pril 19th, 2009: A lovely day today, lots of sun and temperatures up to +14°C, and little wind. Yesterday, it was cloudy all day and very windy, and felt like the middle of winter. We did a little garage saling but it was just too cold. It’s amazing how soon we forget winter.
I mentioned last report that we planned to go to Tisdale, Greenwater and Kelvington on Monday. We got up at six AM; it was foggy and the radio said travel not recommended, so we went back to bed. Got up at eight and had breakfast; it was still foggy, so I slept for another hour. We finally got away from here about nine-thirty and drove straight through to Kelvington. The fog never let up; we had about two hundred yards visibility the whole way. The road was good, though and we made good time.
We saw a dead moose in the ditch west of Humboldt; also a dead skunk on the shoulder, five big hawks – likely Swainson’s hawks – two pair of mallards a hundred miles apart, many flights of snow geese, one unidentifiable small bird and a few crows. Oh, and a few deer around the Park.
Snow conditions were the same everywhere we went – fields almost completely bare, with a little snow in the ditches, sloughs, fencelines, etc. We were very surprised to see the ground just as bare in the Park, where it usually melts a little later than on the prairie.
Greenwater Creek was running quite strongly, but the Marina wasn’t open except right where the creek empties into it. Judging by the riprap on Norgrove Island, the lake was down several feet. We talked to Lynda and Bill Gudjonson and they said it had been down in the fall but should come up again before spring melt was finished. They assured me that the dam hadn’t been opened to drain the lake. We didn’t see any suckers running in the creek.
The Red Deer River west of Chelan was running, but not very deep or swift. The Doghide River at Tisdale was hardly running at all, nor were any of the creeks between Crooked River and Tisdale.
We had quite a nice lunch with Jenny and Laurie at the bar in Kelvington, then we left them and went to Greenwater. The Cove was closed for Easter Monday so we didn’t get to have coffee with the old gang, but we did drive around a bit. As I said, the snow is almost gone; in Almi Campground the ground is wet with a few puddles but obviously no danger of flooding.
In Tisdale, we did our errands in a few minutes then went to visit Aaron, Nicole and Logan, who is over ten months. He is crawling like mad and standing up wherever there is something to hang onto, but not walking. He wasn’t quite as friendly as he has been other times, but still full of grins.
By the way – at Gardenscape, Doreen was moaning about not being able to have any potted plants because we are away so much; the lady she was complaining to suggested laying a Pamper in the bottom of each pot – Pampers are supposed to hold many times their weight in water or other fluids so could keep the pots moist for a long time. Watching Aaron change Logan, Doreen thought that maybe if one used a used Pamper, it would serve the double purpose of providing moisture and fertilizer. |
