Our farm was 200 acres, the original owners of the farm being the Linnen family, who were loyalists. When the farm was bought in 1949 for my parents by my maternal grandparents, abut half was a mix of hay fields, pastures, gardens and an orchard, the other half, was forest, swamps and sand pits.. It was long and narrow, crossing three side roads.In 1956 a year after the fire, and rebuilding, of the house, another tragedy struck in the winter. Wet heavy March snowstorms had piled too much snow on the barn. The roof of the stables collapsed onto the stable killing the horses. The dairy cows had been moved that fall to a separate stable created in the other part of the barn, because of government regulations that stated that cows could not be kept with other livestock, so they were all safe.
Besides the dairy cattle we grew abut an acre each of potatoes, raspberries and strawberries for sale. For a time the sand pit was mined by a sand and gravel company for use on the 401.
On the farm we had an old Model T car cut down, that was used as a truck nick named “The Puddle Jumper” which was used to haul wood from the bushes, until it broke down for good.
After the horses were gone, we used a tractor on the farm and old Cockshutt”. During the summer we were kept busy in the garden, planting, pulling weeds, hoeing the potatoes, and picking potato bugs off the leaves of the potato plants, and putting them in cans that had coal oil in them.
Then there was the more enjoyable job of picking berries. Our grandmother paid us 2 cents per pint picked, which we saved to spend at the Spencerville fair.
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