I, Austin Eugene David, was born on November 11, 1915 on Dad's homestead 12 miles NE of Malta, Montana in Philips County. I lived there till I was 4 years old in 1919. I don't remember much up to this time. I can remember about a mile from the yard a gate had to be opened for the horse and buggy. Also I can remember playing around a small barn with 2 doors. One day Marion and I were playing in the barn, I ran in one door just when a rattle snake was coming through the other one.

In 1919 we moved down 6 miles from Malta on 40 acres of irrigated land. We were 1/2 mile from Strator School. At that time in Montana there was ranching and everybody it seemed was a cowboy. All kids practiced roping fence posts and once I roped one of dad's pigs. It couldn't have been very big, but it was too big for me. Dad just happened to come in the yard before I choked it to death. He rescued the pig and I learned not to try that again. I don't remember at what age I started to ride a horse or milk a cow but it just seems like I was always doing it. We had a gray mare, old Trixey and we would ride her around the yard whenever we wanted to.

I started school when I was 5 years old as the teacher boarded at our place. School was easy for me but I always hated it, it was just a waste of time as far as I was concerned. From as early as I can remember I never wanted to do anything but farm and drive or ride horses.

In July 1923 we moved back to Saskatchewan when I was seven years old. We came in three wagons with eight horses and one wagon was a hay rack with a canvas cover over it. Dad, Mother and Uncle Horace drove the three wagons and we were about two weeks on the road. At that time there was still enough open prairie that we could camp at night, hobble the horses and let them graze. There was one bed in the wagon and we would roll beds under the wagons. We got back here to Dad's original homestead about the 15th of July, 1923. He had come up early and put in the crop.

The end of August, 1923, I started to Mundie School. About the only difference in the work was instead of "zee" you were supposed to say "zed". I still hated school but I studied because you either had to finish grade 8 or be 15 years old and I figured I could beat that. We walked 1 1/2 miles to school most of the time. Sometimes in bad weather in the winter we would drive one horse. We learned the usual things; how to smoke and some to chew. In the fall of 1927, I was the only one in Grade 7 and Lehman Johnson, the only one in Grade 8 so the teacher put me up with him to save teaching one grade. In the spring of 1928 the Department of Education changed the rules so you had to go to town and write a departmental exam. I got lucky and passed so that was the end of my school. I still have my Diploma from the Department saying I passed my Grade 8. I am 74 years old now and have never regretted quitting and I would still rather go to jail than to school.

In the fall of 1925 I missed a few days of school in harvest and drove a team on a grain wagon hauling to town from the threshing machine. I drove an old team of Uncle Horace's. One horse was fast and one was really slow. They were an awful team to drive and in 1926 I stepped up to Dad's best team, Prince and Dick. They were well broke and quiet but a real good team. In the spring of 1926 on May 24th was my first full day's work with an outfit of four horses in the field. In the fall of 1928 Dad was just ready to start cutting with two binders. Leonard Thompson was hired to drive one. Uncle R came up from California so I went on the binder for the whole crop. That was the last time we ever had a hired man.

In the winter of 1928 and 1929 I was home. We had chores to do and wheat to haul with teams. I did some trapping; weasels and muskrats. I also caught three coyotes that winter. 1929 was dry with very poor crops. That fall the depression started, cattle, wheat and everything dropped so fast you couldn't keep track of it. In 1932 wheat got down to 22 cents that fall. I saw a good bunch of spring Hereford calves in the stock yard in Ogema that could have been bought for $5.00 a head but nobody had any money. The farming got poorer as nobody could afford to work the land right. Some people got government freight and moved north into the bush. The ones that stuck it out ended up the best off twenty years later.

The young people didn't suffer that much. Nobody had any more than you did. We had school house card parties and dances with pick-up music. The men would put in 10 cents each for a pound of coffee and a gallon of gas for the light and the women would bring sandwiches. Most people on the farm had their milk, butter, eggs and meat.

In 1935 I started going with Edith. I didn't spend much on courting. I hauled a lot of water for stock and in the fall of 1934 I went north to harvest and came home about $40.00 richer.

The year 1937 was the daddy of them all. The grass or nothing got green until fall when we got some rain. That fall I went down to Malta and worked and made $50.00.

In 1938 the drought started to break and I rented a half section that was the first year we farmed with a tractor. In the fall of 1937 we traded all but four horses for a Rumely tractor. In 1938 the crop was rusted but I had rented from the Loan Co., and they furnished Tratcher Wheat. I got about 600 bushel of wheat worth about 80 cents per bushel. That September of 1938 Edith and I got married. We furnished the house for $50.00 at a second hand store. In 1939 the depression was starting to let up a little. That fall World War II started and that took at the unemployed and put some money in circulation.

In 1939 our first baby was born dead at birth.

In 1940 we had a real good crop but it was only worth 53 cents for No. 1. The price was kept down to help the war effort and during the first half of the 1940's I got a little better tractor a 15-30 McCormick and a 7‚ John Deere tiller. We milked some cows and shipped cream. Prices stayed low and times were tight. Eugene was born in 1942, George in 1944 and Jim in 1945.

In the fall of 1946 we had a sale and went to B.C. Things were not all that good there and we were back in a month.

For about 10 years, Edith boarded teachers and we lived in Raymond Lacaille's house and boarded him. Dad and I had been farming together and in 1947 he sold out to me. That nearly finished me again as had to take what he had coming to move to town. 1948 and 1949 were light crops and we had it pretty hard. In 1950 the crop was good and prices were better and we started to get ahead. That year I got my first rubber-tired tractor and the next year a 12‚ discer. In 1952 I bought my first new tractor, a 44 Massey, price $2,700.00 and the next year I got a 8‚ Massey Combine and a used 1 ton truck.

In the spring of 1956 I rented Raymond's section and that doubled my land. I also bought some of his machinery. From then on we went ahead. I worked his land for ten years and got some fairly good machinery. The boys finished school, Eugene went to work in the city, George and Jim finished in 1962. That year we rented Bothwell's section that George always farmed. Jim left for 3 or 4 years and worked as a mechanic and for Cocshutt. He then came back and we farmed a partnership, A.E. David & Sons.

Through the years we bought land as we could get it and by the mid 1970's we had 17 quarters clear. In 1965 we built a new house on the farm and did away with the old homestead house. The late 1970's were the most prosperous this country and perhaps the world has ever seen, $6.00/bushel wheat and good demand. My wife, Edith Winni-fred Martin, was born May 13, 1919 a twin daughter of John and Charolotte Martin, the postmaster in Amulet, Sask. Being of Scotch descent she and her twin sister Elsie were taught to do the Highland fling at a very early age. At the age of 12 her father passed away and her mother continued to run the post office. The girls learned to look after the house and help carry mail and help in the post office. They took their schooling in Amulet and in 1938 Edith married Austin David and became a farm wife.

I sold out to George and Jim in 1980 and Edith and I have retired and have a home in Ogema. We both have good health and I still like to get out to the farm and drive the tractors. I think I have seen the most prosperous times and the hardest times this world will ever see and change from oxen power on farms to the air-conditioned tractor of today. I have had a good life and wouldn't change anything if I could. My only wish is that I could roll time back and take another run at it.
- A.E. David, 1990 Age 74

Dad enjoyed his retirement as he was always welcome to come to the farm and contribute in what ever way he could be he also had the freedom to not come if he didn't fee like it. Mom fell victim to Alzheimers and Dad took over the household duties one at a time as her condition dictated. He was finally giving her total care until 1996 when it became impossible for him to continue. She then lived in Souris Valley Extended Care Home until her death on November 11, 2002. Dad's health was getting worse by then and he moved to the Personal Care Home in Bengough, where he lived until his passing on November 28, 2004. Dad was always a realist and he met life head on. All his life he was always willing to help people out in whatever way he could. Through all the years that he looked after Mom, I never once heard him raise his voice to Mom or complain about his lot in life. He always seemed to know in his own mind when it was time for change. When he quit farming he was always there if we asked for his advice but he always respected our decisions. He decided on his own terms that he could no longer live alone and he went to the Home in Bengough. He knew when it was time to quit driving and he did.

He never gave up his independence. He broke his hip on November 5, 2004 and decided he better get it fixed because "I might just need it for a couple years yet". Right after he broke his hip, he was restrained in the wheel chair with a seat belt. He could see no real good reason for that so he cut the seat belt, but he cut in a way that it could be repaired. When he returned to Bengough he was determined to walk and he walked the hallway with his walker until two days before he died.

For 89 years Dad lived his life with an enthusiasm that I envy very much. His very happiest times were when the family was together and his family and the farm were the two most important things in his life. As he stated in the history he wrote: "I have had a good life and wouldn't change anything if I could. My only wish is that I could roll time back and take another run at it". - Jim David
Arrangements were entrusted to Fletcher Funeral Chapels, Weyburn, Sask.