During his long life at the homestead, Phineas Burgess led the life of a countryman. He and his family experienced and had to accept long or short winters, dry or wet summers, early or late springs and continue to overcome the vagaries of nature which could be severe in some years for those deriving their livelihood from the land. The rains, the winds and sun were a close part of living. He could work the soil, tend his animals, raise crops and berries, harvest ice from the Pond into his icehouse located on the shore, shear the wool of sheep for clothes, and provide for his family with their help. He did not have the creature comforts of our present technological society, but there were rewards for living close to nature at its best. At this time soaps were made, using lye, from the grease and fats from farm animals. Aside from the use of ice from the Pond preserved with sawdust, butter and perishables could be kept cool in the summer in the well near the house. To understand what families in the mid-nineteenth century had for crops to provide food and nourishment, I believe Ruth Tirrell, writing in the _Sunday New York Times_ of January 13, 1974, provides accurate information. Her grandmother, now in her tenth decade, recalls the Rhode Island farm of her great grandmother, a span going back to the time of John Adams. In the time of Grover Cleveland, farm crops were the same as in colonial days, the three sisters of the Indians--squash, beans, and corn. Johnnycakes, made on the griddle from the meal of white flint corn were served three times per day on the farm. Beans were “string” then, not “snap.” Salads were made from cucumbers and a coarse, curly lettuce, dressed with sugar and vinegar homemade from apples. Beet greens were a staple, cooked with bacon. Beet roots were for fodder. Turnips were an important winter vegetable kept in the cellar. Squashes could be stored in the attic. Carrots were for cattle, but parsnips for people. Fertilizer was manure, horse, cow, sheep, pig and fowl--“organic,” like all farms once. Tomatoes, the “love apple” of the French, were suspected to be poisonous in the first half of the century. As at the Boot Pond Place, raspberries, strawberries, currants could be combined in pies and preserves for a marvelous sweet-acid taste. Apple slices were dried on racks for winter pies. Some varieties would last until spring in barrels of leaves in a cool shed. Peaches, high bush blueberries, wild fox grapes were nearby, as were wild cranberries. The high holiday was Thanksgiving. “Except for sugar, salt, tea and white flour for pie crust, nothing on the table was ‘bought.’” Christmas was not celebrated on the farm according to the custom of colonial ancestors which survived until mid-century.