August, 2015
I always looked
forward to visits with Donald. No one else will
ever greet me with that twinkle and a little jab, “You’ve put on a pound or two.”
And he always had so much going on.
Once when
we arrived, Donald was heading out with a little pail in his hand to gather the
eggs. He was disappointed to find that
one of the eggs was cracked. A hen had
laid an egg onto some others.
Another time, Donald
was out checking his traps; he came in with a coyote. Buzzards lent him a
hand that winter; he’d hang up a skinned coyote where his traps are and
when other coyotes saw buzzards congregating, they headed for the same
spot . . .
He loved
gardening. Karen
said he used to be out at 6 am working in his huge garden. (Once, he had trouble finding carrot seeds
but finally came up with some in Russell.
“It’s too late to put those in,”
the guy said, but Karen & Donald had a laugh because they said the carrots would
be just perfect in late fall – take them out just before the ground freezes.) Donald even put in some of those new Haskap
bushes – a cross between raspberries & blueberries that’s being developed
in Saskatoon.
Bees were his latest interest. He was going to buy bees at an auction for
about $150.00 but “The government will pay half,” he chuckled, “because they’re
paying me to trap nuisance beavers.” I
asked if he ever tried cooking the beaver tails (which I’d read were considered
a delicacy by native people) but the tails had to be sent off in order to
collect the bounty.
Donald’s dog, Butch,
got to eat the rest of the beavers.
Every time we
went, we’d go to Birtle for a Chinese dinner.
Donald’s favourite dish was sweet and sour shrimp, very lightly breaded.
Then we'd go home; our car loaded up with vegetables and honey and the pickles Donald made.
Manitoba has lost so much colour now that my brother Donald
is gone.