Profile: Mr. Bordeniuk

Old Mr. and Mrs. Bordeniuk (John Sr. and Lena) lived down the street from my family, on the west side of our road. As you would head south on the road towards town, their place was about halfway down.

You knew when you went past the Bordeniuk place, it was unmistakeable. Mr. Bordeniuk had collected so many old pieces of equipment, trucks (and various other items too numerous to mention...) that grass, bushes, and even trees had begun growing amongst them. Into the side yards they stood or laid; peeking out of old outbuildings that themselves were leaning to one side or the other. The small wood, with tall old trees that had escaped being pulled down when the nearby field was originally worked, also had a few mechanical corpses within. An old barn, not far from the large garden outside their home's backdoor, was full of items poking out of open hayloft doors.

To my knowledge, only one item was in working order, an old tractor that Mr. Bordeniuk used to plow his two fields he still worked. One was directly north of their homestead; the other was northeast of that, right north of our woods. Both were small fields, but I witnessed Mr. Bordeniuk faithfully plow and plant them for many years. He planted by carrying a large sack of seed over his shoulder that lay against his side. He walked up and down the rows casting the seed by hand. My mother would say he probably lost as much as he grew to the crows.

His way would be considered antiquated and inefficient by today's standards, but I suppose it served his purposes, and I think he probably enjoyed doing it that way.