Esk to Saskatoon, SK
Treaty 6 Territory
12 km
Sunshine, 24 ÂşC
We got in early in the morning from Esk to Saskatoon, hitching a ride with Charlie the direct grain feedlot farmer who was driving past Saskatoon with his brother.
“Today is a very sad day for us.”, he said. They weren’t wearing black, but they had the rhythm of very good jongleurs telling us certain tales. They’d bought a lemon of a combine machine and had to go take care of some paperwork to get rid of it.
We showed up to the house of Jim Siemens, whose son Peter I know through his exploits as a student journalist at UBC and beyond, they had a beautiful home, a remarkable bookshelf, and two great dogs and a cat with a whole lot of personality. (like all qualified cats do)
It was a remarkably jam-packed day with a lot of highlights. The bicycle tour we got of some of Oxbow Architecture’s projects, a private home they’d worked on and a privately-funded park, as well as the walking tour of a medical building they’d recently finished. We met one of the chief drivers of that project as well as Carrie and Curtis of Shift Development. Carrie had just returned from the C3 expedition which Jonathon and I’d applied for unsuccessfully. It was her first day back and she was very gracious to grant us an interview.
Jim also lined up an interview for us, while he made an incredibly scrumptious dinner, with a doctor who is one of THE authorities in the province with communities and individuals affected by HIV, AIDS, and Tuberculosis. It was a heavy and wholesome conversation on who is most affected by these outbreaks and the indifference of those in a position to do something, particularly around the policy-driven component.
I cannot, just as the one other time I was in Saskatchewan, do justice to how expansive an experience Saskatchewan always feels. I cannot wait to be back here and do some work in the province.
There was an image I had in mind which involved being in airborne on a Trampoline. Nice to end the day with that and a conversation which lasted late into the night with Jim. Details in design and the carefulness in craft that Oxbow, which is a fascinating term for the marks left behind by a river, revealed in their projects put them on the same level as Bill Cunningham, Jiro, and the likes. Thanks for inviting us over to your parents, Peter!
Time to take off.
