February 25, 2007:

It’s been warm all week, especially the last half, with temperatures up to almost zero during the day and only down to about -15° at night. It was overcast and snowing first thing this morning, then the sun came out and it was still snowing! By early afternoon, the eaves were dripping, which means that one of these times when I walk out of the house, I will get a ton of snow down my neck. If I was real smart, I would get out the roof rake and do some preventive maintenance, but I would rather live dangerously.

Lots of snowmobile traffic all week. This is the second week of school breaks, and Monday was that new statutory holiday called Family Day. Conditions for snowmobiling must be near perfect, with fresh powder most mornings.

I understand fishing has been reasonably good; haven’t talked to any actual fishermen, but lots of rumors of good catches. There has been a lot of activity around the ice-fishing huts. We have a package of perch fillets in our freezer, courtesy of Bill Drobot, and will likely have a feast this week.

We didn’t get the snowstorm we were promised last week, but it did snow lightly but incessantly for several days. I finally started up the snowblower yesterday, after the grader had been around. It’s not much of a job if I get at it while it’s still fresh. Once the grader ridge sets overnight, it can be a load for my little blower. We might have had four inches on average.

Brian Shuya is a man of many talents. Besides being very knowledgeable on plants and birds, he is a carpenter and an accomplished artist. A new talent has emerged! In his spare time, Brian has built a snow castle by the entrance to his yard, and it is quite a work of art. You can see it at the top of the hill, about a mile south of Greenwater. Watch for it at night, too – I understand he has some coloured lights on it.

George and Helen Renneberg live near the top of the hill south of Greenwater, right across the highway from the Millers. George has starred in this column many times since they moved back in the ‘90s. I say “moved back” because George was born and raised in this area; in fact just about a mile south and a mile east of where we used to live, up on the hill. He attended Bells Hill School so of course there was much bantering between George and Merv Miller, who attended Nobleville School . The two schools were bitter rivals in all things. George crowed that Bells Hill could always beat Nobleville at baseball; Merv countered that it was because the grades one through eight at Bells Hill were made up of kids from sixteen to twenty years of age, just out of the bush and used to swinging an axe.

It was George and Merv who dreamed up the idea of a cablecar running from the hill up where Dunlops now live down to the Park, using the wall of the entry office to stop up against. They were going to sell tickets and figured they could make their fortune. It never got off the ground.

Anyway, George has been in the hospital in Porcupine Plain for some weeks now, and we miss him. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, George!