My father and grandfather built our house. It was small and very basic. The house was situated on a slope, so there was a foundation which was high on one side and almost nothing on the other. The house had wooden shingles on the sides and roof. This was typical of most buildings in Jeddore. The roof had a small pitch. There were exactly two windows in each wall, thus giving each of the four rooms two windows. The windows were not too large; the lower half slid up to let in the air. In winter they were fitted with storm windows to keep the cold out and the heat in. There were two bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining/living room. A cooking stove was in the kitchen and in the living room was a heating stove. One bedroom was off the living room and one off the kitchen. There was a connecting door between the bedrooms; there was no hallway. Heat into the bedrooms had to come from the stoves in the next room.
My grandparents' house was similar in that two bedrooms were off a very large dining/living room. Their's differed in that a large dairy/come kitchen ran off the main house. Many houses had the eating table in a large kitchen; neither of our two houses had this. In my grandparents' house, the stove in the living room heated the two bedrooms. In a corner of the living room and near the stove, was a steep stairs to a full attic, under a high pitched roof. The attic had one window looking over the harbour. It was also a spare bedroom.
The houses and barns in Jeddore were wooden structures, with shingled walls and roofs, which were pitched.The walls were whitewashed. Whitewash was a mixture of lime and water applied with a large floppy brush. The whitewash was sort of slapped on, so it did not take too long a time to cover a wall. Whitewash was a preservative,as well as for decoration. In time it peeled or wore off, and had to reapplied. Some buildings would go for years with their grey shingles needing whitewashing. The lime was cheap, came in powder form and was easy to apply. Paint would only be used for trim to add some colour to the building.
Our type of house was very basic and livable, easily heated by two stoves. Many houses had kitchens with a table, where visitors sat to socialize and eat. These rooms were usually quite large with a couch; in reality they were a combined kitchen, living and dining room. Some houses had a parlour, which was not used often and not heated properly in winter; a sort of room for special guests with blinds or drapes half drawn.
The combination living/dining room was our way; with the smaller kitchen free for the women to work. My mother would have had a say in the design; she could have had one large kitchen/dining/living room, but no parlour as finances would not have allowed that.
We also had a dairy, but not attached to the house; instead it was just below and to the right of the house, about 75 feet away. Here were stored the barrels of flour, sugar, and other food items which came in bulk, as well as the bags of crackcorn and meal for the hens.There was no storage space in our kitchen. Our mother had to go out in the cold, rain and dark for her bulk kitchen supplies. I wonder why the dairy was not attached to the back of the house; in all weather, we then could have entered the house via the diary rather than into the kitchen directly, letting in the cold in the process. This was what was done in my grandparents' house.
At the back of our house was the door into the kitchen, which was also the side od the house at ground level. The front of the house was the high part, with a five foot drop from the front door to the grass below. I say drop, because it never did have steps. We kids would jump out, but adults rarely did. In summer it would be open in all fine weather, but in winter it was always kept closed. I do not think it was lack of money, which saw the steps never even started, because my father could have built them himself of local materials. My mother probably preferred people entering with dirty feet by one door, near which she did most of her work. To be used in winter would have meant blasts of cold air coming into a second room in the house.
But there had originally been another outside door, either a third door which had been boarded up or a second door moved to the other living room wall. This early door was in the dining/living room, just in from the door from the kitchen and near the table; it did have about two steps down to the ground.It faced the chicken house and the orchard. I can't remember when the doors were changed. I can understand why it was changed. The old door would have limited the area near the dining table. Moved to the other wall put the new door near the bedroom door, a walk-by area anyway. It also put it on the far side of the house from the kitchen door, and thus allowed for more circulation of air in summer. In case of fire, there was an exit on both sides of the house. In a wooden house heated by two wood stoves, fire was an ever present possibility.
The kitchen had a large wood burning stove; it had four lids and a water tank on the end; the oven was between the wood burning area and the tank, below two of the lids. The stove also had a warming oven above. A kettle of hot water was usually always on the stove, as were the metal irons which could be hooked easily to their handles. The water tank had hot water for washing dishes and clothing, and for bathing. The kettle held the boiled water for tea. There was a smaller stove, a Quebec heater, in the living room. A metal stove pipe went from each stove into the chimney. The kitchen stove would be allowed to go out after the evening meal, unless it was extremely cold outside, and extra heat was needed. The Quebec heater heated the house at night, and kept the kettle hot for a late tea. The main bedroom was off the dining/living room, and thus nearest to this stove for heat in winter.
These stoves burned a lot of wood; the kitchen stove was used all year round, both were used throughout the winter, at least during the day. At night during the winter, one or both would be stoked before going to bed; by morning there would be embers or nothing, so a freezing house would be the result. Someone had to get up, start a fire and get the kettle boiling. In my grandfather's house it was always my grandmother. My parents may have shared the task, but it was usually my mother, as my father was away a lot. We kids would crowd near the stove till the house had warmed up or stay in bed.
Most houses had cellars below. They were usually small; often just a hole dug in the bare earth; they had to be dry and cool in summer. In my grandparents' house, the cellar was entered through a hatch in the living room floor. A mat covered the hatch when it was not open. A steep ladder-like set of steps led down into a twelve foot square hole. It was dark at all times. Wooden shelving and bins lined the bare earth walls. Wooden planks covered the bare earth as a floor. Here were kept the vegetables, preserves and pickle barrels.
My parents' house also had the hatch in the floor in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Again a ladder/steps led down to the cellar. However, our cellar differed in that it was a room with a high ceiling, two small windows and an outside door; it was half the size of the house. The hatch was only used in winter. On one full side and two half sides, there were high cement walls,the foundation of the house. The fourth or back wall did not exist, but was open with bare earth sloping up to the back of the house. My father saw that he did not need a cellar the full size of the house, so did not dig out the remainder; also, it would have meant more foundation work. In summer you entered the cellar through a door from the garden. Here were stored the vegetables, bottled preserves, barrels of fish, sourkraut and the like. The vegetable bins sloped back against the bare earth.
Barns were very important buildings, because most families had at least one cow. Originally our barn was a low building on a level area just above the house. I cannot remember much about it except its location and that it was made of logs, was one storey and with a nearly flat roof. I feel that it was built as a temporary structure.
Later my father built a new two storey barn, also made of logs and partly shingled. It had a high pitched roof which formed the hay mow or hay loft. It sat on posts about a foot or two off the ground. There were three or four stalls for animals which were adequate for our needs. By comparison to other barns in the area, our new one was small, but sturdily built. The other barns were from a past era, when people kept more livestock. Jim's and Tom's barns, although larger than our new one, were not used even to half capacity, and were in need of repair.
I remember when my father was building the barn and was on the roof putting on the wooden shingles, I came running to shout that the grass fire, which my grandmother had lit in the pasture to burn off some dead grass and brush, had gotten out of control on the other side of the woods from the barn. My father started cursing, saying they were going to burn the thing down before he got it built.
My grandfather's barn was much larger, with about six stalls in the stable. There were large double doors into the threshing floor, through which a wagon of hay could be driven, so that the hay could be thrown up to the mow from the wagon, where as in my father's barn, the hay had to be thrown up from the floor. The barn was situated quite near the road, which placed it above and a distance from the house. The barn sat on the opposite side of the road from Jim's house and barn. During the 1930's it was obvious that the barn had seen better days, and that my grandfather's use of it had declined; he had only one cow, no oxen or horses.
The barn was a cosy place. It had to be dry to protect the cattle and hay. In winter it was cold, as no barns were heated, but the cattle were protected from the elements. In our barn, as in all barns, there was the stable where the animals were kept; it was shut off from the threshing floor and hay mow. Entry into the stable was by two small doors, one from the threshing floor and one from outdoors. This helped to confine the area where the animals were kept, allowing their body heat to keep temperatures up in winter. Insulation was increased by the fact that the stables had low ceilings and that the hay was stored just above.
The cows faced into the stalls and were tied there. All the manure fell in line and could be shovelled out a hatched hole in the wall. This manure was mixed with the straw placed under the cow, and formed quite a pile outside to be used as fertilizer come spring. Some barns were on slopes, and thus were raised off the ground at one end; these had trap doors in the floor, with the manure pile below. Our uncle's barn was like this. It made getting rid of the manure easier.
Young kids were expected to shovel the manure out each morning, and place fresh hay under the cow. The barn had to be kept clean as the cows were milked in an open bucket. Shovelling the manure out of the barn was an ongoing task in winter, as the cattle stayed inside all day. In spring, summer, and fall they roamed during the day.
The other parts of the barn was the threshing floor or open area below the hay mows, and the mows themselves, from which hay was thrown down to be fed to the cattle, through a hatch into each stall. The hay fork was the main tool in this area. This open area, in the middle of the barn, went right up to the peaked roof, with the two hay lofts built on either end, at least in our new barn. Access to the mows was by fixed ladders. The stable was under one loft and a storage area under the other, where wagons, sleighs, ploughs and harrows could be stored. Our barn, as most barns, had double doors opening into the threshing floor, but wagons could not be driven into it, as the barn was raised and the space too small. Here we kids would play in rainy weather; hiding or jumping in the hay, swinging from a rope, or what have you. Here Garth fell from a rope and broke his collar bone, but it was not discovered till a few years later.
In our mixed farming situation, barns would have no more than six stalls for one or two cows, two oxen or a horse, and a growing calf. For us one cow, one ox and one calf was the maximum that needed to be housed in the barn during winter. My father or grandfather never had a horse. Pigs had no place in a barn, because they were usually born, fattened and killed between winters. The pig house and sty was adjacent to our barn. Pig meal was usually stored and mixed in the dairy.
One property in Jeddore had the barn attached to the house, which was an excellent idea, because to attend to the cattle in winter, you did not have to go outdoors. In our case, and my grandparents', it meant no matter the weather, it was out into the elements. Not only to go to the barn, but to the toilet, to feed the chickens, to collect firewood, and, in our case, to the dairy.
The outdoor toilet was very much a part of our life. I remember it being in three locations on my father's land in the 1930's. The first two locations were off in the bushes and rocks, about level with the house, but well away from any water drainage which could effect the house or well. It was simply a wooden shed, with a seat with two holes, one large and one small, with a door that could be hooked from the inside. Before building or moving, a hole was dug in the ground, and the toilet placed on a stone foundation above it. The foundation was soundly constructed of loose stone, well sealed to protect entry of young children, animals and chicken. I remember one filling with water when it rained, which might have led to it being moved. The third one was a sort of permanent structure, larger than the others, and attached to the dairy, which was below the house on the edge of the gully. At least it was nearer to the house and on the way to the dairy and barn. My grandparents' toilet was about fifty feet below the house down a short path; it was never moved so it must have been in a good location. My parents and grandparents were very aware of locating the toilet below or away from the water source which filled the wells where we got our drinking water.
Chickens were very important to our existence, because they supplied eggs and meat, and feathers for the pillows and mattresses. We had a very sturdy log chicken house with its attached yard. The chicken house would be white washed regularly inside and out. The house, with its peaked roof, was high enough for an adult to enter by an end door and to stand up in the middle. The roosts were down the sides, with the nests behind them. A low hatch at the back led into the chicken yard, which had chicken wire on the sides and top. An outside gate led into the yard. The wire on the top protected the chickens from hawks and prevented any to escape . The house's solid contruction prevented weasels from getting at the chickens at night. The door and hatch had to be closed each evening. In good weather the chickens roamed free, otherwise they were confined to house and yard. In winter they stayed in the house.
On the road side, just before you turned in the lane to our house, but on my grandfather's land, was a flat area where my father and grandfather had built a garage/workshop. The site was about half-way between the two houses. It was built before my time, maybe in the late 1920's, when my father would have gotten his first old car. My grandfather's field dropped down from the road, and therefore was not a suitable place for a garage. So the garage was built on the far side of the property, just at the base of the big hill. Here the garage floor was level with the road. Using the path from my grandfather's, it was not too far to the garage.
The garage was shingled on all sides, with windows on the sides and back. To us kids it seemed very large, and in fact it was. It had double doors opening onto the road, as well as two small side doors. It could hold a car, various car engines, and a row boat; one wall was chiefly taken up with a long work bench; another area had vices for wood and metal work; there were storage bins and drawers for nails, nuts and bolts, washers and the like, as well as racks to the ceiling in a back corner for varying lengths of lumber. There was an array of carpenter and machinist tools. A row of beams or pillars down the middle supported the extensive roof.
Both my father and grandfather were carpenters; my father seemed to be always tinkering with car engines. The garage was a social centre in a way, because if the doors were open, people passing by on foot, by horse and wagon or by car tended to stop and chat. My father loved chatting. Many happy hours we kids spent here among the smells of shavings and grease. If my father or grandfather were working here we kids were welcome as long as we kept out of the way. We were given hammers, nails and wood to play with.
The double garage doors opened almost onto the road. Once my father was backing the car out of the garage, and I ran around behind the car; this took me right out into the road as a car coming down the hill was about to pass. The car swung to the right, off the road and into a large rock. I remember my father putting all the blame on the driver, who should not have passed when he was backing out. If my father's car had not made so much noise, I would probably have heard the other car. Anyway, those old cars could take a lot of bumps, so it was soon on its way again.
The garage had a slightly sloping roof, covered with tar paper, which from time to time had to be tarred. I remember the men getting everything ready, including the bucket of tar that was heated over a fire. On the roof, the men dipped a mop-type brush into the hot tar and applied it all over. I always hated the smell of the hot tar. It was an exciting event for us kids as it broke up the routine of our daily lives.