by Elaine | Jul 2, 2021 | Family, Rural Life, Western Canada
If vintage farm tractors could talk, they’d tell great tales, according to Bob Taylor of Black Diamond, Alberta. He prizes every one of the 140 models he has collected and knows some of their stories. Let’s start at the beginning. (Full disclosure: Bob is my oldest...
by Elaine | Apr 16, 2021 | Family, Rural Life, Saving Stories, Western Canada
“Pretty postage stamps? Oh yes, this sheet of ‘Birds of Prey’ is especially nice,” the helpful postal office worker told me. “No birds,” I murmured. Glancing up, she did not comment, but I think she was wondering, “Who doesn’t like birds?” That would be me Before I...
by Elaine | Apr 1, 2021 | Family, Rural Life
I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve recently visited the animal shelter so often that I know some of the dogs awaiting adoption by name. Yet, Emil and I haven’t felt a connection, that inexplicable spark convincing us a certain dog has been waiting just for us. In the last...
by Elaine | Mar 19, 2021 | Family, Tips and Ideas
When the fierce February winter storm of 2021 spread a pristine coat of snow across San Antonio, Texas, a grand Victorian home on Guenther Street never looked more striking. Three years before, however, the house didn’t glow in the sunshine. Back then, the once...
by Elaine | Feb 19, 2021 | Family, Old Times, Rural Life, Saving Stories, Western Canada
Old Man Winter had a firm grip on that long ago February morning in the Alberta foothills. To walk the quarter mile uphill from our farmhouse to the main road where we’d catch the school bus, Mom had wrapped me in multiple layers Only a small slit across my eyes was...
by Elaine | Jan 15, 2021 | Family, Saving Stories
My sister Shirley and I love cats and always have. Years before she married Harvey, he and his mother gave Shirley a tabby kitten. Furious at being trapped and relocated, the little guy earned the name of Yowler. He’d been born and lived quite comfortably in Harvey’s...
