December 28, 1935, Saturday: Croppy and Bawly
Sun shone until late p.m. clouded and snowing at bed-time. I got meals, with Will’s help we churned butter in eve. I finished rendering lard and Will and I ground sausage for he went to Ott’s Thursday for their grinder and he got Christmas tree at church to-day. He and Fritz finished shoeing Croppy, then Fritz gave the cattle a load of cane and Bawly got a shoe loose so they put it on him after dinner. and Fritz got a load of cane and left on rack. Lewis Lattimore, Ivan and Melvin came to spear fish so Will went down and we had 5 catfish and 1 Buffalo for our supper. In starting to clean them I [ran] a cat-prong in my finger so Will finished cleaning the fish, and he swept up some of the dirt. Harry Arcoren came [for or with?] potatoes, first time here since Tuesday.
Bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)
I recall fishing in that river (Keyapaha) near the H-T ranch several times about 1970. We occasionally caught small catfish. Don’t think we ever tried it during the winter.
I remember the horse called, “Croppy”. The ends of his ears were gone, possibly from being frozen, Hence the name .