homesteading
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The Homestead
Firewood Firewood was a vital part of keeping our house livable. It was used for the kitchen stove, which provided all the cooking and for keeping the kitchen warm enough to work in. It was also used for the barrel heater in the main room of the house. Nell and I shared the job of…
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Homestead, Part Seven
Clothing When we arrived in the north, I had two outfits to wear to school. One was a pink fuzzy sweater with short sleeves, which I wore with a grey box-pleated skirt that was obviously an adult size, as the hem reached my ankles and the button on the waistband had been moved over several…
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The Homestead, Part Six
WATER – Water was always an issue on the homestead. In the spring, my sister, Nell, and I took buckets and walked to the slough which was about a half mile away. We filled the buckets and carried them back to the house. We would do that several times a day, or as often as…
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The Homestead, Part Five
Snow Snow usually came early. The girls at our two-room school were required to wear skirts or dresses to school until the end of October, which is when we were allowed to attend class in pants. But the snow always arrived before that. Hallowe’en was carried out in the snow up there. As the road…
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The Homestead, Part Four
Building the House During the month of our occupation of the basement suite in Fort St. John, Dad spent his days out on the homestead. He built a small structure on the land which would eventually become the kitchen for the house. It was eight feet by twelve feet, walls and floor made of quarter…
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The Homestead, Part Three
Faith Mum and Dad both had a strong Christian faith. Through the tough years of their marriage and after, they each relied on Jesus’ love and support. Dad had been raised in the Salvation Army tradition, Mum with the Anglican church. As a family, we seesawed back and forth, attending one or the other service…
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The Homestead, chapter two
Our Journey North My parents met in Esquimalt when Dad was sent to Vancouver Island for training in the Canadian Navy. They married during the Second World War. After the war ended, they settled in Victoria, where my two older sisters, Pamela and Nell, were born. I was born there also. When I was five,…
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