12 Days of Ancestors - Day 10

"The tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
ten pipers piping..."




It used to be usual and accepted for people to smoke. My Dad and his siblings all smoked, as did both their parents. I remember as a child sitting on my grandfather's knee at his desk while he got out his tobacco and papers and he let me help make cigarettes with his rolling machine. 

In their younger days, when it was fashionable to do so, my Dad, his brothers Bill and Jack, and their brother-in -law Jim sometimes smoked a pipe.

Dad

Uncle Bill (my Godfather)                                Uncle Jim

When my Dad tried to quit smoking cigarettes he went to little cigars, thinking he would smoke less.  When that didn't help he went back to smoking a pipe. That didn't work either so he ended up quitting cold turkey.

Here is my Dad being... fashionable??  In his antique dealer days, he was trying out some things he either brought home from an auction, or from buying the contents of a house.

NOTE:  Thanks to my cousins for the photos of their fathers, and my sister for the idea.  

12 Days of Ancestors - Day 9

"The ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
nine drummers drumming..."



My great grandfather Alexander Mavor didn't play the drums, though he was in a band. 
He played the cornet in the Montreal Salvation Army Citadel Band. 

Alexander Mavor, front row, extreme right.

This is a piece that was once in the Montreal Star...

These are the fifteen members of the Montreal Citadel Band of 1901. Back row, from left to right: Edward Douglas, John Thompson, George Armstrong, Nelson Garayt, Charles Goodale, Joseph Piche and William Gatehouse. Centre row: Charles Volkert, Ensign and Mrs J.C. Habkirk, William Smith (bandmaster), Gilbert Ellis and Alexander Maveur (Mavor). In the foreground are Mike Sullivan, left, and James Harris. 

12 Days of Christmas Ancestors - Day 8

"The eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
eight maids a milking..."



A dairy farm manager and one maid-a-milking...

My 2nd great uncle, William John Porter moved from Ulverton Quebec to Jefferson New Hampshire in 1893, when he was about 17 years old, and found work on a farm. He later moved to Colebrook and became a manager of a dairy farm. But I didn't have to go that far back to find fodder for an article on dairy farming. 

My beautiful hard-working sister is a special ed teacher at a high school. Like our Dad, she always has to have something to do, so when a friend asked if she could help out with milking one evening, she was happy to do it. Now she helps out with the evening milking at the dairy farm on weekends plus on call at other times, and 7 days a week during school holidays. 
She is what could be called a part time maid-a-milking.  
  

She doesn't go into the barn swinging a bucket and carrying her little stool. Today milking is done by machine. 

She has to prepare the cows' teats for the machine by stripping them by hand, dipping them with a solution to clean them, then wiping them with a paper towel.

Then they are ready to put the milker on, which comes off automatically when milking is complete. Next she has to dip the teats again and move the milker to the next cow. The milking takes about 1½ hours for 39-42 cows.

Other chores take another 1½ to 2 hours... including scraping out their stalls, cleaning the alley way, and putting fresh bedding in their stalls. The cows go outside either between milking or for the night depending on the weather.