BRUNCH AT THE TAILGATE
SUGAR BRITCHES IN SEQUENCE
(YES, THAT’S REALLY HER NAME)
I like to get down and get farmy. I can’t help it. It’s my heritage. Most of you know, because I crow about it so. I crow about being the great grand daughter and grand daughter of Saskatchewan wheat farmers. Some of you also know that the reason I came home to Saskatoon in the month of June was to watch my grandparents receive their century farming award from the federal government of Canada.
Wowsers. Can you imagine a farm being homesteaded and then farmed for an entire century? It blows my mind. At the award ceremony on Tuesday there were at least 60 families being honored with the century farming award and it was so fascinating to hear their stories. Men came over to Canada, one hundred years ago, sometimes alone, sometimes with their young wives. They came to Saskatchewan, wide open space, undeveloped countryside, stony plains, undulating prairie, herds of bison, cold winters, hot summers… They homesteaded in a space where there was nothing. They built homes from sod, some lived in the ground in excavated pits with grain shed roofs on top (to fully understand the hardship of this you’d have to experience a Saskatchewan winter). They cleared land, they sowed seeds and harvested crops by hand. Women bore children. Some of the families honored were huge and boasted batches of offspring numbering fifteen or more! People lived. People died. People suffered. People were neighbors. Barns were raised. Communities were built. A province was founded.
Some of these homesteads have stayed in the family (land has been passed down through the generations from fathers to sons) and are being farmed by the fourth or fifth generations now. The magnitude of this heritage really hit me hard during the ceremony and I couldn’t help but cry a couple of times, especially with the thought that my grandparents had six daughters and the Thoen homestead will end with the generation my grandfather represents.
I want that farm.
I want its sloughs thick with geese in the fall.
I want the gravel pit, the outbuildings and that two story barn that sits on the lower part of the homestead.
I want the june bugs.
I want the strawberry patch.
I want the Quonset.
I want it all.
I want to carry on the legacy as a Thoen grand daughter.
I’ve always felt this, I’ve not voiced it to anyone by my parents and my husband (Robert wants the farm too) but after watching my grandparents receive their award, I can hear that desire pounding away in my heart stronger still. It might come as a surprise to family members and friends who read this, but it’s true.
I want hundreds of acres.
Just the earth and I.
The wind and the northern lights.
:::A brilliant day here in Saskatchewan:::
I’ve got to get off my duff and stroll around a bit.
I love the places I’ve been.
I love the place I live.
But when I come home to Saskatchewan (FOREVER HOME)
I feel filled up and weepy at the strangest moments.
Nothing could be more delicious than a Saskatchewan summer.
It’s bliss truly. A decadent yet practical gift from God.
When I see the sky here and watch the river wend I feel the eternal portion of me perch like a far seeing hawk on a fence post. At ease. Natural. Wild. Fluid and symphonic in full flight.
That’s the thing about the great plains.
There’s nothing to get in the way of your outstretched wings.
I would most certainly pay for a print of that first shot of the beautiful red barn and green field. wowzers…amazing. Also I love that shot of the bay horse. She looks happy to see you 🙂
it's so lovely to hear all of your sentiment and true passion for the life you love in your homeland. There's something romantic about farm life, in my opinion. And of course, I say that being practically COMPLETELY removed from the lifestyle…but I too find something amazing in the concept of taking empty land, living off it, and building your life. It's something to be insanely proud of for sure. 100 years?! That's amazing.
Thanks for sharing all your farm-love with us!! 🙂
I'm speachless.. I hope that one day your dream is realized. I can feel the passion in your words as you speak of your family and their land and it really moved me.
Pictures are beautiful as always.
Take Care
I second Marina in wanting to purchase your prints! As a horsey-loving gal, I would love photo #3.
Your connection to your family's land and your grandparents made me tear… a moving tribute to say the least. I hope that one day you will get to carry on the tradition.
Henceforth, I would like to be referred to as "sugar britches"
Such grace and beauty found in your home and heritage. To have roots so deep and strong is a blessed thing. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks to the farmer behind us, I have wheat growing in my backyard this summer alongside the soybeans. I have been watching it blow in the wind and grow taller week by week, and I think I get it now (at least a little bit). I'm saving up to buy one of your lovely prairie soul pieces.
A beautiful & touching tribute, to your Grandparents, to the land you so love and to the province from which you come.
Thank you for reminding me of my roots, my heritage and to not take for granted this area in which I live.
I hope you are able to make your dream come true and move back to the land you love, I think your Grandparents would be so very proud and honored.
I love how you love your homeland. I feel the same way about a particular place in Alberta. A place that I will probably only now know through visiting…but I love it still.
Oh, how wonderful it would be for you and RW to continue the farming tradition of your grandparents…
Keep enjoying every single second (I know you will) Thank you for sharing these special moments with us.
what, if anything, is keeping you from getting it?
What a wonderful idea to give awards for farming with care and love…such delightful pictures, and oh boy, those horses! Looove horses!
Though I desire no acres personally (not even one), I can understand why you do, and I think you would do a wonderful job with them! Heartfelt congratulations to your grandparents!
xo
yessiree.
as much as i love my new 'home' in Ottawa, my heart always sings when i return back to my true home in SK.
It is nice to zoom in on that photo and see all you Lukiwski ladies sitting around that truck.
Jillian its beautiful.
I bet they would be so happy to pass it all on to you! 🙂
I sense a move happening…
Dear lady, grab those 1100 prairie province flats and then call them your own, its apparent that it is something your bones ache for and your soul wishes to reside… for it is already your home, your rangeland!
It is amazing that country folk have such deep character, and immensely vast interests that have molded their personalities, you are forever surprising, and forever dear… city folk could not capture my heart as you have, unbridled and steadfast and true… for I am visiter and borrower of the hills and part of the spirit of South Dakota Great Plains, my ancestors have hunted, spilt blood, planted, and run with feet tucked in upon this prairie grass land… I know the strength of their cry as well, it resounds and is ever present…
Thank you for sharing this part of your heritage with us:)
…you ARE the farm…
…you ARE the wheat…
YOU are the acres…
of Canadian earth @ your feet…
…you ARE the wind, the river, & the sky…
at ease on a fence post…
a loving tear in your eye…
Farmy indeed! 😉
Congratulations to your family and their legacy!! It truly is a piece of Canadian history that maybe one day you can continue…! xoxox
Your photographs are always gorgeous..astounding. These are blowing my mind. You should publish a book of photographs.
Aaaahhhh! This explains the depth of your prairie soul to it's deepest possible fingerling roots! I hope your wishes can come true to continue your Thoen granddaughter tradition…
i've said it before but…PLEASE move back to saskabush! that would be so great. SO great.
gorgeous photos & gorgeous sentiments.
I love when people love my oh canada as much as I do!
That is absolutely amazing about the century farming. I wish the farm I grew up on would get passed on to me, but there are too many other mix ups involved. I too cried that last time I was home.
Home, MY home.
Who are the other ladies in the picture with youadn the truck having a picnic?
One looks like she could be your sister. The middle girl.
Is that your mamma and all 3 of you girls in that tailgate pic? How amazing your mom must be feeling to have all 3 of you girls together at one time in one place. Like things are just as they should be. 🙂
Yay, Jillian!
I hope you can make your dream come true.
We own a piece of land with greenhouses on it, it has been in the family for 60 years now. A decision has been made for us, the government is going to build houses on it…….
I'm sure your grandparents will be so proud !
The amazing thing about our native land is the sheer diversity it offers….from the "je ne sais quoi"? style of Montreal , where you feel like you are in Europe, to THIS!……
Jillian, if there is any way you can make the dream of this land yours, you must make it so….
for it is quite obvious how deeply it holds your heart….more than any other….
Beautiful country! My good friend's son went to an all Native lacrosse meet there last summer and after hearing about it I sent for the brochure from the province – I really want to see it for myself someday soon. You're dog is such a good travel buddy isn't he?! Hope you can make that farm dream come true (you'd have lots more room for a studio!) and have a great time – more pictures soon please!
Plume! The song "Gladys Ridge" by James Keelaghan just came on my ipod, and hearing him sing about Saskatchewan made me feel like I had the merest glimpse into the soul of your homeland, and was captivated by what I was able to see…
gorgeous photos! Beautiful writing as always! And to realize the buffalo were there already, and the Europeans brought the horses!Did the Natives ever end up on a good side of a treaty? Just curious, I'm more familiar with Native history from the U.S. The Silent Minority…