December 18^th, 2005:

Deepfreeze time again! Down to –29° Friday night and not much warmer all day Saturday, but sunny and pleasant. The forecast for today is much warmer. We are off to Saskatoon, where we will pick up Doreen’s sister, Lucille, and bring her back to spend Christmas with us. I will get this off before we leave.

I went to Tisdale yesterday, to take pictures of kids with Santa at the Mall. It was a project the Parkland Photography Club had taken on since nobody else seemed interested. Alan Caithcart did a bunch on Thursday evening, and I got the rest, well over a hundred kids in total. We charged a buck a head, and the parents could pick up their pictures the following afternoon. Alan and I got the easy jobs; Darlene McCullough had to stage-manage the whole thing, try to match up the pictures with the descriptions she had written down, collect the money, and hand out the photos. Of course, Santa had to sit there in a very hot suit and try not to get too cranky. We used digital cameras and had them printed at Extra Foods. They have a machine there that is really neat for printing from digital camera cards, CDs or floppy disks, and I suspect it is cheaper than doing them at home!

There was a Community Potluck supper at the Greenwater Hall Monday night and as usual it was a great evening. There must have been sixty or more people there with lots of food and lots of variety for everyone. Donna Chase brought some Christmas music, and I brought a slide show of Greenwater historic pictures; a few people brought playing cards, so there was a lot to do.

The fire department from Kelvington was called out to Maurice Marquette’s on Tuesday - the contents of an unused silo caught fire. There was no damage to other buildings, but one firefighter was taken to hospital because of smoke inhalation. Maurice says it is still smoking.

It started snowing Tuesday; there was about five inches by night time, then it snowed all night and the next day, and a high wind came up. I had to plough the driveways Wednesday morning and it was at least ten inches deep out on the boulevard. Then the maintainer came along and I had to do the entrances to the driveways again. That blower is a wonderful piece of equipment. 

Thursday morning, it was still snowing and blowing. We managed to drive the car out, but just barely. We had planned to go to Tisdale, but after Doreen finished shopping in Porcupine Plain we just headed for home. Roads were icy in spots, and visibility wasn’t great. Started up the snow blower and did the whole job over again.

Friday morning, we thought the sun was coming out, but no such luck. There was another two or three inches of fresh snow, but I won’t bother blowing it - I’ll just let it pack down.

Through it all Metro and his Highways crew dashed back and forth and kept our highway passable. We always know when we get adverse weather conditions it won’t be long before the crew will be at work. We appreciate it.

In last week’s column, I hoped for snow, lots of it. Ken Folstad is a bit of a grinch as far as snow is concerned, and he said he hoped I got snow, and all his, too. In his later column, he restated his dislike of snow, and extended it to people who have snow blowers and talk about it. What the heck; he’s got no cows now so he can just put up his feet and nap until spring!

When we were in Hudson Bay last Sunday, we went down to the Legion Hall to see antlers being scored. Jeremy Edwards, of Hudson Bay, is accredited by the Henry Kelsey provincial scoring body and was doing the scoring. Our grandson, Aaron, had shot a nice buck so Mike took the antlers to see how they scored. No record, by any means, but a very nice set of antlers. I think they scored about 152 as non-typical. 

Hudson Bay, by the way, got even more snow than we did - about sixteen inches, according to the news, and more than that according to others.