Lists of 2013 - #8 - Places I Have Lived

Listography 2013 - #8 - Places I Have Lived

My whole life has been spent in Alberta, never more than an hour from the farm where I grew up!  I love to travel but I just realized now that I've always lived close to the ones I love.

1.  My dad purchased a farm using money he had saved while working for Calgary Power, installing the power lines that were being strung through rural Alberta in the early 1950's.  The farm was just west of Millet and about 8 miles east of where he'd grown up.  The yard contained a big old two-story house and various out-buildings, including a barn and grain elevator.  When he and my mom married in 1954, they moved to this farm.  Last summer while on a garden tour, I had the opportunity to go back and see what's happened to the farm now.  The yard is so very beautiful with a waterfall and pond just off the deck of the house and a lovely garden area.  So many memories flooded through me that day!

2.  When I was 9, my parents purchased my grandparents farm, where my Dad had grown up, and we moved there in December.   This meant a change of schools for us but we knew many of the kids since we attended the same church.  Moving here meant that my Dad became a full-time farmer, leaving his stucco and plaster job that he'd juggled for 10 years.  My parents still live on this farm.

3.  My college year was spent at Camrose Lutheran College, now the Augustana campus of the University of Alberta.  It was a small liberal arts Christian college, less than an hour from home, with a student body of less than 500.  I lived in the student residence, worked in the kitchen for a few hours every week and took first year courses in home economics.

4.  The college did not grant degrees so after 1 year, I transferred to the University of Alberta and the faculty of education.  I lived with 3 friends in a two bedroom apartment just a few blocks from the campus.

5.  During the summer after my third year, we married and I moved to Bob's family farm.  We spent nearly 20 months in a tiny 2 room house that had been built for his grandfather.  It was cozy but had no laundry or shower facilities - thankfully Bob's parents lived just across the yard and shared their water with us.

6.   And that brings us to the home that we currently live in - the one that we moved into 36 years ago.  Bob and his brother logged the trees and sawed the lumber and then he built the house with his Dad.  It's served us so well and is the only home that our girls have known.   Really, Darrin too since we moved in on his first birthday.   So many memories made here!