Owls In The Family
Chapter 10
Wooden Grain Elevator
• Thirty miles south of Saskatoon was a little
village called Dundrurn. It consisted of a
garage, a couple of houses, and two red
wooden grain elevators.
Reed Beds
• The lake was about the best place for ducks
and geese and other water birds in the whole
of Saskatchewan. The reed beds along its
shores were full of wildlife.
Sloughs
• Between Dundrun
and the
Sasdatchewan River
was a huge expanse
of virgin prairie, and
right in the middle of
it was a slough so
big it was almost a
real lake.
Prairie Birds
• The reed beds along
its shores were full
of yellow-headed
blackbirds,
bitterns, coots, and
grebes.
More Prairie Birds
• The reed beds along
its shores were full
of yellow-headed
blackbirds, bitterns,
coots, and grebes.
Ducks
• Out on the open
water you could
sometimes see two
or three hundred
families of ducksmallards, pintails,
shovelers, and lots
of other kinds.
More Ducks
• Out on the open water you could sometimes see two
or three hundred families of ducks-mallards, pintails,
shovelers, and lots of other kinds.
More Prairie Fowl
• Sometimes there were flocks of whistling
swans; and in the autumn so many geese
stopped to rest that they almost hid the water.
The Mowat’s Prairie Schooner
• Every summer we
used to camp for a
couple of weeks
near Dundurn in a
four-wheeled
caravan my father
had built. The
caravan was fixed
up like a little ship
called a schooner.
Ship Parts
• It had ship’s bunks,
a ship’s galley
(which is what
sailors call a
kitchen), ship’s
lamps, and a ship’s
clock.
The Rumble-Seat
• Our Ford was a
convertible with a
rumple-seat. (A
rumble-seat,
something cars
don’t have any
more, was a sort of
folding seat placed
where the trunk is
on a modern car.
Motorcycle Goggles
• Because his eyes
used to get sore
from the dust of the
prairie roads, Mutt
had to wear
goggles-the same
kind that motorcycle
riders wear.
Muskrat Home
• For a while Dad
paddled in the open
lake, and then we
began to explore the
reed beds. Soon we
came to a
muskrat’s house
with a mallard duck
on top of it.
The “Black Devils”
• As soon as they saw
Wol the crows forgot all
about being cautious,
and about my father’s
gun, they gathered in
clouds and began
diving at Wol. The war
with the crows lasted
unitl Dad was out of
amunition.