April 30, 2006:

Another month gone, and it was a good one. Nice and gentle; above normal temperatures for the most part, and a slow and easy melt. The last five months are hard to believe, aren’t they? If we could count on that every year, who would bother going to Arizona?

The Little Nut Lake area is flooded, and Francis Dubé tells me it is still rising slowly with water coming in from Round Lake and east. Red Deer River is running hard and wide and we hear reports of flooding in the Porcupine Plain RM, Hudson Bay area and east, with severe flooding at Red Deer Lake in Manitoba. West of here, though, there have been few problems, to everyone’s surprise. The fields west of Crooked River seem to be well drained; I wouldn’t be surprised to see some farming action taking place any day. I have heard rumors of someone scratching away in a field near Porcupine Plain.

By early afternoon last Tuesday, the ice was pretty well gone from this side of the lake. Two days of a stiff west wind had blown it into the southeast corner and ground it up until it just disappeared. That evening, I could see some ice on the far eastern shore, near the Bible Camp. I walked in there on Wednesday morning and there was a bit of slush along the shore in the bay where the boats are launched. At the Bible Camp’s beach there was nothing except a tiny pile of crystalline ice on the shore. I think we can safely say the ice went out at Greenwater on April 26th. Last year it went out on the 21st, and a few years ago on the 20th, but it has been as late as the long weekend in May.

We all remember our kids insisting on going in swimming on the long weekend, though the ice wasn’t that far from shore. I can’t remember the kids staying in very long, though.

Frank Duhaime retired last week. He and Judith and their family moved here in the early seventies, when Frank took over as Park Maintenance Foreman. Over the years, his job title changed but basically his duties remained the same - responsibility for the Park’s physical plant and overseeing the work of the maintenance crew, which at times was a good-sized crew. He was well respected in his job, and we will miss his humor at coffee row.

Gordon Locke has been spending a lot of time here the past few weeks, and will be taking over from Frank. The maintenance crew come back from their spring layoff tomorrow and will be hard at work getting the Park looking good again.