Hatter Joseph Dirk, 87, is seen in this family snapshot with his four daughters, Gwen, Wanda, Brenda and Lucy, on the rare occasion they were all back in Medicine Hat earlier this year. Dirk was the fourth-born child out of 10 growing up, and went on to raise 10 of his own on the family farm in Liebenthal, SK. SUBMITTED PHOTO

PEGGY REVELL
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When you raise 10 children, it's a fair bet that you know something about family.
At least that's the case with Medicine Hat's Joseph Dirk, who was the fourth of 10 children, and who went on to have 10 children of his own.
"I was born and raised on the farm, all my life," said Dirk, a third-generation farmer who will turn 88 in March.
The farm he was born on near Liebenthal, Sask. became the home where he would raise his own family with his late wife Margaret.
"Little house on the prairie — it's still there," said Dirk's oldest son, Brian, about the farm that saw multiple generations pass through its doors.
And in a fitting, family-sense, the German translation of Liebenthal is "Love Valley."
"I didn't get going in life until I was 27," said Dirk about marrying the love of his life, Margaret, and starting his own family back in the '50s. "I needed a little push."
The couple retired to Medicine Hat in 1988, and were together for 56 years, before Margaret passed away in 2007.
See Family, page A2
"You just stay together," Dirk said with a chuckle, when asked to the secret of such a long marriage.
"There was never ever time when they were competitive with each other," said Brian, explaining that a car was a family car, things were always shared, and it was about being a team.
His father once bought his mother a rose, Brian recalled — and she scolded him for it, since the money could have been spent elsewhere.
"We were compatible," Joseph reflected, explaining that the success of the marriage came from honouring and respecting each other.
Together, they raised four daughters, Gwen, Wanda, Brenda, and Lucy, alongside six sons: Brian, Lance, Allan, Darby, Joseph, and Gerard.
And at last count, they had 28 grandchildren, and the family keeps growing as great-grandchildren come along as well.
Raising such a big family on a farm wasn't always easy, especially with the ups and downs of agriculture.
"There were years where I couldn't even sell the wheat," Dirk recalled. "You couldn't sell a bushel."
At one point in time, the farm had 5,000 bushels to sell, and they couldn't even get credit for it, he said.
But there were also good years, said Brian, Ñthe ups and downs just meant that the family saved instead of splurging when things were going well.
"There was enough work for everybody," Joseph said about raising a such a big family on the farm.
Dirk from becoming a "Jack of all Trades" over the years, including working during the winter as a television repairman.
His father "invented" television, Brian recalled, having taken a course on television repair and then building one from pieces for the family.
It meant the Dirks were the first home in the area to have one.
Coming from such a large family himself, Joseph was no stranger to the hard work and struggle it took to make ends meet.
Having been born in 1924, his parents, his siblings and himself lived through the Great Depression, working on the farm to provide as much as they could for the family.
"The only thing we had to buy was coffee and sugar — everything else we raised," he recalled.
"You don't get nothing unless you work for it," said Brian about the biggest lesson his parents taught him and his siblings.
What was important to the Dirks was making sure each of their children got an educationÑand Joseph and Margaret made the sacrifices needed to ensure that all 10 could pursue whatever career they wanted to.
It was important, Dirk said, because he himself wasn't able to afford to get an education.
"They're successful, everyone of them," he said about his 10 children, with their jobs ranging from Brian being a drilling consultant with the oil industry, a pharmacist, psychiatric nurse, Registered Nurse, to college professor — and he's proud of them all.
"And they're proud of me too," he said.
"Everyone of us," added Brian.