As seeding wraps up on the Nahirniak farm, Marjorie and her family have time to chat around an open fire.
It’s the first campfire of the year and presents a relaxing scene combined with the refreshing scents of blossoming fruit trees and visions of robins hunting for worms on the farmyard grass. As Marjorie has time to reflect, she admits she always wanted to marry a farmer.
Coming from Medicine Hat, Alta., she wasn’t familiar with the highlights that include seeding, harvest and cattle drives. But she wanted to own and ride horses. Harvey gave her an Appaloosa mare for a wedding gift.
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“It wasn’t why I married him but it was a start,” said Marjorie, with a smile.
As seeding wrapped up on the Nahirniak farm, located near Round Hill, Alta., she doesn’t regret her decision. Seeding time can be stressful, but Harvey takes it in stride, said Marjorie.
“He doesn’t get stressed out so why should I?”
One of the more tense moments this time around was when the tractor hydraulics needed repair. Harvey got a demo model to use and a mechanic came to work through the night until 6:30 the next morning.
“If they worked regular hours nobody would get fixed during the spring,” said Harvey, who noted another down time occurred after head gaskets blew on another tractor.
This year seeding is delayed, said Harvey, who was putting in the last of the crop in early June. He and his brother Tom, who lives in the same yard, began seeding May 9 but were soon stalled for a week because of rain.
But, hearing of seed that rotted in the ground in other areas, Harvey doesn’t mind the delay. His canola and wheat are germinating well, he expects spraying to be straightforward and he hopes for a long fall.
He hasn’t sprayed for insects in decades and doesn’t expect this year to be different. For the last couple of years crop disease outbreaks have been few, but Harvey noted there are always plenty of weeds. Wild oats emerged ahead of his crops this year, giving him a better opportunity to spray them.
“It remains to be seen but maybe the weeds won’t be quite so bad.”
Although Marjorie is active in the family’s cattle operation, baling is the only field activity she participates in. During seeding, the part-time nurse cooks some of the meals, but her three teenage sons also lend a hand in the kitchen.
Harvey, who is up by six a.m. every morning, takes lunch and dinner in the field. When the boys were younger, the entire family would join him and it would be like a picnic, said Marjorie. Sometimes they would even celebrate birthdays on the land.
After seeding is complete this year, the couple’s three sons will likely take on most of the baling. It usually starts at the end of June but will also be delayed this year. The cattle are already out to graze, said Marjorie.
“They got out so we decided it was time,” said Harvey, noting the pastures are in good condition.
Between cattle and grain, life on a mixed farm means there are always chores to do. That was the most challenging part of getting used to a rural lifestyle, said Marjorie, who married Harvey in 1979.
“The hardest time was not being able to leave the farm to visit family between seeding and baling and cattle.
“And I couldn’t buy advance concert tickets,” she added.
But she did take advantage of the chance to learn more about horses. Harvey taught her to ride and she took some other lessons. Each summer the family manages to take horses to the mountains for up to five days at a time.
There they meet with other family, scout new riding trails and have plenty of laughs. Although Marjorie has been riding for years now, she is still cautious.
“I like walks and trots but I don’t gallop. I’m too much of a chicken.
“Harvey’s a trail blazer and I like to know where I’m going.”
They don’t have as many horses on the farm as they used to, but always have their eye out for more, said Harvey. The next one will be for Marjorie, he said, adding her mare died last year.
Now that she’s familiar with the rural lifestyle, Marjorie wouldn’t live any other way.
“Except next time she would pick a richer farmer and I’d pick a wife with a dowry,” Harvey joked.
