Skip to main content

Gopher Gazette: the sourdough starter edition

From time-to-time we welcome the input from our friend the Interim Gopher, Bill Armstrong, of the Friends of Saskatchewan Archives (FoSA) in contributing stories and additional insights to "Outside the Box."


Salutations to all those flour-coated FOPASKers out there. The gopher has stumbled upon a commentary that explains why you are sitting by your stove at 3 am, waiting for the bread to be baked, or punching a mound of dough at any hour of the day. Bet you didn't realize what you were doing was so culturally significant..


Turning to another matter, the photo of the fowl supper, which produced some wicked punning from members Ralph and Frank, also brought a query about what happened to the Matador Co-op Farm. A link to story that appeared in Prairies North magazine proved a dead end. The gopher did discover that the farm continued into the second generation before finally winding up about a decade ago. 

The Matador also rates a mention in the Encyclopeida of Saskatchewan, if you've a mind to check that out.

Finally, the gopher suggests that if you are "upset" by this self-isolation business, you might want to busy yourself with a home-made toboggan run, such as the one pictured near Kamsack, about 1908. Too late in the season you say? Well, it is "spring" in Saskatchewan, remember...

Stay safe..

-- 
Bill Armstrong
interim gopher
Friends of the Saskatchewan Archives

Regina, Saskatchewan,   
toboggan.jpg

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New SCAA president 2024 - 2026

Hello, My name in Nicole Kruppi and I am the new SCAA President. Professionally I have worked most of my career (19 years) in the Records and Information Management field but like to think of myself as a long-suffering Archivist. My career has taken me across Canada. For the past seven years I lived in New Brunswick, Canada, working in the oil and gas industry at Irving Oil. Prior to that I lived in Calgary for nine years and worked for both the Public Service (Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), as well as spending time at TC Energy. Closer to home, which in my mind has been Saskatoon, I worked for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in the Specific Claims Archive & Library, and the Saskatchewan Archives Board as both a Records Manager and Project Archivist. Prior to deciding that I wanted to be an Archivist when I grew up, I worked at SaskTel Mobility. I hold a Masters in Archival Studies from the Univer...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Northern Saskatchewan Archives

Home of the Northern Saskatchewan Archives  As we deal physically with the smoke of forest fires in our communities, our thoughts are with those who are dealing with the actual fires in the north. We were heartbroken to hear of the loss the hundreds pieces of Indigenous art and historical artifacts when Robertson Trading burned as a wildfire tore through part of the community of La Ronge, but relieved to know that Graham Guest, who serves as the Archivist at the Northern Saskatchewan Archives, in the Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System (PNLS), was able to save photos of some of the lost Robertson's material.  Below is a summary of several emails that Graham was able to send in July and early August to Gloria and myself at SCAA as well as James Hope Howard (Director of PNLS) and Linda Collins (Office Administrator PNLS) "Hello, all, Thanks for your concerns about our archives and Suzanne (Graham's partner) and me. We are still camping at Murray Point so I thou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friends of the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (FOPASK)

  Greetings, fellow FOPASKers. A few days ago Friend Ron sent along a couple of photos he had discovered in his family archive, which he sent along with this request: We have this photograph of Sprucedale Farm  It appears to be in southern Saskatchewan from  the lack of trees and rolling hills. With all your connections, would you have any way of finding out where this was located? I believe the owners were Don and Kate McLaren but I have been unable to find their names anywhere. With your sleuthing abilities perhaps you might come up with something.   With great appreciation,         Ron D About the gopher's sleuthing abilities, pshaw, although I did check a couple of books of Saskatchewan place names, finding Spruce Bay and Spruce Lake, both in the parkland zone on the NorthWest side. As Ron notes, Sprucedale doesn't look like a good fit. There is also the date on the barn, 1910, when there was still land to be settled on in southern areas of th...
Post a Comment
Read more