IMH 74:4 350

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Tuesday , November 23rd.

6° below zero this morning and got up to 28° above before night, thus making a nice, clear, day, (in comparison).
Father went up to Bob Foster's but that gentleman was gathering corn and could not well come. Father came back,
chopped down a tree, and he and Alvin snaked the logs it made to the house with the horses, I helping. I also cut
down a stub not far from the house. Alvin and I hauled up a small sled-load of fodder. Nathe Whitson having come
after old newspapers for pasting purposes and having his rifle along was induced to stay and help kill the red heifer
designated in last year's chronicles as Bertha or Burton the cow. It weighed at the outside 60 lbs. to a quarter
dressed but it was not weighed. Albert Bishop80 came with the wagon and borrowed the quilted frames for
Wat's wife. Wat himself was here after supper business unknown

Teaching Notes: "Snaking a log with the horses" Here is another opportunity to investigate or speculate about
language expressions. The likely reason for the expression is that when you pull the log it tens to mimic a snake by
a sort of weaving action. Logging is still done by the use of horses and even oxen in the New England states.
(oxen are stronger). Both are much safer than tractors. Just a few years ago in Morgan county two farmers in two seperate
accidents within a month were crushed to death when the log they were snaking with their tractors lodged or
caught on stump causing the tractors to flip over backwards.