The farm, the prairies, and Saskatoon berries...........

The Prairies: I have stopped apologising for and defending the prairies. If you say you're going to Saskatchewan you get a flood of oh so clever comments about how flat they are and how straight the roads are --- often from people who have never been there. I spent every summer from birth to age 16 on my grandparents farm near Esk SK --- loved every minute of it and have been back as often as I can since. When we first rolled onto the prairie landscape in Minnesota I felt like I had come home again.

The landscape rolls gently and it rolls on forever --- the only thing vaster than the land is the ever-changing sky. The sky that is vaster than the eternity of land in front of you. The sky that surrounds you with the promise of endless hope and life beyond what you can see. The sky that foretells the next hour and the next century --- hints of doom in the black thunderheads before you --- portents of peace in the clear sky beside the tumult --- promises of joy in the rosy glimpse of the dawn.

The land speaks of humanity's relation to the planet we inhabit. The fields in their huge patchwork are a quilted picture of how humans and nature can work in concert, with respect and love to attain harmony. The untouched patches of sloughs and hillside and bush remind us that nature is always paramount and requires our obeisance. If you climb a few feet above the land --- to the the top of a farm gas tank --- you can indeed see for miles and see the planet's roundness on the horizon. Feel small and feel awe.

Patches of trees break up the fields. Sometimes these are sloughs (natural depressions that collect water -- some are permanent and some depend on the season) because water means bushes and trees and animals and birds. Sometimes the trees indicate a farmyard. Sometime many years ago a farmer thought he wanted some trees for a windbreak around his house and barn and maybe a bit of shade. So he took an afternoon away from the fields and hitched a stoneboat (heavy load-bearing sledge) to his team or his tractor and went to the nearby slough. There he dug out as many saplings as he could -- the biggest he could manage and dragged them back to the house --- planted them and waited; waited for years. In really dry summers sometimes he'd have to hitch up a water tank and drive for miles to the community well with the farm dog galloping in pursuit with its tongue almost dragging on the road of dust. At the well he'd pump a tankful of water for the farm and a few gallons for the dog who wouldn't stay home as told. Back at the farm the water would be pumped into the dry well and the cisterns to keep the people alive. Some leftover gallons would go to "keep the damn trees alive". The trees break up the landscape as you drive by generations later.

Always there is the endless sky............many see beauty in the desert......most see beauty in the ocean...........the next time you're on the prairies look with eyes unglazed by your old notions......and always there is the endless sky............

Oct 6 --- arrived in Humboldt around noon. On Monday we had heard thayt Aunt Joyce had had a heart attack and was in hospital in Saskatoon. Through the week she had had 2 stents put in her heart and was needing a third that was due to go in Thursday --- but the doctor was sick. She had the surgery Friday and was doing OK and we were planning to go to see her Saturday afternoon. Uncle Gordon and cousin Kathy's son Michael had gone shopping after lunch and we were waiting around with Kathy to go to the hospital when the phone rang and we were told that Aunt Joyce was ready for discharge. We were all sort of skeptical but Uncle Gordon and cousin Glenn went off and brought her back. She was in amazingly good shape which we were all delighted yet shocked to see. She has always been a real trouper through a lifetime of medical diversity and this time proved no exception.

Aunt Joyce

These folks and the Regina gang are some of the best people in the world and we are blessed that they are family.

L to R from the top then down: Cousin Glenn, Uncle Gordon, cousin Kathy's son Michael, Glenn's wife Laurie, Linda, Kathy, Kathy's daughter Nicole, Aunt Joyce (absent is Kathy's husband Ken

We visited and laughed and had Thanksgiving dinner --- giving particular thanks for Aunt Joyce and my Mom who had both scared us all with heart trouble. We gave thanks for the joy of being together again. We went out to the family farm for a poke around (more on that later). Laurie runs an amazing clothing store that features unique things that you'd find nowhere else. Linda and Kathy went off shopping and Linda bagged really cool sweater. I played and we all sang except for Laurie despite a light-hearted shaming from everyone including her husband Glenn --- who was also cajoled into singing to my surprise. 

The Thanksgiving table

The day before we were due to leave Uncle Gordon and I went back to the the farm to pick up some tools of my Grandpa's that I was taking home and had forgotten. On the way back it snowed --- a mini blizzard out of nowhere --- and these blasts of snow kept up through the afternoon and evening. The snow never amounted to much but it did get me very anxious to get on the road and over the mountains before things could turn nasty.

Peanut sees her first snow

Saskatoon Berry Pie

Saskatoon berries only grow on the prairies, only grow wild, and only grow in in the tenacious brush beside prairie sloughs. They are jealously guarded by swarms of Saskatchewan mosquitoes. It takes a brave soul to capture enough berries to make a pie. The reward is the best pie in the world. Anyone who has spent some time on the prairies will get a far away look in their eyes when remembering the taste of a Saskatoon pie. The taste is somewhere between a blueberry and a cranberry with the addition of what is clearly magic in a royal purple berry. My love of Saskatoon berry pie is family legend, so whenever I show up one of my aunts will root around in the freezer for that last container of berries and bake me a pie. This time it was my cousin Kathy who came up with pie --- and one for Linda and I to take on the road with us. Bless her.

The Farm
Here's a link to Some pics of the family farm --I suggest you hit the button for 'Slideshow' -- I love the fact that the farm is still in the family and with luck will remain so -- so I can walk its fields whenever I have the chance............