Greenwater Report for November 27, 2000

---The Greenwater Report for November 27, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - November 27, 2000 - By: Gerald Crawford

treacherous
ice
November 26th, 2000: Spring-like weather the past few days, sunny and not too windy. The temperature has been not much below freezing; unfortunately, that means lots of ice. At our cottage, snow on the porch roof has been dripping onto the steps below. While the sun is out it stays wet, but as soon as the sun goes down it turns to very treacherous ice.

George Renneberg
I asked George Renneberg if he had been doing any fishing. He said he has, and has had good luck. Mostly jacks, but he got one pickerel that he figures was about two feet long and possibly five pounds. He has been fishing out off the picnic table in fifteen feet of water. The ice is about six inches thick.

great
gray owl
Driving out from our place the other day, we scared up a very large, dark bird that we thought must have been a great gray owl. It flew across the road and perched in a tree, but as we moved ahead for a better look, it kept moving from tree to tree. Shy, I guess. Then about the same time the next day, it was in the same spot. This time, it stayed in a nearby tree while we got a good look at it. No doubt at all about it being a great gray owl. No sign of it since. Twenty years ago, they were quite common around here; we used to scare them up from the north road regularly. I think they do most of their hunting in the daytime, and live almost exclusively on small rodents. They have a large, flat face, and when they fly they look like a short baseball bat, with the blunt end forward. Not streamlined at all!

Mabel
Butler
We went to Porcupine Plain for the Farmers‚ Market on Friday, and had lunch with Mabel Butler. She had a hip replacement operation a month ago and is feeling just great. Sounds as if her rapid recovery surprised even her doctors. She says she went on an exercise regime prior to the operation to strengthen the muscles in her hips and thighs and that would sure help. She is our next-door neighbor at the Park, and we hope to see more of her next summer.

Craft Fair at Kelvington
Yesterday, we went to the Craft Fair at Kelvington. Doreen says it is one of the best around. I managed to buy Doreen‚s birthday present (using her chequebook) so my conscience can rest easy for a little while. Then we went to see Jenny at her store. Her sisters had put an ad in the Kelvington paper suggesting that people drop in to Crawford‚s Family Fashions on Saturday and wish Jenny happy birthday. It said that anyone guessing her age correctly would have 10% added to the bill, and the first twelve people to tell her how young she looks would get a flower. They arranged to have twelve flowers delivered to the store, and there weren‚t many left when we got there. I think Jenny was very pleased.

five or six
inches of
ice safe
We drove around by the marina this morning. There is a small skating rink cleared, and the warm-up shack is in place. There were lots of animal tracks all around the marina, and what looked like a set of cross-country ski tracks. There were a lot of vehicle tracks in the marina parking lot, too, but only one snowmobile track onto the ice, and it seemed to skirt the shore on the beach side. We didn‚t see any ice fishing shacks, so I guess people have been parking at the marina and walking out onto the ice to fish. Vaughn Binkley told me this morning that he considers five or six inches of ice safe for fishing, though he hasn‚t been out yet. With only that much ice, I think I would be too nervous to be able to enjoy fishing.

stale
news
We finally found out that we have a slate of four candidates for tomorrow's election. Alliance, Liberal, NDP and PC are all represented. By the time you read this, though, the election will be stale news. One thing about this one, is we won't have to look at old campaign posters all winter. I don't know of a single one within fifty miles. If it weren't for the leaders sniping at each other, we wouldn't even know there was going to be an election. Good or bad?

Gerald B. Crawford
Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423
Check out my Webpage: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg

---The Greenwater Report for November 27, 2000

Greenwater Provincial Park - November 27, 2000 - By: Gerald Crawford

treacherous ice	November 26th, 2000: Spring-like weather the past few days, sunny and not too windy. The temperature has been not much below freezing; unfortunately, that means lots of ice. At our cottage, snow on the porch roof has been dripping onto the steps below. While the sun is out it stays wet, but as soon as the sun goes down it turns to very treacherous ice.

George Renneberg	I asked George Renneberg if he had been doing any fishing. He said he has, and has had good luck. Mostly jacks, but he got one pickerel that he figures was about two feet long and possibly five pounds. He has been fishing out off the picnic table in fifteen feet of water. The ice is about six inches thick.

great gray owl	Driving out from our place the other day, we scared up a very large, dark bird that we thought must have been a great gray owl. It flew across the road and perched in a tree, but as we moved ahead for a better look, it kept moving from tree to tree. Shy, I guess. Then about the same time the next day, it was in the same spot. This time, it stayed in a nearby tree while we got a good look at it. No doubt at all about it being a great gray owl. No sign of it since. Twenty years ago, they were quite common around here; we used to scare them up from the north road regularly. I think they do most of their hunting in the daytime, and live almost exclusively on small rodents. They have a large, flat face, and when they fly they look like a short baseball bat, with the blunt end forward. Not streamlined at all!

Mabel Butler	We went to Porcupine Plain for the Farmers‚ Market on Friday, and had lunch with Mabel Butler. She had a hip replacement operation a month ago and is feeling just great. Sounds as if her rapid recovery surprised even her doctors. She says she went on an exercise regime prior to the operation to strengthen the muscles in her hips and thighs and that would sure help. She is our next-door neighbor at the Park, and we hope to see more of her next summer.

Craft Fair at Kelvington	Yesterday, we went to the Craft Fair at Kelvington. Doreen says it is one of the best around. I managed to buy Doreen‚s birthday present (using her chequebook) so my conscience can rest easy for a little while. Then we went to see Jenny at her store. Her sisters had put an ad in the Kelvington paper suggesting that people drop in to Crawford‚s Family Fashions on Saturday and wish Jenny happy birthday. It said that anyone guessing her age correctly would have 10% added to the bill, and the first twelve people to tell her how young she looks would get a flower. They arranged to have twelve flowers delivered to the store, and there weren‚t many left when we got there. I think Jenny was very pleased.

five or six inches of ice safe	We drove around by the marina this morning. There is a small skating rink cleared, and the warm-up shack is in place. There were lots of animal tracks all around the marina, and what looked like a set of cross-country ski tracks. There were a lot of vehicle tracks in the marina parking lot, too, but only one snowmobile track onto the ice, and it seemed to skirt the shore on the beach side. We didn‚t see any ice fishing shacks, so I guess people have been parking at the marina and walking out onto the ice to fish. Vaughn Binkley told me this morning that he considers five or six inches of ice safe for fishing, though he hasn‚t been out yet. With only that much ice, I think I would be too nervous to be able to enjoy fishing.

stale news	We finally found out that we have a slate of four candidates for tomorrow's election. Alliance, Liberal, NDP and PC are all represented. By the time you read this, though, the election will be stale news. One thing about this one, is we won't have to look at old campaign posters all winter. I don't know of a single one within fifty miles. If it weren't for the leaders sniping at each other, we wouldn't even know there was going to be an election. Good or bad?

	Gerald B. Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 Check out my Webpage: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg