things about Crooked River, conditions in the village are less then idyllic. Water is a problem and the community obtains its water from two borrow pits South West of the village, one more then a mile away. With a tiny tax base its hard to provide the residents with the needed services, the water system is functional but sewerage is a more difficult issue relying upon septic tanks and fluid disposal mounds are often a problem.

The children have adapted to riding the half hour to school each morning and afternoon on the bus.

There is talk of the Bjorkdale Municipal office closing and moving to Bjorkdale.

But Saskatchewan people are ready and willing to accept adversity. They cherish their place and celebrate the things living in the open country can offer, like a paddock next door, frogs in the stream and the rising country all around that make the village special and comfortable to them and their children.

There will come a time when people in the crowded cities of the future will look back on this time and wonder what ever possessed the people of the late twentieth century to abandon, or for the most part, turn their backs on the small communities of the country-side as they clamoured to become urban dwellers, worshippers of pavement and parking meters.