And ah, there was may people upset with me. So- but there was two people there that listened to what I was saying. One was Ron-Brown the reeve of Haliburton, and the other was Saint-Nesmurt, the reeve of ah Minden. And they got- we got busy, and got sewers. 'Cause you can't get financing without sewers.

Interviewer: What kind of dancing were they doing? Speaker: Well they do- they used to do three round dances and then a square dance or they'd have a waltz or a shaltice or a something-or-other and the local guys would play the violin and somebody would cord on the piano. Interviewer: Now I heard there's some pretty good fiddlers around here? Speaker: My dad fiddled.

Speaker: I'm never- I've never any good at the fox-trot though. Interviewer: (Laughs) Those are tough. (Laughs) Those round dances, you have to know how to do all this (inc). Speaker: Yeah, the- no good at the (inc). Of course we done so much square dancing and we didn't get that much chance to do that actually, to learn.

So after, about- right after that s-- sun-- Sunday parade with all the bands, I have me- put an ad in the paper, "Are there any Highlanders in Haliburton?" And come- "If there are, come to the Legion." ... Saint-Andrew's-Day (laughs), November the thirtieth. ... That was in nineteen-seventy.

Interviewer: You could play bagpipes? Speaker: Mm I've been playing them for about sixty years (laughs). ... Speaker 2: You started the pipe band in Haliburton. Speaker: There's a band in Haliburton and nineteen-forty I- on Saint-Andrew's-Day which is fairly appropriate day- ... I started teaching eleven people.

But you-know and like they were referred to- like you-know when you think about it, they would refer to somebody that passed, "Well he's wearing a sawed vest." So if somebody was passing on or they went to the- "Oh, well he's wearing a sawed vest." (Laughs) You-know, um, another expression is

Interviewer: He said he became a very proficient sawyer. Speaker: Ah, that's what they call somebody that runs a sawmill. Guy that runs the the carriage they call it on the sawmill, eh? They call him the sawyer.

And sometimes we'd be late for the bus and we're running down the road to get on the bus as you're waving your hand or your schoolbag (laughs) to get him to stop.

Yeah, there's a mixture of ah, scotch, Irish and English, you-know?

Interviewer: And what does thresh mean? Speaker: (inc) stick the- the gr-- the- the grain from the- from the stock. Interviewer: So that would all be in bails in the barn. Speaker: It would be in little (inc) or little ah sheafs, a sheaf, sheaves. And- and then- then they'd bring the machine in and they- when I first was a kid, they had um, ah steam engine to run it. And the steam engine was pulled by horses.

Interviewer: What did you do with hay? Speaker: Hay, you'd bail it. You put it in- in bails- Speaker 2: Rectangular. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Yeah. But ah, the sheaves were just ah- ah- ah sh-- sh-- stocks of grain. Interviewer: Did you have to do that by hand? Put them into sheaves and- Speaker: No, no th-- there was a- a binder. A s-- a machine called a binder that come in and it- it r--

... it cut it and brought it up on a- a canvas and laid it out and then the- the twine went around it and it tied it in a knot and- and then it kicked it out. Ah, you could get a sheaf catcher that would- k-- and you could drop s-- four, six at a time and then you stood them up in fours or sixes.

Interviewer: So stooking means to dry the hay or- Speaker: T-- to set it up, t-- stooking is to set it up ah ah a sheaf here and a sheaf there when there n-- together like maybe five.

Yeah and ah I have a picture there showing people with the shovels cleaning off a rink so we could skate. And then ah when the- we get out and play shinny when there was ah- ah there's still ice on the lake and if you didn't catch the puck, you might have to go- might have to wait ten minutes for somebody to go and get the puck

Oh yeah yeah. Yeah we played hockey. Played shinny on the lake.

Yeah so you got good legs in skating so I played hockey quite a bit. So ah I- I could skate a lot better than some of the rest because I played shinny so much.

Speaker: You skidded all them logs into the mill with the horses out. Pulled the lumber and out go the slabs to the horses. ... Interviewer: So what year would- when did the horses go out? Speaker: They're not out yet. ... but I wouldn't let anybody into my bush with a skidder. Speaker 2: They just destroy every tree. ... Speaker: No, you would never get into my bush with a skidder. Interviewer: So a skidder is what? Speaker: It's what they skid the logs with. Speaker 3: Piece of equipment usually they get chains on- ... Which rip and tear and roar and I've seen skidders, oh a number of years ago when we really had snow- ... And like the snow like four, five feet deep. And they're driving through it and pulling logs ... Speaker: They had a whole tree behind that log. ... They just brushed her off, stop, and skidded the whole thing out through the landing eh? Then they cut her up out there.

And I'd been with him when he went around in the wintertime and had all these horses in the bush for skidding and one would get loose in the barn and the- back in the bush in the stable they had. And they were all what they called sharp (inc) eh? Them shoes. And the other one would kick the other one in the arse and just tear him wide open.

Oh yeah, yeah we log in the winter. I cut seventy-five (inc) of wood and the lad that works for me drive my truck. He come and (inc) for me, just in the mornings he'd fill and then I'd skid them out and get them cut up and split and- our woods sheds are right full. ... The- Laringson's had two steam boats up on Dried-Lake and dad bought them off the bank for a hundred dollars and they skidded them over the land. ... And he would draw the logs from down here to Sawyer's and put them over scotch-damn down at (inc) Lake.

... he just talked to her like we're talking and the horse just- it was just like, you-know, if- the- the horse was skidding a log out of this thick swamp, tamarack swamp, he got snagged, you just stop him, back him up a little bit and go over and on you-know ...