September 24, 2006:

That awful wind last week was even worse than we thought – a big black poplar down by the Beach Café was toppled, its roots pulled right out of the ground. Reminiscent of that plow wind that went through here in June of 1990, toppling several of the big trees.

We had a long chat with Sabrina Reed at the Cove last Sunday, and she told us of some of their plans for next year. As I mentioned last week, they are closing down the rooms and cabins for refurbishing; the cabins will have individual themes to make them more attractive. They are also redecorating the entry hall and dining rooms. The new dining room will be for fine dining with table cloths and chandeliers and its own menu and everything; the log part will be for regular dining and lunches as well as the bar, and the little dining room off by itself will be used for small conferences, etc.

The minigolf will be finished by then; the volleyball net will be removed and replaced by a play structure for kids. They already have the sandbox. There is even some talk of go-carts. There will be swimming lessons in the pool again in July and part of August.

The tavern is being downplayed – they want to be a family place, emphasizing family values. Welcome plans to us, and I suspect Sabrina is just the one to make it all happen.

Merv Miller’s sister, Bernice, and her husband, Lyle Dease, are down for a visit, and Lyle was at coffee the other day. He would be a real asset to coffee row! Lyle is a crane operator in Calgary ; his crane is 260 feet high, and to get to work he has to climb a ladder that distance every day. He was telling us of his experience in a crane in Vancouver during an earthquake – scary! Also the effects of wind and torque on the crane itself, especially early on, before it gets attached to the building they are working on. There is lots of sway and twist and I’ll bet he feels it all.

His crane is all electric but some of the older ones are diesel and have completely different characteristics. I asked how long an operator had to work before he could be considered good at it; he said not too long, but not everyone can do it. I gather one finds out pretty early whether he will ever make an operator or not.

I got the following e-mail from Stuart Kehrig:

“As you may have seen or heard we have recently sold the Almi Campgrounds.  I was hoping that you could possibly mention that in one of your upcoming columns, as I know quite a few of our campers read the Greenwater Report regularly. 

”It has been sold to an individual out of Regina , and in the upcoming year they expect to hire someone to manage the property on-site.  They expect to hire someone over the winter, and would be interested in someone from the area, or ideally a semi-retired couple off the farm. 

”Now I don't want to be stepping on there toes or anything such, but it is quite an enjoyable lifestyle running a campground and I think many of your readers could possibly be interested in this opportunity.” 

He didn’t give a contact name or number, but if you are interested, call Mary or Stuart.

We haven’t sold our home yet, but we have been in a frenzy of down-sizing. Doreen is packing up all her gimcracks so the kids can go through them and pick out anything they want. I have been going though all my negatives, slides and photos, boxing them up for later incineration. What a job! And we just down-sized five years ago when we moved down to the park! When you are moving, it is best if you don’t have your own truck – it’s too easy to throw everything into it and haul it to the new place, instead of chucking it. We found that out on our last two moves.

We have been hanging onto all our professional negatives in case anyone wanted theirs. We advertised them a couple of times and got a small response, but now we have to bite the bullet and dispose of them. So, it’s last call folks – as soon as the heating season gets going, we are going to haul them to the incinerator.

Elk hunting is the big thing right now. Every day there are a bunch of hunters at The Cove, and I have seen quite a number of nice racks in the backs of half-tons.