Well, they stooked it up. In stooks. Put about, ah, eight shea-- sheaves in- in a row.

When I was a boy working on the farm we cradled all the grain by hand, ah, the women- usually the women, ah, raked it up and tied it by hand and- into sheaves. Stook it up.

And the grain, we used to take the binder, cut it and put it into sheaves, stook it out in the field and then go along.

Speaker: Raises them up. Stooked up sheaves (inc). (laughs) Interviewer: These- you stooked the sheaves, that means- Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: That you put the (inc)- Speaker: Oh, I guess it was maybe twelve sheaves to a bundle, you-know. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: And then- Speaker: Eight or twelve. Interviewer: What- what is the bundle called then? Speaker: Well (inc) did you bundle them, put them (inc) up. I can't remember. I think we just bundled them up. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Cut the sheaves and put them in bunches. Stick them together. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And then you, ah- Interviewer: You said that you stook them, that- that one. Speaker: Yes. You stook them- Interviewer: That was the one that you- Speaker: That was after the- Interviewer: Did with the machine? Speaker: After the- the- the, ah- with the, ah, binder. Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: You stook them by putting them- Speaker: The binders would show- throw the sheaves out.

And then you come along and stook them.

Speaker: Which made a stook. Interviewer: Mm-hm. What was the idea of stooking the grain?

Well you -you have a binder and it goes around the field and ah it auto-- it binds the sheathes and takes them out as you go around and then you'd have to come around and- and pick the sheathes off the ground and stook them in- in ah against each other. So you may put so you put four, five, six stooks or- or sheathes in a stook and they go in rows around the field, I don't know if you've ever seen that problem not in your lifetime but-

Speaker: About the sheaves. So they're putting sheaves of grain on to the stook. Stook the grain, that's wheat. So the- the- building ah- Interviewer: So the stook is when they tie it round, is that right? Speaker: Mm-hm. Interviewer: When you stook it, you- it's when you wrap it with something.

when you're stooking you wouldn't be running all over the place. You'd have a windrow of sheaves and a windrow of sheaves and then you go out and you stook it all by hand and then go out and load it up and- but see th-- n-- no- nobody- nobody does that anymore.

So if you're ever doing it the way you should be doing it, when you got to the end of that pile when you go round and round and round the field, you'd have a row of sheaves here and a row of sheaves here and a row of sheaves here all into the centre and when you started to- to stook, you can start here and you stooked to the centre and then you can come back here and the you go back there and- and then you had them all in a row.

And when- when you're- then ah- and if you're watch what your doing when you're stooking, you can (inc) down the- the row of stooks so that you- you went down this way and the guy put them all on that side of the wagon and the guy on the wagon building, built a load like it was (inc) day before.

And then you got to run around there and stook all the grain.

It was stooked and ah, I was building the load and um, a groundhog was in a stook.

They- they w-- they would be sick or- or- or-whatever and once spring work came and ah, sometimes in the fall, grade seven and eight boys would be pulled out to- for thrashing or stooking grain or- or- or-whatever.

Speaker: And that's what they did. And then they got to come around and stook it, and then they'd pick it up with the wagon and take it in the barn and then thrashing machine would come in the winter. Interviewer: Now explain what stooking means. Speaker: Oh that put the sheaths up against each other like this and take the heads off the ground. Interviewer: And how many would be in one stook? Speaker: There was two kind of stook. They used to have the long stooks and they'd be two, two, two and two. And the stook would be about- it would have maybe ten sheaves in it. Five pairs. And then the round stooks you just had two and two and- 'bout maybe six or seven. And- and it was round then. The two in the middle kind of held it just to got going, yeah. But- but the other ones would dry better, the long ones would dry better.

Speaker 2: Dad stooked the grain. Speaker 1: Yeah, he had to stook it up into stooks so the f-- when it rains, the rain will fall off it so it doesn't get it all wet.

If you leave it on the ground, it gets mouldy and-that so- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: You have to stook it up into stooks so my dad did that and ah- and then I drove the- the-

Yeah. And then um, Donald and my dad I-guess would stook the bales, then you were- yeah you were hel-- still helping on the farm.

Absolutely, absolutely, the haying, the gathering wheat, tooking wheat as they called them, putting them up in- things-like-that.