Worked all morning on installing flagstone blocks along side of house. Bowled then novice training in pm. Steve's birthday yesterday so talked by phone. Rain overnight 9C at the moment.

I put on a pair of snowshoes and crossed the Cypress, and on past where W. Sisson afterwards lived, and on through the sand hills until I reached the banks overlooking the river valley.  This gave me a very extensive view for several miles along the valley, which was entirely covered with a growth of trees.  On descending into the valley I discovered the greater part of it was too small for sawlogs, and only here and there were to be found groves of a few acres in extent large enough for sawing.  I could only inspect a couple of miles of valley as I had to figure on the time required to reach home and this would be usually after dark.

I made three such trips and I estimated there was sufficient timber to warrant me in buying a saw and shingle mill.

As I tramped along through the valley many interesting things were to be seen. One of these I might cite here: Springs on the hillside above would form small streams which ran down through sheltered groves of spruce, and where the water fell over an obstruction into a small pool, the water did not freeze.  The moisture arising from the pool would freeze into flakes and fall around the pool and build up a cone three feet or more in height like a miniature volcano with glistening white flakes.

The valley was sheltered and still and the only sound to break the silence was an occasional howl from a lynx or wolf.  These animals rarely permitted me to obtain a view of them, and sometimes I would come on a partially eaten rabbit, where I had disturbed them at their meal.

I have often thought since then what a risk I ran on these trips, for if I had become disabled in any way, it would have been a difficult matter for me to have reached home, or for any person to have found me, but I did not stop to consider those things then.  The average distance walked on these trips would be at least twenty-five miles or more.

My next step was to find a location for the mill.  This would necessarily have to be located at a point further down the river so that all localities where the logs were cut could be rafted, and also be within easy access to the settlement.  I then made a trip to the junction of the Cypress and Assiniboine rivers.  When within a mile of this I entered the Cypress valley and found some fine timber.  I was surprised to find a snowshoe trail made by the Indian trappers.  I passed several beaver dams and trees that had been felled by the beavers for the dams.

On reaching the Assiniboine, I found sleigh tracks and followed them along a short distance, and then they lead up the river bank to an ideal spot on which I decided to build the mill.

I then followed the sleigh tracks up an easy incline out of the valley and then back on the prairie about a mile and there found John and Adam Anderson in a small dug-out shelter.  They had recently come on their place and were hauling logs from the river in order to build a stable for their ox team.

I told them that I intended to locate the mill on the river flat, and they and their neighbors got out a quantity of logs to be cut into lumber.

I then traveled towards home on the east side of the Cypress and came to a broad deep ravine.  I went down into this but going up the opposite bank I encountered a great snow palisade made by the drifted snow from the prairie.  I made several attempts to scale it, but found it impossible to do so.  Then I noticed some distance away, a grove of trees, some of which stood near the face of the drift, so I climbed one and got out on the branches that were imbedded in the drift.

I then went on to Mr. Campbell’s place and arrived there at dark, and just as they were sitting down to supper, so they invited me to join them.  In the morning I crossed the ravine to Mr. Brock’s and then past Carnagie’s and Young’s and was home at noon.

I found my brother, Nathan, and w. Leadbeater anxiously awaiting my return, for they had expected my return the previous evening as I had planned.