Bringing in the Hay

Bringing in the Hay
By George Bordi as told to Mary Bordi

For two summers in the early 1940s I helped Joe Zanoni on his dairy in La Honda to bring in his hay. Joe was renting one of the ranches that make up what is now known as the Driscoll Ranch. At that time it was four different ranches. Going up Sears Ranch Road (past where La Honda elementary is now located) the first two ranches were owned by the Guerras, who were brothers I believe. The first of these was then rented by Manuel Alexander, who ran a dairy. I worked on the next ranch, rented by Joe Zanoni. The Zanoni family had once owned the third ranch that is further in (now sometimes called the Wool Ranch). Joe and his brothers and sisters had grown up there. But the family had sold it and the Fabers, who owned it as well as a commercial dairy in Palo Alto, grew hay and pastured their dry stock there. Joe Zanoni now farmed and ran a dairy on the second Guerra ranch. The other ranch that makes up what is now the Driscoll Ranch, near today’s Driscoll Event Center on Highway 84, was owned by Robbie Silva.

During the war, manpower was in short supply on ranch and farm. Up in the Alpine, where I live, my dad was farming the Bartley Ranch and we needed someone to bind and thresh our grain. Joe Zanoni had the equipment to do this but he also needed help to bring in the hay for his dairy cattle. So, as a trade off I went to work for him and he came up our way with his Model M tractor and equipment to thresh Pop's grain.

The dairy business was big in San Mateo county in those days. By milking 15 or 20 cows and shipping the cream in five and ten gallon cans for butter, a family could make enough to buy those things they couldn’t produce themselves. You’d bucket feed the calves and feed the excess skim milk to a few pigs. Some folks, like the Zanoni’s, milked 50 or more cows and made a real business of it.

It was natural to grow as much of your own feed as possible so they planted red oats for hay as well as for feed grain and seed for next year’s crop of hay. Most ranches around here had big redwood barns: a horse barn with stalls and room for their feed. A cow barn with stanchions for milking and an area for hay storage. Perhaps you'd also have a thick walled dairy house to process and store the cream if that wasn’t done in the barn. And a stoutly built granary to store the heavy sacks of barley for feed and the seed oats for your next crop of hay.

In the morning, before driving Pop’s Chevy pickup the eight miles to Zanoni’s in La Honda, I’d have to do the chores at home. This meant milking the cows and feeding the calves and pigs if no one else was available to do it.

When I arrived at work we took Joe’s Model A Ford flatbed truck to the fields to haul in the loose hay. The field had been mowed and the hay raked into windows and those pushed into shocks of hay. This allowed the hay to cure without becoming too dry. This country raised some of the best oat hay because we were far enough inland to escape a lot of the coastal fog yet the weather didn’t get too hot. Our hay was short and sweet because our rolling hills were not the fertile bottom land that produces tall, coarse hay.

Two of us would fork the hay from the shock to one man on the truck who would carefully place it so that the load did not slide off on the way to the barn. At the barn we pulled up to the center door. I was in charge of the team of horses that ran the Jackson fork. This fork ran on a trolly on a track in the peak of the roof of the barn. Two men would be inside the barn stacking the loose hay. Guided by a man on the ground, the Jackson fork would grab a load of loose hay from the truck. Then I’d urge the horses forward which would pull the forkful of hay up and lock it on the trolly and down the track it went. When it was in position over the stack, one of the men on inside the barn would yell, “Let her go!” and the one outside would pull the rope that tripped the release and the hay would fall from the fork. Then the fork was pulled back out to the truck and the process begun again.

At noon we’d break for lunch. Usually we’d have bread and salami and cheese, coffee and all the milk you could drink. Occasionally, if they’d done some butchering, we’d have meat. We’d never stop for more than and an hour and soon we’d be heading back to the field for another load of hay. We'd usually take another short break in the mid afternoon.

We’d quit around 5 PM because Zanoni’s had to get on with the evening milking and I had to get home to the Alpine do my evening feeding, and milking, too.

For two summers in the early 1940s I helped Joe Zanoni on his dairy in La Honda to bring in his hay. Joe was renting one of the ranches that make up what is now known as the Driscoll Ranch. At that time it was four different ranches. Going up Sears Ranch Road (past where La Honda elementary is now located) the first two ranches were owned by the Guerras, who were brothers I believe. The first of these was then rented by Manuel Alexander, who ran a dairy. I worked on the next ranch, rented by Joe Zanoni. The Zanoni family had once owned the third ranch that is further in (now sometimes called the Wool Ranch). Joe and his brothers and sisters had grown up there. But the family had sold it and the Fabers, who owned it as well as a commercial dairy in Palo Alto, grew hay and pastured their dry stock there. Joe Zanoni now farmed and ran a dairy on the second Guerra ranch. The other ranch that makes up what is now the Driscoll Ranch, near today’s Driscoll Event Center on Highway 84, was owned by Robbie Silva.

During the war, manpower was in short supply on ranch and farm. Up in the Alpine, where I live, my dad was farming the Bartley Ranch and we needed someone to bind and thresh our grain. Joe Zanoni had the equipment to do this but he also needed help to bring in the hay for his dairy cattle. So, as a trade off I went to work for him and he came up our way with his Model M tractor and equipment to thresh Pop's grain.

The dairy business was big in San Mateo county in those days. By milking 15 or 20 cows and shipping the cream in five and ten gallon cans for butter, a family could make enough to buy those things they couldn’t produce themselves. You’d bucket feed the calves and feed the excess skim milk to a few pigs. Some folks, like the Zanoni’s, milked 50 or more cows and made a real business of it.

It was natural to grow as much of your own feed as possible so they planted red oats for hay as well as for feed grain and seed for next year’s crop of hay. Most ranches around here had big redwood barns: a horse barn with stalls and room for their feed. A cow barn with stanchions for milking and an area for hay storage. Perhaps you'd also have a thick walled dairy house to process and store the cream if that wasn’t done in the barn. And a stoutly built granary to store the heavy sacks of barley for feed and the seed oats for your next crop of hay.

In the morning, before driving Pop’s Chevy pickup the eight miles to Zanoni’s in La Honda, I’d have to do the chores at home. This meant milking the cows and feeding the calves and pigs if no one else was available to do it.

When I arrived at work we took Joe’s Model A Ford flatbed truck to the fields to haul in the loose hay. The field had been mowed and the hay raked into windows and those pushed into shocks of hay. This allowed the hay to cure without becoming too dry. This country raised some of the best oat hay because we were far enough inland to escape a lot of the coastal fog yet the weather didn’t get too hot. Our hay was short and sweet because our rolling hills were not the fertile bottom land that produces tall, coarse hay.

Two of us would fork the hay from the shock to one man on the truck who would carefully place it so that the load did not slide off on the way to the barn. At the barn we pulled up to the center door. I was in charge of the team of horses that ran the Jackson fork. This fork ran on a trolly on a track in the peak of the roof of the barn. Two men would be inside the barn stacking the loose hay. Guided by a man on the ground, the Jackson fork would grab a load of loose hay from the truck. Then I’d urge the horses forward which would pull the forkful of hay up and lock it on the trolly and down the track it went. When it was in position over the stack, one of the men on inside the barn would yell, “Let her go!” and the one outside would pull the rope that tripped the release and the hay would fall from the fork. Then the fork was pulled back out to the truck and the process begun again.

At noon we’d break for lunch. Usually we’d have bread and salami and cheese, coffee and all the milk you could drink. Occasionally, if they’d done some butchering, we’d have meat. We’d never stop for more than and an hour and soon we’d be heading back to the field for another load of hay. We'd usually take another short break in the mid afternoon.

We’d quit around 5 PM because Zanoni’s had to get on with the evening milking and I had to get home to the Alpine do my evening feeding, and milking, too.

Comments

[Emil Louis Zanoni]

My name is Emil Zanoni.
Geo. Bordi and I went to Pescadero High School.
Joe Zanoni was my uncle. From the age of fifteen I would spent my summer working on the Ranch until I was drafted in World War 11.
When I returned from the Army I would help on Saturdays

[cheap mac makeup free shipping]

Dead indited content , regards for information .

[ZTKKtEez]

ZTKKtEez
[url=http://www.6ioB1x9y24igX1vE852NnM.com/]ZTKKtEez[/url]
ZTKKtEez http://www.6ioB1x9y24igX1vE852NnM.com/

[gucci outlet handbags]

Ying Yang Twins Fire Shots At French Montana Kanye West, NameDrop JayZ Diddy Audio The Beat Of The Street

[SCRAPEBOX]

Casa de ensueno erstellt von Fusion WG

[バーバリー]

This is the right blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic.You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa).You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years.Great stuff, just great!

[CHANEL OUTLET]

DHTML Mode

[インクカートリッジ リセッター]

インクポット 山梨は14割賦でその未遂と真のトライ文字列に運びます。 あなたがあなたのためにすることが可能となる独創性と創意のタイプを取得していることは、自分で保証する販売のため自分でadidasの靴を取得することを決定すると、鮮やかな色の宝石に混ざっ微妙な茶色の薄いストライプで構成されている最高の偽造へのトレーニングあなたの美的感覚に近い位置にまた夜間に感染できるように靴やブーツではテロやその他の組織犯罪に資金を供給することが知られている、バービーCに関するすべてのラッパー·スタイルの賛美者は、dell プリンタのブーツのすべてが行われるその後、すべての人々のために、どのように、あなたのスタイルで滞在することができますか？ DBE27C120BC21EDF803E176AC4C03F53 市場には多くのオプションが家庭内使用のみのために設計されており、同様に旅行しない。

[cxfvjhppsq]

acxfvjhppsq
cxfvjhppsq http://www.go9xk9s725ib0axt6670v2009abkz6l8s.org/
[url=http://www.go9xk9s725ib0axt6670v2009abkz6l8s.org/]ucxfvjhppsq[/url]

[Rachel Ostrowski]

My Great grandmother was Lillian Zanoni., She married Archie Woodhams, my great grandfather. Love seeing these stories! It brings me back. My Grandfather, Maurice "Bud" Woodhams loved telling me about the history of La Honda and our family connection to it all.