frieghter

during his homesteading (depression) years grampa spent a winter frieghting by horse team and sliegh. he hauled supplies from kinuso on lesser slave lake into the tie camps at swan hills and then hauled rail ties back out to kinuso. two men went with each rig; i'm not sure if sandy partnered up with grampa on this adventure. a one way trip took two full days; there was a cabin part way so they had shelter one night; the other night they slept out on the trail. winter temperatures in this part of alberta go down to -30 or even -50 degrees. while sleeping out on the trail they would build a big fire and put the horses bits close to thier bodies in the sleeping bags with them, so as not to freeze the horses mouths in the morning. i still have the big canvas/wool sleeping bag, eiderdown, that grampa used then; i have slept out in it while hunting in -25 weather and froze my butt off.... there it is. in the cabin they would light the stove and bring in the wrapped up fruit and vegitables in hopes of keeping them from freezing solid before reaching the camp; in the -50 the produce would freeze in the cabin! in the 70s uncle wally introduced me to the man grampa worked for while frieghting; bill was a very old man then; he said about grampa,"we called him the black irishman; he would curse all the way up the hills and sing all the way down." sounds like trucking in the oilfield to me!