Interviewee: Helen Hartley, Beth Ritchie, Elva Michelson
Interviewer: Mark Durtschi
 
Mark Durtschi: Okay my name is Mark Durtschi it is the fifth of September 1997 its really a nice day we are sitting on the old Michelson farm kind of in the back yard were up by the front gate right now. I have three people here with me; I have Helen Hartley, Beth Ritchie, and Elva Michelson who is there mom. We have two purposes here today, one is to look over the farm and the out buildings and talk about not only there memories of what the remember about it but also about what things were like probably around 1940 1945 something like that, where things were and that kind of thing.

Beth Ritchie: I wasn’t even born then.

Mark Durtschi: When were you born?

Beth Ritchie: 1949, so anything from then I will help you with.

Helen Hartley: I was born in 1939

Elva Michelson: There just a decade apart.

Mark Durtschi: Sister Michelson when did you come to this farm?

Elva Michelson: 1935 that was when we got married and I stayed at this farm for fifty nine years. I always said that I would stay with the boat until the boat went down something happened they changed my plans.

Mark Durtschi: Hopefully were not going to keep saying who’s talking so whoever is listening in 20,000 years want to know who it is that’s talking I hope you got voices memorized already. Right now we are standing at that old fat gate. Helen was telling me earlier that this gate is the same gate that she always remembers.

Helen Hartley: I am sure it was the gate that was put on right from the beginning, it’s an open wire gate rather than your gat that has the bars horizontally and vertically, this has the woven wire and then the one rod that kind of runs down it on an angle and the other one that goes straight up. But the old lock her is kind of unique and that been on since, the gate was here to. The fence right beside the gate used to be a wood fence which was handy because you could climb up on those and get up on your horse and hay Beth and you could never go through this gate with my dad without him saying did you lock the carrel gate and did you close the big gate and that’s the way our head’s were from that time to now. Every time we went any place the carrel gate and the big gate had to be locked.

Beth Ritchie: That’s right, we were food farmers.

Mark Durtschi: So you are telling me that the fence was different of the same as it is between the gate and the barn.

Helen Hartley: That’s pretty much the same that was always there, except they put wire there.

Mark Durtschi: Now if you from, standing at the gate if you look straight to the north you will see the granary and you will see a door up top and if you look of to the right side you will still see the markings where the steps used to be. What do you guys want to tell me about this?

Elva Michelson: Well the reason I had the steps there they would carry the bags of grain up those stairs and dump them into the bin, from up there. After that it was just a place for the kids to climb, got a little bit dangerous that way.

Beth Ritchie: It wasn’t just like a straight stairway to the bottom it came down and then, there was a platform about four feet by four feet right here.

Mark Durtschi: We are walking over to the granary now.

Beth Ritchie: So the edge of it would have come out like this.

Mark Durtschi: Okay so it went out beyond the east end of the wall and then it came south about four or five feet.

Beth Ritchie: And then there were two stairs that came down here. And then it was a big long stair. I think around the whole length of the, it was like a front platform that was about two feet high.

Mark Durtschi: She is talking about five six feet out from the east end of the building, there was a platform that isn’t there anymore.

Helen Hartley: It was like a granary with a staircase and a deck. It was very classy.

Elva Michelson: That was so we could get from the truck onto it and then climb the stairs.

Mark Durtschi: So these were the days before the auger I presume.

Elva Michelson: Very much so. 

Mark Durtschi: A lot of work to pack a lot of grain up there.

Helen Hartley: Dad used to talk about old Grandpa Michelson and even when he was fairly old he would through 100 pounds of wheat on his back and head up those stairs. He was a strong old man.

Mark Durtschi: 100 pounds of wheat and up you go, over and over again. When you were kids did you ever play around in here?

Helen Hartley: Oh yes, cops and robbers. Included that granary, the granary steps and up top and down through a hole into the wheat and that went on for Beth’s generation to.

Beth Ritchie: Oh yes 

Helen Hartley: You could go from the granary through the garages and then you could jump down and then run into the cow shed and then through the cow shed into the barn and into the barn loft.

Mark Durtschi: Lots of fun for a kid.

Helen Hartley: Amazing.

Mark Durtschi: Should we step into the granary and maybe you can remember what it used to be things like that.

Beth Ritchie: This shelf here just to the left. That used to be kind of a tool shelf and grinder for sharpeners and the old ambulance stuff like that was on there. They kept tools that they needed for

Elva Michelson: The workbench

Helen Hartley: There was a grinder right here

Mark Durtschi: That’s on the north end of the table.

Beth Ritchie: Which we used to, if you put a nail on it and turned it really fast you could make sparks. I am sure my father appreciated that. 

Mark Durtschi: You liked to do that just so you could see the sparks.

Beth Ritchie: It was kind of my form of delinquency. I am sure that dad was really impressed to have this grove in the middle of his grinder. He was very forgiving.

Mark Durtschi: Now I see some relevance of old wood, is that new or is that old

Helen Hartley: There old. 

Mark Durtschi: So this is visually the different sections he had in his granary he just lined up the board on the backside here and threw the grain in I presume.
Different types of grain sweet notes.

Mark Durtschi: And barley.

Elva Michelson: Yep

Beth Ritchie: As I remember it the oats were in this one.

Mark Durtschi: Straight in front of the door.

Beth Ritchie: And the barley was in that one.

Mark Durtschi: To the left

Beth Ritchie: And wheat was always in the one to the right.

Mark Durtschi: So this one on the right was that just one big one

Beth Ritchie: Yep

Mark Durtschi: Okay. 

Elva Michelson: He kept the chopped grain in the barn.

Mark Durtschi: When they chopped it. And Beth you say that you used to climb up the stairs on the outside and jump down through the hole into the grain.

Beth Ritchie: There was a big hole into the wheat bin.

Mark Durtschi: It’s covered up by plywood right now. So that must have been a great time to.

Elva Michelson: The hole isn’t that big anymore.

Helen Hartley: No it was big anybody could jump down there. But that little skinny one I must have been ten when I would go in and out of that one.

Mark Durtschi: Any more you can say about the granary, that you haven’t already said.

Helen Hartley: Well its unique in its building because it’s made by two by fours lied on their side. Until you get up into the attic part and then it’s made with planks.

Mark Durtschi: I guess that made it a lot stronger.

Helen Hartley: Much stronger, it held grain very well, it was also very warm to be here. When you were in there and the door was closed it was quite comfortable to work in. Then these buildings directly to the north of the granary tat are attached there was the garage where the old car was kept. And then next to that was either a truck or the old, old tractor. I imagine it when it was first built it was buggies that occupied both of those.

Beth Ritchie: The picture that I have has I think a tank wagon in this one. So I will send that one down.

Helen Hartley: Ya the old ford used to be in there didn’t it.

Beth Ritchie: In the forties and fifties the old truck went in there.

Mark Durtschi: Let me ask you; was there anything on the walls back in those days that you can recall?

Beth Ritchie: The crank.

Mark Durtschi: The crank for the car.

Beth Ritchie: Ya that was there sometimes in it but a lot of the time it was just hanging there. Or maybe it was a spare one or something but there was a crank hanging on the wall.

Elva Michelson: That was an era, happy to see it go by when the crank went wasn’t it.

Beth Ritchie: Yes here by the corral there used to be a big feeder pen. That ran the whole length of the corral where the cattle would eat and that was on the south side of to corral.

Mark Durtschi: You’re saying that it ran east and west?

Beth Ritchie: Yes. 

Mark Durtschi: There was a fence here to keep the cattle in?

Beth Ritchie: Yes it was a solid plank fence like the one that used to go in-between the garage and the cow pen. It was quite a high fence it was probably about six feet high wasn’t it. And it was solid planks and then this fence here went along between the barn and the corner of the old garage. It was like that one only a little bit shorter. I think the one thing that was a little bit different was that it had turned log that was against the major to keep the cows from running into it.

Mark Durtschi: I presume you only had cattle here in the winter time, in the summer they are out in the pasture right

Beth Ritchie: Yup except for a milked cow. The milked cow was always kind of in thins lot.   

Mark Durtschi: Did you keep them out in the pasture to.

Beth Ritchie: Sometimes we would keep the cows out at the lake during the summer time.

Helen Hartley: But we always had a milk cow or two.

Beth Ritchie: And there is a pasture out there so she could go in and out.

Mark Durtschi: Who milked the cow?

Beth Ritchie: I would I got good enough yes and its true about crying over spilt milk because I was coming right through here and I had my first pale of milk, I was probably about seven. I was so excited I was going to run up to the house to show everybody that I had finally milked this much milk and I tipped it over going through the fence. You do cry over spilt milk.

Mark Durtschi: You actually cried.

Beth Ritchie: Yes, I am still bitter.

Mark Durtschi: You go around the corner there and that’s where the milk cows were kept.

Elva Michelson: Yes

Helen Hartley: I tried to milk a cow but my dad said I would really wreck a cow fast so after two days of trying that was it, no more.

Mark Durtschi: Actually Helen you were lucky.

Helen Hartley: Well I had two brothers one just older and one just younger and so I guess he thought let them milk the cow.

Mark Durtschi: I presume they did right.

Helen Hartley: Yes they did.

Elva Michelson: If I ever milked the cow I would sit there so nervous I just shook till I tried to sit on the stool and milk at the same time, it was really a trick.

Mark Durtschi: Okay so now we are standing underneath the farm looking toward the east. I see there reverences of all things hanging there. What did they do make that wall out of an old gate.

Helen Hartley: Well look at that

Beth Ritchie: It looks like there is an old paint wagon doesn’t it.

Helen Hartley: It does in fact I wonder if that used to fold down at one time for whatever reason.

Mark Durtschi: Was it like that when you guys were kids.

Helen Hartley: Ya, we never really noticed it though.

Mark Durtschi: Look at this bit sticking through the wall up here in the upper left hand corner.

Helen Hartley: I don’t think it’s a bit

Mark Durtschi: I wonder what it looks like on the other side.

Beth Ritchie: Can you get that door open or is it wired.

Helen Hartley: It’s wired. We’ll have to go around from the front

Mark Durtschi: You can get in from the other side though.

Beth Ritchie: Yes

Helen Hartley: This was a nice sheltered area for cattle to feed that’s for sure.

Mark Durtschi: Did you ever have horses in here also.

Beth Ritchie: Ya, I remember trying to train this one it was really rangy, tangy, remember Pogo Helen.

Helen Hartley: Yes

Beth Ritchie: And somehow and I do not know how but I got my arm between the rope and the horse and the horse went around this post that’s set on the cement.

Mark Durtschi: It’s just the corner pole in here.

Beth Ritchie: I thought I was so lucky that I got the horse away but it caught. I just remembered like it was yesterday. My arm squashed up against there and the horse dancing around. The horses were kind of in and out. 

Mark Durtschi: We are standing I front of the barn now. I guess this door is the rowing door just like it’s always been I presume.

Helen Hartley: Yes it is

Mark Durtschi: The little door above us, what was it?

Elva Michelson: That was to run hay in and out.

Helen Hartley: Well that was more to scoop to clean the upper part of the barn. When you go around at the back, there is a place where the hay comes in. Now I remember dad pushing hay out of here and then picking it up at the bottom to disperse it to the chicken coup and so forth. That same door was really used a lot because once they started using bales, they could put the bale loader up to that and that the door where all the bales went in. It was also a door that a person could stand in and kind of watch the whole thing and monitor when the big hay fort came into the barn with the hay on it the person would stand there and watch the person tripping the rope that was standing here at the big door and then they would could yell to the person at the back and also to the person that was driving the horses or the tractor that was pulling the fork up. That would be running between here and the coal shed.

Mark Durtschi: Okay

Beth Ritchie: I remember the day we got the bale loader that was so exciting.

Mark Durtschi: The bale loader.

Beth Ritchie: Yes, it came on a huge truck. I remember going up to touch the truck because I had never seen a truck that big. Just as I went to touch the truck he let the airbrake off or something and it made a horrific noise. It scared me which is why I remember the day when the bale loader came. 

Mark Durtschi: We are just standing in front of the door now. Just looking at the lower level, is this kind of the way it was when you were all kids?

Beth Ritchie: Yep

Elva Michelson: They had all the horses all of these were installed like that. But later on we used that for chickens and at one time we used it for pigs, just about six of them.

Beth Ritchie: I think the pigs were down at that end.

Elva Michelson: Some of the time.

Beth Ritchie: Ya because I remember the chicken coup was built on to the east side.

Mark Durtschi: Beth was just pointing out the corner stall on the right hand side. Are these a bunch of horse stalls on the left or what?

Beth Ritchie: Yes

Mark Durtschi: Did you ever milk the cows in here.

Elva Michelson: No the milking thing was when you go through that door in there.

Mark Durtschi: That takes you back to the palace where we couldn’t get to from the other side.

Elva Michelson: Ya

Mark Durtschi: And this room on the right you say was chicken?

Beth Ritchie: Well it was when I was here you can still see the notch instead of cutting where the roofs came across. They could go into there was quite a big coup that was built on the east side.

Mark Durtschi: It’s gone now.

Beth Ritchie: Ya

Helen Hartley: This was used a lot to for hay down here. The chicken coup was over further for a long time. The chickens were in here for a while. The old farmstead was originally set up where. This was another hay storage place and it did have horses at one time.

Elva Michelson: They had lots of horses they needed it all.

Helen Hartley: Yep, also the old stalls are kind of unique because the hole there is where you put the horse’s reigns and tie it in there. There was the little place for grain and oats and so forth, and then the hay was down in the main drawer itself.

Beth Ritchie: The chickens always like to get in underneath where the horses oat box was and make nest under there so you had to find the eggs. 

Mark Durtschi: Hide and seek.

Beth Ritchie: Ya, kind of like a year round Easter theme happening.

Mark Durtschi: Well the electricity was around here was there electricity in here.

Elva Michelson: Oh no

Mark Durtschi: That was a little later.

Elva Michelson: Yes we put that in much later. Electricity came into Stirling in 1928 and they had it in the very essential places in the house and then later on they put it in the barn. 

Mark Durtschi: Well Elva you remember when there was no electricity in the barn.

Elva Michelson: Oh yes

Mark Durtschi: Well your wiring looks old.

Elva Michelson: That was a brighter day for the barn, to get rid of the kerosene lantern wasn’t it. 

Mark Durtschi: Now these posts on the back of these horse stalls.

Helen Hartley: Well they kind of got a little dip there some of them were, and I am sure was originally cut to hold some of the big old horse collars with a tack. There was always, even when I was a kid there was still horse collars hung on those, for the work horses and there was tack hung on them. 

Mark Durtschi: So there were they kept the horse collars and everything else. Where did you keep the saddles?

Helen Hartley: They were kind of hung down on that wall weren’t they Beth, that’s where I remember them, being. And often they were just across the major that wasn’t being used. That’s where I always kept mine. 

Mark Durtschi: When Helen talks about them being attached to the wall she was pointing at the front door.

Helen Hartley: Also the stalls, we would climb up on those to get on our horses. When we were little kids. And the bloody horses always knew that as soon as a kid climbed up on those they would step to the far side of the stall. We couldn’t get on them. 

Mark Durtschi: You were just a little kid then.

Helen Hartley: Ya, with short legs.

Helen Hartley: I remember one time when she was on a horse and she was running underneath the trees there on the west side of the lot. There was a big branch hanging down and I thought she will die its going to hit her right in the head. I couldn’t stand to look and I didn’t dear yell for fear I would frighten her. So I closed my eyes. And when I opened them, the horse was standing a little ways off and she was hanging from that branch and then she dropped to the ground. I said how did you do that, and she said I knew it would be smush on the tree, so I caught the branch.

Mark Durtschi: We are standing in the left far stall now.

Helen Hartley: The big work horses, I do remember them in here and eating, out of this. 

Mark Durtschi: How did you dad feed them?

Elva Michelson: Through the hay hole there.

Helen Hartley: Through the hay hole.

Mark Durtschi: So you look up on the roof and there is a slot there.

Beth Ritchie: We would just push hay through there. That one used to be a hay hole but they covered it in. It should be fairly square

Mark Durtschi: Now when Beth says that one she is talking about, you can see one hay hole just to the right of the of the manger there, if you go up almost al the way to the left of the manger and look straight up you can see some new boards there. There was defiantly a hole there. 

Elva Michelson:  There is one over every manger.

Mark Durtschi: Oh okay, I guess that red one there is a little to small then.

Elva Michelson: It would take quite a while. Now we are passing through the little rickety door there where they used to milk the cow, where you couldn’t get into from the back side.

Helen Hartley: There you could put the cows head through the boards and it would eat while you milked it.

Mark Durtschi: Was there three or four, how many?

Beth Ritchie: Well there’s probably three. 

Mark Durtschi: There are now teals up there now, were there at one time?

Beth Ritchie: Oh ya

Elva Michelson: It was there at one time.

Mark Durtschi: I presume that a cements new also

Helen Hartley: I remember when dad did that. That was quite a long time ago.

Mark Durtschi: You were probably nine so this was done probably during the fifties, this cement slab.

Beth Ritchie: I think it might have been done even later than that right Helen.

Helen Hartley: I am not sure some of it is kind of broken. It was done later. Mom said that, that window there was where they used to scoop it out.

Mark Durtschi: Oh ya

Beth Ritchie: And this is where all the little new calf’s were born, is back in this little area because it is an enclosed room and this was sort of the cow maternity ward. I always thought of this as the cows born.

Helen Hartley: I don’t remember anybody milking there.

Mark Durtschi: Okay so this was hardly ever used when you were kids.

Helen Hartley: I remember the cows eating there and the calves and that

Elva Michelson: We did fill that with hay in there.

Mark Durtschi: Okay so that was just a hay stash for eating.

Beth Ritchie: You know what is interesting is that you can still see the original side of the barn for the.

Mark Durtschi: Was the whole barn grey then

Beth Ritchie: It was

Helen Hartley: It would have been just like that because this was all added on after the barn was built and painted. But that got protected. This was always part of the shed.

Mark Durtschi: Anything else you want to say about this little room.

Beth Ritchie: I spent a lot of time on the roof because it was such a nice place but as a kid I thought that if you started right at the peak and ran hard enough. I was quite small at the time, and flapped your arms really good you could get some distance sort of flight time off the end of it, but you don’t.

Mark Durtschi: You tried it.

Beth Ritchie: Ya, I landed in a sort of strong manure pile which was okay.

Helen Hartley: We all jumped off; because you could climb up on the big fence and then up on the corner and it would kind of show that you were getting a little bit older when you were big enough. 

Beth Ritchie: I think it was part of the fact that some of the shingles were just hanging there.

Helen Hartley: I think not.

Elva Michelson: Those shingles were proof that Beth tried her wings.

Helen Hartley: They would brand cows sometimes in the corral and they we would sit on the calf shed and look down with great horror and whenever it was one of our cows you would hear the guy say that this is Beth’s calf be careful with this one.

Mark Durtschi: We are back in the main barn again we are talking about the little stall in the north east corner.

Beth Ritchie:I remember borrowing Rogger Snors horse one afternoon and that is actually a very small doorway to get a horse into. And I put the horse in there which is kind of dumb because I should have just put the horse in this one here which is where we kept the horses in the big stall. I let it eat hay all day and it got bigger and I couldn’t get it back out through the door.
 
Tape 1, Side 2
 
Mark Durtschi: Okay we are back at the front door again looking towards the west and what did you say that door was for there.

Elva Michelson: For the chopped grain.

Mark Durtschi: For the chopped grain, okay. That little box in there did you use that for anything in particular the little box attached to the wall?

Beth Ritchie: We would put horse brushes in it and, and dad always kept the cow stab right here so it was handy.

Mark Durtschi: You’re talking in those little holes right where the licence plate is. People used to do that a lot they would put there licence plates.

Helen Hartley:I  haven’t been up here for ages.

Beth Ritchie: Well Helen tell them your story from this barn loft

Helen Hartley: Well we always liked this barn loft. There was always a lot of hay in here; sometimes it would way up high up to the ceiling. There is the old fork hanging there, 

Mark Durtschi: Is that what they used to hall the hay up into the barn loft.

Helen Hartley: Yes that would drop out of that North end door down into a wagon full of hay and when that came through the door it was so loaded with hay it could barley get through the door. That’s the same original old track and hay cork. There were usually pigeons up here. This is also where the cats would come and hid there kittens up here in the hay. It always has such a nice smell. I had an accident up here actually, my uncle Lybbert was shooting a brand new high powered slingshot that my brother had bought down in Kalispell it was Morris and he had bought this. So of course I couldn’t stay in the house I had to come and see what they were doing. The rock hit the steel beam, came back and shattered my eye. It ruined the lens and the iris and I was very fortunate because if it hit my forehead I would have been dead meat because I don’t have a sinus cavity in the forehead so it would have hit directly against the brain. I’ve had two doctors tell me that you are really lucky that that rock hit your forehead you would have been out of here. That eye has taught me a lot about patience. It hasn’t really hurt my life in any way. There are some pigeons up there again we have always had pigeons. In fact there was always pigeon nest up there where the roof connects with the wall of the barn. They’d make little nests, lay their eggs and raise more pigeons. Try as we might they would always find a way to get up here and have there little pigeon heaven.

Mark Durtschi: I presume that when they were bringing hay in here you would have one maybe two men in here stacking the hay.

Helen Hartley: Ya as the fork would come up they would more or less direct where that hay would drop because there wasn’t to much stacking or pushing it around, once it came up on the fork they were very good at having it land where it was suppose to land and then they would drag it to the sides to begin with but when it started getting full it would just plop where it was suppose to go. But it was pretty much with hay form side to side, it was loose hay so the weight wasn’t as if you packed that many bales in today.

Beth Ritchie: Remember that trip rope that was attached to the fort did it go out that window?

Helen Hartley: Where did that thing go? The trip roe went down through a hole here

Mark Durtschi: We are at the door now, there is a little hole.

Helen Hartley: This is all original board so it wouldn’t have gone through there. This here part that has got the board here did in fact go from the outside but the trip rope that the person would pull. And that would let it down maybe Ralph or Glen Michelson would know a little more about that. But I do remember that there was a trip rope that the person would pull and that unload the hay.

Beth Ritchie: Well there is one right there on it.

Helen Hartley: That no doubt was connected to the main trip, that trip rope that is hanging down there.

Mark Durtschi: Is that everything or is there something missing off of that hook up there?

Helen Hartley: Gosh it looks like it’s complete to me. As you pull this end then it uhh.

Mark Durtschi: She is talking about the thing going around.

Helen Hartley: As you pull the rope you see, it would go up and the hay would release and slide off the pine. 

Mark Durtschi: So it wouldn’t slide off by itself?

Helen Hartley: No

Mark Durtschi: It’s just a balancing act then.

Helen Hartley: That is exactly what it was.

Beth Ritchie: Oh right because it would sit like this when it was full of hay.

Helen Hartley: Right, But it was really neat to watch that thing coming through that barn door there. And slide along this and it would drop down. Wow that was good stuff.

Mark Durtschi: You guys played up here a lot I am sure.

Helen Hartley: Darn near lived here. Beth more than me if that possible but in the winter time this was out gym. You would climb in the hay; Dad would cuss us a little bit because we would knock the leaves off the hay. It was a wonderful play area.

Beth Ritchie: Bales make kids now, I mean unless their folks use round bales. You could still make great forts. They were just huge building blocks. We made a little apartment in that corner there, with the hollowed out bales, I had a bed and quilts and libraries.

Mark Durtschi: I noticed that there were the hay drops. That looks quite original to there, the way they look there anyway.

Helen Hartley: I think this would have been later if there were chickens and pigs on this side it wouldn’t need the hay holes.

Mark Dutrtschi: So you would just stack hay on top there, Okay. I guess that the ladder down there at the end was to open and close the doors.

Beth Ritchie: Yes

Helen Harley: It really held a lot of hay, just a phenomenal amount of hay.

Mark Durtschi: I am surprised that the floor was strong enough to hold that much hay.

Helen Harley: Well it was loose hay, and that made a difference

Mark Durtschi: Let’s go back upstairs then.

ElvaMichelson: Del Kiddle built this place

Helen Harley: Dell Kiddle? Huh

Mark Durtschi: You could probably talk quite a bit about this barn and the functionality of it.

Helen Hartley: Well we used to have how many horses on a team that would pull the plough and that.

Mark Durtschi: Well I know that they had some fours but maybe some eights as well.

Elva Michelson: Some four some six

Helen Harley: So there was two work teams in here a lot of the time, eight horses, Grandpa Michelson had a horse named Dewie that pulled his buggy.

Mark Durtschi: On the stairway if you look just to the right side of there used to be a door right there that closed off the upstairs.

Helen Harley: I think that one reason why that was there was to keep the pigeons from flying through the door and upstairs. Dad used to say keep that door shut so the birds won’t get up in there.

Mark Durtschi: You say he was never successful though.

Helen Hartley: No he used to enter that cubical there at the top and I don’t know how on earth they all got in but they could always find a rout.

Elva Michelson: Millions of them.

Beth Ritchie: There used to be one of those big ventilation things on the top there, I don’t even know what they are called but they. You see them on a lot of barns but they are about maybe five feet square and they have lubbers on them with the ventilation for the hay loft that’s where the weather vein used to sit. Then it gradually tumbled off and then whoever finished taking off that part took the weather vein and just put it back on top of the barn there.

Mark Durtschi: The bay, that was on the front here.

Beth Ritchie: Right in the middle. 

Helen Hartley: Its still there.

Beth Ritchie: We put it back there but the ventilation thing for the barn isn’t. 

Mark Durtschi: We are walking over to the east side of the barn now, so this is where the chicken coop was at one time.

Beth Ritchie: Was that a later kind of thing because I remember it always being there

Helen Hartley: The chicken coup used to sit right over there. The toilet used to sit at the end of the path Right at the other side of the fence.  

Mark Durtschi: Let’s go look at that outhouse.

Elva Michelson: The pig yard was over there.

Helen Hartley: That right the pig pen was there and the chicken pen was farther south.

Elva Michelson: Then we pulled the chicken pen over there beside the barn.

Helen Hartley: That is the heart of the farm, those barns absolutely.

Mark Durtschi: I see the lightning rods there on top. I see a pigeon up there. You have got to tell me about this outhouse.

Helen Hartley: Well I will tell you one thing a bout this outhouse it was probably one of the bigger ones. Michelson’s were big people. No one ever tipped this one over on Halloween because it would have taken lots of people to do it. It would be like trying to tip the coal house out there.

Mark Durtschi: It’s a two seater it looks like. 

Helen Hartley: People often ask about two seaters, they say how come they all had two seats. Do people go in them in pairs? I said no ones for kids and there was a big seat for big people.

Mark Durtschi: That is a very big outhouse I haven’t seen one that big before. It’s almost like a little house.

Beth Ritchie: Ya it was big, it used to have the sears catalogue and any fruit wrappers during fruit season and the newspaper, and then we gradually progressed to toilet paper around this country. That was a big thing. One thing to about that one is that it had a nice widow at the back so it was light.

Helen Hartley: It even had a glass widow.

Beth Ritchie: Yes and a lot of them just had a little moon shaped slit on the door and that was the source of light but this one did have a decent glass window at the back.

Mark Durtschi: Do you know what that moon shape is for people keep asking you that.

Helen Hartley: I don’t know I think it was just a logical shape to let a little bit of light in. and it wouldn’t let a lot of rain in so they couldn’t put a big hole so they put a little tiny one.

Beth Ritchie:I  was always afraid that someone was lying there waiting to scare me so I would sprint both ways.

Mark Durtschi: Did they ever get an indoor bathroom while you were at home?

Helen Hartley: They got it just about the time I left. 

Elva Michelson: We had a chemical in there. I don’t know how we put that in but, we put a pressure tank in so you would have water in the lobby.

Beth Ritchie: So when did pluming come to this corner of town?

Elva Michelson: 1954

Helen Hartley: I think it would have been after that. I think Joe Spackman was the mayor at the time that they were doing that.

Mark Durtschi: Could we wander over to the house a little bit, would that be alright?

Beth Ritchie: Sure

Mark Durtschi: Now this little building right behind the house. To the north of the house is that the coal house you were talking about?

Elva Michelson: Yup that was the coal house. They would pull up here with the truck and through the coal in at that outside window.

Mark Durtschi: Where did you buy your coal from did you get it from Lethbridge?

Elva Michelson: Ya or some times they would go up to the river and get it up there. As far as I know they always just went to Lethbridge.

Mark Durtschi: Okay you do remember going to the river sometimes to get coal, by hand, manually did it out himself.

Elva Michelson: Not defiantly. Some of them did but I am not sure if it was my husband or my dad.

Mark Durtschi: Now I see at the south west corner of the coal shed is where the cistern is.

Beth Ritchie: Yes that was a pretty good sized cistern and a good one it never leaked, I don’t know how they mad that but that the original old cistern and it was a very good one we used to have the big old pump there and you’d go out in the winter time and pump away and that’s where we got our water and later it was put inside.

Mark Durtschi: Did you ever put a pump in it. I am talking about and electric pump.

Elva Michelson: No we put the pressure up it so we could pump it underground, into that lobby right there. Should I tell you how we got the water into it?

Mark Durtschi: Sure.

Elva Michelson: Well the ditch came, the town ditch came past the place and it had a little ditch coming in to this.

Mark Durtschi: She is pointing toward the south.

Elva Michelson: And it, they a little, right where that cement thing is there, setline place right there, had gravel and sand in it for the water to seep through.

Mark Durtschi: You’re saying that that little square remnant I the ground was a filter?

Elva Michelson: Yes

Mark Durtschi: Okay

Elva Michelson: And the water from that ran down that and into the ground there.

Mark Durtschi: So there was an underground channel from the screen over to there and that was full of gravel and stuff. 

Elva Michelson: Yup so the water was pretty clean.

Mark Durtschi: Did you go ahead and chlorinate it then anyway?

Elva Michelson: No

Mark Durtschi: No need

Elva Michelson: It was clean

Mark Durtschi: Clean water, I have always wondered how they got the water through the top of the cistern and I have learned that they never did. Now this round hole, well it’s not a hole anymore is that a board, what is that hole in the ground there?

Elva Michelson: It has been here since I came I think.

Mark Durtschi: Oh really. Well there is not much there, I see.

Beth Ritchie: Is that where they put in the sewer

Mark Durtschi: Oh yes it is. So that’s all afterwards isn’t it?

Elva Michelson: Yup

Mark Durtschi: Okay lets; I understand that this house was built in sections, when you first moved in how big was it.

Elva Michelson:  It was all here.

Mark Durtschi: It was all here when you moved in.

Elva Michelson:Yes Grandpa Michelson at first be out that part of this kitchen. And then when they got so they could they built all this onto it. They have got a small basement but it was a good one, it never leaked. It had ordinary walls in it but it leaked so he put a mixture like that in so that wall is that thick.

Mark Durtschi: That thick, you talking at least a foot aren’t you.

Elva Michelson: Ya it’s about fifteen inches thick. So it was a good one.

Mark Durtschi: Just for fun was it your uncle that died when he was out ice skating with you.

Helen Hartley: No it was uncle dre a lot. He used to enjoy taking his old ice skates onto the pond. He was defiantly the one, who worked with the horses the most, but anyway he was taking the horses over to water, to that pond, it was an old pond that was just down from the Michelson farm across the road 

Elva Michelson: He was leading a big stallion over there

Helen Hartley: Ya any way he just dropped and he was gone very, very fast heart attack. A lot of the Michelson family did have a heart problem that seemed to run pretty much through them. That’s how much of the Michelson died; they had heart problems that they lived with for many years.

Mark Durtschi: I understand that he stayed in the Michelson farm until the burial and that was standard procedure back then. Could you explain a bit about how that happened Elva?

Elva Michelson: That was before I was married.

Mark Durtschi: I understand that that happened when you were a little kid

Helen Hartley: No uncle Niels died when I was a little kid. He was along the irrigation ditch when he had a heart attack. He was trying to get his nitro glycerine tablets open, his pills were scattered at the side of him he was to far gone and he couldn’t get them under his tongue and he died. That was another heart problem.

Mark Durtschi: Was he kept in a home to?

Helen Hartley: Yes in fact he is the first person that I ever remember that had passed away and he was in there living room in their home and I would assume that it was another home burial. They certainly didn’t have the time to let a body sit like they have now. I don’t know how they did handle him.

Elva Michelson: They had them at home when he first died they had him in the house but I am sure that they had him up at the funeral home to get him ready for the funeral.

Helen Hartley: That would have been in the forties so.

Mark Durtschi: That would have been a little later.

Helen Hartley: They would always have the casket open in the home rather than in the home.

Elva Michelson: He was at home and everybody was pretty upset. It was quite an experience. 

Mark Durtschi: Should we wander around to the east side of the house.

Beth Ritchie: Sure

Helen Hartley: Now this area in here Mark used to be a small porch that wasn’t connected until just a few years ago. But that was a small porch. The other porch didn’t start until you get to these two pillars here. Where the old porch area stopped and there was a wall on this side and it had a little diamond shaped. 

Mark Durtschi: We are talking about the north east corner of the house.

Helen Hartley: That right and there was a little diamond shaped widow.

Mark Durtschi: That wall that was closing in the porch.

Helen Hartley: That window looked to the north.

Beth Ritchie: So it was a nice porch.

Helen Hartley: It had the little porch railings, the little white picket type railings that went around it.

Elva Michelson: We sure had a lot of suppers and party out on this porch.

Mark Durtschi: Now this interesting window, diamond shaped window.

Helen Hartley: And that goes up into the stairwell it goes up stairs. 

Mark Durtschi: Is there any chance a touch of Scandinavian design here

Helen Hartley: Ya you can see Scandinavian design all around here even the barnyards the way all the barn yards connects is very similar the courtyard type barnyards that you see in Denmark, very similar.

Elva Michelson: Only there they have their house connected to it to

Helen Hartley: Yup and the house was never connected in this case but the out building were connected.

Elva Michelson: This has nothing to do with architecture but I planted a spruce tree for each of my grandsons and I believe I could remember who they were for. That one out there was for the first son.

Mark Durtschi: To the left straight north of the porch. And when she says her son she is pointing to Beth.

Beth Ritchie: That Tim.

Elva Michelson: Ya that’s for Tim and that one there is for Keith that’s my oldest grandson. Then there are the other three and the one out in front there are the others.

Mark Durtschi: Is that when they were born.

Elva Michelson: That’s why some are bigger than others. Each one that came along I put one in. 

Mark Durtschi: That’s why some are bigger than others.

Elva Michelson: That’s my little Sacred Grove.

Mark Durtschi: Oh really, Sacred Grove. For those who don’t understand that’s to do with Joseph Smith and the sacred grove where he went

Elva Michelson: Well that’s pretty important. 

Mark Durtschi: Sure was. We are walking around to the south east corner of the house.

Helen Hartley: One thing that I am glad to see is that they have some ropes up here to train the Virginia Creepers up here on the west side, because when I was a kid there was always creepers on that side of the porch.

Mark Durtschi: These pots were they here by any chance then.

Helen Hartley: No

Mark Durtschi: That’s new

Helen Hartley: Grandma, being Danish, she loved her flower beds and she had flower beds off in there and there was also an old apple tree and that old apple tree had very very nice apples on it I am sure. It was brought in from the Idaho or Utah area originally but that was a nice tree the trees that are planted off In there, there was four, but she called it her summer house there was four trees there and she could sit there in the shade of them and have cookie and drinks. 

Mark Durtschi: The little trees that are in the south east corner of the lot. Cookies and trees.

Helen Hartley: When you’re Danish you never ever serve one dessert at a dinner, you always serve a variety of four to six different types of cookies, cakes, or pies.

Mark Durtschi: That’s quite the good tradition.

Elva Michelson: She used to hang up a dish towel out on the cloths line to show that the coffee was ready and they would come over and sit out there and have a little break.

Helen Hartley: The garage that next to the house is also a new item because the car was never kept this close to the house. It was always back in the barnyard area. 

Mark Durtschi: So there was nothing there when you were here.

Helen Hartley: The irrigation ditch, we have got to talk about the irrigation ditch. There was an irrigation ditch that ran on the public property just outside.

Mark Durtschi: On the other side of the sidewalk.

Helen Hartley: Right and then there was also brought the water into the place here and watered the gardens and so forth and so we could always swim and paddle and muck about in the irrigation ditches around here and sail homemade boats and pea pod shells and anything else that we could race down the irrigation ditch

Beth Ritchie: There was a lovely little bridge that went across just where the sidewalk ends now and that’s where the ditch went it was about, I don’t know what do you think about three feet deep.

Elva Michelson: I remember me working in the garden and someone yelled Helen is in the Ditch. We ran over and she was face down in the ditch just off that little foot bridge right down in there.

Mark Durtschi: I guess she was drowning then.

Elva Michelson: Ya if someone hadn’t had fished her out. We worried about the ditches a little bit.

Beth Ritchie: Most people said coal shed, we never said coal shed it was always coal house.

Mark Durtschi: House

Beth Ritchie: The coal house.

Mark Durtschi: Was this sidewalk here then, or is that new.

Beth Ritchie: New because our initial are in there somewhere.

Mark Durtschi: So you put the sidewalk in when the girls were still little.

Helen Hartley: The sidewalk here had, I remember boards on each side, to kind of define…
 
Tape 2, Side 1
 
Mark Durtschi: What were you saying Helen?

Elva Michelson: I was on the board of management with a lodge over there in Raymond and these were for sale for anybody over there at that time, so I bought them.

Beth Ritchie: Oh these cinder block things.

Mark Durtschi: These cement squares that you have for the sidewalk now.

Elva Michelson: Ya

Mark Durtschi: So they weren’t made there they were brought in

Beth Ritchie: That was in the last twenty years.

Mark Durtschi: So people used their coal cinders for their sidewalks back then.

Helen Hartley: They did and also we used them on the driveway that went from the garage and through the barnyard but cinders were used a lot. They would use them and put gravel on top of them because I guess they would absorb water good or something.

Elva Michelson: No they were dry.

Helen Hartley: But the cinder path to the biffy, that was very common everybody had a cinder path.

Mark Durtschi: News to me.

Helen Hartley: Out at the side of the coal house to on the east side of that there was a big ash pile and that is where you would dump all your ashes all winter and then in the summer, in the spring when the snow had melted you would disperse the ashes from the pile around to your various walk ways.

Mark Durtschi: Now when it was wet or even when it was dry I imagine you tracked a lot of ash dust into the house.

Helen Hartley: Oh ya I am sure that we did.

Elva Michelson: It wasn’t dusty though it was quite course on the surface there

Mark Durtschi: I guess coal is that way though isn’t it.

Elva Michelson: It used to be all the sidewalks in Raymond were either boards or ashes.

Mark Durtschi: Interesting

Elva Michelson: Kid used to have a swing over there between those trees.

Beth Ritchie: Oh and a tree house down at the big cotton wood at the corner. That was a kind of many generational tree houses because I know that.

Helen Hartley: Urban, Grant, Glen, Ralph, and Dwain were the original builders of the tree house and the rest of us maintained it and used it.

Mark Durtschi: You’re talking about the southwest corner of the property. The tree is not there anymore is it.

Helen Hartley: No

Mark Durtschi: Was that the one that was just taken out here about a year ago?

Helen Hartley: Nope its still there they have topped it and trimmed it, they have done there very best trying to preserve it they have hade experts out trying to keep that tree. So that is why it is pruned back the way that it is and hopefully it will be able to be maintained for a long time yet.

Mark Durtschi: I guess that all you kids slept up in the upstairs.

Beth Ritchie: Yes

Mark Durtschi: Was there any bedrooms downstairs

Beth Ritchie: Just mom and dads bedroom was downstairs us kids all have bedrooms upstairs, that was nice we had a lot of room had nice bedrooms in the winter we had cold bedrooms.

Mark Durtschi: How cold is cold?

Beth Ritchie: Well if you had a glass of water sitting by you bed you would often wake up in the morning and there would be just a thin, thin layer of ice on the top of the water.

Helen Hartley: Before the natural gas came in

Beth Ritchie: You put lots of blankets on.

Mark Durtschi: I presume you slept more than once?

Beth Ritchie: Ya we did

Mark Durtschi: Then in the morning it was a mad dash to the kitchen, to the kitchen or the outhouse.

Beth Ritchie: That’s right, both. Those window panes got mighty draftee.

Mark Durtschi: Did you guys keep anything under the bed.

Beth Ritchie: It wasn’t done very often, if you were sick or something but there was a lot of literature on the old thunder storms that’s for sure if it was blizzarding or something outside well then there was this old pot in the back hall but that people would use. Mostly you would put on you boots and you headed out down the cinder path if you were well enough to breathe you walked to the toilet

Elva Michelson: Once I had a bunch of girls here helping to clean, after they had finished I food and that with them, some of them were on the back porch eating but some of them thought it would be fun to clean the windows upstairs so they thought it would be more fun to sit on the roof and eat. So there are some of them upstairs like a bunch of little pigeons and they thought that that was. I don’t know how many hours Beth used to sit up on the deck and look down on the world and pretend to study and.

Beth Ritchie: There is a flat part on the very top of the roof

Mark Durtschi: Oh there is.

Beth Ritchie: If you step back you can see it its maybe about six feet square, good comfy place to do your study.

Elva Michelson: You would come out the widow to the top.

Mark Durtschi: So you would come out the window and up the valley to the top

Beth Ritchie: I am sure that I wasn’t the first generation to do that.

Mark Durtschi: Did you learn it from the older ones?

Beth Ritchie: Yes I did.

Helen Hartley: And also the window that you see, guys that was out on their horses at night and was wondering if you could come out one last time they would come up on there horses and through little pebbles that would hit the glass of your window. But mostly we ignored them.

Mark Durtschi: So you are telling me that if you heard little pebbles hitting the window you knew that it was a boy but you didn’t pay any attention.

Beth Ritchie: Well there was the odd time that I would stick my head out to see who was there.

Mark Durtschi: Well those are good stories for sure.

Beth Ritchie: What else. 

Helen Hartley: About that porch light that bloody porch light if we weren’t in by the stroke of midnight mother would go over there and she would flash the porch light on and off. And we knew that when the porch light started to flash that we had better come inside.

Mark Durtschi: You were out here talking with boys or something.

Helen Hartley: Doug Hartley remembers that porch light quite well. He would say, Well the porch light is going get in the house. Anyway we had a lot of fun we had a lot of space to live around here a lot of yard and a lot of health and a lot of barn. Certainly we had ample room to grow.

Mark Durtschi: I presume that when you two were girls that this was one of the larger houses in Stirling. 

Helen Hartley: Yes it was.

Beth Ritchie: Ya we had a lot of parties here

Mark Durtschi: Because of the size of the house.

Beth Ritchie: Yep particularly the size of the living room if there were young women’s special evenings and other stuff was often held here because the house was so big and it could accommodate things like that. There was a lot of  fire sides and special evenings for young women’s was held here and there was also a lot of the scout stuff that was held here because there was kind of a fire pit off in that area and they could have bonfires and stuff here

Mark Durtschi: On the east.

Elva Michelson: By the lilac bush. I thought that the guys in primary, the eleven year olds and I think two or there years. I never did have any kids tell me that I gave them a good inspiration about faith but they do remember the good cookouts that we had and all the fun parties that we had around here. Which is more important anyway?

Beth Ritchie: Well I guess a balance.

Mark Durtschi: Yup a balance.

Elva Michelson: Well I had a good feeling about it anyway

Mark Durtschi: Should we walk over to the South west corner of the property just to see if there is anything that you want to add, Oh here is the name in the sidewalk, got a Pam.

Beth Ritchie: That’s Bruce Andrea Michelson and Porsha Adele Michelson and I wrote Beth in here I think right here but you see I wrote some of it on to the little piece of wood that frames the sidewalk and of course he didn’t tell me not to

Mark Durtschi: So you have got half of a Beth there.

Beth Ritchie: I do, But its there

Mark Durtschi: Oh look here is another one

Helen Hartley: Oh there is Beth Michelson and oh right that was later on wasn’t it

Mark Durtschi: So this is the piece of sidewalk almost to the city sidewalk. So now that huge tree that I see in the corner there that used to be the old tree house

Beth Ritchie: Ya it was enormous it was so amazing

Helen Hartley: And I am really happy to see how well it’s coming back

Mark Durtschi: Now this is all grassy area here in a little patch where the tree would have been would that have been used for anything in particular.

Helen Hartley: That was just part of the place where our horses came and chewed on the grass and also they kept, in this yard, they kept the old binder, the combine, and the old john Deere tractor and there was quite a lot of machinery to be parked. There was a lot of little trees in here it wasn’t so much grass as it is now. There was a lot more trees and bushy things. Also over in this area I remember that on a great big wooden stand there was a was an old grind stone, I guess I was just because it was close to the implements that was quite a large grind stone. 

Mark Durtschi: What about your neighbours?

Helen Hartley: Well the neighbours when we were growing up was Dan and Lois Michelson and their kids they had a daughter about my age, Arlene and she and I played a lot together.

Mark Durtschi: Where was there house?

Helen Hartley: Right there.

Mark Durtschi: Straight to the West which is a white house now.

Helen Hartley: And they had a boy that was just about Beth’s age, Bruce.

Mark Durtschi: Was that about your only neighbours then are all these other houses new.

Helen Hartley: The Roivy family lived over there

Mark Durtschi: To the south

Helen Hartley: They were wonderful neighbours

Beth Ritchie: I thought that they lived over there

Helen Hartley: They did later, they lived there for a long time and then Bill Selk lived in that little home.

Elva Michelson: On that corner down there afterwards. 

Beth Ritchie: I didn’t know that. Can I just say one thing a bout the barn, the shape of the barn, a lot of people on the parries say that it is an old hip roof barn but it isn’t it’s a grabble roof barn if you look it up in barn books that a grabble roof barn. And from what I read about them that shape where it sort of comes out before the peak at the top they used a lot of people, they would have them on big farms where they have a lot of cattle and they would use that sort of angle of the roof to hang the carcasses to cure. 

Mark Durtschi: This was after they had dried it.

Beth Ritchie: I don’t know much about the meat thing it was kind of an odd thing to think about why they would have a roof like that or maybe.

Mark Durtschi: Well Elva did you hang your meat up underneath the eves. 

Beth Ritchie: No

Elva Michelson: No, we didn’t

Beth Ritchie: I shouldn’t have event thrown that it but its one thing that I read about a gamble roof barn. On the prairie most people say that they are hip roof barns but they are not.

Mark Durtschi: I see the upside down horseshoe on the upper door of the granary, dose that have any significance at all?

Elva Michelson: Everybody had to have a horseshoe nailed up where ever they could nail it. I don’t know we don’t have very many of them on that barn in spite of all the horses

Beth Ritchie: That one brought us all good luck must have.

Elva Michelson: The only lucky one I guess.

Mark Durtschi: Where did the one fence stop we are still at the southwest corner of the property.

Elva Michelson: It stopped at the granary

Mark Durtschi: So where this wire fence is now it didn’t.

Beth Ritchie: It was a wire fence I think that some of these are pretty old posts.

Mark Durtschi: Probably original posts.

Beth Ritchie: The two by four parts was just on either side of the fence just to give it extra support I think. This part used to be very grassy

Elva Michelson: That thing doesn’t want to die.

Beth Ritchie: Nope it still keeps on coming back its good.

Mark Durtschi: Might have a hard time shutting that gate.

Beth Ritchie: We shut that so many times.

Mark Durtschi: I understand that this house was repositioned when he went out with those bales of hay.

Beth Ritchie: Oh well ill have to talk to him later. The fence here was hit just a few moments ago by a guy that was taking some hay.

Mark Durtschi: Well I would like to thank all of you for coming to do this it will really help the Stirling historical society. Help put all the stuff back together again so thank you.

Beth Ritchie: You are truly welcome

Helen Hartley: You’re welcome

Elva Michelson:I  am just thankful that they are not going to bulldoze everything down that it is going to be here.

Mark Durtschi: It will be here in fifty seventy-five years.

Transcribed By Clinton Dovell