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The Wood Shed

Our woodshed was not an impressive looking building. It was a two-story building with two small windows and a sliding door. It was never painted. I have very few pictures of it, as it was not a photogenic spot to have a picture taken. Even though it matched the log barn, silo, and other sheds on our property, it was nevertheless a very useful building.

On the outside near the door hung our thermometer, which was regularly consulted for the daily temperature, as we had no radio to check this. I'll never know why it was hung so far from the house, - on the woodshed! One had to "bundle up" to go outside to see how cold it was. Sure don't know why it was important to know this, as we never were allowed to stay home from school because of the cold. I suppose it helped Mother decide just how much we had to be bundled up to go to school.

The lower floor of this building was used to store our wood for the winter. We had a wood burning stove in the kitchen as well as a wood heater for the rest of the house. Every day it was our job to carry in enough wood for the night and the next day. We made two piles in the shed, -one with bigger chunks for the heater, and one with smaller pieces that would fit into the kitchen stove.

A stairway close to the outside door led to the second story. This stairway had a door that could be closed. This story was used mainly to store grain, so we called it the granary. Here the neighbors who helped during threshing time would carry gunny sacks full of grain, as the threshing machine separated the grain from the straw. The grain would be dumped in a big pile on the floor, and in the winter, Dad would shovel gunny sacks full and take them to the feed mill in town where it would be ground. This would then be mixed with other feed and given to the cattle to eat. So a summer with a poor grain crop would deprive the cattle of some good feed.

This pile of grain, which grew bigger as the threshing progressed, was a fun place for us to play. How good the grain felt on our bare feet as we climbed around on the huge piles! However, our fun was short-lived when Dad found out what we were doing. Naturally the grain wouldn't stay piled up with us playing in it. So we had to turn our attention to other things.

There was one bin up there that was fenced off with lumber and never used. So we claimed that and adopted it as our spot in which we played house. To solve the problem of getting into the bin, our sister Esther built us a short ladder with 2-3 steps which we placed on the outside of the bin. We then jumped down into the bin on the other side of the ladder. With all of the nice outdoor spots available to play, there was something intriguing about playing in the granary. Perhaps because it could be a daily ongoing thing, where we could play on rainy days as well, and where we wouldn't have to clean up every day. Esther also provided us with bits of food from the kitchen which we could eat for our "pretend" meals. We spent many fun days here.

We also used the granary steps at night as a jail when we played policeman on the road with the neighbor kids. It was no fun (and scary too) spending time in the dark on the granary steps with the wodoor closed, for some supposed crime we had committed!

At one time we had our old victrola up there that Dad had gotten at an auction. We had room to march around up there. When our needles were used up, we used small nails to play the many records that came with the victrola. Needless to say, this didn't help the records to be any less scratchy than they already were. A neighbor girl (Madelia), who is no longer living, taught us to do the Charleston which was popular at that time. She was up on the "ways of the world" more than we were.

Today the old woodshed is no longer there. The victrola too has "bit the dust". This woodshed may have been a useful building for us, but it was certainly an eye-sore for anyone living there now.