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From the land of perpetual winter
Tisdale - Thursday, April11, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire

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A few miles south of Tisdale, just beyond the Viterra Agricultural outlet is one of Tisdale’s wells with a nice road into it and a stand of trees to mark the way. The picture above is from the well site carefully under the secure guard of an ever present raven. This is what most rural east west roads look like now if they had been kept clear of snow during the course of the winter. This image was taken on Wednesday when there was some sunlight.

Above right is a pretty gloomy image of the mountainous region east of the Co-op refinery in Regina where this year’s snow has been hauled. We were down to Regina on the weekend and this picture was taken in snow and blowing snow on Friday afternoon, April 5. The area is full and had been closed but the city was forced to reopen the dump site because contractors badly need someplace to keep hauling the snow from Regina which still has amazing amounts of snow on its residential streets and in every yard.

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On Saturday before we left the city we had lunch in the Northgate Mall food court. This is a nice one though it has a limited number of outlets the skylight and seating area is a very nice environment in stark contrast to the trough like feeding feel of the Cornwall Centre food court. These places really puzzle me. They have steady business to the point that most food courts seem to run close to capacity yet the prices keep edging upward. I like the quality of the oriental outlets but the portions never seem quite to fit, what I mean is they load up the plate with rice or noodles so that almost every customer tosses about one third of the serving.

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It is to the credit of the town of Tisdale that throughout this long winter the streets of the whole community have been routinely cleared of snow and then the accumulation along the sides of the streets was for the most part hauled away. This in stark contrast to the incredible conditions in Regina and Saskatoon. Regina’s residential streets are passable but two lanes on most streets are filled with melting snow. My brother had to park his car because the streets in Saskatoon residential areas had ruts that caused damage to cars and his truck was challenged but the streets in his neighbourhood.



But, as you can see downtown Tisdale looks pretty good even though the temperature hovers just below the freezing mark all of Tisdale’s streets have the snow gone as it recedes from the curb up onto the lawns.

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On Tuesday the motorhome was still in the shop and this picture show the condition of our driveway and front yard. The snow is not going away nearly quickly enough because today the only difference from this picture is the motorhome is sitting on the driveway with the car. Below is what the back yard looks like and it is quite revealing. There is little or no frost in the ground under that deep bed of snow and exposed areas should dry up very quickly. Most fields in this area are still under that blanket.

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In the fifteen years of doing this web site I have become more and more skeptical about what people tell me and even more skeptical what promoters announce. In the fall the seven acres of land that included the tourist booth, miniature golf and camp ground was sold to a developer. The tourist booth was moved over to the museum yard and this week the miniature golf was cleared away. There is no limitation of the speculation as to what might eventually be built or developed on the property but let’s just wait and see what appears.

009Residential construction this year has got off to a good start with this handsome apartment building nearing completion on 97th Avenue.

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On the corner of Ferry Glenn and Newmarket a new house is also in the interior finishing stage while two other projects have just got under way. Farber Construction started a house last week and this week they will have completed the construction of the wood basement of what, for now is the last house on the east side of Newmarket.

Yet another duplex got underway this past week just west of the Maple Ridge and east of the new fourplex on 95th Street. Today the cement was being poured into the foam forms.

More pictures and some details of each of the stories on this page can be accessed by clicking on the menus lists above left or by clicking on the pictures themselves.

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