NOTATION LOG DATED: June 17, 2009

LOCATION:  2 miles East and 2.25 miles north of, Pelly, SK.

“…….I am on location atop of a hill in the middle of a road allowance where in 1957 and 1958, I used to stand and dream of my future.

From this vantage point, I look east and I used to see 4 elevators in Aaron, which is situate on the South side of Swan River some 10 miles East of Pelly. There is still the rolling farm lands, interspaced with clumps of poplars which likely hide a swampy area or maybe where the rocks picked in the field were stored out of the way of farming equipment, or maybe a sharp drop-off, too difficult to farm. The elevators of Aaron are long gone along with their legacy of the small farmer of another era.

I look North and I see the road allowance carved out of the forest on the North Side of the Swan River which never had a bridge to cross (as was the government plan where a bridge is built every 5 miles or every 5^th roadway that goes along the West / East customary flow of the Saskatchewan Rivers). It remains as before. On this side of the river, the old Martin (name change from Martinuik) house stands defiantly although settlement from many frost heaves, are taking their toll and it will eventually collapse as it is drifting Northeast with the prevailing winds. The barns have disappeared but the log structure chicken coop proudly stands as it always has. No one has lived there for some time. Perhaps this was the status since Mr. Martin, himself, moved out about 1960, after his wife and sons left him due to family disputes. There does not seem to be any attempt to break the land under the clumps of trees that dot the landscape and make farming very difficult and expensive to maneuver the cultivating equipment.

West, the view remains the same. The original pasture land remains treed and likely, continues to cover the rocky soil underneath and the reason for no cultivation.

South is the corner of the Verigin homestead on the West side of the road allowance going South and South of the road allowance going West. My memories recall the countless hours of brush breaking, burning brush, root picking and then picking stones to create about 250 acres of arable land from the 320 acre half-section available. I just drove through it and the low spots have been allowed to return to the original sloughs with willows surrounding them. It seems so obvious now that the entire ½ section, slopes gently from West to East and could easily be drained so that 100% of the land could be usable, It appears that would be an economic thing to do but the current Land Owner may not have thought of that or just does not care.

So it was here, on this spot, that my dreams were conceived:

• Would I graduate from high school and go on to College?
• Would I marry?
• Where would my wife come from?
• Would I have children?
• How many would I have?
• What would they be called?
• What would my occupation be?
• Where would I live?

All has unfolded as it should. It is 2009 and it is 50 years later and I now know all the answers!

A feeling of melancholy overcomes me as I remember all the people that have lived in this vicinity, they too, tried to achieve and left the area for better places and perhaps an occupation besides farming. The land continues to produce under the care of new Farmers who also are striving for success for themselves, financially and take responsibility for supplying food for the needs of the world’s populace.

The birds still sing here. The crows still caw but all else is still because the Farmers only till their soil but once these days. They partially till the stubble from last year, inject their mixture of fertilizer, weed killer along with the seed and it is done! One more smash of weed-killer after the grain is up and then they wait for ripening and harvest.

Somehow the old way of watching tractors tilling summer fallow all summer is missing from the agricultural landscape.

And so I realize what is happening here and my purpose for coming here. My Spirit wishes to reflect in exactly the same place so that it may encourage me to continue with the rest of what I need to do in this life.

My 51 years are on record but I must record some of those experiences in print while I attempt to live the rest of my life, satisfied, that I do have a purpose to fulfill.

That which I have accomplished is satisfactory but there is more to come…………….”

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