Fantastic weather, went from winter to summer in a couple of days. 24C at the moment.
Bowled and birthday dinner for Kim and Erika. Someone looked at the MH but ---.
Glad to hear E and M have taken up lawn bowling, I think we may have had something to do with converting them into the bowling cult!
Got the house exterior washed in the am. Not too much grime, mostly just dust/dirt. Our little lizards have come out of hibernation and are now busy earning their keep out in the garden.
More of Reminiscences - remeber this is written in a very old style.

We had gone on about five miles without seeing a house and then came to an empty sod shack, roofed with hay on the McLean homestead and lay down in its shade thoroughly tired, hungry and footsore.  After laying there for some time, we heard a wagon approaching and on arising saw it contained five men and was drawn by a yoke of oxen.  They told us they were going north to the Assiniboine to examine a fording place.  I enquired about my brother but they were uncertain about his location, but thought his camp was away to the west and gave me a landmark to follow.

We immediately set out for this point over a level plain covered with a growth of grass and shrub, and on reaching our landmark could see no sign of habitation, so we went on a little further to a hill which gave us an extensive view but nothing could be seen that would indicate a settlement.  We had become very thirsty, so when we noticed a marshy place at the base of the hill we went down and discovered a shallow pool from which we drank.  But our stomachs rebelled against it before our thirst was fully satisfied.  We then hurried back to the sod shack feeling we must reach some place to obtain food before night set in.

The water that we had drunk gave us a severe headache and both felt tired and miserable when we reached the shack.

When there a short time, the men who had directed us returned from the river and told me that they had made a mistake in directing me and if my brother was the man with a round tent and a bulldog his location was to the southwest and they pointed towards a shack in that direction and said I could obtain food and shelter there and further directions.  My comrade said he had had enough and would go no further, so I struck off alone in a direct line for the house with as much haste as possible.

When I arrived there a man and two boys had just lit their lamp and had sat down to supper, so they invited me to join them, which I eagerly did.

This was Mr. Holland’s place and he and his two sons had built their house from clay.  The town of Holland was named for this Mr. Holland.

After an early breakfast they gave me a landmark towards the west to follow for there was no trail.  When I had traveled a few miles I came to a hill which gave me a fine view and I noticed a house in the distance.  I walked towards it and as I came near, I was surprised to see about ten men rush out to meet me, my brother being one of them.

Most of the crowd I had known in Brussels.  This was on a Sunday and the log house was on James Young’s place, being the N1/2 of sec. 22-7-12 and they had gathered there for a visit.

Nat and I then left for his place a mile further south where he had his tent pitched on an elevation over looking the surrounding country and the Cypress River valley.

Here I met Sam Townsend and as it was time for their noon day meal, Sam took his gun to a nearby pond and soon returned with three ducks.  Nat in the meantime opened the mouth of a flour sack and made a depression in the flour into which he poured water with a little salt and soda and soon had a bannock mixed and the frying pan on the camp stove.  The bannock was turned over frequently by flipping the pan up in such a way that it was turned over and caught again.

Sam soon had the ducks prepared for the pot and it was not long before we sat down to a bountiful repast.

As I lay in the tent watching them prepare the meal, it all appeared as primitive to me and I wondered if I could acquire their skill and be content with camp life.

During the afternoon Nat and I took a walk over my location and I was well pleased with it and fully realized the trouble and labor it had relieved me from in having it located for me.  After our evening meal we sat around our campfire and had a chat before turning in, and then the coyotes who had their dens along the valley began their mournful howl for an hour or so.

Three miles west of our camp, the McLeod family who had come from near Brussels had built a large log house.  This was the furthest west house in the settlement and on the western boundary of Manitoba.  The land across the boundary was not subdivided until the following year.

The McLeod family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. McLeod, his sons, John, Angus and William, daughter and son-in-law, W. Lawn and Jim McDonald.  All the menfolk of the family had each taken up a homestead and a pre-emption claim adjoining each other.

I spent a week at our camp and we planned that I should return to Brussels and return with some live stock and settlers effects.

The Mcleod boys were going to Portage with their team for supplies, so they took me along with them on my journey to Brussels.

On my way in being so exhausted I was in no shape to admire the beauty of the country, but now riding along at ease on the wagon, it gave me a fine view of the country with the prairie covered with its vari- colored grasses and bluffs of trees scattered here and there, which gave the landscape a park-like appearance.