Spring was exciting time of the year for every one, especially we children.  There was always anticipation for tomorrow.  Mama would set three or four hens, and in three weeks the little chicks would break through the shell, and there would be a yard full of the prettiest little downy chicks.  There would be a new colt, or new calf and tiny little pigs.  One morning Daddy came from the barn with the news we had fourteen little pigs. 

The whole bunch of us took off to the barn to see them.  Daddy said the old sow could not nurse but twelve pigs, so Mama brought two of them to the house and bottle fed them until they were big enough to eat.  They rebelled being put out in the barn lot, and every time one of us opened the yard gate they sneaked in.  Mama finally decided she would not turn the house into a pig pen, so she had to sell them, even though it brought a few tears, as she bid little Red and little Spot goodbye. 

One time when I was a small child, Daddy came in and said we had some little pigs.  Of course, I wanted to go see them even though there was a big snow, so Daddy wrapped his big overcoat around me and him, and carried me to see them. 

Spring of the year was not only and exciting time, it was a busy time.  Daddy started us to planting corn by the time we were knee high.  Sometimes we planted it too thick, so when it came up we would have to go down each row and thin it out.  Then we had to set out rows and rows of sweet potatoes and tomatoes.  It was all back breaking work, but Mama reminded us of how we would enjoy the fruits of our labor later on.  Store bought fruits and vegetables are just not as good as they are fresh off the vine.  Hard work out in the open air gave us a good appetite.

Another thing I enjoyed was butterflies.  The mud holes in the gravel road were literally covered with beautiful butterflies of all colors.  I also liked to watch the bees sip nectar from flowers.  They never seemed to rest, but were "Busy As a Bee" all day long.

Then I watched with delight the little wrens build their next under the eve of our front porch.  I counted the days till the little eggs hatched and I could watch the mother bring worms to feed the baby birds, that seemed to always be hungry.

As I said, spring was a busy time.  Amid the sweet smelling lilacs and honeysuckle and pretty red roses in the yard were lots of weeds that we had to pull so the grass could grow.  I surely did wish for a lawn mower that I could just push, and it would cut the weeds.  Mama was a good physiologist even though she had never had any kind of philology.  She would tell us to clean the yard up good, so people passing the road would think we had a pretty yard, and we would work real hard.  Each of us girls would dig a flower bed and plant zinnias or marigold seed, or four o'clocks.  We acquired a love of flowers from both our grandmothers, I guess.  They both took a lot of pride in their flowers.  In the spring time Mama spent her spare time in the garden.  She would hoe the tomatoes one day and the cabbage the next day.  We kids got the job of getting bugs off the cabbage and squash also the green beans.  So you see every one had a job.

House cleaning was a big job in those days.  In the house were two big beds and a cot.  Each with a big feather bed, and straw mattresses, and about three big quilts, and wool blankets, etc.  Every piece of the bed including the pillows were carried out in the yard to dust and air out.  Mama then scrubbed the big floor with hot soapy water, then rinsed it with clear water.  After the floor was dry late in evening, we brought everything back into the house.  The quilts to be stored in a big quilt box upstairs.  The blankets were later washed and stored.  Mama put pair of white curtains, made from flower sacks, over the one little window.  Windows made houses weak so they said.  At least it eliminated the job of washing windows.  Mama would scrub the kitchen floor with the suds left on wash day.  She would get a new oil cloth for the eating table, then put the old one on the side table.  We had a red checked table cloth for special company, like the preacher, on Uncle Orson who came only once a year.  He was special because he always brought us kids a big box of candy.

Another job that came in between spring and fall was blackberry picking and canning.  The berries were ripe the last of June and the first week of July, the hottest time of the year.  We would soak a string in coal oil and tie one around each ankle and each wrist to discourage chiggers.  I guess chiggers are the smallest insect there is, but they sure can bit.  They seem to thrive in berry patches.

One that that stands out in my memory ... Mama down in the lot near the house picking black berries and leaving me to take care of Gerald when he was a baby. I was eight years old then.  When he would get tired and sleepy, I would make him a sugar tit.  I would use a clean handkerchief, or maybe a piece of old sheet.  I made a mixture of crumbled biscuit, sugar, and butter and tied it up in the handkerchief then dipped it in warm water.  It was a good substitute, he thought so.  This knowledge has helped me in later life when I was baby sitting and the baby bottle got empty.