Morning Folks Report 35 1457 Kilometers from Medicine Hat
I am in the BIG City. Saskatoon with a population of 234,000 is bigger than Regina the capital. It's named after the native word for a sweet purple berry that grows in abundance here and in quality is next best to Blue Berries. It's called the Bridge City because of it's 7 water crossings but it could also qualify because of its role as a bridge linking south to north.
It ws settled in 1883 just in time to play a role in the Riel Rebellion It has a 9 % aboriginal population and nearly 2/3 of the world's suppply of recoverable potash. The latter is one of the reasons Saskatchewan is still riding an economic wave of prosperity while the rest of us are still holding our breath underwater.
I have a number of friends who got their degree in Vetenerian sciences at the University here, for a long time the only place in Western Canada offering it
Farley MOwatt's novel, " Owls in the Family" was set here. It's a great place in the summer but colder than the tax man's heart in winter. It's so flat if you stand on a big box and look at the horizon, you can almost see the back of your head.
When I first moved to Calgary we lived in an appartment with a empty lot next door. Empty that is except for a small squatter's cabin. It was the home of a Mr. Whitmore the surviving 90 + year old who had built the cabin with his brother before the city of Calgary boundries were established.. He was still there now that the city had moved up around his little lot entitlement. The city honoured the age old tradition as long as he lived but would of course recover the property when he passed on.
We became good friends and he told me a lot about his early days as a pioneer. One of the stories was the fact that as a boy, he remembered a man shouting in the street " They have hung Louis Riel ! " So I met a man who was alive when the events that swept through Canada in the 1880 took place just north of here. I have always wanted to see those places. I am next going to head north to Batoche and see what is left there today of Louis Riel.
Cheers
Doug G
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