Sandy would have had continuous work from the Smiddy including making and repairing cart wheels, making wooden shafts for implements and repairing agricultural carts. Living on the estate of Lord Minto would have meant turning his hand to other tasks that suited his carpentry skills. It is recorded that, in later life in America, Sandy produced items of furniture some of which survive to this day.
Life would have been hard by today’s standards and on the day of the 1851 Census there were nine occupants of the cottage. Sandy, Margaret and their five children shared the cottage with two workers from the Smiddy.
A steady supply of coal would have been available from the Smiddy to keep the home fires burning and water would have been drawn from the well nearby. A very rudimentary outhouse would have served as a toilet and a midden or dump had been sited in the south west corner of the garden.
Margaret would have been busy from dawn to dusk. Her daily life included setting the stove, fetching water, cooking and baking bread on the kitchen range, caring for children and animals, and looking after the garden which would have been planted out with vegetables to feed the family.
Although life was tough for the Davidsons it was, at least, secure. Why then would they up sticks when Sandy was already fifty two years old and set off for pastures new?
Jean Davidson in one of her books, ‘Growing up Harley-Davidson’, tells us that Margaret’s mother who had emigrated from nearby Guthrie, sent word to her daughter telling of the opportunities in America. This would have been a huge decision to take, but Sandy and Margaret must have wanted a better future for their children and it seems that they succeeded in that!