Wayne Abbott, Local Author

You can purchase a copy of this exciting novel right here at Daniels Store and Marina!

​

Excerpts from the book "Born to be in the Bush" by Wayne Abbott

​

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

​

I dedicate this book to Ruby Foley.  A dear, sweet lady who, thirty-five years ago, told me, "You have a story to tell so get your act together and write a book!!" Around countless campfires over the years dozens of people have told me the same thing, so here it is.  I had no idea how much fun it would be or I would have started on it years ago.  When I sat up out of a sound sleep one night listening for my tethered horses from years before, after a long evening of writing, I realized how deeply I could get back into the past.

​

This project couldn't have happened without my wife Lorraine's patience and understanding while I go through periods of spending more time writing than I do with her.  Having heard many of the stories numerous times makes her my best critic on the written version and she has talked me into many a rewrite with comments like, "Fill it in - add more detail!!"

​

Numerous friends have read bits and pieces and the comments have run all the way from, "The best thing I've ever read!!" to, "I certainly wouldn't waste any of my money on it!!"  My favourite comment I've heard was, "Well, it might make good toilet reading and the ripped out pages could serve another purpose, if you know what I mean!!"

​

I feel I am still "computer challenged" and give a big thank you to John and Riwka Hanemaayer for cleaning up my messes, finding my lost work and in general making this book a reality right through to designing the cover.   Without them I would have chucked this machine out the door a long time ago!!

​

​

CHAPTER ONE

​

The bush has always played an important role in this family.  I have only bits and pieces of information for these last three generations as we really weren't much for keeping records.  I myself am terrible on dates, even of the more important events of my life.  I find it easiest to figure things out by which horse or dog I had, or which house I was living in at the time.  I have few records, written or verbal, passed on about my grandfather's life.  Dad quite often didn't see eye to eye with his father and they were both stubborn enough to have this result in long periods of no communication between them.  I mean like years of silence at a time.  I can't imagine how they ever survived any lengthy stays in a trap cabin when they couldn't even agree on how to cook rice, or skin a coyote.

​

My earliest knowledge of granddad stars with him homesteading somewhere in the Vanderhoof area of B.C. and getting married about 1910.  My dad was born on the homestead in 1914, followed by a sister Lucille in 1916.  In 1921 they traveled to Maple Creek Saskatchewan by covered wagon with a single team, where he raised coyotes and tried unsuccessfully to farm. He spent most of his time in the bush, leaving much of the running of both enterprises to grandmother and the kids.  In 1924, they made the trip back to the Vanderhoof area, again by covered wagon and single team. I have a copy of his journal (found in the bottom of his hand-gun box twenty years after his death, with the last pages rotted away) for most of this trip.  I have a picture of Dad and his sister in Trail taken while passing through.  .....

​

​