Trees Tell a Story

If only these evergreens could talk...

- Vi Hughes

I grew up on a hobby farm in British Columbia, not far from the sea. I believe that my father and mother were the first owners of the land, having settled there in the early 1940s. They cleared the land with a big workhorse named Dolly, a wagon, and a stone boat. There was no electricity, no telephone, and we drew water from a well.

We kept cows and chickens and grew every kind of vegetable. The cows were a gentle herd of four. They produced milk for us and for the Fraser Valley Milk Producers Association. Every day, my father would load the metal container of milk onto a red wagon, and we would pull it down the road to the highway.