Monthly Archives: October 2012

The Original Mixed Farm Economic Unit

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Family

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AN ORIGINAL MIXED FARM ECONOMIC UNIT

While I can recall a typical farm unit in Saskatchewan, as I knew it in the 1950’s, I thought it best that I write it all down for my family to know. Unfortunately, my grandchildren will never experience it and my children had a limited exposure to same. My children’s spouses, would probably have a difficult time visualizing all what I am about to relate.

I consider it a travesty that what I am about to describe, has basically been removed from the North American landscape and not existent in the Canora to Pelly areas of Saskatchewan where I was raised.

Most family mixed farms were at the 320 acre size or one-half section which was the amount of land that one man could farm with horses and the machinery was sized for four-horse teams. The most efficient scheduling of these teams is to work one set in the morning, another set in the afternoon and the third set, the following morning. Then the process would repeat itself. This allowed enough time for the horse to rest and graze in the pasture.

The farms were on land that became broken up as follows:

  • Land with predominant rocks, sloughs and interspersed with forest was fenced for pasture that would have the farm buildings at one end. This allowed for tending the animals with barns and corrals within this space which, depending on the land, averaged about fifty to sixty acres
  • There were sloughs within the farming area that became a late crop production of oats and grasses for fodder for animals
  • So the average farming production area was about 200 to 240 acres within the 320 total owned by the farmer.

Wheat was the primary cash crop with some barley and oats grown for feed as required. Wheat was always higher priced but took the longest time to ripen than barley and depending on the year, wheat may be subject to frost and thus people grew both to ensure a source of income. Wheat had to be in the soil by May 10th to ensure a ripening season without frost so the later crops were preferential in a wet Spring.

There were usually about six to eight milking cows that was based on:

  • Available pasture , hay and fodder
  • Produce about two five gallon cream cans of rich cream a week which was shipped by rail to a Creamery within 20 miles distance. This was a valuable income that provided needed staples food, etc.,
    • Cream was a product that a cream separator was able to derive from whole milk that was milked from cows, twice daily
    • Some cows yielded a gallon of milk or more per milking
  • Milk for the table as well as cooking
  • The skim milk fed the calves and swine
  • Calves were checked to replace aging cows but otherwise were used as veal for the table or shipped through the stock yards for needed income for repairs and gas for a small tractor that was becoming a replacement for horses
  • Hides were used for tanning and became leather for harnesses, shoes, belts, etc.,
  • Breeding was with an off-site bull to prevent in-breeding

Every farm had at least a half dozen swine that were:

  • Bred for piglets that were grown for market and pork for the table
  • Wastes from the table, surplus skim milk and lesser grains fed the swine very economically
  • Breeding was with an off-site bore to prevent in-breeding

Sheep could graze on sparse pasture land that was not frequented by other farm animals and almost every farm had about a half dozen animals that became:

  • Lamb and sometimes mutton for the table
  • Wool for yarn that was knitted into sweaters, socks, toques, etc.,
  • Wool that was carded to make warm blankets
  • Skins were tanned and used to make mitts, overcoats, jackets
  • Older sheep were marketed when replacement younger animals were available
  • Breeding was with an off-site ram to prevent in-breeding

Ducks and Geese would habitate (usually about a dozen each) the adjacent sloughs. They needed guarding because coyotes, weasels, mink and other wild animals found them easy prey. Food for these animals required grain and ground meal from lower priced grains. Much of their food was as a result of foraging in the sloughs with all the bugs and organic growth present in the sloughs. These poultry were used as:

  • Meat for the table
  • Eider down for mattresses and pillows

Usually about two hundred Chickens, fed by ground meal or lower priced grains, could be available at certain times of the year:

  • A hundred chicks in spring became food for the table or replaced aging hens
  • Hens produced eggs for the table as well as being sold to townspeople for spare change

Many farmers owned Incubators that were heated with a coal oil heater and much careful selection with healthy graded eggs. This would economically for produce:

  • Chicks
  • Ducks
  • Geese

About two or more dogs were always part of the farm yard and their function was:

  • Alert the farmer should any predator enter the yard as well as a possible thief which unfortunately was always a possibility
  • Communicate with coyotes on a cold winter’s night
  • Could be a trained sheep-herder and many other functions
  • Food is usually table scraps. (I have never witnessed a dog not being able to handle chicken bones that were ravishly devoured).
  • A willing and trusted companion at all times
  • A guide in winter storms
  • A family protector, especially children

Cats are usually more than necessary as they propagate well and have these functions:

  • Keep the mouse and rodent population in control
  • Barn Swallows tend to over-populate and pollute the barns and out-buildings and are usually controlled by cats

Goats were more for show rather than a preferential farm animal depending on the Farmer’s diet but goats could be useful for:

  • Dietry Goat’s milk and Gouda cheese
  • Goat’s have been known to chase away coyote predators

Growing and the care of gardens was a fundamental food source for:

  • Tomatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Beets
  • Radishes of all sorts
  • Cabbages
  • Cauliflower
  • Cucumbers
  • Many varieties of Beans and Peas
  • Strawberries and Raspberries
  • Rhubard
  • Crabapples

Wild Fruit was usually quite bountiful and was harvested for canning of  jams, jellies, syrups, etc:

  • Saskatoons
  • Choke Cherries
  • Pin Cherries
  • Raspberrises
  • Cranberries
  • Gooseberries
  • Mossberries

Various Edible plants such as:

  • Wild Spinach

Nuts were also very abundant and could be harvested in season such as:

  • Hazelnuts

Wild Game was a staple of most farm families and in season the following were shot for food:

  • Canada Geese
  • Mallard and Teal ducks
  • Partridges
  • Grouse
  • Prairie Chickens
  • Deer
  • Moose

The near-by lakes and rivers were an excellent source of fish such as:

  • Walleye
  • Pickerel
  • Jackfish

Muskrats and Fur-bearing animals were also harvested and Furs marketed to create additional income from:

  • Weasel
  • Mink
  • Beaver
  • Muskrat
  • Rabbit

All excess fats were salvaged from cooking, trapping and then melted at various times, mixed with a formula of lye to manufacture soap. It was years later as a budding Chemical Engineering student that I realized the farmer was simply manufacturing Sodium Stearate and I said to myself, “wow, what great Chemists my parents were.”

Sewing as an art that was fundamental to the Farmer who would manufacture items for the entire family:

  • Clothing
  • Leather jackets, gloves, belts
  • Rugs

Before fridges and freezers, canning was a fundamental preservation method for:

  • Pickles
  • Tomatoes
  • Relishes
  • Peas, beans, carrots
  • Fruits, jams and syrups
  • Meat and fish

Of course, there was a job for everyone on the farm and an excellent learning school for survival for the following:

  • Splitting wood in the Spring to be seasoned for winter use as fuel for stoves
  • Helping farm the fields
    • Haying
    • Seeding
    • Harvesting
    • Tilling the land
  • Milking cows and attending to the separating the cream from the milk
  • Making butter from the cream
  • Making cottage and other cheeses
  • Gathering eggs
  • Feeding the poultry and other farm animals
  • Building and repairing fences
  • Tending the garden
  • Picking wild fruit, nuts, etc.,
  • Constructing, renovating farm buildings
  • Carding, spinning wool into yarn
  • Knitting, weaving
  • Sewing
  • All kinds of crafts like embroidery, rug-making
  • Barn-cleaning
  • Blacksmithing
  • Mechanical repairs
  • Hunting, fishing, trapping

There is no question in my mind that the farm unit was the most self-sufficent family method of life where everyone stayed busy and no one was left hungry. At the same time the farm produced food for the broader population. It provided local population for small but vibrant communities that cherished a “community spirit” where everyone had a purpose in life.

Why was it necessary to improve on a perfect working model by the super production farms powered by corporations and huge and expensive machinery as a result the small family must feel lost in huge urban communities and cannot support themselves? It is obvious that spiritual, emotional and financial suffering would occur once the pride of self ownership and direction is taken away.

I am now saddened as I drive in this area and see the grain elevators (usually 4 to 6 per community) removed from the landscape and replaced by an ulta modern computerized grain terminals of which 3 service a 50 kilometer radius. The towns have become weather beaten ghost towns of the original proud structures. Where a famstead existed every kilometer of so, one can travel 10 kilometers and not find a family living on the farm. Gone are all the animals. The poor horses are extinct as are the dinosaurs.

And so this is progress!

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Composed January 23, 2012

FOR THOSE WHO MAY HAVE SUFFERED FROM AGORAPHOBIA

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

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THE DAY MY NERVES JAMMED IN NEUTRAL

It was another day in the my life as I walked the few blocks from my offices on Mainland Street in Vancouver to the bus stop on Howe to take the express run to Tsawwassen. The usual transit riders were waiting for their respective runs and chit-chatted with those that knew each other while the rest paced around aimlessly, alone with their thoughts of the day’s events or what they were about to do when they got home. The Express picked up along Howe and this was the last stop before its destination to TSWWASSEN and was most always at full capacity. One of BC Transit’s greatest ideas that eliminated driving through rush hour traffic and provided an opportunity to relax in this busy life where these Urbanites made their living.

I dropped my token and the Bus-Driver launched his “missile” into the traffic as I grabbed any available post strap on my way down to the rear of the bus where an empty seat awaited me.

We were over almost over the Granville Street Bridge when that light-headed sensation started to come unto me. It is like someone was squeezing the top of my head down into my torso. Then I became anxious and I looked around, anticipating that those around me could see what was happening to me but everyone continued oblivious to my sudden apparent attack of some sort that I could not seem to control as it totally overcame me.

There was this overwhelming need to escape. “Escape from what?”, was my practical self asking me. Yet, try as I could, to dissuade this feeling, I became convinced that I had to get off this bus as everything seemed to be closing in on me and I felt threatened by the place I occupied at this time and I needed to leave it immediately.

I activated the bell but the Driver ignored me. I realized that he had no idea what I was going through and so I got up and bounced my way to the front of bus. My legs felt “rubbery” and I actually felt that I would fall down but somehow I groped my way forward to ask the Driver to let me off.

“I have to get off this bus”, I mumbled as even my voice seemed strange to me, which was further cause for alarm.

“This is an Express Bus, that has only one stop and that is Tswwassen” he curtly replied. “Sit down”, he commanded.

“I have to get off this bus right now,” I pleaded. “I am not well and I cannot explain any further, except, I need to get off this thing!”

By this time we were approaching 60th Avenue and finally the bus ground to a halt with some very vile language hurtled at me and I literally fell off the steps and unto the sidewalk at 80th Avenue.

I got up slowly as helplessness became my next fear because try as I would, my legs would not obey my mind’s instruction to walk. “What is happening?” I asked the shrubbery beside me, wondering what was really taking place as I never had such a condition befall me before.

“I need to get to a phone and call home,” was my next plan, “but how and where do I find a phone?” I asked no one in particular. “Besides, how will I walk to a phone if I could even see one?”

“All right”, I encouraged my body, “walking is taking one step at a time” but my legs would not move and at best felt that they each weighed a ton. “My God, I think this must be what is referred to as a “Nervous Breakdown”.

 “Thanks for the self diagnosis, but what is the remedy?” I pleaded with myself.

“Start walking, hobbling or whatever you can do even if you need to crawl, as a sidewalk on Granville is not where you want to end your life here on Earth”, I encouraged my body.

And so, this wreck of a man began a staggering, almost pitiful trek in search of a phone. This effort resulted in reaching the approach to the Arthur Laing Bridge when I realized that there were likely no phones for a long distance on the other side of that Bridge assuming that I could navigate across.

“Let’s try Oak Street and see what can be found”, I continued with this journey. I started to recall my many years that I walked the 3 ½ miles to school and back only to return to town after doing my chores for some social activity. “So what is the matter now”, I asked the inconsiderate traffic whizzing by me on their missions to and fro.

I made it to the North side of the Oak Street Bridge and for the first time realized how lengthy the blessed thing was. “How will I ever make it across?” I was almost wailing now in my anguish to somehow end this entire experience.

“Let’s give it a College try”, I coaxed my body to action that appeared to be not at all responding in a fashion that I was used to and was dangerously on the verge of giving up.

“One foot ahead of the other and pull the other foot forward. Just keep this up and we will get there,” but the body was continuing to disobey. At the crest of the bridge, I stopped and looked at the Fraser River. The thought came by “let’s just lean over the handrail and let this all end”, but the other self continued with its debate “is this how it all will end?”

“Let’s see if we can make the other side and take it from there” was the sensible decision and on this wreck continued to the Richmond side. No telephone could be seen anywhere in my periphery. The Delta River Inn was all I could surmise may provide the pay phone that I needed. “There is eight (8) lanes of traffic to cross to get there and we have the 6 o’clock traffic to contend with and no crosswalk” I discussed the situation with myself.

“Myself” answered in the desperate plea that could only be excused for a “bad decision is better than no decision at all” that is taught in management and leadership classes. So the decision was to launch myself into the traffic and let Providence deal with the outcome. I am sure that the Drivers of that day must have thought that “here’s one of them drunk guys again, why don’t the Police deal with them so they do not endanger us sane people?”

Traffic veered every which way and all I can remember is reaching the island between the North and South lanes. “Yes, I made it this far but I only have four (4) lanes of Northbound traffic to go” as I pivoted off the island on my way to the East side of the Highway.

I am still not sure how this reckless maneuver was able to propel me to my destination but in the end I finally made it to the hotel. I am sure that Marilyn must have wondered “what is he doing at the hotel and why does he want me to pick him up?”

After reaching home, I decided to continue walking around the neighborhood and that ultimately released the nerve seizure or anxiety attack that I had experienced. The entire relaxation process took some time but ultimately the condition went away as suddenly as it came on.

The epilogue of this story is that I realized that in 1986, that I had imposed on my body too much and although I never experienced such a severe attack again, I have had many anxiety situations to which I found no understanding from the medical fraternity at that time. Some self-diagnosis and research seemed to indicate stress symptoms, with perhaps an Agoraphobic tendency in that I would want to get out of a public place and literally “hide”.

Along with the medication for Hypertension that continued with a higher dosage of various pills to no avail, I came to the conclusion with my Heart Specialist at Vancouver General, that removing myself from the current level of responsibility and activity as President of a very active General Contracting firm was my best treatment in the initial sense.

I resigned my position and returned to the Kootenays in a capacity as a Building Consultant in my own one person firm. I never again had any indication of that type of an attack.

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