Speaker: On the flat. Yeah. Oh yes, that's what they picked the stones on, the stoneboat is what we called them.

Speaker: Well, got your bag and have you go along with a wagon, and stone-boat, or-something, if they were big ones you couldn't get on the wagon you'd put them on the stone-boat and draw them to the fence or stone-wall. Small ones, you have to put them on the wagon.

Speaker: Anything they could make, like on the line of a stoneboat, or hitch them to it.

Speaker: Eh? That was what they used for a stoneboat, or drawing water, or anything they were moving. Interviewer: They didn't call that a snowboat? Like, for on the snow, like a stoneboat on the snow? Speaker: It'd go all dandy on the snow, but um, you're thinking to the- what we call the flat-bottomed stoneboat.

Speaker: Well, they made themselves- a flat thing- a plank and- and rolled the stones onto it. Interviewer: What did they call that? Speaker: Ah a stone-boat. Interviewer: Stone-boat.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Ah did you have on your farm um um, a kind of low platform on a couple of runners that you- Speaker: Oh yes, a stoneboat, we always called it, yeah.

Speaker: Oh yeah, we used to have fun with horse- I used to- I used to have a horse that I rode, and uh, I could hitch up to the, what they called a stoneboat, which- have you heard of a stoneboat?

Oh yeah, very much so. Very much so. Uh, oh he had some beautiful horses but uh, this one I had was a pretty- pretty old nag, but she sure was- she was great in the stoneboat, great to ride, she never balked at all, but he had some pretty uh- I guess he had six horses and uh, some of them were really- oh I 've forgotten the names uh, not the names of the uh- the type of an-- the breed.

Speaker: But I had what was called a stoneboat. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: That you use the horse. And the stoneboat was a- a piece of steel perhaps twice as big as this table.

That was the first time our family had a freezer and the box that it came in had wooden supports inside it and he put it up on a- a stoneboat which is like a little slay for taking stones off the field and built a little shed on the side of it and we decided that we were all going to sleep out in this- in this house.

Speaker: Yeah. And ah, when he was seventeen, he took the team and the stoneboat and he went down across the river down here and out to where John-Jameson is now. That was my Uncle Ed Parcy's. <11> Yes. Speaker: He went out through there and down to where Fred-Stroud lived and they got the corner stone, and they loaded in on the stoneboat and he drew it up to Middleville when they built that church in Middleville.

Speaker 2: And how does the stoneboat work? I don't know anything about it. Speaker: The stoneboat is a ah, they took like about four pi-- logs, pine- we usually an elm, that- something good and strong like that and they would- and they would saw them out so it was like that, tipped up, and it would be four- four boards like that and they'd have a plank across and they'd- there'd be a hole through there and they hook the team on that and- and trail right flat on the ground 'cause they were trying-

You-know what. I'm going to take the stones off and so they would be a stone-boat, just a flat piece of um, like a float you-know? And ah this would go behind the horses and then you just put the stones there, take them to a fence, take them off and it's- it's all hard work.

Interviewer: Uh-huh. Did- what would you call a- a pile of sheaves? Speaker: Stook.

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

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

Speaker: Then came the binder with the sheaf-carrier and they carried the sheaves into, ah, six and dropped them off for a stook. [0:15:34.5] Interviewer: Ah, for a- Speaker: For a- a stook. That's what they called, ah- the- the shea-- the sheaves when they're standing up, you-see, to dry and finish. Stook of wheat, stook of rye, stook of, ah-

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.