Narratives of the Nevards continued

In 1933 the Reverend Cleesby came to assist Reverend Badham.
In November of 1933 a steer got into a storage well that we had dug. The only way to get him out was with a rope around his neck which, unfortunately, strangled the steer. Bill skinned it. The same thing happened some years later but that time Bill and Uncle Horrie chopped a trench in the frozen soil and got the steer out. Wet and thoroughly chilled, but ok. That year of 1933 we had all bull calves born. Bill named them, Hero, Zero, Nero, Gay Caballero and Qinque.
On the night of August 17, 1934 the worst wind storm we had ever experienced occurred. Our threshing separator blew over and was rendered useless. Our stable was pushed out of plumb. Two haystacks had their tops blown off. An open bin on a rise was flattened. One wall was scattered for a quarter mile to the East. The wind came from the West. Bob Miller, six miles to the West of us, also lost his granaries, two in number. This was a dry year. We only dug ten pails of potatoes. The following year we dug 37 bags which was , I think, our best year ever.
Dad put new roofing on the chicken house. We called this building "the Jew shack" It had been on Uncle Arthur's South quarter and Mr. Fastofsky had originally homesteaded that quarter. He was of the Jewish faith. Bill also referred to it as "the Israelite's cottage".
In July of 1935 the Reverend Hillary came as our rector and held services at Headlands. On Sunday, September 17th Bill and I took cousin Roy to St. Michael's Church in Lipton for confirmation.
Down through the years the Nevard family had an assortment of dogs and cats. Rustler had a family of kittens. One was Little Vengeance, another was Sunflower . Possibly a ginger cat or tortoise shell. Bill named them all. I believe he got the names from Treasure Island, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. A story that Bill was very fond of. There were also two dogs, Bud and Snookums. Uncle Arthur had Bud and we had Snookums. We may have got them from Hobetzeders . Their rather short lives were ended by getting poisoned from a carcass on the way home from town.
Uncle Arthur also had a dog named 'Pants" . He got his name in the following manner. When he was a pup he was fond of grabbing and pulling on pants legs. Roy was just learning to talk and he said "Pants!" in disapproval. Uncle Arthur heard this and was highly amused. From then on he called the dog Pants. On December 21, 1935 Bill recorded: "Pants went to the happy hunting ground". And the following March, another obituary notice, "Sad demise of the venerable Grip from an attack by an unknown assailant. Grip had been Uncle Horrie's dog.
Christmas day of 1936 was spent at our home with the usual family gathering. That year we had a Christmas pudding made by Grandmother Nevard in England who was well up in her eighties at the time. She was the oldest resident living in the village of Lexden at the time.

 

Narratives 12, Into the 1930s

It was about the year 1927 when the Reverend Bowley left and Reverend Linder came and took the Anglican Church services at Headlands school.
In the spring of 1928 I caught pneumonia and Mrs. North kindly came and helped nurse me. My parents called the doctor. He got his car stuck in a mud puddle and Bill and the doctor walked up to Uncle Arthur's for a team of horses. Mr. Linder was there and so he drove them back to our place in his old Ford car. He came to a mud puddle and went flying through it with mud and water flying in all directions. He remarked for the doctor's benefit, "Thats the way to go through a mud puddle". The doctor said to Bill (and they were in the back seat) "some driver!"
Reverend Linder left in the fall of 1929 and the Reverend Horne came the following spring.
In December of 1930 Bill and Uncle Arthur took wheat to the flour mill in Keliher to be ground into flour.
In mid February of 1931 Mother and Aunt Daisy went to Regina hospital where mother had a goiter operation. This meant no school for me for a month. I stayed home to help Dad and Bill with the chores. Dad did the cooking. One of the puddings he made was so rich that it acted as an excellent laxative.
The Reverend Horne left in the spring of 1931 and the Reverend Robertson came to take his place for Church services at Headlands.
June the 14th was a Sunday in 1931 and Bud and I were confirmed in St. Michael's Church at Lipton. About ten others were also confirmed that day. Reverend Robertson only stayed one year. In 1932 the Reverend Badham came with Reverend Brown as his student minister and assistant.
June 27 was my last day of school. I had passed my grade 8 and it was time to helping Dad and Bill on the farm. It was a good year for Saskatoons and Mother put down 27 quarts of jam. On the third of January Bill and Bud took wheat up to the Keliher flour mill owned by Mr. Humphreys. They stayed the night in Hunter's livery stable.
This quote is from Bill's journal from January 13th, "Old Dan, Aunt Daisy's famous white horse died." February was a sad month for our district. Tommy Goff died at the age of 19 of pneumonia. The funeral was on February sixth, a bitterly cold day with the temperature down to 46 below zero. Aunt Daisy had an accident that injured her leg. Martha North came and nursed her. Aunt Daisy passed away very suddenly. Her funeral was February 25th. It was a nice bright day.