Station: [12] Öxler Hof - Outside

“Öxler Hof” is one of the large fenland farm houses. The complex was built in 1910 in a hamlet called Kleinhohenried. The house includes living quarters, a stable and a hay barn, one behind the other. At right angles to the house are a separate barn and the peat store. The garden, well and horse-gin complete the ensemble. 

Perhaps you’re wondering what a horse gin is?

It’s the ten foot post standing in front of the house and topped with a wheel. In the old days, a horse or ox would have been attached to the gin. As the animal walked in circles, its muscle power operated a pulley wheel. The belt might lead, say, to a chaff-cutter on the threshing floor, which was used to chop up feed for the animals.

The farm provided the family with a livelihood. It included 12 hectare or 30 acres of agricultural land and two horses, four dairy cows, two or three young cattle, and several pigs, chickens, geese and pigeons.  

If you look up at the barn wall, you can see the pigeonholes. 

The farmer grew rye and potatoes. Given the size of this farm, he’d have had a labourer to assist him. Together, they would have stored the potatoes over the winter, sorted them in spring and taken them to market. The rye was stored in the barn, which would have been full to the eaves with the year’s harvest. In winter, they threshed the rye and stored the grain in the loft until it was sold. Daily jobs for the farmer included mucking out and feeding and watering the animals. 

A single cow might drink as much as five buckets of water a day. 

The farmer’s wife had worked just as hard. She’d have cooked up to five meals a day, made and repaired clothes, milked the cows, skimmed the cream of the milk and used it to make butter. She’d also have grown and harvested vegetables in the garden – which is where we’ll be heading next.