There’s an unwritten rule around here that says something along the lines of: ‘Thou shalt not start Page 9 by talking about the weather.’
Okay, we won’t.
But how about that hot, dry weather? Last week it seemed endless, and likely to make a bad situation even worse. Meanwhile, people were getting into gardening like crazy. Or maybe like there’s no tomorrow. Or as if there’s no possibility of a late spring frost. We’ll see about that.
Holy smokes! said somebody at The Leader early last week. No kidding. It was pretty thick there for a while.
It’s nice to see our neighbours from Washington and Oregon helping out in the firefighting effort. It’s a good arrangement we have with those (and other) states and provinces, assisting when we can. It’s an all-hands-on-deck type of scenario out there, with so many fires threatening so many communities, and the weather not cooperating.
‘They’re paving Highway 88!’ said one smart aleck at the coffee shop the other day. ‘I saw them out there with a five-gallon bucket!’
Patching potholes, in other words. Not paving, but certainly better than nothing.
Did we report already that all the bison came home? If not, here it is. Roland Eben-Ebenau dropped by to tell us the good news: the last three of the wayward bison from his ranch north of Slave Lake came back home more or less on their own. It’s a great result, considering all the possibilities. This was after 45 of the animals got out on April 23 and wandered north and west along the lakeshore. Thirty-nine of them were recovered after a few days, but six took off on their own and were reportedly as far away as 16 kms. up the Wabasca highway. But all back home at the North Shore Homestead, safe and sound.
The last week in May two Slave Lake schools have shows. For both, tickets are by donation at the door.
On May 30 and 31 from 7 to 8 p.m., people can watch Shrek The Musical Jr. at EG Wahlstrom Elementary School. The Grade 4 to 6 students have been practicing all year.
On May 31 starting at 6:30 p.m., Roland Michener Secondary School high school band is putting on a Marvelous May Melodies fundraiser coffee house at St. Peter’s Ecumenical Church in Slave Lake.
Registration is open for Enviro-Quest Camp at the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation on July 18 to 20. It is a day camp for 11 to 14 year olds. For details, go to www.lsfes.org or call 780-849-8240.
Slow-pitch is a popular summer past time.
Slave Lake Slopitch Association has 12 teams, games started May 8. These are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There are also tournaments.
Two tournaments in the area which came to The Leader’s attention are a slow-pitch tournament in Flatbush as part of the Flatbush Festival on June 17 and the Slave Lake Fall Classic on September 16 to 17.
Details are on The Leader’s online calendar.
Last week we reported that a Nancy O’Neill had been named as an independent candidate for Lesser Slave Lake, and that earlier, her name came up as running in the Peace River riding. Neither of those things actually happened, but apparently she is running in Central Peace-Notley now, for the Solidarity Movement of Alberta.
Last week, The Leader reported that the provincial government was helping evacuees with a one-time payment. We used the first news release which came out, but missed that a clarification was released later. Thanks to a reader for letting us know. We’ve confirmed with the government of Alberta, that the money is available to any evacuee who has been under mandatory evacuation order for seven cumulative days.
