Yes we moved in 1968. I Was 13 and living in Rutherglen ,Ontario GPS co-ordinates 46.256409, -79.080538.
Dad and his brother Emmett ran 400 acres as partners . Dad also drove school bus to make ends meet.
Dad slipped a disk in his back throwing hay ,around the summer of 1966. The building they where putting the hay into was an old brick school house. It was never intended to store hay in . The windows where too small and too high off the ground. They should have knocked a bigger hole in the school house. It was difficult to throw a 50lb bale up and through the little window. I was watching dad when it happened. Emmett was on the inside where it was hotter .
Dad managed to get a job as a custodian at a hospital in North Bay. Mom ,Emmett and me tried to keep the farm going but dad hadn’t taught me everything and Mom and Emmett where poor teachers. I was missing plowing and mowing , two of the more dangerous tasks. Mom never really wanted to be a farmer and Emmett would rather play the fiddle.
Dad got a better job in Porcupine as a 4th class stationary engineer. It was at the mental hospital there.
The farm was sold but all the animals were sold first. The horses had been sold already and Buster the dog got sick and had to be put down. I can remember the cows and calves being loaded into a big truck and taken off to auction. These animals had all been my friends for 13 years so it was sad to see them all go. I remember how silent it was when they were gone.
Dad sold his half of the equipment to Emmett.
A Two furrow plough, disc harrow, tooth harrow, haymower, new holland rake, new holland baler, Otaco wagon, binder, Renfrew Scale, 2 Tractors(Cockshutt 20, Massey Harris 22) . (Otaco Orillia Tudhope Anderson Company, a lot of the equipment was Otaco). Dad sold the manure spreader to somebody else because Emmett had no animals.
I remember dad sold the piano for $50 . After it was loaded the guy that bought it came over to dad and asked him what was really wrong with it . Dad didn’t know what to say, he just said nothings wrong with it.
Dad had rented a house at 226 Duke street in Porcupine ,where we stayed for a year while our house at 220 Queen street was being built.
Dad had sold the farm for $14,000 . The new house was $25,000.
I was with dad when he went to the bank to get a loan for the $6000 . I stayed outside in the car. He came out of the bank very angry . He said they wanted him to put up his car as collateral too. He said they weren’t going to take his car too. Dad went back to Rutherglen and borrowed the money from his Mason friends there. The mason’s helped dad a lot through this whole mess.
To me Porcupine was the big city. I missed all the animals and a lot of other things. The freedom to build what ever you want with out a bunch of inspectors telling you what to do. You could park your truck and trailer where ever you wanted. Room for a dog to run free and case rabbits. Go for a walk without getting into a fight. See the milky way at night . Smell new mowed hay. Catch fire flys at night. Here the sounds of silence. Wave at everybody that you meet on the road. Go hunting deer in your own back yard (without a license). Try out all the excellent home cooking at the neighbors homes during trashing or haying (I still make my own pickles).
Emmett gave up farming after dad moved away, he couldn’t do it by himself.
I almost forgot. Part of the move was 5 gallons of Potato Champagne that I had made and buried behind the play house. I dug it up and hid it in the trunk of the 1962 Pontiac for the trip to Porcupine. Half way to Porcupine the Pontiac hit a pot hole and I heard a cork pop in the trunk. Shortly there after the interior of the car filled with the wonderful smell of a gallon of Potato Champagne. Dad pulled the car over and found most of my stash in the trunk. He wasn’t too impressed. Dad didn’t find the six bottles I had hidden my suit case.