by Elaine Thomas | 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 can recite some of their stories from memories. Bob, my oldest brother, has been interested in...
by Elaine Thomas | 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 Thomas | Apr 1, 2021 | Family, Rural Life
I’m embarrassed to admit I visited the animal shelter so often that I know some of the dogs awaiting adoption recognized me. Yet, Emil and I hadn’t felt a connection, that inexplicable spark convincing us a certain dog had been waiting just for us. In the last...
by Elaine Thomas | Mar 19, 2021 | Family
When the fierce February winter storm of 2021 named Uri 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...
by Elaine Thomas | Feb 19, 2021 | Family, Old Times, Rural Life, Saving Stories, Western Canada
I was in the second grade that long-ago February morning in the Alberta foothills when Old Man Winter had such a fierce grip on our farm. 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...
by Elaine Thomas | 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...
