A bit of my history

Whenever I tell someone that I have 10 siblings one of the first things they say is that we must have had a big house. I try to explain that no we actually lived in pretty small places most of my life. 

Our place in Montana was the biggest house we ever lived in. It would've been a decent house size for 11 kids (if we had had that many at that time), but we only had 8 when we moved from there. 

We moved to Melville, SK and had a three bedroom rancher style house. We immediately turned the rumpus room in the basement into the 'girls room' packing in 4 beds for the 4 oldest girls. It was damp and moldy most of the time and us four developed a lot of allergies there. 

The bedrooms upstairs were used for the little girls, (who at that time were Martha and Priscilla, later on when Ruth was born, Martha moved downstairs), the boys, and the parents. 

Later on dad cut a door in the side of the cistern wall, they put in carpet, hung a light, painted the walls and that became the boys room. 

Where we rented in Bonners Ferry, ID was a bit bigger, but we moved out after 11 months. We moved back to SK and this is the house we moved to. 

Four small bedrooms and a tiny room down stairs. Naomi, Ellie and Martha spent the winter months sleeping in the living room, then in the summer months they moved out to the 'sun room'. 

The boys shared one room, little girls had one (Cilla, Ruth and Sara), Hannah and I shared one, and the parents had the fourth bedroom.  

My family still currently lives in this house. But it's a little more suited for size now that half the children have moved out. 

The little girls (Ruth and Sara) have one room, Cilla has her own room, and the two remaining boys share a room, although Ezekiel will be gone soon logging. 

We crammed 13 people in this house along with the occasional calf or lamb that needed extra care. 

Such as this surprise February calf that had to come in to dry off. 

He didn't stay in the box for long. 

I think we survived because us kids were never in the house for long. Even if it was -40* we would be outside if we didn't have to be in the house. If it was cold we stuck to the barn/tackroom/bush but if it was warm, who knew where you'd find a kid. :-) 

You could find us in the front lawn, playing volley ball. 

You might find us heading out for a ride.

Or you might find us miles away from home, going to the neighbour's for coffee. 

Growing up was rough, and in a small house it was even tougher. But it got better as soon as I could leave the house and just go hang out with my siblings and visit a few friends. I spent a lot of time on horses, riding to town to get the mail, riding to my friends' place to have coffee and a visit. 

And that is your random, little bit of my history, post. :-)