Eighty Acres (The Condord Library Series)

531 Pages·1992·1.1 MB·English

by  Ronald Jager

title: Eighty Acres : Elegy for a Family Farm
author: Jager, Ronald.
publisher: Beacon Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807070459
print isbn13: 9780807070451
ebook isbn13: 9780807070284
language: English
Farm life--Michigan--Missaukee County,
Missaukee County (Mich.)--Social life and
subject customs, Jager, Ronald--Childhood and
youth, Missaukee County (Mich.)--
Biography.
publication date: 1990
lcc: F572.M65J34 1990eb
ddc: 977.4/66/009734
Farm life--Michigan--Missaukee County,
Missaukee County (Mich.)--Social life and
subject:
customs, Jager, Ronald--Childhood and
youth, Missaukee County (Mich.)--
Biography.
Page i
Eighty Acres
Page ii
OTHER VOLUMES IN
THE CONCORD LIBRARY
SERIES EDITOR: JOHN ELDER
Tarka the Otter
Henry Williamson
The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre
Edwin Way Teale, editor
A Land
Jacquetta Hawkes
Page iii
Eighty Acres
Elegy for a Family Farm
Ronald Jager
With a Foreward by
Donald Hall
Page iv
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not available for
inclusion in the netLibrary eBook.
Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2800
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 1990 by Ronald Jager
Foreword © 1990 by Beacon Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
97 96 8 7 6 5
Text design by Christine Leonard Raquepaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jager, Ronald.
Eighty acres : elegy for a family farm / Ronald Jager.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8070-7044-0 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8070-7045-9 (paper)
1. Farm lifeMichiganMissaukee County. 2. Missaukee
County (Mich.)Social life and customs. 3. Jager, Ronald
Childhood and youth. 4. Missaukee County (Mich.)Biogra-
phy. I. Title. II. Title: 80 acres.
F572.M65J34 1990
977.4'66'009734dc20 90-52583
CIP

Page v
To the memory of
Jess Jager (19011987) and
Kate Schepers Jager (19021983)
And for my wife, Grace,
who first suggested it
and always encouraged it
and finally named it
Page vii
Contents
Foreword by Donald Hall ix
Preface xiii
1 1
Landscape for Figures
2 9
Following Furrows
3 19
Figures on a Landscape
4 29
Fragments from the Chevrolet Era
5 39
Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience
6 46
Enlarging the Family
7 54
Pollywogs and Apples
8 65
The Hoekzemas are Coming
9 73
Good-Bye to Cream of Wheat and All That
10 82
Dividing Turf and Multiplying Hobbies
11 95
McBain, the Smallest City
12 105
Life with Livestock
13 117
War News
14 131
Matters of Taste, Matters of Fact
15 142
In Pursuit of Huckleberry Pie
16 153
What We Know of the Sparrow and the Crow
17 162
And Don't Lick the Hoarfrost Off the Pump Handle
18 169
Boys' Best Friends
19 177
Handwork: The Prose and Poetry of It
20 189
Working with Horses: Hay and Harrow
21 200
The Long Arm of John Calvin
22 211
High School: Mainly Extracurricular
23 221
Potatoes by the Book
24 230