So… how was your long weekend? A lot of us were asking that question after one of the nicest Victoria Day weekends in a while. Campgrounds must have been packed, judging by the convoys of holiday vehicles on the highways. Fishing season was underway, with people lining the banks of Lesser Slave River (as just one example) above the weir, and many heading out by boat for the first time this the year.
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In a related note, Marten Beach has become – or is becoming – a Neighbourhood Watch community. Folks out there have always kept an eye out for each other’s property, but now it’s becoming more formalized. A sign is to be put up at the hamlet entrance.
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Surprises are still possible. Your Page 9 correspondent, in 60 years on the planet, had never seen a Baltimore oriole – the bird, not the baseball player – and never expected to. And yet there one was, hanging around a bird feeder in Marten Beach. Check! What’s next? Probably the elusive Western tanager is going to show up and demand recognition on Page 9..
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Here’s something that a reporter should never do: show up at an interview without a camera. Or with a camera without its battery. Because that’s the day a black bear will wander by and stop and pose for photographs. Or a bald eagle will swoop down in front of you and grab a cat or some other spectacular sight. We’re not saying that happened. But it could. We once saw an owl pounce on a barnyard chicken and get into a wrestling match with it. The chicken proved to be too heavy and the owl flew off, unsatisfied. No camera that time, either.
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What is it with earthworms? Okay, they must not like wet dirt, or they wouldn’t escape it onto the sidewalks and pavement every time it rains. But as a survival strategy it doesn’t measure up at all. From our scientific observations, most of those worms don’t make it back into their homes under the lawns. They end up getting squashed by car tires, stepped on, picked off by magpies or simply drying up and expiring when the sun comes out. Or is just their way of thinning out the population, like lemmings do? One theory is they are moving overland to find new territory, which they can’t do when it’s dry. Another is that they do it to escape moles.
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June 3 might turn out to be the busiest Saturday of the year, as far as sports activities go in Slave Lake. There’s a swim meet, a powerlifting competition and logger sports all happening at the same time.
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Wayne Dastou of the Slave Lake slowpitch league tells us the league this year has 20 teams, three up from last year. Play started on May 22 and will wrap up at the end of July, weather permitting. Wayne says there’s also talk of starting a fall slowpitch league!
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