Sometimes it’s just time to sit back and think about why things happened. August 29, was one of those days for me. I was sitting in a comfortable lawn chair in the back of the old drive shed where the horses and buggies were kept out of the rain and snow while their owners attended the old stone church on a hill in Greermount.
The memorial service for the church and cemetery was held in the drive shed this year instead of the beautiful 137-year-old church because with COVID restrictions in place there was not enough space in the church to social distance.
Although there were only 17 rings in the back wall of the drive shed to tie horses, there were about 60 people attending the memorial. Most attendees were descendants and some even great-great-grandchildren of former church goers and they had ancestors laid to rest in the cemetery.
As we looked at the 17 rings in the wall to tie the horses, I thought, what a great help the horses were to the farmers who toiled on those little rocky farms. When they first landed on the shore of the Ottawa River, they carried everything on their back the 20 miles through the bush to their allotted farm land. Until they could afford a horse, all their supplies were also transported on their back from the closest town to their little farm.
As we sat comfortably in the drive shed listening to old hymns by Scott or on an iPhone and to Reverend Eric, we looked out upon green grass and trees still sparkling from the morning rain. We were reminded of how lucky we are to have rain to make the trees and crops as good as they ever were. While our Canadian friends in B.C. watch thousands of acres of forests burn because of a lack of rain, our friends in the prairies watch their crops wither and die because they too lack rain.
Just as for decades before, everyone sat and chatted with old and young friends as we ate a great lunch that was provided in memory of the late Bob Bretzlaff who was the warden of the church for many years.
As we walk through these old graveyards, we can read about how young many of our ancestors died. Some young women died in their 20s while trying to deliver their first child and this resulted in the mother and child being buried together in the same grave. There were no cesarean births back then, very few doctors and very little money to pay.
Many children also died very young for many reasons, but many died because vaccines were not discovered yet. Vaccines today eliminate the deaths of millions of people every year.
In many cases, our farmers were the first to realize the importance of vaccines. Before pasteurization was discovered, my grandfather had his herd of dairy cows vaccinated and tested every year to prevent bangs disease which was similar to brucellosis in people. Many farmers vaccinate calves to prevent scours. Many vaccines used for our animals require a booster shot to be fully effective. Vaccination to protect pasturing cattle from getting black leg has to be administered yearly. The spores that infect cattle with black leg can live in the soil for more than 10 years, so if the disease was ever on your farm the cattle should be vaccinated every year.
Just as today, some people didn’t believe in vaccines during pandemics in years gone by. It must also be mentioned that many of those who were not vaccinated had a much shorter life than those who were.
Be safe. There are lots of fun days ahead, let’s be here to enjoy them!
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
