July 21, 2005

July 21, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 65 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 34

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

This morning after doing my regular preventive maintenance and inspections, I worked on varnishing the sofa table. A light sanding, followed by the second coat of varnish on the under side. Tomorrow I can work on the first coat of varnish on the top. Then I fabricated a long ground wire leash, for testing and troubleshooting. It was an idea I picked up at a seminar on trailer 12 volt electrical systems trouble shooting at the Spring Escapade in El Centro, California in March. I bought the supplies I needed in Steinbach on Tuesday.

We had an early lunch, then left for Brereton Lake to visit the Johnson family. Darcy, Shirley, and Erik are spending a week at the Inverness Falls Resort at Brereton. We drove west on Hwy. 44, then north on Hwy. 307 to Brereton. We visited for awhile at their rental cottage, then loaded into our vehicles to drive to the Whiteshell Petroforms. We followed Hwy. 307 from Brereton, past Jessica Lake, White Lake, and Betula Lake to a place called Bannock Point. There we parked, and hiked in to the Petroforms. These are prehistoric rock "alignments" done by Natives, probably around 1500 years ago. They are features formed by the placement of stones, to create the outlines of figures or shapes. They are in an area of mostly large, flat rock outcrops. They are in the shapes of snakes, turtles, humans, etc. The most prominent turtle shaped Petroform is now the logo of Whiteshell Provincial Park. The area is remote, and we were surprised, and pleased, to see that these Native pictographs, or rock art, are unguarded, and undisturbed. This area is still sacred to Native peoples, and sacred ceremonies still take place here. It was quite fascinating. We wandered all around this fairly large area, for quite awhile, reverently observing. Occasionally, we took short breaks to pick blueberries.

We drove back to the Johnson's cottage at Brereton for more visiting, and supper. As we were leaving, we exited the cottage out the back, where the deck leads down towards the Rennie River. The front of their cottage faces Brereton Lake, which empties over Inverness Falls, right beside their cottage, to the Rennie River behind the cottage. There was a beaver building a dam or lodge in the Rennie River, at the base of Inverness Falls. He was too concerned with dragging a tree through the water to pay much attention to us as we walked by. As we were driving back to West Hawk Lake late in the evening, we saw a deer ( not unusual ) and 3 fox kits. The little foxes were in the road, and as we came around a curve, two ran off the road to the left, and one to the right. WOW ... two were black, and one was typical red coloured. I had never seen black foxes before. We stopped on the side of the road and watched. The black one that went right was obviously the boldest of the three, and it quickly came back out of the right ditch to check us out, and attempt to rejoin its siblings. The red one was a little more shy, and it slowly, and cautiously came out of the left ditch, and hurried over to join its black, bolder sibling. The other black one was the most shy, and was afraid to come out of the ditch on the left. Just a little black head kept popping up to see if we were still there, then it would disappear back into the tall grass in the ditch. The red one sat on the side of the road for awhile, watching us as we watched it. It was so young, we could see that its fur was still downy soft, like a puppy. I could see, in my rear view mirror, as we drove off that the shy black one finally came out of the left ditch to rejoin the other two as soon as we drove off. I felt privileged to have been able to experience the Petroforms, and the fox kits, today.

DSK