Sympathy to the Betty Taylor families of Battleford on the recent passing of Betty. A funeral was held May 18 in Battleford.
Fire raged through a shop and storage building on the Gary and Lind Â鶹´«Ã½AVgate farm in the Eagle Hills area. No one was in the shop at the time of the blaze, but it did not take many minutes for help to arrive.
The Battleford Fire Department and RCMP were at the site. Many came to help move cars, machinery and some trucks away from the building. No one was able to go inside due to containers exploding. Barrels of oil were also in the storage area. Black smoke poured out through the roof. Gary is a collector of antique cars. He lost his restored, running, older cars and many other smaller items.
The fire was contained to the building and did not spread elsewhere.
In a few short weeks Saskatchewan is a totally different countryside. The summer birds are all back, the wild flowers are blooming, tame and wild fruit trees are in full flower and all the lush green leaves are on the trees. It has turned green so quickly.
Even the big snow banks we all thought would be here forever are melting away and we did not get the runoff that looked possible. It just all soaked into the soil. Since the snow left, we did not have rain in the local area up to May 24 and 25. Close to an inch fell to help the fields that were drying out too quickly with all the strong winds blowing everyday. Some farmers have started to seed while others are preparing the fields to seed shortly. It is now running a little late compared to other years. There are many little sloughs and water potholes in the fields to go around.
Cattle herds are being moved out to the summer grass. It has been a long winter of feeding the livestock. In some areas the feed was getting low.
The Lizard Lake Community pasture has been taking cattle this past week.
Now the warmer weather has arrived, so have the pesky mosquitoes. On has to take care while out in the tall, dead grasses as they lie in wait to hop aboard for a free meal.
Sympathy wishes go out to the Lorne Stewart families of rural Battleford on the recent passing of Lorne Stewart. They farmed in the Battleford area. Lorne also owned two quarters of pastureland in the RM of Glenside-Baljennie area for several years before selling the land to retire to the Battleford area. The funeral was held in Battleford May 17.
The RM of Glenside have been busying trying to keep the main roads in summer condition. There are many areas with soft spots and frost boils, With so many heavy farm trucks and machinery travelling, it's hard to keep them under control. There are more problems caused by busy beavers. They continue to dam up some areas and culverts. We have lost one of our fields due to the beavers. Once a hole is opened in a dam, in very short time they have it all mudded up and shut off the running water.
