A MA CABANE

BETWEEN ME AND THE SAND

A GREAT WHITE MAN FROM THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

AUNT ERICA AND LITTLE FARLEY BRAVE THE WAVES

POINTING PIPERS

A MA CABANE

AVAILABLE: ONE FINE FISHERMAN

RACING WIND

HEADED TO THE GREEN BEYOND

SISTERS

FINDING THE DOOR

ENTERING IN

PRAIRIE LILY

STALWART

DESPITE THE WIND

WE CAN DRIVE IT HOME
WITH ONE HEADLIGHT

COMING ON

BRACING AGAINST THE BREEZE

A THISTLE WEARS ITS HEART ON ITS SLEEVE

KEEP A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
SO I CAN ALWAYS FIND MY WAY HOME
HOME
is such a delicate word
defined in so many unspeakable ways
written on our hearts where no one can see
home IS where the heart is
home is with my man
home is the northern great plains: Saskatchewan
home is Idaho with my grape vines wrapped round me, tendrils tight, fruit bright
Some places draw me to them.
Some places I will forget.
Some places perch upon the throne of my heart
for now and evermore because when we are together, there’s no telling where the one begins and the other ends.  I’ve got prairie beneath my nails: I’m named for the lilies there.  My blood runs black as the soil in a wheat field.  I don’t ever leave, I just let the land play tug-of-war with my soul until I see the light in the window and return home.  Wandering.  I’m wandering.
KEEP A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
SO I CAN ALWAYS FIND MY WAY HOME

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2009/07/05/461/

At The Cabin

If you take yourself North of Saskatoon, it only takes an hour and a half of driving before the wheat fields end and the water begins.  The further North you travel in this province of mine, the wetter and rockier it becomes.  Over half of Saskatchewan is brimming with chain lakes and rivers cutting through Precambrian Shield.  
Rocks.  Lakes.  Rivers.  Boreal forest.  Whitewater.
A canoeist’s dream come true.
And so,
it is easy to be a babe in the woods
strolling barefoot beneath the jack pines and birch trees
dipping in to cool dark waters
restoring the soul.

For many years I spent my entire summer at Christopher Lake, up North.  I know it well.  The lake is bright and cool (as all lakes are in Northern Saskatchewan), rimmed with thick forest and chock full of that great Northern sky.

In the morning, the loons call out.
At midnight the forest floor is lit by the big dipper and the Northern lights.
The water laps against the shore.
The clouds scrub the sky clean blue.
In Canada, we call places like this: The Bush.
We refer to the location as:  Up North.
There’s no talk of cottages in these parts.  
In the bush, up North, Canadians go to the cabin.
NOTE:  This is not my cabin.  My cabin is on Deifenbaker Lake.  You’ll see photos of it on July 1 when we head there to celebrate Canada Day.
PS  If you doubt the greatness of Northern Saskatchewan and think I’m being overly romantic about the whole thing, Jordan and Kate will certainly testify.

Getting Farmy

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.