And everybody had their own bloody deal with the- they had their ah, combine. And they had the baler. And some of them did custom work. But everybody worked more-or-less for themselves, and that's when the community kind-of didn't exist anymore.

So you had six tractors, four or five square balers and seven or eight wagons and lots of rakes, yeah.

He was in the lead with the tractor and the rake, I was behind him following with the round baler. All of a sudden, holy shit, tractor's heading off the road.

I was allowed to used it at about fifteen or sixteen ah, never did end up using a baler because it belonged to the neighbour and he always- he always drove his own machinery and my uncle always drove his own machinery and equipment. Um, they shared equipment, farmed a farm, um, my uncle would take his tractor and rake over and ah, start at the neighbours and then the neighbour would come along and bale it. But the next day they'd be at my uncles place, he'd have his tractor and rake going and the neighbour would have his tractor and baler baling my uncle's because they were sharing back and forth.

In nineteen fifty-something and another guy was starting out like I was. We bought a baler between us and they were too big.

I was always- and then when I got older, I drove the tractor on the baler. Um, he would cut the hay but I would bale.

And then I'd come home and then I would drive the tractor on the baler and the hay would come through the baler and make small bales.

In the summertime, I'd drive the baler and bring in the hay and help out with chores and-

So like we- like my father would own a baler with another farmer and they would split the cost and then the equipment would be shared, yup.

And they- there was tractors and- and combines and hay-balers and- and we all kind of worked up there.

Speaker: Ah it's just like a- you go and cut the hay down obviously and we'd put it in rows, rake it in rows with the machine so rakes it out, and then we have the baler, which- it's like a compactor, takes the hay and forms it and puts it in a ball and makes a square out of it, then puts two strings around it and ties it, and shoots it out the end. Then you grab that, put it and pile it. And we used to do that. You-know we'd make big stacks of hay. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: But now- but now we have the round balers so it's just take th-- well my uncles he cuts the hay and rakes it, then he goes with the round baler and makes these big round bales which I'm sure you've seen along the highway.

And I was born on Main-Street-East in Beaverton in an old frame house that had no electricity. Um, wasn't insulated. My step-father used to um put snow all ar-- bank snow around the house to keep the wind out.

But I'm probably the first generation that that was so because the generation before me was- that was part of the deal. You get in- you-know, you- you go on a booze-cruise or you bo-- go bar-hopping and ah, you-know, so ah, th-- s-- the safety part of life, I kind of grew up when people started paying attention to safety.

Speaker: She never hit me! It was the- the- s-- scolding and barging. Gets on your nerves. And you'd rather be- ah, well, you wouldn't be as feared if a man was coming with a knife to cut your throat, and you knew it. Interviewer: Scolding and w-- and what? Speaker: If someone was coming to cut your throat- Interviewer: Yeah. But you said she was scolding and- and what? Barging? Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: What- Speaker: Barging- they could hear her half a- a mile away from the school. Interviewer: What- what does that mean, barging? Speaker: Well, just t-- r-- m-- nothing. Calling you a whole lot of names or something. Interviewer: And you call that what? Ba-- barging? Speaker: Barraging, yes. Interviewer: Barging. I don't know, I've heard- Speaker: Shouting.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Um how did you make your butter? Speaker: We churned it. We had a barrel-churn, and ah we churned it.

Mm. I didn't- I didn't mind the other one. It was- it was work but it was kind of fun. The old barrel churn. It had a frame on there and a big barrel that held, I-don't-know, five, six, seven gallons I guess of milk and the- and a handle on it.

My mother baked bread and churned butter. I remember the barrel churn which went round and round and as a small child, I was scared of it.

Speaker: That's a batten. That's the batten of the horse. That's the w-- like the reach over the back. Interviewer: Oh I see. Speaker: Like they call that- they call that a batten, and this is a breast pad like you-see.

Speaker: Well that's cheating, I guess 'cause we swapped all our assignments. We still had to write the finals though. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: So you had to really bear down then (laughs).

Speaker: Yeah, some places they made them. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Just all round. Interviewer: Quite different. Um- Speaker: Brought them to a peak. Generally went and got a- a load of wild hay from the beaver meadow or somewhere. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: To put on the top because beaver hay turned the water much better than the other. Interviewer: Oh that's interesting. I wonder why that was. Speaker: I don't know. At that time, you-know, they, ah- they used to have these big beaver meadows that they had to cut with, ah, the scythe. You've seen them?