... there wasn't very many cars in Haliburton. Ah I can't even remember how many there were. ... Yes yes there might have been three or four that I know of. So that's what- we thought that was quite a little ways to town. So we didn't come to town that much. And when we did, my dad would just hook up the sleighs and the- and they horses and ah- we only had one horse- and that's- that's a good memory I have.

... this is late fall. This is after the maples have turned. So it's probably late October and it's probably up around nineteen-sixty so I would be about nine and- and when your a little ways up that side hill, there is the farm house, there's the barn, you could see all the way, one mile to Maple-Lake.

And then they'd keep pulling one boom throw the narrows and then the river drivers would keep shoving the logs through and then after a while they'd get this boom full out here and they'd take it back around and fetch that one up and then they'd have a boom full and then they'd hitch on to those alligator or steam-boat and take it down to- put it over Scotch-Dame.

They were big old steam-boats, alligators eh? And they had a mile of cable on them and you fetch them down on to these lakes here (inc).

That's a steam-tug called an alligator. And that's, ah, what they would do would- they would ah, drive the logs down the river part, they'd get to a lake, they'd boom them up and they'd tow them down the lake with this tug and this happened right up until the second war.

And the other one would kick the other one in the arse and just tear him wide open.

Speaker: No, we had to freeze. No, we froze (laughs). Interviewer: (Laughs) You must- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Remember freezing at the end- Speaker: We- Interviewer: Of the driveway. Speaker: Yeah yeah, it was awfully chilly. We'd s-- and we'd have- we'd always have other people we waited with so it was kind-of nice that way. But it was cold, very cold.

Well that, really, that's what it amounted to. And that's what our progress is (laughs). It- it's a- it's ah, unfortunate. It sounds- sounds awfully good, well you- everything is so much healthier in quotes. And ah- because it's government inspected and-all-that.

That usually was either the um the winter- or the spring kitchen or the whatever-it-is because the- sometimes it would be hotter they- they would cook in different parts of it because it would cooler to cook in certain parts. They'd have the back kitchen.

And all these women knitted sweaters and knitted scarves and knitted socks and- just constant click, click, click, click, you guess-- oh yeah, and, ah, blankets, ah, they- they always had, ah quilting bee, but I don't think they sent quilts to the army, but you couldn't buy a blanket, so I guess it was just for local use, I-don't-know. And then you see, everything was rationed, eh? Gasoline, all-that-stuff.

He couldn't ah keep it up. But he h-- always kept one cow pretty well you-know to the last- but he never milked it. It was just his own beef eh?

Speaker: My favourite is- actually, if they cook it properly is the bear. Interviewer: Euh! What's that taste like? Speaker: Oh it's absolutely delicious. It is um, more like a beef than-

And that- it's marginal land, um, th-- there's this guy now ah, Joel-Salatin who's sort of the rockstar of- of back- the back to the land movement and he's preaching the gospel of ah, grass-fed beef, rotating every night, every night

You're- you're going to- maybe what you're going to get is ah self- some su-- sustenance, you-know you can raise your own beef, but somebody or both- say in a couple, both people are going to work out part-time or one's going to have to be out full time...

Sh-- and my mother and the lady next door scared the bejeebers out of us because they hid and we were telling ghost stories and they snuck up on us and scared us and we thought the ghosts were there.

Speaker: But forestry is big time up here already wth Haliburton-Forest and U-of-T forestry program. They have like- like- they have accommodation and-everything up here.

They're beautiful like they got a flavour that you can't- then the kids in the spring would eat leaks and come to school and of course you stunk like blue blazes if you are leaks. Leaks are really really strong in the spring. They're beautiful like- but the kids would eat the leaks.

Well he put them on the- on ah cedars to fold on, the cord wouldn't be on a big boom and they'd put the cord wood through the same way. And they cord-wood was through to Haliburton and then in Haliburton there, he had an endless chain going out of the buc-- going out of the lake and that wet cord would do to come up and then you'd pile- pile it in the box car.

Speaker: Pushing the logs through. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Boom would keep tightening eh? And then you keep- be log go cross ways you had to keep shoving them through.

Speaker: Put that- winter's drive for three-hundred-and-fifty-dollars over and when they come to the narrows- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: They'd put the boom like this and bring the boom around and tie it there and tie it there- Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And then they'd keep pulling one boom throw the narrows and then the river drivers would keep shoving the logs through and then after a while they'd get this boom full out here and they'd take it back around and fetch that one up and then they'd have a boom full and then they'd hitch on to those alligator or steam-boat and take it down to- put it over Scotch-Dame.