Chapter 11
Drought - Moving North

Brother Charlie, Hazel and their two small children moved north along with Hazel's father and his household. They didn't put in a crop and had no income that year. I guess they must have lived on welfare, it was called relief those days. I had applied for relief for our household of five adults in the fall of 1931. We were to receive seven dollars per person for food each month. We didn't ask for any help to buy clothing. We also received some seed and feed oats for the spring of 1932. Other years that we received seed and feed oats were 1935 to 1938, and possibly some in 1939. We had sold a small truck load of cattle in 1934 and a sow with a litter of piglets for $120 - what huge sums of money! A buyer from Regina named John Bayne had bought them. I got to know him through Emery Achen.

The years from 1931 to 1941 were a complete loss socially to me, I felt like I was responsible for our household's welfare and I almost lost interest in young people my age. I couldn't feel any interest in social gatherings. I stayed home and worked, ate and slept and literally became a piece of machinery. I had one delightful experience I will touch on during the winter of 1936-37. But first we have to live again through 1934 to 1936. 1934 was a complete loss as far as crops were concerned for all who lived in this area. I don't think there was a bushel of wheat harvested between Halbrite and Griffin. The grasshoppers ate our crop up In July and there wasn't even any feed to harvest. It froze the seventh of July enough to blacken the potato plants. Lillian and Edgar had shipped up to Spalding in the late fall of 1933. There was snow on the ground when Lillian and their children left Halbrite on the train. Also Earl had hauled Oscar Baker's threshing machine from what is now the George Vilcu farm to Spalding in the summer of 1933. He got a good look at the standing crop and was all excited moving north too. He had the help of a man who could hardly talk English and they used five good horses of Baker's. I don't know how the horses happened to be available unless Baker had driven or trucked them down. They chained a back wheel going down into the Ou'Appelle valley, all went well and it took them ten days to go 250 miles. They had to buy their food each day and sleep where it was convenient. When Earl arrived home after that trip he was convinced we should go north too. The way conditions developed in 1934 it appeared he was as right as could be.

I'll digress here for an apology for my complaint about social affairs in the 1930's. Yes. I did keep company with a girl at Griffin for two years, 1931-32. Her father drove Doctor MacDonald with a team and covered sleigh for several winters. They would be at our place so Papa could have a hypo to get relief from an attack of asthma. I got to know them real well, and I used to ride up there Sunday afternoon and arrive home "late". One amusing thing happened when I went to church with them. One hymn that was sung was "Lead Kindly Light" (the night is dark and I am far from home), how true. We had difficulty keeping a straight face. They too left the district during the years of drought.

Early in July 1934 we made arrangements to drive our horses, some wagons and hay machinery up to Naicam. We would move in temporarily with Lillian and Edgar. Accordingly some of our cousins at Midale wanted to go also, and a friend who had chummed with us was also willing to go. Earl, Glen and Darwin Truman and Edward Nillson took eighteen horses and drove there in nine or ten days. They were driving at least four teams and some older horses were tied behind. Two yearlings and two year olds followed loose. About this time Pearl was anxious to get away from the hopeless dry prairies so she bought a train ticket to Vancouver and went to seek her fortune. She married about a year later and had no desire to return to the prairies except for a visit in summer weather. Margaret went to stay with sister Nellie until we returned in the spring of 1935.

The travelers arrived at Edgar and Lillians in good condition and all soon found work when harvest got under way. Glen went to work for Simpson Frasers at Lac Vent, Darwin worked for Frank Harper, west of Edgar and Lillian's, Earl worked for Jake Gardiner. I don't remember who Edward worked for. Each of the boys took a team threshing, thereby increasing their earnings a bit. Earl bought some oat sheaves from Mr. Gardiner to the value of his earnings. The neighbours and Uncle Charlie helped me load two car loads of machinery, furniture, along with two cows, two heifer calves and a purebred Shorthorn bull that we had purchased from Emery Achen. He was not yet fully grown. I also had Glen and Walt's purebred Percheron stallion "Lindy" along. Henry Larkey who was already at Spalding was to come and take charge of him. I don't remember how long I was in transit to Naicam, probably two days and nights. The main problem was to get water for the livestock. The boys who had driven the horses up all helped to unload the freight cars and we soon had it all out in Edgar's yard. We had some barbed wire along and we fenced some unbroken land of Edgar's to provide more pasture for the livestock. I didn't do any harvesting or threshing. Taking care of the extra livestock was somewhat of a burden, as Edgar's well didn't supply enough water at one time for them all. When threshing was over Earl and I bought some more oat sheaves from Art Sharpe and hauled all we had bought home to Edgar's yard and stacked them. We also made arrangements to get both wheat and oat straw piles for the winter's use. Then we got started enlarging Edgar's barn and putting up a log shelter with a straw roof for our own horses and cattle. This was no small task, as Edgar more than doubled the size of his barn to forty feet in length and we made ours the same length right beside his barn so we only had to build one side and two ends. When this job was done Earl went to Debden to help Mabel's husband do chores for the winter. It was well into October by this time and Edgar's brother Willie had made arrangements with Edgar to winter a lot of his livestock. Willie shipped a carload of horses and one carload of cattle. I'm not sure how many, at least twelve or fifteen horses and possibly twenty-five head of cattle, mostly all adult animals. Edgar and Willie built a log and straw shed for the cattle out in the bush. They made the door as low as possible so the horses couldn't get in, and we were ready for the winter. Of course the well wouldn't supply nearly enough water for thirty-five horses and forty head of cattle, so right away I started hauling for ours from a neighbor's well. I had sold the bull early in the winter to a farmer down near Englefeld for twenty dollars I believe. Alec Southers lived a half mile north of Edgars, and I hauled at least three barrels a day, sometimes more from there. Thankfully it wasn't far, but it was severely cold from December 20 to the end of January, always below zero and often twenty to thirty below. Real fun.

Edgar would often use my sleigh and barrels to haul for his livestock's needs. I was using Rex and Curly for a chore team and they were a pleasure to drive. Our livestock did well all winter on oat sheaves and oat straw. I suppose I fed my chore team all I dared afford and they were slick and smooth as seals. We knew exactly how many oat sheaves we had and how many I could feed each day to last until the end of April. We still ended up with enough to feed our horses on the trip home in the spring of 1935. At least once a week or nice days I would sneak over east about four miles for a load of oat straw that we had bargained for. We had three bob sleighs between us so we never had to change rack or wagon box all winter. We even had a good driving team by putting Cap and May together to go to town with once a week. Cap was a standard bred gelding Edgar had raised from Nancy while they lived at Heward. May was with foal but she made many trips to Naicam with Cap that winter. Edgar and Lillian were thankful for the beef Willie provided for the winter. We hung it up by the heels while Willie was still there. I don't remember how long it lasted but it was good Shorthorn beef. It was a contribution in payment for wintering the livestock.

Another item that added to our winter employment was providing dry wood for two stoves. Edgar and Lillian had not lived there during the previous winter so they had no fire wood cut and dried. We were gathering dry wood most of the winter and that wasn't always easy. Edgar and Lillian's oldest son, Allen, was not yet nine years old and he sawed quite a lot of wood every day after school. If it wasn't enough Edgar and I took up the slack. Lavawn and Lucille were just little girls, Mama's helpers, ages three and five. Willard was born on March 13 so I doubt that it was an easy time for Lillian.

About the worst thing that happened was that I developed blood poisoning on one knee just before Christmas. I drove Cap and May to town to see the doctor and he said to stay off of it and keep hot packs on until it was ready to lance. I can't remember how Edgar managed all those chores while I sat in the house soaking my knee. It's quite possible that Bill Massey came over to help some in the evening after school. It wasn't full time help. I was probably immobilized four or five days, whatever, it was too long. But I went back to see the doctor, he lanced it and oh, the junk he squeezed out of it. In a very short time I was back in business. What a relief and help it was to be strong and healthy and able to recover quickly.

The social life that winter was almost nil. I can only remember going to a neighbor's place, George Smith's. They had an exceptionally good well and a location to make a skating rink. I occasionally spent a Sunday afternoon there for a change and to be with a few young people. The only ones that I know still in the area are the two Davis brothers, Ben and Bob. I haven't seen them to know them for years, Bill and Annie Massey live in Naicam, I have forgotten Annie's married name, Mary is in Ontario. Also Ina Smith, now Mrs. Souther and Lena (Smith) Neash, both widowed and living in town. So much for a winter spent at Naicam.