The opportunities seemed endless, from waging war on gophers to a brisk game of Fox and Goose in newly fallen snow
At recess time, many of our teachers just turned us loose to the elements. On warm autumn days there was the excitement of drowning out gophers on the school yard, their burrows flooded by dozens of pails of water conveyed by a bucket brigade from the nearby ditch. The gopher population may have been depleted […] Read moreStories by Alma Barkman
Corn season brings fond memories
The generosity of a neighbour at harvest time meant this farm family was able to gather up all the cobs they could eat
By late autumn I had eaten my fill of toasted tomato sandwiches and bowls of cucumbers chopped up with sour cream and onions, but I never got enough corn on the cob, and so I looked forward to the yearly corn feed. It seemed to me that it always happened rather spontaneously. About the time […] Read more
Farmers packed prized wheat on trip to their new home
Mennonite families often brought trunks full of Turkey Red wheat with them when they emigrated to North America
In a big, red hip-roof barn on a Saskatchewan farm there once stood a sturdy homemade trunk. It had contained some of the family belongings when Dietrich and Elizabeth Barkman homesteaded in 1906 in the Flowing Well district of the province. Emptied of its contents, the trunk was stored in the barn for decades. My […] Read more
New school term starts with trip to the bookstore
The boredom of summer on the farm could only be broken by the return to school, and then something better happened
By the middle of August, the swimming hole was no longer inviting, having shrunk in diameter and depth as the little creek that fed it gradually decreased in volume. Harvest preparations were in full swing, meaning my mother no longer had time to go for long walks with me out the country lane. Friends with […] Read more
Girl misses out on her moment of glory
By the ripe old age of four I had concluded that I was the ugly duckling in the family, so woefully lacking in good looks nobody had dared to risk their camera to take a baby picture of me. Either that, or they wanted to spare me the pain of comparing my baby picture to […] Read more
Early walk to town brings back fond memories
I was only “knee high to a grasshopper,” as my uncle would say, when Mom and I first walked to town. “Here, come look at these,” she said, bending down a branch of soft, grey pussy willows so I could touch them. I was so intrigued she had to break off a twig for me […] Read more
Trains at the centre of early rural life
The rail lines that connected communities across the Prairies brought adventure and wonder for younger residents
The railway tracks ran through the middle of our farm. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I could watch the Canadian National passenger train come huffing and puffing from the east, returning to Winnipeg on alternate days. When it blew its steam whistle at the crossing, Dad sometimes set his pocket watch before tucking it back […] Read morePrairie playhouse required imagination
A unique structure not at all appealing to ordinary eyes, my playhouse, nevertheless, offered unlimited scope to my active imagination as a preschooler. My teenage brother, Cliff, used slabs from Dad’s sawmill to build my playhouse. Architecturally it had four walls that came halfway up, a roof that was halfway slanted and a dirt floor […] Read more
Logging operation offered on-farm excitement
Chopping trees and running the family sawmill provided plenty of things to do and watch for a young girl on the farm
When a fine spring day would arrive, with the snow not yet melted and the weather balmy, I would jump out of the horse-drawn school van, burst into the kitchen just long enough to toss my books and lunch pail on the counter and head back outside. I had seen the tell-tale tracks made by […] Read more
The day an adventurous pig got the travel bug
The mystery of the prodigal pig was just one of the many hog tales that were produced from a childhood spent on the farm
When I was about five years old, my mother undertook a project to make some spending money that involved a couple of Tamworth hogs for breeding purposes. We already had Barney, a grumpy old boar who rooted around in the manure pile when not lounging about the barn yard. I was always leery of him […] Read more
