Cape Breton's Magazine

Walter Dugas CONTINUED FROM INSIDE FRONT COVER (Vous utilisez quelle sorte de bois?) Ca ne fait pas de difference--on a use du prusse et puis ce qu'on appelle nous autres du sa- pin--ca ne faisait pas aucune difference. Puis c'est une bouchure qu'est durable parce que j'en ai connu qu'etaient suppo- sees quand elles ont ete defaites qu'elles avaient 90 ans de vieux. C'est solide, le vent n'a pas de prise la-dessus; ca fait du meme temps un abri pour le jardinage. Je suis la seule personne a Arichat Ouest qu'a cette sorte de cloture-la! '(Combien de temps 9a vous a pris?) J'oser- ais dire que j'ai peut-etre commence en '75, le commencement de 1975. Quand je 1'ai com- mencee, je I'ai commencee dans le printemps et je I'ai finie dans une couple de mois, Ca pris plus longtemps que ca pour couper le bois pour la faire, J'avals coupe I'hi- ver d'avant ca, les petits bois, presque tout I'hiver, j'allais tous les jours qu'il faisait beau en couper. The idea for the fence was that I had seen old ones. My old grandfather had one and many others like him. It ended that the last one which existed, existed maybe three years ago and then it was taken down and burned. And me, I said that I would like to make one like it to be able to say that I'm the last one in West Arichat that made one of those fences. And then, I wasn't allowed to do heavy work. I would go into the woods and I'd cut the small pieces of wood, that were maybe three-and-a-half, four feet long, and I would cut forty at a time and I would tie them together. A man would go by with his tractor and I would throw them on his load and he would bring them to me. I fin? ished by braiding the fence. It took 1740 pieces to make the fence for the little gar? den I have there. (Who taught you to braid?) No one taught me how to braid it. I had seen people repair? ing those fences when they had them, the old people, I had watched them do it, how they did it, and then I did the same thing. There were three ribs: one on top, one in the middle and one on the bottom. One would pass one of the small pieces of wood on the side of the bottom rib, then on the side, the inside, of the middle rib returning on the outside of the top rib. One would do the opposite with the next one and again the opposite with the next one until you had finished going around. One would have ribs sixteen, seventeen feet long. The ribs are nailed to the posts but the small braided pieces of wood aren't nailed. And then you continue. There are maybe--we would call them pages--there are maybe three, six, eight, ten pages to go around the small garden that I plant, a small sum? mer garden. (What is a page?) A page is a section, let's say sixteen to eighteen feet wide. It depends on how long the ribs were cut, and the pickets. You attach the ribs from one picket to the next, the three ribs first. And then you braid. We call them poles but I think the old people called them splints. You braid the splints for one page and when that's finished you make another three ribs, and you continue until you've finished go? ing around, CONTINUED NEXT PAGE Our thanks to Jocelyne Marchand, who visited with Walter Dugas and transcribed and translated from her tapes. The tape is part of the collection, the Beaton Institute, College of Cape Breton. Stores To Serve You CAPE BRETON SHOPPING PLAZA SYDNEYRIVER • ' Featuring >W'. ,,' ''''''''' • , ,''' 3''' • • Sobeys & Shopper's Drug Mart "'9'"''''"" = Open Daily • ""'10 p.m. Opei TIM Plenty Of Free