Autumn arrived officially on September 22, but we are still waiting for some nice "Indian Summer" weather! September was more like November weather, cool with frost and then rain and a bit of snow. Harvest is at a standstill. Clare just has two or three days left of canola here at home. In spite of a dry and hot summer, the crop turned out better than he expected, a good average anyway.
Today Alan and I dug up some of our carrot crops so I've been busy scrubbing and bagging them. Good thing we have an extra fridge in the basement to keep them in. We'll have some to give away too. This was about a third of the row!
We could have left the carrots in the ground longer as now it barely freezes at night. But it's good to have that job done and the ground worked up for next year. Our "dead" grass even revived with moisture from the snow and is greening up again. Just a few leaves left on the trees thanks to lots of windy days after the frost.
October is a busy month for birthdays in our family. Sandra had hers on the 5th. We were thinking back to our joint celebration last year when we went with our daughters to Victoria and had such a wonderful time together on the island.
My brother Alan had his 70th birthday on the 17th. His family celebrated together in Montana on Thanksgiving weekend.
Nov. 6 This post is taking a long time to get published! I had started it back in October so the first part is rather old news but not "fake news" anyway. We had planned to spend Oct. 17 with my brother Alan but the weather was so nice that he was still busy at the Peacock ranch helping out with the cattle. So we delayed our visit and worked it in with a trip to Alberta.
On Sunday, Oct 28 we went to the 9:00 worship service at Trinity, Torquay and left right after for Frontier. We stopped for lunch at the A and W in Assiniboia and were at Alan and Judy's shortly after 4. Judy was making a turkey supper, another birthday celebration for Alan's 70th. Soon Tanya and the girls, Macey and Madison arrived followed by Devan and Michelle, Draven and Paige. It was great to get a visit in with these two families as when we have reunions the youngsters mostly visit among themselves and we don't really get to know them. Thanks Judy for arranging this supper get together.
On Monday Alan and Judy took us on a tour of "the Whitemud area"(now known as the Frenchman) where Alan works at the Peacock ranch and farm. He drove by the ranch to check on the cattle, then we went on a tour of this area. Devan works in this area so we got to see where he spends his working days with an oil company along Power Line Road.
We also drove along White Valley road and stopped at the little country church by the same name, White Valley. The church was last used on February 17, 2018 for the funeral service for Joyce (Anderson) Engen. There is no electricity so generators were used to provide heat that day. The interior is kept up and looked as if a service could be held there anytime. We also drove over to the cemetery, a short drive south-east of the church.
Then we headed east through the valley with stops to open and close gates as we went along. We drove on Flat Road and ended up at the town of Eastend. It was lunch time so we took care of that at "Jack's Cafe", a good eating place for many years. One of the previous owners had painted a mural depicting the history of Eastend. It covered the top half of three walls of the cafe and I didn't take a picture of it!!
After lunch we drove up to historic Chimney Coulee and then to the museum that houses "Scotty", the T rex that was discovered a few years ago. These ancient bones were joined together, with some bones having to be reconstructed to make the dinosaur life size once more. We hadn't expected to get into the building as it was "Closed for the season". But as we were looking around in the yard the door opened and we were invited to come in for a look. We didn't turn that down and spent time browsing and taking pictures.
On Tuesday am we headed south of Loomis to Sandra and Merle Sanford's. Jason and Marion joined us for lunch. Katie and Rhett were at school but we saw them the next day when they came over after being in town for tricks and treats. Sandra showed me her latest garage sale goodies. She is such a good shopper and she even found two jackets for me! She also had more cloth for our quilting ladies at Trinity - a big black bag full plus a large container of fabric, some already cut and other larger pieces. We start quilting in January and meet weekly until the end of March. The tops are made at home. Thanks to Caroline Bjornson, there are 40 quilts waiting to be tied!
On Wednesday it was Seniors Dinner in Frontier. Six groups of four or five ladies take turns serving a noon meal to those seventy years old and over. It's a great place to visit and Alan and I knew most of those seniors! Where else could you get a great home cooked meal for $7.00? They offer take out as well. This meal was delicious salisbury steak along with mashed potatoes, salad, home made buns. We even got Hallowe'en treats for dessert - a little bag of chips, a popcorn ball and mini chocolate bars.
Then we drove around town and reminisced about who used to live in several of the older houses. We both remembered making sure to go to Onerheim's for popcorn balls when trick or treating!
Then we stopped in to visit Ronnie and Linda Bakken as we were both schoolmates of Ronnie's. They had popcorn balls for us too!
Then we headed back to Sanford's for supper and a good night's sleep.
Cliff Thoring had invited us to join him for lunch at the Frontier Inn. Sandra had a holiday coming so she took that day as her Thanksgiving Day and was able to join us as did Cliff's daughter Laureen. Thanks Cliff! Then we were off to shop for Frontier tee shirts uptown, then off to visit Jim and Shirley Palmer just east of Loomis. Alan was down memory lane as that was formerly the Walter and Lola Lutz farm where he grew up. He explored his former home, now with additions and moved east of the original site. He found his old bedroom was now a bathroom! Jim brought out a large picture of the farm taken from the air and they enjoyed going over the changes in the yard.
On Thursday morning Alan Dumontel dropped by for a visit, as did Gloria, a neighbour on the former Pauley farm north of Sanfords. After lunch Sandra went with us to visit Marilyn and Charlie Foss and look at old pictures, many from Mabel Foss' collection. We had seen many of them in Grandma Erickson's collection so could identify many of them. Neither Grandma nor her sister Mabel ever wrote names on the back. A lesson for these Erickson sisters! I came home with several pictures of Dad and his brother Almer. Grandma bought a good Kodak camera before they left Glenwood, MN so we are blessed with numerous pictures of those pioneers.
Charlie and Marilyn took us on a tour over to the site where our great grandparents, Mathilda and Peter Stenson, had homesteaded back in 1913. Part of the house still stands straight and tall. What stories those walls could tell us! It was a strange feeling to have our picture taken in front of the house where previous generations of our family had gathered for pictures too.
Well, I'm getting tired and you are likely tired of reading so I'm going to close for now and continue with "the rest of the story" on another day. Be sure to add your email at the beginning of my blog to get a notice when there's a new blog post. Goodnight all!
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