Reflections from Crumbly Acres: chesterville

Sunday, 27 August 2023

Trip to Chesterville: Part 2

I suppose I should just get this over with: the leaves are turning... The low temperature overnight was 11 C.!

Blue sky, again! We drove out of the clouds. This is ironic, as you will see later. We decided to go on Wednesday, because rain was forecast for the next few days.

This is typical farm country. The corn is nearly done.

Summer line painting!

They are taking trees down for either housing or more farmland.

This was a surprise. Highway #43 is a busy transportation route! It is closed until October.

The gardens and the homes are diverse.

People are fundraising for a care home.

We visited the gravestones.

There is JB visiting his grandfather's family.

This is from the archive (2018), the cedars were gone. I knew when we were there, but I wasn't sure where they used to be.

Off we went. We headed back to town to look for a picnic spot. JB picked this spot out, but it looked like a bunker. I pulled this off Facebook. They have a market here, but there were quite a few people sitting as we drove by. This was my mistake, as you will read later.

We kept on going. Carefully!

The season unfolds...

Monday, 4 October 2021

Trip to Chesterville Part 2

This is the town where JB grew up. Also, where his family are buried. It's over an hour to drive it, from home.

From the cemetery [🌲Trip to Chesterville Part 1], we went into town. It is a rural farming community.

We visited the Chesterville and District Heritage Museum back in June 2016. JB donated some things he found in Perth at the consignment store.

This is the house JB moved to when the family moved into town (below). His grandparents sold the farm, which didn't have running water or hydro in the 50s. His grandparents had the room on the right, which could have been an office, back in the day. It is an old house. A new owner said they found old newspapers in the walls. They didn't have insulation back then.

The house is right across from the post office. JB's mother worked here for 30 years, supporting the four of them. As a teenager, JB used to help his mom lift the heavy bags after school. He popped in Friday, with a mask, to check it out. We had a letter to mail! The Post Office has a lovely garden.

This house, next to the post office, was the Sullivan's house. He was a road contractor. JB worked for him periodically, as he flipped houses. JB would paint the houses for him.

From here, we head to the old farm. I noticed a wind farm in the distance.

JB's grandparents sold the farm it to another family. The pond was dug by subsequent owners who wanted a pond fish. There were several ducks in the pond.

The pond is where the farm house stood. It was torn down. He doesn't remember the willow tree, it must have been a sapling in the 50s, we surmised. We had a lovely chat with the current owners. A fun couple, with a young child. They liked JB's stories about the old farm house.

This house (below) replaced the old farm house, and the current owners told us that they had moved the bungalow from the flooded homes during the building of the Seaway Project.

The Seaway project had two purposes. Primarily it was to provide Eastern Ontario and Upstate New York with much low-cost hydroelectric power. Secondly, replacing the antiquated 110 year-old Cornwall Canal, with a system that could handle the larger ocean-going shipping vessels, was needed to provide greater access to the inland ports on the Great Lakes. Read more here: Lost Villages Museum near Cornwall, Ontario.

The current owners don't own the fields, it's their uncle who does. After JB told them the story about getting lost in the back 40, they sent us back through the new road they built. We said farewell.

First, we waved to the chickens! The old barn, the milking shed, used to be here.

This is the forest, where JB walked with the dogs and got lost. He must have been 5 years old, he thinks. Victor Moss, a neighbour, heard the dogs barking and saved little JB's life!