Uranium City

I am in Uranium City. The soft, white light of dawn is revealing a landscape cloaked in white. The temperature is hovering around -15c. Uranium City is virtually a ghost town. Once a bustling mine town of 5,000, now home to 90 people. Empty streets are lined by lonely houses. Street lights, silent sentinels push back the empty night as I walk. My ears ring with a silence that lies thicker than winter's fresh fallen snow. Once young and vibrant, full of future and promise, much of Uranium City lies abandoned and still.

But, there is still life here. The old elementary school still rings with the laughter and life of children going to school. There are still two classes conducted here. Mining companies continue to scour the landscape in hope. In the meantime, street lights stand vigil, holding back the night.

Raising the roof . . .

A beautiful, clear day dawned on Friday and spite of frost sparkling everywhere, it turned out to be a warm day. The front wall was finished and the door wall framed after work and all was in readiness for a roof raising. The question was, how to do it! My brother Ted was over bright and early on Saturday morning and since no one else was available, we set about how to raise the roof ourselves. We decided to go Egyptian and use the ramp method. With two extension ladders propped against the front wall and a lot of pushing and pulling, the roof soon found it's place.

The walls are closing in!

The walls have slowly been closing in. Every day another one goes up, and soon it will be time to put the roof on. Last night, I finished the front wall and today after work, I framed in the door. Stay tuned to find out how we get the roof on tomorrow.

Rain, sleet, or snow will not deter us . . .

Big fluffy white show flakes were falling off and on yesterday morning, alternating between rain, sleet, and snow. It was raining the night before as I stretched out a tarp to provide a small, dry work area were I could continue cutting. My hammer splashed in the rain and the temperature hovered around zero as I finished the third wall in the dark. Last night was relatively clear and thankfully dry as I finished up the fourth wall. This morning, the temperature in Regina and Saskatoon is around -7c! In La Ronge, the temperature this morning is a balmy +1c. I'm looking foward to a roof raising this afternoon, so stay tuned for more news and pictures.

Snow Shed!

We finished another wall in the dark last night and this morning we awoke to snow gently falling outside our window. Snow! With more snow predicted for tomorrow, it looks like finishing this shed is becoming more of a challenge than I anticipated. In the meantime, Mitch thinks its a great place to play.

Making space . . .

We've been living in a two-bedroom duplex for more than a year now and it's been a little tight! Now don't get me wrong. We really like the place and after living in Japan for ten years, we do know how to live in small spaces - we just didn't have as much stuff there!

So! Since we can't add another room or slide a basement under the duplex, we decided to build a storage shed. Since I hate standard, boring, box-like shapes, I decided to try something different. After searching the Internet for interesting designs, I settled on one from Summerwood Products in Ontario. The plans were quite detailed and all the steps were clearly laid out. A monkey could build it with these plans! We were off to a good start by August 28th and the floor was soon done.

By September 1st the roof was well on it's way to completion, until errors in the plans started to drive this monkey bananas. Yes, I did measure twice and cut once! Unfortunately, some of the errors pertaining to roof component dimensions were not so easy to correct. By now you are probably asking yourself, "Why is he working on the roof? Where are the walls?" Just following the plans! It is supposed to be easier to complete the roof on the floor, move it off to the side, and then, with the help of all your friends, lift the finished roof into place. That's the idea, anyway.

Well, in spite of shorter and shorter days, rain, bugs, and procrastinaton, the roof finally got figured out, completed, and set aside. It was so good to get that out of the way and move on to something fast and easy like the walls. Hopefully, it will be finished by the end of this week. After a trip to Melfort last weekend, we have a trailer jamb-packed and stacked full of shed things. What doesn't fit will hit the yard sale!

I spent my holidays stripping!

Well it's August 17th, the days are getting shorter and the nights colder. I can tell by the chill in the air that Fall is on it's way whether I like it or not. Meanwhile, friends and family in Japan are sweltering in 40c+ temperatures . . . I'll take the cold over the heat!

It's about a month since the last update, so now it's time to bring you up to speed. After attending sailing school at Emma Lake, I returned work for a week. During that week, I travelled to Pinehouse Lake and deployed a batch of new computers.

It was a short week and soon we were off to Weyburn where we met Sarah's parents and visited her grandmother. While in Weyburn, I found hidden treasure! Nestled deep within a scrap yard, I found the perfect donor for my Jeep Grand Cherokee. Now this is my kind of holiday, wrench in hand and lying under a car, stripping as many parts as I can stuff into a minivan already bursting with holiday gear. It was a good day!

With my appetite for Jeep parts sated, the inlaws visited, and minivan over-loaded, we headed back to Melfort. On the way back, we stopped off at Pure Praire coffee garden and gift shop in Dysart. The stop was well worth it! The hidden garden is beautifully done, with a number of rustic buildings hidden among the trees and shrubs. Within each building you will find a table or two perfect for a secluded latte or cappuccino. After a much needed break, it was off to Mefort to see the Fair Parade and enjoy the Midway. The Fair was great fun for the kids and a lot of walking for us, but we survived. The worst was yet to come!

Sarah and I spent the next week stripping! Stripping paint, that is. The garage at our house in Melfort needed paint, but before it could be painted, all the old paint had to come off. I do not recommend stripping and painting as a holiday activity. Stripping parts off a car, thats fun. Stripping paint off a garage with a propane torch, is not fun. You couldn't pay me to do this! No, I did it for free! And it was HOT! After a week of stripping, scraping, sanding, filling, sanding, wiping, priming, sanding, and painting, we were done and it was time to go home.
























Back in La Ronge and back to work! While Sarah and the kids enjoyed a week of summer camp, I travelled 5 hours north to La Loche and depoyed more computers. After 3 ten to twelve hour days, it was back home to La Ronge and a long weekend ahead. What a month!

Sailing into Summer

As you've probably guessed, nothing really exciting happened in June, but July has been different. From July 2nd to the 6th, Toshio and I attended Sailing School at Emma Lake and we had a blast! Neither of us had ever been in a sail boat before, but by the end the first day we were on our to becoming sailors.

Sailing was not actually on the menu for this summer, but Google has a way of making these things happen. I've been interested in sailing for a while now and decided to Google "Saskatchewan sailing." Well one link leads to another and before you knew it, there I was downloading a registration form for the Prince Albert Sailing Club Summer Sailing Camp. This was less than a week prior to the start of camp, but fortunately there was room and I had holidays booked!

The weather was perfect for the whole week and the sailing was great! With a good balance of class instruction and 30 hours of hands-on supervised sailing, Toshio and I learned that we loved sailing. The P.A. Sailing Club did a great job of pulling together good boats and great instructors in a beautiful setting -- all for $160! They even provided Toshio with his own little sail boat. Toshio completed the week with a White Sail II certification, while I finished with a White Sail III certificate. This was an experience that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for something different to do with their summer.

Bears Everywhere!

On May 14th, I travelled once again to La Loche, a small northern community located on the west side of the province. At this time of year the bears are out in full force, especially south of Buffalo Narrows. On my way up to La Loche, I was able to quickly snap a picture of a sow and her four cubs running in full retreat back into the bush.

After spending most of four days in La Loche sick with some wretched stomach bug, I caught some more bears along the road. One of them, a big boar, paid no attention to me as I pulled alongside him. Since he was content to munch up the grass salad of the day, I rolled my window down and took a few shots. I really do need a longer lense for these kinds of shots, but one must balance the fuss associated with bigger cameras against time available for the shot. A camera with a big barrel is not the fastest draw in the west!

A couple of hours later, while driving a wild road across from Beauval, I caught sight of three cubs frolicking beside the road. I had just enough time to pull my camera out and capture a few shots of this curious fellow. After he realized his friends had already split the scene, he too turned tail and ran off into the woods.

Bear sighting . . .

About 3 hours into my 5 hour drive to La Loche, I met this big fellow along the road. As I pulled over he retreated into the brush a bit and watched me watching him. This is the first bear of the season for me. Last year around this time, and in the same area I sighted a number of bears on different occasions. As I pulled away, he sauntered across the road, giving rise to the eternal question - why did the bear cross the road?

Spring Fever!

Some people just can't wait to hit the water!

Someone in the sauce last night ended up in the drink, literally. The Montreal River bridge is always an interesting part of our short drive into La Ronge, and I've seen many interesting things there, but this is the first time I've seen a car in the river. Due to some fairly active rapids, the Montreal is always open at this point. Come Spring, the strong current here quickly pushes ice cover on Lac La Ronge back past Kitsaki Island and opens another arena of activity that heralds the soon return of Summer.

First Beaver of the Season Sighted!

Last Sunday, the first Beaver of the season was sighted on the lake. And you thought I was talking about a furry little buck-tooth icon of Canadiana, weren't you. Well, the Beaver I'm talking is a Canadian icon, but it can fly and has quite a roar. In times past, there was a bit of a competition among flyers to see who would be the first to take-off and land on the first bit of open water released from icy bondage. In the background, just beyond Kitsaki Island, you can see that most of Lac La Ronge is still covered in ice, white against a green forest and blue sky. This Beaver has just left the water, on its way to deliver supplies to fish camps preparing for their busiest time of year.

A short week in town . . .

By the calendar, this was a short week at the end of a long weekend. Didn't seem like it though. We spent most of Easter long weekend in Melfort with friends and family and then repeated the long drive north to La Ronge. Saw the strangest thing in Melfort - a lot overflowing with U-Haul trucks and trailers. Rather odd, considering one year ago there was not a truck in Melfort to be rented. It would seem that people are moving into the northeast! We moved last year, this lot was empty.

As you can see by our snow gauge, the snow is definitely on the way out! The Montreal River has opened a stream of water well into the lake and there is water on the ice elsewhere. Spring has definitely sprung in the North.

Tomorrow, I am off to the northern community of La Loche. Stay posted for possible Sasquatch sightings!

Where do I start . . .

After a month's hiatus, the blog is back! Since I last wrote, winter's winds have howled their last gasp and spring has begun to take hold. As you can tell by our latest shed photo, the snow is in headlong retreat. Unfortunately, I wasn't up to enjoying the first melt. A nasty cold knocked me flat for almost a week and kept my reserves on low for at least another. My apologies for the absence.

Since travelling to Green Lake, I have been to Pinehouse Lake twice and once to Sandy Bay. Sorry to say, there were missed photo opportunities a plenty. Have you ever met a house on the road? If you're from Saskatchewan, you likely have and will know what I'm talking about. But nothing could prepare one to meet not one, but two houses on the road to Sandy Bay in the middle of winter! Alas, this was a missed photo opp, that I'm glad I missed. Following two houses over the twists and turns of the rough and rocky Sandy Bay roller coaster is not for me. Since I have no recent photos of Sandy Bay for you, I've included a summer photo taken near Sandy at Island Falls, the oldest - but not the most remote - hydro-electric project in Saskatchewan. As you can see, it's pretty rugged country!

Roads less travelled . . .

There's about 300 km between here and Green Lake - depending on the roads you choose. My favourite is of course, the scenic route, the route less travelled. As you can see, some roads along the way are much less travelled than others. It was here, along this road on my last trip, that I saw a bobcat. Unfortunately, there were no cats this time. Perhaps there was too much traffic. I must have passed at least five logging trucks along the way!

It was a beautiful day and driving conditions couldn't have been better . . . for most of the trip, that is. The end of the road is getting a much needed overhaul - literally, as you can see. There were CATs and earth-movers a plenty to see here. At the end of my journey was Green Lake, along with Cumberland House, one of the oldest communities in Saskatchewan. In spite of it's history as a trading hub, Green Lake is a community in decline. A fine, well maintained, and modern school, now maintains only a shadow of it's previous enrollment. Pictures of students past line the halls, history in pictures more than 120 years old.

Since there are no accommodations for me here, I spend the night north in Beauval and travel south each day to Green Lake. In all, I will travel almost 1000 km before the week is done.

How deep will it go?

Since December 8th, we have have continued to receive snow and our little "root cellar" garden shed has almost become buried. It won't take many more storms like yesterday to make it disappear completely! Good thing it's not a snowblower shed, eh!

A new arrival . . .

Finally, we have a piano! One with 88 keys! Well, actually, it's a Casio XP-700 digital piano but it is so much better than what we've been working with. A friend was kind enough to lend us their little electronic keyboard so Toshio could practice at home rather than at the school, but it was getting a little tough practicing on his bed. The Casio was just the right size for our little place and with weighted keys and great sound, maybe all of us will give it a go!

http://www.priviapiano.com/products/PX-700/

Family Day

Today we celebrated Saskatchewan's 1st annual family day by going x-country skiing at Don Allen Trails north of La Ronge. The weather was great, with a sunny blue sky and fresh snow, all at a balmy -15c. Fresh snow meant the trails were yet to be groomed, so we were pushing snow most of the way. This was actually my first time on skiis this year, but the kids already had one race under their belts. The trails were absolutely beautiful, but I can only take so many hills. We called it quits after an hour or so. Tomorrow, it's back to work. This week, I am stationed in La Ronge, so there will be no travel stories for a bit.

Driving blind . . .

The snow just keeps on coming! Makes me happy of course, because I love a good storm. Driving in one, of course can be a different story. The lack of apron or shoulder at the edge of most northern roads can preclude safely pulling over. One thing for certain, you definitely want a vehicle that can handle the road.

Brabant Lake

Just returned from a 340km round trip north to Brabant Lake. The road north to Brabant crosses the Churchill River, once a route of explorers and fur traders. In spite of temperatures lower than -50 degrees celcius, rapids at the crossing keep the water open year round. Pushing further north, the terrian becomes more rugged and the road a tad bit rougher. Ice, blind curves on steep hills, and mine supply trucks ensure the road has a driver's full attention.