WREATHMAKER

Last weekend we took my Mom on a little trip to parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. She is almost 92 and wanted to see the places where she grew up and spent her early married days. At Dauphin, Mb., we went to "Threshing Days" where old-fashioned methods of harvesting, etc. were being shown. She loved that! She was keen to go for a ride on this buggy...  ...a wagon load of sheaves being brought to the threshing area... ...and the threshing machine at work... Mom took a pitchfork and was about to demonstrate picking up a sheaf of wheat... We also visited her first log house in Saskatchewan, built in 1937. You can read about it here.. http://millie-manitobameanderings.blogspot.com/2010/08/25-log-house.html The original wallpaper is still hanging on...even though this room has been used for grain storage in the past... The "hardwood" floors were never sealed or varnished and she had to scrub them on hands and knees with a lye solution . ... There have been a lot...

Last weekend we attended a family reunion in Saskatchewan. While there we took the opportunity to pay a visit to our farm. We don't get out here too often as it is a 6 hour drive, and my brother looks after managing the rental of the farm. My two brothers and I own it.  The road to the farm from the main road has now become just a packed mud trail, and since it hadn't rained, we were okay for the drive. We were quite surprised to see how much the trees had grown up around the buildings. My parents had this log home built when they were married in 1937, at a grand cost of $25 for labor. The logs were free. To chink the walls, a mixture of clay, horsehair, and some other ingredient which I can't recall,possibly lime, were mixed together and the space between the logs were filled and the exterior smoothed so the walls appeared flat. The house was occupied in two periods, for a total of about 6 years, ending in 1949. Of course, the outside plastering has now worn off...