James R., James M., and Tyler Immigrant Project

       We are a group of blues players from the States, after having escaped from slavery we took up the blues and moved to Canada. The land we were given here is somewhat flat, not mountainous. There is some running water nearby, although it doesn't seem very good for drinking. Not by looks, anyway. The soil is rich and wet, although not necessarily great for crops it will have to do. There are a lot of trees and smaller plants, and many small mammals and birds because of it. The river will be useful for the most part, save for any extreme flooding that could come about.

       During the first few months our first goal is to get our house built. There are lots of trees nearby, so material is not scarce, but the problem would be if we do not finish before the rain starts up again and it begins to get cold. I doubt we will take long enough for that to happen, but on the off chance it does, we brought blankets to sleep comfortably enough outside. Beside that we will start growing food as soon as possible, and hopefully start work on an irrigation system. With any luck our neighbours will be kind enough to lend us a hand, but if it comes to it we are all very skilled with manual labour. Doing odd jobs as slaves can come in handy, as it turns out. All we brought with us was some seeds, some blankets for each of us, some dried food, and an axe. If we are lucky we can find some help to level out the ground so that building is easier, but a slanted house is better than none so either way we must begin work quickly.

     Before the year is out we will have completed a house, something of a farm, and we will have made some furniture. Whether or not it is good I can't say, but still, it's better than the floor we used to sit on. So far we have managed to make it by as carpenters and farmers, and being mostly self-sufficient is a definite plus. However, anything we can do for the community we will, because it is certainly better to make friends than enemies.