We did alright in November and December by not having really severely cold weather but all in all the winter of 2007-08 has been a long one and I doubt if it will be a minority view that most of us will be glad to see it gone.

On Saturday we drove out to Weekes and back and as we worked our way east it was clear that there is a lot of snow out in the fields and that depending on the speed of the warming process we could be looking at a good deal of repeated flooding in the area east of Porcupine Plain. People in the Shand Creek area are concerned that the large culverts installed in the flooded areas of the Porcupine Plain area will drain very quickly causing extensive flooding in the open country north and north east of Weekes.

But it was pleasant to just roll down the window and drive through Tisdale today with water collecting in many areas on the pavement and the town's steam equipment working at the corner of LaCroix Drugs to clear up the storm sewer.

March can be enormously tricky, it can be warm as it was today and then it can turn on us and dump a lot of moisture very quickly with the possibility of violent winds and all the things that go with a spring storm situation. This is one of the other factors that will determine the severity of the flooding but all in all the snow load in the countryside is extensive as you can see in the picture at the bottom of the page. That snow and ice has to turn to water and that water has to move through the drainage system.

You will also notice that some of the human snow birds are starting to re-appear in town. I talked to Gerald Chupa last week and he was a happy man after having had a good winter vacation in the US. Our next door neighbour Maurice is due home any day now, I think he will make it here before the crows show up.

I would appreciate you letting me know your signs of spring as things begin to warm up around your place.