Greenwater report - May 22

Greenwater Report for May 22, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - May 22, 2000 - By: Gerry Crawford

the place is humming
May 21st, 2000: Yesterday and today were hot and, for the most part, sunny. Ideal for the first long weekend of the summer. Lots of people around the Park - this is traditionally the weekend when people come out to open up their cottages. Usually, you can hear saws and hammers at work, and some lawn mowers. Unfortunately, many of the people will be back on the Labour Day weekend to close up their cottages, and won‚t have seen them in between. The Park summer staff are pretty well all back at work and the place is humming.

work done
Lloyd and family from Humboldt, and Mike and family from Tisdale, were out. Lloyd reports that the water is not fit for swimming. I gather it is pretty cold, and he had to get wet putting the dock in. I enlisted Lloyd and Mike to help me do some landscaping at our cottage; besides getting an awful lot of work done, we all managed some impressive sunburns.

fish for supper
Lloyd was quite disgusted yesterday. He was going out fishing but met Merv Miller on the way. Merv told him to save his time and gas; he had already caught all the fish in the lake. Lloyd had promised to take the kids fishing, so had to go whether there were any fish left or not. Luckily they managed to find some that Merv had missed, and had fish for supper.

quarter
inch fell
Finally - some rain! While we were away Thursday, a quarter inch fell at home. It would be nice to have more, but we‚ll welcome what we get. It must have been pretty general; most people report receiving about two tenths. We had our garage sale yesterday and today and worried about getting rained out, but it never happened.

garage sale
The garage sale was successful, especially Saturday. We got rid of a lot of stuff and made a few bucks, but the best part of it is the visiting. That is something we miss since Doreen closed the Tea Room and I closed the studio. Margaret and Louise did the lion‚s share of the work - when
there is work to be done, we can always count on them.

human intervention
Wally Harstad phoned the other day; he had been reading my column of April 30th about adopting apparently abandoned wild animals. He thought some would get the idea that I was advocating never taking action to help an apparently motherless, helpless infant animal. He says there are
times when human intervention is needed for the animal to survive; the trick is in (a) knowing if it truly is abandoned, and (b) returning it to the wild. Best route to take is to call someone, like a conservation officer, or like Wally and Shirley, and explain the situation. They should be able to advise you, and maybe tell you where to take the animal - there are several people who have been rescuing animals for years and know how to go about it. It is normal for a doe to leave a newborn fawn alone for awhile; the fawn will generally lie in deep grass, and be motionless if anyone comes near. The time to be concerned is when it is up on its feet, showing signs of distress.

mule deer
Wally tells me there have been mule deer on his farm near Nipawin for years - not a lot, but two or three animals. They are a lot more widespread than I realized. There are quite a few around here, but we rarely see them. Once, we came upon a small herd on the old highway, six or seven animals. They stood on the road and watched us for quite awhile, then bounced up the road and over the hill, and stood watching us again. That was likely ten years ago. Since then, on a couple of occasions we have caught fleeting glances of a pair of animals that just don‚t look like white tails but aren‚t big enough to be elk.

Fishermans Cove
Fishermans Cove has been undergoing a face-lift in the dining and lounge. New Arborite on the counters, and new carpet throughout. Dennis even shaved! On a couple of mornings, we had to have coffee in the lounge, and that disrupted our whole day.

Beach Cafe
Coffee row isn‚t the same in the summer. Once the Beach Cafe opens, most of the Park staff has coffee there, at the tables by the north windows. We go down there sometimes, but often wind up sitting by ourselves because the window tables are full. We can drink coffee at home - the only reason we go out for coffee is for the visiting. Luckily, a few of the fire crew often go to the Cove, so there will be a few of us around the round table.

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 May 22, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - May 22, 2000 - By: Gerry Crawford

the place is humming	May 21st, 2000: Yesterday and today were hot and, for the most part, sunny. Ideal for the first long weekend of the summer. Lots of people around the Park - this is traditionally the weekend when people come out to open up their cottages. Usually, you can hear saws and hammers at work, and some lawn mowers. Unfortunately, many of the people will be back on the Labour Day weekend to close up their cottages, and won‚t have seen them in between. The Park summer staff are pretty well all back at work and the place is humming.

work done	Lloyd and family from Humboldt, and Mike and family from Tisdale, were out. Lloyd reports that the water is not fit for swimming. I gather it is pretty cold, and he had to get wet putting the dock in. I enlisted Lloyd and Mike to help me do some landscaping at our cottage; besides getting an awful lot of work done, we all managed some impressive sunburns.

fish for supper	Lloyd was quite disgusted yesterday. He was going out fishing but met Merv Miller on the way. Merv told him to save his time and gas; he had already caught all the fish in the lake. Lloyd had promised to take the kids fishing, so had to go whether there were any fish left or not. Luckily they managed to find some that Merv had missed, and had fish for supper.

quarter inch fell	Finally - some rain! While we were away Thursday, a quarter inch fell at home. It would be nice to have more, but we‚ll welcome what we get. It must have been pretty general; most people report receiving about two tenths. We had our garage sale yesterday and today and worried about getting rained out, but it never happened.

garage sale	The garage sale was successful, especially Saturday. We got rid of a lot of stuff and made a few bucks, but the best part of it is the visiting. That is something we miss since Doreen closed the Tea Room and I closed the studio. Margaret and Louise did the lion‚s share of the work - when there is work to be done, we can always count on them.

human intervention	Wally Harstad phoned the other day; he had been reading my column of April 30th about adopting apparently abandoned wild animals. He thought some would get the idea that I was advocating never taking action to help an apparently motherless, helpless infant animal. He says there are times when human intervention is needed for the animal to survive; the trick is in (a) knowing if it truly is abandoned, and (b) returning it to the wild. Best route to take is to call someone, like a conservation officer, or like Wally and Shirley, and explain the situation. They should be able to advise you, and maybe tell you where to take the animal - there are several people who have been rescuing animals for years and know how to go about it. It is normal for a doe to leave a newborn fawn alone for awhile; the fawn will generally lie in deep grass, and be motionless if anyone comes near. The time to be concerned is when it is up on its feet, showing signs of distress.

mule deer	Wally tells me there have been mule deer on his farm near Nipawin for years - not a lot, but two or three animals. They are a lot more widespread than I realized. There are quite a few around here, but we rarely see them. Once, we came upon a small herd on the old highway, six or seven animals. They stood on the road and watched us for quite awhile, then bounced up the road and over the hill, and stood watching us again. That was likely ten years ago. Since then, on a couple of occasions we have caught fleeting glances of a pair of animals that just don‚t look like white tails but aren‚t big enough to be elk.

Fishermans Cove	Fishermans Cove has been undergoing a face-lift in the dining and lounge. New Arborite on the counters, and new carpet throughout. Dennis even shaved! On a couple of mornings, we had to have coffee in the lounge, and that disrupted our whole day.

Beach Cafe	Coffee row isn‚t the same in the summer. Once the Beach Cafe opens, most of the Park staff has coffee there, at the tables by the north windows. We go down there sometimes, but often wind up sitting by ourselves because the window tables are full. We can drink coffee at home - the only reason we go out for coffee is for the visiting. Luckily, a few of the fire crew often go to the Cove, so there will be a few of us around the round table.

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