west is warm

This trip is the definition of last minute. Saskurbex and I didn't have a plan until the very last minute and the area we explored was chosen because it was supposed to be the warmest area in the province that day . We gathered up our gear and hit the road with only a few locations in mind.

At the start of the day the roads were nice and the sun was out. The downfall was the windchill, it was very cold and so we could only spend a short time outside before we started to freeze. As the day went on the weather got worse and by the end of the night there was blowing snow all over the roads complete with some freezing rain. We took a secondary highway back which was not to bad but then decided to move to the main highway which may have been a mistake. There was whiteout conditions and everyone was slow moving. Between having to scrap the windshield of freezing rain, windchill, blowing snow and crazy drivers it was an interesting night.

We did find a few neat things on the trip so that made it worthwhile. Here are some of the highlights:

- finding a church with power
- creating techno beats on an old electric organ
- finding a couple old school houses
- a school with power & full of antiques, no lock on the door
- annoying saskurbex with ode to joy on the piano
- very deep snow
- saskurbex driving us into the ditch

missed church

Believe it or not i missed exploring a church. In an area i have explored many times i missed seeing a spectacular little stone church! :o

Saskurbex finally found some time to explore with me so we went out on a last minute small trip to some familiar churches and decided to see this other one i had missed many times before. It was a cold night and there was a lot of snow but the church was worth our while.

Highlights:
- a working organ in the church
- making a snow angel
- trudging through thigh high snow
- getting to wear all my winter gear!
- finding something new that is nearby
- forgetting my flashlight
- finding a stone building

here are some pics:

church pride

Saskurbex and I decided to go out exploring for the evening. We had this planned in advance and both chose different directions to find things. Before we went out we chose the direction with what we thought would have the most pay off. The car was packed with all out gear and we hit the road. The night was a success because we got to see places we had never been before.

Some highlights:
- full size Ukrainian, Canadian & Saskatchewan flags
- a Ukrainian church i have not seen, fully intact
- finding a stone historic church
- old fire extinguishers
- a church with a cedar interior
- finding a mailbox in a graveyard that said - sign our quest book

I am part Ukrainian - just showing my pride!

and lets not forget Saskatchewan

pass on the tour

Sitting around my apartment with nothing to do i decided to take a quick trip with scythe to an area i had been times but he had never seen. We packed up and hit the road. On the way there we found a historic site and went to photograph it. We soon realized they offered tours. (costing money we decided to pass on that and move along) We visited three churches and one school, one of the churches i had never seen. It was a beautiful day and the grids were dry.

Occurrences throughout the trip:
- Scythe playing the organ and echoing throughout the large church
- photo's in old school desks yet again
- finding a church i had not yet seen (this is rare these days!)
- finding 2 over sized bibles in one day
- finding my name in guest books from years back as well as on chalkboards - oh the memories!
- sad to find vandalism throughout some of the buildings
- almost getting attacked by bees

photo credit: Scythe
good thing scythe kept up with the piano lessons
it sounds amazing in an abandoned church

echoes of music

Seems everywhere we go there are churches and in most churches there is either an organ or a piano or both! I have been to so many abandoned churches around this province i cant even count. I love finding abandoned pianos - something about the peeling keys or faded woods makes me very excited. I use to play the piano so i can usually sit down and play a tune or two.
Here are some of my favorite pictures.