Hunting Peace

Amy and I wanted to go, for sure. All three of us had lost our fathers. For Liz, this meant closing down her childhood home and she Really didn't want to do that. Still, she had to, so we piled into the RV and headed "home".

But, how could we get the RV down a heavily snowed-in cow-pasture road?

The trick to this, per a visit to the CIGS office (Brenda was there, Ed had passed on from one of the last nasty variants), was to drive a tractor and road grader, then another truck in front and pack down the snow.

The cybertruck was perfect for that.

We drove the RV out almost empty, parked in CF, went back and got the kids and luggage, and set out for 'home'.

It's a hard thing to come home again after so long away.

My mother looked so much older, as did Mrs. Brass. All of our grandparents were gone. All we had was what was left in our houses, and frankly, I didn't fit into those clothes anymore anyway. I'd gained a much bigger chest from cutting wood with an axe, from hauling every kind of thing, and oddly almost 2 inches of height, which I hadn't anticipated.

Some of my track and cross country awards, yearbooks, books and miscellaneous stuff, I packed up into boxes to be shipped (space was at a premium in the RV).

The questions were, what to do about our mothers?

My mom was lonely and not doing well health-wise, she didn't get good enough food since it was so expensive. She didn't visit her friends, many of whom had passed on. The same went for Mrs. Brass.

We had the option of moving back to Chicago, buying a house there, and having them both come and live with us.

On second consideration, that was a crap idea. We didn't think about Chicago as home anymore, despite everything being so convenient and close by. It was crowded as all hell. It was noisy, and ugly, and confusing, and hectic.

Life in the northwoods had spoiled us. There - Are - No - Elk - In - Chicago!!

(Okay, fine - Lincoln Park or Brookfield, but that doesn't count.)

My mother yielded to the idea of a visit, to come babysit for a while, and maybe teach school. Amy's mom likewise agreed (they talked each other into it, I think).

The 'while' turned into the next decade and the births of more and more happy babies.

We got internet coverage. We got good streaming movie service, and a small clinic in a new mobile double-wide mobile home along the 'street' where the expandable-canvas container-cabins were (modified, by the way, to be very nice nursery-greenhouses).

Many more double-wide's showed up as other parents came to visit, and soon we did have a town. Tollefsrud, Newfoundland-Labrador, population 640 as of the census in the seventh year after we arrived. With official city-status, we got a subsidized school building (two double-wides), an Ob/Gyn office / med center / health clinic, complete with a birthing center.

The doctor who visited us (via an upgraded road) at one point claimed he was 'gobsmacked' by our 'absurdly high birth rate'.

This generated a lot of laughs.

Some of the women left, with inheritances to go back to, but this place had altered their minds, and about a third of those that left, came back, bringing siblings or older parents, and sometimes double-wide trailers we dutifully hooked up to our 'city' water and sewer systems.

There is some use to a partially completed / then-fully-completed civil engineering degree, after all. That use is becoming a city engineer (not me, one of others).

We had to replace two of our four dogs due to old-age events, and we added quite a few more dogs besides that.

The road to get up to Tollefsrud got nicer as we (well, Jenny Winkel, really) spent significant time with the dozer blade on the tractor, making the path flatter, the edges having real ditches and slope for drainage, and just generally Less Risky for winter travel.

The trees that had been young enough to barely make fruit started yielding bounties, which we dutifully canned or dried, then ate all year round.

Technically we were both a ranch, and a small town, as we purchased, then re-sold plots of land along the access road so that people could build more substantive (read: winterized) homes.

I had ideas for a career before the JE pandemic, something in the sciences. I rejoined that idea and got an undergrad in agronomy, then a Masters in 'Agronomy of Northern Latitudes'.

Now, let me interrupt and allay any suspicions, NO, Amy didn't help on this project. She had her own topic, inland marine ecologies, with an emphasis on farmed fish in areas where lakes freeze over.

Our city is thriving. Our kids are growing fast and sucking up schoolwork, what with so many well-educated and (not gonna lie) brilliant-thinking teachers among the parents here.

There is no one 'best place' to live and give birth and raise a family, than the kind of place that works for You. We had to figure out what that place was for us, and having opulence provided for by probably ill-gotten gains from an oil company, well, we can't deny that.

We can say, Canada is freakishly beautiful, vast and green and fertile, and we like that, but everyone else won't. So, you have to figure out what works for you, and your life, be it singular or plural.

For us, we have more cabins, more people, more places we can go, and yet, we come together and celebrate and yell and cajole and irritate and love and are about each other, just like everyone else in the world.

Except, we do it about 3 hours north of Churchill Falls, in a small town that's a ranch.

Please don't visit us. Please don't think you can send money. We don't need money. We want to be left alone. If you want to help the world we live in, I suggest moving to Canada for work or school, and settling down with someone nice to make Lots of Happy Babies.

Why Canada?

Have you noticed anything about politics? (lol) Seriously, there's good ecology charities everywhere, but living closer to nature gives great appreciation for the Glory of God's creation right up close and personal - and annoying and wonderful and all the things a noisy nature can bring.

We teach our kids to be good stewards of the Earth, and we're decent farmers and ranchers and students because we don't have a choice - we live with each other, and it's fun to learn things when you're in the middle of a forest.

So, yeah, we're pretty good parents, I like to think. Mostly. We're also still growing as families. Mostly.

My advice is, simply: Marry. Now.

Find a good person, redefine 'attractiveness' to match their physiology, negotiate who does what, and marry them. As long as you love each other, you've got a blessing. And, the more kids, the more blessings, the better, in my book. The essential key to parenting is patience. Love helps the patience, but even in moments when you're not feeling so loving, conjure patience, and relax into the chaos. It gets better, oh, wow, does it get better.

Be well. Thanks for your time, and May Your God Be With You.

The End

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P.S., No, we never did find out who those men were who visited Brenda in the CIGS office that day. That secret died with our fathers.

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Persons Mentioned and Cited

MANAGER: Dana Perkins, early 30's, thin athletic, very type-A, fast-talking, in charge.

Kirsten Hollis, 1 yr ahead medium build alto chorus Tennis team scouts.

Alice Grant, scout, track sprinter thin, Asian looking.

Original Trio:

Amilee "Amy" Brass, med-build, smart, just-graduated HS. Dark straight thick hair, shoulder length. Had a dog as a kid, not recently.

Elizabeth Dawn Katzenstein, very trim, capable, energetic - but somewhat shy.

Kevin Fenimore Kooper. 5'9" med build cross country running, french horn, Eagle Scout.

Mr. Bill Brass - former air force, Amy's father.

Additional NOT exhaustive People (please forgive if you're not mentioned!!):

Naomi (jewish dark curly hair med chest athletic body smart).

Eve, runner, thin, lanky, tall, ran with Naomi to find Dana

Carol, does the scheduling

Tina, patrol 6, curly blonde very buxom needs orthodonture bright fast eyes.

Barb, patrol 7, Black but medium-toned skinned, medium bust. Shorter. Gymnast, it turned out. Capable shooting.

Kelly, med-height dark haired, brit, concerned with animals

Hester, trim blonde swedish curls

CIGS office:

Brenda - front desk

Ed - in back

Mr. Brad Jamison, boss, we never met, passed away in pandemic

Places:

Smallwood reservoir = Michikamau Lake = dam in churchill falls holds back.

Garret Point Ag Station

Dogs (all female):

Goldie, golden retriever

Maxie, german shepherd

Effie, short for FTL Faster than Light, the border collie

Burg, malamute, big 150 lbs, happy-go-lucky but mostly calm