November 18, 2007:

Not the nicest day we’ve had, but at least it wasn’t cold. It has been raining, sleeting or snowing almost all day; never very heavy but never quitting entirely. We were on the highway about six and it wasn’t icy, but enough slush on it to pull a car around a bit. If it gets cold tonight, it could be pretty bad. If anyone has been keeping track, I’ll bet we have had five or six inches of snow over the past week.

“Looks like you brought your own pot!” were Victor’s first comments at the pot-luck supper last night. Felt just like coffee row. What a party! A real good gathering of people of the community came to have a good meal and to say goodbye to us. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. They gave us a lovely scrapbook with photos of as many people as they could arrange in it, and I understand there are some more to come. What a great idea! Many thanks to the organizers and to everyone that came to wish us well.

We drove down from Saskatoon on Tuesday. When we left, there was a skiff of snow here and there but the ground was pretty well bare. Around Wakaw, we started running into a drizzle that alternated rain and snow. By the time we got to Tisdale it was snowing but not very hard. It kept it up, though, and when we got home in mid-afternoon the highway was white. We went to Chelan Tuesday evening, and the road was snow-covered and icy. It seemed to keep on snowing gently off and on and by Wednesday morning it looked like winter was here to stay.

It got pretty warm during the day, and when we went to Tisdale on Thursday the highways were clearing quickly, though still pretty sloppy.

Of all the guys around the coffee table, I only felt sure of the political leanings of two of them – Moose and Helen. Moose made no effort to hide his political preferences – you might say he wore his heart on his sleeve. We never held it against him; in fact we always treated him as if he were in his right mind.

Moose must have had a sense of what was going to happen in the recent provincial election, though, because he made sure to have the batteries in his pacemaker changed before the election. Richard generously offered him the batteries from his remote control, but Moose declined. I guess he felt the election might put a strain on his heart, and he wanted the very best quality of batteries.

Jack borrowed two dollars from me the other day. He wasn’t going to be able to get to our farewell party, but he wanted to make a contribution. Anything to get rid of me. I suspect he paid for his coffee out of that two dollars, though, so that only left seventy five cents to contribute. I should have lent him twenty dollars.

I looked out at the lake Friday morning, and it was all white, except for a couple of dark streaks across the north end that could have just been swept clear by the wind. Our binoculars are in Saskatoon but I think it’s safe to say the lake froze over on November 16^th. Usually, it freezes around the edge first and gradually toward the center. This time, there were whitecaps on Thursday and solid white on Friday. By the way – Richard confirmed that it was frozen over.

We have the house about as clean as we can get it. Doreen and Lucille have been working like Trojans all week, and I spent my efforts in the basement. Yesterday and today, Lilianne Russell and friends came to give us a hand and now I feel we are turning it over to the new owners with pride. Tomorrow, we will wash our sheets, go for coffee, take out the garbage, and leave. We will stop at Perigord Rummage Sale for lunch, then take the motor home down to Grimson’s, where we are storing it for the winter, and hopefully be home in Saskatoon before dark.

We will be back here on the 23rd to turn over the keys to the new owners, and then we will officially be citizens of Saskatoon . It’s been a wonderful twenty seven years!