Narratives 8 The War Years

On April 3, 1916 Uncle Horrie enlisted in the 195th battalion of the Canadian Infantry Corp. In November he sailed on the Empress of Britain for further training in the U.K. and by the end of the month he had landed in France to join the battle.
Uncle Arthur joined up in August of 1916 with the 238th Battalion of the Forestry corp and went to Scotland.
Reverend Moffat was now taking the Church services at Balrobie. He came in 1915 and had the loan of Uncle Horrie's horse, Captain. Bill was confirmed while in Regina in 1915 at Grace Church by Bishop Harding.
Around that time Dad built a log stable for the livestock. For the first years he had a sod stable. In 1917 he added on to the log stable. I was just beginning to get about outside by that time and very helpfully put my foot in the freshly mixed plaster Dad was using on the walls. He carefully washed my foot saying, "it would not do for your mother to see that".

Bill Nevard by new barn.

We had a dog named Nell and her pup, Frank. Mother said that when I was out playing with the dogs she could hardly tell boy from dog. In that year Mr. North bought a pair of pigs from us. They came for these one Sunday morning. Mr. North had his two sons, Tom and Ed with him. Tom Smith was also along with  him on this occasion.
That summer Aunt Daisy came up from the city for a while and lived in their house on the farm, Winstanley Grove. Our farm was named "The Poplars'. Mrs. McNeil had suggested calling it "the bluffs" but Mother did not agree. Mrs. McNeil had named their farm "Murdock" after a place in Scotland.
On the southeast quarter of section 12 just south of McNeils's lived Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson and their daughter Shatty. In 1917 at haying time Mr. Ferguson had his team run away with the hay rake and he suffered bad head injuries so Shatty came over to our place to get Dad to drive them to the station to catch the train for Regina. Mother had Shatty stay the nights at our place while her parents were away. That year we had Christmas at Fergusons. The next year they came to our place. Mrs. Ferguson said she was going to keep me. I thought she meant it and was quite worried. Actually I don't remember it, being aged two at the time, but have heard it referred to since.
Aunt Daisy held a picnic at her place in 1917 in aid of the Red Cross. I imagine all the neighborhood would be there. I remember hearing that the North family were there. Ed North told me that he remembers sitting on the running board of Tom Goff's Model T Ford.

                   Goffs and Nevards. Model T in background.