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| FTLComm - Weekes - Thursday, June 5, 2003 | ||||||
 Curiosity is not the preserve of cats alone, for indeed it is the one
thing that seems to have been the cause of many of my most notable disasters. A bridge
like that over the Shand Creek or an open grid road all seem only to beckon me onward
to see what is just over there. One day in mid winter I crossed that bridge above and pushed my poor little pickup onto a road only used in summer then I had to seek someone to start up a tractor and pull me out. This cycle has been repeated time after time so today my goal was |
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 to be curious, just like a cow but at the same time use the common sense every cow has and that is to avoid getting stuck. Mission accomplished. These pictures, most of which were taken while it was raining lightly did not result in a frantic call for a tow truck or tractor. Nixonville school house was many of the square log rural schools in the area North of Weekes. It operated until the mid sixties only a few hundred yards from the bridge at the top of the page and beyond that the Doncaster cemetery |
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 Despite the dramatic nature or the sky today the rainfall was spotty at best, dampening some places, leaving others completely dry and in short, being just plain confusing. This herd of steers are on the wrong side of a fence on the highway right of way. Apparently playing follow the leader they had misplaced themselves but not one of them is mad about anything, just curious. Not lost, not stuck, just out on a little field trip with the dumb guy at the front. |
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 The area around Weekes is lush with growth and crops are more advanced than near Tisdale with the alfalfa ready for cutting right now, while near Tisdale the alfalfa is ready in some fields but not in others. The Tisdale Dehydration plant is running today doing up some bales but field cutting begins next Tuesday. The second of the series of "Big Sky" hog barns East of Weekes is fully operational and with these clouds seems to have a fitting name. I drove right by, downwind of the first barn today |
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 and only sniffed a mild aroma of its 7,000 occupants. The picture above is right inside the village of Weeks and looks to be an ATV (all terrain vehicle) trail. The poplar trees this year are really looking good with almost ideal growing conditions for everything. This is a cereal grain crop and looks very thick. "Whoa, hold on now." Yeah that one (below) really looks like a |
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 place to get stuck on wheels or on foot. This is in the forest South of Weekes. This (right) was once the CN rail line that made its way from Weekes over the Hudson Bay. Now it is used by snow machines in the winter with the local club having marked trails to Kelvington, Preeceville, Greenwater and Hudson Bay. The road below is an old logging trail that heads into the forest South of Weekes, a wilderness teaming with life and a Saskatchewan equivalent of a jungle. There are several cabins and dwellings in Weekes owned by Regina residents who come up to enjoy this environment throughout the year. |
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 This school stands along the Weekes grid about five miles North of the village and like Nixonville is also made of squared logs. The railroad right-of-way is clearly marked with signs by CN who continues to claim ownership of this part of Canada which they abandoned and then ripped up the tracks leaving behind a million dollar facility like the near new wood elevator in the village of Weekes. The absence of the railway has made farming in this abundant growing area marginal as grain must be moved from here, a full one hours highway distance to the terminals in the Tisdale area. The hog barns and other planned projects in the area are attempts to market the production locally now that transportation consumes a large part of what little profit is in the grain grown in the area. |
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