Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wheel hoe useful tool in garden

Everything old is new again. I’m speaking of my Planter Jr. or scuffle hoe, which my granddad and dad used in our garden for all those years.

When they were gone and my mom and I decided to have a garden we got out the two scuffle hoes.

We had two because one had a blade for loosening up the dirt and the other was used to take out the weeds.

There were other blades for other jobs, but we never used them because we didn’t know what each was for.

Besides, I didn’t want to attempt changing them.

I mention this because the newspaper had a recent story on this gentleman who has developed what he’s named “Planter Whizbang.”

It’s identical to our Planter Jr., except it has wire wheels instead of plain steel ones.

He adapted it from the century-old wheel hoe, which is what our Planter Jr. is.

Our antique was used for many years by backyard gardeners as well as those who raised onions and other things on the muck.

I imagine it went out of use when the gas-powered tillers came along.

The first rototillers I remember came with s six, eight or perhaps 10 blades that dug up your garden so that it would be ready to plant.

My dad bought two of them, so the Planter Jrs. went up in the barn to be stored and forgotten.

When my mom and I decided to try veggie gardening we had a friend come and till the garden with his Toro.

Soon weeds started to invade, we dug out the Planter Jrs. and started using them.

I remember one evening after supper out working in my garden and my neighbor, who was in his early 20s at the time asking me what that “thing” was I was using. I realized a generation had come up that wasn’t knowledgeable on gardening tools. That had to be at least 20 years ago.

Now we have the gentleman from Moravia who has re-introduced the wheel hoe.

The original was made by the S. L. Allen Company in the 1890s and early 1900s in America.

hey are now being built as the Planter Whizbang and sold all over the country as well as foreign countries.

Whether its called “Planter Whizbang,” or Morrisville State’s “Mo Hoe,” it’s still a scuffle hoe.

Among our tools was a two-wheel scuffle hoe. I didn’t know what it was used for.

The handle was gone and it was outside gathering rust for years. During village cleanup days, years ago I put it out with the trash.

One day while I was at work a well-known gentleman who was known for collecting antiques came into the office and thanked me for the two-wheel scuffle hoe I had placed at the curb.

He told me he had been looking for one of those for a long time and remembered his father having one working in the muck.

Our Planter Jr. might be an antique, but it remains a useful tool and won’t be discarded anytime soon.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Fall signs abound

The signs are that the summer will end soon…does it seem possible? Where has our summer escaped from us?

The first sign that I noticed was the most eloquent ringing of the cicada, which comes down from all the trees. We always think of them clinging to the power lines. When we were children, we knew it was hot and dry when you heard the cicada or we children labeled them locust, but I do know that summer was on the wane when they sang from the power lines overhead. Now many of the the power lines are in the ground so we wonder – where do they cling now? They tell us you can hear a thousand singing for every one you see.

They are called the “weather bug,” as when you hear its buzz it is generally a hot day and the sun is beating down on the locust, which buzzes without interruption. You know the summer is drawing toward the equinox, bringing changes and sudden rain. We always hated to hear the first buzz of the cicada as it foretold the coming of fall. As of yet, I haven’t heard one, so perhaps fall is a little late.

A locust is a funny looking bug. They have bodies shaped something like a fish in black with shiny green large bulging eyes and big stiff wings as clear as glass.

Other signs of ending summer are the gardens with their crops at maturity and ready for harvest. Locally the onion trucks, though much fewer than in past years, will be going to their destination with their pallets of topped onions letting us know the crops are finished in the mucklands.

The flower gardens with the fall flowers in bloom is another clue that summer is slipping away. While you are doing your marketing you will notice that the grocery stores have all your canning needs if you plan on canning or preserving foods for the winter. Glass jars and lids, canners in two different sizes, funnels, measuring cups, ladles, can rubbers if you still have the old fashioned type canning jars and all the rest of the paraphernalia needed in the canning process. This year is my time to make chili sauce, so it’s the necessary ingredients for that, i.e.: tomatoes, peppers, onions, vinegar, brown sugar, celery seed, etc. “Why don’t you just buy it at the store?” I am asked by members of my family, but I can’t find any that tastes like mine, so I try and make a double batch every two years and that lasts me for awhile. And, it smells so good when it’s cooking.

Another sign that summer is slipping away on TV, radio and in newspapers are reminding us that school supplies and clothing tare on sale. Moms will be dragging kids to stores to outfit them for school. They don’t dare go and purchase school clothes without the child because “what does mom know about fashion?”

And if all of this hasn’t put you in the know, the State Fair opens today. Grandpa always said the summer was over and fall was officially here when the State Fair opened.

And, too, following the visit to the fair, in the next couple of weeks we would make a trip to the peach country (we had relatives in Phelps) where we would get a supply of New York state peaches for canning because in his opinion (my grandpa) they were the best.

Those were the good old days.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

The world has changed

Have you ever noticed that when the wind is blowing a certain way, a train whistle sound a whole lot different?

In the old days, someone would say “there will be rain before morning.” Others would point to other signs that would foretell rain. This was in the days before Doppler radar.

If their forecast turned out to be wrong, then they would have an answer for that, too. I still believe that our old timers who could predict the weather were generally on course. Now, with our global warming and other disturbances in the sky I sometimes wonder if anyone really knows what the weather will do.

When asked to my grandfather how he knew the rain would come he would reply that the train whistle had a different “shrill” to it.

Perhaps so, but the other evening while we were sitting on the porch and we heard a train approaching in the far distance it sounded faraway and lonesome the closer it got to our village, it was really loud and I recalled what my grandfather had told me. It was right. That night we had rain. The trains don’t blow their alarm near our house now that they are elevated, so a warning isn’t needed; we only hear them when they are approaching a crossing that hasn’t been elevated, which is a few miles from Canastota.

When we were babies, mothers would put us in our carriages after our morning feeding and bath and set us on the porch outside where we could nap and get fresh air. The mothers would complain about the train whistles until the babies would get used to the noise. Relatives who came for a visit or new residents who purchased a home near the railroad tracks soon had to become familiar with the noise and be able to sleep through it.

Back in those days peddlers came around with their vegetables and fruits calling out what they had to sell that day, letting those people at home know what they could purchase for their evening meal. Talk about freshness. The ice man who came before refrigeration, the meter man, dry cleaner who came for your clothes that needed to be cleaned. I can remember when the insurance man came to collect your monthly or weekly premium towards your life insurance. These people all came to your home while baby napped on the porch.

Think about it. When did you last see a baby carriage on a front porch or for that matter any place on a street? Babies ride in car carriers today. You see strollers, but hardly ever a carriage. And, in this day would you feel comfortable leaving a baby outside without an adult in attendance?

Are you old enough to remember when others while going into a grocery store or other store, left the baby outside the store in the carriage without anyone watching over the baby? Times have changed. There are not that many mothers who stay at home and care for the children, they have to work to make ends meet. Those that do are privileged.

Children are now fingerprinted, given instructions at home, take special classes in school on how to stay safe at playgrounds, or in public places.

My, how the world has changed.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I remember horses on the streets of Canastota


Last month’s Lorenzo Driving Competition put me in mind of horses and how few there are in our local area. Perhaps on farms, but not in our village. To see a horse go down Canastota streets would certainly be a sight and an attraction for our young folks. The only time that happens is when we have a parade and horses are included in it.

But there are some of us who can still remember that there were horses living in our confines of the village. Namely on West Lewis Street, Roberts Street off from Mill Street and Barlow Street. As a small girl seeing these horses go past our home was still a curiosity and if we saw one coming we would run and tell the other kids in the neighborhood that it was coming by our houses. We do however remember the story of an aunt of ours who came to live in Canastota in horse driving days and was married to a blacksmith who was kept busy shoeing the animals. One time as she was driving her buggy across the Erie Canal lift bridge the horse got startled and ran away with her giving her a fright before finally getting it under control. My uncle decided the horse had to be “put down” because it wasn’t the first time that the horse had become violent and he felt it wasn’t safe for my aunt to handle him.

I happened to be a friend of the little girl that lived on Barlow Street with the horse. Every summer at least once that I knew of, the farm on the end of James Street located on Stroud Street had fields of hay. The gentleman who lived there would cut it and the man on Barlow Street would take his team and wagon and go and get a load for his animals. One vivid memory from my childhood was the thrill of being able to ride on the back of the wagon to get a load of hay with my friend. It was an experience I will never forget lumbering along with the team going for the hay and riding on the top of the load returning home right in the village waving to the people we passed along the way who were out doing chores around their houses or something. I don’t remember the names of the horses, but they were a gentle team and we helped water them when we got home and unloaded the hay.

All the horses I remember were for transportation or for working. The one on Roberts Street was owned by Angelo Canino. He was a produce man who went from street to street selling his cabbage, celery, tomatoes, oranges, bananas, potatoes or whatever he had fresh that day. In those days women were home and would hear him coming and go out to meet him with their change purses in hand to purchase fresh veggies and fruit for that night’s supper. He would make the rounds every day I think, but perhaps I don’t remember that accurately, because we were still little kids. We would only be interested in the ice man and chips we could beg from him on hot summer days. He was a welcome sight back in those days.

The other two horses I remember were mainly for transportation and family business. The one off of Mill Street had a rather long wagon and when the family went out there would be mom and dad on the seat and the rest of the family would sit on the sides or the back of the wagon with their feet dangling.

When and why the family moved from Mill Street I don’t know, but I wonder if it was because they were asked to by the village fathers. It would have to be a suggestion, however; the grandfather’s law protected them from being forced to move.

The gentleman who lived on West Lewis Street had his horse as an only means of transportation. He was in his late 60s or 70s and as we were told did not have the means to purchase a car, nor would he have had a driving license. His conveyance was a single- seated wagon.

He might have seemed eccentric because he was often seen riding with a stovepipe hat, either rubber farm boots or felt leggings and short rubber boots. No one ever questioned his attire and accepted it as normal for him. He attended church every Sunday and could quote the Bible by chapter and verse without any hesitation. I often sat in the congregation with my family and listened as the minister would ask him to tell the Scripture that was referred to on the bulletin. His neighbors thought dearly of him and often saw that he had a cooked meal and fresh vegetables, bread and other foodstuffs. His horse was not a problem for them as in those days it was accepted if you had a horse in your barn.

I know that there were quite a few residents in our village who enjoyed horseback riding, but their animals were stabled on farms outside of the village.

When Vernon Downs came into being, interest in horses returned . A few stables were built near our village and folks began traveling to Vernon nightly to see if they could win a race.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

I love to hang out


As I came in from the back porch with my basket of fresh laundry, mostly bedding, I heard my cousin coming in from the front door asking “are you still hanging your clothes outside?”

Of course I am, and I’m not the only one who does. I have always done so when the weather would allow me

There is nothing sweeter than the scent of clothes that have been dried by the sun. When you go to bed at night and slip into those sweet-smelling sheets and covers you know and appreciate it and you can sleep like a baby. My cousin had to admit the aroma coming from the sheets broght back good memories.

Every year (as most folks don’t know) on April 19 Project Laundry List joins with organizations around the country to educate people about energy savings. National Hanging Out Day was created to demonstrate how it is possible to save money and energy using a clothesline. Project Laundry List was founded in 1995 in Vermont after Dr. Helen Caldicott gave a speech at Middlebury College in which she said: “If we all did things like hand out our clothes, we could shut down the nuclear industry.”

She aid the top reasons to line dry are:

1. Save as much as $25 a month on energy costs.

2. Clothes will last longer.

3. Line dried clothes smell better.

4. Hanging clothes is good exercise.

5. Sunlight bleaches and disinfects.

The fifth reason is one that was taught to me both by my grandmother and one of my dear friends’ mothers who was of the Italian descent. When she had a stain on something rather than bleaching it (back in those days they didn’t have bleach in the bottle) you spread the item out on the lawn and let the sun do the bleaching and it always worked for them.

Back in the old days days wooden bushel baskets lined with cloth or eventually plastic were used for the wash. Clothespin bags would hang on the line ready for use. At one time a few years ago, clothespin bags were almost a thing of the past because “no one used them any longer” well duh, I did and so one of my friends who sews made me two as mine were getting pretty worn out.

I have neighbors and friends that have often asked me if we don’t have a dryer as I think they are feeling so sorry for me. I tell them that I do but I prefer my solar-powered one.

Hanging the clothes helps my waistline, saves electricity and I gain satisfaction at seeing them all hung up dancing in the breeze and getting that wonderful smell.

One thing about hanging your laundry on the line is that you have to be sure of the weather. Try to have an “at-home” day that time so that if showers should show up you can get your clothes off the line and in the house before it starts. I don’t plan on going too far away from home should that be the case and at one time you would hear, should you be in a grocery store or other place, and a shower was pending one would say “oh dear, I better get home, I have clothes hanging out,” and off they would go.

In the winter months, mind you, everything goes into the dryer .