We went to Vermillion, South Dakota on Tuesday, to see “Big Poppa” O’Connor, Vivian and Nora’s great-grandfather. Again, the kids were troopers, handling the four hour drive in the heat. Thanks to Grandma Rosemarie who, for various reasons, had her own car and was able to bring back one of the kids on their own in our two-car convoy returning to Des Moines. It made for a quieter trip.
But the kids enjoyed themselves, especially when we took them up to the old homesteads, and saw the O’Connor family farms. One of them, wherein great-grandmother O’Connor grew up as a girl, has been expanded and modernized and features quite a fleet of tractors and big corn “bins”. They may be smaller than silos, but they can hold 54,000 bushels of husked and shelled corn. They echoed.
As you know, Erin and I signed the family up for a share of a garden farm and each week we head up to the farm to gather our vegetables. We did this so we could give the children an appreciation of where their food comes from. I think that’s worked, though I do think that until they saw their great-uncle Dan’s farm, they didn’t appreciate just how big farming can be.
More photos of their farm visit can be found here.
