Mondays, Amirite?

 Monday, 2 August 2021 was a holiday here in the Province of Saskatchewan. We had a bit of a sleep in. I didn't have the greatest sleep, so it was late morning by the time I dragged my ass out of bed and got out for a ride... 

I ended up doing a 42Km ride Southwest of town. 

There are a LOT of forest fires in Saskatchewan right now - indeed all across Western Canada. Wind from the north has been bringing it all the way down to us - hundreds of kilometres away! 

Cows. 

Black-Eyed Susans along the side of the road. 

What a terrible name for a flower... 

Little "Summer Road" section of Township Road 360. 

Another "Summer Road" section of Range Road 3065. Some of this section would be pure mud - or even underwater if there were a lot of rain. Also further up the road there is a very loose section of sand and silt. Not so bad that I've ever had to walk it, or anything. But it's a bit squirrely riding through at times. Still, I like these summer roads. the feel a bit more "off the beaten path" and there is NEVER any traffic on them. 

More Cow. 

The Salsa - laid down by the side of the road so I could climb up and get a better shot of the cows. 

Lots of little wild roses all along the edges of the roads. 

Long roads. Distant haze. 

Hawk, of some sort...

MORE cow. 

STILL more cow. 

it's the beginning of August and some fields are golden and dried out looking like they are ready for harvesting. 

Others, just across the road are looking a little green - though also very dry. There has NOT been a lot of rain this summer! 

SON OF STILL MORE COW! 

Heading into Cedar Villa Estates - I was struck by the contrast of the fields on either side of the river. 

Nearing the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area. The water level of the marsh north the road is quite low - but there is still water there. 

The wetland in the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area was completely dried up!? No birds in sight! 

Power Lines. Golden Fields. Haze. 

This past week, progress has been made on the street in front of our house. The giant block-long trench has finally been filled in - but most of the street is still blocked off by fencing... 

So we still have to go out the back with our Kayaks. 

Because 42Km of riding wasn't ENOUGH activity for one day of vacation, Amanda and I went out for a paddle in the mid-late afternoon 

It was likewise very smokey and muted out on the river. 

There was hardly any wind at all and the river was so smooth! 

We didn't see a single motor-powered vessel the entire trip, which was nice for a change! 

Amanda approaching pelican who was chilling on a sandbar in the middle of the river. 

Pelican again. 

There were just swarms of stand-up paddle-boarders. 

Every woman we saw on one was wearing a bikini - made me wonder if there was a more stringent dress code for operating them than an Olympic event? Also about a half-dozen of the boards we saw had a dog on them. Every single one of those was also operated by a woman - even when they were out paddling with a male partner - which was about four of them. 

Made it to the south bridge this time. (last time we stopped just short of the bridges). 

Cool reflections

Distant haze. 

After a short stop on a sandbar in the middle of the river for a drink we started back downtown. 

Amanda, adding a bit of colour to an otherwise muted grey/brown landscape.

And the pelican again! 

Selfie Fail #1

Selfie Fail #2 

Probably for the best. Who wants to see a picture of ME!? 

So we can just float back, right? 

Lots of geese by the water treatment plant. 

heading back home, dodging road construction vehicles and piles of dirt and gravel. 

And into the alley behind our house. 

In all we paddled just shy of 6Km. 

Not the worst of Mondays. I was pretty tired by the end of it. 

July Rides

Another photo dump of pics I took while riding this past month... 

Canada Day ride - rolled out south of town. 

Spotted a rather larger hole where a critter had made it's den. Badger, maybe? 

Did an extra loop of the trails through downtown - there was a rather large gathering in Kinsmen Park for Cancel Canada Day

In the days and weeks before 1 July, there had been a number of discoveries of unmarked/undocumented mass graves at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools. 

Not a lot of people were feeling particularly proud of being Canadian that week... 

Lily bloomed in my yard. 

Roadwork going on out our front door all month long. 

It all started in May, but this past month they REALLY started digging up the streets - making it challenging to get around. 

On the plus side, it's been rather dry all month, so nothing was slowing down construction... but still... it feels like it's been moving forward at a snails pace... 

On a trip downtown we spotted all the young geese, that are almost full-grown! 

On one of my rides Southwest of town I actually spotted a herd of cows. Typically not an uncommon sight in Saskatchewan. But I feel like I've seen less and less animals on the farms near town! 

Tandem ride with Amanda! 

Hawk we spotted on our tandem ride - with a Richadson Ground Squirrel it had caught for breakfast... but hadn't killed yet... it had injured the Ground squirrel - that was rolling around on the ground and trying to crawl away, but was having rouble doing so.

With the lifting of Covid restrictions, the kids finally got to see my folks new place - that they moved into last fall!  

Fire and Protective Services doing something around the Sid Buckwold Bridge. Never did find out what they were up to. I don't think it was a training exercise - given the police presence and ambulances and such along the shoreline and bridges when we rolled by the first time. 

Ride in the Countryside. 

Low water levels and many, many people wading out to chill on the sandbar/beaches in the middle of the river. 

Doing UPS and Canada Post's job for them. One of the most frustrating part of all the roadwork, is the unwillingness of SOME couriers to walk 10m extra from the corner to deliver a parcel - so I have to ride out to distant post offices and pick-up locations. We tried calling and complaining - but after sitting on hold for hours only to be told that for sure the driver made a delivery attempt but no one was home - when all four of us were at home, working quietly on our own things... It's especially frustrating as SOME  courier companies DO actually make the extra effort to driver around the block and walk in to our place from the corner... Really...we're ONE IN from the corner...

That's a dude out in the middle of the river. The water level is so low you could probably wade right across in places. I remember reading about the water level in Saskatoon being that low in books by Farley Mowat... but that was when he was growing up in Saskatoon in the 20s or 30s... before the weir or Gardiner Dam was built. I've never seen the water level so low. I'm surprised the paddle boat is actually able to operate! It must have a really shallow draft. 

Giant trench in front of our house - running the length of the block. 

trench at the end of the block. 

new water lines. 

More trenching. 

Out for a tandem ride with Keiran

Hawk spotted on said ride. 

Another ride with Amanda. 

for about a week in July it was SUPER smokey in town. 

This was probably the worse day. 

The smoke was blown in by a North wind. 

The smoke was from wild fires in the forests up North. Fires are not an uncommon thing in the North - but this summer has been particularly hot and dry. On this day, I think I read there were about 150 separate fires in the north and 27 were listed as "uncontained"!

Library run after an appointment downtown with Amanda and Keiran

Heading home.

Starting to fill in the trench. 

Sloooooooooowly.... 

Cool new thing going on under the Sid Buckwold Bridge... so excited to see how this turns out!

Kids heading to my folks again. 

Cormorants. 

I was doing so good during most of May and June and the first few weeks of July... 200Km/week... things kind of fell off the last couple weeks of July. Hopefully I'll get out riding more through August! 

That's all for now.