55 Treffer anzeigen

Sketches of Marta and her siblings dealing with fleas in their bedclothes.
""Look how the beasts hide themselves in the seams! There - you must be quicker than they - get 'em between your thumbnails and squish them before they hop away!" says Greet. No one seems to know where these fleas come from that spread through the village now and then. Some say from the hay, some say from Mexico. We chuckle at those who still wear old-fashioned clothes. We call their high collars flea collars because they hide the telltale red dot flea bites!"

Sketch of a house on fire, and the community rallying to put it out with buckets of water
"The dogs are suddenly barking like crazy, horses neigh, cows bellow, and there's a banging at the window. "At old Frank Groening's is fire and pass on the word!" Father jumps out of bed, runs across the yard to Penners... and so the news goes through the village. People run, call to each other, some with lanterns, buckets.. there's pouring water, carrying out what can be saved, thanking God no one is hurt. Next morning so much is brought together, Greet says, "Groenings are better off after the fire than before!""

Sketches of the original semlin that Marta's grandmother's family lived in when they moved to Canada
"Semlin-living
The Benjamin Fehr family move to Canada in 1874
This is how they lived during the first years:
Their Katherina becomes my grandmother! The Frank Goertzen, Neufeld, Penner grandparents (1874-75) likewise:
One digs three feet or so into the ground, stacking the sod for walls, lays branches to form and hold up the roof.

Sketch of Marta and her sister playing dress-up in the pantry of their home
"All Beginnings
Mary beckons me to the pantry, "Close your eyes: Suprise!" She has basted together a "brassiere" for me, of flour sacking, and dyed it pink with beets; I look so funny with it on, we "sneeze" out into laughter."

Sketches of a family around the dinner table and in the cow barn at night
"After supper
Before bedtime"

Sketch of a woman and a young girl stooking wheat in their fields circa 1933

Sketches of a family travelling by horse and wagon to visit relatives in Schanzenfeld on a Sunday circa 1929.
"Dressed in Sunday best, past Wielers fence, we're off to visit grandmother! "TKL," goes father, and Toots trots easily, two miles off to Schanzenfeld... "Come my goslings! Have you missed me already too?" calls Grandmother in greeting"

Sketches of a woman playing a joke on her husband on their farm in Chortitz, Manitoba
"Once mother had called father to come and eat many times. Yet still he stood talking over the back fence with neighbour Schellenberg. Then she sneaked up behind him and dumped a bucket of water over his head! People still laugh over it!"

Sketch of a family watering their crops by hand
""Well, if it doesn't rain soon..." then father hauls a drum of water by stoneboat to the fields. So it won't slop over too much he toes a rope over a piece of canvas that covers it. We children like going the back way through cowfences and woods. We're watering the sunflower and potato patch."

Sketches of a woman collecting snow to prepare washwater to do laundry with
"Snow gives good soft washwater.
The water-barrel needs busy filling.
For lunch Greet quickly makes noodles and uses the water for starching.
Letting freeze makes white. (bleaches)
Afterwards, in the attic, (to) finish drying."

Sketch of a portion of a housebarn in rural Manitoba.
"Driving a long way by horse and buggy to visit some people, no telephones you know, and they weren't home, their door open, we went in, made ourselves some Faspa, thinking they'd be along by the time we were done. When it was time to go we left a sign we'd been there, the way people would to us if they'd come and we were away. This was taken in great good humour and there'd be much slapping on shoulders and laughter next time we'd meet."

Sketches of a family working in the fields and stopping to eat
"Today it is hot! En route to hoe potatoes in the field we stop in the garden to eat a lovely cantaloupe: this way they taste best! The flies are biting again: that means rain, we say..."

Sketches of a woman making yeast by hand in her yard
"Greet makes yeast: swirl honey and hops+ and flour in a crock with warm water and hang it in the back boxelder for fermenting. Every day she checks, swirls and smells until it is 'ripe'. Then she takes it down and uses a bit of it each time to set the yeast sponge for bread-making. Lisa and I have to upend manure sod (mennonite coal) for further drying...
+rather the water from boiling hops..."

Sketch of a group of children playing in the woods by the cowfence in their rural village in Manitoba
"On Sunday afternoons there's time to go to the woods or play in the cowfence. When the big girls ask us to go with them it's a special occasion. This time they're showing us how to hold dandelions under our chins to see if we like butter. They turn and nudge us away from and into the sun, each in turn. Annie and Helen, Agnes, Susie and Margaret; Abe, Betty and me, themselves Mary Tina and Tina who all like butter!

Sketch of a girl judging the time of day in order to bring the cows in from the fields
"When the sun is two hands high it's time to bring the cows home."