A Glimpse of the Past

My grandparents arrived in Edmonton in 1929, German immigrants escaping the Communist takeover of their farmland in the Ukraine. Life was a struggle for the first few decades, as they raised their children. My grandfather, Hugo Bartz, a carpenter, supported his family by building houses and barns.














One of the farms he worked on was the homestead of the Riske family. (Little did he know that, several generations later, the two families would be related in marriage!)














During my recent visit to Edmonton, my cousin Dave (whose wife Cathy is a descendant of the Riskes) took me to see the barn Grandpa built on the former dairy farm, now a garden nursery.














I saw the barn...














... and the house that Grandpa built.














It was interesting to wander among the plants...














... and in the greenhouses.














But this era may also soon end. The nursery may be forced to move - as suburban neighborhoods grow up around them. As city limits grow to include this former farm, taxes increase. How long will the family continue to live on the land their ancestors homesteaded more 100 years ago? No one is really sure. But if a subdivision of new houses moves into the area, the house and barn will probably disappear.