Trip to Saskatchewan

We have been busy here at home most of the two weeks we have been in Canada. Garry has been helping the boys in the barn, this week he's helping to put freestalls in the new barn that was built this year. I have been getting ready for Christmas, but we took some time out to drive to Saskatchewan last weekend.

The driving was pretty good, although Friday- when we drove for ten hours- we had some snow and slush on the roads and twenty minutes before arriving at Clay and Maggie's- some freezing rain. It did not get slippery but we had to max out the defrost to keep the windshield clear of ice.

 However we arrived safely in Price Albert and had a wonderful visit with them. Clay often visits with us after teaching at Summer English Institute in Dnepro.

Their new (to us- we last visited them five years ago when they lived in Big River) is lovely and they took us out to dinner after we arrived. The dogs were excited to have company, too. I think Garry is ready for a Boston terrier to play with. We left them after a relaxing morning chatting and watching soccer while I put together some slides for Garry to talk about on Sunday.

We drove about 2 1/2 hours to Cut Knife where we found Scott and Shannon. Shannon taught at SEI this past summer and we we going to speak at their church Sunday morning. Once again, we were well-fed with Lemon Chicken and delicious homemade potato  rolls.

Garry was going to talk for 30 minutes, I think he spoke for 40, but after the children's nativity program, many people wanted to talk to us. After a soup and salad lunch at Scott and Shannon's we were on the road before two o'clock to go to Beechy.

Mel and Velma Wiens were our hosts in Beechy, we arrived around five thirty. The GPS took us down a road so bumpy I had to stop crocheting (I got lots done on the trip). It reminded us of roads back in Ukraine.  Mel is John's brother and is one of the directors of CRMF, which raises funds for Hope for Each improvement projects.

After another delicious home-cooked meal ( of lasagna this time) and talking about many of the changes in the program this year over dinner,  we showed the slides again while Garry talked in their church gym at 7:30 to 20-25 people. Many were farmers and Garry enjoyed talking about the farming side of our work, and partically about the irrigation project which CRMF helped fund this year.

We had made a dinner appointment in Steinbach for Monday evening at six with friends from church (and building team members Doug and Marcie, so we left Mel and Vel's house before 7 am and took the ferry across Lake Diefenbaker in the dark at 7:30. We made it to Steinbach with time to spare, to eat yet another wonderful dinner.