“Wisdom begins in wonder.”

– Socrates, Ancient Athenian philosopher

“How many loads this time?”

“Three!” father yelled and I groaned. Three loads of grain to be crushed. That would be an all-afternoon job. Father was busy unrolling the huge flat belt that would power our ancient Case hammer mill – a device designed to grind grain into chop, a feed for livestock. The belt ran from the hammer mill to a large drive pulley on the side of our Cockshutt 35 tractor. Once the hammer mill was set up, Father carefully backed the loaded grain truck up to the old mill, fired up the old 35 and left me to scoop grain with a bucket into the mill’s hopper.

The mill howled like a demented beast – greedily devouring every...

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