No matter where you live, you will have a connection and appreciation for where you live. Those who live on the coast long for the smell of salt from the sea and the misty morning. The mountain men find beauty in the snow-capped peaks and the sun rising over the mountains. Even those in urban populations live for the bright lights and big city. Wherever, you live, you find something to come home to every night. As rancher, I feel an even deeper connection to my home and land since it is my entire life and it is what sustains my family. Without the ranch, I don't know where I would be.
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| The view from the trees |
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and life of their own
Of course, there are some people who want to find a dream and life of their own, far from where they grew up. My great-grandpa Billy Wise traveled from California to Alberta, and my other great-grandpa E.J.C. Boake settled in Alberta after growing up Ontario. Another person who left the home he grew up in to find a new one was my very own dad. Growing up as a dairy boy outside of Newmarket, Ontario, Dad was surrounded by trees, saw a farm every half mile, and never saw the stars. He had a dream to live in the wide open spaces.
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| The irrigator running on a calm Summer evening |
Think I'll go out to Alberta
Weather's good there in the fall
I got some friends that I can go a' working for
Dad flew to Alberta when he was 16 years old to visit his older brother who was working for some Shorthorn people. Dad couldn't believe how open the land was. You could drive for miles and there would still just be open space. And he could see the stars. Just a couple years later, Dad met Mom, who was cousins with those very Shorthorn breeders that Dad worked for. They got married and had my sister and I, and Dad started the home and life he had always wanted. His dream came true. You can go anywhere and it can become home.
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| This is my sky |
I'm proud of the house we built.
It's stronger than sticks, stones, and steel.
It's not a big place sittin' up high on some hill.
A lot of things will come and go but love never will.
My dad built my family's house when I was a baby just a few kilometers north west of my grandparents ranch. My house is built on the edge of our pasture on a hill that is overtaken by crocuses come spring time. There are ponds and sloughs north, east, west, and south of the house, and every sunrise and sunset is beautiful. There are a few trees but other than that, there is just wide open prairie. I go to bed listening to the snipes, frogs and crickets and wake up to the meadowlarks. The beauty all around me has given me a true appreciation to the land that I never want to lose. When I leave home this fall to embark on a new journey at university, I know that I will miss home. It is important, though, that I leave to start a new life else where to find myself and grow even more as a person. But I know that the distance won't change my love for the place that I grew up. You have to leave before you can come back, but along the way, you may just find home.
Hey, it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes, 'n, hey it's good to be back home again
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| Country roads take me home, to the place I belong |
*Song lyrics used-
Wide Open Spaces, The Dixie Chicks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlDPPu53V80
Four Strong Winds, Ian Tyson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC50XxmgDCg
Proud of the House We Built, Brooks and Dunn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNQk6gh4PK0
Back Home Again, John Denver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1sjOg8TFYw
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