The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 65As the interview unfolds, I
ask Doug McEwen of
Monkton how long he has
lived at his Century farm,
circa 1875.
“That would be 83 years,” he
says and there’s a twinkle of mischief
in his eye.
“And how old are you, then?” I
ask, knowing the answer.
“Eighty-three years,” he says with
a grin. Though he can’t remember if
he was actually born in the house, he
fully intends to die there if present
good health and attitude have
anything to do with it.
Still, he has accepted that he is
slowing down. Though he still
spends time each day in his “man
cave”, the workshop in this shed,
where every shelf and drawer is
overpopulated with tools, paint cans,
prints, cassette tapes and tools, he’s
thinking maybe it’s time he slowed
down buying old equipment at
auction sales and fixing it up.
“I’d sooner sit in here than go to
the lake,” says Doug from the
comfort of his swivel chair. He is
quite at home, here, among his
collections. He has his old cassette
tapes behind him, admitting he
listens to them over and over. A
small beer fridge is close by. Frames
hang from the ceiling and there’s still
an old girlie calender hanging up
(come, now!). Doug’s oldest son and
neighbour, Brian, is keeping him
company today fixing up another old
piece of farm equipment.
It used to be neighbours and
friends would stop in for a chat but
now most of his friends have passed
away. Sadly, so has his wife,
Berniece, who died in 2017. They
had six children together (one
stillborn).
Behind the workshop sits a
lifetime of fixing. The shed is full of
shiny horse cutter sleighs, carriages
and horse-drawn plows. One wall is
full of old farm tools like scythes and
shovels, washboards and skillets, an
Doug McEwen of Cedar Grove Farm near Monkton takes a break in one of
the carriages he bought in disrepair and restored to its former glory. With a
shed full of shiny cutters, plows and collectibles, he’s thinking it’s time to
let someone else make use of what he has fixed and collected.
•By Lisa B. Pot •
History
Releasing what he has restored
At age 83, Doug McEwen is
hoping to spend more time riding and
less time fixing with a sale of his horse
carriages, cutters and other antiques
62 The Rural Voice