IMH 74:4 362

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Tuesday, December 28th.

The mercury stood about at zero all day and the snow fell
sometimes fast sometimes not so fast till night when it became
nearly clear about nine o'clock. The snow was perhaps an inch
deeper or about three inches, not more on the level, in all.
Father did nothing besides the chores and sitting in the house.
I chopped wood occasionally to keep in whack. Alvin tried to
squiz but it was rather cold. John Kivett was here this forenoon
to borrow the sausage-grinder. It was discovered to be broken
but he took it all the same. It will probably never return here
whole; as it left.

Teaching note. The practice of neighborly borrowing seems to be a constant in communities to this day-- especially rural communities. Getting them back in the shape the item left or even getting them back doesn't seem to have changed. The only thing that has changed is what is borrowed. Ask the students if they can speculate why the sausage-grinder was being borrowed (yes, they were were going to grind sausage, but what accompanies that need is that likely the Kivetts were butchering a hog. Cold weather was a good time to butcher because you had an nature made freezer until the meat could be smoked and preserved in that manner. Beef cannot be smoked in that manner. It can be made into jerky. but that requires a great deal of time. Thus the hog and the chicken were the animals of choice for food. When food preservation became more prevalent, the bee markets became more active...as witnessed by the great cattle drives and the huge beef stockyards in cities such as Chicago.