The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

I thought the water was supposed to rise in the spring??

The water level here at the park continues to drop. Lake Diefenbaker is actually a reservoir lake, formed by a dam at the eastern end. Most of the water flow comes from the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, and the spring runoff from the mountains really doesn't reach this area until mid June.

I was told about a website yesterday that forecasts the flow to the lake, and they're saying it will continue to drop until May 31st.

They must be expecting a lot of runoff because they are currently draining the lake at twice the rate of the current inflow from the Alberta border.

My water level monitoring device!

I had been moving a stick around every couple of days near the beginning of May when the water was actually going up. You can see in the pic above that my stick has been stuck for the last two weeks as the water's been going down.

I may have to move our water intake further out if the level drops much more.

The park is starting to look green. We haven't had much in the way of rainfall though, so we've started putting the sprinklers out. Apparently we don't get much rain in this area and the only reason the trees and bushes grow is due to almost constant watering.

Leaves on the trees.

Southern Saskatchewan was Canada's hot spot yesterday. The temperature here at the park was 29C (84F) yesterday afternoon!

Our "mobile home" has central air conditioning and I started it up just to see how well it works. It took some time to cool the place down, but it certainly does work. We won't use it unless it gets really hot, but it'll be handy to have for sleeping on some of those hot summer nights.

Looking forward to mid June when the water comes up to the shoreline.

Looking the other way.

We knew we had at least one mouse in our house, and we had bought a couple of mouse traps the other day when we went to town.

One scurried across the floor yesterday evening and it made Ruth jump a little! Too funny. Anyhow, I set the traps last night with some peanut butter and sure enough there were two dead bodies this morning. They were big ones! Not like the little tiny mice we used to get back in Ottawa.

I'll set them again tonight and see if we get any more...


24 comments:

  1. Will be nice for you when the water returns.
    Good luck with your mices

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    Replies
    1. We are looking forward to seeing the campground with the water right up to the edge, it will look so pretty then.

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  2. Replies
    1. No, it's actually the opposite. They have let the water out in anticipation of the amount of water that will come down from the melting snow from the mountains in Alberta. They had an enormous amount of snow this winter and the water shed goes right past us. Normally they don't have to let the water out at this time of year because the water level is so low but even here they had a ton of snow this past winter that the melting here made the water level higher than it normally is at this time of year.

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  3. I'm thinking you caught some country mice :)

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  4. You've been getting the heat that we're supposed to get in a few days, so I suppose that has not helped the water level.
    Happy hunting in the mouse department. Not my favourite creature, that's for sure.

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    Replies
    1. We don't mind mice but we don't want them in the house.

      Enjoy the beautiful weather in a few days!

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  5. Oh yuck, mice. Wonder why parks and people try to grow things that don't grow naturally without human assistance in an area. Beautiful spot that will be even more lovely once the controlled water level rises.

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    Replies
    1. Sherry, there are no natural trees in this area, so without human assistance there would be no park.

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  6. Hope your air conditioner isn't noisy! Now we know why there aren't any trees on the hills.

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    1. It should be alright, and we will only use it when it is necessary.

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  7. Oh, if there could be a different way to discourage mice from coming inside the house. I hate to see them killed but hate more the damage and disease they can cause. Beautiful photos, again, Kevin. I'd kind of wondered about that receding shoreline myself - we just have to wait a few days to see the water level rising.

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    1. I wish there was another way to get rid of the mice too but the traps are the most effective way. They did ask us if we wanted a cat and I would happily have taken them up on the offer but then what would we do with the cat when we leave at the beginning of October?

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  8. You must have lost all that water through the leaky pipes!

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    Replies
    1. That must be the reason, never thought of that! ;-)

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  9. Hmmm, guess our lake is finally lowering.....will send the water in your direction.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Contessa, we will be happy to have it!

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  10. According to the park's Facebook page, last year the lake level continued to drop through June. This is done to maintain the diversion flow of the Saskatchewan River east into the Qu'Apepelle River, which irrigates southern SK and MB.

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    1. That is very possible. Everyone that has arrived here this spring has said that this is the highest they have ever seen the water at this time of year, we are assuming it is the run off from the amount of snow they received in this area last winter and they are letting water out in anticipation for the runoff from the mountains in Alberta which will make it's way here in June. We should see the water level slowly start to rise in about a week according to the Saskatchewan Watershed website.

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  11. Replies
    1. It may be up some but I doubt that it will be up all the way.

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  12. I hope they were mice and not rats? Ugh...somehow there's a huge difference in the "ick" factor between those two rodents!

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    Replies
    1. They are definitely mice and I agree about the huge "ick" factor between the two.

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