Up to the farm

We are getting out and about trying to see people. On Tuesday we traveled with Mom and Dad on one of their racking routes, which led north to the farm where Melody's grandparents and relatives live. It's always good to see family, but a little hard to know how to respond to some people's comments. I never know quite how to fit in. "You've been away too long" is always a little too hard to respond to.

On the way up we passed some bison, locally called buffalo, that are being raised for meat on a farm. Before Europeans came to North America there were around 30 million plains bison. Then within 20 years they were nearly all wiped out. We have seen bison living in the north of Canada, in British Columbia, North West Territories and Yukon. Down in the south of Saskatchewan, they are only found on farms.


Melody's parents have a business distributing Christian books all over Canada. Some of the books make it to the smallest and even remote places. There is a rack of books in a tiny hamlet called Glenbush, where there are about 5 houses, a church and a post office.


This time of year there are plenty of wild flowers by the side of the road. This is a wild rose, which is actually the floral emblem of Alberta. Saskatchewan's floral embem is the the tiger lily.


Another slough, with wild flowers close by. A slough is apparently water in the water table that is close to the surface. When I first came to Saskatchewan in 2002, the sloughs were all empty. The place looks so different. We even saw a herrin fly by, but it escaped the camera.


On the grandparents' farm there are some Clydesdale horses. These are fairly young still and are not fully grown.


Most of the relatives at the farm. Some people escaped having their faces in the photo!