Tall Tales & Rabbit Trails
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance!
~ George Bernard Shaw
~ George Bernard Shaw
100 years of the family farm...
October 15, 2023
According to the government of Manitoba's website at the time of this writing, there are 1892 farms recognized in Manitoba for having been in continuous family ownership for 100 years or more; 144 for 125+ years and just 6 farms in the same family for 150 years or more.
Recently, my family farm was awarded with Century Farm recognition for 100+ years in our family. This only came about after I picked up where my Dad left off. He had originally begun the paperwork to apply for the recognition back in 2018. He was diagnosed with cancer later that year and shelved the project. Early in 2024, I decided to complete the application.
Recently, my family farm was awarded with Century Farm recognition for 100+ years in our family. This only came about after I picked up where my Dad left off. He had originally begun the paperwork to apply for the recognition back in 2018. He was diagnosed with cancer later that year and shelved the project. Early in 2024, I decided to complete the application.
The honourable Member of Legislature, Carrie Hiebert, presenting the Centennial Farm certificate on behalf of the honourable Member of Parliament and Agriculture Minister, Ron Kostyshyn.
Below are the certificates and letter from the Province.
Below are the certificates and letter from the Province.
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While the application requires proof of ownership in the same family continuously for 100 years, an integral part of the application is also a family history. This is just a 'cliffnotes' version...
In 1918 while living in Altona, my great great grandfather, Peter B Wiebe, purchased a parcel of land, here, in the Burwalde district. The next year, this farm would become his newly wedded son Peter P Wiebe and daughter in law Margaretha Thiessen’s, homestead. Peter and Margaretha were married in December that year, after which they loaded up their belongings into a wagon pulled by a team of horses and travelled the some-30 mile stretch from Altona to Burwalde. A trip that took them most of the day to accomplish. Its hard to imagine that kind of trip in today’s day and age; the middle of winter, bundled up on the front bench of a wagon with all your earthly belongings in the rack behind you, plodding along behind a team of horses for 30 miles of trail. I couldn’t tell you if they were ‘roads’ back then (certainly not paved or even gravel) but a dirt path or just a turkey trail. Either way, I’m sure it was daunting.
Why would they move all the way out Burwalde when both of their families were in Altona? It must have been an opportunity Peter B couldn’t pass up, to help give his son the start he needed. The large swath of oak trees on the property was attractive to my great grandfather as he believed they indicated the land was fertile loam and wouldn’t blow away with the prairie winds. He loved the trees, especially the oak. Peter B was young when he came to Canada, but many Mennonites from Russia felt a connection with the oak tree, having lived near the famous Chortitza Oak in Ukraine. The creek running through the property was an incentive also and it turned out the decision to move all that way and make it their home, was a good one.
Peter and Margaretha raised their family on the homestead while living a busy farming lifestyle. Until tractors were available, all the farm work was done by hand or behind a team of horses; everything from cultivating, seeding and manure spreading to cutting hay and harvesting was done with horse drawn machinery and equipment. Which meant it took a considerable amount of time and effort. Recollections of my great grandfather’s hired man, John, tell of how he could plow 5 acres a day with a 2-share plow. Seeding took a couple of months and cutting 20 acres a day during harvest was considered a good day. We still have an original horse drawn drill seeder that was used by my forefathers and many other old farming relics have their resting place overgrown by the woods on the farm. It wasn’t until the early 1940s before my great grandfather bought his first tractor – a John Deere AR on steel lugs. Even after purchasing the tractor, many of the farm tasks were still done the old-fashioned way in the following years as many of the implements were not adaptable for use with the tractor and couldn’t be immediately replaced with new ones that were. From the beginning, horses were an integral part of the Wiebe Farm.
Peter P was also said to enjoy spending time in the woods walking in nature. It’s also where he experimented with small gardens where he would try his hand at growing different or unusual seeds such as millet, alfalfa, or canary seed which he would later dry in the farm’s summer kitchen. He also enjoyed tinkering in the schmaed (or workshop) which was something that passed down to my grandfather, Frank, as I remember many days spent in the schmaed tinkering with Grandpa or secretly savouring chocolate bars he hid out there from Grandma. While working in the shop was just a part of farm life with having to fix and maintain your own equipment, it became more of a hobby for Peter P in his retirement years.
On 3 October 1921, my grandfather Frank was born the only boy among girls, having just 3 sisters: older sister Esther and younger sisters Alvina and Marjorie. A family of just 4 children was considered small for a Mennonite family of the time.
As a young boy, Frank attended the Burwalde School from grade 1 to 8 as did my Dad, Rick.
Grandpa apparently wasn’t much into sports or even riding a bicycle which most boys do, but rather, he loved horses. He loved to ride horses and he loved to drive them hitched to a buggy or wagon. This is where the love of horses and their significance to the Rocking W Ranch really began to develop. Where they had always been a valuable tool for a successful farm, they were to fully become a way of life.
Frank married Anne Loewen on 1 October 1949 and they moved into the main house on the farm while Peter P and Margaretha moved into a small bungalow across the yard. It is there they raised their family of 4; Rick coming along in September 1950 and Margo in 1956. In 1963 is when Frank bought the farm from his father.
The same year Frank took over the farm, just 5 years before his father passed away, he had the opportunity to get into the Equine Ranching Industry, also known as PMU. Grandpa had one of the first PMU operations in Manitoba, where urine is collected from pregnant mares to produce a menopausal supplement for women using the estrogen in the urine. It was the start of 40 years in the business for Frank and later, my Dad Rick.
Grandpa and Dad looked for ways to improve the viability and sustainability of the business and that of the foals raised through the pregnant mares. They were the first Equine Ranchers in Manitoba to use registered mares in their barns. Grandpa found and purchased a group of registered Appaloosas (which he always had a soft spot for all his life) then later added Quarter Horses and Paint Horses. Many horses of good quality and bloodlines were raised, bought and sold on the farm over the years.
Grandpa loved to share his love of horses with others and made sure that anyone who came to him looking for a horse for themselves or their kids, got exactly the horse they needed. Many young horse lovers got their start at the farm mucking stalls for the chance to ride Grandpa’s horses. I still have people coming to me today, reminiscing of the day they bought their first horse from my Grandpa and how special he and that horse was to them.
Dad began training horses at an early age and got to be quite a hand with them. People came from far and wide to not only buy horses from the farm, but to have them trained. Dad trained horses for a lot of folks, including some quite wealthy families from the city (Winnipeg). His skills were sought after and he trained horses of all breeds and disciplines, but his favourite kind of horses were a cowboy’s kind of horse. Dad was a cowboy a heart. Dad had plans to move out west to Alberta cowboy country when Grandpa and Grandma offered him the farm to keep him home. Dad accepted and the land transferred to him in 1973.
Frank unfortunately suffered a stroke in the 70s and again the late 80s which prevented him from continuing to work on the farm, though he loved to be a part of the action as much as he could, even if the role was ‘supervisor’. He really enjoyed watching his granddaughters, myself and my sister Tanya, ride our horses and never missed a local fair horse show, gymkhana or rodeo as long as someone would take him.
Dad continued to run the PMU business and strived to raise quality registered horses, continually improving the program whenever he could. In 1986 began a 31 year career of running horse auction sales. The Rocking W Ranch Production Sale’s small beginnings started in the arena at the Miami Fairgrounds as a way to market the ranch’s PMU foals. In the coming years, other ranchers would join in, bringing their foals to the Production Sale, including Ryan Reichert from Thornhill area and Doug Griffin from Darlingford to name just a couple. In time, the sale outgrew the Miami fairgrounds and moved to the Heartland Livestock Yards in Brandon and eventually, the Brandon Keystone Centre. The Rocking W Horse Sales became western Canada’s premier production and consignment horse auctions, bringing in horses as well as buyers, from all over Canada and the United States. It’s humble beginnings as a foal production sale expanded to include the sale of several PMU producer’s foals each year to all breeds and disciplines of horses on consignment from various sellers. There were some fantastic years with high sales but in the early 2000s, the horse market got to be pretty tough with sinking prices. Dad tried to stick it out and believed with all his heart that if the producers just held on, things would get better. Eventually, the time came to hang up his hat and the last Rocking W Horse Sale auction happened in September of 2017. The market would eventually turn around a few years later and now in 2024, the horse market is as high as it’s been in as long as I can remember. Dad was right.
The farm was also known for various other activities over the years. In the 1990s especially, people flocked to the farm in winter for Dad’s famous sleigh rides through the woods of our farm. People still call to this day, wondering if we still do sleigh rides and reminisce about their memories from bygone years, riding the sleigh pulled by a team of horses through the woods. I still remember Dad coming in from a ride on an especially cold night with a moustache full of icicles. Grandpa loved a good team of horses and for many years was involved in several trail rides in southern Manitoba, driving a team instead of riding a horse, on day and even overnight trail rides through the Pembina Valley. He also participated in the Festival du Voyageur for many years which was a highlight for him, giving sleigh rides to festival goers and took part in many local fair and festival parades. Dad enjoyed team roping and built a team roping arena and many local roping enthusiasts got their start at the ranch. Many lessons, clinics, jackpots, 4H events and ride nights were held at there as well. As kids we were involved in daily farm life and the PMU operation, 4H club, participated in horse shows, gymkhanas and rodeos throughout the years and in 2009 I started the Rocking W Barrel Series which we held annually at the ranch for 10 years until the pandemic shut things down. Many local barrel racers got their start at the ranch. It was the first of its kind in our area and became a premier event in southern Manitoba. Dad loved having the yard full to the fence line with trucks and trailers and people to watch. I continue to produce barrel races across southern Manitoba with the grassroots organization named after my family ranch, Rocking W Barrel Racing Productions, including the Rick Wiebe Memorial Charity Barrel Race in Dad’s honour, supporting South Central Cancer Resource.
The year following the final Horse Sale and the year the farm reached its centennial – 2018 – Dad started the paperwork to have the farm recognized. Shortly thereafter, Dad was diagnosed with cancer and with all that was going on, the paperwork was shelved to focus on treatment and recovery. Over the next couple years, Dad went through the ups and downs of his cancer journey and sadly passed away 6 September 2020, just 6 days shy of his 70th birthday. In the months before he passed, Dad sold his remaining horses in an online dispersal auction sale that ended a significant career in the horse industry to which he left an incredible mark.
I decided to pick up where Dad left off and finish the work he started to have the farm recognized for the 100+ years it has been in our family.
The Centennial Farm presentation was held on October 13, 2024 to unveil the sign and have the certificates presented. With few family in attendance and some long-time friends and neighbours, we honoured my forefathers for the achievement of their dreams. It truly is an honour to ensure my Dad's goal of recognizing them for that, came to fruition.
In 1918 while living in Altona, my great great grandfather, Peter B Wiebe, purchased a parcel of land, here, in the Burwalde district. The next year, this farm would become his newly wedded son Peter P Wiebe and daughter in law Margaretha Thiessen’s, homestead. Peter and Margaretha were married in December that year, after which they loaded up their belongings into a wagon pulled by a team of horses and travelled the some-30 mile stretch from Altona to Burwalde. A trip that took them most of the day to accomplish. Its hard to imagine that kind of trip in today’s day and age; the middle of winter, bundled up on the front bench of a wagon with all your earthly belongings in the rack behind you, plodding along behind a team of horses for 30 miles of trail. I couldn’t tell you if they were ‘roads’ back then (certainly not paved or even gravel) but a dirt path or just a turkey trail. Either way, I’m sure it was daunting.
Why would they move all the way out Burwalde when both of their families were in Altona? It must have been an opportunity Peter B couldn’t pass up, to help give his son the start he needed. The large swath of oak trees on the property was attractive to my great grandfather as he believed they indicated the land was fertile loam and wouldn’t blow away with the prairie winds. He loved the trees, especially the oak. Peter B was young when he came to Canada, but many Mennonites from Russia felt a connection with the oak tree, having lived near the famous Chortitza Oak in Ukraine. The creek running through the property was an incentive also and it turned out the decision to move all that way and make it their home, was a good one.
Peter and Margaretha raised their family on the homestead while living a busy farming lifestyle. Until tractors were available, all the farm work was done by hand or behind a team of horses; everything from cultivating, seeding and manure spreading to cutting hay and harvesting was done with horse drawn machinery and equipment. Which meant it took a considerable amount of time and effort. Recollections of my great grandfather’s hired man, John, tell of how he could plow 5 acres a day with a 2-share plow. Seeding took a couple of months and cutting 20 acres a day during harvest was considered a good day. We still have an original horse drawn drill seeder that was used by my forefathers and many other old farming relics have their resting place overgrown by the woods on the farm. It wasn’t until the early 1940s before my great grandfather bought his first tractor – a John Deere AR on steel lugs. Even after purchasing the tractor, many of the farm tasks were still done the old-fashioned way in the following years as many of the implements were not adaptable for use with the tractor and couldn’t be immediately replaced with new ones that were. From the beginning, horses were an integral part of the Wiebe Farm.
Peter P was also said to enjoy spending time in the woods walking in nature. It’s also where he experimented with small gardens where he would try his hand at growing different or unusual seeds such as millet, alfalfa, or canary seed which he would later dry in the farm’s summer kitchen. He also enjoyed tinkering in the schmaed (or workshop) which was something that passed down to my grandfather, Frank, as I remember many days spent in the schmaed tinkering with Grandpa or secretly savouring chocolate bars he hid out there from Grandma. While working in the shop was just a part of farm life with having to fix and maintain your own equipment, it became more of a hobby for Peter P in his retirement years.
On 3 October 1921, my grandfather Frank was born the only boy among girls, having just 3 sisters: older sister Esther and younger sisters Alvina and Marjorie. A family of just 4 children was considered small for a Mennonite family of the time.
As a young boy, Frank attended the Burwalde School from grade 1 to 8 as did my Dad, Rick.
Grandpa apparently wasn’t much into sports or even riding a bicycle which most boys do, but rather, he loved horses. He loved to ride horses and he loved to drive them hitched to a buggy or wagon. This is where the love of horses and their significance to the Rocking W Ranch really began to develop. Where they had always been a valuable tool for a successful farm, they were to fully become a way of life.
Frank married Anne Loewen on 1 October 1949 and they moved into the main house on the farm while Peter P and Margaretha moved into a small bungalow across the yard. It is there they raised their family of 4; Rick coming along in September 1950 and Margo in 1956. In 1963 is when Frank bought the farm from his father.
The same year Frank took over the farm, just 5 years before his father passed away, he had the opportunity to get into the Equine Ranching Industry, also known as PMU. Grandpa had one of the first PMU operations in Manitoba, where urine is collected from pregnant mares to produce a menopausal supplement for women using the estrogen in the urine. It was the start of 40 years in the business for Frank and later, my Dad Rick.
Grandpa and Dad looked for ways to improve the viability and sustainability of the business and that of the foals raised through the pregnant mares. They were the first Equine Ranchers in Manitoba to use registered mares in their barns. Grandpa found and purchased a group of registered Appaloosas (which he always had a soft spot for all his life) then later added Quarter Horses and Paint Horses. Many horses of good quality and bloodlines were raised, bought and sold on the farm over the years.
Grandpa loved to share his love of horses with others and made sure that anyone who came to him looking for a horse for themselves or their kids, got exactly the horse they needed. Many young horse lovers got their start at the farm mucking stalls for the chance to ride Grandpa’s horses. I still have people coming to me today, reminiscing of the day they bought their first horse from my Grandpa and how special he and that horse was to them.
Dad began training horses at an early age and got to be quite a hand with them. People came from far and wide to not only buy horses from the farm, but to have them trained. Dad trained horses for a lot of folks, including some quite wealthy families from the city (Winnipeg). His skills were sought after and he trained horses of all breeds and disciplines, but his favourite kind of horses were a cowboy’s kind of horse. Dad was a cowboy a heart. Dad had plans to move out west to Alberta cowboy country when Grandpa and Grandma offered him the farm to keep him home. Dad accepted and the land transferred to him in 1973.
Frank unfortunately suffered a stroke in the 70s and again the late 80s which prevented him from continuing to work on the farm, though he loved to be a part of the action as much as he could, even if the role was ‘supervisor’. He really enjoyed watching his granddaughters, myself and my sister Tanya, ride our horses and never missed a local fair horse show, gymkhana or rodeo as long as someone would take him.
Dad continued to run the PMU business and strived to raise quality registered horses, continually improving the program whenever he could. In 1986 began a 31 year career of running horse auction sales. The Rocking W Ranch Production Sale’s small beginnings started in the arena at the Miami Fairgrounds as a way to market the ranch’s PMU foals. In the coming years, other ranchers would join in, bringing their foals to the Production Sale, including Ryan Reichert from Thornhill area and Doug Griffin from Darlingford to name just a couple. In time, the sale outgrew the Miami fairgrounds and moved to the Heartland Livestock Yards in Brandon and eventually, the Brandon Keystone Centre. The Rocking W Horse Sales became western Canada’s premier production and consignment horse auctions, bringing in horses as well as buyers, from all over Canada and the United States. It’s humble beginnings as a foal production sale expanded to include the sale of several PMU producer’s foals each year to all breeds and disciplines of horses on consignment from various sellers. There were some fantastic years with high sales but in the early 2000s, the horse market got to be pretty tough with sinking prices. Dad tried to stick it out and believed with all his heart that if the producers just held on, things would get better. Eventually, the time came to hang up his hat and the last Rocking W Horse Sale auction happened in September of 2017. The market would eventually turn around a few years later and now in 2024, the horse market is as high as it’s been in as long as I can remember. Dad was right.
The farm was also known for various other activities over the years. In the 1990s especially, people flocked to the farm in winter for Dad’s famous sleigh rides through the woods of our farm. People still call to this day, wondering if we still do sleigh rides and reminisce about their memories from bygone years, riding the sleigh pulled by a team of horses through the woods. I still remember Dad coming in from a ride on an especially cold night with a moustache full of icicles. Grandpa loved a good team of horses and for many years was involved in several trail rides in southern Manitoba, driving a team instead of riding a horse, on day and even overnight trail rides through the Pembina Valley. He also participated in the Festival du Voyageur for many years which was a highlight for him, giving sleigh rides to festival goers and took part in many local fair and festival parades. Dad enjoyed team roping and built a team roping arena and many local roping enthusiasts got their start at the ranch. Many lessons, clinics, jackpots, 4H events and ride nights were held at there as well. As kids we were involved in daily farm life and the PMU operation, 4H club, participated in horse shows, gymkhanas and rodeos throughout the years and in 2009 I started the Rocking W Barrel Series which we held annually at the ranch for 10 years until the pandemic shut things down. Many local barrel racers got their start at the ranch. It was the first of its kind in our area and became a premier event in southern Manitoba. Dad loved having the yard full to the fence line with trucks and trailers and people to watch. I continue to produce barrel races across southern Manitoba with the grassroots organization named after my family ranch, Rocking W Barrel Racing Productions, including the Rick Wiebe Memorial Charity Barrel Race in Dad’s honour, supporting South Central Cancer Resource.
The year following the final Horse Sale and the year the farm reached its centennial – 2018 – Dad started the paperwork to have the farm recognized. Shortly thereafter, Dad was diagnosed with cancer and with all that was going on, the paperwork was shelved to focus on treatment and recovery. Over the next couple years, Dad went through the ups and downs of his cancer journey and sadly passed away 6 September 2020, just 6 days shy of his 70th birthday. In the months before he passed, Dad sold his remaining horses in an online dispersal auction sale that ended a significant career in the horse industry to which he left an incredible mark.
I decided to pick up where Dad left off and finish the work he started to have the farm recognized for the 100+ years it has been in our family.
The Centennial Farm presentation was held on October 13, 2024 to unveil the sign and have the certificates presented. With few family in attendance and some long-time friends and neighbours, we honoured my forefathers for the achievement of their dreams. It truly is an honour to ensure my Dad's goal of recognizing them for that, came to fruition.
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Myself and my great Aunt Marj, sharing stories while looking at some old photos and family memories.
The Peter B. Wiebe descendants in attendance at the small centennial event we held October 13.
L-R: my son Layne van der Steen (6th generation), myself (5th generation), great Aunt Marjorie Hildebrand (3rd generation) and her son Bruce Hildebrand (4th generation).
L-R: my son Layne van der Steen (6th generation), myself (5th generation), great Aunt Marjorie Hildebrand (3rd generation) and her son Bruce Hildebrand (4th generation).