Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
10 pioneer things...
Justin Ball
>Ernie posted a few days back about a covered wagon and mini axe he made for his nephew (?). I joined the thread far too late for anybody to take too much notice (my fault).
If one had a covered wagon and a draught animal, what 10 items would you take (circa 1880, Canadian/US prairies)? PS this will probably help with the kid's school project...
Justin
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Ernie Miller Topeka
>I need to stand up for Ryan on this one he did most all of the work I just helped with the plans and some of the tools. I have been thinking about this ten thing list and am still not sure what they should be. but here is a quick list.
1 crop seeds
2 ax
3 rope
4 candle wicks
5 flour, sugar & dry beans (can be used for seed)
6 Young heffer
7 saw
8 dutch oven
9 gun powder & shot
10 knife
11 Sweetie
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Justin Ball
>All very true! and number 11 without a doubt! How do I move my post from that old thread up (yup, I'm a techno-peasant)?
Justin
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>I'm not sure exactly how you sprout sugar trees, but I'm told that at least some pioneers did not even use a saw, substituting an axe instead. If that's so, "Sweetie" could rise up to #10.
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Wendell @ Murphy, TX
>Ouch!!! Sweetie didn't make the top ten. Hope she doesn't see this link especially since a young heffer made #6 ;-)
Wendell
Is a draught animal...
Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA
>Something like fat weasel ale? Just kiddin...
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>Well, sweetie is after all not a necessity, really just another mouth to feed, and should consider herself or himself fortunate to have made the list.
Sometimes I think I may have been born in the wrong century, but looking outside at freezing snow and rain I am glad not to be traveling west in a wagon train. I would need at least two wagons I think to take the tools I need.
Big box of cash!
Brian, Boothbay Harbor
>
Re: Is a draught animal...
Justin Ball
>Draught animal- an animal used for pulling loads, like a draught horse. However, I'd go with the cow, slow and weaker, but a supply of milk, and hence butter and cheese, possibly a breader for future stock, and if need be, fresh meat and leather- Todd H can jump in here and name a few other uses of a cow carcasse) if things got really bad. The big box of cash would be useless in a relatively cashless society, and would be best spent at the last outpost on other items- corn/ryr/wheat seed, hard tack, iron parts for a plow...
Re: Is a draught animal...
Bob Hackett
>I always thought a draught animal was anything you could train to fetch a beer.
Mainely,Bob-Who doesn`t have room for a Cyldesdale in his kitchen.An ox would be a good conversation piece though(thankfully we have vinyl floors).
If I combine....
Todd Hughes
>no. 6 and 11 can I take an extra saw ?.....Todd
Wandering OT - draught animal, sort of
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>Your ox comment...
My one jury experience was on a dog bite case -- a man was hosting a friend from out of town, and they were sitting in the kitchen, kicking back beers. They differed some on the number consumed, but it was enough that the guest, when rising to take care of a normal bodily function inspired by the beer intake, managed not to notice the owner's St. Bernard sitting there companionably with them and stepped on some delicate part of the dog.
It was the jury's general opinion, during deliberations, that anyone drunk enough not to notice a St. Bernard kind of deserved the consequences.
Uh......
cooper suter
>.....not sure whether to question your sexual or culinary tastes on this one.
Coop.
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Bob Hutchins in Central TX
>Didn't see any water or feed for the animals. Did stock have to subsist on found food? Nor did I see anything about medicines (such as they were) and first aid supplies.
Some dogs just don`t...
Bob Hackett
>put up with ANYONE messing with that barrel of spirits they have slung around thier necks.;^)
Mainely,Bob
BTW-the reason I went with the ox rather than a horse is that they don`t have to be shoed.SWMBO demanded that I take my hobnail boots off before entering the house,I`m just assuming that a horse would be out of the question.
Re: If I combine....
John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)
>Only 'maybe,' but it would definitely cut down on the number of times you would hear, "Hey, where'd you get that nifty baseball cap?"
Re: Is a draught animal...
William R. Duffield, on the Cohansey
>And when you buy the seed, don't forget the hops and a yeast starter.
Dead Horses
Jeff Schmidt (KY)
>Todd H can jump in here and name a few other uses of a cow carcasse[sic]
And I thought Todd was a more of a dead horse kind of guy. He really is a renaissance man!:-)
LOL! Thanks, Jeff
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>Opens a lot of interesting questions, going back to my main theory that we have no idea how good we've got it today. You'd have to carry some grain for horses I think, maybe oxen to, but they would mainly have to subsist on grasses eaten along the way, and you've have to camp by water whenever you could, but imagine you had to be capable of carrying a bit to. Don't forget the flint ;) This traveling west was a tough row to hoe any way you cut it, and most people nowadays would not be capable of doing it, and I guess a lot of people back in those days weren't capable either.
P.S. The plans for our dream house include stalls in the walkout basement for the horses.
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Cam Hedrick (WA4JKW)
>I like the stall idea, we've been talking about the next house for a while...since when finished building this one(Wife and I actually did the work and it took a year to build this two hundred year old log 1950 sf home).
We're talking a dog trot between the house a barn so the odors don't rise from below as is a problem with many of the old barn/houses in the Alps.
Since we're planning on moving to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia sometime...maybe sooner than later since the city is encroaching our current piece of land and driving the value even higher.
Anyhow, I've got to put the shop off the back of the house witha dog trot too, right?
What kind of horses do you have? We have Paints and Apps.
The Alps
Todd O. Cronkhite Native of Maine
>Cam,
Where in the Alps are you? I'm aware of only the Swiss, but I'm sure that there is more to them than that right? OH wait, there is also the French Alps come to think of it. Ahhhhhhhhh the Alps, conjures up images of Solitute, unpolluted, unspoiled, pleasant, simple and yodeling. Am I only dreaming? You say that the city is encroucing. I'm thinking that your definition of "city" is much different than mine eh? Do tell more won't you Cam?
Todd O.
Re: horses
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>My wife introduced me to horses, and our first date (blind) included a horseback ride; the first one I had taken since getting thrown off by the neighbors pony and getting 12 stitches across my upper lip. We have a quarter horse that we board at my in-laws mini farm, and they have a small quarter horse and a tennesee walker. They are mainly pasture pets, and we hardly ever ride anymore, but horses are great animals.
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Justin Ball
>I did suggest alcohol for cleaning wounds and numbing pain. Bandages can be found as the clothes one wears. Remember- the list is only 10 items! Think multi-purpose.
Take the cow as the draught animal- it can eat as it goes. After all, buffalo, though more aclimatized to the grasslands survive the winter on what they find under the snow.
Justin
Re: 10 pioneer things...
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>The difficulty with these lists, of course, is that the cutoff point is always set at some artificial point. I doubt the pioneers set out not to exceed ten items, or even 40, but rather to establish a "sufficient" kit.
When you see the size of their wagons, though (pretty small), it's rather impressive how much they could pack into a small space and at the same time how little they took into a completely unknown land.