Posted by Karl Hamson on December 04, 2007 at 21:46:51 from (24.108.34.216):
Hugh, I think you were better off where you were. After the war my folks and many other veterans, had no jobs to come home to. The Veterans Land Act (VLA) offered 1/2 sections in the Peace River Country to any veterans. A small cash grant of seed money was offered as well. Eleven veterans figured that if they pooled their grants they would have enough capital to make it work. Not a single one of them had been raised on a farm. They were all city boys who had left university and other pursuits to join up.
They found a site 18 miles south of the railhead and the nearest town. That dirt road, which dad called the The Trail of Aching Hearts was our only link to anywhere. It was either mud, snow or dust. One 1/4 was set aside as the home place and they set to work felling trees and building homes (shacks) from green lumber which promptly shrank the first winter so there were 1/2" gaps between the boards. Of the 36 souls there only my Mom, who was raised on a farm, knew how to plant a garden or milk a cow. They built a schoolhouse for us kids where we took correspondence lessons. There was a war surplus TD18 used for clearing land. It had been built for building runways in Burma or somewhere like that and had a special transmission which gave it a top speed of 18mph. Dad said he only tried it once and gave it up when the tracks were about the level of his ears! A 22-36 was used to pull he breaking plow and we had a Cockshutt and an Oliver 88 on rubber.
There are many stories to tell but after a few years the various families in the cooperative venture packed it in and moved back to the cities. We were the last to leave. As a kid I did not realize how brutal it was for my folks.
Now it is a rich land with paved roads, electricity, etc. The small farms have all been amalgamated to holdings of many sections. An experience I appreciate but am glad it is over. My little 53 acre farm in the Gulf Islands of BC suits me just fine. Karl
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Today's Featured Article - When Push Comes to Shove - by Dave Patterson. When I was a “kid” (still am to a deree) about two I guess, my parents couldn’t find me one day. They were horrified (we lived by the railroad), my mother thought the worst: "He’s been run over by a train, he’s gone forever!" Where did they find me? Perched up on the seat of the tractor. I’d probably plowed about 3000 acres (in my head anyway) by the time they found me. This is where my love for tractors started and has only gotten worse in my tender 50 yrs on this “green planet”. I’m par
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