Speaker: You-know, like we skied ah, in- in the winter. And ah, we skated on the slimes. Interviewer: Oh. S-- I've heard about the slimes. ... What's the- what i-- what is that? Speaker: It's ah, i-- it's just- there's slimes over here. Um it's, um, like mud (laughs). ... Like pale mud. ... Yeah, and ah in the winter it gets real hard- I-mean, the summer it gets real hard. And in the winter it ah, floods. ... And ah, then we used to skate on that. Interviewer: Skate on the slimes, wow. That's neat.

Interviewer: Oh yeah? Sleigh-riding? ... What can you tell me about that? What kind of- Speaker: Um, we um- there was hills. Back- back here someplace. And we would ah, take them. And then- and ah and- th-- O'Connell-Late- Lake, you have to go across the slimes. And I guess it would take about twenty minutes to get o-- to O'Connell, it's not a very big lake. And we used to ah, take the kids there a lot, and have a picnic.

Mm, as that age, I was into motorcycles, so we'd ride in all the slimes around town in our dirt-bikes. Once we were, you-know, thirteen or fourteen, my uncle gave us a d-- gave me a dirt-bike and we'd be bombing around and really that's the sad thing about Kirkland-Lake ... really we were riding our dirt-bikes on all these environmental disaster areas because there was cyanide in the slimes they filled in the lakes, right? ... ah, one time, that must have been a beautiful lake, Kirkland-Lake, but to make the mighty buck, right? They just dumped all the slime in it.

I-think ah, the real scary thing was- ... when you're fourteen or fifteen ... we'd see all these scrape stock cars around ah- 'cause guys from the fifties and sixties on these slimes- I-guess the slimes are building up, you-know, from the forties or the thirties, they would drive the cars out there and race them around and then when they blew up, they would just park them in the bush. ... So I remember scrape dealers coming in and picking all these scrape cars up and they cleaned up the area. ... And ah, I-think their weirdest thing was standing on the tailings dam and- and then they would have mind-rock to hold back the slimes and realizing that the slimes piled up, thirty-feet, fourty-feet, maybe fifty-feet areas.

Speaker: So they take the gold out of it, and then they a-- they're left with this- Interviewer: Just sludge? Speaker: Non-gold sludge, yeah. ... Exactly. So we call it, um, the slimes. We have a place we call the slimes here, and that's- it's the same thing, it's just mine tailings. Interviewer: Oh wow, so they just sort-of dump them. ... Wow. So, lake gone.

Interviewer: You played in mine shafts? Speaker: Yes, we did. ... They're just dark and damp and dank and- but there's a place called The-Slimes over in Cobalt where this all is all mining stuff. I don't know what it's like today. Um, but we used to play over there all the time.... Nobody ever worried about us. ... Nobody ever got hurt.

Interviewer: So what about the slimes? I know in the old days people talked about playing in the slimes, you ever do that? Speaker: The federal slimes. Interviewer: Where is the federal slimes? Speaker: Um it's behind the Northern-College. ...Yeah but I mean that's not much fun. It's pretty well just flat and if it's really wet I guess you could sink but it's not as fun as like going back behind the mine and-that where and-that where there's like big mud holes.

Interviewer: W- was there a lot of stuff for people your age to do? ... Speaker: No- um you made your own fun basically which is why we have such problem with drugs and alcohol because people would go to the Federal-Ruins or the Slimes you-know and different places like that and they'd you-know they'd go and drink. ... And do drugs and-all-that-stuff.

Speaker: Yeah. Back in here is what they call the ah, you can't see from here but ah, s-- the slimes. And it's all the tailings from the mines. Interviewer: And it's still back there, huh? Speaker: It- it's still there. I go skiing out there too.

And um- Interviewer: Now explain to Shaman what- how the slimes get there. Speaker: Well it's s-- like from the ground when they pumped all the ah, when they were digging for gold and-that. And they'd have- it was primitive in those days. But if you go out along the slimes you'll see the ah, the old pipes. And they were just wooden pipes with- with wire wrapped around them. And all that sludge and everything else was pumped out into the- into the back forty here. And it became hard and slimes. We could play ball in there and you can ski on there.

Speaker: And then up further where the lake is, what was suppos-- what was Kirkland-Lake at one time. In beyond there there's more slimes in there that came from the Wright-Hargreaves and the Lakeshore mine and-so-on-and-so-forth. But the- Interviewer: That's the stuff that comes out of the- after they've milled the- Speaker: It's like the sludge, yeah. Interviewer: The- the mineral out of everything.

They had to some- or concentrate and that was- you-know started- that was no work but it was very, very little. They'd be there on the seventh concession one morning early before we got up, and there be just slings and (inc) and- and another thing that they- there was the mill sheds where they used to tie their horses and everybody in the village had a cow at that time.

Back then they didn't have bailers and bail up hay, all the hay was brought in loose. And it was brought in- in to the barn with a great big buck-rack on the back of a truck and put on a set of slings in the barn and my job was to tie the slings and then he would pull it up with the truck and I would drop the hay in the mow, and then I'd have to pull the slings back down and set them again, and climb into the mow, and then I'd have to pull the slings back down and set them again, and climb into the mow and level the hay off.

end. And the old lumber that was any good went on the west end where you couldn't see it. But the hay mow, or a grain mow like what we- when we were doing stuff and he used to bring ah, the- the grain in with sheaves. And there was slings. Interviewer: Slings? Speaker: And you put a- yeah, you put a sling- the sling was a two-part thing. And it went together with a- with a- a bit in the middle. And you hooked it over the end-gates on the wagon. One there and one here. And you built a row of sheaves. The same as you did with the hay, loose hay.

Speaker: you bound the centre in, but you go this way with one, that way with the other one, and that way with the centre. And you went all the way back like that. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And then you started the same thing. And you- Interviewer: Oh! Speaker: Usually put two rows on a sling. And then you put another sling together. And when you got to the barn, there was ah- when you go ahead to pull it off, it was a little different but the same idea as the hay. But it was a hayfork that you just chucked into the hay

But it was a hayfork that you just chucked into the hay, but this thing here had to start all on a sling, so you took this end and you hooked a rope on there and on here. And when the thing started to lift, it made a round like that, and all the sheaves were in it. And it'd go up and it'd trip.

Speaker: Yeah now what you had you- you- you laid slings down, you put a layer of hay on that. Interviewer: What's a sling? Speaker: A sling is just a- like a rope net. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And then you hook onto it and the horses out the far- the teams out the far end of the barn, they pull it up with a sling

Speaker: A sling is just a- like a rope net. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And then you hook onto it and the horses out the far- the teams out the far end of the barn, they pull it up with a sling.

of the summer just for ah farm experience, I guess. Interviewer: Square bails or- Speaker: No just loose hay. Interviewer: Stoots. Speaker: Loose. Interviewer: Oh yeah? Speaker: You- you just used um a hay fork and load it onto the wagon and hauled it in and- and ah piled it up into the- they had a sling that would bring it up and then go over it and then drop it. Interviewer: Into the- into the mow. Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Did you used to salt the hay after you put it in? Speaker: I don't remember that. No. Interviewer: Some- some places I used to work, they used to put salt in

And then you- well, Sandy used to drive it a lot. They would back it into the rows of hay instead of doing it all by hand, that was- and then they would bring it in and put it in the barn and take it up with, um- slings. And then it would go across the big thing in the top of the barn, I forget what that was called, and drop down into the haymow.