the men did not want to be inside and found ways to busy themselves out and about. Manley, a finishing carpenter, always had something to keep every idle hand busy. One year they might put on eaves troughs; another year they might install new windows, build cupboards, or attach a lean-to for extra wood storage. Over the years, the main camp building was improved and the modern conveniences of home would show up. Having a carpenter and a smattering of all the house-building trades among the camp members brought rich rewards.
The roof of the camp was made from spruce and tamarack poles sheeted with one-by-six boards and covered with layers of tar paper. This made it watertight but not heat tight. The walls were very much the same. On a cold day most people stayed in the center of the building. Jake kept the fires burning and would wake up in the middle of the night to load more wood into the stoves. Jake was just fourteen. This would be his second and last year hunting at the camp.
Jake’s elementary school was a one-room brick schoolhouse within easy walking distance of his family’s farm. In grade five, at eleven years of age, he was given the job of starting the school wood stove and cleaning out the ashes during the heating season. The heating season lasted from late October until the beginning of May. His part time job paid twenty-five cents a week and would provide Jake with his pocket money and savings to buy the things he really wanted, like the .22 calibre single shot rifle.
The job bore a huge responsibility as Jake had to arrive at school ahead of the teacher and students and make sure the room was warm for the nine o’clock morning start. He walked to school, cleaned out the ashes, started a fire, and, as it was heating, he would pound the blackboard erasers against the outside brick wall to get them clean for the day. All the pencils left in the box the previous day were sharpened, as no one was allowed to sharpen pencils once class started. With students in seven of the eight grades, the teacher was busy, and did not need someone grinding pencils when she was explaining the day’s lessons.
For average and bright students, the one-room school, with a capable teacher was the best place for a young mind to be. In grade four you would get to hear the grade two and three students receive their lessons and you could also listen in and follow the grade five and six students. Reinforcement and practice made a recipe for success. Bright students like Jake would read when they were finished their work. They also were assigned younger brothers, sisters or neighbour kids in the junior grades. The older helpers, now called tutors, were in charge of marking papers, correcting errors, and keeping their charges up to date on their studies. Idle time was spent reading. Most students had read every book in the school’s two-drawer library and could hardly wait for magazines, newspapers, and any print material Miss Small would bring to school.
One day, Jake overhead his dad talking to a local school trustee. Jake had been hired to replace a student who had just graduated from grade eight. The trustee said, “The woodshed is full of good dry hardwood, and it is more than enough to last one winter. We have never burned a complete shed of wood, even in the coldest of winters.” Jake promptly took up the challenge. Purposefully, he arrived early every morning and put into place a system of quickly removing cold ashes and starting a new fire with kindling. He added extra kindling and propped the damper open to allow more air into the fire box. He started with a bed of cedar and poplar, and then gradually switched to maple and beech. Ironwood was saved for really cold days.
When the teacher arrived at seven forty-five sharp every day, the school was toasty and smelled like a new fresh day. Miss Small was full of smiles and praise, and sometimes a small treat was placed on Jake’s desk. This was the first time she could remember arriving at a school and being able to take off her gloves and coat to start her board work for the day.
Jake always put the box of chalk carefully next to the stove to warm it. The sawdust that chalk was packed in was prized. This tinder-dry sawdust would be used for a quick start on a freezing cold day when a faster fire was needed.
Blackboards were made of real slate. One day, while waiting for Miss Small to arrive, having read everything there was to read in the school, Jake found a note tucked away in the bottom of the chalk brush box.
CARE OF SLATE
Friday
Brush off all the chalk dust and clear chalk rails.
Soak a soft rag with warm water and rub it generously into a Sunlight soap bar.
Soap the slate, do all six slates.
Start with the first and wipe off before the slates are dry.
Jake’s mom would not miss small pieces of Sunlight bar soap. Jake was curious to see if the instructions on the note worked. At the end of the next school day, Jake took longer than usual to bring in some firewood. He was hoping the school would clear, so he could try Sunlight soap on a side slate board. Each week the boards got blacker and blacker and easier to write on. The school inspector even praised Miss Small on how she maintained all the boards in the school. Jake’s mom was happy to supply a new big bar of Sunlight. One Friday, after everyone had left for the weekend, Jake was in the process of soaping the slates, when the door flew open, and in came Miss Small to pick up a stack of marking that she had left behind. She took one look at Jake and the boards and said nothing. Jake was sure she winked.
Needless to say, in the spring, the school trustee could not believe that the wood shed was completely empty. Jake was hired to fill the shed for the next fall. When Jake moved on to high school at the end of grade eight, the school trustee decided it was time to put in an oil furnace. No other student would have the responsibility and fun that Jake had enjoyed for four years.
With all this practice, keeping the hunting camp warm would be a piece of cake for Jake. He soon had everyone sitting in their undershirts.
Hunting camps are passed down from generation to generation and many a man wished that his long life would end at camp. A neighbour, Mr Payne, no close relation to Jake, died on the hunt under the arms of a large maple tree while on morning watch. This was the way to go, doing the things you loved to do. Mr. Payne’s death made room for Jake at the hunt camp.
Father, son, brother, uncle, neighbours, and friends, all men with a common interest in hunting deer, made up most of the camps around the Norwood area. Each camp and hunting area supported a limited number of hunters. Openings came up only when people moved away from the area or when age, disease or illness overtook someone. Fathers always had the first opportunity to invite their sons. If there were no sons, other names would be discussed and a consensus would be reached about who would be invited for the next year. Jake’s dad was a wise master at inviting new members, as good chemistry among the group made for a more enjoyable hunt. The temporary tribe replaced the outside world and the yearly draw to the camp bound men together.
In his second year at camp, Jake was expected to take over some of the kitchen duties, and he quickly volunteered to make the morning snack for the men to take out with them with their coffee on the first hunt of the day. Jake’s favourite breakfast snack was a fried-egg sandwich. A little bacon, two eggs with the yolk broken, over-easy twice, put between two pieces of homemade bread, toasted with a little splatter of mayonnaise, and wrapped in waxed paper. This was a welcome treat out on the deer run.
On the first day of the hunt that year, three bucks were shot. One large and two averaged-size deer were hung from the large oak tree by the camp. Deer were bled, gutted, and then hung in a tree or from a large post stand until the hunt was over. A stand is like the gate opening that you expect to see at the entrance to a cattle ranch. The main difference is that the upright posts on a deer stand are supported on all four sides, so the weight of a carcass will not tip
