Cold drink

89-year-old Lawrence Hanson from the Cereal district bundled up on Saturday afternoon and carried an old paint pail of water from the cattle waterer to the barn to provide a drink for their goats and cats.

Lawrence’s wife Nancy, says that Lawrence began doing the farming when he was 12. His father and uncle homesteaded here in 1912, moving from Minnesota. He received a Special Areas Award in 2012 as he has lived on the family farm all these years.

Lawrence attended the Chicago Training School (now N.A.I.T.) to learn diesel and automotive mechanics, and welding. After his parents died he took over the farm. He began to rent out the farmland to a neighbour in May of 2013 after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

Even though Lawrence believed he would work forever, Nancy says that he sent his cattle to market last September.

“Our lives are so comfortable. A bit of exercise and fresh air is good for us old folks,” said Nancy.