Glenda (Hanson) Dauer (left) is pictured with her parents, Don and June Hanson of Leader. The Hansons still live in the rural home where they raised their 10 children (five boys, Charles, John, Dale, Rick and Larry; and five girls, Jeanne, Peg, Glenda, Connie and Leasha). A retired farmer and logger, Don keeps busy these days making things out of birch bark, including the lamp shade pictured above. (Staples World photo by Dawn Timbs) It’s been over 82 years since Dr. Cook from Staples delivered Don Hanson at his folks’ rural home in Leader.

“I’ll be 83 this fall,” Don said recently at the home he shares with June, his wife of 60 years. “I’ve lived in this area most of my life.”

In 1955, he and June (along with their children) lived for a summer in Idaho. “I actually worked in Montana. Made $100 a day cutting wood.” They returned to the Leader area a short while later.

Don Hanson of Leader builds birdhouses, baskets and lamp shades out of birch bark. He works in the basement of his home, playing old time country music while he builds his creations. This hobby helped him get out of a depression, Don said. (Staples World photo by Dawn Timbs) This is home, Don says, looking out the window at land that’s belonged to his family for decades.

This is where he spent his childhood, where he learned to farm and work as a logger. It was in the Leader area where he eventually met June and where they would raise their 10 children - five boys and five girls.

He’s collected a lot of memories over the years.

Don still remembers walking three miles (each way) to the Leader Country School. “There weren’t buses in those days,” he added.

Esther Svenson was one of his teachers, Don recalled. “She was a Dane; a real good teacher.”

Don Hanson of Leader has worked with animals his entire life, including dairy and beef cattle, horses, sheep and goats. For the past 10 years, he has owned his donkey, Spook. Don hooks Spook up to a cart and travels around the Leader area visiting neighbors. (Submitted photo) In addition to schoolwork, Don kept busy helping with farm chores; and made a little extra money trapping skunks.

He would check the

skunk traps on the way

to school every morning. “That was stinky business,”

Don said with a smile. “I remember the time I got sprayed in my eyes and couldn’t see for two hours.”

The going rate for skunk pelts was one dollar, Don said. “But there was a man coming through town one day who gave us three dollars and 25 cents for each skunk. That was good money.”

He remembers the 1940 Armistice Day snow storm like it was yesterday, Don said.

“It took us all by surprise. Luckily, Dad told me to round up all the sheep in

time. A lot of people lost all

of their sheep,” Don said. “That was quite a storm...

we didn’t get to Leader for many days.”

Survival skills, tenacity

and hard work are things

Don learned about early on. “They don’t teach you these

things in a book,” he said.

Don would later pass down to his own children the strong work ethic and character skills his folks taught him growing up on the farm.

“He’s really a super dad,” said Glenda (Hanson) Dauer, also of Leader. “I’ve learned a lot from him.”

She was a tomboy growing up, Glenda said. “I followed dad all around the farm. We hauled wood, milked cows every morning, rode the tractor together.”

To help with the logging

business, Don taught

his girls how to peel pulp. “He’d give us 10 cents a

stick. We tried to finish

100 at a time,” Glenda said. “Dad knew how to make

work fun.”

The kids also earned

money by raising sheep. “Dad would give us each a

lamb in the fall. When we sold it, we’d use the money for school clothes,” Glenda said.

Don passed on to his kids a love for animals of all kinds.

“We always had pets... dogs, cats, even a baby deer named Chipper,” Glenda recalled. “Chipper was my brother Rick’s.”

Glenda can still see her dad going out to cut wood, followed by both the family dog and the pet deer.

When the deer was about two years old, she eventually left to live in the wild.

“I saw her one last time, a few months later,” Don said. “She was out in a field and I called to her. She came up to the car and that was the last time I saw her.”

Not all deer are pets, of course.

“Dad taught us all how to hunt,” Glenda said. “With 10 kids in our family, we went deer hunting for the meat, not to see who could get the biggest rack. Mom canned a lot of venison over the years.”

Glenda looks back on

deer hunting season fondly. “Dad would take us camping

in the foothills,” she said, in reference to land not far from her folks’ home...the same house she and her siblings grew up in.

They always had a huge

garden, Glenda recalled. “We raised vegetables for

the family; and we kids were in 4-H, too. Dad would take us to the county fair and we’d get blue ribbons for our veggies every time. Mom taught us how to sew and bake...we’d get ribbons for that, too.”

In addition to work, Don taught his kids how to have fun.

“He’d play softball with us; and sometimes, when all of our work was finished, dad would bring us all to Moose Lake to go swimming and fishing,” Glenda said.

Their dad taught them

how to ride horse, too. “Each of us kids had our

own horse. We rode them every day,” Glenda recalled.

Although many of their collected memories are happy ones, the Hansons have known their share of hard times as well.

Over the years, members of their family have been diagnosed with cancer; and Don has struggled with depression.

It was June who encouraged Don during these dark days to pick up a hobby, do something with his hands.

“I started making birch bark baskets and that helped get me out of my depression,” Don said.

He now has a workshop set up in the basement; and every day Don can be found making a variety of things out of birch bark... birdhouses, baskets, lamp shades.

“I have to cut my own birch bark...they don’t sell it in town,” Don said.

He feels better, Don said, when he does physical labor. “I sleep better at night,” he added.

Although he doesn’t farm anymore, Don still cuts wood on a regular basis.

“It takes about 20 - 25 cords of wood to heat our house,” Don said. “Last summer I cut 50-some cords of wood...I use my fourwheeler to get around.”

Don also raises goats these days for the fun of it; and has owned a white donkey named Spook for the past 10 years. “I hook him up to a cart and drive him down the road. We go visit the neighbors, or give the grandkids rides,” Don said.

His faith is also something which has helped him through the more diffi cult situations in life. Although they were married at St. Michael’s Church in Motley, Don and June have been attending Swan Valley Lutheran Church for the past few years. “It’s closer, that’s the only reason. I figure it’s the same God that hears our prayers at both places,” Don said.

After going through his depression, Don wrote

a prayer which was published

in a magazine called, “The EA (Emotions Anonymous)

Message.”

A portion of “Don’s Prayer,” reads:

“God, we know we are weak sometimes. Please let us be strong again so we can go through life happy. And when we have down days, let us learn from them and not give up hope. There is, I am sure, a real good reason for all the suffering we go through when we are sick. So let’s take the bad days and make the very best we can of them.

Before we forget, God, thanks for all the good days and all the good things you let us have. Thank you for all the friends we’ve met since we have been sick, friends that we’d never have known otherwise. So really, God, You have made it all worthwhile. And when the bad days come along, we will think of all the good things and it won’t seem bad after all.”

Her dad is a pretty amazing

person, Glenda says. “He taught all of us kids so

much over the years.” She is thankful to her dad for teaching her (and all of her siblings) the importance of family, hard work and laughter; as well as dealing with the tough stuff as it comes along in life.

She can’t think of a better person to honor this Father’s Day, Glenda said.