Chopping Wood

All cooking and heating was by the woodstove method, so we needed a lot of wood. We chopped and sawed all wood used from our own farm, taking out "second-grade" trees or taking tops and limbs from timber that we cut for cross ties to sell to railroad companies.

We also sold cords of wood to those who needed to buy wood. We furnished timber, cut the wood, hauled it on a wagon, unloaded it, and sometimes corded it up again - for $2.00 a cord, which was considered good money then.

We became very good with the ax and crosscut saw. I have split wood many times for a passtime or for the exercise. I learned to hit the wood with a slant, split off a slab, and split it into sticks with just one stroke per stick. I thought I was an expert.

Wood chopping was very important for survival - you could starve or freeze if you could not chop wood. You must know how to "fall a tree," if necessary, and how to raise parts of it off the ground when sawing so as not to saw into rocks and ruin your tools. You had to have a good wedge and file, also a tape measure for right footage when cording.

When selling wood, we always gave "good measure," as my papa said, "so as not to be accused of cheating anyone." Some people would cord with "holes" which took less wood, but was cheating.

Our house never had a store-bought blanket or sheet. My mamma bought cloth, unbleached muslin, by the bolt at the grocery store. She made the sheets with a seam in the middle. Also the pillow cases. After washing a few times with lye soap, they became bleached and soft as snow. The cloth was used for a number of other things, such as, lining quilts, and making sacks to stuff sausage in.

When a new baby was on the way, the first clue for us was when my mamma started hemming diapers off this bolt of yards and yards of cloth. The diapers were called "ditties." I guess that was PZ idiom. They were cut square, folded, and pinned on the baby three-cornered style with a big safety pin. There were no plastic panties, so we always had a lot of wet socks and shoes for the little ones.