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Chapter 9: Life in a Shanty
Once more the wagon was packed & we took a farewell look at the little town & turning northward we came to a pretty wood & then to a steep hill, our load was now really a heavy one & the oxen could not draw it up, for an hour & a half we were using every effort & artifice to gain the top. Twice I thought the wagon & its contents must be precipitated into the river below, my sister too was thoroughly tired with taking charge of the cow, as we were amongst the trees the mosquitoes were tormenting them both & the poor animal kept trying to rush into the bushes. Just as we were despairing of ever going further a young man came down the hill, & seeing our dilemma, he offered to help & also advised our leaving 3 boxes by the road-side, assuring us they would be quite safe, so this we did & thanks to him reached the top, of the hill & continued our journey. When we had gone 2 miles we stopped beside a large lake to have dinner & for 2 hours lazily enjoyed the sunshine & flowers. Few of the birds sing in this country & it is one of the things I missed very much at first. In the lovely early mornings it seemed strange not to hear the warble of our many songsters. Near our tent for the last month a whip-poor-will had uttered his plaintive cry every night, but this we should hear no more, there were many robins, these are as large as the English thrush but their pale red breasts are not nearly so pretty as our little friends at home & I never heard them attempt to sing. The Tom Tits & crows are just the same as those in England, the other birds though many of them were called by the same name, are very different in appearance. It was 3 o'clock when we again continued our journey, & the next few miles were over uncultivated hills, & we saw only one man ploughing in the distance, it was 7 o'clock before we came in sight of a house, after passing that, we saw several others & instead of the grassy hills we had to walk through tiny willow bushes, & wild peas & vetches intermixed with flowers which were growing most luxuriantly. One of our future neighbours had kindly asked us to remain at his house that night, it being 5 miles further to the shanty which was to be our home for the next few months. This was our first introduction to a log house & its inmates, it was about 18 feet square & white washed inside, looking very like a cottager's home in England, the upstairs had to be reached by a ladder & the flooring was very imperfect, these settlers had come out 2 years ago this spring when there was no saw mill & it was impossible to obtain lumber. They had 50 acres of land broken & were preparing to build a new house. They had come from Ontario & we found them most kind, but seeing their accommodation so limited I suggested having our tent put up, but this they would not hear of & at once prepared us a substantial tea, the children being tired we soon went to bed, but the mosquitoes were very troublesome & I was not sorry when the morning came, we were up early & as my husband was returning for the remainder of our boxes, our host volunteered to drive us to the shanty with his pair of fine horses where he & others were going with the owner to put down a floor, it being in an unfinished state. At 7 o'clock we started & when we came in sight of our future residence, the children shouted "Its a house, Its a house" in the greatest of glee, as if they had never lived in one before. To our English eyes it looked like a barn. It was 14 feet by 16 feet with two small windows, still we had cause to be very thankful to live in it, & it was considerably better than many of the bachelor's shanties put up at that time, & many families had to live in worse when they first came out, as an old lady said "They had eaten the brown bread, & we were come to share the white". After getting our tent pitched we began to wonder how we could employ the hours of such a long day, the sun became very powerful, making the tent unbearable the large flies called "bulldogs" were most trying, also the mosquitoes, for the scrub had not been trodden down, & they seemed to be wherever we went, at last my sister took her book to the hay stack & was undisturbed for sometime, when she felt something creeping on her arm, it was a small snake, in an instant she had thrown it off & on getting someone to kill it, we found several others, but we were assured they were harmless. It was not until late that evening that my husband came, he had been to Minnedosa & brought our stove of which I was very glad, there being no bakery at h& now, & our cooking for the past 6 weeks had all to be done in the frying pan & camp kettle, so that a change was most acceptable. The boxes too he had found where he left them but best of all he had brought our mail, nearly 60 letters & newspapers. This was the first news we had received since leaving home in April & now it was the 16th of July. Oh! How eagerly we read those precious letters it was not until after midnight that we settled to sleep. The next day we set up the stove & arranged the things in the shanty, there being no upstair story we continued to use the tent at night. Our table had to be 2 boxes placed one on the other, seats we had none expecting one or two small boxes neither had we shelves or cupboards of any kind. Every evening we had to make a "smudge" before the door of the house, as smoke is the only thing to keep away the mosquitoes, another in front of the tent & a large one for the cattle. This is generally made up about 4 o'clock & they come home to it directly the mosquitoes torment them & it continues smoking until the morning if properly made. The first Sunday we had our service at 11 o'clock & I am glad to say we have rarely omitted it during the past 12 months. At first it most painfully recalled our entire separation from our friends, now we feel it draws us nearer to those who have a few hours before united in the same prayers, for I believe we are about 3 hours behind England. The next morning we began real work, my husband went mowing while my sister & I commenced washing, laundresses are scarce in this country & their charge is a dollar a dozen so we had not patronized them & it was under difficulties that we had to do it ourselves. It was 2 months since we left Lakefield so it was a formidable business, without a washing machine or wringer & the water was nearly the colour of weak tea, but after our desultory life we felt glad of employment & with the help of the invaluable little American washing board, which cost only 25 cents at Winnipeg & a shilling in England we completed our task. The following Monday my sister began taking the children to their lessons every morning & afternoon this was the greatest kindness on her part as it was impossible for them to get any other education there being no school yet established in this settlement & they were quite tired of doing nothing, nothing but play & read so we divided the room by a curtain & they were thus able to continue their studies without interruption. With bread making I was not at first very successful as the stove was put up out of doors & when at all windy I had great difficulty in getting it to rise properly, so the next time my husband & sister went to Minnedosa, they brought sufficient piping to put it up inside the house which was a great improvement. They also bought 3 chairs, the first I had seen in the North West. By this time we had another cow, so I was able to make some butter & this with bread formed our chief diet, the ducks were not yet in season & we were tired of all salt pork the only attainable meat during the summer excepting the tinned fish & meats kept at all the stores. Cheese was remarkably dear & not often to be obtained even at 25 cents per lb. We were disappointed too at having no fruit, so many had told us how very plentiful it was the year before especially the strawberries which you could not cross the prairie without treading on. The end of July my husband hired a man for a month to help him get the logs for our house & finish the hay-making. He was fortunate in finding large enough logs near to where he intended building & one day took us all in the wagon to choose a suitable site. We were agreeably surprised to see such pretty extensive views from the spot we decided on. The wild peas & vetches were more luxuriant now, than when we came from Minnedosa, they were as high as the childrens heads, so that we could not walk much, from the wagon we could see several houses & the trees of Minnedosa in the distance, further North there appeared nothing but woods but these are deceptive & getting close you find only what we should call plantations of moderate sized Poplar & Birch trees, with occasionally a Spruce though these are scarely noticeable until the winter when their pretty dark green looks bright & cheerful amongst their bare leafless companions. It seems curious that in this intensive country there should be no forest trees, such a complete contrast to Ontario & Quebec & the many settlers who have come from the former province miss the maple syrup & sugar to which they have always been accustomed. Many parts of the Prairie are covered with tiny rose bushes which bloom during this month. They are very sweet scented, but the blossoms are single resembling the old fashioned monthly rose, this was the only flower we noticed with any perfume, like the birds their brilliant colours are their chief attraction, just at this time we saw several wild canaries but the summer was too cold a one to induce then to stay long.
August 17th we had our house raising. It was a lovely day & 8 of the neighbours arrived about nine o'clock, two of them bringing their wives, who had kindly promised us their help in the domestic arrangements it all being so new to us. The men at once proceeded to the place where the foundation of the house had been laid the week before, at 12 o'clock we took their dinner to them, it was nearly a mile to walk, which with a huge kettle of tea, baskets of provisions & the necessary cups & plates we found far enough, my arms ached for days after although I had the lightest load of any. Nearly all the people who live near us came from Ontario & were blacksmiths, carpenters, or some trade, but whatever their business they are all good axemen & it was interesting to watch them. Four took the corners while the others raised the logs as they were wanted & when the building was several feet high, I could not help admiring the clever way in which they stood on the logs & chopped with as much once as when on the ground. Each log is let into the one below it, dovetail is I believe the correct term, the houses are made with a gable at each end & a ridge pole across, they look simple & in character with the country, but when well finished are warm & comfortable, no one looking at these unpretending buildings for the first time would realize the amount of labour that has to be bestowed on them. After the raising, the gable ends have to be put in & the space between each log filled as much as possible with pieces of wood, next the rafters have to be peeled & fastened on & the roof has to have a thick coat of lime & sand or mud laid on it before it is thatched or the wind blows through it in the winter, a shingle roof is such the best but is expensive & the journeys to & from the saw-mill are a consideration when the roads are bad. When the doors & windows are cut, the house has to be well plastered inside & out, a most tedious business to an inexperienced hand, consequently it was not until two months later that we were able to move into "The Cedars" so called from the little trees we brought from Lakefield which were looking green & healthy.
Of our neighbours after the raising we saw but little, everyone being too busy to visit their friends, excepting on Sunday & once in September just before dinner we saw the owner of the shanty & two young ladies driving up, there was no service that day so they had come to pay us a long promised visit, this increased our number to 10 & looking at our miniature table I felt puzzled how to manage, but suggested that they might like to walk with my sister & husband to where our house was being built, to this they gladly assented & left me to enlarge my table & the bill of fare, as we had only a couple of small ducks. The table perplexed me most until I thought of a door which had been bought for our house & laid across the beams, this I contrived to slide down & putting it on the boxes found it made a charming table. By the time our visitors returned all was in readiness & dinner passed off pleasantly. About 3 o'clock we saw others arriving two in this direction & 3 in that & soon afterwards 2 in another making 10 in all. How glad I felt I had a table for though our morning guests left before tea we were still 14, seven being bachelors who as some one jokingly remarked to my sister one day "are as plentiful as mosquitoes". The summer had not been as dry & warm as usual so that the corn looked very backward, & the wheat was not cut September 4th when a most severe frost came, this made everyone very anxious about the harvest & that week using unusually fine most of the grain was cut. The nights were now generally frosty & the mosquitoes were gone so that the cattle no longer came home to the "smudge" one night the cow did not come home to be milked neither could my husband find her, about 3 o'clock the next morning we heard her return, shaking her bell frantically, she ran round the house making the greatest possible noise until my husband was at last obliged to get up & perform his morning duty. Early in the autumn it was arranged for the Presbyterian & Methodist ministers to hold a service alternate Sundays about 5 miles from here, to the former we have gone when the roads were good enough, but the long walk took up so much of the day as well as being very tiring, that we were not very regular attendants. These services on the whole were well attended there being more members of the Presbyterian church than any other, a few with ourselves bemoan the absence of a church of England clergyman & hope soon that one will be appointed to reside at Minnedosa.
