At that time the grain was much longer then it is now, it was uh, I'd say five feet tall and uh, they'd cut the stubble maybe leave it about a foot and you'd put the sheaf together and- and stoop them, you had- you had stooped two make sure they were good and solid then you stick about six around that- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Which made a stook.

Dad I-don't-think ever grew corn. But Jimmy did, and he ah, just used a- he- well, he was in on a corn binder, and ah, then he'd ah, it was cut and in stoo-- a s-- um sheaves, and then he'd draw it in close to the buildings and draw in a stoop of corn a day for the cattle while it lasted.

Interviewer: Ah, after the um- the grain was ripe, and ready to cut, how was it cut? Speaker: With a binder, yeah. Interviewer: And what did it do? Speaker: It, ah, ah, cut the grain and then tied it with twine and it was in sheaves. Interviewer: Mm-hm, and what did you do with the sheaves? Speaker: Stooped them 'til they dried out well, and then we u-- they usually drew them in, stored them in the barn 'til the threshing mill came.

... and um, there was men on the straw, to tramp it and build it in the barn, or on a stack, if it was going to be stored- if there was too much and wouldn't fit in the barn, and then there was somebody to cut the bands on the sheaves, band cutters, and ah, then there was feeding the mill the sheaves, and ah, carrying the grain to the granary. And I think that covers most of them.

And my other uncle, Mother's brother, he was a way up forking the sheaves down above the mill, and he just jumped from there right down onto the mill, and the mill was still going; he might've been badly hurt.

Interviewer: That had as-- um sharp spiky pieces, what did you call that? Speaker: They had the- they had the- the shed fence, and they had the crab fence, and they had the snake fence. Now the snake fence was done with the rails go- well, you-see they'd- they'd go this way and then the next fence would go that way and then come this way, you-see?

A rail fence is we used to call them, but then there was the rail fence, they made them into the crab fence or the shed fence, or then there was another one they called the draper fence around here. How it got the name of Draper, because there was a Draper man that started to build it. And it went by the name of Draper-Fence. Yeah.

So Bobby-Moore, my son-in-law, he had about a thousand logs all skidded up in the bush, he had a man with them, all winter, all skidded up in the bush. And it was getting late in the spring, and they wanted to get it out to the field, and the man was coming with the moveable saw, do-you-see, to cut it into lumber in the spring.

... you either lifted or pushed the logs up skids to the places- and they were what they called corners, and on the corners, they'd match the logs in. ... I never- I never attended a loud rai-- I never attended a barn-raising.

Speaker: You-see they had to have skids, and it shoved the log up. Well you had to have three or four darn good men on them (inc). ... Interviewer: Isn't there a kind of a pole that you need? ... Speaker: Ah they call them a bowl. ... a long pole and a piece that way (inc) on the log. ... And they started up so far up the skid you-see, 'til they got that in. Then there was handles across it. And they shoved the head.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. What kinds of, ah, trees were they cutting? Speaker: I do all them sleepers- cedar sleepers that come here to, ah, their, ah, foundry, Finlay's-Foundry. Call them sleepers, they just knock the two sides off. They were about that thick when the two sides was- well then, the boss out there had a shingle-saw, and these log- these was all cut into shingles, these two sides. You didn't lose nothing, do-you-see? Interviewer: How- how did you c-- how did you saw them? Speaker: A saw. Interviewer: By hand? Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: Ah, two men, or one man? Speaker: You would cut them all the right length, do-you-see?

Mosquitoes, we had mosquitoes we had the creek behind the house- ... And uh, we- we never could eat supper without building what we ca-- when the- in the mosquito season, we always- my mother always built a smudge. Now a smudge was a pail with a whole lot of little chips from the wood-shed in it and you would uh, light a little fire in them and there'd be no flame to be seen but she would put that under the table, right in the centre under the table to keep the mosquitoes away. You couldn't eat supper at all in the summer kitchen without this smudge under the table and the smoke would- would come up from under the table but it didn't bother us at all we ate on- ... And uh, the mosquitoes were extremely bad. ... You couldn't sit out in the mosquito season at all.

Speaker: The old, old fences there, they're done. Interviewer: Mm-hm. What- what kinds did they have? Speaker: Well ah they had- some on split them up and made rails. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker 2: We made zig-zag. Speaker: And ah made these snake-fences. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And those rails today that we couldn't get anything for, are two dollars a piece. The people's buying them around these new places you-know, and-

Interviewer: That had as-- um sharp spiky pieces, what did you call that? Speaker: They had the- they had the- the shed fence, and they had the crab fence, and they had the snake fence. Now the snake fence was done with the rails go- well, you-see they'd- they'd go this way and then the next fence would go that way and then come this way, you-see? Interviewer: Zig-zag. Speaker: Yeah, zig-zag. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: That's what they called a snake fence.

Speaker: ... any place where there were a lot of rocks that they had in the fields that they had to uh, to tear off the rocks they put up stone fences and then from- from that they went to uh- to the log fences which some of them were called snake fences and uh- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Some were just straight logs and some were uh, other varieties. There are names for them but uh- Interviewer: Mm-hm and then later on they used to put uh, the posts in the ground.Speaker: That's right.

Usually she had shortbread, a french loaf always on hand. But you didn't snitch those things.

You could go to the cookie tin and get a cookie but you didn't snitch shortbread nor you didn't snitch french loaf.

Interviewer: Did I ask you if you ever heard the- the word snye? Speaker: Snine? Interviewer: Snye, snye. Speaker: Snye? Interviewer: Do you know what that is? Speaker: I've often heard the word said, but I couldn't tell you what was it for. Snye. Interviewer: Is that, ah, maybe a little, ah, arm of the- Speaker: Oh, in the river. Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Oh yes, that's what they called, like, a place where you go in, it's up there, where Finlay's has the cottages. Comes in and goes up in around this way, and then goes no place. Turns around. Is that what you mean? Interviewer: I'll, ah- I just won-- is that what you would call a snye? Speaker: A snye? Interviewer: Do you call that, ah- that little bit of the river there, is that what that kind of thing is? Speaker: Yes, that's a- I worked up there, built a wall eleven feet high on the side of that, for young Bert (inc). Interviewer: But you've heard people talk about the snye. Speaker: Yeah. Yes, but ah, they call other big things- ah, I think it's a dangerous place to get into, or-something, with a boat. Interviewer: Oh, I see. Ah, where- where did you hear this- people talk about it? Speaker: I couldn't tell you that. Interviewer: Was it up in Arnprior, or here? Speaker: I couldn't tell you that. I never went along this lake, up this along to Arnprior. See this here goes into- to Ottawa, down here at Arnprior.

And we'd draw big box- big loads of them home and pile them some place that you could just throw them in the stove, like boys if they ever make a fire (laughs).

Interviewer: No he lived ah further north than that. Speaker: Oh. ... Up in Campbell's-Bay or someplace?