Uncle Disney
by Jack Schmid
Jack Schmid at 10 MonthsI was an only child and in 1939, my mother and I moved to Valley Farm out on 46 West of Boerne. It was one-fourth of a section or about 160 acres. We lived there with my Uncle Disney and my mother's parents.
The Farm House at Valley FarmThe Farm House at Valley FarmNo one knows anything about Uncle Disney, because 
The Farm House at Valley Farmhe pretty much never left the Farm except to drive me to school in bad weather. He did all the hard work. We had an old car and horse-drawn equipment and kept chickens and milk cows. There was no electricity, no refrigerator; only kerosene and wood cook stoves and a battery powered radio. We canned deer meat and vegetables and made sauerkraut, sausage and jerky.
Uncle Disney, left, and Uncle George with Six DeerUncle Disney, left, and Uncle George with Six DeerUncle Disney, left, and Uncle George with Six DeerUncle Disney and Uncle George with Six DeerUncle Disney taught me how to work. One of my jobs
Uncle Disney, left, and Uncle George with Six Deer was to harness the horses each morning. I also helped set trap lines for coons or any other animal that we could skin and sell the fur for some cash. We used #2 double spring traps. Uncle Disney always parked the car at the top of a hill and then pushed it and jumped in to get it started. Once he could not jump into it fast enough, and it rolled down the hill into the Smokehouse.
When I was five or six, I asked Uncle Disney where the Easter Rabbit went after Easter. He said that he went to other children's houses. Well, I figured if I could trap the Easter Rabbit, I could have colored eggs all year. Unbeknownst to anyone else, by using the vise in the shop to set a #2 trap, I put it out by the barn under the Easter egg nest and covered it up. The next morning at 5:30 a.m., I heard my Granddad yelling out by the barn. He had put his hand down to see what was there and gotten it caught in my trap. 
Grandpa and Grandma GrayHis hand swelled up so bad that he could not do his work for a while, so that was when I learned to milk our cows. I never believed in the Easter Rabbit, the Tooth Fair or Santa Claus after. I had to grow up. I also "grew up" the day Uncle Disney got dragged by the horses pulling seed planting equipment. I was the first to see what had happened. I heard the tongue snap, it scared the horses and they bolted, pulling and dragging Uncle Disney underneath the equipment. I yelled for Grandpa and mother, who were in the chicken house to come. My dog and I ran for the horses' heads. I managed to throw my arms around on the horses' necks and put my other hand on his bit. Granddad kept saying "Bite his ear. Bite his ear". And I did. We got them stopped, and I lost two baby teeth that day, too.
After that, Uncle Disney could never do all the hard work again. I became the hunter. I gathered buckets of dewberries and kept a garden. Looking back, life on the farm actually gave me a sense of security. I learned that I could survive. After my Dad came back, he, my mother and I moved off the farm. Later, Granddad sold the farm and moved into San Antonio.
Story drafted by Jan Wrede
