It's a waiting game right now.
Myles Kalthoff is watching as water creeps ever closer to his farmyard on the northwestern side of Waldsea Lake.
"I'm going to have a cabin by the lake and not even move," he said.
Kalthoff's yard is on a hill, but with Waldsea Lake expected to rise by at least 12 to 18 feet this spring, whether that hill will be high enough to keep the yard from being flooded is something he and his son, Kirby, who lives on the farm, worry about.
They are out there every day, watching the water level.
"In the last week, I'd say it's come up more than a metre," Kalthoff said on April 14.
Saskatchewan Watershed Authority (SWA) has told Kalthoff that his yard shouldn't be flooded this year.
"They gave me some new maps. They think it will be okay this year. But they're not sure about next year," Kalthoff said.
He's been told that it looks like the lake will go up 18 feet, for sure.
"According to their surveys, (the water) should get within 200 yards east of my yard," he said. "They may be right but it's still very nervewracking."
How does it feel, to watch that water creep closer, threatening all he's worked for his entire life, and the legacy he hoped to leave his son, who farms with him?
"Words can't describe," Kalthoff said, his voice heavy with emotion.
It's just a truly horrible feeling, he agreed.
Breached berm
As was their plan, the SWA is trying to direct water to flow from Houghton and Deadmoose Lakes into Waldsea Lake's closed basin.
Last week, the SWA breached the berm holding back Deadmoose Lake at three locations, so that water will flow into Waldsea. The first breach, about 75 feet wide, is north of Kalthoff's grandfather's yard site, which is directly between the two lakes.
Water from that breach was running hard last week, foaming as it ran over a washed out road between the lakes. Kalthoff's farm could be seen beyond the rushing water, sitting on a hill to the west of that road.
Another breach of the berm has been opened to the south of Kalthoff's grandfather's yard site, as well. Water from that breach started to run towards Waldsea on April 13, after the lake rose about three inches in one day.
What is called Brockman's ditch, which was blocked after the flooding in 2007 in order to protect the cabins at Waldsea Lake, has been opened again as well.
Washed out roads
The Kalthoffs have been out patrolling the area around their farm, seeing what roads are still passable.
Last week, they could still get to their farm from the west, though roads to the north and to the east were washed out.
Last year, the RM of Humboldt twice built up the road to the east side of his road. Last week, it was under at least two feet of water.
"I saw water go across roads yesterday that I've never seen before. I think it's because the culverts were still frozen. Water was making all new paths," Myles noted.
The well at the farm caved in last week, he said. They were able to put in another pump and keep it going, but that it happened is also worrisome.
"Something is going on underneath," he said.
Other farmers have been making the rounds of the area as well, checking out the conditions of their land near the lakes. And many from Humboldt and other communities have also been out to see the flooding for themselves.
"I think there's been more traffic on the Waldsea Lake road this spring than in the last five years," Kalthoff said.
Kalthoff has to farm this year, he noted, but he doesn't know how much land he'll actually have after the floodwaters peak. Most of his land surrounds his farmyard, and is now underwater.
The Kalthoffs used to seed around 4,000 acres and had between 500 and 600 acres of pasture land.
However, the SWA has taken over 800 acres of land from his grandfather's farm, and over 700 from Myles around Waldsea Lake, along with another quarter. His son has lost another 40 acres.
All told, the Kalthoffs will be down about 1,700 to 1,800 acres of farmland, if the water in Waldsea goes up 18 feet.
Getting to other quarters of their land will also be difficult, if not impossible this spring.
"There could be quarters out of the water, but there's no access to them," he said. He's been told not to seed those acres, he said, even though he's at least two to three weeks from getting into the field.
Kalthoff is hoping he will be able to buy other land to replace what he's lost, but it will likely be scattered around the area, instead of the localized acres he's used to farming.
They already travel out to Carmel to farm, and may run into flooding issues out there as well, as they did in 2007. They had difficulty getting to their land then, because of flooded roads.
"We don't know if the roads that were open in 2007 will be open (this year)," he said.
Kalthoff told the SWA this spring that "relocating me was not an option," he said. His fertilizer tanks were already full, and all of his equipment is in that yard site, including a shop and fuel tanks, both necessities for farmers.
"If we want to farm the rest of our land, we need a home base," he said.
Instead, the SWA has told him they will install a berm around his farmyard, if they have to, he said.
Hopefully, it won't come to that.
"I'm hoping that the big rush is over," he said.
SWA
As of April 14, the SWA felt runoff in the Humboldt area was hitting the stage where the water was heading from small collectors to bigger ones.
"We're starting to see flow heading towards various lakes," said Dwayne Rowlett of the SWA.
Their plan to protect farmland around Deadmoose and Houghton involves flooding Waldsea Lake, he noted. They moved the cabins out and decommissioned the park because the berms were just too expensive to continue with. And they likely would not have held.
Had they kept trying to save Waldsea Lake, about 2,500 acres around Deadmoose and Houghton lakes would have been flooded with saline water. The berms would have eventually failed, and water would have flowed to Waldsea anyway, flooding another 2,000 acres there. That's a total of 4,500 acres flooded by saline water, which affects the land even after the water is gone.
By just flooding Waldsea out, they can save those 2,500 acres around Deadmoose and Houghton, Rowlett believes.
"It just makes sense to get it over with," he said of flooding Waldsea. "The goal is to minimize impact."
Flooding Waldsea, raising its level by about 15 feet, should lower the levels of Deadmoose and Houghton by about three feet each.
Whether that will be enough to handle the runoff to those lakes remains to be seen.
"It's going to be what it will be at the end," Rowlett said.
They've opened up the berm at Deadmoose to ensure that water goes in the right direction, and that the outflow of the lake keeps up with the inflow.
The recent cold weather, he added, has slowed things down and helped them in terms of flow rates.
"We don't have to release more aggressively," he noted.
But because Waldsea is a closed basin, whether the water comes in three weeks or one week, it will get to the same place.
"It will all end up in the bottom at the end of the day," he said.
In other parts of the province, he added, the slow melt is helping to keep areas from flooding, mitigating the impact of the high runoff.
"Slow and steady wins the race right now," he said.
Locally, on the 777 grid road near Middle Lake, where a controversial culvert remains blocked - whether it will open again, allowing water to flow from Houghton Lake to Lenore Lake is still up to the courts to decide - the SWA has deepened the ditches on either side. Water has ponded on one side about four to five feet deep, Rowlett said. Further west along the road, the SWA is building up a low area that water ran over last year.
"The situation should improve a bit because of what we're doing at Waldsea Lake," Rowlett said. "We don't expect it to be worse than last year."
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