Day 76 - Lost Day II - River, Mill & Lee

A little trouble remembering what I did in the morning - think I was a little late up or something. Anyhow ended back over at Vie's place and her husband, Jim, took me for a drive over town and so forth. This photo is taken from the middle of the main river that runs through the town - The Saskatchewn River.

We have actually driven a truck onto the ice here and it is used as a crossing for a large part of the year, as well as people drilling a hole in the ice to go ice fishing. Don't have to worry about casting a fishing line. Just go to where ever the fish are and drill straight down - usually using some kind of a hand auger.



The Pas exists predominately because of one major industry, the paper mill (now called 'Tolko' and in previous incarnations during my time, also known as 'Manfor' and 'Repap' - which is actually paper spelt backwards). The mill is about 10km out of town and when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, it smells HORRIBLE.

I'd forgotten about the smell but it all came back to me all of a sudden on one wif. Apparently the bark gets mixed with oil and is burnt - which creates the smell and is what is coming out of the smoke stacks in the photos below.

Locals sometimes call it "the smell of money" as if the mill ever closes down, this town will probably shrink dramatically (happened to another town that I lived in further north called Leaf Rapids - the mine closed down and it is just a ghost town now). Funnily enough, today was the first time I'd ever been out around the mill.



The photo below just shows some of the logs before entering the mill. These are just some of them and there are multiple rows that stretch for a couple of kilometres. Railway tracks in the foreground but logs can also be shipped to the area on trucks - depending upon cost. Canada is a rather large timber country and timber is a classic victim of the USA's hypocritical "free trade" deal - why Australia just signed a Free Trade Deal with America is beyond me.



Here is just another section with the logs piled all the way up.



OK, maybe the nerd factor is entering in but this is the crane that is used to deal with this volume of lumber. Note how the cab is also on hydraulics and is extended to increase visiblity.



Headed back to Vie's for a roast dinner (man I was spoilt). Mrs Lee, my 8th grade English (Language Arts) and Health teacher also came over for dinner and it was interesting to catch up. She hadn't really changed a great deal, hair was a little shorter but still had the same sort of animated mannerisms.