Building a house

Shortly before Bertha married Elmer, his father died.

So his widowed mother, Marie, asked the newlyweds to come and live and work on her farm at Emu Creek, which they did for a year.

"She couldn't get anyone to help with the farm," says Bertha.

"So we worked up there.

"We built a little house of our own and worked on the farm for a year.

"Pop (Elmer) didn't like farming… he didn't like dairying and the cows had to be milked and looked after.

"So we left and Grandma sold the farm."

This is believed to be the house that Elmer built on the former Skjonnemand farm .

(image: Paul and Trish Skjonnemand personal collection)