From shoveling manure – to shoveling ash

I was 15, and on the family farm near the Highland Lutheran Church in La Center.

I had been wrestling with sheep all morning – looked bad and smelled worse – so was in the bathtub, when there was this God-awful boom!

Then the house began to shake (was built in the 1880’s, so it didn’t take much!) and the bath water began to slosh. I flew out of the bathroom like ghosts were chasing me.

I somehow had it in my head that a war was starting, or perhaps one of my brothers had blown up the farm fuel tank.

Then came the ash. My folks didn’t want to let the critters out of the barn for a couple of days, fearful that breathing the ash would harm them.

So, us kids got “double shovel duty” – shoveling the ash as well as the poo from the barn.