Charlie Thurwood's Pocket Diary

South wind and raind a little and we split wood
In the afternoon it raind and at night Till came down and playd cards and the wind blowd very hard
4 pales of sap and 32 eggs

So read the March 26, 1874 diary entry of farmer Charles Thurwood of Fort Plain, NY. His little pocket journal lives in the top drawer of my desk here Northview. I bought it years ago as a Christmas gift for the boss.
Every now and then we take it out and compare what was happening in the farming world over a hundred years ago to what we are doing today. It is both very different and yet a lot the same. Our sugar bush is running strong these days, although someone else it tapping it. The sap flows into an old bulk milk tank through fancy plastic lines, but the syrup will taste just as sweet when we get our share. Our hens have begun to lay, although we can't find the nests. And there are only two hens here, we sure wouldn't be getting 32 eggs even if we could locate them.

The boss thinks this house was probably standing here then. Although most of Charles’ trips were to Fort Plain or Cherry Valley, he could have passed here sometime during his life here in the valley. For sure if he came to Fonda he had to have passed our cow barn. It has been there a very long time. Maybe the cheese factory that used to stand where our calf pasture used to be (before the road went through) was making cheese back then.

I wonder.