TRANSCRIPT

Mabel: Margaret Miller asked me, one day, where we all slept down in the big house. And I told her Grandpa had the west room, we had the northwest room, Mother and Dad had the southeast room, and the boys had the northeast room. Father always had the east room that faced the barn.

Ron: Would there be a reason he had a room overlooking the barn?

Mabel: Well, I guess, in case of fire or anything they liked to be able to see what's going on.

Ron: OK Grandma, you married Herb in 1917?

Mabel: January of 1917

Ron: Did you get a homestead with him or did he have a homestead himself?

Mabel: He had a homestead where the house is. He had the house built but it wasn't plastered either ‘til after we were married.

Donna: Would it be pretty chilly in those houses if they weren't plastered?

Mabel: We weren't in them in the winter without... they were plastered by winter time.

Ron: What would you have heated your home with?

Mabel: Wood or soft coal from the hills. They used to get wood over at the creek.

Ron: How did they get soft coal from the hills?

Mabel: Up towards Claybank or someplace there, there was coal they used to dig up in the hills. We might have got coal later on from Rouleau. Well, we had two stoves at one time, I think. There used to be a stovepipe go up through the bedroom floor and then to the chimney there. We must have had a cookstove beside our... but we had a drum upstairs on the stovepipe - what they called a drum. I used to hang the baby's clothes on a clothes-horse up there to dry them beside the drum on the stovepipe.

Donna: Did you have a good water supply at your farm?

Mabel: Yes. They got the well dug. We had another well closer to the house. Well, some will tell you they used to melt snow for washing and the boiler. Get it melted the day before to wash.