To do anything that's worthwhile? But anyway, so. I-mean, we can sit and crab and complain and we have all the solutions, but you-know. Nothing ever seems to amount to anything.

Interviewer: That had as-- um sharp spiky pieces, what did you call that? Speaker: They had the- they had the- the shed fence, and they had the crab fence, and they had the snake fence.

A rail fence is we used to call them, but then there was the rail fence, they made them into the crab fence or the shed fence, or then there was another one they called the draper fence around here. How it got the name of Draper, because there was a Draper man that started to build it. And it went by the name of Draper-Fence. Yeah.

Interviewer: I don't know, it's just weird. You see- you get to meet some weird people in there. Speaker: That's okay, you get to meet all the cracked out people in Kirkland-Lake, eh?

Speaker: Well, the- the early w-- the early harvest, they used the sickle and the cradle and the reaping-hooks and things. But then, as time progressed they got binders and- mowers and-so-on.

That didn't tie the- that didn't tie the grain, that cut it and I put the grain off in bundles, but then you had to go around and tie that by hand. But that would be the first vehicle, the first outfit that came that was cut with what they call the cradle, or the s-- Interviewer: Oh yeah. Speaker: The side and the cradle. The side didn't, ah, it just put in windrows, the cradle though, they'd put that- they'd throw that out in- in little, like in little bundles. You had to tie that too.

Speaker: That was just about the time that the mowing machines and the grain-binder came into it. Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: The re-- up to that time it had, ah- it had been a cradle. (laughs) Interviewer: You would cut it with a cradle? Speaker: You would cut it with a cradle. Interviewer: And that would just leave it, what, in- in lines? Speaker: Yes, it was (inc) and then they had to bind it up. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: In sheaves after.

Depends if- some fields were good, some were, ah, not so good. Ah, ground that was in hay for a number of years and with the old grain with the old cradle- after they had the cradle- you ever see a cradle for cutting grain? Interviewer: No I haven't. Speaker: Well they cut a strip twelve-feet-five with it. And it had fingers on it, you-see. A blade down here and, ah- and you'd swing it around like that, big long blade.

And we had the first old reaper. You don't remember the reaper, do-you? It made a beautiful job of handling grain. You-know, they used to have to use the cradle. I had a brother, dead and gone, many day, didn't live 'til he was thirty years of age. But say he could cradle that and lay that there, at the (inc) would be all just leaving, and you could come along, tape it first, Todd said, the grain, in your hands like that.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Or else they would ah- if they were doing it by hand, they'd use a cradle. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ca-- they called it cradling the field. Interviewer: Oh! Like the actual cutting they'd call cradling did they? Speaker: Yes. Uh-huh. 'Cause they cut it with the cradle And there be somebody come along after it pretty well dried and ah bind it and make a stook out of it. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And it would sit there for a few days. And then they'd come along with a wagon and draw it in.

Well, Dad used to cut the hay down at first and then he'd go around- all around the fence with an old- what they call a cradle. Was a big thing and a- with a lot of- things on- it held the hay when you cut it, like swathe. And then he'd ah- that would be left there and then he'd take another swung and that there.

I keep thinking about ah the progress of- of the farmers from where it started way back with the ah, I guess with the cradle and then they got up into the ah- the horses and- and and the dump rake. I- I did that for a little while, not too long.

Speaker: You were saying like how was it like on the farm, or how you did things. Well the hay, you cut up the (inc) and then you raked it with the rake. I should go back to when my grandfather came there though. You cut it with a- what they called a cradle. Interviewer: Cradle? Speaker: Yeah, it was like a scythe, only way thicker than a scythe the blade was three or four inches wide. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: And still curved like a scythe, and then there was a- a light stick came up like this about that high and then it had fingers come around.

Speaker: ... we started doing quiltings and then I started making quilts myself and you-know, I do things like that. Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit about how you do it? Speaker: Well it just depends if you want a nice ah fancy quilt or a crazy quilt, which- a crazy one has got all kinds of pieces put together. ... Interviewer: We've talked about crazy quilts, quilting-bees. Why were they called crazy? Speaker: Well they used to be c-- all kinds of scraps put in them. And just, you-know- Interviewer: Where did all those scraps come from? Speaker: Well we used to do an awful lot of sewing, making your own clothes and-stuff.

Interviewer: Do you know um, much about the churning process? Exactly how did your mother make butter? Speaker: Well the- the- kept the cream- we had a cream can and they kept cream in there and it would settle on the top of this can and uh, the cream settled on the top. ... And the- the other milk would be in the bottom and there was a- a little tap on the bottom ...

Interviewer: After the um- after the sap was boiled, and ah, to make syrup, how was the syrup stored? Speaker: Oh, I really don't know. We- we used to get the five-gallon cream can of syrup, and Mother had all the bottles, she used to just have the bottles ready, and the man'd bring it down, he'd talk to my father and mother and bottle the syrup and then they'd put it in the storage.

Speaker 2: Ethan-Watts played. Speaker: And my feet got so tired near the end of the evening. I went into the little kitchen and I sat on a cream can in my wedding dress. (laughs)

Speaker: Yeah, so you had one container in the end, a smaller container of course with the cream and- and a larger container with the skim milk. And the skim milk then was fed to the calves or the pigs, whatever, and, um, the cream was the sold, ah- but it was just put into cream cans and the c-- and the cream cans were down in the basement of the house to keep them as cool as possible and they picked it up once a week. ... Interviewer: So you'd store it in a- how would you store it then? Speaker: Ah there was a, I guess you call it cream cans that were- oh, so big, I-don't-know what, maybe, I-don't- ten gallon or-something.

Interviewer: ... how would you get the- the cream then down- down to the cheese factory in- Speaker: That was just milk that they took there I think. ... That ah the cream, the ah cream man as we call him came along with a smaller truck and he picked up all the cream cans and took them to Almonte, I think. ... Ah there was a big dairy in there.

Interviewer: Esther, can you tell us what happened to the milk? After you milked it? Speaker: Ah, separate it. You use- ah, we had to s-- we had to separate it- separated the cream from the milk and you- you p-- put the cream in the cream can with the- and it was sent every- about twice a week, I think it went. Yeah. So different back then it is now. Yeah.