A section of the newly surfaced trail.

The Greenwater Report for October 1, 2001

Greenwater Provincial Park - Monday, October 1, 2001 - by: Jerry Crawford

water

September 30th, 2001: Another month gone! For us cottagers, the end of September means the end of water at the standpipes. From now on, our water has to be hauled from the treatment plant. We made sure our tank was full to the top; if we had to, we could get by for about four weeks, three if we aren’t too careful, and two if we have any company. Oh well, in about thirty-two weeks they will turn it back on again.

 

 

summer
was back

We thought summer was back for a while. After a cold weekend, last Monday turned pleasant, sunny and calm. It stayed warm all week, especially Thursday and Friday, but with a strong south wind. Still, we managed to get out on the boat a couple of times. Yesterday was quite a bit cooler with a strong north wind; even so, it was pretty nice weather for late September. This morning was quite a bit warmer, clear, and with a wind from the south. The wind went down by evening and it wound up being a lovely day.

 

 

Fall
Feast

We just got back from the annual Fall Feast put on by the Porcupine Plain Roman Catholic Church. It was held in the Community Hall, so there was all kinds of room and we didn’t feel we had to jump up and give our place at the table to the next wave. They had four food lines, which made for very little time spent standing in line, and once we were seated people came around with the coffee pot, and with desserts. We were there about an hour, and that allowed us to have a leisurely meal and do lots of visiting. It was about the best-run supper I can remember, and on top of it all, the food was great!

 

 

 

After we got home, we had just enough time to go for a little boat ride and enjoy the sunset. What a lovely day!

colored
leaves










potatoes












deer


The strong winds have blown off a lot of the brightly colored leaves, but it is still gorgeous out there, and lots of trees haven’t really changed color yet. It’s not unusual to have good color well into October. After the drought, we thought the leaves would just turn brown and fall off, but that isn’t the case. The color this year is as good as any.

Brian Shuya invited us over to see his crop of Netted Gem potatoes. We brought a ruler, and took a few photos. He had dug a couple of rows, about fifty feet long; there were lots of them, some huge ones but all good-sized. Brian is famous for his gardening, and he has a web page where he answers questions from people all over the continent. His address is: www.csthome.tzo.com/BriansGarden. Look him up!

Driving home from Porcupine Plain Monday night, we didn’t make very good time. There seemed to be deer in the ditch every hundred yards or so, plus a couple of porcupines. Seems like eighty is lots fast for that stretch within the Park, at night. I get nervous when the deer lifts its head to look at us; it is just apt to take off in any direction, and one of those could be right in front of our car.

 

 

geese

Prouse Lake, in Kelvington, was loaded with geese yesterday – snow geese, blue geese, Canada geese and others I can’t name. The water was almost covered when I stopped to take some pictures, and after that there seemed to be a million on the lake, a million taking off, and a million landing. What a racket! I wonder if the people living close to the lake get much sleep?

 

 

theft

We went to Kelvington to see Jenny’s store – during the night, about mid-week, someone decided he needed some clothes, so threw a rock through one of the big front windows and made off with a bunch of clothes. When the bakery opened early next morning, they noticed the broken window and called Jenny and the police. The police caught the culprits in no time.

 

 

Tea and
Bake Sale

While in Kelvington, we went to the Senior’s Activity Center, where the Kelvington Hospital Auxiliary was hosting a Fall Tea and Bake Sale. They had a very busy afternoon; the bake sale ran out of goods within an hour. Luckily, they saved lots of sandwiches and goodies for us. We had a very nice visit with Jessie Rotzien, and with the Blossers, among others.

nature
trail

Had coffee with the Duhaimes this morning; they now live in Porcupine Plain, but manage to get back for coffee occasionally. Frank told me of the work the crew is doing on the nature trail. They have widened it, levelled it, and are surfacing it with rock crusher dust, which should pack down to a very firm surface. They have built a machine for spreading the dust; they just dump a bucketful of dust into the machine then pull it along, and it leaves a three inch thickness on the trail, filling in the dips and hollows. Then they follow it with a packer-roller. The plan is to do the short loop, which I believe is about three kilometers; so far, they have graded between the Marina bridge and the golf course road bridge, and have about half of it surfaced.
   
  Doreen & Gerald B. Crawford
Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg