The Greenwater Report for April 6, 2004
warming up	April 4th, 2004: Warm, sunny and windy. It got up to +11 today and the snow is disappearing like mad. I went for a walk down by the marina, and was surprised to see the creek running! Not very hard, mind you, but a culvert dumping into the creek was making enough noise to sound as if it were running hard. The marina ice is covered with water, and there were two geese sunning themselves on the peninsula.
spring	Spring actually arrived last Tuesday, when the temperature got up to about +8°, the sun stayed out, and the snow melted like crazy. It’s hard to believe, but suddenly there are bare fields, and even the ditches along highway #38 are almost bare of snow. I think it’s safe to assume we will get one more good dump of snow, but it shouldn’t last long.
takes to long	I asked Frank about the first crows and last snows, and he said he doesn’t know; he has been deposed as weather prognosticator because he was taking too long to make a decision. We’ll just have to wait and see.
cabins	There are a lot of vehicles around today, and many cottages occupied. Yesterday in late afternoon, I could hear some snowmobiles off to the east, so somebody is getting his last licks in.
fish stories	George Butler had a unique way of telling a story; you were never quite sure if he was relating a fact or telling a joke, and if you missed the point, he would just sort of grin. George and Gordon had a fishing lodge up north somewhere; George was telling Merv about a pretty nice fish he caught and brought out in the plane. “I don’t know how big the fish was,” he said, “but the photo weighed seven pounds!” Eddie Nalepa caught one once and brought it out strapped to a board. George wasn’t too impressed; he thought the board likely weighed more than the fish.
wide eyed	George told Merv one time that he thought he had bitten off more than he could chew - he drilled a hole in the ice and there was a fish’s eye looking at him. He drilled another hole, and there was the other eye!
dynamite	Harold Fletcher was not known as a pussy-foot. One time, he got a D4 Cat stuck in a slough; since he couldn’t get close enough with another Cat to pull it out, he left it there until frozen in. When asked how he was going to get it out of the ice, he said he would just plant a stick of dynamite under the back end, and that should loosen it up. It did, too, and split the drive sprockets and did I don’t know how much other damage. He got it out, though - and sold it for parts.
May 8th	I told you last week that fishing was shut down until mid-May, but that was for the north. In this area, it opens again on May 8th.
photo equipment	I got a call from Will Lengyel of Rose Valley last week; he tells me the school is shutting down their photography lab and going entirely digital. He wanted to know if I could use any of their equipment, which I couldn’t. He has two or three enlargers and the associated equipment, plus some 35mm cameras. If anyone has a yen to get into, or expand an existing, darkroom, give Will a call - I’ll bet there are some good deals available.
lynx	We got a real thrill last Wednesday evening. We were on our way to Porcupine Plain and had just turned north at the Chelan Grid when a lynx came out of the forest on the west side and stood in the ditch looking at us. Luckily there were no cars coming, so we slammed on the brakes and backed up. It had crossed over to the east ditch, and stood there for a while before wandering off into the bush. It just didn’t seem at all concerned about us. I thought it was huge; much bigger than any I had seen in captivity, about the size of a German Shepherd. It was the first one I had seen in the wild, though there have been frequent sightings lately. It was identifiable in a flash from the big ear tufts, long legs, and slim body. It was just about the colour of the poplar trunks, and was invisible before it had gone too far into the bush.
market	Porcupine Plain’s first Farmers’ Market of the season is on Thursday, April 8th. That afternoon, at 2:00 PM at the Library, there is a program called “Birds in Our Backyard” conducted by Don Forbes. Should be an interesting one! I hope you read this in time.
reunion	Another reunion: Kelvington High School Grad ’64, students, friends, and teacher, are getting together here at the Park September 10th to 13th of this year. Check your local paper for contact person.
	Doreen & Jerry Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 telephone (306) 278-2249 fax (306) 278-3423 http://www.greenwaterreport.com/
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