A Bald Eagle and A Barn.

  Just after crossing Plum Creek, of Little House on the Prairie fame, on highway 14, just west of Walnut Grove, MN. I saw a mature Bald Eagle feasting on a road killed deer. (How do I know it was mature you ask?  He acted mature. :) )   Spotting eagles is now rather common thanks to Rachel Carson, her book Silent Spring and the efforts of other conservationists.  The banning of DDT was an important step in bringing eagles back from possible extinction.
   DDT...as yes I remember.  Dad used it to spray flies in our old barn.  The barn was old by the time I was born.  Built by my grandfather, Lars, we used daily.  It was constructed with a hay mow in the middle, the floor of which was the ground.  On either side of the haw mow were sections, the south side for horses and the north for cattle.
   The south side had 6? (or 8?)double horse stalls and two singles. At the west end was an oats bin for feeding the horses. By the time I came along dad's herd of horses had been pared down to one team, Bill and Daisy. With only two horses the space was divided with a wall making about a one third two thirds division.  During blizzards the cattle that normally stayed outside were let into the larger side of the horse barn.
   The other side of was turned over to the chickens.  There was a small chicken coop attached to the south wall of the barn but using the horse barn gave them much better space.
   The north section of the barn was built for cattle.  Four stalls held the eight cows we milked...by hand.  There were stalls and pens for the calves that were pail fed and a separator room. The cream separator separated the cream from the mild via centrifugal force. We were quite proud of our electric separator made by International Harvester Co., because most of our neighbors had to crank the machine by hand.  We used the milk and sold most of the cream.
   In the summer flies were a scourge.   Dad had a pail of dry DDT that he would mix with water for his hand sprayer.  The sprayer had a round tank that held the spray and a round tube with a plunger similar to a bicycle tire pump.  Pump the plunger and a spray mist would emerge similar to an aerosol can today.  This kept the flies to a tolerable level.
   The DDT was a very fine grayish green powder with a very fine texture. I remember playing with my bare hands in the DDT powder because I liked the texture in fact, were you to hand me some now I think I'd still recognize the feel.  Not the best children's toy...but what did we know... and I did just have my 75th birthday!