A vanishing way of life, when small-farm chores filled the days.
By Willy Waterton // Photo by Willy Waterton
I first met the Ward sisters in 1986 after stopping to purchase their farmgate eggs. When I first asked Sadie and Wilma if I could photograph them, they were reluctant to allow me to document their lives, understandably as they lived alone. So I visited weekly during the summer helping with chores, never lifting a camera until September when they felt comfortable with me photographing their daily life.
The sisters carried on the family tradition of farming. It started when their father, Walter Ward, bought 98 acres at the north end of Bass Lake in 1904 for a cream operation. After his death in 1951, the Ward sisters ran the farm in northern Grey County by themselves with only seasonal help. Their day began at 6:30 a.m. when they milked 13 Holsteins and it ended 15 hours later after a second milking. Daily chores—caring for the cows, laying hens and 80 market pigs—took up most of their day. Asked why they continued to farm after 35 years, Sadie, then 64, said, “We both enjoy it—partly because you are your own boss.”
Wilma, then 66, said her last holiday had been in 1967: “I went to Expo and I haven’t missed a milking since.”
Their day began at 6:30 a.m. when they milked 13 Holsteins and it ended 15 hours later after a second milking.
I continued to buy their eggs and enjoyed their friendship until their deaths at ripe old ages—Sadie at 81 in 2002, Wilma at 89 in 2009.
Their lovesome way of life is also slipping away from the landscape, along with diversified 100-acre family farms. Today, modern agriculture demands larger acreage and bigger machinery to be financially viable. The average farm size in Ontario is now 249 acres with many in the 500-plus range. According to Statistics Canada, the counties of Bruce, Grey and Simcoe have seven farms working 5,000 or more acres!
