Farmyards hidden in snow

• Classic farmyards are all over the place in our province. You can drive along a busy highway and see at least 5 of them. Now because of the rising increase in arsonists and the need for more property a lot of these houses I am showing you here are no longer around. I am glad I was able to see them for each is very unique, filled with personal items and pieces of history. These houses are a few we found on our winter trip early this year.

• The house in the above picture was a small classic house. Layers of wallpaper peeling of the walls show many different sides of the house. The barn has some old equipment as well as the home to badgers.


This house was on top of a hill in the middle of a field, during winter. It's a 3 story old basement complete with stone foundation and cellar.

This house was one of many on the property. This was the farmhouse full of old bottles and kitchen containers and clothing. There was also a barn with a very old combine & a couple pancaked houses.


The definition of classic Saskatchewan farmhouse is right here. This house was far down a gravel road sitting all alone. This house was covered in old wood flooring complete with old wood stove in the middle. There were a couple maps and beds still in the upstairs bedrooms and the bathroom looked like it would have been in the seventies.

Here in Saskatchewan

"Take only photographs, leave only footprints.”

Why do we explore our province?
• to discover, document & archive, for the history & the architecture

How do we find locations around the province?
• books, maps, documents, online, through people & by spending hours on the back roads

So what kinds of things are in our province to explore?
• ghost towns (& there are tons of them)
• ghost farms
• abandoned mines
• abandoned bases
• tunnels & storm drains
• institutions & hospitals
• old railway sidings
• abandoned churches
• graveyards

The gear we take along?
• flashlights
• cameras & extra batteries as well as a spare memory card
• extra socks
• water & snacks
• willingness to explore

For our safety we take along..
• p100's
• very strong rope
• first aid kit

Some dangers we have encountered?
• barbed wire
• authorities & other people
• locked & welded doors
• possible cave in of tunnels
• floors caving in
• unstable houses
• squatters
• huge fences
• wild animals
• asbestos & mold

We spend a lot of time on the road, through all the seasons. What we do is very dangerous and illegal at times. The laws in other provinces differ from ours. This was only meant to inform others of what we do.

a short introduction

As this is my very first post on my new blog let me start by saying hello. I go by the name arilem and I am indeed a rural/urban explorer. I live in Saskatchewan and explore in a group consisting of 3 sometimes 4 people. I have covered a lot of ground around the province over the years, anything from ghost towns to farms and all the buildings in between. I love exploring and documenting forgotten places around the province. The lesser known parts of the province and decaying buildings is what interests me and I plan to share this in my blog.

........ and the title of my blog, well lets just say I have never carried a compass with me and usually take my own route to places.