Volume 8 , Issue 5

Old Cook Shack & Cistern...

"My Aunt Maria used to talk about the days when she and Aunt Clara run the 'old cook shack.' My grandfather, Gottlieb Wiersig, had a threshing machine and this was in the days before combines. My dad and his brothers all worked together around the threshing machine and they did the threshing for the family and also members of the community. The threshing machine would be parked in the field. The wheat, oats or barley would have been cut and tied into bundles, then shocked and later hauled to the threshing machine. That was the days of the 'straw piles' and the cattle liked these in the winter as it was a way for the cattle to keep warm. This was in the 1920's. I was born in '31 and by this time we used a combine. I know they set up a tent type structure and the two aunts did all the work to serve the food during harvest time. I can't say what they did with it at the end of harvest but we did have a large machine shed on the farm when I was very young and this was used to store all of the farm equipment. My guess is that it was taken down and stored in that old machine shed.

My grandfather owned the farm 2-miles south of Alva which is now being taken by the city to lengthen the airport runway. That machine shed has been gone many, many years. BUT... it was located near the 'old road' set back to the West of the still standing house. My grandfather bought this farm about 2 years after land run and my father bought it from him.

As a child we also had a cistern on the porch and that supplied all the water which was used in the house. When it rained we would let the dirt wash off of the roof and then open it so that the water could run into the cistern. Of course the rest of the dirt just settled to the bottom. We had a hand pump which turned the cogs and brought the water up in small cups -- filled the water bucket and that bucket did it all. We drank it, cooked with it, used it for bath, etc. Of course we were very cautious how much water we used as it was too much of an effort to be wasteful. We all took a bath in the same water in the square galvanized tub. Since I was youngest I always got the 'clean water.' We shut down the cistern and brought water into the house in the late '30's. At this time the city drilled wells about 20 miles south of Alva and we were able to connect us to this water line. We also had another cistern out by the wash house and this is the water we used to wash the clothes. It had the kind of pump that had to be primed so that also required a lot of pumping to wash and rinse the clothes. That old wash house is still standing just as it was back in 1931. It even has the old stove in it which was used to heat the water to wash the clothes. I suppose it won't be there much longer, though, since the city is taking the land to extend the airport runway.

By the way, it is possible that mom could have a picture of the old "cook shack" as I know daddy had some pictures of the threshing machine. I have thought of writing my life story and start with what I remember of the life of my grandparents, and I grew up with the outhouse, butchering the hogs, making butter, etc. I especially enjoyed your writing about the prisoner of war camps back when the land now owned by the city was war camp and we lived across the road from it. At that time I sent you a brief story about what I remembered. Really enjoy reading your newsy website." -- Arlene (Wiersig) Thies

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