Chapter 35
Returning To The Homefront

Evelyn had sold her automatic washing machine and dryer, she left her stove and sons Gary and Neil also acquired a few items. Actually she wanted to leave enough furniture so she, or we, could stay there for a few days occasionally when going back to visit, at least through one summer and especially to visit Bette who was in Esterhazy hospital, we didn't know for how long. At the time of this writing (April 1990) Bette is clinging to life by a thread, she has been very low many times since the first part of December 1989. Evelyn left for Esterhazy yesterday about 4:30p.m., Bette had been sleeping most of the day and had no nourishment. The hospital staff and Bette's daughter, Maureen Neufeld were on the phone a great deal yesterday seeking to keep us informed of what was taking place.

Our first summer in Midale was taken up by a small garden on an adjoining lot, a little out at Charlie and Fadiah's place and a late honeymoon trip to the west coast. We flew to Vancouver and spent a couple of days with Peter Truman at White Rock. This was Evelyn's first experience with Vancouver climate. Some of the early flowers were in bloom and it was an exciting change for her. We traveled by bus to Tacoma and rode a city transit bus from downtown Tacoma out to Nellie's residence, about a half hour ride, five or six miles. This was early in May and Nellie's family had planned a birthday celebration for her eightieth birthday on the 7th. Some of those attending from a distance besides Evelyn and I were Nellie's son Dale, from Alaska. His occupation is a "log scaler". Also his youngest son, George and another son Glen and wife, who were recently married, Richard Campbell and wife Doris from Texas, their daughter Leslie and her husband Charles Roth and infant. Also in attendance were daughter Sylvia Koethe, husband Jim and their children, Kristine, Susan and Craig, and Kristine's husband, Jeff. In all there were about 28 to 30 adults who sat down to supper at a waterfront cafe in downtown Tacoma. It was a hilarious time spent telling of experiences in our earlier years. I felt privileged to be spending time at a party like that since I was the only blood brother left in our family and was with an extended family so far from home. It was an exciting time for Evelyn also to be accepted into a group of adult in-laws so easy to visit with.

After spending a week or more at Nellie's, Evelyn and I boarded a ferry and traveled to Victoria, BC. Bill Campbell took us to Seattle to get on the ferry. It's such an experience to get around with a fellow like Bill. He knows his way around Tacoma and Seattle having grown up there since he was only three or four years old. Bill took us to within a hundred steps of the ferry boarding area and we were soon on our way to Victoria. It was a cool cloudy day, some rain so we didn't spend much time on the outside deck. We had lunch on the ferry and I was rather surprised to learn how long it took to arrive at Victoria, at least four hours which is covered by air in thirty minutes. It seemed to take ever so long to dock in Victoria, the ferry had to back into the berth to disembark. However we walked down the "Plank" and went through "Canadian customs" without any delay.

There was Evelyn's niece, Pamela, waiting for us. It was many blocks to their house, although it was not a great distance from the sea coast. The next day I walked and it was less than three blocks. Probably the greatest experience in Victoria was seeing the Butchart Gardens, a florist's paradise, I'd call it. Evelyn was in her glory seeing all the different flowers and arrangements and pinching the odd slip, here and there.

Steven and Pamela have two children, Steven teaches school and Pam works part-time in a bank. They have moved since we were there. It was an enjoyable weekend spent with them. Pam took us to the bus depot in early morning and the bus took us to the airport in Vancouver. We were back in Regina that same afternoon.

It was probably close to the 15th of May when we arrived home and I believe we had planted all of our garden before traveling to BC and Washington. The weather was already showing signs of drought so we asked Charlie if he would bring us a 500 gallon tank of water from their dugout. He has three on the farm. We soaked the garden and filled our containers which kept things growing for a couple of weeks. We used one more tank of water later on and the garden did fairly well considering the hot weather that followed. It wasn't an outstanding season for gardens generally. In some areas close to home they abandoned their gardens in July. The crop was very poor in this area except where an occasional shower of rain may have fallen.

Winter arrived early in 1988, we had a wet snowfall early in November. It was so wet it stuck to all the roofs in the country. It stayed there all winter, that is something we don't often see in this area. There is usually enough wind to blow it off soon after it has fallen. There was enough snow on our garage that I was obliged to shovel it off as I was afraid it was too heavy on a roof that is not strong enough to hold ten inches of snow with more coming. George Scharnatta was over and blew out our driveway many times during the winter. On one occasion in February, we had a heavy snow fall and it was more than the local small blowers would handle. A neighbor who still farms but lives in town, Arthur Englund, brought his tractor with rear mounted snow blower to town and cleared many driveways in this part of town. By the end of February we had approximately thirty five inches of snow. Surely there will be some water in the spring runoff. The weather warmed up rather slowly, the snow settled more and more, and eventually it was all gone and there wasn't even a puddle anywhere. With early snowfall on unfrozen ground it had all soaked in where it melted. Some dugouts got a little, some didn't. Yet where dugouts were in a good location and trees close by a few were filled. We were pleased with the moisture in the soil.

At Christmas 1988 we invited Evelyn's two sons, wives and families down for dinner. It wasn't very cold but was a bit snowy and not good visibility. They got misrouted some place so were almost a bit late arriving. There were eight adults and two children, crowd enough for our premises. Gifts were exchanged and we had another bite to eat before they left for home about 8:00 p.m. We also had a family Christmas celebration at my daughter Carol's house during the holiday period.

Evelyn spent a lot of the winter at needle work, and I did considerable reading, as much as my sight would permit. By Spring we had managed to get out to more card parties which had taken Evelyn a while to learn and eventually enjoy. I have played a lot of cards since June 1987 and never got tired of it, yet I didn't let it interfere with other activities. It is one way to get out and mix with people and enjoy their company.