Little Manitou Lake, Craik Ecovillage, Moose Jaw, Coderre, and Gravelbourg

After leaving the farm in the late morning on Saturday, I made my way back to North Battleford to get gas and coffee, then I drove to Saskatoon where I scored a new phone plan. I had been running low on data for the past week due to a 5GB limit I had on my plan, so the pleasure of having unlimited data (well, not technically unlimited) was immense. Another great pleasure was sitting on a real toilet after four days of using an outhouse and wiping with rags. I grabbed a pita at the mall, made a few stops for groceries on my bike, then finally began my journey south toward Little Manitou Lake and the town of Watrous.

I arrived in the evening and the temperature had dipped so I was much less inclined to take a dip myself. I both tested and tasted the water - Little Manitou Lake is a salt lake , sat on a dock for a bit, then found a spot to sleep in Watrous. My initial plan had been to push through to Craik the same day, but I decided to wait until Sunday.

Sunday morning I went looking for the Ecovillage and arrived around noon. I was met by Brent Kreuger and his family, who were having lunch together with their Chinese cook Jane and Japanese student Wataru. The others at the table were Brent's wife Monica, his parents, whose names I've forgotten twice already, and his grandson Tristan, or maybe it was Tristin. There were also two little dogs running around, only one of whom came to make my acquaintance. I want to point out that I'm intentionally leaving out the breed of dog here, and will continue to do so in future, as I'm opposed to dog breeding.

The Kreuger family was very hospitable and I was offered coffee and a sandwich. I did take a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. After lunch I began a tour of the establishment with Brent, who went into great detail about the construction of the house they live in, which also acts as a school. I peppered him with many questions and he indulged them patiently. Later he drove me around the Ecovillage in a golf cart and I took a number of photos, though I didn't meet any of the other residents.

The way I understand it, the Eco-village was a project created by the town of Craik in the early 2000's, and their initial idea was to build an extension of the town itself on the other side of the highway which would be focused on sustainability and an eco-friendly vision. An eco-centre was built using various renewable materials, and this eventually became a restaurant.
The town's involvement in this project didn't last very long, however, and they soon abandoned it. The eco-centre is currently in disuse, but a number of people have since settled around it and built homes in a variety of ecologically sustainable styles, some permanent, others less so. The Kreuger family runs the Praxis school of entrepreneurship in the eco-village, and there are a few other creative people who have ongoing projects on the site.
To my knowledge, Craik Eco-village is the only such project in Saskatchewan, and there are none that I know of in Alberta, though one has been in the works for many years close to the town of Viking, AB, where an earthship build run by Michael Reynolds recently took place.

As the weather began to cool down towards evening we were standing on the deck of the house observing a great swarm of ants mating in mid-air and tumbling to the ground to complete their procreative ritual. It began to drizzle (both ants and water) so we repaired to the inside and sat down for a lovely supper.
I debated staying for the night, an invitation which was graciously made by Brent, but decided against it and made the hour-long journey south to Moose Jaw in the dark.

On Monday morning I cycled to downtown Moose Jaw and took in the famous Moose Jaw Tunnel Tours. The town offers two unique tours of the underground tunnels, one detailing the life of Chinese coolies in early 20th-century Moose Jaw and the other covering a dramatized version of the apocryphal Al Capone connection to this southern prairie town. I enjoyed both presentations, though I found the first one much more informative and poignant.

My last planned stop before going to Regina, Saskatchewan's second largest city, was Coderre, my father's hometown. I drove there in just over an hour and found it to be a quasi-abandoned village with a population of 30 or so people. I explored it in a few minutes on my bike and stopped to chat with an elderly couple at the edge of the village. They told me that most of the French families had left Coderre years ago but that I could still find a Beaudette, my father's relative, about 50 kilometres west, in the French town of Gravelbourg, which they recommended for its cathedral and Francophonie.
My visit to this village left me feeling nostalgic but unfulfilled, so I decided to make the drive west to see if I could meet my father's cousin Rodney.

When I arrived in Gravelbourg I spotted the cathedral right away, and after some inquiring, found myself knocking on Rodney Beaudette's door. Alas, he wasn't home, so after leaving him a note, I departed and drove back to Moose Jaw.

The final leg of my journey that day still lay ahead of me, so I replenished my coffee supply and began driving eastward, again in the dark.