Notes from Alberta

Today is a travel day back from Alberta to Newfoundland. Actually, most of this trip has been travelling. Lately, when I've visited the farm that I grew up on near Vulcan, Alberta, my dad gets nostalgic for Saskatchewan. So we made a four day trip to visit his childhood home near Eatonia, Saskatchewan and then family in Regina and Weyburn. Between last Thursday and Sunday we drove 1937 km from Alberta to Saskatchewan and back again.

Dad grew up near a small town called Eatonia and I can remember visiting my grandma and grandpa Rast in their little house in town, before grandpa moved into a nursing home in Kindersley in 1985. I have some vague memories of visiting the old farm, where dad lived from 1937 until he left home at the age of 17 in 1949, but this trip was the first time I visited the farm as an adult. I was surprised by how much of farm remains, although dad was pretty disappointed by the rough shape of the house he grew up in. No one has lived there since 1965, so 45 years of abandonment has shown itself in broken windows, water damage, nesting pigeons and random vandalism. Nevertheless, I have lots of photos and some good video of dad touring through the house and the outbuildings.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Dad standing in a field near Eatonia , SK. At this spot, his mother and 3 small children spent their first winter in Canada (1929) living in a granary, piled with snow on the outside for insulation.
Bottom: Sunset at the Rast Farm at Eatonia, Saskatchewan. This was the family home from 1937-1965.