Homesteading Today we are going to try to start settling the 160 acres that the government gave us, but we have heard that in the next county there is a tornado. So we are building the sod house as fast as we can. After the storm passed and we got the barn built I went to a near by town and got seed. Then went home and planted them. Then I helped my neighbor plant his crop. If you help your neighbor it makes you feel a lot better. Often your neighbor will help you too. Now it is harvest time and the weather is just right to have a tornado. So we are rushing to get the crop in. I have to go now I have to go help our neighbors with the harvest. Homesteading When we got in Kansas we had to build a house and a barn. Then we had to buy a windmill and the General Store. After that we had to buy crops to plant, harvest, and sell for money. One Saturday our Spring Wheat or we where about to harvest our Spring Wheat when all of the sudden a herd of cattle came and ate. So I went to check on the crops and only 20 acres where left and we planted 60 acres. After that I realized that we should go buy barbed wire for around the crops. On a Monday we just put up our new windmill and the next day a tornado came. The tornado blew down our new windmill and it ruined our barn. So we had to go ask our neighbors if they could help fix our windmill and our barn. They did help us and later we helped them. After all of this being a farmer in Kansas is a lot harder than I thought. The
Homestead I proved up the land a lot. Also I stayed on the property for 5 years. It is mine! I also bought the new Steam Tractor for $400.00. The new Kodak Camera only costs 25 dollars so I bought that too. I have had lots of problems also. The Locusts destroyed 2 of my crops for two years. The prairie fire destroyed the same amount. The tornado was no pretty site either. I hated the blizzard of 1887. It destroyed a lot of cattle. I faced all these problems too. The drought is good because we are getting 5,000 dollars for 2200 bushels. That means we are getting rich for our crop. The highest price for wheat I got was 6,894.06. That’s a lot of money. I love the drought. Homesteading My name is Hanna. I am 21 years old and married. My husband, John, and I are moving to Kansas because of the Homestead Act. We have two kids, Jp and Trinity. Jp is 1. Trinity is 4 days old. My husband has a cold. We will have a docter get him some types of cure well were on the way. My sister, Ann, is a doctor. She is going with us. On March 26,1886 we left West Virginia. We traveled a hard painful year. When we got there we will build a log cabin. It took us about 8 months. Our new neighbors helped us build the log cabin. All the neighbors help each other. We will build a rock fire pit to keep us warm at night. When we got there, my husband went out to find some wood for our log cabin. The first few nights we will sleep in our wagon, because it will take a while to build the log cabin. We are building a barn to start with, because it won’t take as long. That way we can maybe sleep in the barn. It's not easy homesteading. Homesteading We got our house the first day. After a few adjustments it looked good. I t cost a lot of money but after that it looked good. Three months after we bought the house we had a baby. We called him Bob. Every month we planted crops. They were hard to take care of but we did it. We bought a windmill and barbwire. We had a lot of tornadoes and fires. Then when that happen we lost some money. That is what it is like homesteading in Kansas. Homesteading We needed a better life and a paper said Go to Kansas! It’s the best new place to live. So we went to Kansas. We had $500.00 with us to use to buy stuff. The first thing we did is we started building a sod house and then a barn to keep the life stock in. We worked together with our neighbors. We bought a windmill to pump the water out of the ground. We planted some corn too. Life is starting out ok. Then there are the hard times. We had a prairie fire and It destroyed half of our crops. Then the day of the tornado came. It knocked our windmill down. It is really hard. We stayed there for five years now. The land is ours because during those five years we had to pay taxes. We have a lot of money. We’re getting rich. Life is good. |
Homesteading Michael, Richard, and I have tractors, barns, windmills, crops, a house, a barn, and a Kodak camera. We worked very hard to get where we are today. We had to sell to the town of Mcgrady. They pay $0.76 more than the town we live in. We have to plant crops every year to keep our funds from running dry. Richard, Michael, and I all migrated from Ireland because all of our potatoes died. We are doing very well in America, because we work together. Still there is a lot of work to do. We planted very many corn seeds one year and all of the locusts came and ate it. We had a very hard time that year. When we harvested our crops we only had twenty dollars. We got five hundred dollars for our crops. Other than that we didn’t have much else misfortune. We are successful farmers! Homesteading Two weeks ago we built our house and barn. Then we built a windmill. While they were building the windmill, we were doing the garden. We are so busy all the time. Then three days after we finished, a tornado hit. It knocked down the windmill and destroyed the barn. We had to repair every thing, but our neighbors helped. Two days after we had a baby. We named him JZ. The first word he said was destruction! One day after the cattle ran over all the crops. Then the next day we got barbwire! They never ran over the crops again. Having a farm is a lot of work.
Homesteading I am so glad we finally got a windmill. I had to hire a lot of workers to build it. Plus our animals keep breaking our fences then trampling our crops. So now we have to buy barbwire. We got it out of the general store catalog. We’ve got new furniture everywhere in our house. It really makes are house look better. I really hate locus. It’s this kind of bug that keeps killing our crops. We always have prairie fires. It makes our prairie look very dry and it kills the crops. There can be many problems, but my family and I have handled them all. My family and I now own land. We owe money to the bank because we borrowed to make improvements. It is so very peaceful out here. Kansas My family must have 160 acres of land and live there for 5 years before you can own the land. We don’t own any land yet but in a couple of years we will. We also have a windmill and a plow. Our windmill came in a box and we had to put it together ourselves. We have a baby boy and a baby girl. Their names are Kyle and Molly. Kyle is a year older than Molly. He is 2 and she is one. They have nice clothes and are very quiet. Our barn was destroyed by a tornado, but all of our livestock survived. We have 1 horse, 1cow, and 2 pigs. Our crops were also destroyed too so we had to re-plow and replant and also rebuild the barn. It was hard work but we managed to finish. We
Made It! Living in Kansas is totally different. You don’t really have any bills. Only like $30.00 a month. We are really enjoying Kansas. We plan to live here the rest of our lives. The crops here are really cheap. People will pay a lot of money for any type of crop. We normally plant winter and summer wheat. Winter wheat is worth more money. We have $17,000 some. We plan to get more. We had a sod house but now we have a bigger and better house. I can’t remember what it was called, but it is a lot bigger. We are having a lot of fun in Kansas. Homesteading: April 30, 1880 Yumi, Taylor, and I have been done with building our house and barn. We have been working very hard every day. Fir animals we have four horses and three pigs and two milking cows. Then we bought 160 acres to plant crops, and we have one windmill and one well.When we go to the store we buy winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, and corn. And while we are at the store we look in the catalog. In the catalog it has barb wire, windmills, tractors, and a Kodak camera. Sometimes we would go to the farmers bank to get a loan. Then we have to pay the money back to the bank. It is not easy being a farmer on the prairie. |