Speaker: Ah, grandpa, he sh-- he worked in um lumber camps. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: Yes. And she h-- oh, God. He worked in lumber camps and she had five kids to look after and do all the chores. Yeah. And he- he hi-- had a- he's a hired man and ah they cut logs back in the grove and skilleted them out with horses and put- put them on sleighs and took them to Almonte to saw the mill.

(inc) the lumber that he- he sawed it into lumber. He hired some men to help him with the carpenter end of it, yeah. (Laughs) I remember James-Maloof. was a hired man and he one- single one horse out. I don't know if you ever seen one of those things but there's a handle here and a handle there (inc) scoop.

Interviewer: What else do you remember about wartime? What else did you- Speaker: Well you talk about working on the farm, and this happened to all farming lads at the time. I-- y-- you-know, we had two hired man at home before when the war broke out, we mostly kept two coup-- we kept one all the time anyhow, maybe a couple. And they left for overseas.

But when my dad come along it was specialized. It was strictly dairy farm. And, ah, he was on (inc). He had- always had, ah, hired men with him. You-know, working for him. And the last man that worked here was here twenty-three years. And, ah, he was a top man. One of the best, you-know?

Interviewer: Wow. Did you ever grow things on your farm for the fair? Like if you- did your sister ever like the fair? Speaker: Ah, once, a- a hired man of my dad's from way back, he came to get some oats and they put them in a quart sealer and his son exhibit-- exhibited that in the Oakwood-Fair.

Interviewer: Do you remember making maple syrup? Speaker: Oh I remember that very well because it- and it was quite a task. We tapped something like three-hundred trees which was huge for the times because my dad and a hired man tapped all those trees by hand with a brace-and-bit and you put the spile in-

Speaker: What- what my brother and I were d-- I have a brother th-- had a brother that was a- a year and a half younger, we would ah, drive the team- Interviewer: Oh wow! Speaker: Of horses and we had two big gathering tanks. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ah, my dad and the hired man from either side would gather- gather sap. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And the other thing I can remember about making maple syrup was if you had three days of real heavy run, then um, ah, my dad and the hired man couldn't keep up to boiling it. Interviewer: Aw. Speaker: And ah, occasionally my brother and I would be ah, kept out of school to keep the fire on during the day light.

Is a hot job. I know never did that. My dad or- sometimes we'd have a hired man for the summer months.

... after the war we had, the Czechoslovakian immigrant came over and ah, he couldn't speak English but they'd come over, they had to spent like two years on a farm so he was a hired man and we taught how to speak English and he taught us how to swim.

... that flu epidemic of nineteen-eighteen and nineteen. So he hired my mother who had just got out of public school to look after the two little girls. She was sixteen then eh. And then ah he hired another lady to look after the house 'cause he had two or three hired men especially in the summertime and, one near home, my grandfather was there and ah- and the two girls, my two older sisters- half-sisters but they're always our sister you-know.

They were between- next door to us, and Earl had two houses; one for the hired man, one for themselves. So he had the the two houses, he needed one more. So he asked Dad and Dad said no he had one more payment left on the farm and kind-of, he borrowed the money from ah from the government.

And they were short. My dad and- they were thick-set heavy arms and everything. And I was a p-- near a foot taller than he was but- but not not that much, about six inches I guess. But anyways, and he could lift stuff eh. So the hired men from the farm down the road come up to (inc) when the- when the gas truck come in and fill the barrels.

Speaker: ... that'll be four hundred and fifty pounds, a little lighter than that. But then you had the weight of the seal barrel, and he picked that up and put it there. Interviewer: He picked it up! Speaker: I heard, so then one day down the road, where the hired man- this hired man was working, that guy come in there. And this was a great big guy, farmer down there he was- weighed probably two forty or-so but he was a little bit on the pudgy side so.

So anyways the Old Ebbe picks us up and- Old Don. And he'd been an alcoholic, lived in Montreal. And ah a hired man was giving us the history. He was a German fellow. He and his wife, Arie and Burt-Gram, they were great people and they- they ah- they kind-of give us the history of the farm.

... I didn't- I knew who he was and you-know but I don't know whether we ever- now I know that his father was the hired man. There were lots of hired men around because often me-- the husbands would be killed in farm accidents but there weren't- ...

Speaker: And he didn't dot a "i". And she saw that it wasn't dotted. And he went and told her, "Well you must be blind." (laughs) So she took this ruler then hitting him, and I thought, "Oh my God, now what do I do? She's going to hit me yet!" Interviewer: Oh my gosh. Speaker: Well though she didn't hit me but oh that- he never did it again.

And pick the- regarding music, it has to be Liturgical, it can't be just, ah- off the hit-parade, you-know. I can remember one couple in Renfrew, ah- the, ah- they were getting married, an older couple, and they came along and she presented the music she wanted for music, eh?

But that 's like a cool place you can go hear music. It 's not like one of these like, hoity-toity little bars where you pay ten dollars for a drink and you have to dress like you 're a beauty-queen you-know?

Interviewer: Yeah you have three kids. Speaker: I have four. Interviewer: Four kids. And they all come up still? Speaker: Ah they are getting too hoity-toity for some of them you-know? They- well one of the older ones got her own at um- at Crosby-Lake outside of Perth. They have a beautiful cottage there.

So we had ah Caribbean talking ah bartenders and whatever other staff that was there. Other than that they were all white, like from Switzerland and-so-on. They were very hoity-toity.