So I shall endeavor to give you a word picture that will have to substitute for my lack of drawing artistry.
To start with the land in the area is all of an undulating nature, or none of it is entirely level in any large part. Our farm was approximately 1/4 mile wide and two miles long, one mile under cultivation and one mile of woods which were quite diverse in which grew spruce, fir, hemlock and cedar, alder, hackmatack, ash which was like oak, white birch from whose bark the Indians used to make their canoes. Silver birch and yellow birch that had a red core that was a perfect substitute for and even better than Mahoney, it was harder and took a much better finish. Also Beech, real large deciduous trees that bore nuts that were very delicious when we were lucky enough to beat the squirrels to when ripe, also 3 different verities of maples including rock maple that produced the sap from which maple sugar and candy was made from, so you can readily see that our forests there provided not only wood to heat our homes and cook with but to provide a variety of goods to eat too.
There was also two streams, one across the back and one on the east side that were spring fed and never run dry in the summer and I could always go and in a very few minutes catch a mess of trout for our supper, so you can get the idea that we were well provided for in all the necessities for living.
The house was newly built when I was a baby. November 3, 1894 It was a full two stories plus a high attic that the only access to it was through a hatch in one of he four huge upstairs bedrooms. Each of which could easily have plenty of space for four full size beds, which were often necessary when we had a crew of workers during harvest or when we had a portable sawmill sawing the logs that we cur during the winter months and making lumber that was shipped to England at that time. I almost forgot to mention the beautiful Birds Eye Maple that we used to cut down for wood to heat our furnace with as well as the cooking stove. What a horrible waste of that gorgeous lumber that is almost priceless today as some kind of blight in recent years has destroyed most all of the very prolific hard wood trees that were so evident in that area in my youth.
Now for the house, the major part was a T-shape, contained four bedrooms upstairs and one down that we called the spare bedroom that was used only for very special guests, or when one of the family was ill needing a doctor, The downstairs or first floor included: A large entrance hall at least
nine foot wide. that included the stairs way up, also a large parlour, only used for very special occasions, a sitting room and a dining room where as many as 30 people could be seated at one time also where the dances were held after a harvest bee. or other happenings when friends and neighbours would gather The kitchen was a part extending off the main house and contained three parts known to us children as kitchen scullery and shed. The kitchen itself was huge where all regular meals were served and everybody congregated in the evenings for acrobatics, and other games. It had a large solid cast iron stove. and the oven was high up, it was truly an efficient baking arrangement for any kind of baking including the most delicate to huge fruit cakes, etc.
The cellar was not under the kitchens had a clay floor was as clean and solid as if it were cement, our food never mildewed and doughnuts lasted for over a year as did mustard pickles and other hings such as fruit cake, etc. that mother had baked us before leaving there for good that I do not think was her intention at that time, but the cellars in that part of the house were a marvellous thing. potatoes, all kinds of vegetables were stored in new bins and never spoiled all winter.There was a large furnace completely covered with brick that would take a birch log four feet long and eight inches thick and last all night with others of course and kept the house warm 24 hours a day during the coldest winters.
The including rafters of the main part as well as kitchens, etc. Timbers were all hand hewn. My father , your great grandfather, could hew a hardwood log that was as straight as if sawn by a sawmill. Framework.
Other buildings included, a former house that my father was born in plus the 11 other children in his family, that we used for a wood shed and upstairs rooms for grain, storage bins and other articles also rwo very large barns, one for cows and hay storage to feed them. One for horses and several head sometimes as many as 40 young cattle that had to be housed through the long, cold winter months.Then the sheep barn for 100 sheep, also the hay to feed them in winter. It was 90 feet long, then the carriage house that housed the many and various vehicles. , it was huge as was the hen house for 100 hens [plus a place for turkeys, geese and ducks, even the Ice House where the three foot thick blocks of ice was stored packed in sawdust and provided the family and hired men and visitors with
lemonade, ice cream or cold buttermilk all through the hot summers and was a treat in winters on occasions, that is a part manage that was at that time in my life that kept the wheels turning and made ife very pleasant for all concerned in my childhood on the farm and as good a word picture and all 100% true of my childhood life on the farm. , but much changed after my 10th year when so much of the afore mentioned went out of my life, hope you get the real picture of what used to be
