Dad

Very nice, 1930 is a long time ago and the photo lives on. Wonder if he just finished splitting all that wood.

I was wondering the same about the wood. I shirked my splitting duties today.
'Love hearing & seeing the shots of ancestors. This a great example why.

Very nice job cleaning this up and well worth the time it took you. Priceless to your family.

This is about the middle half of the original photo, which is landscape. That wood pile is a LOT bigger than what you see. I know this wasn't taken at our farm so he probably didn't participate in making the pile, but I don't recognize enough of the missing surroundings to say where it was taken. Woodpiles like this were very common where I grew up, as many houses were heated with wood. This one appears to be mainly birch, which burns really hot, but as a softwood, doesn't contain a lot of energy. The homeowner would have been very busy tossing wood into his basement over the winter.

When this was taken, my dad was the only surviving child of 4. One died in childbirth, but at one point he and his older brother and sister were all fallen ill with either the 1918 Influenza or Whooping Cough. My uncle and aunt both died. It is said that at this point, my grandmother Mae's red hair went grey overnight. He later survived Polio. All my life I have hoped to be half the man he was.

'Powerful, pbro.