Bill's November 21, 1944 Letter Continued

November 21, 1944 letter continued.

Yesterday as soon as I'd done the necessary chores I took the wagon up on 25 and got my first load of barley home ready for hauling. As soon as I got back Dad and Uncle Arthur hitched on to the democrat and drove off to the Goff sale which was supposed to start at 12 o'clock. Actually it didn't start til 2 o'clock. The Goffs had invited Dad over for dinner so he was able to put his team in the stable and have some dinner before the sale started. Dad bought 3 sections of spring tooth harrows for $42. He also bought a hammer, logging chain and neck yoke. We seem to have mysteriously lost both our hammer and logging chain and both are necessary things to have around the farm.  Hobetzeder bought the binder and paid $278 for it. Tom Goff paid $80 for the mower so things went plenty high enough. Dad said the drag harrows sold for a higher price than they cost new in March.

I finished fencing the oat straw yesterday.  Dad wants to make a wooden trough, then when we let the stock onto this quarter we will be able to water them from the cistern. I don't know if I told you this before but Dad bought some new harness this fall for a team as he thought our other harness wasn't strong enough for hauling.

I shall have to get busy as soon as I get the barley hauled and start wood chopping. Last year I had it all cut and piled in the yard by Dec. 14th but I haven't cut any yet this year.

It was snowing a little last night before they got home from the sale but not very much. It is rather unusual to get so far into the season without a fall of snow. However with these thick fogs we have the frost on the grass is almost like a snow and Andy Gray was telling me that some of the electric light wires have broken with the weight of the heavy frost on them. 

I guess that uses up the news for this week and I'll have to quit.  Hoping you are well I remain your loving brother..        

                                                                                                                              E.W. Nevard

Alf Goff on the left of photo

November 1944 Letter From Bill to Dick

                                                                                     Headlands, Sask.
                                                                                     Nov. 21, 1944

Dear Dick
I have only a week's news to write and nothing very exciting to report. On the 15th I took a load of wheat to Lipton and posted my last letter to you. Donald started out with me but John Senft overtook us in his truck so Donald rode the rest of the way in with him. He was hauling wheat for Uncle Arthur. At the big coulee I met John Senft coming back for another load with Donald. He hauled 4 loads for Uncle and Uncle rode with him the third trip and came home on the fourth.
I got bags of cement to finish the cistern and some planks to make a trough with.
On the 16th we finished the cistern bottom and top. A nice bright day. I had to get a tank of water afterwards. Donald was here to supper. Joy would have come too but she had a cold.
On the 17th I took another load of wheat to Lipton . There wasn't so much traffic on the road as before although it was a nice day. Donald had sent to Eaton's for a pair of skis and I picked them up at the station. Also a carton from Aunt Flo for Uncle A. containing her husband's clothes. Donald went for the mail at night,
On the 18th I was fencing a straw pile and hauling water. Dad making bread. Uncle A brought the mail and I got your letter.
This is now Wednesday morning, the 22nd and I'm eating breakfast. I got 567 bushels of barley. I'm hoping to take the first load of the company's share to Lipton today.
On Sunday the 19th Dad and both Uncles went to Goff's in the democrat. The sale to wind up Alf Goff's estate was held yesterday and Dad wanted to go over beforehand and look the stuff over.
On Monday I took another load of wheat to Lipton. Probably the last for this year. John Senft took two truck loads for Uncle Horrie which pretty well cleans him up.
There were more wagons in town than usual as people were bringing cattle and hogs in to the stock yards to ship. Also it was nomination day for the municipality.
Louis Cohen has injured his shoulder and is unable to use his left hand. He is intending to get an x-ray of it I think.

Back row, Ernest, Bill and Arthur Nevard.

January 28 1946, Hogs to Market

January 28: We loaded up four of our young hogs in the sleigh and I took them to Lipton, Uncle Horrie going with me. Not too bad a day but a cold wind developed making it somewhat unpleasant. The sleigh seemed to drag heavy but we got down in plenty of time. Our pigs being the first stock there. John Fleming was right behind us with a steer loaded in his sleigh. After unloading our stock and putting the teams in, John Fleming, Uncle H. and I went to Joe's restaurant for dinner. I went to Andy Gray's after dinner and gave him the certificates to fix up. Mrs. Gray is much better now.
Quite a bunch of teams in at Kellsey's. I saw the train come in but Dick was not on it.
Blowing harder and snowing a bit on the way home. Bud took Carol to Lipton in the cutter about 9 p:m.
January 29: Snowing today so I didn't do a lot. Uncle Arthur went up to Winstanley Grove to feed Bud's pigs. Uncle Horrie and Donald came down in the afternoon with our rack and took their sleigh back and their groceries. Uncle Arthur brought the mail down with two letters from Dick who thinks he will be home in February. Bud came back tonight and told us that he and Carol are the proud parents of a son born at 9 o'clock this morning.

 A somewhat unrelated photo but it shows how deep the snow can get some winters in Sask. Centre is Margaret (Daisy) Nevard when she worked at a farm near Pense in about the winter of 1912-13.

Today In Bill's History

On his day off from working at the Fort San Bill Nevard walks the approximate 20 miles back to his farm home.
October 16, 1948
A miserable day. I walked most of the way home but Henry Meyer's two daughters overtook me with a car and gave me a lift for 3 miles. I had dinner with Uncle Arthur and afterwards went on up to Silver Birches where I saw Aunt Alice , Roy, Joy and Donald. Bud has gone to Calgary with little Eric. I collected a bag of stuff then headed back South. I had to walk all the way to Lipton getting there just in time to catch the bus. My first bus ride.
Oct. 17: Sunday. Got my first beets ready this morning. A messy job with beet juice all over the floor of the vegetable room making it look  like a slaughter house. At night Dick and walked down to the Fort to an Anglican service. Bill Levey gave us a lift in his car. It was a nice moonlight night.

Lipton main street in the late 1940s.

The Basement 13 Acres

How the term came to be.
The basement 13 acres. Its a term that shows up sometimes in Bill Nevard's journals. It was a means of describing and identifying one of the fields on the farm.
Obviously it was a field of 13 acres in size. The basement part refers to a basement that had been built some years previous on the edge of the field. It was on the east side of the
yard not far from the house they lived in. There is no mention of the construction in the journals so it must have been built some time previous to the 1930s. It represented
the plans and hopes they had of building a bigger and better house to replace the original homesteaders log house first built in 1903 when they came here. It is likely
that the dry years and poor crops of the 1930s put those plans for a better house on hold indefinitely. They never did build on the basement . It remains today, overgrown by the poplars as nature takes back it's own.

1956 Landslide And A New Chevrolet

58 years ago last week the Fort Qu'appelle landslide was the big local news. As seen here in Bill Nevard's journal.
May 12: We started to clear away a space for our garage today. In the evening I went with George to Balcarres. We saw Bob Greenfield and he took us for a ride in his Chevrolet Bel Air demonstrator as far as the hill down to Lebret. He let me drive back to Balcarres. He has a nice two toned green Chevrolet on the lot but it is a standard drive.
May 13, 1956 Sunday, Dick switched over to morning shifts and I started on evenings again. A landslip has developed on highway 35 a mile west of Fort Qu'appelle and about 80 feet of the highway is covered with earth from the hill about 12 feet deep. Hundreds of people went to see it.
May 14: Dick went with George, Mrs. Birns and Dad to Balcarres this afternoon and bought the 1956 Chevrolet hardtop from Greenfield who is going to two tone it for us before we bring it home.
May 16: Mrs. Birns and I went to see the slide on 35 highway this morning. It has cut a gorge in the coulee 500 yards long.

A partial view of the Fort Qu'appelle landslide in May 1956. Borrowed from the Everett Baker slide collection which you really should have a look at.