Hi Dwayne,
It's a typical El Niño winter here in the puddle; 10 degrees above freezing and rain.
(I wouldn't want to be wearing moccasins today!) The snow is disappearing fast! If this holds it will do our moose and deer loads of good.
My father was the newspaper publisher in Yorkton for years and he loved the people who lived in the area who were mostly of Ukrainian decent. He always claimed they were the friendliest folk in the world.
I was raised on the Northern edge the parkland belt about 100 miles Northwest of North Battleford. We were only a few miles from the bush country and had hundreds of lakes within an hours drive. Fishing for Jackfish (aka Northern Pike or Slough Sharks) Pickerel (aka Walleye) and Yellow Perch was always better than working the fields.
We lived a long bicycle ride from the North Saskatchewan river but once there we could also catch Sauger, Goldeyes and occasionally sturgeon in addition to the Jackfish and Pickerel.
Winters were full of hockey, curling and trapping muskrats and beaver. I also did a fair bit of ice fishing with line & lure but was more often enlisted by my Cree & Metis friends to help set and pull under-ice nets.
(They claimed I was born with a strong back and weak mind! ) Near the end of February beef calves started hitting the ground and that became priority #1. Shooting coyotes and the odd wolf that was attracted to the calving sheds also put some fur on the stretcher boards.
Like I said I really enjoyed growing up in that part of the world at that time.
