I’ve been in Saskatchewan a year now! No, my power’s not here yet. All appendages crossed for Monday…

Last night (Friday), I went to Assiniboia for dinner and a movie. I went to the buffet for dinner and the server brought my drink order (water with lemon) even before I’d said hi. I don’t go there that often (maybe once every six to eight weeks, and usually with friends), so I’m impressed that she remembered!

I am so grateful to have a cinema in town, even if it’s just one screen and we see movies a few weeks behind everyone else. I was just taking my seat when I heard my name called. It was a young girl I met on the wagon train last year. I asked her to bring me a horse this year. 🙂

Today, I went to Willow Bunch for groceries and to drop off more donations at the thrift store. I walked into the door of the thrift store and immediately saw something I wanted, book called Creating the Prairie Xeriscape. One of my goals for Haven is for it to be very low maintenance in terms of yard work so that no one needs to take care of it if I’m not here during the growing season. This book will be a good start to my education. It’s a very nice book, with heavy full colour pages, in brand new condition, for $1, store price $35!

Upon advice from the thrift store cashier, I then headed to the senior centre, which was holding its annual trade show where folks who sell things like Pampered Chef and Watkins can put their names out there. I was hoping there would be a Tupperware rep since one of my collapsible bowls has a crack in it, for which I am not impressed.

As I worked my way around the room, one of the Willow Bunch Museum managers saw me and called me over. I’m still doing some volunteer translating for them (in fact have a project due Monday) and she got me caught up on what’s new. I get free access to the museum, so I look forward to heading there once it opens again.

I eventually found a Tupperware a rep and she told me to bring the bowl into Assiniboia the next time I’m there so she can warranty it. She had some ‘cash and carry’ items and I’ve been wanting some of the little bowls with lids like I got with the last order. She had some, marked $10. I asked for a confirmation on the price and she said that $10 was for four! Needless to say, I grabbed them!  They are the same turquoise as one of the three I got in Lethbridge, but a slightly different shape.

As I was leaving, she asked me how my Ranger and motorhome are doing. Yup, she works at the place where I had my vehicles saftied last August and remembered. Small town life!

I finished up my errands at the grocery store. It’s a tiny thing, so it’s hit (decent looking avocado) or miss (they were out of bananas) as to what I’ll find, but the prices are the same as in Assiniboia and they have the same sales (yay for $3 off my favourite type of coffee!). I was advised that I can call and ask to have things brought down from Assiniboia, like my preferred type of yoghurt. Now that I don’t need propane as often, I’ll be cutting down on my Assiniboia trips and going more to Willow Bunch, like I did last summer, so it’s nice to know that I can get even more groceries at the small store.

BTW, Assiniboia is 20-25 minutes away, while Willow Bunch is 10-15 minutes away depending on the condition of the gravel road, hence why I prefer to go to the smaller community since it saves on gas.

I like it out here. It’s not perfect but if all my wanderings taught me anything, it’s that this is as good as it could get for me in Canada. I definitely wouldn’t be improving Haven if the thought of having a future here made me uncomfortable! I look forward to next winter’s adventure even more knowing that I’ll be okay, even happy,  that the spring will bring me back to Saskatchewan.