A short History Part 8

In December of 1984 we moved to the Kolowitz farm north of New Auburn, After getting moved in, I immediately went across the road to see the farm. Tim and Judy Kolowitz milked 48 cows in a head-in Stanchion barn, They have 3 sons, Ray, Paul, and Tubber. After starting to take over the feeding responsibilities after school, I realized that since I was too small to push a full feed cart, I had to use wheelbarrows, so one per cow was enough haylage, and I could push the grain cart, if I didn't shovel it too full. Tim was a very hard worker, and Judy was a terrribly mean woman, she didn't care if I was her son or not, if they were getting beat, so was I, I was with them when they deserved it. Upon my first day of School, they gave me a bunch of skills tests, to decide where to place me, since my age meant 2nd grade. After testing, they place me in 4th grade for reading, math, and science. It may have been awkward as many of the 4th graders were bigger than me, But Ray kolowitz was in that class, and the teacher, Mrs. Anderson"who is now the principal of Bloomer High School", was and extraordinary person. She didn't treat me as a child, and pushed me to work harder than the other kids. I was very much impressed with the New Auburn School, The stressed Education, all parts of it, They were teaching us to read music in 2nd grade, and we spent 5 hours a week playing an instrument.
All the Kolowitz men now work for Skaw concrete in New Auburn, Ray is married to a nice girl from Chetek, Paul Married my friend Wendy, and Tubber is still single and mean as ever. Tim and Judy got divorced in 1988. One night in sept. of 85, as I was feeding, Tim got mad at a cow for kicking him, and while Judy laughed at him for getting kicked, Tim beat that cow to death, finishing it off with a pitchfork, Surprisingly enough, a nasty tornado touched down that night, and took the barn, the shed, and the roof and windows off the house. "lesson learned, be nice to cows, they have friends". When we started school again that fall, I was in third grade, with Mrs. Kramschuster, "She was a very nice lady, her husband was killed in a terrible hunting accident in 2001, and she still teaches." they put me in 5th grade reading, but still in 4th for science and math. Also in third grade, I set the school record for the 40 and 100 yard dash, Having an older brother has it's perks. It was odd working for the Kolowitz's as I never did any fieldwork for them, and I had been doing so much the previous 3 years.

In October of 1985 we moved to a house just north of Colfax, it was the heifer farm of Glen and Pam Paulus, they have 5 kids, Dawn, Grant, Beth, Kari, and Lisa. The Paulus' milked 65 cows in a head-in Tie stall barn. to be continued...