If I didn’t have deadlines, all this Round Barn work would be total fun and absorption and interest. But with the amount of material I have, that lopped over Vol. 2 into Vol. 3, now ditto into Vol. 4, I really have to get Vol. 4 out and finish up this project, especially since it’s been advertised as out last year. Just got a phone call from John Onken up in Madison, Wis., who publishes the Agri-Dairy Newsletter, and writes a column in another dairy publication, informing me that Farm Progress Day of 1961 was held on the Dougan farm and 160,000 people came, and how come I haven’t written about that? Did I know about that?! Well, of course, I’ve known, and I told him that Vol. 4 has three chapters, rich with pictures, on Farm Progress Days. Well, he wants to write about it NOW. And so we have had to send him pictures and other data, even though I tried to dissuade him til Book 4 was out. So, deadlines and I’m not getting any younger…

Here’s how old I was when I began this book:

Here I look now:

I’m heading to Nevada to put Book 4 together, with my “staff,” before this is my deadline:

Speaking of tombstones, my friends have come up with the epitaph to go on mine: “It’s around here somewhere.”