Chapter 6
Moving Ahead

1926 was the year that we learned of some raw prairie for sale south of Halbrite. It was south of Sill Sherrow's corner on the west side of the road - a half section laying north and south and bordered on the west by a half section of Weyburn Security land. This later parcel of land had a house on it. The raw prairie was owned by the Innes Land Company in Iowa, USA. Charlie Morton at Innes, Saskatchewan was the local agent. Johnny agreed to buy the land and he broke a hundred acres that summer with our old Wallis tractor and two bottom tractor plough Papa had bought at Teddy Roman's auction sale. Johnny married Maud Robinson the next spring and they moved into the Weyburn Security house. A small new barn was built that summer, and a well was bored and curbed. It was terrible water, hardly useable, even for the livestock.

1926 was a difficult harvest season because of wet weather. I don't know how much we had threshed by the 20th of September, but we moved to Ashbaugh's in the afternoon and threshed a little. We had supper and looked after the horses. Johnny had a car and a load of us went to Midale. It was cloudy when we returned and got ready for bed in the hayloft. When we awoke it was snowing pitchforks and axe handles, There was already six inches on the ground. We had breakfast, harnessed all our horses. hitched up to the empty wagons and headed for home. The stubble was full of snow and the stooks were well covered. We didn't thresh any more for two weeks, but we had a little Polish fellow and George Johnson who stayed with us until it got dry. The grain got dry and we still finished before November 1st.

I remember much about seeding the crop in 1927 as Charlie and I were doing all the farming at home. That spring of 1927 Johnny sold his four good horses and put the money into a newer model of Wallis tractor. It had a crank on the crank shaft and was called a Massey-Harris. It was bought from the local agent, T. Murphy, Billy and Dolly were sold to Fred Myron, who lived west of Halbrite. Silly was killed by a train within a short time, but Dolly lived to be quite an old horse and we would sometimes see her at the hitching rack in town. Pat and Rex were sold to Uncle Charlie at Midale. They weren't very well broke as they had hardly ever been teamed with. Horses that were never used on a bundle wagon or used to chore with in winter were not considered to be completely well broken. After Uncle Charlie got them, cousin Glen soon started using them to chore with in the winter. They soon became one of their best teams. They were almost an everyday sight in winter in Midale for the next ten years.

The crop in 1927 was good except for a very light frost near the last of August. It was a favorite topic of discussion and resulted in very little number one wheat. The farmers all believed it was more talk than honest grading. That same fall we had our Polish fellows working for us through harvest and threshing. They understood very little English and spoke none. It was a full time job for Charlie and I to see that all the horses were properly harnessed with the right collar and harness and also keep one eye heeded until they were all safely hitched and out of the yard. They never became capable teamsters and Charlie and I slept late the day after threshing was done.

The first year (1923) we used our threshing machine I believe we threshed only for ourselves and Jesse Ashbaugh. That meant that we had to provide all the wagons and bundle teams and help. Papa bought two more "steel wheel truck wagons". we called them. Also a Massey "Rain" wagon with triple box and spring seat. We also needed an oil supply wagon to haul tractor fuel, oil and what ever might be needed, "too numerous to mention" covers that area. George Johnson worked for us as separator man the first two years. By then Johnny was thoroughly familiar with the separator and could easily look after it. George was given a grain team to drive and was with us three threshings at least through 1926. We threshed for Nords two years I believe, and Roy and Bert helped make up the crew. Those two years we used B bundle teams, as it was a little easier on the men and we may have threshed a little taster. It was hard work for one man to keep the separator full. We threshed four loads an hour with four bundle teams and almost six loads an hour with six teams so there must have been some gain.

Nords farmed a half section at home plus half the Haslam land. Neither Nords nor us had the Haslam land in 1927, and it was about that time we quit the Lofgren place. However, we had to move south of Halbrite to thresh Johnny's crop so we still had enough to do. In 1928 we took on Ludwig Stehr's threshing that was the south half of section 31 that we relinquished to them in 1927. And we also threshed for George Billingsly's who lived on the Clair Ewers place. That year Edson and Cecil Billingsly helped make up the crew. Edson and I thought we had lots of fun that fall, going out prowling two or three nights a week. sometimes not getting enough sleep. Oh boy. was I tired about four in the afternoon. Lunch seemed to help some but the bundles really got heavy by five o'clock. We kept up our turn but it wasn't funny. We also threshed for Fred Ebel on the north half of section 31 one year.

The years from 1922 through 1928 were years of expansion and change. Nobody was unemployed, least of all the farmers. The Banks were loaning lots of money, just sign on the dotted line, your credit was almost unlimited. Prices at auction sales were good, the sky was the limit. But wheat was worth hardly a dollar a bushel in harvest time. I'm sure we hauled more wheat at harvest time for 70 cents a bushel than at any better price. I don't think it was nearly as prosperous as it looked.

In 1927 Charlie and I did all the farming at home. We had 12 or 14 work horses plus the mules and May and Major for the driving teams. We didn't have our own car until 1928 or maybe even 1929. Our farming had shrunk to 650 acres but it was still enough to do. Papa bought a triple plough with horse attachment and a 14 inch gang plow in 1927. Charlie drove S horses on the triple plough, I used 6 on the gang. I think it was also that spring that we bought a new 24 run double disc Van Brunt drill from Charlie Morten at Innes. He was still the John Deere dealer there. Papa and I went after the drill with four horses. We hauled the discs in crates in a wagon behind and put them on at home. From then on I did all the seeding with six horses. It was quite a challenge the first few times I backed up six horses abreast and got them in the proper places alongside two drill poles. It seems almost strange that we never broke a drill pole at any time. I'm sure there were many other teamsters who did as well and we thought nothing of it. Papa would have sure worked us over had we done something that unnecessary.

A telephone line was put in to our place in the early 1920's. We had lightning rods put on the house with pretty white or blue glass ornaments on them. Also Pete Ishen (I'm not sure if that is properly spelled or not) put stone walls in our basement in 1923. It was seven or eight feet deep alter digging it out. I guess Papa and the big boys did that. Papa and I hauled the sand for the mortar from Comstocks down near the river six or seven miles south of Halbrite. We used two teams and wagons. Papa was driving Queen and Dovey, I was driving Robin and Bird. They were three and four years old. It was a long days trip and Papa had to do most of the loading with a shovel of course. (What did you think he'd use? . . . a drag line. Ha?) While Pete was doing the stone work, I mixed many a batch of mortar and carried it down to him. He didn't use it up very fast, but of course it had to be mixed fresh all the time.