fayal



		GROWING UP IN FAYAL TOWNSHIP

			By Frank J. Erjavec

We moved to Fayal Township during November of 1934. The move was prompted by the fact that the house we had been renting in Spruce Hill had been sold on June of 1934 and we had to vacate by the end of 1934. My father had been raised on a farm in Slovenia and had wanted to move to a small farm were he could have a few cattle and a garden to supply food for the family. My father had purchased forty acres of land from the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad and purchased a house in Elcor that had to be moved because it was on mining company property. The land was purchased for $9 per acre plus interest with a contract to pay annual payments of forty dollars for ten years. The fourteen by thirty six house was purchased from the mining company for fifty dollars. Timbers and steel moving rollers were rented from Irey Pocket house movers to raise the house to prepare it for moving and a caterpillar tractor and operator were rented from Fayal Township to pull the house to the property.

	Because of the depressed economy men who worked for the Oliver Iron Mining Company were only working three and four days per month. Money was scarce but men who worked with my father had a lot of spare time on their hands and were willing to help my dad on the farm. The house that had been moved had to have a cellar dug and placed on posts. A well was needed for the water supply and an outhouse had to be built. Land had to be cleared to provide a place to plant a garden. A surplus shop building was purchased from the Oliver and had to be dismantled and moved to the farm. When the shop had been reassembled at the farm it provided a place for the men to cook meals and a shelter when the weather was bad. Some of the men even stayed overnight rather than drive home each night. I heard many stories about how the men cooked the wild game which was plentiful on the farm. Each man had his favorite recipe for partridge, venison, and rabbit. The cooking was done on a two burner kerosene stove. All the meals consisted of meat and potatoes and salad made with dandelion greens with vinegar and oil dressing. Evenings were spent playing cards and talking about old times in the Old Country.

I remember the first winter living on the farm. It was very cold and we had a lot of snow. I was in kindergarten and had to catch the school bus at seven thirty every morning. To get to the bus I had to walk across my grandfathers hay field. My uncles would plow a path through the snow with a horse drawn plow but because it was an open field and the path would drift over my dad would walk with me to make sure I got to the bus. I remember the bus had a wood body. The heater was located under a seat next to the front window by the door. The windshield, side windows and the rear windows had glass taped on them so the frost wouldn't form. The bus had no defrosters and the single heater didn't really keep the bus warm. Several times during the winter we would be taken home early because the roads were drifting over and the bus wouldn't be able to get through. In spring when the snow started to melt the slush made it very difficult to walk home. Green grass was a very welcome sight.

The cold weather of that first winter taught us a whole new way of living. We had no plumbing, no electricity, no running water, and the heat was provided by a wood heating stove in the living room. The kitchen stove was wood fired and had to be started every morning. A teakettle and a coffeepot were always on the stove so there was always hot coffee and hot water available. A copper boiler full of water also was kept on the stove because we had a new baby in the house and diapers had to be washed every day . We had a washing machine but it was stored in the shed because we had no electricity to operate it. Clothes were washed in two wash tubs that were set on a platform that had a clothes wringer that had to be cranked by hand. When not in use the wringer and tubs were stored outside because the kitchen wasn't large enough. Meals were also eaten in the kitchen. For the long dark nights of winter our source of lighting was two kerosene lamps with glass chimneys. One was suspended from the kitchen ceiling while the other one could be moved from room to room were ever light was needed. My brother and I had the chore of keeping the wood box filled every day. Water had to be pumped by hand and had to be brought in every day . A bucket of water with a dipper supplied drinking water and other water needs during the day. It was not unusual to wake up in the morning and find a layer of ice on the water bucket. My dad brought in the wood for the stove in the living room because the blocks of wood needed were larger to fill the larger fire box. The larger blocks of wood burned more slowly so the stove didn't have to be filled so often. The warmest place in the house was behind the wood heater so we often fell asleep on the floor behind the stove. Heat rising from the wood heater provided a quick place to dry diapers and other small items of clothing. For entertainment we played board games like Chinese checkers and checkers. Sometimes neighbors visited in the evenings and we played cards. My father would play the accordion and we would all sing.

In 1936 my father was laid off from the Spruce underground mine which was operated by the Oliver Iron Mining Co. My uncle was also laid off from the Leonadis Mine operated by the same company. In those days when an employee was laid off there was no unemployment compensation and no medical benefits. Both my father and uncle were told that future employment was not very likely so it would be necessary to find other employment. It was decide that in order to save money my uncle would come to live with us and he and my father would pool resources. It worked out for the best because the engine in my dad"s 1924 Buick had frozen and couldn't be repaired. My uncle had a 1926 Buick that would be used for transportation. Working together my father and uncle built a barn from a garage that had been moved to the farm. A cow was purchased for $55 dollars. After having used canned milk for two years it was nice to have fresh milk. Because hay had not been put up it was purchased from neighbors who had extra hay stacks.

When we first moved we found that we had a neighbor who was a very old man. He had been a lumberjack during the time the area was being logged by a lumber company. His name was Bob McDonald but we new him as "Old Bob" He had stayed behind when the lumber company moved on and lived in one of the shacks that had been used by the loggers. My dad first met him after a well had been drilled for our water supply and because ?Old Bob? had been getting his water from a cistern which made it necessary for him to boil all the water before he could drink it so he asked if he could get water from our well. He would come every day for a pail of water for his needs. 'Old Bob's' only source of income was a monthly old age pension of $20 per month. I remember that he would walk into Eveleth at the beginning of each month to get his pension and supplies for the month. His monthly supplies consisted of five pounds of salt pork, a small sack of tobacco, four cans of evaporated milk, a pound of coffee, matches, salt and a pint of brandy. I remember that once a year he would have his beard shaved and he would get a haircut. He paid my mother one silver dollar each month for bread I would bring him when my mother baked. I remember that he would only have silver dollars and would not use paper money. Each summer he planted a garden were he had potatoes, carrots, onions and rutabagas that he would store in his cellar under his shack. In winter he would put out snares for rabbits which gave him some extra meat. He would cut only enough wood for a week at a time. On summer evenings he would sit in front of his shack and bring out his gramophone and play records of old music. After several winters went by he had difficulty in caring for himself and he was taken to an old folks home.

When spring arrived after the first winter my father plowed and disked enough land where we could plant a garden and a potato field. I remember helping my father plant several sacks of potatoes. Each potato was cut into pieces so that no piece had more than two eyes on it. My father would dig holes with a hoe and my job was to put a slice of potato in each hole and cover it with dirt. The field was quite large so it took a whole weekend to plant potatoes. The garden which was separate from the potato field was close to the house. Once the ground had warmed to an acceptable temperature we proceeded to plant beans, carrots, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, corn, beets, and mangles. The mangles were to be used for pig food. Cabbage plants and tomato plants that had been started in a hot bed were transplanted into the main garden. Weeding and cultivating of the garden was a family project. Each of us was assigned a separate area. I remember that no one liked weeding carrots so the carrot patch was divided so that each would have a few rows. The assigned area of the garden remained the responsibility of the same person so there was a lot of competition to see who had the most weed free and best looking plants. The garden provided us with an abundance of fresh vegetables for the warm weather months and a lot of canned vegetables for the winter months. Blueberry and strawberry picking was also a family event and we took advantage of the large amount of berries in areas that had been burned over by forest fires. Our canning shelves in the cellar were well stocked with blueberry and strawberry jams and sauces. Several hundred bushels of potatoes were also stored in the cellar. The cellar was cool and dark so the potatoes would last until the following year crop was harvested. The smaller potatoes were separated from the larger tubers and cooked for pigs. Taking care of the garden would keep us busy. The potatoes had to be hilled and the potato bugs and the eggs they had laid on the leaves had to be picked every few days. The potatoes had to be hilled so that the new tubers would be covered with dirt.

Now that we had a cow it became necessary to put up hay. We had no machines so it was necessary for my father and uncle to cut hay with old style Austrian scythes. Early in the morning, because the grass cut better before the dew dried off, they started at one end of field and each would cut a swath which left two windrows of green grass. The grass was turned several times during the day with wooden forks my uncle had made from birch trees. Before the evening dew set, the dried grass was raked with a homemade wooden rake into small piles that had to be spread the next morning. This was done because the quality of the hay was reduced if not protected from the dew. Once the hay was sufficiently dry the small stacks would be carried on two poles to an area near the barn and a large stack was made around a center pole that was set in the ground. Putting up enough hay for one cow took the whole month of July. My father realized that with a growing family he would have to look into getting machines to make enough hay to support more cows in order to supply the meat and dairy products that we consumed. The second summer my father and uncle continued to cut grass by hand but a small horse and dump rake were purchased for $25. The body of the 1924 Buick was removed and a hay wagon was made from the frame and wheels to haul hay from the field. The 1926 Buick was used to pull the wagon. The horse was also used to pull a cultivator and a plow for banking the potatoes. Before the end of hay season my father realized that there wasn?t going to be enough hay for the cow and the horse. A local farmer had a sickle mower with a four and one half foot cut that my dad purchased for $15. My dad soon found that the horse we had was too small to pull the mower. A hitch was made on the Buick and the mower was rebuilt so the car could pull the mower.

Now that we had hay making machines we were able to put up enough hay to purchase another cow. After this we were able to expand our cow herd so we were able to raise an animal for meat and we had enough milk so we could sell cream which provided the cash for other necessities.

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