October 16th, 2010:
It's been cool the last few days, but still lots of sunshine, and it's not too often the temperature dips below freezing.
Harvesting seems to be progressing, despite having very short days and problems with wet fields. We hear all kinds of horror stories about getting stuck with combines and sometimes having to take them out in two pieces. A farmer from the Delisle district told me the field seems hard, but if the combine or truck breaks through a crust, it's down to the axles. Grain wagons are finally coming into their own; with their huge wheels they can float on top, letting the semis stay on the high ground or roads. They haul about three hoppers worth of grain, and unload in seconds.
 We went to Mozart on Thanksgiving – just down in the morning and back in the evening. The Grimsons were still trying to get their last field dry enough to combine. I think they only have about a hundred acres left to combine.They have lots of last year's crop in those big white plastic socks, but can't get close enough to haul the grain to market. Fields are still pretty wet in that area, which was likely the wettest in the province.
We had a very nice visit, and a great Thanksgiving dinner. We also winterized our old motor home, which we have stored there for the winter, and Laurie's and Bryan's motor home. Jill's and Mark's motor home was already winterized, and Al's and Aimee's trailer, so we lined them all up in a row. Looked like a used RV lot!
We almost took our new motor home to Mozart, thinking we could make a three or four day trip out of it, with stops at Kelvington and Greenwater. The weather sure looked good enough. Then we decided to accept the fact that summer is over. We drained and winterized the motor home when we got back from Mozart; now it is all ready for a long winter's nap.
One of our Wynyard/Foam Lake coffee regulars died recently, after a long string of health problems. Mike Wanhella was an electrician in Wynyard for years; he and Elaine retired to Saskatoon and Mike occasionally joined us at coffee. Mike had a wonderful sense of humour and we really enjoyed his visits. We will miss him. We extend our condolences to Elaine and family.
Bryan Bjarnason, who we referred to as President of the Wynyard/Foam Lake group, moved to Red Deer with his wife, Evelyn, and we missed him at coffee. However, they have moved back to Saskatoon, finding they just weren't ready for the change in lifestyle, and now Bryan is back at coffee row. I'm sure the position of President is open to him.
Fishing Lake is apparently still having problems with too much water. Some say the water level is even higher than it was three years ago. Berms have been built to protect the real estate in many places. Whether they can withstand an assault from ice and wind in the spring remains to be seen.
We went out to Wanuskewin a couple of weeks ago. They had a very good showing of some of Allen Sapp's original paintings; most of them we hadn't seen before as they were loaned from private collections. There was also a display of portraits of native people, drawn from photographs, that was very interesting. The Sapp display is on until the end of the month, so if you are an Allen Sapp fan, you would find it well worth a trip.
We went to our first Persephone Theatre play of the season. The play was Great Expectations; we didn't care much for it but the supper and the evening in general was a success. Next show is on November 3rd. |