Alberta couple recently sold the rest of their bison and a half section of farmland and organized their spring farm auction
HOLDEN, Alta. — George Rakowski doesn’t know exactly what he will do when they move off the farm, but he thinks something will likely come up. Carol Rakowski knows exactly what she wants to do. She wants to go for coffee with other ladies, join the seniors centre and volunteer.
“I wanted to leave. I wanted to go for coffee with women. It is time. It is the next stage,” said Carol, who enjoyed their time on the farm, but knew it was time to leave and move into Camrose.
At the end of April, the couple held an online auction and sold their antiques, fuel tanks, sprayers, bison-handling equipment, stock waterers, vehicles and a life-time collection of odds and ends from the farm.
When buyers came to look at the auction items, whether it was an iron, cream separator or lantern, it all sparked a conversation.
“That is what we wanted it to do. It was a memory from the old times,” she said.
Moving into Camrose from the farm north of Holden is the next step in their transition. In 2010, the couple sold most of their bison, keeping just a few to sell to neighbours, or those who wanted bison meat for their freezer. Last year, the couple sold the rest of the bison and the half section of land and organized the spring farm auction.
“We had enough of the farm. We’re kind of retired now,” said George.
“My dad died on the farm. He wasn’t leaving. He enjoyed it,” said George, adding that doesn’t mean he needs to stay rooted in one place.
Moving back to Camrose is like moving home for Carol, who was born in the central Alberta city. George was born a few kilometres north in Round Hill. After they married, they moved around, living in Edmonton for 25 years, where they owned a flooring company and a lumber yard in Grande Cache.
In 1996, they sold the lumberyard and bought some bison and were quickly forced to find a farm and fence the land for bison.
“We enjoyed it out here. We had a pretty good system.”
Holding the auction and moving off the farm was important, said Carol, adding that she would not have been able to sort and organize the sale on her own if something had happened to George.
“I wouldn’t know what to do. We need to look to the future,” she said.
With a new house in Camrose, the couple is looking forward to the next part of their retirement, getting to know their neighbours and joining the community.
Carol’s perogy-making hobby is something she plans to continue.
“I’m always giving them away,” she said, while taking a break from mixing a batch of dough.
She was in the middle of making and freezing a batch of about 22 dozen perogies for an upcoming family reunion. Carol is on the list to bring buckwheat buns and about 60 dozen perogies.
She gives away dozens of perogies, sauerkraut and dill pickles to friends and people who have heard about her food.
After years of marriage, Carol said George knows when a batch of perogies has just been boiled and expects him to come into the house at just the right time.
