TRANSCRIPT

Donna: You're talking about the first summer you were here, you were living in the house by July and Mother and Johnny took Gerty up to Harris's, because a new baby was expected, and Mother left you to bake bread that she'd already prepared. How old were you then?

Mabel: Nine

Donna: You were baking bread?

Mabel: Yes. She had them mixed overnight. You know, they set them overnight.

Donna: Was it in the pans already, or did you...?M

Mabel: Yes.

Donna: That's a pretty good chore for a nine year old. You knew when to take it out of the oven, did you?

Mabel: Yes, yes.

Donna: What other sorts of jobs would you have to do at that time? You were nine years old...

Mabel: I learned to milk cows.

Donna: Nine years old?

Mabel: Yes.

Donna: How many cows would you have had to milk?

Mabel: Well, maybe these ones that Ed Harris gave us. I think Father brought some from Ontario, but there were more heifers or calves or something, that younger stock that I ...

Lawrence: Didn't you tell me one day that you used to haul water from Tommy's place in a churn?

Mabel: Yes, over to Bob Reid's, lived near the dam there.

Lawrence: That'd be about 3 and a half miles, wouldn't it?

Mabel: Yes, well....

Lawrence: Four miles

Donna: You could handle the horses?

Mabel: One horse and a buggy.

Judy: Do you mean you had to go and get all the water?

Mabel: No, not all. But this water down here, it was maybe alright for the stock, but not to drink. There was too much alkali or something in it.

Judy: So, would you use the snow in the winter for your water?

Mabel: Well, but the coulees were full.


Donna: Grandma, I've heard you tell us at sometime or another about hauling wheat in a wagon to Rouleau. Now, why would you go all the way to Rouleau with the wheat?

Mabel: Before Avonlea, there was no railroad here.

Donna: When did the railroad come here [Avonlea]?

Mabel: [19]12

Donna: The railroad didn't come here 'til [19]12

Mabel: Or the fall of [19]11.

Donna: So, for how many years would you have to haul grain to Rouleau?

Mabel: Well, I don't know... We didn't have much [grain] the first year because Father and Johnny and Willy went away up to Lumsden someplace to work in the harvest. Mother and Reggie hauled in all the sheaves with a horse and a stone-boat off of ten acres of oats. I remember hauling wheat for Willy to Rouleau.

Donna: How old would you have been?

Mabel: I was a little older than that then.

Donna: Would you be 12 or 15?

Mabel: Yes.

Donna: How long would it take you to get to Rouleau?

Mabel: Well, it took a day. You'd feed your horses over there. Maybe come home and load up for the next day. Five hours maybe.

Donna: For one wagon box of wheat.