Prompt # 51 - First Home

Prompt # 51 - First Home

I lived in my first home for 17 years, a farmhouse five miles from Oak River, Manitoba. (10-13-22, section, township, range) The house stood atop a small hill in the middle of fields, beside the pasture, with a fence separating the barnyard and granaries. The house had been built in 1891. It was surrounded by a windbreak of American elm, Manitoba maple, and poplar. It was about a half mile from the main road, which is unusual. The house was located before the survey for government road allowances had been made. This meant that the lane was long and winding, curving past two sloughs which had water in spring and bulrushes all year. The second slough also had muskrat houses. I loved living on the farm. I've written about the pasture, my favourite escape. And about the fact that nothing remains. House, yard, barn, barnyard, trees have all been bulldozed and the land broken, folded into the fields. So now it is truly a magic place which exists only in memory.