The day started out headed for the Doug Mackie farm auction south of Chaplin along the Chaplin lake.
The spacious farm site is well-laid out and heavily treed with groves separating two houses at either end, separating the barn and corrals, shop and outbuildings and trees building a compound for machinery.
The lake is easily visible to the west. Located so close to the highway and the lake, this site would be ideal for a guest ranch complementing the cattle, drawing bird watchers and lovers of country life.
Keith and I walked around, took in the trees, and flitting birds from orioles to black birds and robins. In the machinery compound was a row of eight tractors. Mackie must never have traded in any old tractors.
Keith decided not to bid on an old Case model that interested him so our only purpose left was the garage sale. Once we’d done that we watched the auction for a while before heading south.
The grid road we drove on took us south past a few occupied farms, several vacant sites and the Val Jean Community Pasture, eventually connecting with Highway 363.
We drove around the sunny serene village of Courval, wondering about the vacant Catholic Church and the grotto, then drove on west to Coderre, another neat but quiet village.
Driving around Coderre showed more homes than we had expected including a huge residence next to the church — once likely housing the priest.
Looking for lunch we stopped at the hotel. It was 11:45 a.m. The hotel was closed so we headed back on 363 and north on a gravel road to Mortlach.
The area was dry. The potholes left with water will be dry by mid-July unless a multi-day soaker rain saves the day.
Among the shore birds and ducks at one slough, a tall reddish bird with a long beak fed nonchalantly — an unusual sighting of a white-faced ibis.
In Mortlach we stopped at Franklyn’s hospitable eatery for delicious home-made soup — tomato, or potato with bacon, and pie.
On the way home we took the old Trans-Canada, now a gravel road. The drive into Caron was surprising with so many new homes since we’d last been there.
Caron makes an excellent bedroom community, a mere 15 minutes from Moose Jaw.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
