Speaker: A log house first. Interviewer: Did your father build the house? Speaker: Well I guess maybe, I don't remember that long, I guess maybe he did. Then we got building to it, the last I built myself.

house. Speaker: Yes. That's, ah- it's four years since I came back. Interviewer: So could you tell me a little bit about the- the house that you were born in? Speaker: No. The house- Interviewer: 'Cause this is a newer house, isn't it? Speaker: The house that I was born in was a log house and, ah, ah, the upstairs was not finished, there- there was a stairway but there was a large kitchen and two bedrooms off the kitchen. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Ah, then, ah, my grandmother came, ah, to live with us so there was not sufficient room and my father finished half of

Interviewer: Do you remember what your house was like, Mister-Milford, that you were brought up in? It would have been, ah, made of logs I guess, would it? Speaker: Um, well, ah, the house I was born in was a log house, yes.

her end of the house, it would be the same thing. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Did you- Speaker: No-- Interviewer: Ever move your stove in the summertime? Speaker: No, we- we uh- we never had a summer kitchen. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: We just had the one kitchen. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Did you ever live in a log house? Speaker: No. Interviewer: There were quite a number of log houses in this area though, were there? Speaker: Yes, yes, there were. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: There was quite a lot of them and I have been in a house- a log house, I mean, where people were living you-know?

the old house, the old- house was ah- was ah- was for the machine house, and- (recording seems to cut off, probably to deal with the dog) Interviewer: Yes, well you were telling me um, about the place where you kept all the tools and supplies. Speaker: Yes, and the old log house, we turned it into a machine house (clears throat) excuse me. We had the upstairs for um, oh, storing any particular good grain for seed for the next year in different box- big boxes, or bins.

Fiddle or-something, yeah. We just- we had an old log house, the first house my grandfather built. And Dad used it for an implement shed, and they'd cut the doors bigger. When they wanted to dance, the boys'd just come and move all the instruments out and we'd dance. The floor was wood you-know.

Now some o' their family were born in Toronto, I don't think they had any family before they come out here, and the rest of them were born up here. Well Mother had us all at home. Interviewer: Is that right, down here at the- Speaker: Down at a- in a log house, in the old log house, and when she would go into labour um Doctor-Rickabaugh was out at Sprucedale.

He didn't have his logs, so he came back and he sold off two farms, he kept the middle one, sold off two farms to pay his men. So uh, that was the story of the- of the clearing the land in the those days, he built a- a uh log house, which is still sitting there, I was in it about two, three years ago.

Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: So ah, sorry, so your dad built a second house? Speaker: Ah, yes. Tore one old log house down and we built a big frame house and that's the one that burnt. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: After it was sold. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: Yeah, we didn't own it when it burnt. Interviewer: Okay. How did it burn down? Speaker: Ah, it took fire about three-o-clock in the morning

looks like it could've been abandoned for thirty-years, forty-years, or, like I'm really interested in ah decaying, decrepit old buildings and places that are falling apart, ah, you-know, weird, old, ugly, macabre stuff, like- like pretty much if I could live in one of those huge log houses that was all creaky and wooden just 'cause nobody would live in it 'cause it was haunted or-something like that, I would totally live in it, 'cause it's a really old building and you don't get that kind of building anymore

It was just for the one year, one summer we went to this place called Holland-Landing outside of Cochrane, Ontario and ah we ah, we lived there for the summer in a- in a log house and it was the neatest place my father had a- a made. Well it- it ah, log house was there. Mister-Wellesley ha-- had provided that and ah so- but my dad made- there was no cupboards and he made cupboards. And the doors and the sides were made out of birchbark that he made made. They were really cool. I wish I had some pictures of them.

Speaker: There's still (inc)- it's all over that- that way now, Vimy-Ridge. The- this is a field over there and the museum. The museum's right up over in there. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And then we got this when we were clearing it and there's a log house and barn over there. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Yeah that's (inc)- that's part of the- that's part of that field too. This is my front yard here (laughs) the- when I had lots of flowers out there. Interviewer: Yeah that's a lot of flowers.

sI'll have to look at that- Speaker: Well- well that was- was his farm out in Essonville but they origin-- Interviewer: Yeah yeah, the very original one. Speaker: Ah, he explained it to me, they did and that was the road going by and then when they in, that was the log house there and that was the chicken pen and that was the- the barn and the horse stable and (laughs) whatever. But I took a picture of it later. There's nothing there but that was the-

See it was a--a log house to start with and they've added on two--two pieces. This is Harold's side of the family.

Speaker: Yeah and she was raised- born and raised up on the Comstock-hill at Eagle-Lake up at Sir Sam's. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And then they ah, they moved out of there when she married Grandpa-Murry, well then they moved down to Allsaw. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And the little l-- log house is still standing but the roof's off it. Interviewer: (Coughs) Oh dear (laughs). Speaker: But dad, ah, dad's (inc) was five brothers and grandpa-Blue he used to draw the mail from Blairhampton to Minden.

Speaker: When I was up there, I got thinking about blacksmithing. It's funny working in an iron mine, you'd think about blacksmithing. And I wanted to make my own country tools, like tools to work your garden- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: To work- to build your log house and-so-on you-know? Yeah, so- Interviewer: So this is- 'kay so we're looking from your blacksmith shop (inc)-

Do yeah- they- they should be out after a good heavy rain. If we get a good heavy rain, they should be out now. And where- we lived on the lake in a log house there. We- I used to walk around and get the morels.

Wife's been cooking supper for us so we better take that on too. Not everywhere we get to snack to eat but we- we get offered, we take it. So we goes to the house, walk into the house ain't a long piece to the house. Pretty nice log house, old old log house but it was a pretty nice one. And then the right-hand side going to the barn- or to the house, was a whole row of buildings along here

So he goes to the house and it's an old log house with a summer kitchen on the side wood, eh? Like another addition thing.

Yeah, we sh- m-- we built a new house when we were teaching so that we- there was here- the original log house that the pioneers built was here originally. And then somebody, I'm not sure who framed it over, made it look like a framehouse. But it had seen better days, so we tore it down and ah built this one in nineteen-seventy-two.