Interviewer: If you wanted a higher ah certificate you went to- Speaker: You had to go- yeah. You could go to Renfrew, to the model school, with just, um, well, it would be called grade-ten in high-school, now. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Speaker: We used to call it lower school. Interviewer: Mm-hm. What did you like most about school? Speaker: Mm. I liked, um, mathematics. (laughs) I didn't like spelling; I was a poor speller.

Newspaper once a week or maybe not at all because you have to go to Prospect. Walk to Prospect. Many a time I walked to Prospect. Them (inc), it's the old folks up about three miles to get the paper.

Speaker: You see, that was another use for the sheep, you see, to make the tallow candles. Interviewer: Mm-hm. And you'd make your own? Speaker: Oh yes. I could- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Many is the time that I helped, ah, to make candles in the wintertime. Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: A dozen at a time. Set them out in the cold. When they got chilled well bring them into the heat and as soon as the tin wear got a little warm you could pull the candles ...

Speaker: They get- they get to know you a little in a decent byre, though. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Yeah. Speaker: Many is the time I worked with, a people milked out in the byre- out of the byre and then out at the barnyard we called it. And these- (inc) is still there.

Speaker: I've often heard that word and nitchin. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Oh yes, he's missing school. 'Now off to school you go- go and milk the nitchin.'

It's part of the milkhouse there and we keep the feed in it.

And then some people had a house outside too, and they called it the milkhouse. And it was made of stone and they used to keep their milk and butter and-stuff in there.

Speaker: That no, ah- that was, ah, before they got these cupboards. (laughs) Then of course the cupboards came. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: You mind of them, great big square cupboards.

Speaker: I drove through- we drove through Ottawa, and, ah, someplace else. And, ah- Interviewer: Huxbury? Speaker: I couldn't tell you, but we went to- went, ah, ah- I think we must have been kept more to the, ah, river. I- I don't mind of going through, ah- through Montreal, for, ah, the last time, the time we drove.

Interviewer: Do you mind them well? Your grandmother- your- your mother's mother? Speaker: I mind of my mother and- in the- I asked, I think it was my sister Julie, why they were putting Granny in the box.

Interviewer: Where would those girls get their training? Speaker: Ottawa, the Normal- it was just called the Normal-School then. Interviewer: Mm-hm. There was some- a kind of school in Renfrew that trained teachers. Speaker: Yes, a model school. Interviewer: Yes, might some of- Speaker: That was a third-class teacher. Interviewer: Oh, I see. If you wanted a higher ah certificate you went to- Speaker: You had to go- yeah. You could go to Renfrew, to the model school, with just, um, well, it would be called grade-ten in high-school, now. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Speaker: We used to call it lower school.

And we'd fill the mow right up into the peak of the lofts. The last- they could trail the last forkful in, like into the loft. It was that full.

You- you think it was sticks you broke up for dinner. Like you had to cut it- like you had to cut it before it- it got ripe or the leaves wouldn't stay on like you-know? But we used to have twenty mows in the barn for that kind-of-stuff. Oh the cows have done fat and everything else. They just loved it.

Speaker: Well Dad never did anything about December, we went out in December. We were outside, taking it out of the snow. Interviewer: Hm. Speaker: You-know just ah and the- we'd- we ah packed in the- in the mows of the barn. The other feed was getting pretty low then you-know. And ah we used to get up, oh we were kids, we all worked good and hard at- Interviewer: Hm. Speaker: At the father. My father died very young. He was only sixty-two when he died.

It was that full. And we used to do the same in the barns, but we forked it off in the barns, we- we had to spread it in the barns. We didn't- and we had- we had two- we had three big mows in the barn and we had c-- like the cow-stable loft, and we had the machine-shed loft, and we had- everything was full. And we used to- to stack our grain outside in carts and stacks outside. One stack I put up.

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? Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: Just mow and- too wet for to put mowing machines or anything in. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: Yeah. But it- it was good feed.

Speaker: ... team on a wagon, a ramp on it and you'd pitch that onto- another fellow was on the load, and divot and bring it in the barn, take the hayfork and take it off. There were sometimes where the hayfork was dented we'd pitch it off in the mow. Interviewer: Mm. So it was always up- going up. Speaker: Up, yeah. Interviewer: And below you had the animals. Speaker: Below we had the animals.

Speaker: ... tractor had been at the mill here, threshing-mill, they threshed it. Then you'd go to the next one, help him. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: But when you're on- before that you'd do your own. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: Forking things to- on wagon and feeding, barn, and building in the mow. Interviewer: Mm-hm.

Speaker: But, ah, we didn't- the- the place above- above the cattle for the- for the mow. But now the hay, somebody called them- I forget what you called them. Lofts. Interviewer: Oh. That was up above the barn. Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: But these mows were just, what like big bins or what? Speaker: Yes, a great big- big empty bins and we- in the threshing mills you put the mill in there and put the straw- almost everything in there. In the one mill.

Interviewer: I see. I'm not sure whether I understand what a mow is exactly. Speaker: Oh, a place where to put the feed- feed- the feed, you-know, where the feed is. Draw and run- draw it in with the wagon, fork it over into these mows. You call them mows. Interviewer: I see, you put the hay and stuff- Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: There to store it.