Growing up on the homestead gave me a unique and valuable education that only “the land” can teach you. Emulating the blueprint for life that I discovered in nature helped me to find the happiness, joy and fulfillment that I had dreamed of.

After high school, I went on to complete an exciting career with the Royal Canadian Navy followed by 25 adventurous years with British Columbia and Alberta Provincial Parks. I have immensely enjoyed raising and nurturing my family as well as challenging several business ventures.

Retiring early gave me the time to fulfill a deep need to help suffering people. With my faithful wife Maggie, we work to encourage people of all ages, striving to undo the damage caused by severe exhaustion, bad decisions, drugs, alcohol and lies. We enjoy helping people find a new life, rebuilding their self worth and giving them hope for the future.

Maggie and I enjoy a blended family of eight children and eight grandchildren. We love to photograph, write and explore our beautiful Canada.

A true story of humour, adventure and travel, Child of the Land begins with pioneering life on a homestead in northern Canada. Starting with a short family history, the story humorously progresses into cabin living and the fun and challenge of building the homestead. Each chapter then embraces a different theme that recounts those experiences from the author’s childhood beginnings to a life of travel and adventure. Each is an account of how every aspect of homestead life had an impact upon his future years and that almost all that he needed to know about life, he learned from the land.

“I have enjoyed telling of the great fulfillment that came from pursuing my gifts and following my dreams across the world,” says the author. “The wild lands of the great Peace River Country were a garden out of which grew knowledge, skill and adventure, preparing me for an exciting and meaningful life to come. From hard work and family fun to wild encounters with danger, life was never dull. Adventure began the moment I was old enough to walk and was experienced daily through resident wildlife, comical neighbours and crazy experiments. Hazard or humour, it is all the same in the end. Once you are safely home again, the incident becomes a story to be told and retold for others to enjoy. Dangers of hunting, exploring, flying and skydiving became part of my ‘normal’ lifestyle and provide exciting reading for the adventurous heart. Enjoy!”

Contents


** Epilogue 


BY: Douglas Warren Greenfield

ISBN 978-1-4251-4810-2

 

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sample chapter

“Burst, Burst, this is Captain Kidd, radio check, over…” The ship’s radio broke the early morning silence. At that moment, the intercom blasted, “This is the Executive Officer speaking. Prepare for heavy weather … I repeat … prepare for heavy weather!”  When the intercom went silent, I returned my call to the H.M.C.S Mackenzie. “Captain Kidd, this is Burst; you are loud and clear, over.” “Roger, Burst, Captain Kidd out,” came the reply. We were one of three Canadian destroyers preparing to join a large Commonwealth naval exercise in the South Seas and were traveling to join the fleet in Sydney, Australia.

The sea became increasingly rougher as the morning went on. The forecast we received from the Wellington weather office yesterday as we left harbour had not been promising, and now the ship’s company was busy preparing for hurricane force winds.

Later that night, lying asleep, I was dreaming of my home in northern Canada, when the duty Radar Plotter shook me awake at midnight. “Greenfield,” he whispered, “you’re on watch again.” I rolled over and tried to forget where I was, remnants of sweet dreams still floating through my consciousness. For just a moment, I lingered back on the old farm, savouring the luscious aroma of sweet clover as the dream faded into the present. My bunk heaved hard to port and then a moment of near weightlessness came while the ship plummeted over a huge wave. I timed my descent from the top bunk with the heaving of the ship, being careful not to awaken my sleeping shipmates. The familiar whine of the ship’s main turbines was now accompanied by a symphony of creaking and moaning
sounds caused by heavy seas.

When my ship slammed into the trough of yet another monstrous wave, steel moaned and the ship shuddered under the strain. As we surfaced out of that wave, I quickly clambered down from my bunk, staggering under the extra g-forces created by the ship’s now powerful upward thrust. Boot lockers were banging in and out from under the bunks while clothing swung restlessly from hooks overhead. Once dressed, I fought my way down the ladder from my sleeping quarters and headed to the galley, hoping to find something nourishing to eat before going on watch. Moments later, I came away with a delectable ketchup sandwich and headed for the Operations Room.

Stumbling down Burma Road, the ship’s main passageway, with one foot on the deck and one on the starboard bulkhead, I realized that we were quartering a very heavy sea. This was going be a rough watch to stand.  The Operations Officer was on duty when I arrived at my station in the Operations Room. “How’s your stomach, Greenfield?” he winced through clenched teeth. “Oh, I’m all right,” I told him, licking the ketchup off my lips. “I never get seasick.” He peered over the plotting table at me with a look of envy. “I hope you’re right. You’re going to need it tonight,” he said as he clung to the overhead wireways for balance. I then scrambled up the dark passageway to the bridge, noticing that the lookouts were huddled inside and there were scarce few men in sight. Fighting to keep my balance, I stood at a forty-five degree angle holding onto the window ledge and looked out at the dark sea. Through the blackness, one could just make out the forward three-inch-seventy gun with its huge barrels turned back toward the bridge and lashed down to the deck with heavy hurricane straps. - - - - - - - -  Later  that shift - - -

“Well, it’ll be dawn soon,” I told him, “and the cooks will be up. As for now, all you can see outside is the phosphorescence in the water. Otherwise, it’s totally black.” Werner tied himself to the radar and I headed for the hatch and anxiously back to my pillow and my dreams.

Within minutes, my deep weariness erased all consciousness of the ship’s movement, as memories of Canada’s northland once again filled my dreams. Reality drifted away and I found myself balancing tenaciously on a slippery log, midstream over the creek. Patches of snow still lingered in the shade of the trees and large pieces of ice floated by in the swift water. Halfway across, now, I fought for my balance, affected by the movement of the stream below. In one moment of terror, my foot slipped off and dropped me hard on my chest against the log. Flailing wildly, I was drawn backward into the rush of cold, spring water. Frightened and freezing, I was being swept away in the black, rushing water of Fox Creek.                                                                                                                                                                                                


Only six years old and far from the protective care of my parents, one learns quickly that the only way to survive is to struggle, fight and never give up! The wild lands of the great Peace River Country were, for me, a garden out of which grew knowledge, skill and adventure, preparing me for the future. From hard work and family fun to wild encounters with danger, life was never dull. Adventure began the moment I was old enough to walk and was experienced daily through resident wildlife, comical neighbours and crazy experiments. Hazard or humour, it is all the same in the end. Once you are safely home again, the incident becomes a memory to be shared and the daily experiences of life are told and retold for others to enjoy.

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