Page 66 - From Visits with John A. MacIsaac

ISSUE : Issue 54

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1990/6/1

(The house you had there at Sugarloaf--it has recently burned--who built that house?) Myself. I got the wood from beyond the top of that mountain. In the background of the house. I went up to the top, and went be? yond the top. Got a horse up there, hauled it out to the brink of the mountain, and then slid it down the mountain. Then, gath? ered it up with a horse in one day. (The horse didn't bring it down the moun? tain.) No. No, dear, no. We had to slide • it down. That'd come down there like bul? lets. (Wasn't that a long way to go for wood?) Oh, yeah, that's a long ways. Then, there was no lumber on the property home. Just firewood. Slid it down. And then the next day, went in with a horse and then gathered it all up in? to one pile, till we got the snow. And when we got the snow, we hauled it out to a mill. I took the lumber down to K. P. MacRae's. And for something or another, he didn't get go? ing. He was going to saw it right away. But I went to Maine that winter. And I stayed in Maine till down in April. We finished up in Maine, and I was to come home, to look after this lumber. So all right. I came home, and it wasn't sawed. So it laid there. 539-4413 539-4415 "GOOD DEALS ON GOOD CARS!" Located on the Sydney - Glace Bay Highway 1/2 mile before U.C.C.B. Menddson Variety Mart P'ra Paints INTERIOR PAINT Premium Eggshell Enamel Professional Semi-Gloss Enamel Gelled Ceiling Latex HIGH HIDE * NO SPLATTER c ?ews.p.e • . VVALLPAPER Over 1000 Rolls 50 Patterns 11 Sterling Rd. > GLACE BAY > 849-4510 I had nothing to do. Couldn't earn a buck nowheres. So I went up to see Neil Angus MacDonald (at the lobster factory). So he said there were three--three on for the same job that I was looking for. So, a day or so before the (lobster) factory opened, I got the word to go in the factory. So I worked in the factory. And then, we had to go back the 16th, to pack the lobsters from the end of the season. So when I come home--that'd be about the 17th or 18th--I got a little bain wagon that Allen Gwinn had. So I started to haul (the wood) up to Duncan MacDonald's. That was 5 miles away, up the road. And started the barn. So we had a barn for the hay. (But not the house.) No. The foundation of the house was put in in '26. That was in '23, summer of '23, that I built the barn. (And you made the hay that year?) Yeah. And put the hay there. In '26 I put the foundation down to the house. And boarded it and framed it, and shingled the roof. Then closed the windows up and--that way for the winter. I went out this day. Well, merciful king? dom above, that was quite a job. Eighteen- foot rafters, and me alone. And to try and put a roof over the basement. So I stayed there till dinnertime, working and work? ing. At last I said, "Ah, forget about it.'' So that night I went out to see if I could get someone. And that wasn't the easiest job in the world. Everybody was away--they were just coming home. And they had all their own winter's work to do. So, last I went out Neil's Harbour. I got a fellow out there with me. So he came. And in 14 days, we had it framed, rough boarded, and the eave finish on--in 14 days. But the sills--I had the sills laid-- everything was stuck right onto it. (Where were your people living while you built the house?) We had a little old one --it was just the one square, about 16 by 18. And I pulled that off of the basement. Then I had that much of the basement dug. So we stayed in that for that winter. That winter, and maybe the next winter. 24-HOUR SERVICE * ydney Diesel 81 Hydraulics Ltd. P.O. Box 100, North Esplanade, SYDNEY, Nova Scotia BIP 6G9 PHONE: Office 564-4488 • Home 736-6651 • FAX 539-9799 * SERVICE TECHNICIAN: BRUCE MOORE Over 25 Years Experience on Diesel Engine Repairs, Operating and Maintenance Complete Machine Shop Facilities , Complete Marine & Industrial Certified Welding & Burning Available Diesel Engine Services Power Take-Offs Repaired from installations to Overhauls Diesel Service You Can Trust

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