We all have dreams of things we would enjoy doing at one time in our lives. Not all dreams come true, but this one did and now it's here for everyone to enjoy. The dream has been realized by a former schoolteacher and 4-H leader for some years, now is a retired farm wife. Maralyn Wintersgill, along with her husband Edward Wintersgill, spent the better part of the summer building a small replica of the Anglican St. Bridgets Church that was built in 1910 at the cemetery grounds.
It was used regularly up until a lightening bolt hit the little church and it burned to the ground. No one was able to save anything. Slowly we are getting a few records together, but there are lots of missing blanks.
Another church was moved from Denholm into the hamlet of Baljennie and was restored and used up until 1994. That year a wild fire burned over half of the old vacant buildings in the hamlet, including the church.
After seeing little churches at cemetery sites on the prairies, Maralyn had the dream to build one for the old church site at the cemetery. Now it has been built and moved to the cemetery grounds. It is a fitting tribute to our pioneers.
A grand opening and ribbon cutting will be taking place at the little church at Baljennie Cemetery on Thanksgiving weekend, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. to be followed with a potluck lunch at the Baljennie Community Centre. Everyone is welcome to attend. A big thank you goes out to Edward and Maralyn Wintersgill.
The RM of Glenside has trucks spreading gravel on roads where needed before winter. The grader patrol is kept busy getting the roads ready to gravel. They have also spent some time on farm access roads. Deep ruts were cut into roads leading down the steep hills by summer heavy rainfall. They are also building up areas where the beavers are causing problems and installing culvers where needed. These roads have been in need of repairs for some time.
Many acres of swathed canola were scattered by fierce winds that sometimes gusted up to 100 km/h and higher. Some swathes were whipped up into huge balls that looked like bales and others were scattered far and wide, hanging on the fences, in ditches and trees and even right across some roads into the neighbour's fields of grain. Canola shells out easily, so much of the crop was lost. Many farm buildings and trees were damaged in the storm.
So far, there has not been a killing frost in the area, but nights are getting much. The leaves are starting to change colour and many have already fallen. The feel and smell of fall is in the area. Huge flocks of Canada geese and snow geese are in the harvested fields or some fields of swathed grain.
