Angry Birds Prototype

This little songster, happily preening in a tree nearby, displaying his ruffled feathers. As curious of me as I was of him.


My father, seen here preparing to do a little preening of his own, shared stories today that I'd never heard before. I love it when that happens. I hadn't realized he had been raised at the time when large families "farmed out" their kids in the Summer to other farmers who provided food and shelter in exchange for the labor the children provided. Dad shared stories of those years that began when he was around nine years old. He was the oldest child in his family, and he worked for various farmers in exchange for his keep. I loved hearing about how he would get up in the morning and lead a group of cows to good grazing pasture and stay with them during the day until he led them back. He loved turtles and collected many of them, bringing them home at the end of the day, and placing them in the cow's watering trough. He had gathered up to 30 of them, all sizes, until the cows no longer wanted to drink from the trough for all the turtles inside.

He shared that his overall experience being 'farmed out' was a good one. Then, with a chuckle, he told us that he did get in trouble for the turtles...