Our Family Grows

Roger and Cora feeding chickens in the farm yard

About twice a week during winter evenings, our spare time was spent playing cards. We went to our closest neighbours (George and Mary Reti), or they came to our home. Our card games were accompanied by smoking and drinking the odd glass of home-made wine (or potato champagne). No one really got drunk, but we did do a lot of laughing. Unfortunately, we also did a lot of smoking while playing cards. At that time, we didn’t know we were harming our health or that of our children.

Cora and I enjoyed attending the Saturday evening dances at the Mormon Social Hall or Canadian Legion. These were fun social outings, and we were on the floor dancing as soon as we arrived. Roger, our three-year-old son, stayed with Mom and Dad so we could have an evening out. The dances ended at midnight. Sometimes, we picked Roger up on the way home and put him into his own bed for the rest of the night. Otherwise, we let him stay overnight with my Mom and Dad, as his grandparents preferred.

The Arrival of Connie

Early spring 1952, we stopped going to dances. Cora was carrying our second child, and showing a lot of tummy. On March 26th, Cora felt some labor pains and I rushed her off to the Taber hospital. However, the stork was busy and the delivery date was changed. On the 27th of March our dear baby girl Connie arrived. This had been a long nine months, and a difficult pregnancy for Cora. Something happened to almost promote a miscarriage at the five month mark. It could have been some painting Cora did with an oil-based paint, or the fact that she caught a bad cold with a persistent cough. After several medications for the problem, things finally got straightened out and our beautiful baby girl was born. Connie weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces. This was a much easier delivery than her older brother! Roger had weighted 9 lb 5 oz.

Soon after her arrival, we had to take Connie from the hospital to our doctor’s office. She required vaccination for German Measles. Roger had come down with the disease, and we couldn’t have a newborn subjected to this health risk. Even with the needle, we had to leave Roger with his Grandparents until the danger for Connie had passed.

Harvest Time 1952: Hauka family in the pumpkin patch

Connie was always such a good baby, with very few health problems. When she was about a year old, she suddenly developed a very high fever. Her temperature then dropped to a feeling of ice cold. Cora was home by herself, so was in a real panic when Connie went into convulsions. Cora wrapped her in a blanket and carried her across a field of stubble grain to reach our dear friend and neighbour, Mary Reti. Mary was an R.N. and Cora was sure that she would save our precious baby. Mary grabbed her little daughter Sharon and drove quickly to the hospital. Mary being a Nurse, she was able to get Connie into emergency immediately. Connie spent a couple of days in the hospital until they got her temperature regulated. The diagnosis was that the convulsions were because of a very rapid temperature change. Thank God this never happened again, as Cora said this was the most frightening time in her life.

The Canadian Sugar Factory let us know we could contract to raise ten acres of sugar beets that year, so I went in to sign up and get some information on growing sugar beets. I also went to the Cornwall Canning Company to contract ten acres of sweet corn for their factory.

Cora had always wanted a farm project to make some money she could call her own. She had seen a field of flax and loved the blue colour. Therefore, a small field was allotted to Cora, to grow her crop of flax. We never argued about money. However, Cora was excited that she would have money to call hers, and to spend as she wished. When the crop year started, we decided Cora would have the north east corner of the farm where the irrigation ditches severed off a triangle of land. This was approximately three acres and it was deemed to be Cora’s land, to raise her flax crop. All spring and summer, she excitedly watched her flax grow. On our way to town, Cora announced that her crop was better than any other flax crop she had ever seen. It really was an excellent crop! Cora’s three acres of flax was lower in elevation than the irrigation canal. Water was sub-irrigating her crop all hours of the day. It really pleased her when the flax came into bloom and for two weeks or more it was a perfect sea of blue.

I planted some wheat on the high ground above the canal, a part of our land that couldn’t be irrigated without using a pump with pipes to run the water uphill. I planted another field of oats, wheat and barley seed that would be used for feeding pigs if I bought some in the fall. I then put all my time to preparing the land that would be used to grow the sugar beets and the corn.

Sugar beets were a challenging, labour intensive crop to grow. First, the land for the sugar beets had to be plowed, disked and harrowed. When necessary, the field had to be leveled to insure even irrigation. A home-made wooden float was constructed for this purpose.

The float I made was a wooden structure constructed of 2”x 8”, planks sixteen feet long. These planks were stood on their edge, 8 feet apart. The planks were tied together at both ends with two more 2”x 8” planks, eight feet in length. With one more 8-foot-long plank placed at the center, the long box was divided into two compartments. There was a chain long enough to connect to the two front corners of the float. There was also a center chain connected to the tractor or team of horses. The float was dragged across the field to make the land as level as possible. It was necessary to go over the land two or three times to do a good job.

...to be continued...