Welcome to our page of pictures and video that 

show some of the interesting life we had growing

 up on a farm in Manitoba, Canada and different 

events in the life of My Precious Sweetheart of 

45 years, bringing us down to our present

 location in the mountains of British Columbia 

along the mighty Fraser River !  I am now 71 

and praising My Heavenly Father for all these 

years of life with it's blessings and trials for 

He is loving and kind to all men, even those 

who  do not love Him !


This will be  "under construction" for some 

time so check back often to see what is new !

My Parents, Philip & Hazel Weber, were married

 in the little village of Bellsite on July 4, 1941.   

 I was born October 5, 1942 in the Swan River

hospital which was 42 miles from Bellsite, the

first of five in total.

This map will show the area of Manitoba in which 

the first 20 years of my life brought many

happy moments !



 War was raging in 

Europe and Dad spent several years in the 

Canadian Army.  After his discharge we moved 

to a little 1/4 section of land that was all bush 

and trees and Dad built a neat little cabin for 

his family and a shelter for our horses.  

He cleared a garden space and worked hard 

to keep us all warm and fed.

    

 This is the neat little cabin with me and my 

Sister Marge standing outside the door.  The 

picture on the right is Marge and our little 

cousin Diane.  By the time we moved to this 

place, our brother "Ken" had been born also 

and was about three years old.


We had such an interesting time growing up 

with our Dear Christian Parents that it truly would

 take a large book to tell it all !  I shall ever be 

thankful that they taught us to have faith in God

 and His Son Jesus Christ as our Savior from the 

time we were born. There was no Lutheran Church 

in the village, but a minster did come once in 

a while and we also would attend other 

protestant meetings from time to time.  Giving 

a child faith and love for the Great Creator God 

is the most precious blessing Parents can bestow 

upon their children !


One day while we were all busy doing our 

"own thing", we suddenly realized that 

Br. Ken had vanished !  Mother called and 

called and no answer as we all began to search. 

 A little path behind the cabin led to the "outhouse" 

about one hundred feet from there the forest 

opened up into a wild hay meadow.  Our dog Rover 

led us to the meadow where Ken was laying in 

the grass quiet as a mouse.


One day Dad was plowing the garden with the

 neighbors old tractor called a "Hart Parr".  It looked

 something like this one . 


These old tractors were a wonderful invention 

but some of the first engines were one cylinder 

and they made quite a frightening noise for 

children, especially little people like our 

brother Ken !


"Chooga- chooga- chooga - CHOOGA  BOOM " ! 

Ken took off  for the cabin in a stream of tears and screams of terror !


I had just turned 7 years and was going to 

the little country school house which was a

 daily walk of one and one quarter miles each

 way so we had a two and one half mile walk 

every day.  I really liked going to school and 

enjoyed the lessons and playing with the 

other children.  Our cousins lived one mile 

further from school and I would sometimes 

be at the corner at the right time to get a ride 

with them in the horse drawn four wheeled 

wagon called a "Democrat" .



Their Cousin, a boy called Arthur, lived even 

two miles further from school and rode each

 day on horseback !

Arthur and I were good Friends at school 

and would spend lunch time making whistles 

from young poplar trees in the spring and creating miniature farms and forts among the 

small trees next to the school fence.


During the winter My Dad and our neighbor cut 

cord-wood to earn the money for our daily needs. 

Cord-wood is trees that have been cut down and 

then cut into 8 ft. long pieces.  It is sold to the 

pulp mills for paper products. In those years a 

man could go to the forestry and get a permit 

for $2.00 and cut 22 cords of wood to sell. It 

was a real help for many people !  In the Spring 

from April to the end of June, when the sap was 

running good, we would peel the bark off the 

trees and get double the money for each cord.  

We got 22 dollars for a peeled cord and 

11 dollars not peeled. In the winter  Dad would 

haul un-peeled wood to town with the horses 

and load it on a train car.  In the summer, 

the peeled wood was shipped by truck.


My Dad's Name was "Philip" which means a, 

"lover of horses" and it was true of Dad.  

Here are a few pictures. 




   One day my Dad and our Neighbor each took 

a load of cord wood to town to load on the rail car. 

 Spring was coming and the tree bark that had 

fallen into the snow during the winter was now 

covering the snow making it harder for the horses 

to pull up along side the train car.


Our neighbor had a large team of "Clydes" while Dad's horses were much smaller. As soon as our neighbor's  team and sleigh hit the tree bark his horses stopped .  Once stopped he could not get them going forward again.  Dad said, "Unhook your team and

 I'll pull it into place for you". "Philip", he replied, 

"Are you saying that your ponies are going to move 

this load and my Clydes can not move it" ! "Well", 

Dad said, "Unhook your horses and we will find out."


So Reg unhooked his team and Dad hooked on with 

our much smaller team. Dad then swung his team

 hard to the left thus loosening the front runners 

of the sleigh.  He then called out the name of

 the one horse with a little slap of the lines on 

his rump.  This got the load moving and then 

Dad quickly swung to the right bringing 

the sleigh parallel with the train car and never said "Whoa" until the sleigh was in the correct position !


It was beautiful to watch my Dad in action with 

horses !  He really did love them with great 

respect for their beauty and their ability when 

properly handled !  We had so much fun and also

 a lot of work was done with our horses.



Another time when I was twelve years old, I was 

working with my Dad and Uncle Joe in the early 

summer taking out 8 ft. cord wood.  The wood 

had been peeled for a few days so the outside 

was dry because when first peeled it is like 

a slippery fish !  I was riding the horse which was

 harnessed as you see in this picture, only the 

horse was almost white.  The horse was pulling 

a log about the size you see in this picture, 

however we were back in the bush and there 

were lots of stumps around from the trees 

we had cut down.  Well, we were going between 

two stumps and there was an old log laying 

across them.  The horse stepped over the log, but 

as soon as the log he was pulling came against it,  

he stopped.  Dad was near by and he said, "What

 did you stop for" ?  I said, "There is an old log in 

the way. "  Well, dad just came up to the horse,

 give him a slap on the rump and shouted, 

"Barney" !  Well Barney made a jump forward, 

the old log busted and out we went to the

 open field where we were piling the logs for 

the truck  to pick them up ! I was 12 years old 

at the time this was happening.


One of my Mom's Sisters, who was also  

Uncle Joe's wife and I were also peeling a lot 

of the trees.  We got ten cents a tree for the 

smaller ones and a few cents more for the bigger 

ones.  They looked just like this when peeled :


  


That was 59 years ago.  My life has taken 

me many different places, but Arthur stayed on 

his Dad's farm all these years.  After many years 

of no contact at all, I called him a few months ago 

and he was selling the farm and moving closer 

to town.  It was really nice to hear his voice after 

so many years and to know he is still able to 

enjoy his days !  


We lived on that quarter of land for one year 

and then moved into the village while my dad 

went to work for a logging company about ten 

miles from home.  He had no car or truck and 

so wold stay a couple of weeks at a time in the 

bush and then come home for a week-end.  


When I was eight, we then moved to a farm 

which was two miles from the village and there 

we were for 18 years.  But before we share all 

the good times and trials of that period in our 

life, we need to back up and tell about our life 

in a little village near the Manitoba - 

Saskatchewan border, called, "Westgate".  

Here My Dad also worked for a logging and 

saw mill company.


Westgate was just a small village but the

saw mill was quite big and produced a lot

of lumber.  Dad was mostly in charge of the

bush crew, falling and hauling the logs a

couple of miles into town.  This time the horses

were in the bush pulling out the logs to a small

open place and loaded unto big sleighs and

another man would come with a small 

crawler tractor and pull the loaded sleighs

into the mill.


One day they had the first sleigh loaded and 

needed to pull it forward to be able to load 

the next sleigh.  Dad asked the man driving

the team of horses to hook on and move the

sleigh forward which he did, but when he

said "gid up" the sleigh did not move.  He

said to Dad, "They can't move this sleigh".

Dad said,  "O' yes they can, swing .the team

to the left".  This done Dad slapped the one

horse on her rump and hollered "June" !

Immediately the horsed jumped forward with

the sleigh behind them. 


The teamster forgot that the sleigh runners

had frozen into the snow so when Dad told

him to swing the team to the left the sleigh

runners broke free and the horses pulled

the load with no problem !


 

This picture is not the exact team but this is

how it looked in the bush where they were

logging and this is how they loaded the logs

on the sleigh.

Then the crawler would come and take two

sleighs at a time to the mill.  I remember 

watching out the window every day as the

load of logs came from the bush. The

road went right by our window that went

to the saw mill.


I remember one day when my Mom's younger 

sister was visiting us and she was going to

get something out of the attic and as soon

as she pushed up the door to the attic she was 

attacked by a swarm of yellow jacket hornets !

She really got stung bad.


There was a couple of strange families living 

in the village and they both had goats.  The 

goats like to climb up on top of cars, anybodies

car so that was not to good for having peace

with their neighbors !


We then moved back to Bellsite and lived in 

a little cabin two miles East of the village. That

was a neat little place.  The drinking water 

was excellent and we grew some garden things

also.  I remember in the evening as we would

go to bed the birds singing their evening hymn

to their Creator !  My Mother's brothers and

sisters would often come to visit and we

all would go fishing together at Swan Lake

which was about 7 miles East of our cabin.

In the Springtime when the Pickerel and Jackfish

headed up the small creeks to spawn we would

make snares from brass wire and catch them.

We also would use a .22 rifle.  Dad would stand 

a ways up stream and I a little ways from him

down stream and as the fish he shot floated

by I would toss them out on the bank !  We

have since become vegetarians, but at  that

time we did not have a knowledge of diet

God has given in The Scripture, but we are

very thankful that we have become vegetarians

with all the hormones and diseases now 

plaguing all the clean animals which were

once ok to eat if properly prepared.  There

is no safe flesh of any kind today !


RENTING UNCLE ERNIE'S FARM


One of My Dad's older brothers was farming

the land on which the little cabin was located,

plus two other quarters that were just 

across the road.  Dad's brother decided to move

to B.C. and we were able to rent the land from

the owner, Mr. Ernie Biggham. He was a veteran 

of world war one.  He had married in France

after the war but his wife died from the flu

that overtook much of Europe just after the

war, so he was a bachelor.


We rented his farm for about ten years and then

he died of cancer.  He was such a kind and good 

man.  He adopted us as his family and we loved

him as part of the family.  We called him,

Uncle Ernie


We had so many good times together on that

farm and we were all very sad when Uncle Ernie

died about 18 years later.  The many happenings 

I am going to share now, I do not remember 

their exact order, but we surely had a lot of

 interesting moments, some trials, but many

 delightful moments as we grew up together 

with our Dear Parents

who were so good to us children.  We learned to

work in garden and field and spent many happy

hours picking the various kinds of wild fruit

so wonderfully supplied by our Kind Heavenly

Father !


This was one of our favorite spots on the 

farm.  It was just across from our house

which is to the left of the picture.  There is a

little ravine that separates the house yard 

from this spot. There were wild hazel nuts

down this little lane and over to the right

and East of this picture was one of our garden

spots.  This picture is looking West towards

a little range of mountains of 2700 ft. elevation,

called the Porcupine Mountains.  Along the base

of this mountain was an area we all called the,

Sand Flats.  Wild Strawberries, Blue Berries and 

Saskatoons grew in abundance and we would

have a delightful time together !  Mom and us

children would pick with in sight of the wagon

but Dad would disappear into the pines and 

come back in a couple of hours with his pail

full of blue berries.  When we got  back home

we would sit round the table, pour a few berries

into a dinner plate and take out the little sticks,

leaves and bugs !  Mom always did a lot of

canning in glass jars for winter !  My Sweetheart

and I still do the same.


RENOVATIONS !


The house we first lived in on Uncle Ernie's

Farm, was a nice old house.  It had been there

for a number of years and the log foundation

need to be replaced and other things, so Dad

decided to tear it down board by board and 

completely rebuild it.  We helped pull the nails 

and every good nail and every good board

was saved for the new house that would

be built.


When the old house was down, Dad went

to the forest and brought home three or four

big logs the full length that the new house 

would be.  We had no cement, these logs

were the foundation ! Dad dug a cellar and

placed the logs in position and the laying 

of the floor began !  It was very exciting for

we children !  It was like going camping as

we lived in a couple of small granaries while

this renovation was taking place.


This was in the month of June and we were

all looking forward to August when the fourth

baby was to arrive !  One day mom was making

some bread and for some reason she decided

to walk by the cellar  excavation with her

flour mix in the bread pan.  As she walked past

the cellar she stepped too close, the bank was

soft and down she went pan and baby and all !

She wasn't hurt at all so she just sat there in

 the dirt and laughed and laughed !

Soon the "new-old" house was finished, this 

is a picture in the winter when I was visiting

my parents.  By this time I was twenty years

old and was working in Winnipeg for Canada

Carbon and Ribbon Company.  They sold  carbon

paper and typewriter ribbons.  I was shipper

and receiver and delivery man .  


The "fast back" Chevy in the picture, was

my second car.  It was real good when I

bought it, but one day I left it at the garage

where I bought most of my gas for an "oil change".

Well, that weekend we went fishing at the

Seven Sisters dam about 150 miles from

Winnipeg.  We had a great time, but on

the way home the car suddenly lost oil pressure

and the connecting rod started clicking. I

shut off the engine pulled over to the side

of the highway and looked underneath, the

oil plan plug had fallen out !  Obviously

the mechanic at the garage had forgotten

to tighten it !  So  we filled it up with oil

and of course it had the "click, click, click"

that was not supposed to be there but i

actually drove a lot of miles before trading

it off on an old Doge 1 ton truck !

 

   The year we built the "new - old house", August

brought the Family a Wee Baby Girl who was

given the name of "Francis" !  What a delight

she was !


 

We even had running water but we had to run

to the well with a bucket to get it !  The water

in the well was excellent and was also our

refrigerator for the milk and butter.


We had about 20 - 30 head of cattle and four

horses.  A bunch of chickens and some pigs.

We planted a garden and Uncle Ernie planted

a beautiful garden and Mom canned for him

and for us.  She always baked bread for him

and did his laundry.  His garden was where an

old barn had stood and did it ever produce

great veggies and strawberries.  Wild raspberries,

choke cherries and cranberries grew close by

and Mom would make choke cherry and cranberry

syrup.


IT'S A BEAR !


Black bears are seen all across Canada

and we had our share of them in Manitoba.

One day we were all in the garden hoeing

and pulling weeds when we heard a noise 

coming from the trail that led down into a ravine

that was on the edge of the garden. Suddenly

a bear poked his head over the top and Mom

shouted, "Run  kids run to the house' and to

me she said, "Rich run down to Uncle Ernies

and tell him to come with the rifle.  Away

I went and in about 15 minutes we were back

with Uncle Ernie and his gun.  Our faithful dog,

Rover had chased the bear up a tree so it

was an easy shot to put him to rest !


Another time we were out by some large trees

having a picnic lunch and Dad looked up and

there was a big black bear standing by the 

house looking in the window. Well, the 30-30

was in the shop not far from where the bear

was standing. but he bullets were in the house.

When dad got the gun out of the shop and walked 

towards the bear hollering at him to back off,

the bear went about 40 feet from the house

and stopped. Dad was able to get into the house

for the ammo and came out and shot the 

intruder !  We called the neighbours who liked

to eat bear meat and they came and took 

away the carcass.


One stormy night night dad woke up and heard

the new born calf that was resting in the hay

corral next to the barn calling for help.  Dad got

dressed took the lantern and headed for the barn.

When he reached the corral fence where he knew

the calf was he surprised a big black bear

who was killing the poor little calf. Dad hollered

at him and he took off over the fence on the

other side.  The bear had cruelly torn the

little calf with his big claws and it was too late

to save him !  


Today we have a generation of "bear huggers"

who think more of the bears than of their own

safety and well being of other humans !  This is

nonsense.  If a bear wanders into the village

or public park, he needs to be dealt with pronto !

There are way to many of these creatures

on the loose !  We hear of more and more

people being attacked by bears !