Chapter 37
A Trip To Cape Breton

Evelyn and I coasted through July, August and September 1989. We took care of our garden produce, even made arrangements to rent the garden spot for next year. Evelyn made a few trips to Esterhazy to visit Bette by herself. I have been up there three times since last October. Bette's condition continues to deteriorate and Evelyn has been there many times since last Christmas. She stays some times with a cousin who lives in Esterhazy which is more pleasant than hauling supplies along and staying in her own house in Tantallon.

In October 1989, we flew to Cape Breton to visit Evelyn's daughter Barbara McLennan. She, husband Tommie and five children live on a dairy farm in Mabou, Cape Breton, more of a community than a town. It includes a store, gas pumps, church and school. It is about two miles from the McLennan residence. They own something like 480 acres, a lot of it is covered with small timber. I doubt if they have more that eighty acres that is cultivated, growing hay and tame grass pasture.

Their family consists of Donavon, 21, Nicole, 19, Megan, 13, Caroline, 11. and Andrew, 8. Donavon helps with all the farm work and is thoroughly capable in all areas of handling and treatment of the cattle according to a veterinarian's advice. He tried one year at university and found it not to his liking. He was glad to return home and live the farm life. Nicole has one term at university and is hoping to be a journalist. She has won many essay contests and scholarships, which is very encouraging and helped to finance the costs of attending university. Megan has begun taking part in helping with preliminaries of the daily milking chores, namely tying up the cows, cleaning udders, and absorbing the importance of cleanliness and small details involved in the production of first quality milk. She is also figure skating. Caroline is also a figure skater and artistic. Andrew is a very independent boy at age 8 and started playing hockey last winter. Unfortunately he broke a leg in their first league game. He had just scored his first goal of the season and was out of play the rest of the season. Barbara works three twelve hour shifts a week at a home for the handicapped.

The first Sunday we were at McLennan's we were invited to Tommie's sister's place in Port Hawkesbury for supper. Just us four adults went, it's about fifty miles from Mabou. Doreen, Tommie's sister, had invited their aunt, 80 some years old, a very interesting person. She had lived in Saskatchewan in the earlier years of her life. Doreen's four daughters were home and they had a female Japanese student staying with them, so there were eleven of us for supper. It was an interesting evening for us, much enjoyed by all. Another day Tommie and Barb took us up to the northern part of the Island, through a fishing village, Chetticamp, a French Settlement. We also visited a national park and drove by a country home owned by Alan McEachen, M.P. Tommie, Donavon and I attended a Holstein cattle sale in Antigonish on the mainland. It was interesting to see good quality dairy cattle sell for good prices. Another couple from Mabou were there, the Sutherlands and we all sat together during the sale. The high priced cow brought just over $5000. Her week old heifer calf sold for $1300. A lot of young cows sold in the $2000 to $2500 range.

The McLennans were opening their silo while we were there, preparing for winter feeding. It was quite a process to pump fresh air into the top to get rid of any gases that might have accumulated, before anybody entered the top to see if all the equipment was working properly. They would not be tying up their cows within a week for the winter as the pasture was not that good due to the end of the growing season. Some time in January we received a letter from them with Donavon's comments about a visit from the dairy operations inspector. He couldn't find one area to criticize and they didn't know he was coming either. In other words their every day care was perfect. They received a ribbon and certificate for top winners in that inspector's area. Tommie and Andrew took us to Halifax to board the plane for home. We saw very little of the country as it was cloudy all the way home. We changed planes in Toronto and were in Regina in time to catch the 5:30 bus for home. It was a really enjoyable trip.