Greenwater Report for June 5, 2000

Greenwater Report for June 5, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - June 5, 2000 - By: Gerald Crawford

Warm, sunny and windy
June 4th, 2000: Warm, sunny and windy. It was 24° at about 5pm, so it likely got up higher than that. I was at the Park Store yesterday and could hear squealing, laughing and splashing from the beach. Sounds like the water isn't too cold for swimming. Too cold for me, though.

caterpillar infestation
You may have noticed a little yellow plane flying around a week or two ago; in fact it was here twice. It was a spray plane, spraying the wedge between our road and the highway in hopes of ending the caterpillar infestation. Last year, they were very bad on the west side of the highway around Miller's, and just starting to show up here. I hope it works - I hate to see the forest stripped bare in June! And shovelling up two inches of dead caterpillars around the house is no fun either. Frank says what they are using is not an insecticide in the usual sense. He thought it might be a bacteria that attacks only the caterpillar's larvae and then dies off.

spray plane
That spray plane is quite a machine! A very powerful engine with wings and a tail stuck on, room for a pilot and a tank of spray solution. It sprays its swath then shoots straight up and over for the next pass. No room for passengers in that puppy!

lot of cracks
Kudos to the Department of Highways crew! That patch of Highway #38 about a mile south of #23 has a lot of cracks across it, and our car has just the right wheelbase to really thump on each one of them. They have been patched and smoothed out so they are hardly noticeable now. Once when I bought new tires, I tried to talk Dale Grona into either mounting the front ones a little farther ahead or the rear ones a little farther back, thinking the longer wheelbase would take the bumps better. He
wouldn't do it.

tennis court
For awhile it looked as if the tennis court at the Park was being dismantled. Then, they started drilling new holes for the fence posts and cementing them in. They haven't put the fence up again, though, so tennis players should either be good players or fast runners, because there's nothing to stop the ball. Next week it should be as good as new.

visitor centre
Frank says work on the new visitor centre is right on schedule or a bit ahead. It is just possible that they could move in there for the summer. Earlier estimates were that they would have to wait until fall. The main thing left on the outside is the driveways, which will be gravel for the time being. The gate girls could have the old building all to themselves. Maybe they could open a bed and breakfast? I‚ll have to ask June.

pretty
nice trout
I checked at the Cove to see if they had any new fish pictures, but there were none. Chuck said someone caught a pretty nice trout at Steiestol Lake, over six pounds, but he didn‚t want his photo taken. There seem to be lots of boats out, so maybe the fishing has slowed down.

Beavers
Beavers have been hard at work at the Park. We saw some big ones swimming around in the marina, and there is a big white poplar right by the parking lot that the beavers have ringed. Norgrove Island used to have some birch as well as the spruce, but the spruce is about all that's left. And at the highway curve just south of the Park gate, they have the culvert dammed up again, and the water is rising.

geese
I had coffee with Lilianne at the Beach Cafe this morning. She tells me she is going to have a Fathers‚ Day Smorg on the 18th. The geese are very much in evidence, though nobody seems to know just how many there are. Tommy Mathieu said there are a couple of families of young ones,
one of two another of four. As in other years, along about the end of June, when the adults moult, the Park staff will round them up, put them in the back of a truck, and haul them off to the Pei Wei lakes. One of these days the geese will get the hint, and march into the truck by themselves.

weekend entertainment
The Cove has posted a list of weekend entertainment through July and August, winding up with a hypnotist on the Labour Day weekend. There's something every weekend, sometimes live entertainment, and other times Karaoki.

Gerald B. Crawford
Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423
Check out my Webpage: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg

Greenwater Report for June 5, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - June 5, 2000 - By: Gerald Crawford

Warm, sunny and windy	June 4th, 2000: Warm, sunny and windy. It was 24° at about 5pm, so it likely got up higher than that. I was at the Park Store yesterday and could hear squealing, laughing and splashing from the beach. Sounds like the water isn't too cold for swimming. Too cold for me, though.

caterpillar infestation	You may have noticed a little yellow plane flying around a week or two ago; in fact it was here twice. It was a spray plane, spraying the wedge between our road and the highway in hopes of ending the caterpillar infestation. Last year, they were very bad on the west side of the highway around Miller's, and just starting to show up here. I hope it works - I hate to see the forest stripped bare in June! And shovelling up two inches of dead caterpillars around the house is no fun either. Frank says what they are using is not an insecticide in the usual sense. He thought it might be a bacteria that attacks only the caterpillar's larvae and then dies off.

spray plane	That spray plane is quite a machine! A very powerful engine with wings and a tail stuck on, room for a pilot and a tank of spray solution. It sprays its swath then shoots straight up and over for the next pass. No room for passengers in that puppy!

lot of cracks	Kudos to the Department of Highways crew! That patch of Highway #38 about a mile south of #23 has a lot of cracks across it, and our car has just the right wheelbase to really thump on each one of them. They have been patched and smoothed out so they are hardly noticeable now. Once when I bought new tires, I tried to talk Dale Grona into either mounting the front ones a little farther ahead or the rear ones a little farther back, thinking the longer wheelbase would take the bumps better. He wouldn't do it.

tennis court	For awhile it looked as if the tennis court at the Park was being dismantled. Then, they started drilling new holes for the fence posts and cementing them in. They haven't put the fence up again, though, so tennis players should either be good players or fast runners, because there's nothing to stop the ball. Next week it should be as good as new.

visitor centre	Frank says work on the new visitor centre is right on schedule or a bit ahead. It is just possible that they could move in there for the summer. Earlier estimates were that they would have to wait until fall. The main thing left on the outside is the driveways, which will be gravel for the time being. The gate girls could have the old building all to themselves. Maybe they could open a bed and breakfast? I‚ll have to ask June.

pretty nice trout	I checked at the Cove to see if they had any new fish pictures, but there were none. Chuck said someone caught a pretty nice trout at Steiestol Lake, over six pounds, but he didn‚t want his photo taken. There seem to be lots of boats out, so maybe the fishing has slowed down.

Beavers	Beavers have been hard at work at the Park. We saw some big ones swimming around in the marina, and there is a big white poplar right by the parking lot that the beavers have ringed. Norgrove Island used to have some birch as well as the spruce, but the spruce is about all that's left. And at the highway curve just south of the Park gate, they have the culvert dammed up again, and the water is rising.

geese	I had coffee with Lilianne at the Beach Cafe this morning. She tells me she is going to have a Fathers‚ Day Smorg on the 18th. The geese are very much in evidence, though nobody seems to know just how many there are. Tommy Mathieu said there are a couple of families of young ones, one of two another of four. As in other years, along about the end of June, when the adults moult, the Park staff will round them up, put them in the back of a truck, and haul them off to the Pei Wei lakes. One of these days the geese will get the hint, and march into the truck by themselves.

weekend entertainment	The Cove has posted a list of weekend entertainment through July and August, winding up with a hypnotist on the Labour Day weekend. There's something every weekend, sometimes live entertainment, and other times Karaoki.

	Gerald B. Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 Check out my Webpage: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg