The Greenwater Report for December 23, 2003
around freezing	December 21st, 2003: A beautiful weekend! Temperature just around the freezing point, little wind, and lots of sunshine. We see lights on at a lot of cottages, and snowmobiles are roaring around on the lake, which must be pretty rough due to the winds we had earlier. Lots of people out fishing, too. Merv tells me he can usually get a feed of perch and walleye. The skating ice at the Marina is ready for skaters.
Cove hours	Before I forget, Fisherman’s Cove’s store, bar, and dining room will close at 3:00 PM Christmas Eve, and re-open at 10:00 AM Boxing Day. On New Year’s Eve, it will close at 7:00 PM to get ready for the New Year’s Party, which starts at 9:00 PM and goes until all hours. On New Year’s Day, they will open at 10:00 AM. Otherwise, normal hours will apply. In case you have heard some ugly rumors, the Cove is in full operation under the capable guidance of Susan Jones and Elwood Prybylski.
Manitoba hockey	Last weekend, we went to Selkirk, Winnipeg and Winkler with Laurie and Bryan Grimson. Our grandson, Dave Grimson, plays hockey with the Swan Valley Stampeders, and they were on a four-game tour. They won their games at Portage la Prairie (which we didn’t see) and at Winnipeg, but lost to Selkirk and Winkler. We enjoyed the games, and also got in some quality visiting with relatives at Selkirk, Winnipeg, and Souris.
Bredenbury	How do they do it? How does a community like Bredenbury get almost 100% participation in their Christmas Lighting Project? We stopped there on our way home Monday evening, and must have spent an hour driving around, admiring the light show. Some of the streets were like Wonderland, with lights strung in the trees and in places arching right over the street. Many of the displays seemed to be on common ground so were likely put there by the town, but there were very few houses that didn’t have at least some decorations. Twelve-foot snowmen and Santas, nodding deer, Nativity scenes, and artistic light placements. There was even a UFO with a pair of little green men and a sign that said: “People come for Miles to see our Lights!” There were two tour busses parked in front of the Seniors’ Centre, and we met a team of horses pulling a wagon with some sight-seers on it, likely all part of a special tour. Congratulations to Bredenbury - you have done a fantastic job!
Sheho	Then east of Sheho we saw a farmyard display that someone must have spent months working on. The display was a good hundred yards long, with the house lit up like a fairy castle, and a dozen or more Christmas vignettes. There was even a helicopter, likely a stand-by in case the reindeer got sick!
teeny boppers & booze	The province is thinking about lowering the legal drinking age to eighteen. When I was a boy, the legal age was twenty-one, but kids of eighteen and nineteen could usually find someone to pull beer for them. Then, the age was lowered to eighteen (remember that?). Immediately, kids of fifteen and sixteen were getting eighteen-year-olds to pull for them. Rather than consider whether eighteen-year-olds are mature enough to handle booze, better wonder whether the teenyboppers are. You will have brand new drivers who also have a brand new source of booze.
trail for Hussein	The big news last weekend was the capture of Saddam Hussein. Next, he will go to trial, whether in Iraq or The Hague is uncertain. I believe the most important thing now is that his trial be very public, with his crimes spread out for all the world to see. Once convicted (was there ever any doubt?) he should be locked away but definitely not executed, for execution makes him a martyr, and he will come back to haunt us.
skating Sears Porcupine	The skating rink at the Marina has been scraped and flooded, ready for the holiday crowd. Merv reports about sixteen inches of ice on the lake which makes it pretty safe, and Frank says at Steiestol the ice is eighteen to twenty inches thick. Congratulations and best wishes to Hubert and Giselle Nerlien, new owners of the Sears store in Porcupine Plain. Besides Sears products, it houses the liquor store and is agent for a florist, as well as a lottery kiosk. I should say welcome back, too, as Hubert is originally from Greenwater. In fact, his father built the original golf course, and the first Fisherman’s Cove, or Nerlien’s Shell as it was called then.
birds	We have a fair number of pine grosbeaks coming to the feeder, plus some of the evening grosbeaks. They are normal for winter, but there has also been a lone redpoll, which I don’t usually expect to see until February, and Doreen saw a bird that could be an immature white-throated or white-crowned sparrow. Albert Beaumont said he has one at his feeder as well. They usually leave for the winter, but I gather it’s not too unusual for one to hang around.
	Doreen & Jerry Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 http://www.greenwaterreport.com/
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