November 7^th, 2004:

Yesterday started out quite warm, about +5° but overcast and windy. We went to Archerwill to the Craft Fair; around noon I walked over to the Co-op Service Station for a paper, and found I was in a blizzard! It didn’t last long, though, and eventually the sky cleared.

There never did seem to be many people at the fair, though our sales were satisfactory. We had a table offering a couple of books and a bunch of my photos. Visiting was first class! I met Allison Squires of the Wadena News for the first time, also Lloyd Howden of the SPCA. Stan Revoy bought me coffee; I hadn’t seen him for thirty or more years, since he used to buy mink feed at our plant in Wynyard. And I had lunch with Merv Miller and Don Head. That’s about all the coffee I can handle in one day.

We had some photos of the three Archerwill elevators, and they sold out completely; the rest of the photos drew interest but no sales. Crawford Family Cookbooks and Hayunga’s Poems and Parodies accounted for the rest of the sales. Next time we go to a craft fair, I think I will make lots of pictures of the elevators of that town, and any other town photos I can find. With a few books, we don’t need anything else.

Another person I met there was Robert Thompson of Saskatoon. He vacations at Marean Lake and is very interested in nature. He got a real thrill the other day as he was leaving the lake – he spotted a lynx close to the road and not showing any interest in him. He stopped to watch it, and pretty soon two young lynx came out of the weeds and joined their mother. They ambled about a bit then left, but in no particular hurry. What a thrill!

Another homecoming to plan on for next year - Archerwill is holding its “Come Home to Archerwill” on July 29^th, 30^th and 31^st next year. It appears one should take the whole summer off and just go from one Homecoming to another. What a blast!

Our great-granddaughter, Taryn Grimson, will be the sixth generation to be rocked in a family heirloom cradle. It was purchased for my maternal grandmother, who was born in 1877, and has rocked every generation since.

Grandma said she could remember napping in the cradle when she was two or three years old. She remembers it being brought along full of quilts when they moved to Manitoba from Ontario in 1883. It had been sold out of the family for a few years, but Grandma bought it back.

It was given to us in time to rock our older son, Lloyd. It had countless layers of black varnish on it, and some of the screw holes were worn out. We refinished it and replaced a board or two; I notice from a 1961 article in the Star Phoenix that we estimated we spent fifty hours on it. That article included a picture of our son, Mike, in the cradle, with Doreen standing beside.

I hope Taryn appreciates it. I will try to get a picture of her in the cradle for a future Report.

On a recent trip to Kelvington, we noticed some willows loaded with fluff balls, around the Round Lake grid. We stopped for a photo but were unable to get very close, as there was water in the ditch. Someone speculated that the cold snap followed by some warmer weather fooled the trees into thinking winter was over and spring was here. I assume it’s a normal occurrence; we just haven’t noticed it before.