Sincere thoughts go out to my sister Margaret and her husband Sam Parrish on the recent passing of Sam's twin sister Elenor Gubbe of Battleford, formerly of Willowmoore. Also, to their family Mark and Elaine Parrish of Willowmoore and Gary and Bonnie Kyluik of North Battleford. The Parrish and Gubbe families were among the first settlers to the Willowmoore area. There was no funeral according to Elenor's wishes. Burial is to take place at the Willowmoore cemetery.
Sonningdale Big Buck Night was held at the Sonningdale Community Centre in December. The typical white-tailed deer for youth 16 and under honour went to Austin Custer of Baljennie. He tagged his animal the last day of white-tailed deer hunting season.
The Willowmoore school bus ran into some early morning problems when making a sharp turn, it hit road side snow banks and went into the ditch and into a field off a country grid road. The bus was lucky to not have rolled. On board the school bus were 12 school students plus two bus drivers en route to school. The retiring school bus driver was training the new school bus driver the route when the accident happened. It sent the retiring school bus driver, plus one student to Battlefords Union Hospital with injuries. Another school bus was on the scene shortly to pick up the remaining students. The RCMP and North Battleford Ambulance were at the site.
We are well into winter. Days are now beginning to be longer. Once winter set in it did also drop the temperature to a few chilly days over the holiday season. Snow fall has been moderate, but the high winds whipped the snow up into drifts on most roads and farm side roads. The RM grader has been out opening up the main and grid roads throughout the RM of Glenside. There were many days of fog leaving the trees, fences and power lines loaded with thick, white frost
The deep snow in the fields and bushes has made more of a challenge for the deer and moose to feed. They come out to the garden area and dig up what they can find from what they left last fall. There still seem to be many coyotes about searching for some food. They always seem to be close by our yard. There does not appear to be any bush rabbits left for them to hunt. No rabbit tracks have been seen in our yard so far this winter. A local rancher has his cattle out swath grazing in spite of the deep snow. They seem to be able to dig up the swaths okay.
Visiting with Stanley and Dorothy Mills, were their friends Kim and Melody Lamont of Kindersley. They were also checking out their new farm area that is still closed in by the deep snow.
