1963 Florence prepares another wonderful dinner at the stove.
1963. Florence prepares dinner.
1963 Having dinner. Everyone is here except Jim who took the picture. Looks like we are eating one of our chickens, with salad, beans and looks like home baked bread. Milk from the barn.
1962 Time to eat.
1962. This time Jim joins in the picture.
1963. Leo and Wayne get ready for dinner. Note the ever present white can of cooking lard on the countertop.
1962 Mary preparing her food.
1962. Wayne chows down.
1963 Barb doing dishes. Florence always kept a clean kitchen. She loved African Violets which she kept on the sill. Note the aluminum drinking glasses.
1963 - Barbara returns from hauling food scraps to the scrap pit (no garbage disposal). Note the outhouse on the left as she walks under the clothes lines.
1963 - A rare complete family photo taken in the living room. Ralph was home from the army.
1963 - Leo enjoys a bowl of strawberries next to flowers from Mom's garden.
1963. Jim's Corvair convertable, Leo's Ford Fairlane, Wayne's Ford Falcon and Mom's Dodge 330.
1963 There were constant repairs. Here Dan is overhauling the Allis Chalmers "B" engine.
1963 Looking SE toward Eureka, it looks like potatoes, sweetcorn, melons, and field corn in the back.
1963. We often played football in the fall, usually during halftime of a Packers game. He Leo plans out a play that Barbara is studying, Mary remains skeptical.
1963. Leo is ready to hike the ball. Dan is ready to cream him. Leo is NOT intimidated. All good fun.
1963 - Mary catches a football during a Packers halftime.
1963. Winter sunset scene. The old hay mower sits idle along the fence line to the right of the silo, waiting for summer.
1962 - Mary sits on our John Deere Model B tractor, connected to the farm plow.
1963 July. Adam and boys dig out around the windmill well, with the intent to bury the pump to protect it from cold. Here they are preparing to drop the well pump.
1963. Dave toys with one of the many farm cats. In this case a kitten.
1963. Ralph and Leo watch TV when Ralph comes home from the army. Mom's sewing machine is in the back of the room.
1963. Florence and Adam at St. Mark's fall picnic. It was an annual event.
1963. Adam at the St. Marks fall Picnic.
1962. Uncle Jim runs one of the stands at St. Marks Picnic.
1963. Uncle Bernard Zelinske at St. Marks fall picnic. He was running a stand.
1963. Aunt Kathryn (Jim Z) and Audrey Zelinske at St. Marks fall Picnic.
1963. Dad's oldest brother John ( 1890-1972) at the St. Mark's Church Picnic / Fundraiser in Redgranite.
1963. Adam at the St. Marks fall Picnic. Here he to talking to Don Clark who married the daughter of his oldest brother (John).
1962 Dan at St. Marks Picnic
1963. The family spreads out to watch the new B&W tv, straight out of the box (on sofa). It was returned to the store. Back in the day when TV's were wooden furniture.
1963. Dave prepares to return a shot while Mary watches.
1963. Barbara playing badminton. Here she is about to make another kill shot.
1963. Mary playing baseball in the play yard.
1963 - David at home plate. A few years later that power pole was moved closer to the garage to get it out of the way.
1963. Mary prepares to catch a ball in the play yard.
1962 Adam works the field with his John Deere
1963. Mary sits on the John Deere Model "B" which had just been plowing.
1963. Ralph home from the army, and watches TV with Florence. It is Christmas time, as there is a nativity set on the living room cabinet.
1963. Ralph is watching our fancy B&W tv. TV's back then only received 3 channels, and stations went off the air at midnight if not sooner.
1963. The portrait of Ralph painted when he was in the Monastery, presented to Mom about 1959.
1962 Barb models a robe Ralph brought back from Turkey.
1963. Photographer Jim takes a selfie behind the house with the summer crops (mostly melons).
1963 Pre internet chess. Mary was the best player. Here she looks pretty confident.
1962. Barbara makes her move playing chess.
1963 - As the sun sets, Wayne, Dan and Leo and Joan go out to pick one last load of sweet corn.
1962 Wayne and Joan handle a load of sweet corn.
1963. Ralph walking into the kitchen.
1965. Winter scene.
1964. Sunrise during winter. Looking SE from in front of the house.
1963 David slides down the icy sidewalk.
1962 Trendsetter Mary slides down the sidewalk. Florence stitched two coats together for a warm winter coat. Note the variety of gloves and the fancy belt.
1964 Aug 10. After the funeral service to Adam, it was time to return to picking melons for delivery to the stores. Thoresens stayed to help.
1964 Aug 10. After the funeral service to Adam, it was time to return to picking melons for delivery to the stores. Thoresens stayed to help.
1964 Aug. The Thoresens were visiting.
1963 - Here David tries to set records for the high jump. He thought he was on the way to the Olympics. Note the old fishing cane pole had been taped many times where it broke.
1962. Dave doesn't share pictures with cats.
1962. Mary prepares to catch a football.
1962 David, Uncle John and Dan behind the garage.
1962 Dan, Dave and Uncle John (Dad's oldest brother) check out some silage storage.
1963. Here Dan and Dave talk to Uncle John Sobieski (Adam's oldest brother) who had served in WWI. Picture taken in garden behind the garage.
1962 Wayne taking a break.
1963. Florence enjoys a chat with friends at the ST. Mark's annual fall picnic in Redgranite.
1964 May. Florence, Walt, Steve, Dorothy, Bernard, and Jim at Steve's 80th.
1964. Steve's 80th birthday party (see farm video). He receives walkie talkies. Adam is next to Grandpa Steve.
1964 Ed Zelinske demonstrates Grandpa Steve's walkie talkie.
1964. May. Nora, Norm and Norm Jr. along with their two kids. Taken at Grandpa Steve's birthday party.
1964. The Thoresens enjoy some food at the farmhouse.
1964. Betty Zelinske, Norm Thoresen (jr) Bernard Zelinske and Betty (Walt) Zelinske chat after Steve's birthday party.
1964. Joyce Thoresen, Bob Thoresen and Joan Sobieski and Grandpa Steve's 80th birthday party.
1963. May. Walt inspecting tomato plants with Wayne.
1963. After Steve's brirthday party, Walt Z and Wayne check out Wayne's hot houses for starting tomato plants. Walt too was an avid gardener.
1963. Joan comes downstairs. Jim's suitcase indicates he is home (hence the photographs). The white device is a 1940's style Nesco 20 quart boiler oven and turkey cooker.
1963. Barbara tries on a robe from Turkey that Ralph brought back.
1963. Joan's peace and tranquility is interrupted by Jim when she was reading the paper inside the car.
1963. Joan reads while sitting on the kitchen floor.
1963. Joan irons in Mom's bedroom. David (visible in back) was playing in the back room.
1962 David and Dan wrestle on Mom's bed.
1963. Ralph and Joan enjoying a moment.
1963. Cattle walk to the barnyard coming from their pasture, walking past alfalfa and the garden SE of the garage. Picture is taken pointed toward Eureka.
1962. Florence proudly displays her silver set for her 25th Wedding Anniversary, May 1962.
1962. Jim proudly shows off his walleye he caught earlier at the Eureka dam.
1963. Dan fires up the "New Idea" corn picker and starts picking corn on the 20 acre "Lee" property, bought 5 years earlier.
1963 Winter - We had to break the ice in the tank so cattle can drink. Note barbed wire to keep them on their side. The dirt and concrete in the background are leftover from Adam building the new addition on the house in 1951, including a much bigger basement.
1962 Not a good time to be cattle in the barnyard.
1963. Adam check out the corn picking operation. Field was low and often conditions were muddy.
1964. Jim takes a picture of the corn picker doing it's thing.
1963. Dan feeding the cows. The tub in back is where the ground feed would fall when dumped from the feed bin upstairs.
1963. Can taking wagon back out the the hayfield. The front of the wagon had a sliding wall, pulled by two cables in the back. That brought the hay (or silage) to the back for unloading.
1963. Dan had the misfortune of repairing the barn roof whenever a storm would send these sheets of metal flying off the roof.
1963. Dan unloads chopped hay from upstairs in the barn. Hay was pushed down chutes on the north and south side of the barns, then spread out to the cattle.
1963. Dan always sprayed the sweetcorn to prevent corn worms to damaging the ears. Here he is backed up to the cow tank, his water supply for the barrel. The barrel in riding on the back of the tractor.
1963. Dan fires up the engine that drives the pump out in the wood. Visible are is the engine along with the pump, tank and thirsty cattle.
1964. Dan comes in from the field plowing to fill up the tractor with gas. The D15 tractor (still on the farm in 2021) was the workhorse tractor, and the gas tank was kept behind the narrow corncrib.
1963. For years, David hauled huge pails of fresh cool water equal to his body weight to the house for drinking and Kool-aid. The day I take a little dinky plastic bucket, Jim immortalizes forever with this picture.
1963. July. Adam and Leo prepare to drop the pump.
1963. Leo poses after taking a drink. At this time the pump had been lowered, and removing the hose to drink water was the only option.
1963. July. Adam and Leo prepare to drop the pump.
1963. Adam lowering the windmill pump.
1963. Leo leaves the chicken house next to the garage.
1963. Leo lifts the Case loader, so the next load can come in.
1963. Leo drives the tractor with a load of corn silage to blow up into the silo. After pulling up, the vertical chain drive is lower behind the wagon, and the silage is unloaded into the chain drive where it is transported into the blower, and up the pipe.
1962. Dad unloads straw from the wagon.
1963. Dad cleaning up after unloading a wagon of straw into the blower, sending it into to barn. Note tractor that drives the belt to the blower. Collapsed shed in the back the result of a bad storm that blew it over.
1963. Leo relaxes after going to church, reading the comics. In front of him is the old family pump bellows organ (stored upstairs in the shed).
1963. Here Leo unloads chopped hay down onto the Case blower where it is blown into the upper barn.
1963. Leo shovels the ear corn into the narrow corn crib. A man's job.
1963. Leo continues to fill the corn crib.
1963. Leo and Adam prepare to pull out the disc to work the fields.
1963. Leo waits for the green light from Adam.
1963. Leo pulls out the disc to head to the field. Adam walks behind.
1962. Adam walks from the garage to the shed. A 1954 Ford is parked in front of the garage.
1963. Wayne empties a milk bucket off a cow, and prepares to dump the milk into the strainer that sits on the milk can.
1962. Leo unloads hay from he south side of the barn to the manger below.
1963. Jim takes a selfie of the melon field behind the house. Direction of camera is nwn.
1963. Wayne processing chickens in the basement, on top of the freezer door. Getting ready to package and freeze.
1964. For the bigger (and newer) corn crib, we would rent an elevator to unload the corn into the crib. Later, Dan bought his own elevator.
1962 Equipment lined up on a rainy fall day.
1963. Leo enjoys a drink of fresh water while the wind does the work of pumping.
1963. Dan awaits by the truck for the others to show up.
1963. Leo getting ready to join Dan and Wayne driving into Berlin to play softball. Note the simple instrumentation of the Ford truck dashboard.
1964 Sept. Looking ESE towards Eureka.
1963. All loaded up. Dan, Dave, Wayne and Leo all head into Berlin to play softball. Dave watched. No seatbelts in the
1972. Dave drives the snowmobile over a mound of snow next to the barn.
1963. Our Christmas trees always went up, just before Christmas, in the front room.
1970. Jim Sobieski, Dan Sobieski, Leo Sobieski, David Sobieski, Barb Sobieski, Joan Sobieski, Mary Sobieski and Florence pose in front of the Christmas tree (It's there). On the cabinet in the background is a picture of the first Sobieski Grandchild Michael (from Ralph). Michael was born Nov, 1967.
1969. Christmas picture. Dave Estes, Dan, Leo, Wayne, Florence, Mary, Joan and Barb pose in front of the Christmas tree.
1963. David getting another pail of water for the house. 50 years later, a cousin on Facebook sees this picture and learns what happened to his cool leather jacket 50 years earlier.
1963 Dec. Mary sits at the kitchen table.