April 10 thru April 11, 1894

If you follow Bert's diary regularly, you can skip this paragraph. I will not be transcribing each entry since most of Bert's diary is pretty clear. You can read the original more easily by clicking on the image above to view a larger version. I will be including this paragraph, or something similar in each entry so that new readers will know they can click the image to enlarge it for easier reading. Also, there will be some links to the right of the page with relevant information that may be of interest. My notes will include the basics of what Bert talks about each day, along with my own personal thoughts, research, information gleaned from past or future entries, etc. If you have information or suggestions that may help my research, please e-mail me.

Tuesday, April 10, 1894 ---- The wind is in the south ( I note that Bert often mentions the wind, but does not always include the temperature?) Chores as always. He then cuts and trims Chestnut trees for posts, and "Dye" (Russell) cares for a sick horse. Russell goes to Naples for medicine for the horse, and Bert cuts firewood. Bert then notes that it snowed all afternoon from the east.

The American chestnut, formerly one of the dominant trees of the eastern United States, has been almost wiped out by chestnut blight; it was an important economic resource not only for the nuts which were sold across North America, even by streetside vendors, but also for timber and tannin. Around 1900, some Asian Chestnut trees were planted on Long Island in New York State, and within 40 years, the American Chestnut was wiped out in most of the US. An early example of invasive species! The culprit was not the Asian Chestnut of course, but rather a disease organism that the Asian Chestnut had adapted to, but most of our American Chestnuts could not deal with. Today there are a few American Chestnuts that are resistant to this blight, but most of what was once about 1/4 of our woodlands is now gone.

Wednesday, April 11, 1894 -- It snowed all day - hard enough to keep them in the barn and in the house for the morning. Bert did some more harness repair - fixing a "hitch strap". In the afternoon, Bert hitched up the team and cleared some road and went down to Milo Dye's place and hauled in wood which M.D.Fisher cut up for "wood" - lumber? I'm not sure how he would have cleared the road? They might have had a "snow roller" as shown below, but I doubt it?
Bert describes the snow as "knee deep tonight - that means two feet nine inches on the level where the wind did not blow" Bert must have been pretty tall? It is only two feet to my knee from the ground. Note that a couple of days ago Bert put his sleigh away for the season, and now there is almost 3 feet of snow!