Tuesday, February 27, 1923
A cloudy morning
and some rain. No
rain this evening. Ben and
Jim went to Renan this
morning. This evening they
cut and mauled. Ben got
hurt. The wedge hit him
in the face and cut his
lip and a gash in his face.
He went to the Dr. and
had it fixed up. I hope
it will not get bad.
Nellie and I got dinner.
I churned and printed
the butter. Nellie sewed
some. I cut pieces
for Kate to put
together. I went to
Norman Bookers a
while this evening.
Mrs Booker gave me
some sweet potatoes
as nice as I ever saw.
I am so glad of them.
Notes
Here "mauled" refers to splitting logs using a steel wedge and a homemade wooden club called a maul. It's advantage is that the wedge is not damaged as it would be if it were struck with a steel hammer. The ones that I have seen were several feet long and whittled from a log that was 5 or 6 inches in diameter (this memory is rather old). The striking part might have been about a foot long and the rest of the log was whittled down to make a suitable handle.I once found one that had been discarded after the striking surface had become badly scarred.
by Nathani
