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.