tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post964154359111499474..comments2024-02-21T01:37:44.813-08:00Comments on Trevor Herriot's Grass Notes: Road Allowances: Restoring the Lost Kingdom of Monarchs and Lady's SlippersTrevor Herriothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11129533251670929001noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-14420383752420589412017-04-25T17:42:23.163-07:002017-04-25T17:42:23.163-07:00Thanks Ian--that still might be possible in some a...Thanks Ian--that still might be possible in some areas but you would have to choose carefully. I certainly walk road allowances from time to time...Trevor Herriothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11129533251670929001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-54859234677333215672017-04-25T15:42:25.351-07:002017-04-25T15:42:25.351-07:00Makes complete sense as I grew up in the Rural sou...Makes complete sense as I grew up in the Rural south SK. We used the road allowances for quicker access to our land but the neighbor tilled it every year and thus my education on road allowances from my *fist in the air* grumbling of my dad. I actually had thought it would be an interesting trek on a plated motorcycle to map out the road allowances and see how far you could go on them. Alas, I dont think it would be possible (at least not without getting chased off with a shotgun). Thanks for the reply!Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09537160337561829218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-67475619915532706202017-04-25T14:38:37.874-07:002017-04-25T14:38:37.874-07:00Actually there certainly used to be a "grid r...Actually there certainly used to be a "grid road map" but it focused mostly on the roads of course. And even that map was really just a grid pattern thrown down on the Sask highways map. To find undeveloped road allowances you just go east-west on a gravel road in farm land and look every mile. If there is no road at the one mile mark, then there should be a 66 foot wide strip separating the cropped land. Does that make sense? They are not hard to find except that now farmers are just cultivating them often and that makes them more or less invisible.Trevor Herriothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11129533251670929001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-68770457516475535232017-04-25T13:13:38.638-07:002017-04-25T13:13:38.638-07:00Hi. Is there a map of SK road allowances at all?Hi. Is there a map of SK road allowances at all?Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09537160337561829218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-28867770597052938692017-04-24T07:53:53.155-07:002017-04-24T07:53:53.155-07:00Hi Myrna: I am mostly talking about undeveloped ro...Hi Myrna: I am mostly talking about undeveloped road allowances--i.e. those without roads and ditches. A road allowance is 66 feet wide. If there is no road in the middle there is lots of room for a cabin that is say 30' by 20'. Entire Metis communities once lived along road allowances. Now of course even ditches in developed road allowances with roads do provide some habitat--but they are sometimes plowed and almost always hayed before the birds can finish nesting these days.Trevor Herriothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11129533251670929001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953681015185820780.post-25360090130957611612017-04-23T16:47:35.851-07:002017-04-23T16:47:35.851-07:00Aren't these what we used to call ditches? At ...Aren't these what we used to call ditches? At least that was how I thought them in the 1950s when my parents drove us out to the family farm, and in the 1980s when I owned a quarter section and waited for the joy of the June-blooming wild rose bushes in the "ditches" outside the fences. Their perfume was intoxicating. But jsut a couple of years ago I was driving around tht same countryside (NE of Edmonton) and all the ditches were gone along with the fences, with crops seeded growing right up to the edge of the road. Because there are now so few farm houses, the whole landscape looked like a Soviet-style kolkhoz. There was something really chilling about that. I am therefore pleased to learn that at least in SK there is pushback....O another topic: Metis have been called, historically, the road-allowance people. In spire of your descriptiona nd photographs, I can't see how entire families and their goods can comfortably "settle" in a ditch. Please help me visualize this.myrna kostashhttp://myrnakostash.comnoreply@blogger.com