I called Aunt Shirley to get the identity of the kid in the picture. She thought that it looked like Bob McDill. Then she started to talk about how much growing up on the farm meant to her, along with her memories of raising steers for 4-H. This museum has depictions of family 4-H membership in at least four decades. Keith in the 1930s, Shirley in the 1950s, Chris in the 1960s and Eleanor in the 2020s.
Here I am “helping” Dad work on his cultivator. Note the manual lift mechanism; this was in the days before hydraulics were used on our farm. This was a 12 ft cultivator but note that has been adjusted to 10 ft mode by turning both outside shovels upside down — so they are plowing the air… The background comprises the ever-present barn, the brooder chicken house (left), the 400 bushel grain trailer which ran on war-surplus airplane tires, and the oat bin behind the trailer.
My memory of the carragana. Mom & Dad built their house in the same yard as Grandpa and Grandma. I think that Mom subscribed to the adage that “Good hedges make good in-laws …!” I well remember the opening in the hedge and the pathway between the two houses. This path shows the well-worn path between the two houses. (Don’t forget to admire the cute kid in the picture …)
Swipe
Aunt ShirleyThe reservoir created by the dam over the Souris River was, and is, a great recreational attraction. Back then it was known as the Weyburn Dam or the 7-Mile Dam. Now it is called Nickle Lake Regional Park.
Garry and Sandra Ledingham, Chris, Lois Ledingham?
Click
In the Words of Mossie Boyle
“We went along with Tommy Douglas to help get the C.C.F. party started and later, into power in Saskatchewan, with Tommy Douglas as Premier. Up to this time I always voted Liberal because that was the way my parents voted, but this party seemed to be trying to bring better things to the country folk.
“For instance, I never thought I would ever see electricity brought into our home on the farm, but it did come to pass. The lights were turned on September 19, 1951. Charlie and I turned on every light in the house then went outside to see what it looked like—wonderful!!”
We were then able to get a fridge and washing machine. We already had a propane gas stove, and the barn was all lit up to. I am a little ahead of my story. During the course of the years we had built a barn and a house, both of which we had been waiting for until we could afford to build.
