fresco meals in the evening light and reminisce about their childhoods; that their laughter, tears and dreams will be planted in this ancient soil and rise over the Home Place just as ours do.
Until Next Time
Marmie Karen
Love it Karen! What a wonderful life!