Here it is, almost the end of September and getting close to the end of summer. I thought I would put a few thoughts down on paper and see if anyone is interested.
First off, Emer Gudmundson expressed curiosity about a certain confrontation between myself and a power pole while combining for Grimsons, that resulted in a slightly bent auger. Said power pole stood in a field just west of John J. Bole's house, and it wasn't the first time it attacked me. Many years ago, maybe as much as thirty, I was cultivating in that field, very carefully skirting the pole, when it jumped about a foot to one side. The cultivator caught it and it was tilted about 45° from perpendicular by the time I got the rig stopped. I very carefully backed the cultivator back against the pole and managed to straighten it somewhat, but it still had quite a list to the north.
The event with the combine happened many years later, when I had forgotten the perverse nature of that particular pole. I was combining swaths, had just finished dumping into the truck, made a hard right turn and just as I was about to retract the auger, the pole jumped out and hit it. I said above that it was slightly bent; actually, if I have to be totally honest, it was close to 30°. The pole just stood there and snickered. With a fast trip to Yorkton, and the good services of the gang at Lakeview John Deere, we were combining again the next day. So now you know the rest of the story.
We have been blessed with two more great-grandchildren this year. First, Jill (Grimson) and Mark Ferguson had a baby boy, Andrew Robert Ferguson born April 23rd in Saskatoon, then Nicole (Parker) and Aaron Crawford had a baby girl, Charlee Adrienne Crawford, born July 30th, also in Saskatoon. The Fergusons live in Saskatoon, the Crawfords in Tisdale. That brings our great-grandchildren up to a total of seven. Three grandchildren have a boy and a girl each, while Atticus Kopchuk-Swan is still an only child.
This has been a summer of travel. We had a weekend at Eagle Creek in May, one in Prince Albert in June, with our Sunseeker friends. Then, on June 22nd, we took in another Sunseeker weekend at Little Loon Lake, just east of Glaslyn, but instead of going home afterwards, we met Cathy (who was dying to try out her new motor home) and Freckles in Prince Albert and headed East.
We stopped in Tisdale, Hudson Bay and Swan River, then spent the July long weekend at Manipogo Provincial Park. Two thirds of that park were under water – to go for a swim at the beach, you first had to wade out a hundred yards to find the beach. Concession, playground, showers were all standing in water and only one subdivision of four was open to campers. Still, we loved the park and would like to go back in normal times.
Lake Manitoba was so high, with extra water flowing in from the Assiniboine via the Portage Diversion, that the tourism industry on the whole east shore was out of business. A plot was afoot to cut a channel from Lake Manitoba into Lake Winnipeg via St. Martins Lake, and that has the Lake Winnipeg residents worried. Their lake is already higher than anyone can remember.
We made stops in Ashern, Arborg, and then spent three days on Hecla Island. While touring the village of Hecla, we saw a sign in front of a house reading "Joa Johannesson" so we stopped to see if it was Joa that used to work at the plant in Wynyard. Sure enough, it was, so we had a little visit. We went back two days later and had a longer visit with Johanna, her daughter, Joanne, and Joanne's son, Barry. Joanne chummed with our Jenny back in the school days. Wonderful!
On our way to Gimli, we stopped and visited a lady Cathy and I had gone to school with in Kelliher, back in the late '40s. Peggy Briggs was her name then; now it's Peggy Newcombe, and her husband, Ralph, was there, too. They live right on Lake Winnipeg but have just sold their place and are moving into a condo in Gimli.
We spent a couple of nights in Gimli, doing all the usual tourist things. I had a look at their beach and it is till mighty big; if the water comes up another foot, they might lose twenty feet of it, but there will still be lots left. A lovely town.
We spent three nights at Stonewall, to attend the 60th anniversary of my cousin in Selkirk. We had sites booked in Selkirk but got bumped because of a fall tournament. When we left there, we spent an afternoon at Souris visiting my sole remaining uncle, his son, and a second cousin. We had a brief walking tour of the diking that had been done, and was in the process of being demolished.
Next, to our son's place (Lloyd), south of Whitewood. He has an acreage on the north side of the Pipestone Creek Valley, a beautiful location overlooking the valley. Mike and Marg came down from Spy Hill in their new motor home and we had a great visit.
Lloyd, Mike and I had a real Yee-Haw time – first, we worked on a Harley Davidson golf cart engine (got it going, too!), then we got a dozen beer and went shooting gophers in a field Lloyd had the use of. Sweated a lot, too.
Cathy left us there and headed for Wynyard, for their Homecoming. We wound up at Craik, where we met the Sunseekers for another outing, and got home July 25th.
Our whole summer was hot and dry – I doubt if we have yet seen an eighth of an inch of rain, and we spent a lot of time sweltering in mid-thirty temperatures. Our motor homes ran like dreams
And that was just the start of the summer! The rest can wait for another time. |
