Guarding the Barn
A great horned owl guarding the entrance to the hayloft near Hodgeville, Saskatchewan.
“What’s in Hodgeville?”, people asked when I told them where we were heading for a family reunion. “Not much” I would say, “just an Air BnB best suited to host the whole Friesen family located between Steinbach, Manitoba and Lethbridge, Alberta.”
Upon arrival we were underwhelmed with a rather derelict school turned accommodation location. Like most small towns on the prairie, ‘progress’ has not been kind to Hodgeville. Once a bustling town and a centre for local commerce, many of its businesses are boarded up save for a post office, a local credit union branch, a bar, and a Co-op store. It would be easy to dismiss this little town; leaving it as a footnote to a photo.
But when you stop and look around, the remnants of the town tell a story all their own. A church now surrounded by overgrown trees and bushes reveals a crafted building designed to reflect and support the faith in the community. The old truck sitting in front of the boarded up garage, speaks to a needed mechanic that would no doubt fix anything until one day he was no longer able to service the more complicated vehicles. And then there was the farmyard just a mile out of town that I spotted on a bike ride one afternoon. The grass was long already by late May and judging by the machinery and buildings the space wasn’t used for anything other than storing memorizes of a family farm.
So that evening my dad and I drove out to that farmyard to take a look around while watching the sunset. The fading light cast a beautiful glow across the bungalow that was now home to dozens of swallows. As we walked through the yard, my dad spotted what we thought at first was a hawk flying up into a tree. As we got close we realized it was a great horned owl. The bird left the tree and flew in the direction of the old hip roof barn. I walked toward the barn keeping a healthy distance from where I thought I would find the owl. Sure enough it was sitting up in the window guarding the hayloft.
It was a special moment for sure. My first great horned owl and I got to experience it with my dad.
Just like old towns we can too easily ignore our elders. Like the town of Hodgeville they hold stories that shape our collective lives. A good reminder to stop, observe and listen to the stories they tell. You might be surprised by what you find.
