The high today was 40°. That is 104° on the Fahrenheit scale. Someone asked me the question above. Well yes I have, I remember a family picnic 70 years ago when the temperature hit 105° F. I was shirtless much of the day and got quite a sunburn, but I survived that and other weather extremes.

I remember a hot, dry summer when Mom hung sheets over all the windows in an attempt to keep the dust out of the house. I remember a summer when all the ditches were full of water. I remember winter mornings when the thermometer showed -50° F, I wore two layers of clothing to walk a half mile to school and had to step lively to avoid frostbite. I remember blizzards that lasted two or three days and stopped traffic on highways and railroads.

I believe I was six years old when a passenger train was trapped by a blizzard a few miles outside the town of Mossbank. The people in town carried food through the blizzard so those trapped on the train could eat. When the blizzard ended, it took a small army of men with shovels to dig the train out.

Saskatchewan is a land of weather extremes. I remember spring floods, droughts, dust storms, grasshopper plagues, prairie fires, hail, tornadoes. Solomon said: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

In between the extremes there has been a lot of good weather, good times, a lot of beauty. Saskatchewan is one of the most productive agricultural areas in North America and a good place to live. I have lived in other places, but always came home; the last time was 23 years ago.