(9:24) (After the seven years in Stoney Creek) I went to Bow Summit. That was in November 1965. In March of 1966, they moved me to Kootenay Crossing. In March of 1968, I went to Wood Buffalo. In January of 1972, I went to Waterton. I was there until I retired in 1987, October 1987.

(10:16) Nobody had districts then. They had centralized. In Waterton, I was in charge of fire, weather and trail crew, trails. In Wood Buffalo there were no districts. I was in charge of fire most of the time and looking after the logging companies in the wintertime and the trappers. In Wood Buffalo I was fire boss on 265 fires, in three years! The largest one was 170, 000 square acres! That was the Whooping Crane fire in 1970. Lightening (started it). In 1971, I went out on the first fire on the third of April and actually it was me (that started that one). They were closing out the Sweet Grass Buffalo station, and they had all this garbage in big piles over in what they called the Dog Camp, because they used to use dog teams up there. They summered them at the Buffalo Station. I was over there, I was burning this big pile…pile of junk…wood and crap like that… (It was) the length of these 2 rooms, about as wide and pretty much as high. I built a little fire back quite aways back to cook my dinner, and a little whirl wind came through my camp fire and set the cotton picking country on fire! I had to go eight miles by bombardier and then across the river by boat to get to where (I needed to go for help) because they had already centralized. There was still a radio tower and stuff at the old warden station at Carlson Landing where I could hook onto the high antenna to call for help. They had 25 men and a helicopter out there to work the fire, plus a bulldozer because there was a bulldozer sitting on that side of the river and I took it too. That was the 3rd of April. I was home 5 nights before the 24th of September. The rest of the time I was out on fires, except for the last week before the 24th, when I came out for the warden days in Banff. The warden gymkhana in Banff and an interview in Calgary for an area manager position. Didn’t win either one!

(14:25) (During that fire season, Colleen left Wood Buffalo); she came out to stay in Banff and Canmore. I spent four years up there, (Wood Buffalo) she probably spent two! She got away every summer. Well, the first three years we lived there in Wood Buffalo, we were 100 air miles south of Fort Smith in Carlson Landing on the Peace River. It was pretty isolated…In the spring, you couldn’t go anywhere by boat because the ice was breaking up and in the fall it took about three weeks before it started to freeze up and you could start crossing it.

(15:42) We had a good indicator of when the river ice was tough enough to hold you to go across. There was an old buffalo; he was just over seven foot at the top of his hump. He was around the yard, he’d come in every summer. He hung around there and would disappear in the month of August, during the rut and then he was back. They other buffalo, they’d cross the river, they’d swim. He always brought two or three young bulls back with him when he came. They’d leave (but) he’d be there. You would see him down the river and he’d go out on the ice. Then he’d come back. The next day, he would go a little further. Then finally, it might take him two weeks, but then he’d walk right across the ice in the fall. I knew if he could walk across, that I could cross too, that you could take a truck across. He was a wild buffalo, but he was tame. He’d never bother you. He’d just scare the Jesus out of you! The one time in the spring, I had a scow turned upside down and I was scraping where we painted it. It was on saw horses out in the yard. I was scrubbing away and all of a sudden the buffalo snorted. I cleared that scow, it was six feet! He was standing there looking at me with kind of a smile on his face! He’d sneak up on you, he’d do that all the time. As big as he was, when he would walk you couldn’t hear him. Colleen was out picking berries one time, she was pushing through the bush, and she had Wayne with her. He was what, about three years old. She was right in this little second growth pine, she was going through looking for some berries and she pushed a bush away there was the old bull. His nose was about this far from her face. He never moved. He knew she was there, but she sure didn’t know he was there! She put the bush back and turned around and went the other way. He never moved. We knew it was the same buffalo because he had been wounded sometime or another. He had a rip up his flank, maybe 12 or14 inches long and the hair was grey. He had been ripped by another bull’s horn. We always knew it was the same guy and he never bothered nobody! I walked right into him one night in the dark, didn’t know he was there. He just jumped his back end over, sideways away from me, but never even walked off. He just stood there. But he sure gave me a start. I had a face full of buffalo hair!

(19:58) (Once I retired from the service) I moved up to Sundre in 1987… I had a truck of my own. I used to haul a little bit of hay and cattle and stuff. In 1990/91, I worked as a security guard at Sun Pine, the sawmill there. In July, August and September I worked hauling rodeo stock around and stuff like that. It was a fun job, but no pay. I’m still waiting for my pay! Jasper, Golden, Ponoka, Lacombe, places like that.

(21:29) Then in 1993 Alberta Forestry wanted me to take on this job out west here as backcountry patrol man. I was on that until they deleted the job, September 2006. I was backcountry patrol man in the summer months, then November to February I looked after the guys who had wild horse permits. Keeping them honest, or trying too…

(22:40) Then in 2007, the May long weekend, I started here at Sunset (Guiding and Outfitting). Got my hip broke that fall. I got kicked the first week of July but it didn’t break until Labor Day. I went into emergency…nothing broke just sore muscles. Back to work…On Friday I had to take a four day pack trip up the Panther with four clients from Edmonton. I was the only one who knew how to pack a horse. Here I am with one cane. I had to make up the boxes, pack them, no one else knew how. We were up there for four days, and then I had to pack them out. (I) finished my 10 day shift and then went back out to emergency. That time they x-rayed, but they would not x-ray where I told them, they x-rayed where the horse kicked me. There was nothing there, so I went back out for another 10 days. Finally at Thanksgiving, I couldn’t take it any longer. When it broke off at Labor Day, I was saddling up four people who were going out for a three hour ride. I only had one horse saddled, so I just staggered back into the pack shed, I could hold my leg down here like this. I couldn’t carry out the saddle, so I dragged them out. I’d stand there and throw them on the horse. I got the other three horses saddled. Mine was already saddled, I got on. We had to stop twice on this three hour trip for a pee brake and to get lunch…that was something. Finally, I got in at Thanksgiving with another doctor, he said “Yeah, it is broke…I’m going to send you for a bone scan in Red Deer…” The thing had been broke off for six weeks! It had started to deteriorate. They put in three pins, but that bone just kept deteriorating. Finally in March, 2008 they put a partial hip in. In 2008, I didn’t work. I came out here last spring (2009). This is my third summer here at Sunset. I don’t get holidays too often…