This is Home, Part 35 - Rabies, chute and scales, corn sheller

This is part 35 of my mother's book about her life, written in 2004.



Rabies

Daddy, Uncle Doc and Charley were helping a neighbor (Irwin Williams?) with his hogs one time, and a hog grabbed Daddy's thumb and chewed it. The hog tested positive for rabies. Everybody who handled them had to have a series of shots into their stomachs. The men at home lost weight and looked terrible. The shots were very hard on a person.

Chute and scales

Daddy and Uncle Doc had a built-in flat weight scale for animals and a loading chute in the barn lot. The neighbors drove the animals to our house when they sold them sometimes, since they didn't have the scales or chute.

Animals are bought at so much per pound after a visual check to determine age and health.

Corn sheller

Another thing that I liked was a corn sheller in the big barn. I used to watch Uncle Doc put ears of corn in it. Then he turned a handle. The corn poured into a bucket.

There was a room in the barn past the stalls and just off the manger. The room was lined with non-rusting metal to keep the mice away. It was quite a bit lower than the manger and pretty much filled with shelled corn. I played in it as though it was sand.