two geese and a muskrat

from about 1929-1935 grampa and his partner sandy home sreaded near valleyview ab. sandy was older than grampa; he was a ww1 veteran and came to canada from the same part of ireland as grampa; annalong, co down. i'm sure thier families new each other in the old country. this time pretty much spans the great deppression, so life was hard no dought. grampa said they never went hungry on the homestead, but there was no cash money. they mostly ate moose and deer, raised a few hogs, grew spuds and other veggies that would do well in that climate. for salt, sugar, coffe and flour they could trade labor or other barter items. at harvest time they would ride the rails (hop frieght trains) to saskatchewan where they could make a bit of money at thrashing time. grampa figured picking the coal cinders out of your eyes was the worst thing about riding on top of frieght cars. in winter grampa and sandy would trap; this also earned them a bit of cash, although furs were not worth much. they would load thier traps and supplies in big packs and on a light tobogan, strap on thier snowshoes and trek to the headwaters of the goose river. grampa carried a .303 savage lever action for deer and other larger game they could eat and sandy packed a .22 for small game. they would trap at the end of winter mostly for beaver and muskrat. when the thaw came in the early spring they would build a raft and float their harvest and gear down the goose to the little smokie to near their home. one year the thaw came fast; lots of snow then warm weather; the goose and the little smokey are not large rivers but in a melt like that they can rage! grampa and sandy built their raft and started out; they had no choice other than to abandon thier furs and try and walk out over the thawing muskeg. they didn't get to far before thier raft was overturned and they were both thrown into the river; luckily they made it to shore and sandy was able to hold on to the .22. they were soaked and cold as they watched thier winter harvest and all thier gear tumble down the goose river. there was no time for feeling sorry for themselves; they got a fire going (flint and steel work when wet), dried out and started walking. it took them several days to walk out to the homestead; they had no food, but sandy was able to shoot two geese and a muskrat during thier trek; grampa said forty years later he could still taste that muskrat if he thought about it. tough life; tough men!