While Francis was stationed at Shilo just before he was sent overseas he was sent out to help with the harvest in the local area - he chose his home town area of Deloraine MB because he able to be with his family and work on farms that he had previously worked on when he was younger. One of his stories he and his brothers have talked about was this one old Belgium bachelor farmer north of White Water Lake that Francis went to work for for about 2 weeks. The old farmer wasn't much of a house keeper nor very hospitable. Francis had to sleep in the barn and wash in the dugout every day - BUT this was not what made Francis wish he had never came to work there - it was the meals - every day for 2 weeks all Francis had to eat was Corn Flakes - Corn Flakes for breakfast, Corn Flakes for lunch and Corn Flakes for supper and by the time Francis had left to go onto the next farmer he was very happy to leave this Corn Flakes farmer. He remembers on his way to the next farm he stopped at a local grocery store and bought a can of Bully Beef (a product similar to SPAM) to eat.
