Songs of Prairie Kids
We’ve been waiting for over a year to move into our new home—a converted grocery store that is now our abode after 12 months of intense renovations. But on Friday we slept there for the first time, and on Saturday we celebrated with a totally amazing party! So on Sunday, when I left for Goodsoil, I was slow and tired and happy. The rain followed me for three hours, and I listened to an audio book as I drove into the night.
Goodsoil is almost as far north as I’ve ever been in Saskatchewan. Driving up here, the paved highway gave way to gravel on a few occasions with impressive potholes worsened by the intense rain over the past few days. My poor car. Tomorrow I’ll be doing songwriting workshops with the kids at Goodsoil School, and all month I’m traveling to the far reaches of Saskatchewan doing the same in other schools. I keep passing through these small towns, not exactly sure how I ended up here, but what a chance to be exposed to different people and lifestyles and geographies.
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The workshop and performance at Goodsoil school was fantastic. In every school I visit, I take the mornings to teach the kids about songwriting, and they teach me about themselves. By noon, we've written a song: chosen a topic, brainstormed a storyline, developed images and music, decided on arrangements and the performance of the song and recorded it. Right after lunch, I do a show for the entire school and my student co-writers get up and perform the song they just wrote in the morning.
In Goodsoil, I worked with the choir, which meant all the kids were really into music. They wrote about Snow Days, and who in Saskatchewan CAN'T identify with the excitement of having school closed due to heavy snowfalls! I loved reliving this moment with the choir. Working in the music room, we furiously gathered shakers and bells and whistles to incorporate into the song. Total fun!
Afterwards, I checked out Main Street in Goodsoil before heading back to the resort just outside of town where I’m staying. Went to the Coop and bought myself a pair of rubber boots so I could go sloshing through the countryside on an afternoon adventure. I found a whole farm full of buffalo grazing, and deemed the moment worthy of a snapshot. So I tried to take a picture by setting the timer and placing the camera on the roof of my car. I posed, smiling foolishly with the confused and/or apathetic buffalo grazing behind me, and waited for the flash. I'm not sure if I maintained that grin as the wind picked up and blew the camera off my hood and into a mud puddle.
Truly this was some of the most picturesque farmland I’ve ever seen. It could be the setting sun and the fall colors in the trees. There is an old red barn on a gently sloping hill that is surrounded by yellow and orange bushes. At the base of the slope, a small lake glistens in the setting sunlight.
I went back to my lodgings for supper, was in for a treat: leftovers from our housewarming party that I packed with me. My hosts seem quite perplexed as to why I would bring my own food—they think I’m funny. But I’m feasting on shrimp and that amazing bean dish and such. And my mother-in-law’s homemade salsa—so sweet and just enough bite to fire up my sinuses and help drain out the last bits of this autumn cold that I think I caught in one of the schools.
Goodsoil is almost as far north as I’ve ever been in Saskatchewan. Driving up here, the paved highway gave way to gravel on a few occasions with impressive potholes worsened by the intense rain over the past few days. My poor car. Tomorrow I’ll be doing songwriting workshops with the kids at Goodsoil School, and all month I’m traveling to the far reaches of Saskatchewan doing the same in other schools. I keep passing through these small towns, not exactly sure how I ended up here, but what a chance to be exposed to different people and lifestyles and geographies.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The workshop and performance at Goodsoil school was fantastic. In every school I visit, I take the mornings to teach the kids about songwriting, and they teach me about themselves. By noon, we've written a song: chosen a topic, brainstormed a storyline, developed images and music, decided on arrangements and the performance of the song and recorded it. Right after lunch, I do a show for the entire school and my student co-writers get up and perform the song they just wrote in the morning.
In Goodsoil, I worked with the choir, which meant all the kids were really into music. They wrote about Snow Days, and who in Saskatchewan CAN'T identify with the excitement of having school closed due to heavy snowfalls! I loved reliving this moment with the choir. Working in the music room, we furiously gathered shakers and bells and whistles to incorporate into the song. Total fun!
Afterwards, I checked out Main Street in Goodsoil before heading back to the resort just outside of town where I’m staying. Went to the Coop and bought myself a pair of rubber boots so I could go sloshing through the countryside on an afternoon adventure. I found a whole farm full of buffalo grazing, and deemed the moment worthy of a snapshot. So I tried to take a picture by setting the timer and placing the camera on the roof of my car. I posed, smiling foolishly with the confused and/or apathetic buffalo grazing behind me, and waited for the flash. I'm not sure if I maintained that grin as the wind picked up and blew the camera off my hood and into a mud puddle.
Truly this was some of the most picturesque farmland I’ve ever seen. It could be the setting sun and the fall colors in the trees. There is an old red barn on a gently sloping hill that is surrounded by yellow and orange bushes. At the base of the slope, a small lake glistens in the setting sunlight.
I went back to my lodgings for supper, was in for a treat: leftovers from our housewarming party that I packed with me. My hosts seem quite perplexed as to why I would bring my own food—they think I’m funny. But I’m feasting on shrimp and that amazing bean dish and such. And my mother-in-law’s homemade salsa—so sweet and just enough bite to fire up my sinuses and help drain out the last bits of this autumn cold that I think I caught in one of the schools.
posted by Carrie Catherine at 8:30 PM
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