April 22nd

First day of spring! Bright and sunny here in the Shuswap today,
the radio says Kelowna will get up to about 17C today.

I was going to do a one day break in RH's pioneering experiences but will do that tomorrow and enter some stuff I wrote for my Grandkids several years ago.

You may have noticed that I removed the side bar piece about the wisdoms of the White Moose, it took up quite a bit of space and can always be entered again.

Next Chapter:

Chapter 5.

My first thought on entering the house on our return from Nelsonville was to get the stove set up and a good fire started.  This was soon accomplished and the furniture brought in and arranged in place, and we all felt quite elated with the improved appearance of the room.

The small camp stove we had was unable to prevent the earth floor from freezing, and now the new stove thawed it out, and when we sat on the chairs the legs would penetrate the ground but after a time when the floor became dry and packed this feature was overcome.

A clay floor or a poplar floor were the only floors at the time and sometimes were overlaid with a layer of hay.  This gave a warmer appearance to a room but sometimes this harboured fleas, which recalls to mind a letter I received from an old timer a few months ago, which said: “Do you remember the night you spent at our place, when we arose and slept in the haystack in order to escape the fleas?”

Although we felt elated with the improved appearance of our room, it was often remarked that the housing of the settlers during their first year was usually not equal nor as good as that which the animals occupied back on the old homestead.   However in a year or so all these temporary abodes gradually disappeared and were replaced by substantial and comfortable dwellings.

Those who have been reared with all the modern conveniences around them, never appreciate them as those who have endured the privations of the pioneer, and in the matter of food the pioneer is usually cured of his likes or dislikes for certain foods, and is satisfied with what ever is given him to eat during the remainder of his life.

Our usual diet was pork, beans, bannock, dried apples and syrup.  We had plenty of prairie chicken and rabbits.  Potato was the only vegetable, and they soon became frozen while on the way from Portage, and when thawed out and cooked were not very palatable.  While the cows gave milk it was a great aid to our diet.

We had a small organ, a violin and a banjo, and these instruments served to help pass away the long winter evenings.

“The Winnipeg Free Press” was the only newspaper we received and it came very irregularly as well as other mail, for Portage was our nearest post office.  When someone went there he would bring the mail for everybody and distribute it along the way.

During the winter we made frequent trips to Portage for supplies.  It was impossible for the few settlers west of Jim Warren’s to keep the trail in good condition for the tracks became drifted over soon after a sleigh had passed, so our cargo each time was limited to what could be hauled under such conditions.  We usually planned to reach Warren’s the first night from home for he had good accommodation for man and beast.

The trail led from house to house in as direct a line as possible.

Mr. Sanderson’s house was the first on the trail, then Jackson’s and Edward’s, where Mr. Duncan of Glenboro spent his first winter; then Sam Ballard’s dugout on the side of the ravine, then Henselwood’s, Palmer’s and Warren’s.  From here it led by Stedman’s to Ring’s, and on through the willow swamp to Mr. Delf’s stopping place which was about two miles from the river crossing.  This was a popular stopping place to be reached in coming from Portage.

Sometimes a traveler on reaching a regular stopping place would find it full, so he would then have to go on to the next house several miles further.  This in winter on a cold stormy night meant a great hardship.  The settlers as a rule were very hospitable.  It naturally caused them considerable inconvenience to accommodate travelers for their houses were usually small and sometimes tables and chairs were put out doors in order to make room for beds on the floor.

A settler usually took along on a trip blankets and provisions.

The stopping places were a great help for the settlers to become acquainted with each other, and among the first questions asked was where they came from.  The climate was quite a topic for conversation, and some maintained the opinion that the government should not have opened the country for settlement as it was fit for only Indians to live in.

From our place a round trip to Portage took about five days.

I might cite here an accident that befell the Sanderson family who lived on the trail.  They had moved in during the fall, and it had rained while on the way, so they put a package of gunpowder in the stove oven.  When the stove was set up in the house and a fire kindled, the powder exploded and wrecked the stove.

Again to show how we become mixed up in this world, I cite the following:  While returning from a trip to Florida in 1917, I conversed with a young man who sat opposite me in the diner.  It developed that he was a son of Mr. Stedman who lived on the trail.  My cold weather experiences in Manitoba, related in these articles might give the impression to those unacquainted with the climate of Manitoba the idea that it was too severe to live in, but it should be understood that most of the discomforts occurred during the first year of settlement, for afterwards the country became more thickly settled, there were better homes and roads.  Stores were started, grain and other produce could be obtained close at hand and it was unnecessary to make long trips.

Those who spent the winter of 1879 and 1880 in tp 7, rge 12 were the McLeod family, consisting of Mr. And Mrs. McLeod, their sons, John, Angus and William, their daughter Mrs. Lawn and Mr. Lawn and Jim McDonald, J. Chewing, wife and 2 children, Bob Owens, JamesGowanlock, Mr. And Mrs. James Young and their two children, Mr. and Mrs. John Young, Mr. And Mrs., W. Young, Mr. and Mrs. Carnagie and two children, W. Leadbeater, Nathan Little and myself, making a total of thirty-one.

George Holmes had built a house on his place during the fall, and returned to Ontario for the winter and came back in March with his bride.

The few settlers lived so far a part that it prevented them from visiting each other very often, as there were no beaten paths, and there was the possibility of becoming lost if out at night.

James Young was our nearest neighbour and Mrs. Young would make us a batch of bread occasionally and it was a great treat for bannock became tiresome as a steadfast diet.

During severely cold weather we did not drive our stock to the river for water, but melted snow for them.  The care of the stock and household duties took up considerable time, and it was just as well for it served to make the time pass more quickly.

The broad extensive view in every direction from our place, with only a few houses to be seen, was extremely bleak and desolate.

The constant movement of the sand-like snow drifting along the surface appeared to be endless and always on the go.

The sundogs or mock suns and circles around the sun, and the wonderful display of the aurora at time, were interesting sights for the new comer.

Lumber was one of our greatest necessities, and I began to consider if sufficient timber could be obtained in the surrounding country to make a saw mill a paying venture.  No person had explored the country sufficiently to know the extent of the timber, so I decided to make a trip north to the Assiniboine River and make an investigation.

I put on a pair of snowshoes and crossed the Cypress, and on past where W. Sisson afterwards lived, and on through the sand hills until I reached the banks overlooking the river valley.  This gave me a very extensive view for several miles along the valley, which was entirely covered with a growth of trees.  On descending into the valley I discovered the greater part of it was too small for sawlogs, and only here and there were to be found groves of a few acres in extent large enough for sawing.  I could only inspect a couple of miles of valley as I had to figure on the time required to reach home and this would be usually after dark.

I made three such trips and I estimated there was sufficient timber to warrant me in buying a saw and shingle mill.

The valley was sheltered and still and the only sound to break the silence was an occasional howl from a lynx or wolf.  These animals rarely permitted me to obtain a view of them, and sometimes I would come on a partially eaten rabbit, where I had disturbed them at their meal.

I have often thought since then what a risk I ran on these trips, for if I had become disabled in any way, it would have been a difficult matter for me to have reached home, or for any person to have found me, but I did not stop to consider those things then.  The average distance walked on these trips would be at least twenty-five miles or more.

My next step was to find a location for the mill.  This would necessarily have to be located at a point further down the river so that all localities where the logs were cut could be rafted, and also be within easy access to the settlement.  I then made a trip to the junction of the Cypress and Assiniboine rivers.  When within a mile of this I entered the Cypress valley and found some fine timber.  I was surprised to find a snowshoe trail made by the Indian trappers.  I passed several beaver dams and trees that had been felled by the beavers for the dams.

On reaching the Assiniboine, I found sleigh tracks and followed them along a short distance, and then they lead up the river bank to an ideal spot on which I decided to build the mill.

I then followed the sleigh tracks up an easy incline out of the valley and then back on the prairie about a mile and there found John and Adam Anderson in a small dug-out shelter.  They had recently come on their place and were hauling logs from the river in order to build a stable for their ox team.

I told them that I intended to locate the mill on the river flat, and they and their neighbors got out a quantity of logs to be cut into lumber.

I then traveled towards home on the east side of the Cypress and came to a broad deep ravine.  I went down into this but going up the opposite bank I encountered a great snow palisade made by the drifted snow from the prairie.  I made several attempts to scale it, but found it impossible to do so.  Then I noticed some distance away, a grove of trees, some of which stood near the face of the drift, so I climbed one and got out on the branches that were imbedded in the drift.

I then went on to Mr. Campbell’s place and arrived there at dark, and just as they were sitting down to supper, so they invited me to join them.  In the morning I crossed the ravine to Mr. Brock’s and then past Carnagie’s and Young’s and was home at noon.

I found my brother, Nathan, and w. Leadbeater anxiously awaiting my return, for they had expected my return the previous evening as I had planned.