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
23
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
25
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.28
A huge mechanical commercial wood splitter1920
Near Mirror, Alberta
29
A commercial wood splitter sits in someone's farmyard, full of newly split wood.Sometimes people would bring their wood to be split 'to' the person who owned one of these bigger splitters, but often the splitter equipment itself would be hauled to different locations to do the splitting.
30
Hauling Logs in Winter1900
Near Mirror, Alberta
31
Three men ride on top of a load of timber they have just felled. This photo appears to be at least pre 20's, possibly even very early 1900's or late 1800's.These men would have felled and loaded the timber by hand onto the sleigh, and the horses would pull both them and the timber back to wherever it was going.
This could often be more than a days work if they were any distance from where the timber needed to be.
32
Axel Westling's Sawmill1921
Near Mirror, Alberta
33
This is Axel Westling's saw mill in 1921.Axel came to Canada with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Erick Westling from Minnesota, USA in 1898.
He married Helen King in 1915 and had five boys.
As well as running this saw mill, Axel ran a threshing machine and did a lot of threshing around the area between Lacombe and Mirror.
34
Nappy Gadsby at Forrest DeVore's Sawmill1900
Near Lamerton, Alberta
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