14
A Stacker at Work1920
Near Mirror, Alberta
15
This photo is taken from the other side of the hay stack. It shows the stacker full of hay, being pulled to the top of the stack, where it will drop the hay off the rungs onto the tall hay stack.The fellow at the top will then rake and pile the hay more evenly with his pitchfork.
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Charlie and Ted Bellhouse Moving Hay with a Wagon1922
Near Mirror, Alberta
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Here are Charlie and Ted Bellhouse, moving hay by hand with a horse and wagon. Huge stacks of hay like this were seen on many farms.18
Grinding Grain off Sleigh1910
Near Mirror, Alberta
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These men are grinding grain off a sleigh.In the far right corner of the sleigh, you can see an engine of some kind, which is powering the grinder.
One man is shoveling either newly ground grain into the building, or grain that needs to be ground out of it. The other fellow is holding a bucket of either newly ground grain coming out of the grinder, or grain he's about to put into the machine to be ground.
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Pitching hay into wagon1924
Near Mirror, Alberta
21
A 1924 or 1925 photo of Jerry Brown pitching bundles into a rack.The man on the left is Herb Law, and he is standing beside a stook.
The girl in the middle is Jean Ashdown.
Stooking was the hardest, most back breaking and monotonous job on the farm. A man would pick up the bundles of grain after they had been cut and layed on the ground, and stand them on their butts, exposing the heads of the grain to the sun and air to dry and harden.
It was also the most exciting part of farmwork, as here was where you got to see what rewards you had attained for all the work you had done that year.
Each stook consisted of 6 to 10 bundles of grain, which leaned inwards for support.
After they dried and hardened, the men would come back and pick them up, as depicted in this photo. These men are doing the second hardest job on the farm, stacking.
Stacking involves forking (by hand) the stooked bundles into a bundle rack drawn by two horses, later pitching the bundles onto a stack.
Next, as long as there was a thresher available, the bundles would be taken to the thresher, where the hardened grain would be shaken out of the straw by the separator.
22
Sawing Wood1912
Near Mirror, Alberta
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A family work day, splitting wood on the Hume's farm. Here a wood splitter is powered by a John Deere tractor, and the winter wood pile behind it is getting nice and high.We have no information on who the people in the photo are, but at least some must be of the Hume family.
24
A wood sawing bee1920
Near Mirror, Alberta
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Neighbors getting together for a wood splitting bee. They would often get together 6 or 7 times a winter to cut and split wood for each other.26
George Sayers Splitting Wood by Hand1928
Near Mirror, Alberta
27
George Sayers is splitting firewood for the winter, sometime in the 20's. |
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