Bernard Preston purchased the 100 acre farm at Lot 3, Concession 12, North Monaghan Township, Peterborough County in 1925. With a loan from his father, he and my grandmother began their life together, following their wedding January 21, 1925.  I remember him telling me and anyone who would listen, that the day they moved, was the coldest day in his memory. Late-January. Buffalo robes would not keep his new wife Blanche or him warm, hauling household belongings by horse from Lindsay in an open sled. The distance was 38 kilometers. A trip with a loaded sledge and pulled by horse at 3 miles an hour, would have been an 8 hour trip! Weather records for January 28, 1925, the high was -16C and the low -38C in Peterborough. Whether or not they moved that day, the entire week was brutal. Imagine that trek and arriving to a cold house. Ouch! Oh, the warmth of new lovers.

Here is the house and barn, April 1926. Looks pretty bleak – but when things warmed up – green and bountiful!  It was a fine productive farm, light loam, with a gentle rolling terrain. The back eight acres were the sugar bush, the rest all arable.

My grandparents were hard working, not for complaining (maybe a little bit) but digging down and getting on with it. Life provided set-backs, The Depression, poor crop years, the War Years, but they thrived. So, when times are hard, just get on with it.