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'My
Commonplace Book'
By Beryl A. (Bock) McPhee
When I took grade eight I failed the exam so had to repeat the year, grade
nine had to be taken by correspondence because I couldn't move to Big
River to attend the High School there, that grade took me two years to
pass as Granny was ill a lot and I couldn't study very much. About this
time my dear cat Spotty passed away in her sleep, we never did know just
how old she was, she regularly produced two litters of kittens per year
so I guess she did her bit for posterity, we only kept one or two kittens
each time in case anyone wanted them and the rest Granny disposed of.
Spotty was a terrific hunter, she often brought home rabbits and even
a weasel one time, weasels are terrific fighters so our cat really did
well to get this one!
Before
Grandpa left Watrous he shipped two collie-cross pups to use as farm dogs,
Bubbles and I played with them every day and when either of us pulled
our wooden wagon they would vie to be the one who would was going to ride,
Dad had put a flat top on our wagon when the sides got broken and the
pup who couldn't ride would run alongside chewing the corners of the wagon.
Dad had bought Mom two pairs (red & yellow) of pure silk Chinese pyjamas
for her birthday, they were hanging outside on the washing line and the
pups were discovered each swinging from a pant leg! Murder was almost
committed!
It was then decided that we would keep Jumbo and the other pup would be
given to Aunt Era, it was named Lion but that was later changed to Laddie.
Laddie
didn't like Aunt Era at all and always came home to us when let loose,
one day he followed Aunt Era and Wilber to town and found himself a family
of about 6 children and adopted them. Jumbo was very wise and would do
many clever things, at the shack on the range line Dad had built a bench
outside the door and when Mom baked a pie or cake she would take it straight
from the oven and set it on the bench to cool, she would call Jumbo and
tell him to guard it so he'd lay there to watch it and wouldn't let even
a fly touch it!
He was especially Bubbles' dog and would do whatever she asked no matter
how unlikely, some times he'd go chase a skunk and then come and lay on
the porch which was just too much! The smell wouldn't leave his coat for
a few weeks! I remember taking the .22 rifle out into the fields on foggy
fall mornings with my eyes still shut with sleep and coming back with
2 or 3 prairie chickens or partridges then I'd have my breakfast and go
to school, when supper time came what a lovely meal we would have!
In the winter after a fresh snow we would be almost late for school because
we'd find and follow animal and bird tracks to try to identify them, there
was great excitement one morning we found tracks we first thought were
from a cow but then realized they belonged to a moose! We always felt
bad when we found some tiny mouse tracks running for a short way then
they'd stop, on either side of the last track would be the marks of an
owl's wing tips as it swooped to catch the little thing for a meal. I
also recall Myrl and I coming home from school in a high wind storm with
trees falling all around us, on days of conditions blizzard it would be
very difficult to walk to school especially for the younger ones, the
older children would take turns breaking a trail through the snow drifts
that would come up to the younger ones' waist height, if we were wearing
moccasin rubbers (like the feet of rubber boots over the Indian moccasins)
the snow would get in and pack hard, hurting our feet so the rubbers often
had to be emptied. By the time we got to school we were so very tired,
but we had school work all day to do and then break a trail home again.
At
Christmas time the school teacher would organize us to put on a concert,
in Nov/Dec only the most essential school work was done, the teacher planned
out the concert and gave everyone parts to learn, on the night of the
concert of course everyone arrived in their best clothes and sat on desks
and benches that were set up. We had costumes and a Christmas tree with
presents afterward, the concert always had some intentional comedy in
it but a lot of merriment came from the children's performances! The teachers'
desk was always pushed to the back under a window and my Dad and a neighbor
Mr. Wood would sit on it, at every concert over the years extra fun was
had by listening to them laugh, Dad sort of giggling and Mr. Wood had
a deep ha! ha! ha! It was hilarious!
Of course Christmas was the main "event" of winter, starting in November
the baking of Christmas cakes, Aunt Mary's cookies, butter tarts, cinnamon
rolls, pies which were put safely in containers and set outside to freeze
until the big day. Bubbles and I each had a Christmas tree in our respective
houses and we had a lovely time running back and forth. One year when
I was old enough Dad hitched Maude up to the cutter, gave us a small axe
and Bubbles, Tinker the cat and I went out to get two Christmas trees
which we always had growing on a corner of the property, the trees always
look smaller outdoors than they really are so we loaded the two trees
into the cutter and went home buried in the branches, the trees were each
about 7 feet tall when set up in the house!
After the New Year, which we didn't celebrate on the farm that I can remember,
everyone felt let down, the weather got colder and we settled into the
"deep freeze". The coldest I remember was a day when the temperature was
-62F, no-one went to school or outdoors at all if they could help it,
the animals were all kept in the stables and not allowed out as their
lungs might have been frozen breathing in the cold air. Dad and Grandpa
put all the warm clothes on they could and wrapped scarves around their
noses and mouths to take feed and water to the barns, the trees cracked
like pistol shots with the frost. Thank goodness that wasn't a common
occurrence, the temperature in the winter usually averaged between 20-40
degrees below.
Mr.
Woods went to town one bitterly cold day driving a team of "buckskin"
ponies that were hardly broken in, on the way home in the dark he stopped
at Grandpa’s and called for help, his hands and in fact all of him was
freezing, in the six miles from town the ponies went at such a rate he
couldn't slacken the reins at all. Grandpa had to tie the team to the
fence and cover them and get Mr. Woods in beside the fire to thaw out,
he would never have made it home without stopping. I had a chance one
time to have a ride behind those ponies through very rough country, we
went so fast we didn't hit any bumps because we just flew over them! One
ride was enough!
In
the winter farmers couldn't do any outside work in the fields so they
had a quiet time, some men put flat beds on their sleighs and drove about
100 miles north to Dore Lake and fished through the ice for Whitefish
and Jumbo Whitefish which are about 1.5 and 3 feet long resp., they were
lovely fish to eat, when they were finished the fish were crated and sent
by flatbed "fish trains" to Big River to be shipped to market. The "fish
train" I was privileged to see one very cold day as we were going to town
came out of the bush like an apparition, the team of horses were covered
in hoary frost with icicles hanging from their noses. There was a driver
in the first of the 5 or 6 sleighs, the horses were trained to follow
the sleigh in front so none of them were tied together, around corners
the horses turned extra wide so the sleigh wouldn't get caught on stumps!
In
the winter Ladder Lake froze over, one time Granny, Era and I took Maude
and the cutter to go to town, through the bush there was no wind with
only snow flakes gently falling, but when we came to the lake it was very
different. A blizzard was in progress and the wind was so strong we couldn't
see or catch our breath, we had to fasten the reins to the cutter and
the three of us got under the horse blanket while Maude trotted steadily
across the lake without any guidance and got us safely to town. How she
knew where the trail was we never knew!
Another
time in summer Grandpa went to town alone with Maude and the buggy, he
didn't get home in daylight when he was expected and by the time night
came we were very worried about him. It was one of the darkest nights
when you couldn't see the hand in front of your face let alone tell where
you were going, about 10pm we were out in the yard wondering what to do
when we heard someone slowly coming along the road, it was Grandpa safe
and well, he said he was delayed in town and when darkness came he had
to just let Maude bring him home, she had to find the way by herself along
the bush track avoiding the trees and stumps that would upset the buggy,
all on a pitch black night for six miles! A wonderful animal!
Dad
also bought two horses, they were bays called Smokey and Beaut, later
he acquired another big black called Bess. 
In
due course Beaut had a little filly we called Wallie because she was born
on the same day the Duke and Duchess of Windsor married, Wallie was a
born jumper, no fence was ever too high and when she wanted a feed of
oats she'd just jump the fence into the oat field and help herself! One
day in the corral Wallie, Maude and Bess were a bit skittish after a drink
of cold water, they got running around and around then Wallie sailed over
the fence like a bird, then after her came Bess (who had never jumped
anything in her life) and she just made it over, Maude of course was not
to be outdone, over she went - just her front feet and then just stood
there looking back at the house and Dad as much to say "well just don't
stand there laughing, come and get me out" so Dad had to take down the
fence for her while telling her she was a silly old goat!
Other
times Dad could talk to Maude and make her dance on the spot just by telling
her off! Once I took Maude out in the cutter to go get the mail, on the
way back over some new hard drifts of snow the cutter got upset and threw
me, the mail, the horse blanket and loose seat boards out into the snow,
I yelled "whoa" to Maude who stopped a few yards away, she turned her
head and watched me every minute while I went back and forth loading everything
up again, I know she was laughing at me! When Wallie was a new foal one
day she was out in the corral beside me watching Beaut and Maude going
down the road without her, Beaut whinnied and Wallie decided to join her,
she was standing beside a five foot fence which she looked up and down
then sailed over it without any effort at all. We never could keep her
fenced in from then on if she didn't want to be!
Dad
would let us ride the horses only once in a long while because they were
work horses and they needed their rest, Bubbles rode Maude because she
was so reliable and I would ride Bess, we had a lot of adventures on them
I can tell you and as we didn't have saddles I learned to ride the horse
bareback like an Indian. One day we went out in summer, the horse flies
were bad and were biting the horses noses, I got off Bess to adjust her
nose guard and couldn't get on again because she was so big and fat and
she didn't have a saddle on, I led her up to a stump but as I got on the
stump collapsed and I fell and rolled into a hollow under the horse. Of
course she was startled and tried to jump forward but I hung onto the
reins and pulled back as hard as I could while talking to her and lying
perfectly still because one hind foot was about 3 inches above my stomach
and ready to come down if I let her move an inch, it took a minute before
that big foot moved back into place and I could get up. Prayers of thanks
went up that day! When I got home Granny had to pick thorns out of my
back because there was an old dried up rose bush in the hollow I fell
into!
One
cold day Dad went to town in the cutter and surprised me by bringing me
the tiniest dog I had ever seen, it was a Pomeranian pup that just fitted
into my hand and I called him Tinker, he had to have a collar and bell
so I could tell where he was in the bush.
We also had a cat named Spotty, she was a tortoiseshell colour, she would
curl up to sleep on the bookcase and would look just like an ornament!
Granny was always the first one up in the mornings, she'd make the fire
in the kitchen stove and let Spotty in, she would tell the cat to come
and wake me up before she (Spotty) could have breakfast, the cat would
jump up on the bed and look at me - if I was awake she'd race away to
eat, if I kept my eyes shut she'd walk around my head and meow in my ears
till I opened my eyes. Spotty
didn't like Tinker very much but Mom's cat Freckles used to hear Tinker
coming, hide behind the gatepost and pat him as he went by, then a game
of chasie ensued in and out of the house. Freckles could of course run
on the lino but Tinker slid all over the place, we had more fun watching
them than they had!
Eventually
Dad built a larger house on higher ground a half mile from Grandpa’s house,
it had four rooms and had finished timber for the floor and linoleum in
the kitchen, the barrel heater that Grandpa brought up from Watrous had
pride of place and we even had a brick chimney which was very out of the
ordinary! He also built a new barn, grain shed, pigpen and a "shack" for
storage. Everyone lived in those log houses, everyone was so poor in money
and possessions but we were so rich in many other things such as a beautiful
land with such abundant bush and animals and birds.
Memoirs: Beryl A.
(Bock) McPhee
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