Today's assignment is the Isaac Hurlburt Diaries. A descendent of Mr. Hurlburt took the trouble to transcribe his 1862, 1871 and 1874 journals online and they make great reading. It is well worth the trouble of deciphering archaic spellings and parts that are missing due to the age of the documents. You might consider them the 1860s answer to blogging.

Isaac's farm was truly diversified, like most of his day. Throughout the year, besides farming, he was a logger, butcher and carter and also traded and trained horses; he cut poles, sold firewood, grew apples, feed for his animals and hops to sell. He had cows and oxen, sheep, horses, chickens, a sugar bush, Just reading what he and his family did each day in order to survive makes me tired. As you will find if you read the Farm Side this Friday, he even got a dog to churn the butter with a dog-powered treadmill.

He and his family knew how to have a good time too. Here is his entry for this day in 1862, "Friday, January 10, 1862 I and Mary visited Wm Hurlburt and Family found Persity verry feable Ann and Bery came from School Weather windy and thawy." The whole family often visited friends and family or went to social events at the church or school. "Sunday (June) 22 I was at Home all day Some of the children went to meeting Mr Puller Preached at the Cook School House Stafford and Isabel came Here just at night."

I often take a few minutes to read the entries in Isaac Hurlburt's diaries, just to compare farm life today to that in his era. It sure helps put things in perspective, especially the occasional posts about battles in far-off states like Kentucky.