1896

Josef started the year with vigor:  Made a bridle chain, hauled manure on sled, worked on new harness.  Helped Dora getting in vegetables.  Dug velvet grass, harrowed meadow.  Cut logs on hill.  Worked at Rishers.  Repaired shoes.  Went to Beusch’s for apples, visited the school.  Made a churn machine and tree pruner.  “Had a bad trial with churning machine.”  Finished cylinder for threshing machine, started baskets.  Went to Rishers with Rudy.  Pulled logs and roots with Mike on hill.  December 16: Decennial anniversary of arrival in Oregon.

February 1896:  Finished threshing machine.  Went to Rishers with Mike [old horse or ox] for flour and salt.  Hauled in wood, cut logs out of trail on hill.  Laid porch floor.  Hauled smelts from Rishers.  Cleaned and smoked smelts.  Made a ladder.  Dug around and poled the orchard trees.  Fixed Risher’s saw, pruned their trees.  Went to Beusch’s for grafts, “Mr. Beusch very low.” 

Harrowed in clover seed, plowed and grubbed garden, “plowed in potatoes.”  Moved work bench out of house.  Went to Rishers with family.  “Grafted trees at Beusch’s, went to Rainier, got very wet.  Hunted for work.”

March 1896:  Repaired the accordion and boots.  Elected director at school meeting.  Made a barn window and new door.  Made a fence and bars and a box with lock for school house utensils.  Cut down a tree with Braddock.  Went to Rishers with Mike, changed ox harness.  Made a door for chicken lot.  Went to Headlee’s and Beusch’s for eggs.  Went to Rainier with Rudy and Willie, looked for work.  Spaded W.F. Deitz’s garden.  Worked for Nels Nelson at Doan’s place.

April 1896:  Cleared a garden spot in the hollow by the spring.  Hauled manure, grafted trees, burned some stumps south of house.  Went to Rishers for plants with Mike, filed big saw, sawed a log and cut down a snag.  Split and shaved cedar boards.  Wrote some family history, and wrote a letter to Europe.  Made a cow trail on hill and hunted up a new cow trail north of house.  “Went to Mr Beusch’s funeral with Rudy, went to Rainier.”  [It is interesting that the only Columbia County obituary record of Mr. Beusch is from Josef’s journal.  See page 69 of Columbia County, Oregon Cemetery Records, published by Genealogical Forum of Oregon.]  Josef brought Willie home after a 6-week stay in Rainier.

The month ended with this notation, “This rotten month of April beats for rain and cold the one of 1893.”

May 1896:  The weather had not improved on May 1:  “One inch snow in morning, rainy all day, went to Rainier and back.”  On another trip to Rainier he hauled manure at Bob’s place, and went to Schmit’s mill.  Bored trees and cut logs on hill.  Split and “dressed” barn timbers.  Dora went to Rainier with baby Ina, and while they were gone a few days, Josef “went to Rishers with Willie, rested, played cards”.  He then “went with Willie to meet Dora.”  Ploughed in potatoes at Doan’s.  Went to Rainier about cutting cordwood on S. Kistner’s place.  Worked on the road for tax. 
June 1896:  Voted at Apiary, carried blankets [for overnight boarding?] and tools to S. Kistner’s place, cut cordwood.  Went with Lohmann and Morden to Rainier, went home with some flour.  Mowed grass in Bob’s lot.  Went to Portland.  Mowed, hauled in hay. 

July 1896:  It was good haying weather, “confounded hot”, “hellroaring hot”, and he got in 30 cart loads of hay the first week.  He then went haying at Beusch’s, and “went to Rainier for chipmunk medium 8” [rodent bait?]. “Mother came out” and took Rudy home with her for a month’s stay.  “Went to Rainier for a scythe” seems to be noted after the hay has all been cut.  He cleared land, repaired the washtub, hauled in wheat, and picked blackberries.  “Went to Beusch’s for sugar.” 
August 1896:  Hauled in oats and wheat.  Picked blackberries.  Went with the cow to Beusch’s, thence to Apiary.”  “Fixed cart for road, went with Mike to Rainier”, and he brought home a supply of salt and flour.  The other trips into Rainier must have been on foot.  During the month he also spent several days working at the Beusch farm.  The “stove fell over.”

September 1896:  Worked at Beusch barn, grubbed in meadow, raked trash in clearing on hill, set slashing below barn afire, trashed oats.  Grandmother Winchester brought Rudy home and stayed overnight.  And during the month Dora went for an overnight visit in Rainier.

October 1896:  Trashed wheat, fanned wheat, oats and barley; then he “sowed, harrowed, rolled and raked.”  Made a chain, raked on hill.  Split logs for burning stumps south of house.  Went to Harry Doan’s about a cow.  Butchered the calf, cut up meat.  “Made a handle for grubbing hoe and cleared south of house in afternoon.”  More cat trouble “kitten fell in the well in evening.  Got cat out of the well.”  Brought home a calf and repaired Mike’s harness, then went to McKee’s for flour with Mike.  “Went to Rainier, worked for Daddy at the old place.”  Filed Saw, cut stovewood.

November 1896:  Made a feed rack in the barn, an ax handle, repaired ox harness, finished hay rake, and made a new bridle chain..  “Went to Rainier, voted for Bryan, cut wood for Dad.”  The November rains came, “rained infernally all night, creeks very high, first water in well.  Rained all day and night.”  Sawed, hauled in wood.  “Went to Jake Beusch’s place with the cow for nothing.” Worked “ditching” at Beusch’s.  The weather turned cold and it was “devilish cold”, “hellroaring cold”, “infernally cold”.  He was busy hauling in stove wood, and fixed the heating stove.  Thrashed and cleaned clover seed.

December 1896:  Made a new harrow, finished rakes, worked on horsepower wheels.  Cut maple on the Beaver, hauled maple and timbers.  Spread manure, got in rutabagas, dug last potatoes, ploughed garden, dug velvet grass.  Got apples from Beusch’s.  Sawed wood, grubbed.  Another trip to Beusch’s place “with the cow.  Went to Rainier with Rudy, worked for Daddy.”  When he and Rudy were back, Dora and Willie went to Rainier for a few days [perhaps little Ina was left with neighbors.]

“The year 1896 has been financially poor, extreme in heat and cold, rain and high water.  Fenced barnlot, cleared 1 ½ acre, grubbed ¾ acre new ground, and ¼ acre meadow, made timbers and boards for a grain barn, laid porch floor.”