Ah, some- my sister more- my other sister more or less had that. She was older- a wee bit older than me.

Sometimes they'd, like- they'd take it off wee bit soon and finish off in the house.

This was the family- but, ah, they had a homest-- ah, one over there down a wee bit. There's used to be a lilac tree then, ah, where that big spruce is that's- that- behind it.

Wee bit more entertaining when somebody made a- made a few b-- boo-boos.

And you wouldn't park it- a lawnmower in there hardly if you went down and seen what the car used to sit on, just little wee logs.

My father used to say, what- what was the sixth-grade- he- he had very little formal education but he did take Latin in public school here in Canada. He ah, he would say, "poor wee goosey" that's what he called me, "poor wee goosey," do you not see through that?

Speaker: And "wee tote" was a little child, eh. That's what I have on my license plate. My dad called us all "wee totes". (laughs) Interviewer: "wee totes", now that's a new one to me. Speaker: I-guess it's "wee tot", but I don't know. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: He called it "wee tote". "Come here, wee tote!" he'd say, and we'd get up on his knee, eh? Yeah. (laughs) Interviewer: And that's on your license plate. Speaker: That what I-- yeah, the kids give me that for- we all have one, the f-- four of us sisters. I'm Wee Tote Two, and Wee Tote One, and-so-on.

Well, he knew damn well that I'd cut my hand half off if I tried that. So- yeah I don't have many yards in Middleville we did. And we went all over the place cutting little wee places…

And they'd have a little wee garden and- and everything else grew up in hay. So my dad would go in there and cut the hay. And usually, you couldn't even use a team anymore. You'd have to cut it (inc). And I have been on the end of a (inc) lots of times cutting hay.

You coil it. You coil it into little- into little- into little wee mounds and let it dry. Like it has to dry- it has to dry first.

And he wouldn't pay any attention to me of-course. He thought I was just a kid and I would dream up or-something and he after a while, he said, "What the Sam-Hill what are you talking about?" I said, "The lake is gone!" It was only a puddle.

All old Timmy would ever say was "Suffering old bald-headed- what the Sam-Hill's wrong with you?"

Yeah, so we rolled out enough money there to choke a horse, the nut paid us off pretty good. So when we left there to go to this- the next guy, so I just curiously said to the guy, "Whereabouts do you live from here?" And he puts his hand out to the west, "Five miles." Shouldn't take long to go five miles, you wouldn't think.

Oh no, oh no, not on a treadmill. There were just hitched to whiffletree and somebody had to drive them and that would pull the rope up.

And ah I put the other one on the whippletree and ah used it to take off the lifts of hay.

Interviewer: Now how would you train up a team? Speaker: ... (Laughs) Take quite a bit of time and patience. One pair, I started putting them- just driving them around with a harness on them. ... And then I'd put them on the whippletree and drive them around with a whippletree and a chain on it. And then as they got used to that, I'd ah put the two together and do the same thing, drive them around on the whipple-- double whippletrees. Interviewer: Now what's a whippletree? Speaker: Well it's what you hitch them to for drawing items. About that long with a hook on each end and as they got more used to it- I had hold on to the lines, of-course at the start 'til they're ready to go to the bush and ah skid logs with them. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Now how do you skid logs? Speaker: (Laughs) Well you put them in ah s-- whippletree and chain and drive them into the bush where the log was and hitch onto it with the chain onto it and then you pull it out with the horses into an open space.

They had fighters. And he come out over the farm where- and I was down at Dad's and I was plowing and I han-- unhooked the whippletrees off the plow 'cause the horses (laughs) he'd come over and come down you-know, (whistle) (inc). The (inc) lied down. And I expected one of these times when they come out, they're going to leave here (laughs).

And one other time, we were bringing- dad and uncle-Tom and I- we were bringing hay. We used to- cut the hay back on the back lot even though I- I don't think it was- I think it was just wild hay and we had a load of hay on and I was driving the team and dad and Tom were walking along behind and so we were coming down the hill at the sugar camp and one of the reigns came unfastened or broke off the horse's thing ...

And of-course I used them in haying too and eventually on the hayloader, with the lines hanging on the pin. And I'd build the loads and they would go themselves and come up to the end of a windrow and turn and get on the next windrow by themselves just talking to them.

Speaker: And when ah- of course in the winter there road went anywhere across the fields you see because it was no- no road. It was a r-- a winter road for teams ... Interviewer: Now you did talk about winter roads and summer roads. So what- the winter roads, how did they make them? Speaker: Oh you just drove the horses through. That froze then.