Greenwater's marina - frozen over on October 20th. That little yellow building is the warm-up shack for skaters. Is this winter?
The Greenwater Report for October 21, 2002
Greenwater Provincial Park - Monday, October 21, 2002 - by: Jerry Crawford
	October 20th, 2002: The temperature dropped down to —16° last night, and this morning the south end of the Lake was frozen over as far as the narrows.
lake freezing over	I chucked a pretty good-sized rock out onto the ice; it made a hole where it hit, then went skittering off. Two ducks were sitting on the edge down by the pump house; they had been pecking around on the shore but flew out a hundred yards when I came along. They didn’t look too happy!
	It turned out to be a pretty nice day, with lots of sunshine and not much wind. I notice a big crack opened up on the ice; if there had been any amount of wind the ice would all be piled up on shore. There was a large flock of birds hanging around the edge of the ice out by the narrows, likely ducks.
snowing	We went to Prince Albert on Tuesday, then to Saskatoon on Thursday. It was snowing in PA, and all the way to Saskatoon. The road didn’t seem too icy, though there were a few vehicles in the ditch, but every time we met a truck we were blind for several seconds. We took our time, and had no problems.
dinner theatre	In Saskatoon, we attended an Off-Broadway performance of “Heaven Can Wait”. Actually, it was a dinner theater, and some of our kids had given us tickets last Christmas. What a wonderful way to spend an evening! Great food, great entertainment, and great company at our table - the Douglas’s, good friends of Kathie McLeod’s parents.
	This Friday, we are going to a dinner-theater at Bjorkdale, and expect to enjoy it just as much!
much left unharvested	We came home yesterday. The snow was almost gone in Saskatoon, but there seemed to be more and more in the fields as we got closer to Humboldt, then it thinned out a bit until we got close to home, and there’s lots here. Quite a few of the sloughs and potholes were frozen over once we got East of Naicam. Lots of crop to be combined yet, especially Canola, with some barley or oats and a couple of fields of flax. We didn’t see any harvesting activity at all.
cougars	Excitement in the North Battleford area - a farmer lost about seventy lambs and a cougar is getting the blame. I asked Pat Larwood if she had spotted any cougars lately; she said there had been no sign for several years, but this year tracks have been seen in her area, which is northwest of Porcupine Plain.
harvest interrupted	Last Sunday, with the high winds and warmer temperatures, harvesting got under way in the Tisdale - Melfort area. Monday morning, though, our deck was quite wet and I doubt if anything has been done since.
smart birds	I just watched a huge raven waddling across the road. It looked as big as a cat. Did you know ravens, crows and magpies are rated among our more intelligent birds?
no pictures	Last week, I mentioned my attempts to photograph some whooping cranes - well, I got my slides back, and they are nice and sharp and clear, but the cranes are little more than dots in the distance. At least I know what they are! By the way, Francis Dubé told me they had been hanging around for a month or more. Rocky Chysyk arranged to go out there last week to try for some photos; like me, he couldn’t get close enough for a decent photo, so he went back the next day in camo gear and hunkered down in some brush before they got there. They flew in, right over his head, but before he got his camera ready! He did get a good look at them, his first.
threatening reprisals	Hallowe’en - one of our stupidest so-called holidays, next only to Valentine’s Day - is fast approaching. I see the Cove is advertising a costume party on the 31st, and there is a very attractive display in their entry hall. Some houses in Prince Albert had elaborate lawn displays, too. That part of Hallowe’en I like - the stupid part is where we encourage our kids to go door-to-door, begging handouts and threatening reprisals if their demands are not met.
	While there aren’t many leaves left on the trees, the mountain ash berries,
	and the cotoneaster hedges, are bright and colorful, even on an overcast day.
	Doreen & Jerry Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg
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