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.