Saturday, May 23, 2009

May 23 thru May 26, 1886

As always, click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading of original. Feel free to contact me with corrections, additional information, or comments. Click on the map link to the right of this entry to see more about where places are. Other information can be checked out with the links to the right, including a great family picture of everybody circa 1886!

Sunday -- Omar brought Susie (Conley?) home last night, and she and Jen are going to go visit Hattie in Wayland later in the day. Sarah and Henry went to choir practice last night - Henry calls it "singing school". I think this is the first mention of music at church. Note - I keep thinking I'll run out of interesting or new things, but I guess not! Sarah, Henry, Omar, Bart, and Mills all to to church - Mills must be feeling better! Elder Hibbard preaches. Sarah stays to dinner at Mrs. Polmateer's. I'm thinking maybe she is the wife of George Polmateer who passed away back in Janaury? He mentions Aunt Abbie - probably Abigail Polmateer - daughter of Henry Polmateer. She got married back in March... no mention of her new last name?

Monday - Omar goes to Bloods with a load of 17 bushels of potatoes, and picks up a load of plaster that he then sows in the afternoon on the oat and barley fields. Plaster is a source of lime to adjust the pH of the acidic soil. Sarah and Mills are painting and whitewashing in the house. Whitewash is a sort of low cost "paint" made of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and chalk. A chemical reaction with carbon dioxide from the air, forms calcium carbonate which protects wood and other building materials and has some antimicrobial properties. I remember whitewashing various surfaces in the barn when I was a kid.

Tuesday - Omar spreads plaster on barley and corn fields - about 300 pounds! They also mulch the berries with oat straw. Sarah is still on the decorating detail, and paints the kitchen floor, and papers the sitting room. Frank Marsh comes to visit in the evening.

Wednesday - Omar cleans out the cellar, and goes to Nickleses to get some wood. Henry makes a "splatter board" for the well sink. I'm thinking some sort of sink in the kitchen with a hand pump? It seems like an outdoor sink would not have needed a "splatter board"? My grandparents had a sink in the kitchen with a handpump... the well was directly under the kitchen. An electric pump was added many years later! Henry works on the Delaware grapes. Grapes vines are attached to wires strung between posts. In the spring the posts and the wires are checked for damage, and repaired as necessary, and then the vines are "tied" to the wires with smaller wires. Spring is the best time for this before the foliage makes seeing what you are doing difficult. Sarah continues fixing up the house - she went to Naples in the forenoon to get wallpaper border for the sitting room. She also picked up some wire for the grape tying process. I remember my grandpa Drake working for other farmers around the Naples area tying grapes. Nate Polmateer drops by to visit. Picture of grapes trained along wires and posts below.It looks like one of the younger kids may have gotten to these pages to do some scribbling?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

May 19 thru May 22, 1886

As always, click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading of original. Feel free to contact me with corrections, additional information, or comments. Click on the map link to the right of this entry to see more about where places are. Other information can be checked out with the links to the right, including a great family picture of everybody circa 1886!

Wednesday - They plant potatoes all day... the person Henry hired is evidently Salem Marsh (son of Frank Marsh?) Willie Polmateer helps too, and they get "nearly done" dropping potatoes. D. Weld (not sure if this is the potato dealer from North Cohocton?) brings by 12 bushels of potatoes for planting, and trades for 12 bushels of "Comforts" - a variety of potatoes grown in the area.

Thursday - Omar covers the potatoes with some sort of implement borrowed from W.E. Weld. He gets done about 4PM, goes to Ingleside to return the "coverer" to Mr. Weld along with 2 bushels of corn for Mr. Weld to plant. He gets a total of 5 shoes set on two horses - John and Molly. Henry finishes up dropping potatoes and covering around stumps, and at the "headlands" -- the area at the end of the field where the horses can't maneuver to cover the turn around cleanly.

Friday - Henry takes "Aggie" to the Blodgetts - Aggie is one of their cows? She had a calf back on April 5th - about 6 weeks ago. Maybe he took Aggie to Blodgetts for breeding for a new calf? Omar takes the rest of the potatoes out of the cellar for the season. Sarah goes to Naples. Henry pays Salem's dad - Frank Marsh - for his day's work dropping potatoes. Like Bart, Dad gets the money, not the boy! Omar cultivates berries, and Henry rolls the barley field. It is a very busy season with lots of preparing land for planting, and planting. Henry "finds some pigs this morning" - not sure what this means.

Saturday - Omar goes to Naples to Lyons and Woodruff with 25 bushels plus 48 pounds of wheat. Henry works in the grapes. Omar finishes rolling the barley and oat fields. Henry and Sarah take tub butter to Slattery & Company in Bloods to barter, and get 4 more tins to fill with butter. Henry sells the remaining potatoes from yesterday for 35 cents a bushel. They also pay off the balance on the horse they bought from A. Addams back in April - $35 - just over a month ago.... a month early on the 60 day note Henry signed.