Stories from a family farm near Bruce, Alberta

Word Gets ’Round

A collection of true stories about life in central Alberta — told first as the son of the farmer, and then as the farmer himself.

by Walter Lutz

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Front cover of Word Gets ’Round: a red gambrel-roofed barn under a prairie sky
“I have lived a rather ordinary life, most of it on a family farm, with very few milestones or accomplishments. I’ve written a variety of short stories — all but two are true.”
Walter Lutz, from the preface
The Book

Forty-one stories, one farm, a whole century

Word Gets ’Round begins in 1912, when three Lutz brothers left their German village in what is now Ukraine for Canada, and it never strays far from the farm their family built near Bruce, Alberta. These are stories of auction sales and skunks, milk cows and mishaps, hired men and late-night visitors — told plainly, with a farmer’s eye for detail and a farmer’s patience for the punchline.

Walter began writing in his seventies, longhand on a notepad, in a picnic shelter at Prince Kuhio Park on Kauai. The stories follow the shape of his life: a prairie boyhood, thirty-eight years of farming, hitchhikers met along the road, and, finally, retirement on the coast and the islands.

All but two of the stories are true. Those two, he was careful to note, begin with a small amount of fact.

The red Lutz Farm barn with its gambrel roof, photographed under a cloudy prairie sky
The barn at the Lutz farm near Bruce, Alberta — the same barn that tells its own story inside the book.
Contents

A life in six parts

Begin at the beginning: the Preface & Acknowledgments, in Walter’s words →

Early Years

Bruce, Alberta · 12 stories
  1. The Julius Lutz Family’s First Christmas at Bruce, 1924Read
  2. Earliest Memories of Coming to British ColumbiaRead
  3. Grandpa Liked Auction SalesRead
  4. By the WillowsRead
  5. The Barn Tells Its StoryRead
  6. Moving the BarnRead
  7. Taking Lunch to the HayfieldRead
  8. The Sliver RemovalRead
  9. Sunday Dinner at Aunty Rosie’sRead
  10. RustyRead
  11. The Wood ChopperRead
  12. A Provincial Election Day in Rural AlbertaRead

Farming Years

The home place · 11 stories
  1. John ZookRead
  2. The HawkRead
  3. A Family Milk CowRead
  4. A Minor MishapRead
  5. A Major PurchaseRead
  6. The Pancake SupperRead
  7. An Auction Sale Worth RememberingRead
  8. DamperRead
  9. EdelweissRead
  10. Several Skunk StoriesRead
  11. The Late-Night VisitorRead

On the Road

Highways & hitchhikers · 8 stories
  1. Several Interesting HikersRead
  2. The Black Hat CowboyRead
  3. To Get to WinfieldRead
  4. The Piece of CardboardRead
  5. Danny Boy, the Commonwealth HikerRead
  6. A Short-Haul Hiker on a Long Haul-TripRead
  7. The Native Short-Haul WalkerRead
  8. The Coat of Many ColoursRead

On the Coast

British Columbia · 3 stories
  1. A Chimney FireRead
  2. The Dog-Walking ServiceRead
  3. An Unexpected GuestRead

On Island Time

Kauai, Hawaii · 3 stories
  1. Limpy (aka Gimpy)Read
  2. The Plaque RemoverRead
  3. The Wahine RoperRead

Random Poetry

Four poems
  1. The Grassland BuglerRead
  2. Thanksgiving PrayerRead
  3. The Doxology AmendedRead
  4. Growing PumpkinsRead

Beyond the Book

After the book · bonus
  1. Meal PrayerRead
  2. Walter’s World Famous Ginger BendsRead
  3. The Stew PotRead
  4. Uncle Arthur’s GoodbyeRead
  5. My BeesRead

Thirty-seven stories and four poems, from a first Christmas in 1924 to a rodeo on Kauai — every one free to read, right here. And a handful of extras that never made the printing.

An Excerpt

The word they kept seeing

Dad said that when travelling across Canada by train, they kept seeing the same letters or words in a sign, over and over. What did the sign say, what did it mean, how was it pronounced, they wondered. The sign was COCA-COLA.

Dad’s first job in Edmonton, which had become Julius’ home, was working in a packing plant or slaughterhouse, plucking chickens. His wage was a penny per chicken. But like everything else, Dad used to say later, if you do the same thing over and over, you get faster and faster doing it. Dad said he got as high as 60 chickens per hour. That’s 60 cents an hour or one minute per chicken.

From “The Julius Lutz Family’s First Christmas at Bruce, 1924” — read the whole story

The Audiobook

Told in Walter’s own voice

An audiobook edition of Word Gets ’Round is now in production — narrated in Walter’s own voice, recreated with his family’s care from recordings he left behind. Every story will be free to stream on this page or download to keep.

IEarly YearsComing soon
IIFarming YearsComing soon
IIIOn the RoadComing soon
IVOn the CoastComing soon
VOn Island TimeComing soon
VIRandom PoetryComing soon

Want to know when it’s ready? The paperback and audiobook will both be announced here first.

The Author

Walter Lutz, 1940–2026

Walter outdoors on a summer day, happily licking homemade ice cream straight off the wooden dasher, spoon at the ready in his other hand
Walter and the dasher — homemade ice cream was a lifelong weakness, and licking the dasher was the maker’s privilege.

Walter was born in the Lutz family farmhouse near Bruce, Alberta in 1940, the son of immigrant parents. He grew up with three siblings, moved with the family to British Columbia, and returned to the farm ten years later.

He farmed for thirty-eight years. In his seventies, wintering on Kauai with his wife Jeanie, he began writing down the stories he had been telling all his life — encouraged by a friend who had started writing at the same age. He published Word Gets ’Round in 2021, in a small run that found its way into many hands and stayed there. He was also famous — his family would say world famous — for his ginger bend cookies, which he baked tirelessly for some thirty years, and he had a particular weakness for homemade ice cream.

Walter passed away in March 2026. The family farm he wrote about celebrates its hundredth year the same summer. This site keeps his stories where he wanted them — getting ’round.

Get a Copy

Read it, keep it, pass it on

Read online

Every story and poem, free to read right here — no app, no account, nothing to install. Start anywhere.

Browse the contents

E-reader

Download the whole book as an EPUB for Kobo, Kindle, or any e-reader. Kindle users: send the file to your device with Amazon’s free Send to Kindle.

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Audiobook

Free to stream and download, right here, when it’s ready — every story in Walter’s own voice.

See the audiobook

Paperback

The original 2021 printing sold through. A new print-on-demand edition is being prepared so the book is never out of reach again.

Returning soon on Amazon