The Lansdowne Letters: Having a Blast!

Life may have been hard in the northern bush,
but one thing for sure, it was rarely boring!

Even doing laundry could be an adventure
in isolated Lansdowne House a half century ago.

flickr: Peppysis   license

Saturday, October 29, 1960 
My father wrote:

Hi There:
This also is being written on Sunday evening.  
I was a very busy housekeeper Saturday; 
in fact, both of us were.  

This may be a bachelor’s shack, 
but it is the neatest cotton pickin bachelor’s shack 
in the whole Canadian bush.

  Dad Outside His Bachelor's Shack

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada
Photo Likely by Uno Manilla 

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

I got up this morning about seven thirty, 
and after I had breakfast, 
I came back to the shack and got Uno up.  

Then I gathered up all the dirty clothes 
I could find (both mine and Uno’s), 
and I went over to the Father’s and did the wash.  

It was quite a wash because neither of us 
had done any for three or four weeks.

Father Ouimet, Dad, and Brother Bernier

In the Kitchen of the Roman Catholic Mission

Photo Likely by Uno Manilla

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

  
Up here, you don’t do a wash till you have a big one 
because before doing the wash, 
you have to start the pumping engine for water, 
and if there is no wind to turn the wind charge, 
you also have to start the gasoline generator, 
or you will run down the storage batteries.  
There was no wind today.

While I was doing the wash, which incidentally 
took me all morning and part of the afternoon, 
Uno cleaned house.  

He washed and waxed both floors, 
dusted and cleaned everything 
and just had the cottage gleaming 
by the time I was through of the wash.

Uno and Dad with Baby Duncan
Photo Likely by Maureen or Duncan MacRae

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Hanging out the clothes sure had 
an element of excitement today.  
The Brother was blasting all around the yard, 
and the only way to get the clothes up, 
was to dash out between blasts and work like a beaver 
till you heard the Brother’s warning yell, 
and then run for cover till the blast was over.  

Then you went out and resumed hanging 
including any of the clothes that happened to be 
blown off the line by the concussion.  

And I’m not fooling either.  
I actually had a couple of things blown off the line 
during one or two blasts.

It must have been particularly nerve racking 
for poor Uno in the cottage.

Wikimedia  edited

  

Once the Brother
blasted a large rock 
right close to the cottage.
  
It was actually just about
one or two feet away 
from the corner of the shack.  








Before he set that one off, 
the Brother came in and had Uno place 
everything that was breakable on the floor, 
open all the windows, 
in case they were broken by the concussion, 
and then leave the cottage.  

There was one window that we couldn’t get opened, 
and so there was one pane of glass broken – 
also a couple of cups in the cupboard.

It was a good job that the blast by the cottage 
wasn’t as powerful as the one that blew 
some of the clothes off the line, 
or there wouldn’t have been a window left in the cottage.  

The one that blew the clothes off the line 
was stronger than the Brother anticipated. 
Besides blowing a couple of things off the line, 
it also blew ten panes of glass 
out of the east side of the church.

The Father's Island

The Church, the Bachelor's Shack, and the Windcharger

with Maureen Duncan (Baby Duncan's Mother)

Brother Bernier was blasting between the two buildings at the back of the shack.

Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

This evening everyone seemed to land at our shack.  
First Duncan and Brian came over, 
and then the Father and the Brother came over, 
and then Mike stopped in to see us 
while he was making his sick calls over on the Island.  

In the end we had a table of bridge 
going in the front room, 
and a three-handed game 
of cribbage going in the bedroom.

  Different Night, Different Room

Uno and Brian playing Cribbage
Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

All in all, it was a most pleasant evening.  
Quite relaxing, after the bang-up day we spent.

Well, that winds up Saturday, 
so I will sign off for now, 
and get Sunday’s edition written.

Bye now,
Love,
Don.


Fortunately Uno and Dad both liked a clean place.
Their bachelor's shack had only two rooms,
a small front room and a tiny bedroom;
so when company came to call,
their bedroom was pressed into duty.

Two Thirds of a Tiny Bedroom

Baby Duncan Gets Away
Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  All Rights Reserved

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


The Brier Island Nature Reserve 
Bay of Fundy
Photo by Roy MacBeath
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Links to Earlier Posts:

TLL: What's a Teacher to Do?

TLL: Fun Is What You Make It


Notes:  

1.  Room and Board:
     Dad and Uno rented their humble "cottage" from Father Ouimet.
     It came with electricity, cold running water, and a cranky wood stove.
     Dad and Uno joined Father Ouimet and Brother Bernier for meals at the rectory.
        
2.  Brother Bernier:  
     Brother Raoul Bernier ran the sawmill in Lansdowne House.
     He was blasting out a basement for a new church.
     He and Father Ouimet were members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
     a missionary religious congregation in the Roman Catholic Church.

3.  Uno:  The teacher at the Roman Catholic School.

4.  Duncan, Maureen, and Baby Duncan:
     The MacRaes lived on the Mainland.
     Duncan worked for the Department of Transport,
     and his duties included running the DOT Weather Station.

5.  Brian Booth:  The clerk at the Hudson Bay Post.
     
6.  Mike Flaherty:  The nurse at the nursing station.


And for Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Lansdowne House

Sketched on Map of Ontario 

from Atlas of North America:

Space Age Portrait of a Continent

National Geographic 1985, pages 166-167.

Location of Lansdowne House

On River Emptying into James Bay

by Akimiski Island, the Largest Island in James Bay

Wikispaces

Province of Nova Scotia

Brier Island is at the very tip of the long red thin finger in the Bay of Fundy,

and I am at the very tip of the island.

Wikimedia