April 25th, 2010:
Cooler yesterday and today, after fantastic weather earlier in the week. We drove with some friends out to Wakaw Lake Regional Park yesterday, looking at its potential for our Club's May campout, and were surprised to see the poplar trees really leafing out. It looks like spring! Last year, a month later than this, the trees were nowhere near as well leafed out. By the time we go camping on the long weekend it should be like summer.
There was a little bit of snow on the ground this morning, and the temperature dipped below freezing, but it won't last long.
I got an e-mail from Shirley Miller at Greenwater, saying the ice went out on April 21st. That is the earliest in 18 years except for 2005, when it also went on on April 21st.
We're sorry to hear that Jim Swift of Kelvington passed away. We have known Jim and Ruby since 1980, when we first moved to Greenwater. Jim worked at the Park at that time. Jim's health deteriorated in the past several years, but we would still see them at Park gatherings. Our condolences to Ruby and family.
I went to Reggie's for coffee this afternoon. There is usually a good bunch there on Sundays; there were six men at one table, and five women at another. The women speak quietly so their chatter doesn't intrude on the mens' serious discussions.
Most of them are from the Wakaw district, except for Mike Dmytriw who farmed over near Canora. He has relatives at Porcupine Plain and knows quite a few people there. Also at the table were Big Mike, who walks everywhere; Big Jim, who isn't so big anymore since he lost a lot of weight; his brother-in-law, Ed, the only one of the bunch to live in a house, and Ed's cousin, Vic, who grew up with Ed and I suspect they planted a few wild oats together.
We were talking about Wakaw Lake, and most of them were quite familiar with it; I think Ed has some land actually abutting the lake. Of course, I had to tell Karl Haldorson's story about whistling up fish. Jim said that at one time Wakaw Lake had mercury in it, and you weren't supposed to eat the fish. It didn't bother his family, though – they stacked the fish up in their freezer standing on their heads. By the time they wanted to eat a fish, the mercury would have migrated to its head; they would cut the head off and discard it, and eat the rest of the fish. Sounded reasonable to me.
Doreen & Jerry Crawford
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