March 15th, 2023
The worst part about being a commuter in the southern prairies may be the wildly unpredictable weather conditions. Top that off with other hazards like broken down vehicles, pedestrians walking at night, wildlife, and escaped livestock, and you’ve got more worries than a train delay in the city during rush hour.
While the highway hotline reports on road conditions, commuter groups on Facebook go further and have become a useful way for people to give each other a head’s up on other road hazards. Some groups cover highways 22/6, 11 to Saskatoon, and 1 to Moosejaw. One of those groups is “Highway #6 North of Regina”, which was started by Tammy Gedak approximately five years ago. The public group currently has 6.8 thousand members for people travelling on Highway 6 from Regina north.
Gedak, a commuter herself, said she created it to get more accurate information on highway conditions outside of what the highways were reporting. “People see it, they say it..the folks on the plows can’t always give the most up-to-date information…they don’t run 24/7 unless it’s a huge storm. You get better information that way.”
Group members report many road hazards, whether weather conditions, broken down vehicles, pedestrians walking at night, livestock on the loose, roaming pets, or road kill. There was a time when people were giving information on radar location, but those aren’t permitted and are removed because the radar isn’t considered a hazard. “If it feels like it’s a hazard on the road or something you should be watching out for, I keep it.”
People use landmarks when describing a hazardous location - The Old Pet Cemetery, Piapot Grid, The Brandt Mansion, Seed Mill, Big Bob’s and The “Green House,” which belongs to Jeb Mack and Amanda Leonard-Mack. Jeb is a regular weather poster who regularly commutes North to Raymore. If there was such a thing as a highway lighthouse, the greenhouse might be it. Located just off the highway, when it was built 12 years ago, it was hard to miss sitting alone on the bald prairie. Amanda grew up along the highway; her family has lived here since the 1950s.
A year ago, there was a fun poll on what to call the landmark, with submissions ranging from - the little house on the prairies - lighthouse in a sea of snow - and green acres. Jeb jokingly commented that he just calls it “our house.” It was finally determined that it would be called the “green house” hereafter. The Macks appreciate the page because they keep cattle at the valley, and people will let them know or post if they get out.
The Macks recalled a time before the page, during a bad storm, Jeb went to check their cattle, and at the end of their lane, there was a van with a family inside from an area First Nation. He said, “the windows were iced right over. I stopped and talked to them, and they said they would never walk into a yard and ask for help…that it was just not something that people do.” The Macks invited the family inside to get warm, and Amanda made hot chocolate for the kids. Jeb loaded up the family’s groceries and helped them get home.
“I remember being very shocked that we thought people would rather freeze or take the chance to freeze than ask for help. That was really upsetting to us because we had kids similar ages and we thought I would hope we would feel safe enough to go into someone’s yard and ask for help rather than try to wait the night out..” said Amanda.
They told Amanda, “you never know whose yard you are going in and if it’s a friendly yard or not”. “It was sad to think that was a kind of a commentary on our society right now, that you wouldn’t feel safe enough to walk into anybody’s yard and ask for help if you needed it. I thought that’s terrible because growing up on the highway anytime someone walked into our yard to ask for some gas my dad always gave them gas because it was just the neighbourly thing to do.”
On another bad storm day, the green house was a beacon of safety for Landon Shreeves after he went into the ditch in front of the “green house.” The Mack’s helped him out that night, letting him wait till the sun came up, “Jeb pretty much saved my life,” said Landon.
Landon reports daily on his early commute from Southey. “Lots of people just kept texting and asking me about [the] highway conditions in the morning [because] I start early. So I figured I would just post them.”He’s had his own encounters with road hazards. Once, hitting a horse at 4:30 am. and then in 2022, He said he keeps making the posts “just so people know how the highways are...try to keep people informed so they can decide if they want to risk it....I never miss work, so when I do because of the weather, Facebook land knows it’s bad out. It brings me some joy too.”
The Facebook group is open to anyone who wants to join. You don’t have to contribute but are welcome to, but make sure you do it when it’s safe or after you’ve arrived.
