... majority of- of the people that are farming around here now, they don't farm full-time, they all have a secondary job. Ah a lot of the farms ah that people farm are people like me that wo-- that have a secondary- that work for a government organization or the hydro. A lot of people that work for the hydro, they have a farm on the side. And they're just- they're just doing it because they wanna do it. Not because they're getting rich, they just wanna do it.

I-- I'm going back to school actually in May just for- just two nights a week for two months just to get a course 'cause they want you to have this course for Toronto-Hydro, so hopefully after I get that, it'll work out. If not, I-guess I'll just keep trying. ... I'm going to school at nights, two nights a-week, so- ... Ah, just tr-- for the Hydro, so, trying to- do the Hydro thing, so-

... I borrowed money to buy the little truck that I'm driving and ah, we got home and the bank phoned me and- and the lady she says to me she says "you have a hundred-thousand dollar mortgage that you didn't tell me about" And I says "what? what are you talking about?" I says "I don't have a mortgage." While she says "you do! You ah-" I didn't- I guess I wasn't thinking about it but the mortgage that was on Jerry's farm was mine.

Yeah she's run it (inc). And they used to have like over like in this field, like kitty-corner to here um they had two diamonds or one because they- they didn't have enough and they- they used to paint like footsteps on the pavement- like walking with it- they called it the cow-patty-pen or-something Or no.

So Jake said, "well" he said "give me five dollars" and he said "this young lad here has to come and work for me for a week." So mom, she says to me, she says "well does that sound alright to you James?"

And I really enjoyed having John home. Like a lot of people are like, you-know, "Is he driving you insane" or-whatever, but no like, he- he was a better person being off and not working so much. 'Cause he's worked ever since he was a young lad eh and ah- and he- he needs to retire in- two or three years.

Interviewer: Like I heard like laneway instead of driveway for Burnt-River, which apparently like only like people in Burnt-River say that according to people who live there. Speaker: (Chuckles) Laneway? Yeah, I-gu-- I-guess now that, that might be a slang, but it was probably something I'd hear everyday so I wouldn't even know.

Interviewer: Is there any Burnt-River slang? Speaker: Um, well there's lane-way definitely. "I got to go park my tractor in the lane-way." Mm. Interviewer: That's a good one.

It's full of seniors now. But I-mean at least it- the- the- ah the village is busy. And of course Fenelon has the high-school, they have a legion, what else do they have? I'm not sure if the have girl-guides or boy-scouts, that I can't tell you. And I don't know what the legion has. ... I know the legion is there too.

Interviewer: What team did would you- did you used to be on? Speaker: Oh I never played for Lob-Ball for I was too far advanced then. See it's been going now for thirty years eh? Interviewer: So what did you do? Did you help out with? Speaker: Well I used to help a bit. I don't help out now.

I think it's next- yeah next weekend, not this weekend. Next weekend's the big lob-ball tournament so. Interviewer: I heard about that. Do you play? Speaker: Yup, so. Nope. I'll be making breakfast or helping make breakfast. Interviewer: Oh really? That'll be fun. Speaker: We do breakfast. The Fire-Department does the breakfast down here.

There used to be ah like quite a few things going every year. We used to have our home-coming in May. We used to have the lob-ball in the fall. Then we used to have New-Year's and Christmas down here- Christmas and New-Years down here.

... ah back about twenty years ago I well, actually it was probably longer than that, thirty years ago they started the Burnt-River lob-ball team, and we ended up putting in a family Gilmore-Plumbing Lob-Ball team and it was all our, my brother, sisters and brother-in-laws, Kate was the catcher, my sister was the second baseman, that-kind-of-stuff.

Speaker: The old- the old saying eh? The family that plays together, stays together so. Interviewer: Do you still do it? Speaker: No no, we- beca-- because of our age and-everything-else it got little dangerous to keep playing. But we- we did it for fifteen years. We played lob-ball you-know, off and on the personals would change pretty much but we ah, grew as a, you-know as a team and we had uniforms and ball-caps and that's when we first started wearing uniforms, actually yeah.

We used to play against other teams like the Mackenzie's which was a- a family name in the ah- in Burnt-River and the Handlys and-stuff-like-that. They'd all put their own teams together and we'd have the Gilmore-Plumbing team and- and ah, this lob-ball tournament's kind-of huge and- and there would actually be fifty or sixty teams come in from all over Ontario and play, and we'd actually have like three or four ball diamonds set up in the village, so wow.

Interviewer: That's pretty fun, does it still happen or? Speaker: Yeah actually, they're- I think they're coming up to their thirty-first or thirty-second year of the annual lob-ball. So that's been an annual thing and it's always Civic-Holiday-Weekend. So it used to be a- a huge ah weekend thing.

'Cause the ah, everybody used to congregate on the cement-step and basically visit and you-know, that was like the town-hall sort-of gathering sort-of place right? And ah, I recall it being around the week before the lob-ball weekend. So it was the last week in July and they were all just stocked to the brim getting ready for the big lob-ball weekend, with sixty teams coming in, so it's like a city in- in Burnt-River, believe it or not, with all the camping going on and the teams coming in and then this fire happened, and ah. Burnt right to the ground.

Speaker: So, in the summer like, every summer since probably I was sixteen we camped down there, 'cause it's just a big campsite so we've been camping down there and party down there and um- in Burnt-River they have a lob-ball tournament every year- I don't know if you know about it or not. Interviewer: A little bit. Speaker: Yeah, and it's pretty much th-- like, the town goes from probably like fifty people to five-thousand people just that- just that weekend.

peaker: Ah, he went in the water and then- I-don't-know if he a-- if- I think he went into the next day and he went to the doctor or the hospital or-something-like-that but, that- that's one of the classic stories from lob-ball. But, I- I-don't-know if I can- I can't really think of any right off the top my head- any other good ones but- Interviewer: Any other good Ryan stories? Speaker: Yeah, most of our stories revolve around Ryan 'cause he does all the stupid things.

I know- I know Brian he was Gene-Simmons. But I can't remember who I was, no. That actually- the last year at lob-ball- just made me think of another story. Mark was there, and ah Brian sh-- or no, I think it was Brian or Ryan shaved his eyebrows off, with ketchup actually. Ah, and then they put ketchup all on the top of his head and- ah, it was pretty bad.