The Greenwater Report for September 30, 2002
Greenwater Provincial Park - Monday, September 30, 2002 - by: Jerry Crawford
half inch	I am a day late getting this Report out, so hope it makes at least some of the papers. It wasn’t too cold at 7:00 this morning - about +7° - but the deck was wet and it was obvious there wouldn’t be any combining done for awhile, so I came home. I had the wipers going all the way home, and it hasn’t quit drizzling. Looks like there might be a half inch in the rain gauge.
all but done	Harvesting is all but finished at Grimson’s, just some peas, a small patch of oats, and another small patch of rye left. Yesterday, Emer Gudmundson came over with his combine and cleaned up a field of standing wheat, and just in time - snow is in the forecast!
peas ball up adventure	We were straight combining peas; it was 2:00 pm before we got started yesterday, and had to quit about 6:00 when the combine started pulling the plants out by the roots, instead of cutting them off. Then they ball up on the knife; that flips the fingers out on the reel, which makes it worse. First thing you know you are pushing a yard of topsoil in front of the combine. Dan showed me a huge wasp’s nest under the outdoor power box. It was a different shape than most but obviously still quite active. Dan says the wasps didn’t give them any problems, but reading the meter or working on it could be an adventure.
hunters	Geese in the millions! Nupp Lake, a few miles east of Grimson’s, was almost covered with geese at times. Mostly snow geese, with a few Canadas here and there. There were a lot of hunters around. This morning, a hunter with a southern U.S. accent came to the door; he had asked permission a day or two earlier to hunt on some Grimson property, and stopped by to say “thanks”. Dan remarked that that is something unusual.
like to move	The geese do some damage to swaths but mostly like to land in fields that have been combined. They will stay in one field for a short time, then the whole flock will take off and land in another field close by. They don’t seem to like to stay in one place too long.
clean out the aspen	Another wildlife problem on a field close to a creek, is beaver damage. They had pretty well cleaned out any aspen in the area and were reduced to dragging barley swaths into the creek. In places, there was fifty feet or more of swath missing, and as many as three swaths in from the edge of the field. There is one spot where there was a hole in the ground big enough to drop a truck tire in, likely a tunnel beavers had dug. I wonder what they do when the barley is all combined? There isn’t much else for them to eat.
October 12th	I stopped at the Cove for coffee, hoping somebody would say something funny so I would have some material for this column, but no luck. I noticed that the auction items and prizes for the Ducks Unlimited Annual Banquet of October 12th were in and on display at the Cove, so checked them out and took a couple of photos. Besides the usual prints, knives, etc., there were some unusual items, such as a large round wall clock that looks great on the dining room wall at the Cove.
natural gas	Frank Duhaime tells me all the natural gas connections have been made and the line pressurized, so all that remains is for the house appliances to be converted and the meters installed. Hopefully, that won’t take too long - our propane tank is getting low.
	Doreen & Jerry Crawford Box 100, Chelan, SK S0E 0N0 (306) 278-3423 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/crawg
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