Chapter 31
On The Road Again

In 1985 the crop in Southern areas of Saskatchewan was almost nil. I helped Charlie with the harvest by doing most of the swathing. The wheat was allowed to get completely ripe and dry enough to straight combine and we swathed just ahead of the combine so it never laid on the ground more than an hour or two. This helped a great deal in picking up clean, and we saved wheat that couldn't have been possible any other way. Charlie's combine is a 96 John Deere and is not equipped with a wide header. We harvested wheat that yielded only five bushels an acre, but it was the only way to have seed for the next year.

In September 1985, sister Nellie was at Midale to celebrate "Freck" and Marcie Waite's 25th anniversary. Harvest was well past and we could all relax and enjoy the occasion. I went back to Tacoma with her and I spent several weeks out there and we went to Illinois to visit for two weeks. We flew to Vancouver and then on to Seattle, Bill Campbell and their twin girls met us to take us to their home for the rest of the day. On October 1, Nellie and I flew to Illinois via Eastern Air lines. We had to go through Denver to make connections, then to Des Moines, Iowa before finally arriving at Moline, Illinois airport. Glen and Beulah, also Melvin and Marion met us, they were traveling in Melvin's motor home. We spent a few days at Melvin and Marion's home until Sunday the 6th of October. We attended church with them and then went to the hall for a family get together. This was on short notice but there were 25 or 30 Truman relatives present. That day was my 75th birthday, Marion presented a birthday cake and a pot luck dinner was served.

Of important note was the attendance of Aunt Rhoda Truman just over 90 years old. Her daughters-in-law are very kind to her and take her out whenever possible even though she is confined to a wheelchair most of the time. These two daughters-in-law, Winifred and Maud have visited here in Saskatchewan and we know them very well. They are loved and much appreciated for their attention to Aunt Rhoda and also their personalities. They have children and grandchildren. Some we do not know very well. Also Dwayne and Joanne Truman were there from Bettendorf, Iowa. Dwayne has worked for "Alcoa", short for Aluminum Company of America, for over 25 years, after serving in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theatre of war. We also met two Karlssons, relatives of Grandma Truman's, people we had not met before. Corn harvest was just starting when we were there and beans were about all harvested. Neil Truman does the Truman farm operation on about 800 acres, owned mostly by Neil, brother Larry and their father Melvin. He keeps one hired man, mostly year round and extra help is required during harvest. Melvin was the extra help while we were there and I rode many trips to Keithsberg with corn or beans to the grain elevator where it was loaded on barges for shipment down the Mississippi River.

After the reunion party we went to Glen and Beulah's house and stayed a week. Their son-in-law, Randy McGinnis farms their 80 acre farm and works for Illinois Telephone Company. Randy was also harvesting corn in the evenings and on days off. I rode the truck to Aledo corn buying elevator a few times with Laura Jean, Randy's wife. The older girls. Amy 15 and Abby 12, looked after the younger sister Allie. If they were involved with after hours school work and sports, of course there was always Grandma and Grandpa to keep her. It was a two family operation with everybody helping.

Getting back to the farm operation of which Melvin is still part owner, the older son, Larry runs a comprehensive feed business right on the farm. He buys many different concentrates for almost any class of livestock, poultry, dogs and cats. The different kinds of rations are mixed with corn or beans and sold over a wide area. at least 50 miles in every direction, even across the river into Iowa. Different blends are produced to meet the requirements of dairy cows, dry cows, growing calves or cattle on feed for slaughter. Also, at least three different classes of feed for hogs; sows to farrow, weanling pigs, growing and finishing as well. Feed for laying hens and growing mixture for broiler chickens. There were five men working besides Larry, some mixing feed, others driving trucks. The weather wasn't very warm while we were there, 70 F. about the upper limit most days.

Glen and Melvin each have some fruit trees in their yard, apples are the easiest to care for, I believe. They had mostly all been picked but there were still a few windfalls on the ground. We ate all we wanted and I'd like to have taken some home, but we had plenty of luggage to handle so I didn't bother.

The last Sunday we were at Glen's, two of our distant cousins, Phyllis Zilke and Helen Goff came to spend the afternoon with us. We got to know a little more about distant cousins and looked at photos, some of theirs and some of ours. Helen Goff was not very well, and she has passed away since we were there. That Sunday evening Dwayne and Joanne Truman came down from Bettendorf to take us home with them. We stayed over night and had a brief visit with two of their grown sons. Dwayne was gone to work when we arose in the morning. He still works part time prior to retirement. They took us to the airport in Moline and we were soon on our way back to Denver and on to Seattle, arriving there about 6:00 p.m. It was dark of course and the city lights under us were interesting, the rows and rows of street lights in Seattle seemed to last for many miles and minutes. Bill Campbell's wife, Pat, met us at the airport and we were home to Nellie's house before 8:00 p.m. It was a lovely time of the year to travel and pleasant to see so many relatives in the 14 days we were away. We also have a cousin living in Denver, so during our two hour wait before flying to Illinois. Nellie phoned and had a conversation with her. She is Lois Smulin, a native of Illinois, her mother passed away within the last year, the last member of Mama's family. She was Nellie Morrow and had been in a nursing home for some years. She barely recognized me in 1978 when Zellie and I were there.

After we had been home at Nellie's a few days we took a bus trip to Vancouver, Washington, that is just across the Columbia River from Portland. We went to visit Elmer Rederberg and his wife Jesse. She is Nellie's sister-in-law. We had supper with them. Nellie's daughter, Sylvia Koethe, met us at the bus depot and was with us. It was Friday when we went down there so we didn't see much of their three grown children until the next day.

On Saturday, Jim and Sylvia took Nellie and I in their new Ford half-ton to see some country. Jim grew up in the area and we traveled through some country not often seen by everybody. We drove along the Columbia River for a few miles and saw what is called the Columbia Gorge. It is very lovely scenery. On Sunday, we attended church with Sylvia and the girls, Kristine and Susan. That particular Sunday there was a family from Central America serving some of their ethnic foods.

The World Series baseball playoffs had started while we were in Illinois, and we had watched a couple of games while at Glen and Beulah's place. That last Sunday afternoon at Sylvia's was the final game and Jim's parents came over and watched it with us. Some were glad at the Royal's win but I was still angry at the Royals for defeating the Blue Jays.

On November 13, 1985 I arrived back in Regina. It was icy underfoot and cold, winter was with us on the prairies. I had no warm clothing along so I went to "The Bay", bought a pair of winter gloves and went to the bus depot to get on the morning bus for Midale.

The weather stayed cold through the end of November. I attended the Regina Agribition the last days of November and it was -30 C, too cold to ever go back to the exhibition grounds. The most interesting item on the exhibition program to me was the heavy horse show. Donald and Bob Smith from Govan were staying at the same hotel as I on the first day I was there. We had breakfast together and took a taxi up to the exhibition. There we parted company for a while until the horse show got interesting about 1:00 p.m. We sat together and watched the show, vying with each other on who could pick the same winners as the judge. We weren't always right but were not really surprized when we were. After all the top two or three entries are often almost a matter of opinion. I stayed for the evening rodeo. Donald and Bob left early to go home on the 5:00 p.m. bus. I always enjoy their company and look for them every time I attend Agribition. That particular time at Agribition I also ran across Bill LeMay of Redvers. He was also on the Denver tour in January 1981. Bill is an interesting type of person who is never at a loss for words. He could be called the life of the group when we were together on the Denver trip.

The balance of the winter of 1985-85 was not very cold and there was not much snow. There were a couple of weeks in February which were colder but not in terms of Saskatchewan winters. In the later part of February I took a notion to call Jack and Alma Pearson at Whitewood, they were on the Denver tour also. They invited me up for a weekend and I enjoyed visiting with them and talking of how we enjoyed the tour. They are plain working people like many of us and appreciate the same values and problems of rural farm living. Jack farms and also works at the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool service center in Whitewood.

In the spring of 1986 I realized almost sorrowfully that it was time for me to abandon farm work. I sought to find a way to tell Charlie and Fadiah that we'd all be as well off if I didn't take nay part in the farm work. This was partly the result of a health problem I had experienced in January 1986. I was in Weyburn hospital for two days, but it seems that I can still get sick and recover just as quickly. Early in May I decided to go visit Pearl and Nellie at the West Coast and would be away throughout the time of spring seeding. Charlie called me one cold, windy morning and asked if I would come out and seed a small field that isn't easy to get at with the big drill. I agreed to go out about noon as it would likely warm up by then, so we moved the machinery and seed out to the field and I seeded it with a John Deere R and the IHC drill. It took about four or five hours. That was the last farm work I did and I was almost surprised how easy it was to take a back seat. I don't really believe I should be doing what some younger person can do just as well.

I left for Vancouver the next day and was away for three weeks. After spending a few days with Pearl and Peter Truman at White Rock, I again took the bus to Tacoma, Washington and lived leisurely at Nellie's until about the fourth of June. We traveled by bus again to Vancouver, Washington to visit Jim and Sylvia Koethe and family. This was the occasion of Craig Koethe's high school graduation. It was a pleasant experience to observe 105 graduates receive their diplomas. The program lasted almost three hours and there was very little entertainment except a Valedictorian's address and a local resident giving an address. The graduation banquet and dance were restricted to graduates and supervising parents. Sylvia served afternoon lunch for about twenty-five people, family and friends. Jim and Sylvia were quite involved with the banquet and supervising the dance. Jim had to teach the next day so he came home about midnight, Sylvia stayed with the graduates until the dance ended early in the morning. She arrived home as Jim was leaving for work. Nellie and I were leaving shortly after, and again Susan took us to our bus departure. I believe we were both tired, but had really enjoyed the weekend with my sister Nellie. We had both visited briefly with Jim's parents who lived close by.

It is wonderful how one's relationship can give comfort and confidence in getting acquainted with distant in-law relatives by just spending a few hours visiting in their home environment. I will always treasure the friendship of Jim Senior and Vanessa Koeth. They are not in very good health, Jim is over 80 years old, yet they try to take care of themselves and live independently. It is good to know them and know they have family and help close by. They are really good grandparents to Kristine, Susan and Craig.

On going home I was running out of time so I didn't stop at Tacoma but went right on through to Blaine, Washington. One day later sister Pearl and I rode the bus and ferry to Campbell River, BC to visit her daughter Sharon and family. We stayed over two days and nights and headed back to Vancouver. It was an interesting trip, especially being on the ferry to and from the island. Again we separated at the Vancouver bus depot. Pearl going on home to White Rock and I taking a shuttle bus to the airport.

Harvest time came, and again I stayed home, swathing what I could. The crop was unbelievably good, too bad the price of grain was so low. The wheat was good quality and harvest weather was good in August in this area About 90% of the wheat was harvested dry by the end of August or very early September. Granaries were filled, a few people perhaps more that I was aware of, had wheat piles on the ground. It seemed to move to the elevators fairly well. Our area was getting [train] cars and it seemed to move out quite quickly from my point of view. I am not completely aware of all that transpired. There were some good flax crops in the district. Charlie had fifty acres of fairly good flax. About the tenth of September the weather turned cloudy and damp pretty well all over the grain producing area. Very little harvest was done for three or four weeks. Some of the early flax was harvested but Charlie's stood until about October 1. The weather finally brightened up and he swathed the flax and eventually it was dry enough to harvest. It was a happy sight to see Ken Rosengren picking up a twenty foot swath and the job was completed in two afternoons. Hurrah - the crop is harvested, mostly in good condition.

The day before the weather turned unfit for harvest, I decided to drive to Naicam to spend a few days with our niece Lavawn and husband Eldor Jensen. I also visited with nephew Allen Goransen and wife Helen. They had a good start at harvest also. They had experienced a dry spring and the wheat and canola was not as good as usual. I was surprised to see harvest so far advanced for that area, Watson to Melfort. They are often three or four weeks later than we are. Eldor and brother Ivor were combining barley that was making sixty bushels an acre. They put ten thousand bushels of barley in the granary that day from two medium sized combines working from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. The next day I went to Allen's farm headquarters five or six miles east of Naicam. They harvest with one large Ford combine. They finished their canola that morning and started on the wheat. The canola wasn't a very good grade, the wheat was mostly No.3 and hardly making 30 bushels per acre. They are used to forty or better. Allen and his son-in-law farm together, they have about 1100 or 1200 acres of crop. They started on the wheat that afternoon but it wasn't quite dry so Allen was putting it through the dryer. Their family was in the process of having a house built at the farm for the young couple, Donna, her husband and their two children. Allen and Helen have been living in town but the last several years they have lived in a trailer at the farm during the summer. They both said they feel so much more comfortable at the farm. They still had about half of their crop to harvest at the time I was there, probably about the tenth of September. That afternoon I drove up to Gronlid to visit Eddie and Violet Burka and their three sons. Violet is the daughter of Bill and Eva Sutton who live at Snowden. Eva is the former Eva Billingsly, one of the George Billingsly family that were neighbors to us at Halbrite from 1927 to 1929. I spent two days with them and started home early on the third day.