Last week started out cold, though not as cold as the –40+° of the week before. On Wednesday morning, though, it was –10° when we got up, overcast and blowing. Quite a change! It stayed quite pleasant, though it still dipped down to about –25° most nights.

The wind blew all night Friday, from the southwest; it moved some snow around, piled up a few drifts, and polished up the ice on the roads. No new snow, though. The snow banks around the Park are quite impressive, but where it is undisturbed I doubt if it would be knee height. That might make a difference of one or two inches to the level of the lake in the spring.

This morning started out at –3°, overcast, and snowing very lightly. It blew all night, though the wind had moved around to the northwest. We can always tell when the wind is blowing - we have a whirly-bird with a noisy bearing on the roof, and when the wind blows it sets up a racket. The new snow made things white again.

As expected, the warm weather brought just about every snowmobile in Saskatchewan out of hiding. In mid afternoon there must have been fifty or more machines parked at the Cove. Kelvington had their Rally yesterday and that would account for a lot of them, but there were lots more running around in the core area and out on the lake.

Nothing boosts the economy like snowmobiles. A four-wheel-drive truck with two machines on the back and four more on a trailer must represent at least $100,000; throw in some leather suits, heated mitts, helmets with visor defrosters and two-way radios and you could likely bring it up to $125,0000. The machines are not famous for their fuel efficiency, and drivers are noted for their appetites and thirsts, so they scatter money around wherever they go! (So they make a little racket once in a while. Bear up!)

The Parkland Photography Club write-up included an excellent photo of a weathered old church. I had a phone call from a lady asking if it was the one at Alvena. Harry Bourne, the maker, wasn’t in so I called Darlene McCullough at Tisdale. She told me the church is on the Maryville Road, south of Star City. There are three vacant churches in the area, within a couple of miles. There is also an unused Jewish synagogue around there. Sounds like a nice little trip with the camera! Last time Darlene saw it, some of the windows were broken and birds had left their messes around, but otherwise the interior was in good shape, free of vandalism.