Chapter 14

OUR HOMESTEAD SECTION

Our big trip was finished after 10,000 miles and 51 days but that wasn't the end of the holiday for us. We spent a week at home cleaning the camping gear and doing laundry and then packed up again and went north to the Peace River area which we had wanted to see for a long time. We had been told that it was possible to take up farm land in Alberta under the Homestead Act. This seemed too good to be true and we needed to check it out.

We drove north first to Edmonton, then to Valleyview, then to High Prairie, Slave Lake and back to Edmonton, where Reg visited the Lands Department to enquire about making application for a homestead section which is a section of farming land measuring a mile by a mile, or 640 acres. He was given a list of about 20 sections to inspect and choose from, should one of them appeal. We returned to Red Deer and Reg drove back to the Lesser Slave Lake area next morning on his quest.

As all Canada is divided into sections of a mile by a mile, each with its own number, the blocks were not hard to find. The boundaries of these sections are formed by roads. Travelling from east to west you cross a road every mile. While going in a north-south direction you meet a road every two miles. In those remote areas these tracks are not yet formed, so that you must count the miles on the mile gauge from the last crossroad. However, after covering 620 miles in the car that day, Reg settled on Section 8, Township No. 73, Range 13, West of the 5th Meridian. It was situated six miles due south of the French settlement of Joussard (population 150) which sits on the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake. The country is beautiful with a great variety of trees growing through a carpet of leaves 6 inches thick because many of the trees are deciduous. The terrain of the section was undulating with two small creeks flowing through the property. Access was by way of a forestry road which disappears into 60 miles of virgin bush to the south.

Reg slept in the car outside Edmonton that night and next morning paid $100 deposit with his application. He was told that he must clear 40 acres of land each year for the next 7 years and in the 8th year pay the first annual instalment of $350. The total price of the land is $7000 including interest. Loans are available at low interest and of course the usual tax concessions apply. We thought that having nine weeks of summer holiday a year would provide us with the ideal opportunity to practice a bit of fun farming without the necessity of making a living from it.

After Reg got home he was so excited about his acquisition that we all decided to go up and see it, so it was back into the car and head north again. After admiring the beautiful land we called in to see the nearest neighbour to check on some details and they insisted we stay for lunch – they put on a magnificent hot dinner for the eight of us without any warning. They were French Canadians from Quebec with several children of their own, and told us that most of the people around there were also French as we might have guessed from the name of the town, Joussard. They told us a lot about the environment – one of the things that made us prick up our ears was that bears are a real problem up there, especially grizzlies – they tear out the cows’ udders for the milk so that even though bears are protected in Canada the locals did at times resort to desperate measures. They would stake out a goat and hide; when the bear appeared, they would shoot it. Some years, they told us, it would be grizzlies – other years it would be black and brown bears, never both together.

The total mileage covered during that vacation was 12,000 miles and the following week it was back to school with Nick starting school that year also and Reg back at Innisfail High School with a new principal, Joe Stein from Winnipeg who turned out to be a dynamic innovator and an excellent person to work for. So the year passed pleasantly and the following summer Reg took off with the tent, his chain saw and his axe to clear the first 40 acres required by the contract of sale. By this time the children had all made friends in the district, most had bikes and could go independently to the swimming pool and the bus passed the door so we were all quite content to spend the summer at home.

After about six weeks Reg returned to Red Deer and suggested that we all go up to the section to camp for a week or two. Good idea thought everyone so we packed up the car once more and off we went. We pitched the tent (photo on left), cooked a meal, cleaned up and all settled down for the night. The silence was extraordinary and so was the darkness broken only by the full moon and the blazing stars. We all slept soundly until Marcus woke in the night and wanted to go outside to pee. When he returned a few minutes later he said `There’s somebody standing over there looking at me.’ `You’re dreaming Marcus’, I replied half asleep, `get back in your sleeping bag.’ I had just about dropped off to sleep again when there was an almighty crashing through the undergrowth right outside our tent. `What’s that?’ I whispered to Reg. `I think it must be a bear’ he said. Then of course I put two and two together. The somebody standing there looking at Marcus was a grizzly standing on its hind legs as they do and looking like a tall man.

Of course we didn’t have, and never have had, a gun. There was no point in trying to run for it with six sleepy kids, we would just be a target for anything out there. I think Reg went back to sleep but I just lay there all night petrified and at first light I was up making breakfast and packing up. `We’re going home’, I said tersely, `and we’re never bringing these children up here again.’ And we never did, and a year or so later we realised the futility of the endeavour and relinquished the land. It was disappointing for Reg as he had always wanted to farm but it wasn’t too long after that that we became aware of the fact that we could actually afford to buy land near Red Deer and then began the search for the right piece at the right price so that Reg could fulfil his lifelong dream of being a farmer.