October 29 1952

Today, October 29 , in Nevard history . Actually I already made reference to this occasion 3 years ago in this Nevardblog post so some of you may think it looks familiar if you have been following that long.
For those that haven't , the wedding of Joy Nevard and Les Goff as seen in this photo.

We did a re-enactment of this historic photo using the same car this past August. It went well.

Late October 1949

October 22: I left the San and started for home on the bike but there was such a strong wind I walked nearly all the way. I found Dad at Jack Goff's. Also Hobetzeder. I bought bread , butter and chocolate bars and then headed for the farm, When I got there Uncle Arthur had just finished his dinner. I went up to Silver Birches and gave Joy Dick's camera. Then went down to the gravel pit and threw out 1000 shovels of gravel. Roy fixing the fence at the diversion , It was broken down.

Jack Goff as seen in the late 1930s.

Today In Bill's History

On his day off from working at the Fort San Bill Nevard walks the approximate 20 miles back to his farm home.
October 16, 1948
A miserable day. I walked most of the way home but Henry Meyer's two daughters overtook me with a car and gave me a lift for 3 miles. I had dinner with Uncle Arthur and afterwards went on up to Silver Birches where I saw Aunt Alice , Roy, Joy and Donald. Bud has gone to Calgary with little Eric. I collected a bag of stuff then headed back South. I had to walk all the way to Lipton getting there just in time to catch the bus. My first bus ride.
Oct. 17: Sunday. Got my first beets ready this morning. A messy job with beet juice all over the floor of the vegetable room making it look  like a slaughter house. At night Dick and walked down to the Fort to an Anglican service. Bill Levey gave us a lift in his car. It was a nice moonlight night.

Lipton main street in the late 1940s.

First Sunday At The San

October 3rd , 1948 marked Bill Nevard's first Sunday spent at the T.B. San. Here is what he had to say about it.
My first Sunday at the San but I worked just the same as Saturday will be my day off from now on.
It was also my first day alone in the vegetable room but I didn't find it too hard and was all through by 2:30 pm. Mr. Poy, the Chinese cook from 31 came in and told me they won't need any spuds on Monday. After supper I climbed the highest hill to the North and West of the San and got a good view of the district. After getting my ear fixed up I went back to my lodgings and washed my head.
The next Saturday.......

October 9: My day off and after breakfast I started out walking to Lipton. I walked about half way and rode the rest being picked up by John Hepting. A cold wind blowing. Dad and Uncle Horrie were doing Jack Goff's chimney. The three of us had dinner at the cafe. Roy came to Lipton on his bike. I picked up some rides on the  way back but walked most of the way and was too late for supper. A big road gang went through Lipton from the East. 8 big diesels with road graders , cabooses and other stuff. 

The Basement 13 Acres

How the term came to be.
The basement 13 acres. Its a term that shows up sometimes in Bill Nevard's journals. It was a means of describing and identifying one of the fields on the farm.
Obviously it was a field of 13 acres in size. The basement part refers to a basement that had been built some years previous on the edge of the field. It was on the east side of the
yard not far from the house they lived in. There is no mention of the construction in the journals so it must have been built some time previous to the 1930s. It represented
the plans and hopes they had of building a bigger and better house to replace the original homesteaders log house first built in 1903 when they came here. It is likely
that the dry years and poor crops of the 1930s put those plans for a better house on hold indefinitely. They never did build on the basement . It remains today, overgrown by the poplars as nature takes back it's own.