Why Saskatchewan?

Thought we might tell you a little about the province of Saskatchewan. Many of our readers outside of Canada (and probably some inside Canada!) may not know very much about this province or why we chose to come here. We think it's actually fairly interesting, so read on...

First, a few facts...

The province of Saskatchewan. The blue placemark is where we are located.

Saskatchewan is a huge land area, about the size of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado all put together. But hardly anybody lives here! The total population of the whole province is only 1.1 million people! And, they're almost all in the southern half of the province.

There is a migration underway though, and has been for the past several years. Why? Well, the economy of Saskatchewan is booming!

The province currently has an unemployment rate of only 3.9%. Compare that to the national average of 7.2%. Essentially, anybody who wants to work, is actually working. And because of the lack of workers, salaries have gone up. That's one of the reasons we're here. The pay for what we're doing is actually quite good compared to what we would have made elsewhere in the country. I would have no problem telling you what we make, except part of the contract we signed includes a confidentiality clause. So we can't publicly discuss the terms of our contract.

The province has a budget surplus, and has had for the past few years (sure wish they would spend some of it on the roads!). It's all about resources. Besides excellent agricultural conditions, recent mining activity is a big support behind the boom. Saskatchewan has the worlds largest potash deposits (for fertilizer production) and the worlds largest supply of uranium (for nuclear power production), and there are several new mines currently under development. One of them will employ over 2,000 people!

But although much of the southern part of the province is totally flat and not that scenic, there are pockets of attractiveness. There are 2 large National Parks, as well as 34 Provincial Parks. And of course 92 Regional Parks that are similar to the one we are working at. And there are over 100,000 lakes in the province, although most of them are in the northern half.

Hope you've learned something about Saskatchewan, It's not a bad part of the world, although we wouldn't want to be here during the winter! 

Meanwhile, back at the park...spring cleanup continues...

Ruth decided to give the leaf blower a go.

But the job is better shared!

This guy had a winter stash of food hidden under a stack of leaves. When we blew them away, he went right  to work carrying them up into his tree!

The beach will look a lot more inviting once the ice is gone from the lake!

This is my workshop and tool shed. The major capital expenditure on the agenda for this year is the building of a single garage and workshop.

The main parking lot for the store and restaurant.

Notice the blue sky. We've been having great weather and there's no rain the forecast. Blue sky and sunshine again today, so we're headed outside to do some more work!