Dogs and Packrats

  Chubby Chicken was around for all things a staunch supporter for all activities.. He was only left home for things he might get into trouble for. He now had a buddy also in the form of a female black Lab named Billy that I had taken on from Morgans when I helped them out.   Chubby continued his  thieving ways in the cabin.  Jude or I would open the door and a black something would hasten past.  Chubby always knew it was wrong to steal but he did it anyway.  Usually he had eaten the butter or on one occasion ate five of Jude's butter tarts!  We figured we must have almost caught him in the act or he would have eaten the sixth one as well. One night before Jude came he bit the mechanic Alan Dungate when Alan entered without knocking.(a foolish thing to do anyway) Chubby also had a favourite chair and if anyone sat in it would stare at them until they left.

   When I was still living at my brother's, Chubby had run in front of Franks horse as he galloped it up the driveway. For some reason Chubby stopped and the horse ran right over him.   Chubby hollered all the way down to me again and I really thought he wasn't badly hurt but this time he was.   Two toes were severed and a portion of his foot pad.We took him to the vet in Nelson and he had to stay there for a few days. Luckily the vet only charged us forty dollars as neither of us had a lot of money at the time. Frank felt badly and paid half the cost. The vet talked about possible plastic surgery in the future but that wasn't going to happen for sure. Alas, Chubby was no longer the dog he had been.  Ever the tough little survivor, it wasn't long before Chubby was going on rides with me again. He could no longer run as fast as he once did but he could definitely run and often would just go on three legs and let the bad leg hit ground just once in awhile. However his squirrel and gopher days were done. Now he spent his time in the creek catching frogs.  

 He spent many hours in the creek at Lofsted while we worked, chasing frogs. The bad foot may have affected his balance as well because I remember leaving my brothers place one day with Chubby on the flat deck and he rolled right off into the driveway. He was just always with me and a great companion. He stuck around well when he was left at home and so did Billy. Both dogs often rode on the hay wagon or in the back of the trucks we drove and they had a pretty happy life. Upon arriving home for the day Jude and I would often tease Chubby Chicken and make him sing a lament if we would not get out of the vehicle right away. He had become a fixture in our lives.

   When I first arrived in the cabin I had a pack rat visit but I didn't know it until Chubby let on that something had just whizzed across the ceiling and into the Annex. There was more evidence in the barn of this intruder. I went to get my saddle one day and the cinch was gone! It had been chewed right off and packed away heavy buckles and all. I asked Aldingers just how big these rats were! Obviously they were strong anyway and not the size of a mouse at all. Pack rats are obnoxious
 animals in that they have to pee on everything and you can always smell
when one is around.  I set a trap in the barn and got him one day. At first I thought he looked kind of cute, but then I got a whiff of him and promptly dispatched him. They were very destructive creatures and as Fred would say a “varmint”

Pipes and Haying

   One of the jobs we least liked on the Farm, was changing the irrigation pipe. Thank goodness only one of the four fields was set up for that. The front field near the house seemed to be of a gravel base and would soon burn up without enough water. And so, the system of irrigation pipes had been put in and it required moving by hand every second day. Although the pipes were aluminium and not overly heavy, they were most awkward things to move. Often the sprinkler heads were clogged and needed attention as well. I took to carrying a small crescent wrench with a piece of wire attached to it. In this way I could remove the small nozzle and free any debris that was clogging it. We got weekends off but it was still necessary to change the pipe on at least one of our days off. If we had been out with the “Eds'” the evening before and if they had stayed over it always went much faster with four of us. It had never bothered Fred to come over and rouse us all and tell us to change the sprinklers, even if we had thought we would sleep in that morning. I for one was always happy to see the pipe go in storage for winter. One day I got a shock when using my little wrench on a car battery and the wire touched a terminal- I thought I had learned that lesson about wires and batteries but apparently not in this circumstance. But these were all parts of our day and for the most part we managed very well I think for two girls.

   Haying was high on the list of not nice things as well. By now the new fields at Lofsted could be hayed and we were sent out to do it. Both Judy and I were susceptible to hay fever,
 and it got so we hung a toilet roll on the gearshift of the tractor we sneezed and snotted so much. Those were long and hot days with hard toil as well. One day after cutting hay all day I woke up to find both my eyes swollen shut. Along with haying of course came machinery failure as well and we would cheer when something broke down and we could not hay any longer that day. The baler especially caused a lot of problems. It had a safety device wherein a shear pin would break when the load was too heavy for it to bale. We went through boxes of these pins. The pins had to be ordered from Nelson and when the box was empty and the last pin broke-we could go home! One day we had just gotten a new box of pins and had yet to return to haying. Fred decided he would do a few rounds. When he returned to the house he sheepishly told us we could not hay tomorrow either. When I asked why he said there were no more pins. Well I knew there had been a whole box but apparently he went to fast and went through the entire box in an afternoon- that was a record that surpassed anything Jude and I had done.

Getting the hay home was no easier than making it. Our hay wagon would often leave the tractor once it was loaded. Again poor equipment and I soon asked if we could have some tractor pins drilled so we could put another pin cross ways and hold the wagon onto the tractor. Eventually the mechanic supplied us with these and things were a tad easier.

   On some occasions when we thought we could get away with it, Jude and I were not above sneaking in a nap or two. We were the most tired on a Monday if we had partied all weekend til the wee hours. More than once I would awake to tell Jude we were on our own time so wake up as we could go home now. Once Fred nearly caught me when I was up on the Airport pasture. The only shady place was under the tractor and I had just woke up and started the tractor when here he came. He unscrewed the cap of the fuel tank and said “Just fuelled up eh?” and at least I had the presence of mind to say “Yup”. In retrospect we probably did not pull the wool over his eyes and he probably knew exactly what was going on.

   Sometimes we would get fed up enough to want to quit out jobs but Fred always seemed to know when we were feeling pushed too hard and would east off a bit. Or we would be invited to an especially great dinner at the big house and all would be well again. The Aldingers of course needed us as farm hands and it left the men free to run the mill and attend to other business. For the most part it was a good working relationship and now when we look back Judy and I both say “Those were the days,my friend! “

One More bull and Another Fire.

In the spring before he passed away, Fred purchased a black Angus bull to replace Chimp. The bull was in Creston not too far away and Fred asked Ed Davidson if he would go and pick it up for him. I went along for the ride. We loaded Fred’s racks on the back of Ed's truck and I remember him saying the bull would probably lay down and sleep most of the way once we started driving. Finding the right farm took awhile and then we were also delayed trying to load the bull but eventually we were on the road home again. On the ferry, the bull still had not settled down and continually circled around in the truck. A ferry attendant actually twiddled his fingers at the bull and I asked him if he wanted to keep those fingers or what? Peoples foolishness with large animals sometimes astounded me. Fred had called it wrong on that bull and he never laid down until about half a mile from home, but it made no difference really.

Although it would not be politically correct these days, Judy named the bull “Nigger Charlie”. He was not a nice bull like Chimp had been and it took very little to raise his hackles up and we simply did not trust him at all! One day we had to drive Charlie from one field to the next one. When Edie heard we girls were apprehensive he decided to help us and came out armed with a small fence post. Charlie had been known to charge when agitated but Edie ignored our comments. We got the bull to the gate and nearly through when he decided to go for Edie!  To his credit Edie got one crack in but

but the bull kept coming and the next minute we saw Edie pinwheeling through the air with papers and pens and cigarette packages all flying about. The bull got by us as we went to see if Edie was okay. He was and actually laughed and laughed about it. Once more we had to start all over again. One of the older calved had done this same thing to Edie one day. He stuck hi leg out to stop it and the calf was just too solid and once again Edie had been airborne. I really did not think he was a very good cow person but he was always game anyway and seemed to have no fear at all.

   The Aldingers always supplied Jude and I with some awful vehicle to drive and we hated them and never felt very safe driving them. One such vehicle was a blue van they had acquired. It went, but barely, and there were several gears that just did not work. The other thing that did not work was the passenger door! Jude did not have a Canadian license so she was not impressed that she had to get in the drivers door and slide over all the time. This van she dubbed the “Hippy Van” and everyone soon called it that. The battery for this van was behind the drivers seat and at some time someone had removed the battery cover. We had a lot of junk in the back and baling wire and cloth sacks from the alfalfa seed were some of the junk. On this morning we had already been out to check the cow at Lofsted and were coming up the driveway to the farm, when Judy looked over at me and started yelling “FIRE! We're on FIRE!” I guess she could see flames licking up behind my head.  She hit the door on her side once or twice and then came right over top of me and was out and running down the road before I could understand anything! I decided to investigate and see what was on fire and the wire had been on the battery and had heated up enough to light the bags on fire. All it took was to pull the bags out and stomp on them. When Jude returned we had a good laugh and I told her I was really glad she chewed he nails or I could have been scratched to death with her departure. I replaced the battery cover and we never had another fire while we drove that van. Another lesson learned!

More Bull

Times were changing in our lives after the death of Fred. The Aldinger Family was adjusting and making decisions and changes in their lives and Judy and I were making changes as well. My relationship with Ed Davidson had strengthened and so had Jody’s with Edie Aldinger.. They had decided they could only afford one farm hand and I gave the job over to Jude as she was going with Edie. I got a job in town at the Hotel but stayed on in the cabin and helped on the farm on weekends.  Irma moved to the coast for a time and Ed Davidson went down there to see his daughter as well and worked there for six months. Then Edie decided to take Jude to Mexico and off they went. I was alone with all the chores plus my job in town. It worked out okay except I remember driving the one ton truck down the back road and right by the mill site the gear shift came off in my hand!  I had been instructed to go to the bush foreman that lived in town if I had problems so I walked into town to talk to him. He must have thought I was insane. I proceeded to rant and rave how the truck had a hole in the floor and one in the door and now the damn gear shift was laying on the seat and he could fix it up or feed the cattle himself. I don't know where I went for the remainder of the day but when I got to the farm the truck was there and in better working order. Judy had had her fun with that truck as well and once was driving through the mill-yard when everyone started waving at her. She had lost a wheel!  I remember asking her if the truck had not been on a tilt and she replied “Not that I noticed”. We had christened the red one-ton the “Red Pig” and it was certainly difficult to get around in at times.

  In the spring, I noticed Ludwigs hooves needed to be trimmed.
The front toes were nearly crossing over each other. So I got out the
cow hoof trimmers and a rope and was trying to talk Jude into getting Ludwigs attention so I could drop a loop on his horns and hold him long enough to do the trimming. Otherwise he simply walked away. Jude was still most untrusting of this bull and I lost my cool and trying to shame her into doing the job(after all she was head farm hand now) I told her if she couldn't do it to go and get Irma! Well she wasted no time in doing just that!  Out came Irma in her gumboots with a broom in hand. I imagine we got the job done.  Next, we had

to castrate a four year old bull.  This was a big job and he was strong!  I remember he was so strong he
could pull the testicles right out of my hand but we got him done in the end. Things had certainly been easier when Fred had been there. When it came time to butcher this young bull , I remember Edie shot him several times before the job was done. Never a dull moment on a farm!

   We also had an incident where a cow had a horn growing around and back into her head. It essentially made the cow crazy and when we tried to corral her she went right through the fence. The same thing happened when we got her in the chute. Eventually we caught her after many a wild chase and had to saw the horn off as it was impossible to use the dehorner clippers.

Bull Problems too!

  When I first went to work at the farm, Aldingers had two bulls.  One was called Chimp and he was a good-looking red Angus bull.  The other bull was a Charolais and Jude and I dubbed him "Ludwig" for some reason.  In the spring the two bulls began a lot of "jousting" back and forth and I guess they were well aware that winter was past and spring breeding season had begun.  Fred had a plan to breed the heifers to the Red Angus bull and the other mature cows to the Charolais. Hopefully this would be easier on the heifers when they calved.  One day, Fred informed me that it was time to take the bulls to Lofsted Farm and put them in with the cows waiting there.  I suggested we separate the bulls and take one at a time but no he insisted we take both together and said we had the whole afternoon to do this.  I had purchased another horse named Irish by that time and Jude and I saddled up and proceeded to drive the bulls down the four fields to the back road.  They constantly put there heads together and pushed each other backwards. It was going to  take a long time.  We thought it might go better once we were on the road but we no sooner got the bulls there and Chimp lost his footing and went down.

 He didn't seem able to rise again and I feared the worst.  Knowing Fred was still at the house, I told Jude I would  ride back and tell them the bull was down and instructed her to continue driving Ludwig down the road so he would not come back and finish off Chimp. I raced back and Jude tried to drive the other bull down the road.   At one point the Charlois was hot and tired and decided to make a stand. Drool hung off his nostrils and he shook his head and advanced on Jude and Trouble.  Neither of them wanted in on this war but Jude even got off the horse and tried to drive the bull on foot.  No way was Ludwig having any of it and now he started to paw the ground in agitation. It was enough for Jude and Trouble and they turned back and galloped home.

 Meanwhile back at the farm, Fred didn't seem about to do anything like call the vet etc. so I started back to where Chimp was.  As I looked up I could see Jude riding Trouble hell for leather across the fields. Her ponytails were flying in the air and I watched to see if he would buck when he hit a muddy patch but he didn't put a lot of effort into it.  I was a little disappointed she had not been able to keep the white bull going and could see he had returned to Chimp already, but he just seemed tired not aggressive towards Chimp.  Jude had quite the tale to tell and had lost her nerve entirely-so had Trouble.  Between the two of us we drove the Charlois bull out to where he was supposed to be.  Poor Chimp had apparently broken a hip and it wasnt' until late afternoon that someone finally put him out of his misery.  They butchered him up and even gave us some of the meat but it beyond edible was so tough.  I was sorry this had happened to the nice Red Angus bull, but that was farming!

Tragedy Strikes the Farm

   In August of  1973, Fred flew down east with a couple of other fellows on business.  They never made it to their destination but crashed into Lake Erie.  All three men were killed.
   We girls back home of course knew nothing about what had happened. Judy had been going with the brother Eddie Aldinger and she came into the cabin and told me Eddie has just driven up and he was crying. I remember calmly looking at her and saying "Then Fred must have "bought it".  I don't know why I said that but it turned out to be true.  Fred's body had not been found however and would not be found for a couple of weeks. Hope springs eternal and during that time I am sure we all hoped he would turn up again.  One day Jude and I were driving the one ton Red Pig truck up near the airstrip and a plane landed.  I stopped the truck to see who was getting out and definitely had Fred on
my mind, so did Judy.  He had eluded death many times and we surely
surely thought he would do it again.  But it was not to be.  He was cremated and his ashes send back here.  At his funeral I remember his youngest daughter Carla, age three, asking where her Daddy was and it was certainly a very sad time.  Irma needless to say was a total emotional mess and we tried to be supportive of her.  It had been such a shock and Fred had certainly been in his prime with many plans and business deals in the offing.  It was left for Eddie and Irma to sort out and as it does for the living, life went on.  I remember one day when Irma put her arms around Judy and I and asked us not to leave her, we agreed not to.

   In the fall it was time to dehorn the cows and calves and also castrate all the bull calves.  The men in the mill were supposed to help us but it was a really nice day and we three women decided to get going on it.I had after all helped Fred the year before and knew a bit about it and Irma had helped over the years as well.  And so we began a very rough day.  We did have a cattle chute and it had come apart the year before and knocked me on the head a good one! Tamped me right into the ground.  Fred walked over and lifted my cowboy had and did not see any blood and promptly announced I would live.  I hoped it would hold together better this year and gave the side of the chute wide range.  It was necessary to run a calf into the chute and one person would shut the gate behind it, while a person up front would put on a pair or nose clamps and tie the head to one side.  The third person would then scrape the cord leading to the testicles and once they were off, the calf would

receive a shot of penicillin and if he needed horns done as well, then away he would go.  I realised right away when we started that Irma was more or less just cutting clean across and we would be losing calves that way, so I took over the cutting.  The larger cows with horns was a big job and it took all three of us on the dehorning tool to get the horns cut off.  Once off the head sprayed blood all over everyone and even when we applied the blood stopper they would spray for a time.
It was not a job for the squeamish at all.  Doing the calves also required trying one leg with a clove hitch knot and we got rather good at it after awhile.  We has one calf in and ready in record time but when I reached between the legs I found out it was a heifer. Of course! They never fought as badly!  We finished up with the calves and cows just as the men arrived from the mill and I think they were most grateful not to have to do any more work that day.  Some of them looked a little green just looking at us!  We were painted with blood and manure and added to that a good dusting  of blood stopper.  A shower and clean clothes were never so welcome!
The delicacy with supper that night was "prairie oysters" and I did have some but Judy declined.

More Problems With Calves and Calving

   Our animal Husbandry lessons were not about to stop any time soon.  Most of the big old Hereford cows calved with no problems whatsoever, but there always seemed to be one or two that got in trouble.  It was the practice to bring in any calf that looked sickly or one that had gotten too cold.  Often, a quick warm up in the bathtub would restore the little one and once dry he could go back to his Mom.  One morning we discovered a calf that seemed sickly to me but was still on his feet.  His mother was a big old cow with prolapsed  teats that were so huge I could not see how he could suck at all.  We called her turnip tits and named the calf Shamus.  Irma was not impressed when we came to the house with him because he was still standing and moving around.  Well we girls were not about to quit on him now and we took him to the cabin and locked him in the annex that only had a shower stall in it.  I foolishly thought newpapers on the floor

might help but that only works for animals built closer to the ground.  Well the result was Shamus crapped all over the walls when he went as well as the floor!  Even between the wall and the shower stall!  At this time I had given over the farmhand job to Judy and was working as a waitress in the Kaslo Hotel.  I came home from a late shift to Shamus bawling for milk and crap all over the annex. Another one of those times when you say to yourself  "You haven't lived until you........."
    Although Judy was now the official "farmhand" I still helped whenever I could and for a time still stayed in the cabin. One night when we did a last check of the cows we found one cow with the hind feet of her calf hanging out of her.  Well, you were supposed to help them and pull it right?  That did not work as the legs came off!  This poor cow was wandering around with a rotten calf inside her and if something did not happen soon she could die of toxic poisoning.

Nothing to do but to go in there with your hand and try and clear things out.  It seemed to no avail and although we got some stuff out the smell was atrocious and I thought a vet would be necessary.  We headed for home with Judy driving.  I have had false teeth for some time and as Judy started to heave I gave her hell and said there was no way she was puking as I could not puke along side of her because I couldn't spit my false teeth into my hands that were covered in rotted calf gore!  As it was, my arms were out the widow in order for us not to be upchucking together. Both our men were at the farm when we arrived and neither thought what we had been through was a very big deal.  The cows were of course now Eddies responsibility as well and he went back with us and by this time the cow had expelled what she had to.  The next day there were bolluses (kind of a huge pill) to be put into the cow and I figured Eddie should have that glory.  Of course now things were prepared better and no bare arm for him but a nice plastic sleeve so he didn't get anything on him.  Still nothing would change the smell and I laughed my head off when an expulsion of air from the cow gave him a good dose of the aroma Jude and I had dealt with tenfold!  Eddie curled his top lip with its mustache-making him look like a walrus and did a large "PEEWUU!"  With all the boluses inserted the cow continued on her way and we did not lose her.   Shamus too survived and a few days after went back to his Turnip Tits Mom and did well.

   I believe that fall they shipped all the cattle out and went out of that business at least.

Cows and Hired Hands

With the arrival of my friend Judy Marks, life began to be a blast. I told her straight off she could stay as long as she liked but I expected her to help with the work and share expenses as well. Jude was never a user or a “mooch” and readily agreed to those circumstances. She seemed enthralled with my cabin and the outdoor biffy did not bother her one bit.

    The Aldingers were quick to see that they could get even more work done with two female hired hands and in no time put Jude on the payroll. And so we embarked on our careers as “Aldingers Hired Girls”. We seemed to be most popular, even with the Aldingers themselves and often they would talk us into going to a dance with them and would pay our way. We later found out they were getting two hired hands for the price of the one useless guy they had had previously but we were happy and had a home and worked hard without thinking twice about it.

   When I first knew I would be working outside a lot I used the last of my money to buy appropriate clothes. Boots and gloves and things like that. I have to admit I was a bit jealous of Judy when she walked in and the guys supplied her with boots and gloves etc. I told her she must have a horseshoe up her butt and she always seemed to land on her feet with never a care in the world. She also never seemed to worry about a thing and that drove me crazy as well. Still, she helped me be more carefree as well and those were good times.

   Judy arrived in April and in May it was once again the May Day Celebrations in Kaslo. Besides taking part in the horse show, (Judy did her first barrel race) we also took part in the Logging Sports which had a Ladies Nail Hammering event. Judy won and I coveted her silver cup for years. Of course we were good at hammering, with all the fencing we were doing.  We took pride in our many jobs and tried never to back down but to just get the job done. At times we hadn't a clue what we supposed to do but managed somehow. One morning Fred wanted a caribou fence built on a particularly rocky spot where the cows were getting out. Right! Says I. When Jude asked what one was I told her I thought the neighbour had one and we would go and look at it and then build one.  A caribou fence leans on cross pieces and requires no actual posts to be put in the ground.  When it is properly put together it is a good strong fence.  Our fence more or less 

blocked the hole and that was about it. We used whatever wood we could find even rotten birch so by no stretch or the imagination could this be called a strong fence or even a fence for that matter! Still, no one ever called us on it.  The Aldingers continued to buy up land and soon we were sent to the Airport pasture to pick roots and rocks just as I had at the Loftsted farm. We spent many hours there and then it was time to plant the pasture as well and fertilise it. Fred brought in two large truck toolboxes that were used for fire tools and then showed us how the alfalfa seed had to be mixed with NITROGEN in these boxes and then it would grow better? Now alfalfa seeds are very tiny and I asked Jude if she thought we had to check every one for a black spot of NITROGEN? It seemed a foolish endeavour at best but what did we know? Fred told us to treat the alfalfa like gold as is was so expensive. Well, to top things off when we put it in the hopper at the field the seeder would not close properly and I lost all the seeds on the way to where I was supposed to plant them!  I looked for many years to see if any alfalfa grew but never found any.

   Preparing that pasture was often a scary experience and we really should not have been doing it for safety reasons. Also there was often only one of us up there. Luckily we had no accidents. At one time Judy thought the tractor might come right over and actually got off of it and gave it a push. Another time I had to take a heavy plow up there and the front wheels came right off the ground but it didn't go over because the plow prevented it from doing so.  Some of our jobs left us very dirty indeed and we insisted on turning up in the bar in our work clothes.  Sometimes we were full of grease or brake fluid or creosote from treating posts. It did no good to try and clean up because inevitably there would be a call of “Girls! The cows are out!” and we would have to go and chase them back in. We could get away earlier on a Friday night if we just left straght away. We got to hate the cows at times but never mistreated them. I was always surprised that they had no dogs to drive cattle. These cows had come from many places and were picked up at sales etc. And would not drive well or easily. Getting them to the new Airport pasture proved to be a large task indeed and took all weekend. At that we never did get six of them up there and they stayed at Lofsted for the summer. Ed Davidson decided to help us and Judy gave him her cow stick
at one point and only got back a nubbin.  We worked so hard to get the cattle
up to the new pasture and within a week they had eaten everything off of it.  I
found that rather disappointing but the cattle drove better coming back home.  A few times the cattle bedded down on the gravel airstrip and the Aldingers even got a letter from the government about that. Ed Davidson's comment on cows seemed very true at times. He said he didn't know how something that tasted so good could be so dumb.

Spring Calves & Judy Arrives!

Feeding stock in the winter was not always a fun exercise but the animals needed care and I provided it as best I could. When the creek that supplied water froze up it was necessary to go up and chop out the troughs that it flowed through. The creek source was a long ways up a hill and in winter clothes it did not take long to be sweating profusely. Then too a hole needed to be chopped in the water near the highway. Cows would not eat snow like horses. Every day I would load a small waggon made from a car chassis I believe, with bales and take it out to the field to spread hay for the cows. The tractor usually complied and started but some mornings it was just too cold. Then I would have to go to the house and tell Fred I “needed a jump”. This usually worked but sometimes it was necessary to spray ether on it- I forget where now. All quite a learning experience. I didn't go to town much as did not like driving the icy roads but I could always go in with Irma when she went to town for groceries. As always, winter finally ended and the calving began and I was back to the bovine husbandry of my job and doing belly buttons.

We had one huge Charolais cow that calved and she was not agreeable to  my doing anything with her calf. Fred asked me one night if I had done the  calf and I said if he would stand by and guard me with a shovel maybe I could get it done. Well he never did and the calf simply did not get its belly button swabbed with iodine and it lived anyway. Spring was always an interesting time and there was a lot of work to be done with the cattle. One day I went out to feed and check the cattle and found a cow with what seemed to be her insides outside! I was in total shock and wasted no time in getting back to the farm to tell Fred. I couldn't believe stuff like this could happen! Fred was very calm about it and said he would have to phone the vet in Nelson. I thought it was all too gross for words. However the vet did arrive and stripped down

 However the vet did arrive and stripped down and washed his arms up and proceeded to put all those insides back in the cow! For a few weeks she had to stand in a stanchion like thing that tilted her forward so she would not do that again and in the fall we shipped her so we would not have to deal with that again.

I got myself in trouble the day they built the stanchion as it was a Saturday and I had left to go riding with Ed Davidson. His wife had left him in Feb. And he and I had more or less hit it off at a dance up the lake. I played hooky all day and when I got home that night Fred came to talk to me. He told me he was glad to see Ed and I together and wished us well but hoped I would not neglect my job again to go with him. Before that I had been going out with Fred’s brother Eddie but there had been no commitment of any kind.

The best thing that happened that spring was my good friend Judy was coming to see me! I had received a post card saying she was going back to England for a visit and after that she would come and see me for a time. She was very vague on the exact date and was hitchhiking so I only had and approximate time of her arrival.

 It turned out the night she phoned we were all drinking in Balfour at the Dolly Varden. Judy was in New Denver and I had no idea if there was a hotel there or what. The next morning I asked if I could have the morning off to go and get her. Fred refused! I couldn't believe it but thereafter had no choice but to hope she could make her way to Kaslo somehow. All day long I thought of Judy and worried about her. Finally when work was done she phoned and said she had hitch-hiked in and was on front street in Kaslo. I immediately went in to pick her up.

Judy and I had met in 1971 in Calgary when she was living there with her boyfriend Ray. I was going with a fellow named Johnny and the two men knew each other and had met up at a rodeo , Judy and I hit it off right away and had a lot in common. Many of her dreams were similar to mine and we talked non-stop for the entire visit. When I left I knew we were friends for life and so it has been. Jude and Ray would come out to Twin Bridges and help at times. Mary would provide meals for all and they slept in their car-a Rambler that the seats went back in. The two of us kept in touch after I left Twin Bridges and this was the first time we had seen each other in over a year!  

I went to town to pick up Jude in Kaslo and found her on front street walking along without a care in the world.
 She was eating an ice-cream cone and when she confessed she only had $15.00 to her name I thought the ice-cream was an extravagance she could ill afford. She had a back pack with all her worldly possessions in it and her boots with worn out soles were swinging off the pack.

Dangers in B.C.

I was very “green” about wood heating and had much to learn.  The airtight heater in the cabin was situated so the stovepipe went up through the ceiling near where the roof met the cabin. This space was called a knee-well or knee-wall. I had a good fire going one day and as I was doing dishes I started to smell smoke. Well I looked up to see flames travelling along the inside of the roof and

along the inside of the roof and nearly had a heart

attack. However no time to panic gotta do something about it. As with most places around the area the cabin had a shake roof and cedar
burns easily and well! A hippie guy happened by and I told him to go to the house and tell Irma I had a fire. I looked at a nearby shed and also a huge tree and thought it was a possibility that the house would go too! The hippie told Irma but only came back with a bucket. He was very panicky but I did talk him into filling the bucket with water while I went up a ladder onto the roof. No one else came to help at all. I literally tore the shakes off the roof in order to get the fire out and of course ended up with a big hole in the roof. Once the fire was out I just sat there and shook. I slept cold that night as could not stand the thought of the fire starting again. Someone helped me move the stove to a different spot but I never again felt safe about wood heating. But I still took chances and one time started the fire and left it while I did some more chores. The fire had gotten going alright and the pressure it had built up had the lid flapping up and down like popcorn and the cabin of course was full of smoke. Sometimes there were just too many things to learn.

   Every so often the men would drop off a load of wood and it was up to me to split it and put it in my wood shed. One day Ed Davidson came by with his family for a supper invitation with Aldingers. I was out splitting wood and Ed watched me for a time and then showed me how to hit the wood with the axe where there was a crack and it would split much easier. Well that was very true but not something a city kid would necessarily know.

That first winter was a lonely one but Frank often came by for coffee and that was always a boost to my morale. Just before Christmas I was going in to Nelson to shop with Frank and Lyn and Kelly. As we drove by the turn-off for Cody Caves I noticed a little dog running up the bank. This seemed unusual to me as there did not seem to be any houses about. That's when Frank noticed tracks leading off the highway and over the bank. Andre Goudroe and his wife and three young boys had gone over just before we arrived. The vehicle was upside down and the wheels still turning when we looked over.  We were in my car and had no rope, Frank felt he could get down there but would need a rope to

 get back up the steep bank, especially when helping someone else. Soon someone else arrived and they had a rope so down he went. Andres wife was dead but the little boys were all alive and crying. Frank brought them up one at a time. One little boy had his leg broken in three places(we later found out) and I kept hoping he would just pass out and be free of the pain but he did not. The next little boy had a cut across his stomach but it was not deep. The third boy was the eldest maybe nine or so and he was in the worst shape as far as crying was concerned and nearly hysterical. I think maybe this boy was next to his Mom and traumatised. Another helper had arrived and I took the eldest boy in this car to the hospital. I had to talk every moment of the way as the boy would only be calm when I talked. It was a long way to keep talking non-stop! Andre himself was complaining about his back so he was left to be gotten out by boat. We delivered the boys to the hospital and most of the morning was gone by then and we certainly were no longer in the mood to go to Nelson. As a matter of fact I was ready to turn in my drivers licence! We phoned that night around supper time and were told the boys were okay and actually running around the hospital. But all told it was an awful
wake-up call to how dangerous the roads were out here.  It is not like Alberta and there were no "ditches" just drop offs of who-knew-how-many feet?It' s not like Alberta and there were no “ditches” just drop offs of who-knew-how-many feet?

Little Jobs

   Being unemployed did not suit me and I travelled a few miles looking for a job similar to what I had at Twin Bridges, but to no avail.  In the meantime I picked up some pin money doing a few kid care jobs. Because I was an adult and had my own vehicle it wasn't necessary for parents to be picking me up and driving me home once they returned.  First up I looked after the baby daughter of Ed and Lorna Davidson. They just lived down the road from Frank and Lyn and when I was done I was home again in five minutes.  I also stayed at the Aldinger Farm when they went away .  They had three kids and all were well behaved and they paid well.  They had me stay there once  when they had a German niece  visiting at the same time.  I was just needed to drive everyone to town sometimes. She did not speak English.  The third family were the Morgans.  He had two daughters and one was handicapped.  She could not speak, but sign language worked well.  I even took Kathy out for a ride on Trouble.  Ever the optimist I had her up and riding before I even thought about her balance problem.  At times she would lean dangerously but we always got her straightened up again.  This was long before I knew anything about therapeutic riding and that you should have several side-walkers etc. in order to be safe. Trouble didn't seem to mind and we got away with it that time anyway.
   At some point Fred Aldinger was driving my brother and I somewhere and turned and asked me what I was going to do for work.  The man made me nervous and for some foolish reason I told him I thought I would be a hippy!  Well WRONG answer for sure!  Lucky for me,  they really needed a farm hand and the next thing I knew his wife phoned and asked me out for coffee. I rode Trouble out there and  before I left I had a job.  It included a small cabin to stay in and it was okay to have my dogs and Trouble there as well.
   And so I abandoned my little tent-house in favour of an actual log cabin and I loved it!   The job did not pay a lot of money but in the beginning I was getting board as well and the meals were great!  The Aldingers ran about 150 head of cattle and also had an Arabian Stallion on the place and a few mares as well. The men worked at their sawmill and usually there was only the wife, Irma and I on the farm.  Although Fred was not a large man he had a "big man demeanor" and I was slightly afraid of him for some reason.  He would give me my orders every morning and many times they consisted of about ten different things.  I would remember the first ant ht last thing and in between stuff had to come to me during the day or simply did not get done! He also explained that he would like me to help the kids with their riding and to ride the Stallion whenever I could. Oh Boy! Another dream about to come true!  Well that dream didn't really have a silver lining.  My first ride on Bedowi came about when he escaped and was out past Fletcher Creek.  Fred handed me his bridle and told me to walk out and bring him back.  The bridle had a snaffle bit

and I wondered at that as it was just a training bit. But what did I know? maybe this horse was really well-trained? NOT! I caught the horse easily enough and headed for home and he took off at a rapid pace. I suspect that is how Fred rode him- one speed!  When I got him home Fred asked me how I liked the Stallion and I replied that the only way you could stop him was with a strong right arm!  As a matter of fact
when I first got on the horse I looked at the thickness of his neck and wondered if both my arms were strong enough.
He was well built, stocky and strong, but basically mild mannered for a stallion.  I would ride this horse a lot and felt the power of him was akin to a D8 cat!  I remember a group ride I took him on and Frank asking why I had ridden him!  I replied that if he acted up I would go home but Bedowi was a total gentleman on the ride and we did the whole thing.

    My duties were many and varied. Sometime I would be moving cattle or doctoring belly buttons on new calves.  This consisted of daubing their belly buttons with iodine to prevent infection.  Sometimes the Momma cows didn't mind and at other times they did and you had to be quick.  Taking Chubby with me was a big mistake.  In the middle of the field all the cows started to surround me.  What did I know?  Fred was in his truck up on the highway and I well remember he stopped and hollered at me to get my blankety blank dogs

out of there! OH! That was the problem.  I had acquired a purebred Lab named Billy from the Morgans and two dogs were just too much for those Momma cows who were being protective of the calves. Thereafter the dogs had to learn to stay at the cabin and wait for my return.  This was when the dogs learned a new command - GIT! Chubby for sure picked up on that and it was often heard around the farm "Chubby Git" And he knew to git out of there.

   About this time the Aldingers had acquired another farm and they intended to keep the cattle out there at times.  I spent many hours picking rocks and roots on what would later be called the Lofsted farm. A long cow barn was put up and it would house hay as well as the cows.
   I still was no better at driving tractor than I was at Twin Bridges but one day Fred told me to take the tractor out to the mill and change the oil and the filter.  Off I went but I had no idea how to do all that. Lucky for me Allen Dungate the mill mechanic was not too busy when I arrived at the mill. I told him I didn't even know where the filter or the oil was and he stepped in and did it for me.
   The next time I had to take a machine out to the Mill though I was not so lucky.  I did get a bit of instruction from Fred.  A little wire was the choke and he showed me the gears and then said it didn't have any brakes.  Was I really foolish enough to think I didn't need them?  I drove down the highway and at the first little hill on the back road, did realize I was in too high a gear but when I tried to gear down I missed it and was now in neutral going backward much faster than I wanted to go!  This orange tractor was a kind of a loader they used in the Mill and it had forks on the front for carrying logs and behind the drivers seat were

all sorts of heavy scrap metal pieces to keep the back end down.  I was now going over large boulders at the side of the road and these metal pieces were jumping about in the air and I thought surely I was going to meet my maker right smartly! However, I turned the wheel and the machine hit the bank and the forks dropped and my wild ride came to an abrupt halt.  I had learned a new lesson. When you had no brakes you used the forks! Oh I wished Fred had told me that before I left!  I took a few minutes to get my breath back and took the machine out to the Cow barn.  I eventually mastered the use of this orange beast and used it to move the ties around to different parts of the corrals I was building.
   But the story of this machine does not end there.  Some time later I was returning to the cow barn after lunch and met a fellow running along the road toward the mill.  I stopped and asked him what was up.  He had intentions of getting to the mill to tell them about this horrible orange machine and what had happened to him.  I twigged right away and told him to get in.  Shutting the mill down was never appreciated and I knew exactly what had happened with the orange machine!  I got out and drove the orange beast and Chris drove my car back to the cow barn.  I was getting good at picking up the ties and had a lovely load on when  Chris appeared again and asked to drive the orange beast to prove he wasn't afraid of it.  No sweat! So I hopped off and let Chris drive.  The machine had kind of a hold back and would slow it down when going down a hill but you had to wait for it.  I guess Chris didn't know that and when it started to pick up speed he dropped the forks to stop and jumped off again.  So much for my lovely load and I could start all over again picking them up.

Going for Trouble

  Having had the biscuit (so to speak) with Franks horses, our next project was to go to Calgary to get Trouble. That was fine by me as I had been missing him and wanted to have him out in B.C. A trip to Calgary was always filled with visits to the folks and Lyn's parents lived not too far out of Calgary as well.
When we were ready to go home we went out to the pasture where Trouble had been boarded. There were a lot of horses out there and I wondered for a moment how I would find him and how much he had changed in six months.  The easiest way of course would be to whistle for him as I always had and I have never been so proud of him as when he came right out of the herd!  Wow almost like Fury in the movies!

  We had no horse trailer and even the racks on the back of the truck were a bit iffy.  There also was no bank easily accessible to back up to for easy loading. Frank, ever the haywire cowboy, decided the horse could just jump in from the ground.  Well it is possible and that crazy Pronto did it all the time but my young horse??  Oh  ye of little faith! Be damned if Trouble didn't give it a good try but it wasn't clean and he stumbled and hit his knees and my heart had another squeeze of the worried kind. Here I began being a worried Momma for sure and all the way home I continued to worry.  An Alberta storm came up with heavy rain and finally hail! But Frank simply pulled under an overpass and we waited it out.  it seemed a very long trip home indeed! In the end I have to say Trouble rode like a trooper, although he had never been hauled before and I was happy to get him home in one piece and happy to have him with me.

  Now many "firsts" began for Trouble as well as me.  This flat land horse did well in Alberta but B.C. was a lot different.  Riding down the back road, we startled a herd of deer and they "popped" their white tails and poor Trouble didn't know what to make of that.  Then too he had never been ridden on roads with vehicles coming by but eventually he got used to many things and seemed to be a good horse to ride and I enjoyed him a lot.

    Never one to sit still for long, the next thing Frank decided we should do is ride up to Kokanee Glacier. Oh boy, now we would really get to see the mountains!  We went with several other riders, mostly Herb Thompson's family that were almost all teenagers.  My niece Kelly came along on her pony Sugar, Frank rode Big Red of course and I had Trouble.  All our sleeping gear and tents were put in Herbs one ton truck and  his wife Fay drove it up.  One other fellow came with us on a grey horse named Toby, this was Johnny Command and although not well-versed in horses he seemed capable enough.  It was a long ride right from town for all of us.

   Eventually however, we reached the real start of the road leading up to the Glacier.  The trees were huge and thick by the sides of the road and the smell of the air different from down below.  It seemed to get fresher and fresher as we got higher.  There was good camaraderie among all riders and it was an enjoyable ride but we had to push it a bit to get to our campsite before dark.  When we arrived, Fay had camp all set up.  I had not camped out a lot at all but the Thompson family were experienced campers for sure.  We soon had our tents set up and sat down to a good hearty supper of Fays' Hamburger stew and buns.  it  was filling and tasted as good as any meal I have ever eaten. When we went to bed that night a small problem arose.  Johnny was in our tent and decided he wanted Kelly's pillow,which she was not about to part with and it was her pillow after all. Throughout the night Johnny would attempt to steal said pillow and Kelly would squawk and hang on tight. He never did get it!

    We had tied our horses to trees for the night and I was pleased to see Trouble had done alright with that. After a good breakfast we started up the actual Glacier trail.  I soon began to wonder at taking a prairie horse into the mountains.  Trouble seemed to think that as long as his left two legs were close the side of the mountain the other two could dangle off into space!  The distance to the bottom was breath-taking and I was sure if he went over we could not be able to rescue him if he did survive the fall. This would be helicopter work! But I was a prairie chicken as well (heavy on the chicken) and the heights were something new and scary at times.
   When we came to our first dead fall on the trail, Johnny proved to be a lazy rider. He simply tied the reins up and left his horse to judge how to get over it.  Toby gave it a good try but cut his ankle in the process. It was spurting blood and we all decided Johnny would have to take Toby back to Fay and she would doctor it.  So there went this big strong logger back down to the trail head.  Every so often he must have looked at the wound and not being able to tolerate the sight of blood very well would be dry heaving all the way! The sound carried back to us and we laughed every time.When he got to Fay she simply slapped flour on the wound an bound it with a neckerchief and the bleeding soon stopped.
   The rest of us continued on and I learned that in really steep places (wasn't it all that way?) you had to let your horse follow the horse in front of you and hang onto your horses tail! Oh yeah? and what if the horse kicked back?? But in truth the horses were much too busy to be kicking anyone and just worked their way up. Thank goodness horses are herd animals and stick together and follow so well!
   Once again I found myself trying to reason that neither my brother or Herb (who was a forest ranger) would take me somewhere I could be killed? But that possibility looked very possible sometimes! I also learned slick-soled cowboy boots were not the best footwear in the mountains and thereafter would have treaded soles put on my boots by the shoemaker. I often slipped and slid backwards. Fortunately the horses were shod with toe and heel shoes for better grip.
   Even the very last bit of trail was difficult with a huge boulder to negotiate! But what an exhilarating sight to come out at the top--similar to being on top of the world!! You could see for many miles and there were lots more mountains for sure and all looked different in some way or the other. It was very still and quiet and I am sure the horses enjoyed walking on soft grasses and a flat trail for a change.  We ambled around and went to the cabin we knew was there but all too soon we had to go back down again or get caught up here in the dark. But after such a hard climb is seemed a shame not to be able to linger a bit longer.

   Much as I love living in B.C., its true that everything is either up or down.  If you go up sooner or later you have to go down again and vice-versa of course.  And so we checked our cinches and started down again.  Down is hard on the knees and Herb knew it was hard on the horses as well and would call a rest every so often.  I was always up for that! Without any further incidents we arrived back at camp. Fay had supper cooked and again it tasted like fruit of the Gods! Was I hungry!

Johnny received a lot of teasing with his dry heaves that had echoed up the mountain and we sat around the fire hashing over our good day of riding, but not for long. It had been a tiring day and it was not long before we were all in bed snoring and sleeping the tired off.
   The next day was great weather once again and we packed up camp and got Fay headed down the road first and then followed on  our horses. I was pretty proud of my prairie horse and when we reached the bottom of the Glacier road everyone started loading their horses in trucks. There wasn't room for Trouble and although a young lad offered to ride him home I declined his offer and rode the rest of the way by myself
and at one point picked up Chubby to give him a rest as well.  It had been a marvellous trip when I thought about it and I looked forward to more but just not right away?  We had our first mountain trip under out belt and had survived. Could it get any better?