Month: June 2023

Posted on

THE WILLOW ROW FARM

The original homesteaders of this property came to this land at the turn of the 19th century. The first official recording that they were the landowners is dated 1901. Owned originally by one of the brothers of this family, the first brother to own this land, William, turned the sod making it ready for farming and construction of a forever home.

In 1904 William sold the land to his brother James who lived here until he retired. At that time he son, namesake of his uncle and his dad, took over.

This property has a long drive and is beautifully treed. This is also the spot where Christian and I got most of our wood ticks that day. I’m sure that we picked off at least 50 at the end of this driveway before we got back in the vehicle.

In 1920 this land was sold Mr. Taylor but then repurchased it. James later sold the land again, this time moving to a different district to farm, but again bought the land back. It does not state why the land was sold but it does say it was purchased back due to adverse conditions.

James and his wife Bessie raised three children, mostly on this homestead. In 1930 they retired from active farming and moved to the closest town. Mr. died in September, 1953 and Mrs. not long after in April, 1954.

This was not the first house we went to on this day that was suffering from the same sort of decay. I am going to make the assumption that at one time, these were brick homes. In an effort to modernize them, stucco was applied over the brick. With time, the roof began to leak and the water ran between the two layers causing this deterioration to happen.

Inside the house we could see the remains of furniture and a bookshelf with puzzles and games.

Posted on

IT WAS ONCE THE MITCHELL’S

Back to that day when Christian and I went out, one of the first houses we stopped at on our venture was this one.

Visible from the road, this was an easy stop. After fiddling around with my camera for a bit we got ourselves on the other side of the trees.

This big old two story house with the missing door upstairs wouldn’t want to be something I came across at night time. I wasn’t at all freaked out here but with the dead trees in the front, I could see how one would be.

The history I found on this homestead is not of the original homesteaders. That is of course somewhat disappointing to me but its better than nothing. That being said, here we go. The second homesteader of this land immigrated to Canada in 1903. Born in 1881 in Country Cork, Ireland, he moved to the area and married in 1908. Having worked for many farmers in the area and renting land to farm, he moved from the land he originally lived on and in 1921 eventually moved to Neepawa. In 1927, Mrs. passed away and he came back to the area.

In April, 1928 to be exact, the family moved back to Elgin, Manitoba but he again rented land. It wasn’t until 1942 that him and his children moved to this homestead.

Mr. retired from farming in 1951 at the age of 70 and moved to Brandon where he lived until he passed away in 1964. Mr. and his wife raised 6 children on various farms in the area as well as in Neepawa. Upon Mr.’s retirement, his youngest son and his wife took over this farm and raised their family here.

Posted on

MISUMENA VATIA 

Last week I was out with a student taking her graduation photos. We were making our rounds and stopped at an old church. Well, the upkeep at the church isn’t what it used to be but we got her up there on the step and took a couple photos.

There was a nice rose bush by the door and she decided that she would like to lie down on the step with the bush beside her. So we started cleaning off the step and she looked at one of the big roses and inside was this BIG whitish/pink spider.

Of course our first reaction is to gross out and then flick it away. I wanted to try and get a couple of photos of the spider too because I had never seen one like it before and then proceed with the photography shoot. So we did that.

Tonight I posted these photos on Instagram and my nephew commented that he had seen these spiders before out at the cottage and wondered what they were so, I searched it.

This is the goldenrod crab spider or the flower spider. They are called crab spiders because of their unique ability to walk sideways as well as forwards and backwards. They have the ability to change between these colors based on their surroundings through the molting process or depending on the color of flower they are eating from. on that color.

These spiders do not spin webs but they do use silk to catch their prey. Once the female lays her eggs and the eggs hatch, the female dies.