I was approx. six years old when we moved to Saskatchewan, dad rented a farm from a realestate (Fair & Mc carthy), one half section with a two story farm house which had been used to store grain. It was approx. 8 miles from a town called Tyvan., it was two miles from a school, this country was comparatively new and there was lots of ducks and sand hill craines. I remember chasing young cranes who could not fly, the mother crane would try and protect her young and would hit me with her wings and gove me a pick now and then.I can remember when we moved into the house, it had been used to store wheat and we thought it was curnells of wheat in the cracks but it was bed-bugs and when they got warmed up they gave us trouble. Mother had a terrible time with them.This was where I learned to ride bare-back on a horse, we had an old white horse called Charlie and when I fell of he would come back and let me get on, each week someone would go to town and bring the mail, then all the neighborhood would meet and have coffe and fellowship. well1 my brother Bob arrived home with all the mail and said here is a letter for the teacher and I thought he sais from the teacher, and I started to read it and as it was a passionate love letter I did not know what some of the words were so I asked Mother and she said where are you getting this stuff?, this letter should have been burned but Bob took it to the teacher and I was in trouble, she gave me a licking with a wooden pointer, tore one year nearly off when I dodged.The school-board finally let her go. One of my greatest disappointments happened here,Mr Fair part owner used to visit us quite often and he would let me use his 22 rifle to shoot gophers, each year after threshing time he used to send all the family Christmas gifts, this year my brother came home with the gifts and there was a long package addressed to me and Bob said it looks like a rifle.Christmas finally came and guess what it was, a great big doll,Ha Ha*** Dad used to raise a great number of hogs and when it got cold we would butcher them and send them to Port Author in a railroad box car, we got 20$ per hog and it had to weigh approx. 200# , well one of our neighbors did not have any mat so his son Russell came over to try and buy some liver, of course we did not leave the liver in the hog so dad said take all you want and he took several pieces of liver home and eat too much, that night about two AM yhere was a loud knocking at the door, Russells dad was there and said come quick Russell is dying, so Mother and I went with him and found russell on the fooor with acute indigeston, Mother forced some lard and dry mustard down him and he got rid of the excess food. Our neighbor Bill Doan lived in a small sod house just accrost the road and he left to work in a logging camp in British Columbia, befor he left he told us to watch his place because he had left the next years seed in his house, one night mother called us and said there is someone in Bills house, we could see the light in the house and dad and Bob and billie Howat and I took our guns and went over to see what was there. it had snowed the day before and as I got to the door and saw there was no tracks in the snow, I dan't explain, there was no one there and we got word the next day that Bill had been killed at that time. We had a large do and he started to bark and howl and Mother said some one in the family has died, we got word the next day that grandmother Medley had died. There was no telephone and we had to rely on the mail for any news or a telegram. It was at this time that dad decided to go up in Alberta and take a homestead and premtion.It was abouthis time I saw the first automobile. Here is another invident I have not forgotten, dad and mother had gone to visit Mary and I was left home with my brother and the hire man(Billie Howat0 Bob tole me to get the hay down for the horses and busy playing I failed to get it done so he told me yo get up there in the dark and when I got up there there was a ghost light and all, I threw my fork at it and ran to the house, some time later Bob came in the house and said Billie has to go to the doctor, it was years later that I found out that my fork had penetrated Billies stomach, I never saw another ghost.

Dad hired a young man named Percy Wheeler to help on the farm and he was crazy to hunt ducks so Bob said this coming Sunday morning we will get some ducks, out back of the barn there was a slough which was very close to the barn. We told percy to load the shot gun and cock the triggers and open the back door, he did and the ducks flew and he said the bally things flew, then Bob told him to let the hammers down eacy, he turned around the pulled both triggers and the gun blew a hole in the back door aboute 3 feet from bob's leg, a close one.now Percy Wheeler was a young man that was sent direct from London England and did not know the ways of the world and that milk came from cows. he thought it came from cans. Just a word aboute dads experience with the dead, he said you don't have to worry aboute the dead its the live you have to watch.

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