From the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre:
January: Tasks included: trapping, fishing, repairing the fish nets, making trading hatches, and tailoring clothes for trade
February: Spent hunting and making metal goods for trade
March: Women set out rabbit traps while the men were busy making nails for weatherboarding the roof of a new cow house, repairing clothes for trade, and forging awl blades and traps.
April: Month was spent hunting, trapping, and trading. By the end of the month, the ice melted so the men began to bring home the small rafts of firewood that had been cut across the lake in the winter
May: The garden was prepped and construction began on the cow house. Seeds were planted: barley, peas, oats, hemp, potatoes, spinach, French beans, thyme, parsley and cucumber
June: Month began with packing the furs traded in the winter to send to Moose Factory. The furs then went north on two canoes. The cow house was completed along with hoeing the potatoes, and trading
July: Preparing the account books, writing the District Report, and composing annual letters to Europe. After the men packed the furs, they left for Moose Factory and work on the garden and tailoring would continued
August and September: Stock up on supplies for the winter. Barley was mowed and threshed. Logs were brought across the lake to finish the cow house floor
October: Oats were cut, fish was salted, and potatoes were stored. The first week was spent making Scotch barley. The boats were put away for the winter
November: The celebration of Guy Fawke’s Gunpowder Plot occurred. The men returned to hunting and trapping. Traps and fish nets were repaired and firewood cut for the winter
December: Christmas celebrations lasted several days. Hunting and fixing traps continued
Each week, the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre provides TimminsToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.
Find out more of what the Timmins Museum has to offer at www.timminsmuseum.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here.
