Saskatoon and so much more

from the top of the Duck Lake visitor centre/museum

Saskatoon is nice; pretty nice. There is a fantastic river walk/park with sculptures and gardens, and an obvious effort to have flowers and public art. The city feels quite small but apparently is about the size of Victoria. Also small of course. We stayed at the Park Town hotel on Don Rowlatt's advice and enjoyed the location, the restaurant, and the pub. We were on the top floor with a fab view of the river and the bridge across to the university. Day one we went to the Museum of Western Development, drove through U Sask, and visited the Diefenbaker Centre on campus. We continue to be impressed by the energy and effort that goes into preserving the history of the province and the smallest pieces of it. There are 4 MWDs, the Saskatoon one is all indoor, massive, and incredibly interesting.
Day two we went to Wanuskewin First Nations heritage park, minutes north of city centre. It's being redeveloped and the plans are impressive. We went on a guided walk and were part of a tipi raising ceremony. Then, with time left on the table we went north to Prince Albert, PA as it's known. We had cancelled PA and Lloydminster because time was short so were glad to add one back even if it was a hit and run. Cruising in to town on a wrong road I spied an onion dome and we chased it down to take pics. While we were pressing our noses up to the door a car pulled up and women got out WITH KEYS! And they let us in for a look because we were so obviously interested and harmless. Wow, what a place. The women were bringing supplies in for the Friday perogy supper which, if it was next Friday I would push to go back for; but it was yesterday. Again, the commitment to community and tradition was uplifting. inspirational. We also drove by Diefenbaker's house which had closed for the day by then,
But the day wasn't over yet.
On the way back south we pulled into Duck Lake I don't remember why. Some interesting looking buildings maybe, including a stage coach. There was a crop we couldn't identify so even though it was getting late we pulled into the visitor centre for, a multi-storied tower, "five minutes" which has become a famous refrain. 45 minutes later and further inspired by the volunteers who run the local museums we are back on the road.
Seriously people, there are more "sparkplugs" in Saskatchewan than anywhere else in the universe. We need to look around and pick up a cause/project because, speaking for myself, I am not pulling my weight. No one talks about the work involved, just the pleasure.
THEN we went to Taverna for dinner, back in Saskatoon and met Luigi. Slick as you can imagine, hugely entertaining, and we let him select a memorable meal for us.

some of the beautiful bead work we've been encountering; this at Duck Lake

Holy Trinity Ukrainian in PA

Saskatoon mural

Mr Medicare, Tommy Douglas!

this was an interesting idea with no traction

First Nations beauty

The rellies

Perogies

Sister Bets decided to drop in for a week-long visit and we were to meet her in Saskatoon.  We left Veregin with Canora (CAnadian NAtional RAilroad)in mind and perogies. There was the Ukranian greeter at the entrance to town but perogies? No. we met a sort-of local who was also surprised that the visitor centre/museum wasn't open and who sent us to Terry's to find our about perogies, but Terry's wasn't open either. Canora is a two Chinese restaurants town but that wasn't on my radar so we had an Aussie Bite and kept going. A while later, passing through Watson, not only was there a roadside Santa Claus but a cafe advertising home-made perogies. A U-turn, which I have a lot of practice at, and bums in seats for the real deal. Our still-with-the-accent hostess was delightful but was dead keen to move to Victoria especially when she asked about mosquitoes and we said no. We stuffed ourselves with borscht, perogies, and sausage, yum, and moved on.
We passed through Humboldt and I was comforted to see that it is a decent sized town with, I hope, enough heart and resources to recover from the devastating accident that killed so many of their young men in 2018. I was imagining one of the many very small towns that couldn't possibly absorb that level of tragedy.
On to Saskatoon and met Bets at the Irish pub attached to our hotel, the Park Town. Mum would have been proud! Later we went to the Hudson for food and then to the absolutely most fantastic fireworks display any of us have ever seen. I was too busy looking to take pics. Sorry!

A quick stop in Veregin

What can I say about the Doukobors. What I remember from the 60s/70s is the Sons of Freedom in BC, savagely opposed to having to send their children to school and conform to provincial laws. They marched naked, held hunger strikes, burned buildings, and fought vehemently to keep their autonomy.
In essence the Doukobors were pacifist vegetarians, in search of their version of utopia. After years of heavy persecution, Leo Tolstoy, the Quakers, and others put together enough money to get 7500 Doukobors our of Russia and to Canada via Halifax.
Veregin SK is named for the leader of the group that emigrated from Russia to Canada. Several years later Canada changed the rules and insisted on some adherence to national standards in order to keep the assigned land. But in BC it was different, so off they went, many of them, to the Grandforks and New Denver areas; until the rules changed again which is the angst that I remember. They were right to fear schools and integration because their world has disappeared into the realm of museums as a result of the exposure to the mainstream lifestyle that was less restricted and so mush easier.
By now Veregin is the National Doukobor Heritage Village, and that's it. A passionate, peaceful, hardworking and not without its problems society has disappeared into our modern mash.

tin trim to Peter 'Lordly' Veregin's house

apparently a typical bedroom with the hanging cradle

a 100 year-old furcloak

the most beautiful lace and other handwork

Unplanned in Esterhazy

August 31, we were on a bit of a long haul stretch from Estevan to Veregin to the National Doukobor Heritage Village and planning to spend the night in nearby Canora (named by putting together the 1st 2 letters of each word of, Canadian Northern Railway).
Passing through Esterhazy I noticed two road side signs: potash interpretive centre and flour mill. A quick aside: it seems that every town no matter how small has a grain elevator, a museum, a park, and signs at the outskirts that let you know about them. I had completely forgotten about the potash industry; largest producer of potash in the world! You can get lost in the farming details of 75% of Canada's mustard, best red lentils in the world (1.6 billion hectares), wheat, barley , oats, and canola, and many, many, many head of beef. And oil wells of course.
So I said, let's stop for 5 minutes. Two hours later we got back on the road. The museum alone was delightful with a wealth of human and household artifacts. Then the young caretaker said the potash interpretive building was definitely worthwhile, so again I said, 5 minutes. She opened up and 1 minute in, I said to Jim, "change of plan, we'll go to Yorkton tonight and Veregin tomorrow". Absolutely, says he. So we listened and learned and were awed and impressed. There is a city 3000 ft below Esterhazy with miles and miles of tunnels and roads, a mechanic shop, rest areas, and a 40 kph speed limit. Potash is a very big deal in Saskatchewan and the world.
And THEN the youngster-in-charge took us into the flour mill, the only wooden flour mill in left in Saskatchewan, which started gristing in 1907. AND it has an elevator attached so we got the whole story from the horse drawn cart of grain driven onto the scales, the bucket elevator that unloaded the grain, the gristing process,and the final product. Magic!
It pays to read the signs in front of you because Esterhazy was not on our radar at all and it was a fabulous stop  for us.

the only wooden flour mill left in Saskatchewan

wedding dress in the museum with stunning beading

the driller blades in a potash mine

one of 3 head shafts near Esterhazy

on the road!

Estevan cenotaph

The trek to Estevan includes a story for another time but when we got there, late-ish, we found our hotel provided a free supper of very good chili. Salvation. If you are ever planning to be in Estevan, ask me about the place because it really was great value and a nice facility.
But this story is about the cenotaph.

It's on the corner of the main drag

thankfully or we might have missed it. The main piece was carved from a single 102 year old tree but I don't know about the 2 benches. The detail in these pieces is very special and I can imagine the bench figures faces are from real photographs. Of course the wood will break down eventually but what a gift the community. There are a couple of explanatory plaques, one remembering a Victoria Cross recipient from the town. We feel very privileged to experience these examples of the heart of our people.

Val Marie to Yorkton

The sights and information continue to be amazing. We stayed at the Convent in Val Marie on Wednesday, the closest point to Grasslands NP.

the dining room and fellow travellers

upstairs hallway

The Convent

Our host at the Convent, Adam, gave us a terrific breakfast on Thursday morning and sent us on our merry way which led us to another Chinese restaurant in Lafleche for a pit stop and conversation with what appeared to be a regular coffee group of local farmers. I asked what a combine might cost: about $500K for the machine, another $100K for "the rack in front", $400K for a tractor and $100K for a transport cart. Yikes! They assured us that while food may be getting more expensive the money is not going to the farmer, rather the processors. They were proud to say "we feed the world" and they had lots of ideas of things we should see and do.
One of those was the church in Gravelbourg not too far along the road. We could see it from a distance and arrived in the parking lot at the same time as a couple from Winnipeg. Emboldened by being 4 we called the posted number on the door for a tour. Wow. Our guide was a volunteer who lives nearby the church and said he averages about 1500 tours every summer. The church used to be a cathedral but the population has dwindled so that now it is a co-cathedral with Regina. It seats 1000 in a town of 1100. It was built in 18 months and opened in 1919, its purpose, along with a convent school and bishop's residence was to attract people to the town which got to about 1800 souls at one point.  It took about 10 years for the very remarkable wall paintings to be completed. Initially the windows were painted by the same artist but eventually they were replaced by stained glass, following the painters designs. As one of our farmer friends who has travelled extensively said "it rivals anything you will see in Europe". I agree.

Camping 2018

goats on the roof - Coombs

saw blade insert at the Timberland Pub

We don't have much room for camping this summer so we grabbed a few days last week to go to The Living Forest, less than 2 hours away, just south of Nanaimo. We've camped there a few times in recent years; we like the way it's run, the amenities, and the convenience. Sometimes we think we should venture somewhere else, but why? Flush toilets, a cafe that donates its proceeds to local charities, 2 minutes to grocery and liquor stores - what's not to love?

June was doing its June weather thing, being unpredictable. We had a summer month in May but June did not want to warm up. Our set up day was offering 40% chance of showers and we hadn't had rain for about 6 weeks so how could we moan about it. We executed our plan of erecting first the kitchen shelter, then the tent, then the less urgent bits. Just as we finished the two main projects, the rain started and it rained like Maritime rain, for several hours. At the last minute, Jim had thrown in two rubberized capes that we bought in South Carolina more than 30 years ago. Hallelujah. Also, hallelujah that our getting-a-bit-long-in-the-tooth tent stayed dry. It is a 3 season tent (which for me means summer) with a full batten-down-the-hatches fly but the fly has been rubbed by the pole clips and folded most of its life and kind of ignored, so I did wonder how water tight it might be. Test passed and good for another outing or two.
Third hallelujah is that I always take a meal prepared for set-up day, usually chicken curry, so we didn't have to find food and cook in the rain.

The kitchen shelter is only water resistant, meant more as a sun-shade or to keep the tree crap out of my coffee cup, but even it was reasonably dry. We did see a very nifty solution to tarping a tent or shelter using water filled pop bottles to weight down the tarp. But I digress!

Not being beach bunnies we usually explore the area, find a hike, park, point of interest, pub, or all of the above. This year I have a banged up leg so nothing too strenuous and no kayaking but
Living Forest has an online map that highlights all kinds of things we like to do at various levels of difficulty. Our friends the Tedders had the adjacent camp site and their tiny rescue-shi tzu Xena is not interested in any kind of physical exertion. At all!

A Great Gray owl

top of the world view

We went to North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre which has grown and changed a lot since we were last there. Nearby, the Tedders knew of a viewpoint up a very steep road to a cell tower installation, and then we went to Coombs for a late lunch. We love Coombs but it is suffering from success by being crowded and they've spiffed it up a bit too much maybe. Still fun though.

Morden Colliery tipple ruin

We also found the Haslam Creek trail (thanks to Gayle's good eyesight!), part of the Trans Canada system, with a nice suspension bridge across the gorge, the Morden Colliery ruins, and a winery making drinkable wine.
The Timberland Pub on Timberland Road serves up some very good food along with some rustic local characters.

Haslam Crk bridge

recycled horse shoes!

Our also long-in-the-tooth and completely neglected (apparently you are supposed to clean and oil them once a year. Who knew?) Coleman stove started to act up and quit completely on the last night. It's an old-school kerosene version and Jim has spent the last couple of hours trying to sort it out, with only an occasional not quite burn the house down moment. We like the kerosene concept as a less volatile fuel and adding to those millions of disposable mini propane tanks just goes against the grain for me. So he'll get it fixed with some good YouTube help or we'll have to bite the bullet for a new one. I also had a brainwave about how to more efficiently pack the car but that and the camp-stove may not get another outing this year. Sigh.
On the other hand we are going on a long road trip to Saskatchewan toward the end of August, by way of Fort St John which is way up north. I have a very long must-see list for Sask and am excited about the adventure of it all.

Meanwhile my stove mechanic friend has just reappeared and offered wine.....