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Raymond and Evelyn Ledinski
From the time Raymond was five years old he remembers sitting
on his father's knee to drive the two ton truck. When he was six
years he drove the L.A. case tractor, pulling a threshing machine
home from a job. When he was ten he was trusted to drive a brand
new TD9 International Cat from Lofts in Glaslyn to his grandfather's
farm. His dad had bought that 'cat' to work in the sawmill operation
he had going at the time.
The first year Raymond attended the Birch Lake School "under
protest". His uncle Jim told him all the bad things teachers
did to little boys so his mom really had to force him to go .
He took grade one to ten there with Mr. Woytowich as one of his
teachers. He continued grade eleven and twelve and one year mechanics
at the Technical Institute in Saskatoon. He spent one winter working
on building the pulp mills in Hinton, Alberta.
Mechanics was always his favorite work but farming because necessary
after the death of his father in 1964.
In 1957 Raymond traded his 1952 car on his first school bus which
he used to bus the Birch Lake students to Medstead School.
Raymond had electricity put into the farm house in 1957. What
a vast improvement that began to make. The only electrical appliances
they had for the first years were a toaster, a hot plate and an
iron.
In 1959, Raymond married Evelyn Woods, from the Penn district.
He then purchased the home farm and machinery from his mother.
Ray and Evelyn started their family in 1961 when Larry was born.
Diane was born in 1962, Cindy in 1964 and Sharon in 1969. Larry
completed his grade twelve in 1979 and is now working towards
a carpenter and cabinetmaking paper. He eventually intends to
farm as well. The three girls are still in school.
The whole family is involved in the Cater Birch Lake 4-H Club,
hockey, curling and figure skating. It makes for a very busy life.
Raymond and his brother Rich started into the brushing and breaking
business with a D7 Cat in 1963. This has now progressed to three
Cats, and two plows. The farming consists of cattle and grain.
The machinery is much improved and a lot bigger than twenty years
ago.
Raymond built a new house in 1978 and Larry has converted the
old farm house into his carpentry workshop.