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Mycousinonmyfather's side of the family wrote the following memories of Honey Lake Valley, circa 1933-40 for his family in 1998, after his Uncle Phil- ip's funeral. He had spent his summers away from the city, as a 8 to 14 years old boy. My grandmother Laura and his grandmother (Marietta) Molly were sis- ters. " A visit to my grand- mother's home was really a visit to the 19th century. Except for an old car in the carriage shed, daily mail delivery and a 20 line party line telephone there was no change from the 1800s. Ranching was done by hu- man and animal muscle power. "Life began each morn- ing at 5:30 when someone had to get up and start the wood stove in the kitchen. Even if it was a July day and the temperature would reach 100. For the wood stove provided all the cook- ing and what little hot wa- ter there would be. "In the summer the horses would be caught and harnessed. Hay had to be pitched down for them to eat. The meat that had been hung out for the night had to be wrapped and stored in the root cellar. "Sickle bars sharpened for the mower, water bot- tles — gallon jugs covered with burlap — had to be filled. Chickens turned out of the hen house and fed. A wheel barrow load of wood had to be chopped and brought to the house. Then it was time for breakfast. "In the summer the hay hands would be rousted out of the bunk house or cor- ner of the barn where they slept. For the most part they were hobos who had been recruited down by the Doyle Station. Pay was $1 to $ 1.50 a day plus all you could eat. No alcohol was allowed, if you wanted to go to town you picked up your pay and left. If you could stack hay you got stackers pay — $2.75. A box of Bull Durham Tobacco and roll your own papers sat in the dining room. You took a sack, put a stroke be- side your name. At pay day you would be charged 5 cents per bag. "Breakfast for hay hands always had hot cereal, home-made bread, eggs, and some sort of hot meat. Coffee and fresh milk were the drinks. Hay hands washed up by the water trough and once a week could get a bucket of hot water from the kitchen for a bath. "By 8 a.m. all hands were in the field driving teams. Lunch was a full meal again with hot meat dishes, etc. Supper was at 6 p.m. Evenings were spent talk- ing, reading by kerosene lamps, or just going to bed exhausted. "When we were not hay- ing and had no hands, the work was just as hard: fix- ing fence, salting cattle, moving cattle, doing the hundreds of things any ranch needs. Every ranch in the valley had at least five gates that needed fix- ing. "The house work was a struggle for any woman. Even if there was no hay crews to feed, just run- ning the house was hard. The ranch was almost self- sufficient. The garden pro- vided all sorts of food. To get ready for winter, ex- tensive canning was done. We canned old hens (want to see something unappe- tizing? Look at a mason jar full of canned chicken parts.) All sorts of fruits and vegetables and meats were canned, all via the pressure cooker. In the late summer beets, carrots, tur- nips were buried in a big sand pile to be dug up in the winter. Corn was taken off the ear, dried on tin sheets, bagged in cheese cloth and hung in the root cellar. "The root cellar was key. A large hole in the ground with a small build- ing and slant door over it. It was a room under- ground accessed by a lad- der step (see the Wizard of Oz for one.) Here in the dark the temperature re- mained constant. Here was stored canned goods, vege- tables, meat, etc. "Meat and perishables were a prob- lem. Meat was provided by a cooperative effort. Ev- ery couple of weeks a group of ranchers would get to- gether. Shoot a steer or calf with a 22, then butcher it. Each rancher taking his share according to an es- tablished sharing order. The warm, quivering liver eaten the next morning — not my favorite break- fast. The entire animal con- sumed within 14 days. "To keep the meat each night after sundown the meat would be hoisted up to the eaves of a building to air. Then before sunrise it would be taken down, ex- amined and trimmed of any fly eggs, etc. Wrapped in a heavy canvas meat cloth and put in the cellar. "Other perishables — milk, butter, cheese, left- overs, would be put in a large bucket and low- ered down in a shallow well usual located near the house. Every meal this bucket had to be hauled up and brought to the table. "Soap was made of lye and ashes. (He never men- tioned the fat or tallow.) It not only could take the dirt off your hands, if you weren't careful it would also take a little skin. The rest of the daily ashes were thrown down the outhouse holes to help control the odor. "Every ranch had at least one outhouse. Many had a separate one for the hay hands. While we al- ways has some toilet pa- per, we also used old Sears and Montgomery Ward Catalogs and of course the hired-hands had dried corn cobs. All our bedrooms had chamber pots. Nobody was going to go to the outhouse at night, particularly in the winter. My grandmother was in her '70s before she had an indoor toilet. "Kitchen chores were a regular routine. One day was baking. A week's worth of bread was baked. The special treat was the fresh rolls served that day. Home- made bread when toasted most resembled set con- crete. "Laundry was a ma- jor project. The wash was boiled in a large copper tub. Grandma would plunge it with what we now call a toilet plunger. Rinsing was a major job of hauling and dumping water. Then I would turn a hand wringer over a galvanized tub while Grandma would feed the clothes in. "Ironing was done with 4 or 5 big flat irons heated of the stove. Of course we helped the laundry situ- ation by seldom chang- ing clothes. Uncle Philip and I would wear the same clothes for a week. Then on Saturday night we would take a bath. We actually had a bath tub, a rarity on a ranch, but could not put more than two inches of water in it, as that is all we had. "Grandma, always a proper lady, would lace her- self into a full body cor- set each morning. The tem- perature in the kitchen on a hot July day was proba- bly 110, but she wore it ev- ery day. "Artificial light was a major problem. The kero- sene lamp was the common source of light. On the back porch of every ranch was a 50 gallon drum of kerosene. Every morning I would pick up all the lamps. Polish the soot off the chimney and fill the lamp. If there was a special occasion or visi- tors, we would light a gas lantern. Uncle Philip and I managed to read hundreds of books by this light. "Mail was delivered to a mail sack hung out on a post and beam mail post. Each morning a mail sack was walked out to the high- way and hung out. Mail was important. Today we tend to forget how impor- tant Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward were to a rancher. Almost all clothes and many supplies were mail-ordered from these firms. The newspaper also arrived once a week. World news was of no in- terest to us. We had our own self-contained world — the ranch." JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON Memories of Honey Lake Valley in the 1930s DAVIS The UC Davis School of Veterinary Med- icine is pleased to an- nounce that Dr. Jane Sykes has been appointed as the chief veterinary medical officer of the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Med- ical Teaching Hospital ef- fective June 1 for a five- year term. The position was pre- viously referred to as "di- rector" and Sykes served as interim director of the hospital for the past year, following Dr. David Wil- son. Dr. Wilson was ap- pointed director of Veter- inary Medical Center Fa- cilities Planning, as UC Davis looks to the future of the hospital, envision- ing a state-of-the-art Vet- erinary Medical Center. Sykes has administra- tive responsibility for the management and fiscal in- tegrity of the VMTH, en- suring the academic qual- ity of the clinical learning environment for DVM stu- dents and house officers, and the provision of clin- ical care and operational efficiency of all academic and clinical service activ- ities. She is also responsi- ble for ensuring the ethical and professional conduct of the nearly 500 VMTH faculty and staff members; compliance with the Cal- ifornia Veterinary Medi- cine Practice Act; and cre- ating a culture of inclu- sion in support of diversity that embraces the UC Da- vis Principles of Commu- nity. Sykes reports directly to Dr. Michael Lairmore, dean of the SVM. "I am so thrilled to sup- port our team of talented and caring clinicians, staff, and students to bring cut- ting-edge veterinary care to animal owners through- out California and be- yond," said Sykes. "As our new Veterinary Medical Center becomes a reality, I have no doubt that we will be able to accelerate the rate we make medi- cal breakthroughs and dramatically improve the health and well-being of animals." Over the past decade, the VMTH has increas- ingly grown to become one of the most advanced and comprehensive veterinary hospitals in the world, now seeing more than 50,000 patients a year. The hos- pital operates both Small and Large Animal Clin- ics, providing care and training in 34 specialty disciplines. Its house of- ficer training program is the largest of any veteri- nary hospital in the coun- try and has drawn partic- ipants from 32 countries and 39 states since 2010. "Under the outstand- ing leadership of David Wilson, we have grown more than we could have imagined, and I look for- ward to an even higher level of patient care, clin- ical discovery, and educa- tional success for our fu- ture veterinarians and vet- erinary specialists," Sykes said. "This is an exciting time for our hospital, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity." Sykes is a board-certi- fied veterinarian (internal medicine) with research focus in infectious diseases of small animals. She has been a faculty member at UC Davis since 2002, and has previously served the hospital as chief of the In- ternal Medicine Service, infectious disease control officer, and director of the Small Animal Clinic. Sykes previously served as president of the Spe- cialty of Small Animal In- ternal Medicine within the American College of Veter- inary Internal Medicine. She also completed a term as president of the Interna- tional Society for Compan- ion Animal Infectious Dis- eases, an organization she co-founded in 2006, and is the author of the textbook Canine and Feline Infec- tious Diseases. Sykes hails from Mel- bourne, Australia. Prior to coming to UC Davis, she completed a residency at the University of Minne- sota, where she was also a clinical faculty member. UC DAVIS Sy ke s na me d ch ie f veterinary medical officer beadadtoday. Take time to C a l l 8 7 7- 4 D A D 4 11 o r v i s i t w w w . f a t h e r h o o d . g o v RUNNINGS ROOFING and CONSTRUCTION SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA.Lic#829089B&C39 Conventional Valvoline Oil Change $14.95!! Regular Price $34.95 Call to schedule yours today 530 529-0797 1375MontgomeryRd. 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