There's more coming!

Don't give up just yet...the blog won't be done without some closure to wind up the year.

Of course, finding the time...

November 3-Paper Bag Wins!

View of the day-Our Archbishop wins best supporting actor!!!

Ray wins best supporting actor and he is a partsman at Yorkton New Holland, so it still has some thing to do with the harvest...

November 2

View of the day-Setting up for the big performance.

Al got help from Mike to load the combine...Marilyn's usual job...and got everything flanged in then prepared to head north. He crossed the border into Canada in the mid-afternoon with nothing of note at the checkpoint. The rest of the story will come on Sundya when we finally get to see each other.

Marilyn was up early for adjudications in the morning and an actor's workshop in the afternoon. The adjudicator made a lot of interesting comments on the play and it seems unfortunate that the play will not be performed again. There are always a lot of improvements from a "professional" set of eyes, we almost wanted to try it again to utilize what we had learned. The evening had another three plays, two hilarious and one very deep...the last one not really Marilyn's cup of tea, but it was well done. Three more tomorrow and then the awards for the festival...don't think we have a sniff, but it's the festival experience that really matters.

More barley taken care of...

November 1

View of the day-The vista out the patio doors of our room outside Kamsack.

Al spent the day getting things organized to move back home, at least we hope so. Marilyn on the other hand got the bus loaded and picked up the five other passengers to go to Kamsack to "tread the boards". Once we got to town, we had the grand tour of the theatre and then got to check into the motel before our rehearsal time.

The theatre is actually a movie theatre that is still in use, but they have added additional stage area to be able to use it for live theatre. We were allowed two hours to familiarize ourselves with the change in venue, then it was back out to the motel to "get in the zone" and wait til performance time. We have found in the past, if the rehearsal sucks, then the performance will be a good one, and except for a couple of minor hiccups, that still held true...it was the best performance of this play we had done to date. The adjudicator was really positive in her remarks, but we will get the rest of the story tomorrow morning when we get a full hour of her comments.

The green room theme was Mexican Fiesta, so after we got back to the hotel to drop the bus off and change, we all got 'dolled up' in our sombreros, ponchos and moustaches and caught the shuttle back into town. After closing down the green room...one has to support small town enterprises, right?...we got back to the hotel...and this is bizarre...high speed internet, but no phones in the rooms. They had to bring a cordless phone down when the stage manager was looking for us. We did manage to make enough noise to wake up Joanne...yes the "blog comments" Joanne, when we got back to the room...she doesn't need to read the blog tomorrow.

Well, now, if harvest is over...do the blogs continue? As long as there is a mention of harvesting, it should count, right?

We were harvesting "barley" tonight...could be more tomorrow...

October 31-Trick or Treat!

View of the day-Well, it's a dig into the archives for one of Al's favorite shots...because he actually took it himself!

Well it's official...the 2007 harvest season is over for us...the cutting part of it anyway. We still have to get everything cleaned up, moved home and put away for the year. Al is working on getting that done and hopes to be home by Friday. Didn't that season go fast?

Marilyn spent part of the day cleaning at home and then took the bus up to Ebenezer to unload the fifty risers...okay, more like 20...clean up the storage space and load the set pieces on the bus. She had help from Brenda, her stage manager...who is also her manager at Staples...and after three hours, it was back home to pack.

Marilyn is also heading north...to Kamsack for Theatre Saskatchewan's short play drama festival. There are nine community theatre groups from around the province taking part, with three different one act plays each night. The adjudications are held the morning after the performances and they have an acting workshop as well. Yorkton Paper Bag Players are taking the first act of a two act play they did for the mental health awareness week, and Marilyn is directing...and driving the busload of performers and sets. We are staying at a motel 5 miles out of Kamsack and they did tell us that there would be a shuttle service. This is a good thing since Marilyn has been known to quaff a few Coors Light in the green room after the evenings performance, and she doesn't drink and drive...anymore. Each night the green room has a different theme...Mexican Fiesta, 70's lounge lizard and formal, and as usual, Marilyn is trying to sew and glue her costumes, while also getting the last minute set pieces repaired.

Didn't have any goblins...

October 30

View of the day-While walking through the trees to the field, an old plow sat at rest near the sunflowers.

Al was up early to go for breakfast with Mike, but he wasn't able to get combining right away, since there were still auger and bin issues. He finally got going after lunch and mad good time until after the rain started at 8pm. It wasn't too much of a rain and with only 70 acres left until he's finished, it might just go tomorrow and he'll be done...barring any breakdowns.

Marilyn cleaned windows in the cool cloudy weather at home, then drove up to Ebenezer to get the stage lights that would be needed for the two rehearsals in the evening. After getting home around 11pm, a second wind hit and some house cleaning was in order...until it was time for bed.

Oh, yeah...the blog needed to get done...

October 29

View of the day-When it's red like that, you know it's going to be a windy one the next day.

Marilyn was up early to have coffee and a visit before heading for Yorkton. Another long familiar drive, but this time everyone was out of the fields. Just as she arrived in Yorkton coming up to the first set of lights, she could see a pilot vehicle leading a semi with a combine on it...it looked like a harvester, but it passed so fast she couldn't read the name...and the white SUV with the flashing blue and red lights made it even harder to read. Nope, it wasn't for Marilyn...the Highways guys decided to pull over the combine...that's why we don't haul our stuff home to Yorkton... The traffic was too thick to turn around and get a shot of the day, and I'm sure the driver was happy about that...still would have like to known who it was.

After getting home and unloading the truck, the first thing on the list was to get the high speed back in action and load up the phone with the long distance bundles...Sasktel doesn't make any money off us when we are at home...toll free numbers?...who need them? Once that was all in order, it was out to the garage to get the lawnmower out and cut the grass for the last time. It was a beautiful day so it didn't take too long to get it clipped down to size.

Al called during the afternoon, it seems he had the truck and combine full, but the auger had been moved to finish off a bin of soybeans, and with 5 acres left to go, the farmers combine broke down...so no one was rolling. He tried to get on the internet on Donna's computer, but her mouse had frozen up and refused to work, even after restarting a number of times...was it the trapline?...or the four cats that roam the house? It's bad enough to do "tech support" when you are there, but over the phone...not good.

Marilyn had a rehearsal so she went back into town for a few hours, then stopped to get her hair cut from one of the theatre group members who does it for her regularly.

And Al never called back so we don't know how he made out...