Upper Canada Village Pt III - unexpected treats

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This is the third and final part of a series on Upper Canada Village. It deals with two 19th century activities that I was fortunate enough to come upon unexpectedly, and which will be unknown to most readers.

Wood was doubtless the single most important commodity in the 1800s; almost every structure was built of wood, and aside from their metal parts so were farm equipment, wagons and other means of transportation. There were no artificial materials, so furniture too was universally made of wood. Finally, it provided fuel for cooking, and kept the houses warm in the winter. It had to be made available in many forms, shapes and sizes, so sawing logs to make lumber and smaller pieces was essential, but there were neither engines nor electric motors to drive saws in the early part of the 19^th century. While visiting UCV, I was treated to a demonstration of a horse-powered “sawmill”, which proved how ingenious our ancestors were in that simpler age.

In the 19^th century, one of the most important members of any rural community was the blacksmith. He made and repaired tools and farm implements, and kept the machinery in early mills in working order. Perhaps most significantly, he was also the village “farrier”, the man who shoed the horses and oxen that were the mainstays of every farm. In this article we will watch a blacksmith/farrier shoe a horse. It’s very unlikely that you will meet a farrier or see one in action today unless you live in rodeo or horse-racing country, or in an area where farmers (e.g. Mennonites) still use horses. Nevertheless this is still a valid occupation, and you can get more information from the Western Canadian Farriers Association at www.wcfa.ca , or from a Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrier .

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Comments

[Rainyb]

Great pose, great shot ;o)

[Rainyb]

I can almost smell the wood from here ;o)

[Nanci Phelan]

High Hoe Indeed!!!
You should make one of your short trips down this way sometime Fred. You would have such fun exploring all the Mennonite sites and I'm sure you'd find some I'm not aware of. Your experiences sure make me think of just how much manual labour our ancestors did each day. How quickly technology has taken over our lives and made us take this easy living for granted. The horse drawn saw operation is most interesting.