Chapter 19
New Farm, New Family, New Friends

On the fifth of March 1943, Natalie Trischuk with young son Kenneth came to work for me. She tried to phone from the station to announce their arrival but I must have been out every time she tried to call. However, Mr. Eglund (the station agent) learned that Earl was in town and he brought them out on his way home.

In the next few days a lot of changes were made in the house. It soon had the appearance of a woman's help. It was pleasant to have Natalie's company and it took some adjustment to have a child in the house. Our social life together was rather limited as we had no car, and I doubt that we got any further than over to Carl and Margaret's or to Earl and Evelyn's homes and to town.

On the ninth of March it started to snow from the east and it continued until the 12th. In all about 20 inches of snow accumulated. Roads were impassable. The farmers from north east of town such as Kruegers, Englunds and Sjostrands came through the fields wherever they could see stubble showing. They came through our yard, out south of the barn over towards Anton Hultein's and back to the road at Hultgrens. Some of the horses making the first track were almost played out. In less than a month the snow was going fast and then we had minor floods on the roads for a few days. I think that was the spring the culvert north of Hultgrens washed out coming in from the new dugout on the north side of the road. Some of that water ran for days and days. It originates up in the Connelly area.

I don't remember how much crop I put in some of those years. Hammond threshed for us again each year until I finally bought a combine in 1950. In 1949 Art Clauson and Gilbert McCallister combined some of our crop, probably all of the wheat, another year, probably 1948, Carl Hauglum combined some for us. Another year Teddy Rhinas combined our wheat. I was still harvesting oats and barley by binder and threshing it to have straw.

In early July 1943, Natalie's young sister, Dava, came to stay with us. I think she was about 13. She may have come earlier as I can't remember which part of the school term she attended. In early August all three of them, Natalie, Kenneth and Dava went home to Elstow for a short visit before harvest got under way. Dava came back with them so it may have been in September or longer that she attended school.

The only unusual item I remember about harvest that fall was a terrific thunderstorm and heavy rain very soon after we started threshing at our place. It was several days before we resumed threshing and there were soft spots in the fields.

On October 7th, 1943 Natalie and I were married in the Baptist Church residence by Pastor Emerson. Carl took us to Estevan for photos and we were back home by dark. Carl and Marg were our attendants. We didn't plan any honeymoon mostly because we couldn't afford it. Mrs. Gust Peterson favored us with a reception and shower not long after we were married. It was one of the last events we were to enjoy in that household among the neighbors I grew up with. Natalie's parents arrived early in November to visit for a few days. It was a crowded seat when I went to bring them from the station with the Model T Ford.

Our first Christmases were invariably spent by ourselves. except for a holiday supper spent with Carl and Marg, also Earl and Evelyn sometimes at one home, other times at another. They were not the elaborate times we have seen since. Lorraine was born in May 1944. Although she was well and strong she contracted whooping cough and it was a difficult time caring for her until it finally relented and she was well again. Natalie was not well for several weeks after Lorraine was born and we had to have help for at least a month. I believe Marion Holtz was our helper at that time. In the fall of 1944 we decided to enlarge our house. It wasn't easy to build onto a one story house, but by taking part of the roof off on one side, we added 12 feet by 20 on the first floor and raised the roof to permit room for two small bedrooms upstairs. Carl and Isaac Hauglum helped to get the walls and roof on except for the shingling. Good quality lumber was not available because of the needs of World War II at that time. Third and fourth grade 2 x 4's were hard to work with as were third and fourth grade cedar shingles. We were extremely fortunate not to have any rain when we had the roof off. It was probably November when we were working at that stage of building. We had no snow that year even in December. and I shingled a lot of it myself. even the last days before Christmas. It was so mild I worked bare handed. When it was not too cold to work at it, I put tentest sheeting on the inside walls, window and door casings. Natalie's parents sent down an outside door for the kitchen entrance, as we couldn't get one locally. It was pretty well finished inside before it was time to start seeding. Natalie did the inside painting and I still had to build a stairway and cut a hole in the ceiling for it That was something I hadn't done before and I had only a limited amount of room for it, but even that was eventually accomplished. There was still considerable work to finish up the upstairs, part of which was done after harvest in 1945 George Scharnatta and son George built a brick chimney in the fall of 1944, so when spring came in 1945 we moved our kitchen equipment into the newly built room on the north side. It seemed like a lot more room, but by 1956 and four more children we needed every bit of it. In June or July 1945, sister Nellie Campbell and four children visited us. We really needed the room although I believe they had a tent along and her two boys Richard and Dale slept in it.