A Hundred Years Ago

Posted by Sharon Labels: , , ,

Canada's 150th has got me back to blogging! For sure it got me wandering back though the years...
In the July 1st post (Oh Canada) I shared an excerpt from my mother's book - the story of my great grandfather and great grandmother (Louis and Rachel Giauque) arriving in Canada 120 years ago. What about 100 years ago? The story continues...

Exactly one hundred years ago, 1917, the eldest son of those pioneers, my grandfather, Leslie Giauque, left the homestead in the elbow of the Saskatchewan River to establish with his family a ranch in the Coteau Hills. Still in the family and now called the Diamond Dot Ranch, it is 100 years old this year! Here, from Mom's book again, is what life was like for grandma and grandpa and their young family in 1917 - a hundred years ago!

….
         But the beginning of the end had come for the ranch at the elbow of the river. Leslie's younger brothers, Hoy and Hubert, had enlisted for active service in World War I. Both had lost their lives. Before enlisting Hoy had homesteaded a quarter section of land in the Coteau Hills about sixty miles upriver from the elbow. Now the land reverted to the government and my father acquired it along with other lease land in that area. He bought, also, a quarter section of deeded land from a discouraged homesteader adjoining his lease. There he brought his family and there we continued to live for the thirty or so years that Leslie operated a horse ranch in the Coteau Hills.

        The first winter away from the old Giauque Ranch at the elbow, however, was spent on Hoy's homestead quarter. There was a dugout barn and a house sheltered from the wind by Maple Butte which towered to the north of them. That first winter at the new ranch must have been a nightmare for the young mother. She was city born, not of pioneer stock. Regardless, no one ought to be expected to bear the isolation which she was to experience.

        Early in December, by team and sleigh, Leslie left for the elbow homestead. He wanted to see that his mother was all right for the winter ahead. Also, supplies were needed for this own household. He planned to be away for ten days at most, but it was a little more than three weeks before he returned. It was the tail end of the year 1917 and a dreadful epidemic of influenza was beginning to take its toll. There was no way to get word to his wife that he had been stricken. She could only wait and worry, alone with three children. What would she do if he never returned? There were neighbours three miles away, an old man and his wife who never left her house. The man came once a day to feed and water the stallion in the barn, a chore that Gertie was afraid to do. Every day that Leslie lay sick he worried and far sooner than he should have done he left his bed and started back to Maple Butte. The sixty miles that would ordinarily have taken two days now took three for he was weakened by the illness.

It was Christmas Eve when my father opened the door of his house and said, "Hello! Did you think I was dead?"

Outside in the sleighbox there was a gift for everyone. I remember only mine – a little wooden trunk. Chewed now by mice and discoloured by time, it is still somewhere in the old bunkhouse at the Maple Butte Ranch.
 
The following year the family moved to a new and permanent location a little closer to High Point Post Office and to school but still a long way from nowhere. The nearest school was still seven and a half miles away.
….
Like settlers everywhere, there was a great deal of visiting done during most of the year but the winter months were a lonely time for some of them, especially for the women. Everywhere the male population outnumbered the female. Also, the men were usually more mobile than were the women. Some were excellent riders as were the Giauque girls, but many, like my mother, never learned to ride. Neither did she ever learn to drive a car so her life on the ranch was very restricted. Most important to her was a nice home, something she yearned for all her life and never got until the last few years she lived. A dry roof over his head and three good meals a day sufficed for my father. Other than that, warmth and cleanliness satisfied his requirements in a home. Even so it had been with his mother, Rachel. Gertie and her children picked up dried cowchips to burn in the castiron cookstove and she hated every single minute of it. She polished the stove top to a lustrous sheen using the cloth with which she had wiped the greasy scum from inside her dishpan. But in most ways she refused to copy the ways of the women who lived out their lives in the west. She had come from a more cultured background and could not, or would not, adopt the new ways of the frontier. Consequently she was often lonely.
 
Gertrude and Leslie Giauque on their wedding day 1912.

Remember that little trunk that grandpa brought home on Christmas Eve for my mother? I still have it. Several years ago I rescued it from the bunkhouse and refinished it.
 
Before....
... and after!
  • A hundred years ago, December 1917, a father bought this trunk for his daughter and it made its way by team and sleigh to a little ranch house in the Coteau Hills and into the hands of a little girl, my mother. Today it has a place of honour in my home.
  • A hundred years ago, in 1917,  the ranch known today as the Diamond Dot Ranch was established by my Grandpa and Grandma. Today that ranch is owned by my brother.
  • A hundred years ago, 1917, Canada was a mere fifty years old! A few days ago, the nation celebrated Canada's 150th! How things have changed in a hundred years!



Oh, Canada

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Today, on the 150th anniversary of the confederation of Canada, I reflected on my heritage. I knew of course, like most Canadians, many of my ascendants were not born in Canada. But where and when were they born? And when did they or their descendants come to Canada? My great grandfather on my mother's side was actually born in 1867 - in Holland. But the story that appeals to me most is this one, taken from my mother's book "Back to the Coteau Hills". I am so grateful that she took the time to document this history, the details extracted from her father and grandmother. My grandfather, her father, moved to Canada in 1897 on Canada's thirtieth anniversary. Here is that story, an excerpt from Mom's book:

Louis Napoleon Giauque descended from French Acadians who fled persecution in Acadia, not the Maritime provinces of Canada, to relocate in the southern part of the United States. But later, with his parents, he migrated back north, finally settling in the state of Michigan. He married a young Irish-Welsh girl named Rachel Jones and together they started a family. They were both small of bone and short in stature but they were hardy people from strong, courageous stock, sprung from families who knew what adversity was and who knew how to survive in spite of it. Louis, black haired and blue-eyed, was quick and high spirited; Rachel, more quiet and deliberate but with a certain look in her grey eyes that boded no good for those opposed her. She walked with a decided limp, since her right leg was an inch or so shorter than her left. On the way to a dance on her sixteenth birthday a runaway team had upset the sleigh throwing everyone onto the ice-packed snow and pinning Rachel's leg beneath the overturned sleigh.

Louis was a violinist, an accomplished ventriloquist, a natural entertainer, also, perhaps a gypsy at heart. He was never really satisfied in Michigan, so after a disastrous fire took their home and all their possessions, he decided to leave that state. In the spring of 1897 he outfitted two wagons and, with Rachel and their six children, some horses, cattle, a pig which was to farrow along the way, two geese and a few chickens, they started north and west to the Canadian border beyond which, they had heard, was good land free for the taking. Behind them lay the charred remains of their first home; before them lay their hope for a brighter dawn.

Louis drove the lead wagon loaded with tools, the pig and the chickens. He had his rifle and his shotgun in handy reach and there was seldom lack of fresh meat for the supper meal. Tied to the tailboard of his wagon was a team of horses, spares in case any of the harnessed ones became footsore or trail-weary. Rachel followed with a covered wagon. Hers was loaded with the necessities of life – bedding, a stove, a few dishes and pots and pans, the barest of food staples and clothing. Four of the six children rode with their mother or, except for the baby, took turns riding up front with their father. Nellie, the oldest of the family and Leslie, a year younger, were on horseback. Their job was to herd the loose horses and cattle along the trail. One cow was led – "Bossy", their milk cow and the only one to lead. She was supposed to serve as leader for the others, most of them not at all anxious to leave the green fields of Michigan. So Bossy plodded placidly behind Rachel's covered wagon, providing a meager supply of milk each morning and night, not really enough for the family of eight but better than none at all.

Leslie (my grandfather) was only twelve years old but already showed signs of becoming a fine horseman. His father mounted him on a little brown mare, pretty to look at but unbroken. The first day on the trail she bucked the boy off repeatedly until, finally, bruised and shaken, Leslie asked for another horse to ride. His father's answer was matter-of-fact.

"Jest keep getting' back up there. She'll geet tired of buckin' after a while."

She Always Knows

Posted by Sharon Labels: ,

In the last post, I tried to put into words how I felt about moving to my new property in Alberta. The best I could do was to say I just didn't feel like starting over. I had been in B.C. 30 years and was living the dream on my own property - I would miss the mountains, the people.

I may not have been the only one with those feelings.

I knew long before I moved I didn't feel the joy I should have to be re-locating. When someone congratulated me on the sale of my property, I had to hold back tears. As I went about daily chores on my property, it hurt to know I had to leave it. As the time approached though, I was too busy to think  much. There was a job to do, a big job, and that took all of my energy. The animals, of course, (or so I thought) were oblivious to pending changes. Mischa happily hopped into the truck thinking we were going on an adventure and the horses loaded into the trailer thinking clinic, trail ride?? For sure they all thought we would be returning.

On the property in Alberta, Mischa was not happy. She didn't eat for a few days and did not want me to leave her in the house even for a few minutes. Finally, she accepted what she couldn't change.

It took Silk longer. When I turned her and Mistral into the pen under the trees, she spent a lot of time gazing off in the distance, like she was thinking deep thoughts, which I'm pretty sure she was. At eighteen years, she apparently did not take change that well. Although Mistral seemed only a little displaced, Silk was sad.


Since she is so connected with me, I had assumed she would be fine with the new property as long as I was with her. But she was longing for something that I couldn't provide. I didn't get it.

Or did I? Wait a minute. Connected to me. Of course. That was the answer.  She mirrored my mood as she always had - the pensiveness, the lethargy! It was like looking at myself... And is it a coincidence she stood looking west? No, I think not.

It was not the first time or will it be the last that Silk will pick up on feelings I think I have hidden, like another time she tuned in to me in She Breathes on my Heart. As a friend of mine said to me after watching Silk in a Working Cowhorse competition, "What a mare!"

And so this post is for Silk, my little warrior and my heart. She never lets me down, even when I do. Although she is truly a talented mare athletically, it is her intelligence, grit and telepathic abilities I love. She picks up more from one meeting with a person than a psychiatrist could in ten! And she ALWAYS knows what I am thinking. Every horse person should have one like her.
Silk (left) with Mistral looking happier today.

Hug your horse and have a great day!

A Mighty Move

Posted by Sharon Labels: ,

A month has passed since my move to Alberta. What a month it has been!

It all started a year or more ago. As most of you know, I was living on 93 acres in the Chilcotin area of British Columbia and loving it. I had bought the property in 2006 and proceeded in the ensuing years to develop it. Although a beautiful setting, it was not horse-friendly at all when I purchased it. I immediately had all the perimeter fencing done and water bowls and hydrants installed. Next on the list was a barn, which I designed myself. I called these projects "The Big Three".

I never stopped improving my property - a log gate (peeled the logs myself), pens for the horses, a bigger arena (cut rose bushes and pulled roots for a year), a river stone fire pit, perennials, a vegetable garden. I created endless work but I loved what I created. I bred, raised and trained horses and coached students in the peaceful setting. I did not think I would ever leave.

As the years passed, however, (and with some pressure from others), I began to think I should re-locate to a not-so-remote place. I advertised the property and in October 2016, it sold.

I didn't even know where I would or should go! Initially I thought the Okanagan would be a good choice but a property hunting trip there underlined what I knew already - I could not afford to move the horses and I there.

Next I started checking out Alberta since two of my children are in Calgary. That quest led me to purchasing a 4 acre property between Sundre and Olds.

Now comes the hard part. I was moving because I felt it was what I had to do, not what I wanted to do. I had put real roots down on my little paradise. It was mine, what I had made it to be, and it was hard to leave. I could not lose an overwhelming feeling of there being no place for me if I left but, as I have done all my life, I put one foot in front of the other (and my mind) into preparing for the move. I had done this before - first from Saskatchewan to Armstrong BC, then from Armstrong to Hanceville - both times by myself.

I knew it would be a daunting job and it was. Fortunately, I had a few months to pack up but as the days passed, tension mounted. So many details besides packing - cancel utilities, sign up for utilities, organizing the move. And accommodating the new owners of my property, who moved a lot of belongings in before I was out. I started lists - one for me and one for the new owners with as many contact numbers and notes that I could think of. I even used up the stain on the deck to give it a new look and painted shelves and walls in the basement with leftover paint. Never let it be said that I left a mess!