Farming on Thanksgiving Day

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by

Ruth Everhart

I know you’re anxious to hear which table game we played after Thanksgiving dinner. ?We were all debating the possibilities when Hannah jumped out of her chair and ran downstairs to fetch?The Farming Game.

This is a game we haven’t played in at least six years, maybe not since we moved to Virginia in 1999. ?It’s similar to?Monopoly, but based on a farming economy like that in Washington state. Each lap around the board is one year, and you progress from planting to harvest, etc. ?You roll the die to calculate your profit for harvesting every acre of hay, corn, wheat. ?You can buy more acres, plus equipment like a harvester, or tractor, and you get a little plastiform sticker to put on the board. ?You can also fruit trees, which are pink, and cows. ?We tend to buy the cows because they are black and white spotted. The big pay-off generally is the fruit, but if you get insects or frost, watch out! ?There are also “Farmers Fate” cards which represent various problems like droughts, the bank calling in loans, etc.

My husband bought me this game when we lived in central Illinois, and I served a church in a farming community. ?It’s a great game for teaching math skills, as there is a lot of computation. I remember that the first few times we played it, we decided we were all really gifted farmers, as we were all rolling in money. ?Then we realized that we were collecting our harvest checks, but had failed to calculate operating expenses! Oops! After that, we were not so much rolling in the money. ?You often owe the bank money after harvest, which is not much fun.

Comments

3 responses to “Farming on Thanksgiving Day”

  1. rutheverhart Avatar
    rutheverhart

    Thanks for the comments. Susan, what state was that dairy farm in? It sounds like precious memories. And Wayne, thanks for that comment about weather, that is a great corrective for me.

    Reply
  2. wayne Avatar
    wayne

    I think the game may have classroom implications,

    interesting last paragraph, maybe you learn to talk poor because one day of weather can make you so. But yes, gratitude for good times should be expressed.

    Reply
  3. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    Hi Ruth. My maternal grandparents ran a dairy farm. Am I showing my age by confessing that I can remember the work horses, Tom and Jerry? No tractors for my grandparents in the late 1950s. I also remember the outhouse, the wood-burning cookstove, searching for eggs in the henhouse and my grandmother wringing a chicken’s neck for that night’s dinner.

    By 1965 my grandfather had passed away and my grandmother was renting her pastures to neighboring farmers. The wood burning stove had been replaced with a new electric number, the outhouse had been knocked down and the henhouse was out of commission. But my grandmother kept a big, big garden for many years after that. I remember her homemade pickles, canned tomatoes and fresh summer squash. She passed in 1981.

    The land is still in the family, home now to a couple of my cousin’s horses. T he barn where the cows were milked could use some work. I always swing by the old farmhouse whenever I am visiting in the area.

    Reply

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