July 2 thru July 5, 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, and a picture of the whole family several years later - circa 1900 ???

Friday --- Henry and Mills "stir out" some hay.... this would be sort of flipping it over and fluffing it a bit to dry faster. Omar cultivates potatoes and corn until noon. After lunch they rake and put up the hay - probably raking it into piles for easier loading onto the wagon later. They get two loads into the barn by evening, and a third load on the wagon, but not into the barn. Sarah, Jen, and Mills go to Ingleside for the Rehearsal. I'm not sure if that is just regular choir practice, or if they are rehearsing for something more special? Susie Conley comes home with Jen.

Saturday --- Susie and Jen go to Bloods to celebrate. That term often refers to a birthday party? Omar, Mills, and Henry draw some more hay. R. Smith comes by and Henry lets him have 4 bushels of oats and some basswood picket material. Earlier in the week, Henry had decided not to sell oats to Mr. Briglin.

Sunday --- They all go to church - Elder Hibbard preaches. Vern Drake brings some strangers to church - three little boys. Sarah takes them in her Sunday School class. I think this is the first mention of Sarah teaching Sunday School. Sarah stays in Ingleside for the evening service. Henry goes home and does not go to evening service, but Omar, Jen, and Susie Conley go.

Monday -- They finish mowing and return the mowing machine to Mr. Smith. (They seem to share more complex machinery often?) Mr. Demorest comes by to pick up some of the oats for Mr. Smith. Henry and Mills cut the grass and weeds from the berry patch, and Sarah and the children pick 2 1/2 crates of berries ( Variety - Tylers?) A crate of berries is 40 (correction) quarts. Henry takes the berries to Slatterey's in Bloods to sell. Slattery is away in Rochester, NY. Addamus tells Henry they will pay them 5 cents per quart for the berries. Omar works in the potatoes.

June 28 thru July 1, 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, and a picture of the whole family several years later - circa 1900 ???

Monday --- Henry takes a 25 pound tub of butter to Slatterey & Co. and he gets paid $3.75 - 15 cents a pound. He buys 2 hand rakes, and something else I can't decipher at Hatches. He stops by to visit D.D. Clark on the way home. Omar cuts clover at the Terney's. Henry "grinds the sections" - sharpens the cutting knives on the mowing machine. Henry does the hand cutting of the clover near the fences where the horse drawn mower won't go easily. Sarah and Lois are still picking strawberries.

Note: It takes about 1 quart of heavy cream to make a pound of butter. In other terms, it takes about 3.5 gallons of high fat content milk to make a pound of butter. A single cow would give between 3 and 8 gallons of milk a day according to an 1870 Journal of the New York State Agricultural Society. Thus a 25 pound tub of butter was about the output of 7 or 8 cows in one day, or two days output from 4 cows? I'm not sure how much they used the ice they cut back in the winter, but they certainly did not have good refrigeration. Remember they were using some portion of the milk as part of the food eaten by 11 people, plus guests.

Tuesday --- (Henry reverses the next two day's entries - dates switched) Henry has Omar cultivate the corn. Mills and Henry stir up the hay to help it dry, and rake and stack it. Sarah goes to visit Mrs. Gard Waite with the Tennys, and Mrs. Wm Blodgett. They find her not feeling well, but they all stay to dinner. Henry and the boys put up the rest of the hay.

Wednesday --- They draw the hay they put up yesterday. Probably that means they brought the hay back to their place. 12 loads are put into a stack, and a small load is taken to the barn. T. Briglin stops by to purchase some oats, but Henry does not sell him any. Lois goes to visit Nate Polmateer. Lois and Ettie pick raspberries for R. Smith. Same place Sarah and Lois have been picking strawberries.

Thursday --- Henry finishes stacking the hay from the Terney lot, and puts on a top layer of oat straw. The top layer of a hay stack can "spoil" before the hay is used. Using oat straw keeps more of the the hay preserved well. The stack ends up taking 14 loads, and Henry declares the condition of the hay in the stack "fine". Henry puts "hangers" on the sides of the hay stack... probably ropes to help keep the hay from blowing away? The upper/outer layer of the stack acts much the same way a thatched roof would work, keeping the inside dry. Omar mows about half of another field of hay in the morning, and cultivates more corn and potatoes in the afternoon. Mills and Henry plant some beans.

A couple of pictures of horse drawn mowers and hay stacks below.