Nice service

I have just come home from a very pleasant opening service at St. Luke鈥檚 on the lake church.

It has been closed for a number of years and it was wonderful to have its doors open once more. There was a nice local group there with Pastor Al from the Grassy Plains delivering the message. A nice lunch was served before the service.

When we came to Francois Lake in 1941 St. Luke鈥檚 had been closed for a number of years and our dad and Rev. Atchinson got together and cleaned the building up and once more it up and started services. It gave me a wonderful feeling to see its doors open. Many thanks to the folks who went to work and got the church open. Everyone is welcome and you will enjoy it. There is lots of history contained in this building, now almost 100 years old. A special thanks to the folks who played for the singing, it was great.

Great weather

What a summer we are having at least so far. Lots of the farmers are done counting the round bales which will mean how many head they will be able to winter. Some big B trains of hay going out. I have heard the hay is going to China.

There big square bales must be worth a fortune when they get to there destination. I just wonder how many of the farmers will go into the hay business instead of the cattle.

Haying is expensive now will all the machinery that almost makes haying a business. This is now a far cry from our haying when I was growing up. Horses and a mower (a horse killer). After the cutting the hay was raked with horses, two bunched and hauled in by hand. Some folks had a bull rake or an overhead stacker which saved lots of hand work.

Then when we came to B.C. from the prairie they were still using horses here. In a few years the little Ford tractor came in with a mower, what an advancement for haying. Then the pull baler for square bales.

Things have improved so it鈥檚 now big business. I am very lucky to have seen it all. From the hand sythe, horse mower, then the tractor mower and now the heavy duty expensive machinery.

The old haying equipment is stored in a museum for us to remember the good old days. Although haying was hard work in those days it also could be fun. Our dad used to say a little hard work was good for a kid and I guess maybe it made us grow up a bit faster and kept us out of trouble.

With the modern machinery there are accidents and bad ones. During the years we had two neighbours killed in a hay baler and a few more we remember. Even when we were using the old horse machinery there was some bad ones. Back home one of our neighbours lost his foot with a runaway team of horses on a mower. Another lost all his fingers as he had not taken the mower out of gear and the team stepped up. Another friend had a runaway with a team on a hay rake, killed him. Yes, farming can be dangerous even in the old days.

UFO

There is a small notice in our local paper and I quote 鈥淯FO sightings sought.鈥� This is very interesting to me.

I will guess about 35 or 40 years ago my aunt and uncle Emily and Bert Ward were living in Prince Rupert and they saw a UFO circle the bay. It was very large and was well lit up. It was also silent.

Uncle Bert Ward was a marine surveyor so he was not some kind of a fly by night guy. A number of Prince Rupert folk also saw this thing. After it circled the bay it left without a sound. I wish now that I had paid more attention at the time.

This was in lots of the papers and I鈥檓 sure there will be an account somewhere. My mother was a reporter for the daily news and there must be an account in Mothers old writings.

Summer is moving on and so far it鈥檚 been a good one. It always seems just too short. Growing up back home we looked forward to the fall as the threshing was really so much excitement for a kid. Now it鈥檚 combines so the old threshing machine is a thing of the past.

Driving down some of the old side roads there would be the old machines rusting away. I well remember hauling bundles with a hay rack and a team of horses to the threshing machine. When I was a bit younger for a couple of years my team were always scared of going into the doors.

The last year on the prairie Dad put me on hauling grain to some neighbours, I enjoyed that. There was always a crew on the machine, sometimes 10 or more and the women had the job of cooking for the crew. They would help each other out for the meals. Dad always butchered a beef. These were all good times to look back one. Modern machinery has more or less taken over. I always wish our boys would have a chance to work on the old farm at threshing time. Not many of us old boys left to talk about those old days.

Eye surgery

I have to go to Terrace next week for a cataract operation July 31, so my news will be delayed so please bare with me for a while.

Southside

The Grassy Plains Blue Grass will have come and gone and I know it will have been a great time. They are having some high class entertainment this year for you to enjoy. This will be the first year out of many that I have never taken part. I have just had to slow down a bit.

I have an eye operation coming up this week so will try to write up the festival when I get back home again. Anyway it was great.

Big birthday

On Saturday afternoon there was a 90 birthday celebration for Alan Blackwell. The legion was packed with all Alan鈥檚 old friends. He has a wonderful life that no one can take away from him. I am very proud to say I am one of his old time friends. I wish you many more years Al, from your old friend Hugh.

Remember God loves you a great deal and so do I.