The women helped each other during canning and pickling time in the fall. Even though money was scarce, families were able to keep warmly dressed and fed. All of the baking was done from the wheat flour that was grown and ground at the mill. With big black iron pots, grandma would cook up, what she called a "mess" for the animals, hens and pigs. It was a mixture of grain and potatoes, and when it was cooked we children would scoop out some of it with our hands and eat it. When grandma saw the bran.on our faces, she would just turn aside and smile. She and mother made homemade cheese and soap. The milk was sent to the cheese factory that was in operation in Tignish back then. When the eggs were sold at Myrick's store, grandma always brought home supplies, instead of taking money. Having a large flock of sheep, when shorn the women would wash the fleece, dry and pick it clean for carding. The rolls of carded wool would be spun into yarn on the old-spinning wheel, upstairs in grandma's sewing room. In the fall grandma and mother would make blankets and quilts and hook pretty wool mats. Before Christmas the butchering would be done and the meat would be salted away for the winter. Poor families who had no farm produce were given some by the farmers. 90