barrels for the summer months. Every family also had chickens and lots 
     
     of eggs. It was not unusual to go to the hen house in the morning to get 
     
     fresh eggs for breakfast. 
     
    

    
     Each family had their own stone well, about 40 to 60 feet deep, with 
     
     an old hand pump beside it. The well had a rope, crank, bucket and 
     
     basket to haul water and other things up and down. Milk, cream and 
     
     buffer were stored down the well to keep them cool. There was quite a 
     
     bit of sharing, especially among those with young families. Every time 
     
     a beef or a pork animal was butchered, a roast would be given to each 
     
     family. When it came time to cut the grain, we would borrow horses from 
     
     one another, as three heavy horses were needed for the binder and 
     
     most families had only one or two. 
     
    

    
     Many crops were grown including wheat, oats, barley, turnips, and 
     
     potatoes. Hay was the big crop on the Island. It was cut, raked and 
     
     put in coils, then hauled by the younger kids to stacks in the fields. To 
     
     stack the hay you would tie a long rope to one side of the harness, walk 
     
     around the coil and take the other end of the rope to the other side of 
     
     the harness on the horse. You would now have the rope around the coil. 
     
     With a special tuck of the rope under the hay, you’d take the long reins 
     
     and jump on top of the coil and drive away. You could take 3 or 4 coils 
     
     at a time. l have never heard of this method being used anywhere else 
     
     to haul in hay. 
     
    

    
     Each family would have 15 or 20 stacks of hay. They would be sold 
     
     in winter when the ice would get strong enough for the horses to travel 
     
     on it. It would not be unusual to see 15 or 16 horses and sleighs on 
     
     a good day in winter hauling hay from the island. People would come 
     
     from as far away as Georgetown and Sturgeon to buy the hay. 
     
    
   
   
    
     FISHING 
     
    
   
   
    
     Fishing season was the “big time” on the Island, not only for those 
     
     who lived there, but for others who fished off Boughton Island’s shores 
     
     and came there to live from about the middle of April until July. May and 
     
     June was the lobster season back then as it still is today. The fishermen 
     
     lived in ‘shanties” that were built on farm land close to the shore and 
     
     near whatever factory they fished for. The majority fished “packers’ 
     
     gear“. This meant that the factory owners supplied fishermen with 
     
     boats, traps and everything they needed to fish, as well as the shanties 
     
     they lived in and their meals from the factory cookhouses. 
     
    
   
   
    
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