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Note: Eleanor remembers that Frank had a pair of gloves made from his favorite dog, after the dog deid. She recalls they were black curly fur. Frank also had a white, with tan spots, lap robe made from his favorite horse.
Franny had a fur cape and fur hat.
At one time they had money. Frank always worked two jobs: the coal mine at night and the farm during the day. He worked in a private coal mine (near Michael and Viola Rugh's farm) that sold coal for heating homes. They got up early and worked until daylight at the mine then came home, milked the cows and did the farm work. Their milk was sold to Otto Milk Company in Pittsburgh. They took the milk to the end of the road (near Rugh's) where the milk truck picked it up.
They lost the money in the depression. He had savings for Eleanor and her brothers and sisters...but that money was also lost in the depression.
Frank had a raccoon, an owl, and coyote stuffed by a taxidermist...in the good parlor.
Someone had given him two coyote puppies which he kept in a corn crib. One got away. Fran was afraid they would get out and hurt someone so he had the remaining one killed and stuffed.
They grew corn, wheat, oats, hay to feed dairy cows and sold milk to Otto Milk Company. The farm was near Slickville, Pa.
Wife, Frances, asked Frank to make sure the feed sacks matched when he bought cow feed so the muslin sacks could be used for clothing, curtains, etc.
Frank milked the "kicker" cows using cow chains to keep them from kicking. He put his head against the cow's flank, held the bucket between his knees and milked the cow. Wife, Frances, milked the cows that "held" milk. Eleanor milked cows with small teats. Cows were milked twice a day.
Frank used a "drag" to level the dirt roads and one time Eleanor and Franklin were helping. Eleanor was a pre-schooler and was riding the drag, and when Frank wasn't looking, picked up the reigns, which caused the horses to back up and step on Franklin's hand below his thumb on his wrist. It left a mark for life. The horses had shoes on with "corks" little metal round protrusions for traction and these are what cut Franklin. A drag was several boards nailed onto a frame, pulled by the horses. It looked like a barn door and was used to smooth plowed fields and dirt roads. Later the farmers used harrows for this purpose.
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