He was a doting grandfather. If he ever even scolded me, I don’t remember it. We lived within sight of their house for much of my childhood. We, and several other neighbor children, had to wait for the school bus outside their house. If the weather was bad we would troop into their fireplace room and wait for the bus by the fire, probably tracking in mud or snow much of the time. If they criticized us it must not have been done harshly, because I don’t remember it.
On Christmas soon after we had opened our presents from Santa, we would go to their house for the get together with all the aunts, uncles and cousins. The first thing all the grandchildren were shown was the footprint Santa had left in the ashes as he came down the chimney. He explained that he had made the fire around it so we could see it – proof positive that there was a Santa! My older brother’s statement that there was no Santa, that he was our parents, made absolutely no sense in view of Grandpa’s incontrovertible proof that he came down the chimney and left his track in the ashes.
He grew peanuts and saved huge bags and boxes of them especially for the grandchildren. His enjoyment of grandchildren continued all his life.
After he was no longer in the lumber business he got interested in raising a vegetable garden. Finally I guess he could "plant the rows straight" as he had urged Maud to do much earlier. The difference was that he didn’t also have to do the cooking, washing, sewing, quilt-making for a large family, so had the time to make fantastic gardens. He devised a system for irrigation when there was not enough rain. He produced far more food than the two of them needed and gave it away freely. Finally, Maud’s health started to break and she gradually became unable to do even household tasks. He learned to cook! One of the last times I was at their house he had made a sweet potato cobbler that was delicious. Several times I have remembered that and tried to make one – with a result that was barely edible.