Putting food by

As my mother and I shopped and chatted at our weekly visit to the Owen Sound Market, I was reminded of a story I read just yesterday about getting food in hand for the winter. I was immersed in Bruce County history this week while I catalogued precious family photographs, some dating to the 1880s. This story goes even farther back and is recounted in the History of the County of Bruce, Ontario, Canada. In Chapter 18, the author cites a letter from early settler David Chalmers, in which he describes, among other things, how he went about getting pork to eat for the winter:
“After getting fairly domiciled in my shanty on the banks of the Sauble, the question of grub for the winter’s work presented itself, a most serious matter, as it necessitated my carrying it on my back from Mr. Robert Linn’s in Derby, a distance of eleven miles, four miles of which were merely a surveyor’s blaze. As I had bought a pig from Mr. Linn, I determined that my pork should carry itself. I got my piggy along very well for seven miles, then it began to get tuckered out. These seven miles of road had been chopped through the bush, but the remaining four miles were only blazed. How to get my pig these four miles was a problem, but I had to face it. I started with a very reluctant grunter, making my way through bush and over logs until I came to a small cedar swamp about one mile from my house. As in most cedar swamps, there was considerable windfall, and here piggy, being tired, came to a dead stop, but eventually I got it to my domicile.”
So no complaints from me about grocery shopping on a bitter cold day.