Walter Carlson, one of the four children of Alvar and Margaret Carlson, was born in 1939 on the kitchen table in a farm house in Port Kells, B.C.
Port Kells is now a neighbourhood of the City of Surrey located near the Fraser River and Walnut Grove in the Township of Langley.
Times were hard, his father was unemployed and there was very little work in the area. His mother was a school teacher and heard about and secured a teaching job at Nukko Lake. The young family of Alvar and Margret Carlson packed up and headed north to Nukko Lake. Walter was just three years old.
Time went by and eventually they bought a farm on Eaglet Lake and his mother taught school at Newlands. Newlands was east of Giscome, an original East Line Station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad In 1914 and later nationalized as the Canadian National Railway.
The school burned to the ground in the winter of 1944 and thankfully it was rebuilt one year later; the newly built school house no longer exists today.
Walter grew up on a farm at Eaglet Lake. His father worked as a logger, he fellED trees and worked with a cross cut saw; he was a master of the big axe. The entire family worked the farm which provided for them quite nicely.
He nearly finished Grade 8 when his father had a stroke and was no longer able to work.
They sold the farm and held an auction to sell everything. In 1952 and at the age of 13 his family packed trunks and boxes with the intention of moving to Sweden. They took the train from Prince George and then east across Canada to Halifax and then boarded a steamboat to Sweden.
Walter said, "I was a teenager and it was a wonderful time for me. We had terrible storms as we crossed the ocean; it was a great adventure for me.
"We arrived in Sweden and I was put into Grade 6 because I did not speak the language. Of course, by that point in time I was no longer interested in school; I wanted a job and I wanted to earn some money. My parents wrote a letter to the school stating that I had completed Grade 8 in Canada so I was allowed to leave school and I found a job. I worked as a delivery boy at a local store and 15 months later we returned to Canada.
"We took the same boat back to Canada and then the train to Eaglet Lake.
"My parents bought another farm on Eaglet Lake and over the years my father, my two brothers, my sister and I created the Lone Oak Ranch. I took Grades 9 and 10 by correspondence and completed Grade 11 in Prince George. I wanted to go to university so I took Grades 12 and 13 by correspondence and from there I attended UBC in Vancouver.
"What a shock for me when I arrived in Vancouver. Everything was so foreign to me with all the tall buildings. It was really something and I remember it well when the youngster from the backwoods went to the city. I went to school for the next nine years and graduated from the University of Guelph in 1970 with a degree in animal nutrition."
It was while he was studying at university that Walter met Kathleen Freeman, a student from England.
Kathleen was born, raised and educated in North Shields Northumberland in the United Kingdom. She earned a degree in agriculture at Nottingham University, completed her studies and earned her Masters degree in Agriculture Science at the University of Guelph where she met Walter. They were married in 1968 in England and then moved to Edmonton to continue their research in animal nutrition.
In 1973, the young couple and their two children moved to Lone Oak Ranch to follow their life's dream of living on a ranch. In fact, Kathleen wanted to marry a farmer ever since she was four years old.
She lived her dream life out at the Lone Oak Ranch and loved being a mother to their children, working the land for their kitchen garden and managing the beef herd.
Sadly, Kathleen passed away in 2012 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Walter and Kathleen had two children Anita (Peter) Williamson and Alvar (Kristy) who in turn gave them five grandchildren.
Walter reflected back and said, "I am 79 years old and I observed many changes during all those years. The changes to transportation for example were huge. The train was once the only means of long distance transportation. We had the team of horses that either pulled a load of logs, a wagon or a sleigh. There were few roads and even then, the roads were covered over with grass and dandelions; now everything is blacktop.
The changes in the logging industry have also been dramatic. The practice used to be selective logging, or partial forest removal, with limits on the diameter of the trees that were left standing. Wisely the small trees were left and now they are logging some of those very same areas. Now they are clear cutting everything and replanting the area to make sure it will grow back again. The mature timber has to be cut before new and young timber can grow for the next cycle.
Walter concluded by saying, "My interest has always been in the agricultural industry and in particular raising good quality beef. Back in the 40s, homesteading and working the land was the way to get started. You needed the skills necessary for pioneer living and growing a product to feed people was important. It was and is a way for survival and an income. It was a way of life that provided a farmer with a place to live and a great place to raise a family.
"Like transportation and logging, the agricultural industry has undergone some dramatic changes. There is still room and great potential for the small farmer, for local food production and a good life on a farm.
"Raising food locally and organically and working together with other local producers will become even more important in the near future. More and more people need to step out of their box in the city and consider going into local and healthy food production not just for survival but for an income and a great way of life."
