Easter Lamb

Our last look at the Kline Creek Farm's lambs features a lone lamb in a warm corner, looking up at the camera and looking for all the world like the Easter lamb. Other views include a sheep nursing a lamb and a very tactile rope coiled and hanging on a post.

Closing the Pen

The sheep were active as the sun was headed for the horizon, and the attendant farmer was buttoning up the place for the night. One of the sheep posed for a photo while the house was shuttered.

Sheep Pen

The sheep and lambs were active, moving around in cold air to fight off the winter. The lambs enjoyed warming up in a small enclosure lit by a warm yellow heating lamp.

Farm Babies

At least 17 lambs have been born on Kline Creek Farm this season, and several of the babies are up an about inside and outside. The animated faces and soft gentle looks of the animals will make a visit more than worthwhile.

Ice!

Last winter I posted photos of ice harvesting at Kline Creek Farm. Although I did not go to the event this season, I knew it was completed and stopped by the ice house to check out the crop. Pretty cold but quite impressive to see.

Kline Creek

Just a few days ago, the sun was out and the temperature was rising, but the heavy snow cover from two weeks ago was still in full evidence. I headed out to Kline Creek Farm in search of some new babies who have been in the news.
Here we see two images along the path up to the farm, both centering on the bridge across Kline Creek. Look for the babies a day or so.

Winter Candids

Some shots of winter scenes, here showing an ice harvest at Kline Creek Farm in Winfield. Frozen fun!

Two More Images

Past one of the well-kept period farm buildings (the era of the 1890s preserved), I headed for the parking lot. Had to collect one more perfectly-colored tree in all its autumn glory. It was a great visit.

Fall Color at Kline Creek

At the Kline Creek Farm Corn Harvest I got some of my favorite fall color pictures of the year. Here we see the horse team returning to the cornfield after bringing in a load of corn and a shot of a perfectly decorated tree in front of the farm house.

Farmers

Today we see two more farmers, dressed in the style of the 1890s and assisting visitors to Kline Creek Farm for the annual Corn Harvest.

Kline Creek Corn Harvest

A sunny day in October brought me to the excellent Kline Creek Farm where folks were harvesting corn in the style of the 1890s. Quite a few people turned out to pull cobs of seed corn off the plants and load them into wagons for the farm animals. Others cut the stalks and stacked them into traditional signs of fall.

Our first two images are of a sad-fated cob that never made it to the wagon and one of the period-dressed farmers working the event.

Leaving Kline

Our final views of Kline Creek Farm as we head back to the parking lot, leaving behind the 1890s and jumping over 110 years into today's traffic. Kline Creek is a wonderful oasis in busy DuPage County.
Our next post will open a new topic.

Reflections in the Creek

Two more images of Kline Creek Farm, helping winter look great draped in pure white snow.

Love the Creek

All around the immediate homestead area at Kline Creek Farm is, naturally, a meandering creek. Walking the shortcut to the house and later walking back to to parking lot allows pictures of winter in all its beauty. Snow, bare trees, reflections from the creek. Some truly beautiful winterscapes.

The images reminded me of a poem I wrote back in the 1980s when I looked out at the peaceful vista of a snow-draped night. Until the plow -- a representative of my world, busy, hustling and bustling and headed for work -- destroyed the silence. Here it is:

MESSAGE OF THE SNOW

Identically unique peace crystals
Thunder noiselessly down
Draping gutters, towers, garages, flowers
Softening all harsh angles, smoothly blanketing all
Under a shawl, purely innocent white.
Final finishing flake tingles under
Soft glow of wintry light;
Twinkle of stars above refracts
Sprinkle of silent light in the snow.

Hush! Say nothing! Listen instead
To the depth of the syrupy silence;
Listen to the perfection of peace surrounding us

Listen
Until

Distant
Buzz
Angry
Bee
Chopping through
Scraping
Slamming
Straining
Carving the road
Engine roars
Lights flash
Red
White
Orange
Snow flies
Crunching into heaps
Slapping onto piles
Cars follow
Traffic whizzes
Surging past the
Crusty piles
Blackened sooty chunks
Garbage snow --
Ignored
In its
Cindered
Ugliness

Ice House

The horses wait with their patient attendant outside the Ice House, as the blocks are unloaded for storage. The small white house is dug out about five feet deep and lined with bales of straw for insulation. The tighter the blocks are packed, the better the insulation and the longer the ice lasts.
The Ice Harvest activitity at the Kline Creek Farm is another opportunity to get a real peek into history. In the next few posts, some additional images of the 1890s-era farmstead.

Walk Through the Woods

The cart was loaded, the reins were tugged, and the horses began the trek back along the path they had followed, the same one I had walked to the waterline. I had the images of the harvesting, cutting, chipping and loading and I wanted to head toward the Ice House to see the unloading and storage.
As I headed off the ice, Chris Gingrich of the DuPage County Forest Preserve suggested I could take a shortcut, avoiding the path of the horses and heading straight toward the homestead. Since I had boots on, how could I resist. The result was a set of excellent images of the house, the creek, the trees and the beauty of winter.
We reach the Ice House in the next post.

Off They Go

After a layer of ice fills the bed of the horse-drawn carriage, it is time for the ice to be hauled to the Ice House just a bit outside the kitchen door of the farm home. Based on weight alone, perhaps the team could handle another layer. But the tracks along the way have soft, muddy patches. Better not make it too hard on the farm animals.
Here we also see a youthful participant ready to organize the ice blocks as they are added to the collection. In the next post we will look at the scenic location of the farmhouse.

Lifting the Blocks

With the horse-drawn carriage safely up on solid ground, two rails are extended into the water. Once the block is gaffed over near to the rails, it is hooked and lifted with a rope in a block-and-tackle hookup. The rope runs up to near the wagon where simple manpower, a single man with the end of the rope around him and in his grasp, pulls backward until the ice is at the edge of the carriage.
Unhook the block, lower the rope by walking back, and slip the block into place with another gaff. Simple, safe, and effective. Beautiful to watch, as well!

Harvesters Waiting

At the time I arrived at the Kline Creek Ice Harvest, three or four people who were there to run the event were waiting rather quietly for folks to arrive. Only the one man braving the elements with summery shorts was present and ready to walk out on the ice and work. I was there, but my electronics -- the Nikon -- would prohibit any chance of contact with ice or snow, so I was not harvesting.
Within five minutes, though, a line of people had formed, waiting for a turn on the ice. Obviously, since the entire working area had been checkerboard scored, there was a limit on how many people would be on the ice at any time.
Sliding the blocks onto the horse cart will be seen in the next post.

Chip 'Em Out

Our previous post showed a man with a giant saw cutting the two sides of a square by sawing along the pre-scored lines. One side is open to the water, two sides are sawed, and the square is held in place by the fourth side which is scored and ready to go. Chip into the scoring with a long chisel a couple of times and the ice square floats loose. It is then pushed/pulled with a long gaff toward shore until it can be lifted and loaded.
Upcoming posts will show more of the floating and the loading.