Chapter 3

Small Beginnings - Big Hopes

To start farming on a quarter section of land must have seemed a pitifully small beginning, and there is no doubt that Papa was looking for a way to enlarge the operation. I'm not sure which came first, more horse power or more land. One wasn't complete without the other. I do remember that he far-med some land two miles east, just west of where Rawleigh Price's lived. It had to be very soon after we moved to Canada as we still had Kergus and he was traded off for a team of gray mares within a year or two, probably early in the winter of 1914-15. It was the west half of Section 34-6-11, now part of the Dennis Peterson farm. There wasn't much broke on it and it may have been farmed only one year as it was inconvenient so far from home and land closer to home was available. The only event I can remember about this land was driving up there with papa on the narrow-tired wagon driving Maud and Kergus. This may be a good time to give a brief description of the harness Papa had for his three horses. Maude and Fanny's harness was a set of heavy "logging harness", short tugs with thirty-six inch heel chains. The tugs were heavy two inch, three ply leather and difficult to work on and repair in later years when they needed resewing. The hames were of wood with very straight tops. The lines were heavy one and one-eighth inch with brass buckles. Papa used open bridles on all his horses until about 1922. He bought a set of used breeching harness at Hugh Coxes' first auction sale, and it included a pair of blind bridles. Kergus's harness was entirely different and had no breeching. We used parts of it late Into the 1930's. Brother Charlie took the old logging harness when he moved north in 1933.

It was probably 1915 when Papa bought the quarter of land adjoining our home quarter on the east side. It is the southeast of Section 5-7-11. It had been owned by Jesse Ashbough, but it was quite far for them to go to work. As a replacement he bought or rented the north half of section 31-6-11. This addition to our farm bordered on Uncle Car's yard. It is likely Uncle Clair batched in 1914. We saw a great deal of Uncle Clair and Aunt Rhoda the three years they lived there. Papa and Uncle Clair used to put up "prairie wool" hay north of our place with a bucking pole. Uncle Clair had a driving team, Pete and Topsy and a top buggy. They would often stop at our place on their way to town.

Sometime between October 1913 and the spring of 1915 Papa acquired six more horses, Maud and Mabel, a team of bay mares were bought from Thorvald Promhouse. They were young and well-broke. Papa paid four hundred dollars for them and I dare say it was borrowed money. Either one was used singly on the buggy and were also a good team, although not very well matched for size. Mabel was a much taller horse. Papa learned of a team of gray mares owned by Paul Tracey that were for sale or trade somewhere south and west of Griffin. Early in the winter of 1914-15 Papa and the "big boys", Johnny and Charlie drove big Maude and Kergus up to Tracey's to make a deal. It was Papa's first experience at trading horses. There was snow on the ground so they went by bobsled. There was no track all the way, at least none north of Crowe Lake school. Papa traded the stallion for "Polly and Fly" and they started home driving the young team and leading Maude. The days were short, it started to snow, soon covering their morning track. It got dark and the young team going away from home all added up to a rather confusing situation. They weren't sure if they would find their way home or rot. When they weren't home by dark Mama became worried, as she was home with six children, Lillian, the eldest was probably thirteen. Mama decided to put a lamp in the north window hoping it would be seen and be of help to the travelers. It was probably the only time there was ever a lamp in that window, as it was in the stairway. When papa did see the light. he remarked, 'that can1t be home, we never had a light in that window." But it was worth a try "and let's stop and find out where we are." Well, Hallelujah, it was home! What a relief to everyone to know our men were home and safe. Even us little ones knew the comfort of our security, and though I was barely over four years old, I can still recall the tension we were feeling that evening before Papa and our big boys arrived home. Getting lost on the prairie in a snow storm was no joke in the early years of settlement. There were very few graded roads and very few fences or telephone lines to follow. In most cases an old team of horses would find their way home if allowed to follow their instincts, but a young team going away from home would be as lost as a man could be.

Another team of horses, Deck and Blackie were bought from Jones Hodgen. Deck was a bay gelding five years old and one of Blackie's colts. She must have been eight or nine years old and was with foal. She raised a black fillie from Hodgen's Clydesdale stallion. We named her Queen. Deck and Blackie were a good quiet well-broken team and lasted well into the 1920's. I'm sure Johnny may have used them hauling bundles some of the first years. He helped with the threshing crews. Charlie and I used them as a chore team In the winters of 1924-25. Having eight work horses by the spring of 1916, Papa and Johnny each had a four horse team to work the land with.

This was probably the time when George Johnson (a Swede from Minneapolis) asked Papa to farm his half section 6-7-11. We farmed his land until 1931. George had been farming it himself with the help of a neighbor, John Smith, We always considered George as a kind of aristocrat as he retired to Minneapolis for the winter and stayed with a sister. He would return to Halbrite every spring and work for John Smith during the summer, even after Papa rented his land. I can still see him coming to our place almost every Sunday morning, driving one of John's horses to a single buggy. He smoked velvet tobacco in a corn cob pipe and carried a gold cased watch with a snap cover. We kids" thought his watch was quite something extra to behold. This extra land must have made a full time summer's work for Papa and Johnny as George's place had 250 acres under cultivation. This added up to 450 acres to farm with two small outfits. The farming practice at that time was to crop at least two thirds of the farm and summerfallow the remaining third. This allowed for 300 acres of crop and 150 acres of summerfallow.

The first few years we were in Saskatchewan the older children attended White Rock school. It was three miles from home and I expect they walked almost all the time in summer as we had no extra horse to drive. No doubt they had a team to drive in the winter. There would be four of them going to school, Lillian, Charlie, Mabel and Nellie. Nellie was probably a beginner in 1915. Sometime before 1917 Crowe Lake school was moved from its original location one mile north when we attended school there. After being moved to the south west corner of the Clair Ewers farm it was two miles north of our place. Our school kids probably began going there in 1916. I started there in 1917. It seems we must have walked almost entirely every summer until 1919 or 1920. It was two miles of prairie trail made only by our school travels. After harvest we could have horses to drive until spring arrived again. It was usually "Fly". It wasn't that pleasant walking across the prairie when the mosquitoes were out and we often pulled off a switch in some bunch of trees to brush them off. In winter we made our own road every day as there was never any other traffic that way. Only once did we not get home because of a blizzard. A neighbor, Bill and Edna Willsey, who then lived on the Ewers place gave us shelter for the night. Sill came down before school was dismissed and took us up to their place. I was to take six grades at "Crowe Lake" by 1923 when our parents took me out of school there after threshing was over and I went to Halbrite to take grade eight. Not many farm boys attended school beyond age 17 and brother Charlie quit school about 1919 when he was scarcely 15 years old. Lillian went to Minnesota to help Grandma Truman in 1918 so there were only Mabel, Nellie and I attending school until Earl and Pearl started probably in the fall of 1919. The teachers we had at Crowe Lake No. 1574 during my years of attendance were Jesse Cope, "Bessie" (Gordon) Hodgen. Minnie McKnight. Margaret (Richardson) Orsted, Mae Morrow, Lillian Truman, John Gordon. There must have been some short term teachers.

Our farming practices didn't change much between 1915 and 1920 as far as volume in acres. One of the items to add something of beauty and shelter was the planting of trees possibly as early as 1917. Our parents after discussing it between themselves, wrote to the forestry station at Indian Head and asked for advice. The supervisor, Norman floss came to our place and offered to help them lay out a plan that was to take at least three years to complete. To not undertake too much at one time was important as they were to plant several hundred trees in the next few years. In the end there were at least four rows of trees all around the outside of the yard, barns, house, garden and potato patch area, with two rows between the building and garden area. The trees were supplied by the forestry station and invariably arrived during seeding time. Regardless of when they arrived an honest attempt was made to plant them promptly. Only once do I remember Papa 'heeling in" survival bundles close to a slough to be planted at a later date. The trees had good survival rates and in four years some of them were too big to be cultivated except around the outside rows.

Cultivating trees, garden and potatoes became an extensive project, one that I was to have relatively a lot to do with in the next few years. When Papa started cultivating trees with his one horse cultivator brought from Minnesota it required someone to ride and guide the horse. Fanny was used and Charlie was the rider. If he wasn't available it fell to Lillian to take his place. They soon outgrew any liking for the job and Mabel had a trial at it as did Nellie. I must have been growing fast as I was soon expected to ride the horse. I plainly remember how afraid I was when Papa asked me to ride old Fanny while he held the cultivator handles. Fanny was big, thin, her back bone was sharp and she sweated too. It was probably the first time I was up on a horse's back alone. I don't know how good I handled the horse but I guess I learned well enough as Papa and I did that work together for what seemed to me to be forever. It was always my wish to do Papa's bidding. By 1924 we were still at it and I should be ashamed to admit this but I can remember complaining to Mama, 'Why do I always have to do that? Can't somebody else do it for once." Fanny had passed out of the picture by about 1920, and we used Blackie then for a few years. Queen was to follow and by then we were only working in garden and potatoes and that was a relatively small job as compared with what it was up until the early 1920's. We were using Robin or Sorrel Bird when I last remember cultivating garden.

Another important item in 1917 was when Papa learned of a young driving horse just south of Griffin. Johnny was working on the road up by Hodgen's when he and Papa became acquainted with a John Hendrich. He had a four year old buckskin gelding and Papa wanted him for a driving horse. He was soon to trade a black mare for Jack and were we kids ever excited. Jack was a beautiful color with a white face and one white hind hoot. His mane and tail were jet black. He even had a black stripe down his back with black shadow on his shoulders and knees. There weren't very many buckskins in the country and every one knew who owned them. Jack was broke to drive single and double and was young and lively. He was also broke to ride. Papa had many offers to trade for him but he was quite satisfied to keep and use him. Papa rode him a lot the first years we owned him. Eventually Mama decided she would drive him to town. She had driven little Maud or Mabel or Fly to town. why not Jack. There was no doubt in our minds that he was the prettiest driving horse that we knew Oh, there was Orsted's mare Mabel, sorrel with white face and white hind feet and she was pretty nice too, just as good, maybe better, we weren't sure. They used to come to church at White Rook School in a top buggy and everybody had to take a second look, but then, well, we still had Jack to admire. Mama drove Jack to town. I expect Mac McGee helped her with the cream can at the station. Everybody liked Mac. When Mama arrived home she proudly said we went to town in 30 minutes. Jack was to become a very useful trusted horse in any capacity we used him. In 1920 Papa bought a light driving mare, Nancy, at Ferdinand Marchand's sale south of the river. She and Jack were our driving team until 1924. Nancy had a newborn fillie foal when Papa bought her so she had a colt to raise that summer too.

Our cattle numbers had been increasing since 1913 and what with ten horses, the old barn wouldn't hold them all any longer. The young cows that had been added since our arrival were Daisy, Roany and Beauty, all from Rosey - also Snoopy, one of Speck's calves, another touchy one to milk. Papa decided in the spring of 1918 he would build a barn for the cattle. It was to be 20 x 40 feet with a good sized hay loft, stalls for ten cows and two calf pens. It was built up to the plate and used that fail and winter to put the cattle in. It was cold to go up to the open hay loft and put down feed, but by the next fall the roof was on and the loft was furl of hay. The plank floor and gutters made it quite possible to keep the cows much cleaner. What was to be a problem was taking the cows so far for water in cold windy weather. It was not unusual for some cows to freeze a teat which we learned about at milking time. The roof was put on in 1919 and the hay loft would hold ten big loads of hay. During the first two or three years Papa tried to fill the loft with hay soon after school was out. During this time sisters Mabel and Nellie were quite a bit of help with some outside work. Mabel helped us fill the hay loft more than once.

Nellie and I spent a lot of time herding the cows after school and on Saturdays. We would take them to unoccupied prairie and watch them until milking time. Sometimes we had a horse, Fly mostly to start with. We couldn't even get on her without help. Later on we had Nancy and even progressing to the time when I rode Jack and Nellie used Nancy. That was much easier than when we had to walk. Towards the end of June, and I suppose on into July, we would sometimes find a good patch of wild strawberries. Nellie would insist on having a pail along and would save the berries so Mama could make a strawberry shortcake with whipped cream for supper dessert. Yum. Yum.

To add to our interest In herding the cows, in the summer of 1922 Papa promised us a new saddle as our earnings, up to this time we had been riding bare back entirely, not always that pleasant on warm days although perfectly safe. We found it difficult to believe that such good fortune would be ours.

One morning during threshing. after school had started, Mama said to me, "Papa has something to show you in the barn." Well, there was the new saddle. Papa had been to Weyburn the day before and got it. He said, "You can saddle Jack and ride out to the threshing machine for a few minutes before you go to school." He showed me how to tighten and tie the cinch and away I went. That was probably when I found out I had to get a size larger cap, and I always felt that Nellie really lost out on the whole deal as she seldom ever used the saddle.. . and I still wear a size 7 1/2 cap.

The cow barn I was telling about was hit by a cyclone in 1920, a most unusual storm, which came out of the northeast; most of them came from the west. Anyway it moved the east end of the barn a full twenty feet and caved in the north side to some extent. It was a sorry looking mess. The neighbors arranged a repair bee and it was straightened up in about two days. Papa did quite alot of renailing after the initial straightening but it was as sound and straight as new. Our yard was really full of oars and help those two days, and it was a very thankful attitude our parents had for the kindness and help of such a community effort. It runs in my mind to this day that Jones Hodgen and Phil Jones had much to do with the actual work that was done and how it was done, organizing it too. Mama had lots of help from the ladies of the community to feed everybody as it was like having two threshing crews to feed.

Our farming operation didn't change much until 1920 but one item of importance at the time was the purchasing of a new, 20 run double disc Van Brunt drill in 1918. It was hauled home and setup in the yard. it was the first piece of new farm machinery, and I was to appreciate what it meant to have something larger to work with It was equipped with wooden wheels and footboards. Johnny did all the seeding (or almost all) with this drill until 1927. In 1922 or 1923 I did help a few days with four horses on the old shoe drill. Of course Johnny got the pick of four good horses, but I don't remember which ones they were in 1918 or even up to 1922.

Queen was broke about 1918 or 1919 and Papa didn't have any team mate for her. He bought a Clyde mare from Jones Hodgen, gray in color to drive with her. Her name was Dovey. They were a good big team, quiet and steady and an important team any place for several years.

Another item of machinery that was very important was the grain binders we used. Papa's first binder was a 7 foot Massey-Harris. It had no outside reel support and wasn't very efficient. The sickle bar was below the level of the platform canvas making it difficult to cut short grain, so it didn't make a very good sheaf in uneven grain. On top of that the bundle carrier lost many bundles if it was expected to carry more than three or four. Picking up scattered bundles when shocking ("stooking" is the Canadian term) was not conducive to fast shocking ... "we were still Americans."

About 1918 Papa bought an S foot McCormick binder. I don't know if it was new or used. It was so much a better binder. the sickle was level with the platform canvas and it made a much better sheaf. It had a quick shift, butter board adjustment which added much to this last process of what went through the binder head. The bundle carrier would hold five or six bundles and seldom lost any. By this time the old Massey was pulled into a fence corner, but Papa needed another binder and he made the mistake of buying another Massey. It was supposed to be much better but about all that was different is it had a quick turn truck. This was an important improvement but it only helped to keep the corners of the field short. Anyone who has never operated a binder pulled by four horses can hardly grasp what a quick turn truck was like and I hesitate to try to describe it without drawing. All binders came out with quick turn tracks soon after 1918. Johnny and Charlie had their own opinion or description of the difference in bundles made by different binders. The bundles made by the Mccormick were compared to "school moms" and the ones made by the Massey were "old maids." They were not very nice.

Having several mares in our work horse force probably convinced Papa it might be possible to raise some colts. It was costly business to buy them, as any good horse would sell for $200. In 1918 three mares were bred to Bill Sherrow's black Percheron stallion. Cole. Bill lived four miles south of Halbrite. The next spring they each foaled a strong healthy colt. Polly foaled a male colt, he was gray and was named Dan. Little Maud had a filly who was named Molly. Mabel also had a bay filly named Dolly. Papa switched to using a Belgian stallion of Jones Hodgen's in 1919. He was bay and while not very big "Jockado" was to leave a large number of good work horses in cur community. They were all sound and mostly better than average. "good walkers". Many of them became known for better than average "lead horses." That next year. 1920. Polly foaled a sorrel male colt, Maud foaled a bay male colt named Patsy and Mabel foaled another bay filly. This last mentioned colt never grew up. she died as a two year old. I don't remember the cause. Charlie was given Dan and Molly and these young horses were added to the work force in 1922. Another horse bought at John Swanson's was a rather nervous. high lifed bay mare we called Little Bird. She was difficult to match up with as she was always miles ahead of any other horse we had. We finally found a good place to use her ambition when she was put on the lead doing summer plowing. She quieted down in time as all horses did after seeding and summerfallow was completed. Nothing like lots of work to steady an overly ambitious work horse. Also about.this time. 1923, Papa bought a sorrel mare from John Achen. She was team mated with Robin (Polly's 1920 colt). They became my team. Her name was Bird also. Johnny used my team with Billy and Dolly on the drill both 1923 and 1924. Bird foaled a black filly in 1924, by Cole. This really displeased Johnny to have a colt following in the field. She was an early colt, being foaled in late March so quite able to follow or loaf, which ever she felt like. Johnny was never interested in livestock and was hoping for the day when he could have a tractor to drive. Charlie and I were rather different and enjoyed taking care of the horses, matching up teams and getting the most pleasure of driving good horses with good harness.

This mention of harness opens a whole big can of worms and caring for harness for 12 to 20 work horses was no small task. Papa had bought a set of used harness at Hugh Cox's sale about 1920. It was a five ring breeching harness and with blind bridles, a first for us. Previously Papa always insisted on using open bridles. Charlie put this harness on Deck and Blackie and we were really quite proud of how they looked. Wood flames with brass ball tops, brass spotted breeching. I can remember helping Charlie haul hay and straw, maybe only one winter, 1923-24 I am guessing. We sometimes had to shovel snow to get close to the stack, but Deck and Blackie always got through and we never did up-set a load. Beginning about 1920 Johnny would repair and oil harness in the kitchen. It was totally un-satisfactory, especially to Mama . . . smelly things, horse smell, etc. Our coal house was small but by March there was no need to keep a big supply of coal on hand, so he set up our old cook stove. He would clean repair and oil all the harness to be ready for spring. Eventually I got interested in it and Johnny was only too glad to let me take over the job about 1926. At that time we were using up to 18 work horses, and not much new harness had been provided. I think Papa had bought two sets of new harness about 1923 and 1924. A year or two later new breeching were added. We then had four sets of breeching harness and quite a lot of odds and ends that had been picked up at auction sales. So going over all that harness every spring was a major responsibility. Making your own waxed thread and sewing up heavy items was slow and there was always a need for new leather to use where the old had worn thin. Papa even bought a side of new leather one spring at horrendous expense. Each year, a week before we started field work, Papa would look over what was needed and went to town to buy a lot of sweatpads, 3 or 4 sizes, new bits, snaps, flame straps and often one or two new collars. Papa was justifiably particular about the fit of each horses collar and due to his personal tact we seldom had any horses with sore shoulders. After a warm day when all the soft horses had worked up a sweat, Papa would wash the young horses shoulders with salt water. About the worst condition that could develop was sore necks on drill horses, and about the only cure was to change horses. When Nancy was brought home in 1920 with a small filly, she was used on the single buggy and only that. I doubt that we drove her to school all summer but she was our school horse from then until 1927.