Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

When I come here in the morning I milk cows or run a cream separator, or do all the things the men used to do, or might have done.

That’s not the typical way most of us start our days, but then, Ricky Weinheimer’s job isn’t typical. He manages the Sauer Beckmann Living History Farm in Stonewall, where he performs the daily chores of a typical turn of the [20th] century farmer.

Back then, folks worked hard, slept good. They didn’t have everything to distract them in life. They stayed put on the farm. And, they still had time on Sundays to visit with neighbors. And that’s something you don’t find much anymore—everybody’s too busy in this modern day world.

When Weinheimer leaves the historic farm, he continues his agricultural avocation at his family’s farm.

Actually I have the best of both worlds: a modern life of tractors and equipment we have; plus, once I step across the fence here, the clock gets turned back, and we farm with horses, turning plows, a machine called a garden hoe and push plow…and blacksmithing and everything else that goes along with it.

Rural life in Texas changed slowly, and many people still recall those simpler times—something that Weinheimer says is often lost on the very young.

Adults will come into our barn and they’ll just take a deep breath and they’ll say…’ahhh…smells good’. The children behind them are holding their noses.

Reconnect with your farming past at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm…it’s never too late…learn how at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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