Stanley and Walter Mills from Battleford attended the family and friend gathering at the Army and Navy Legion Hall in Saskatoon for Sandra Scifftoni's memorial service Jan. 30. Sandra Bailey was formerly from Baljennie and attended school there. She will be missed by her family and friends. Many of them were at the celebration.
Get well wishes go out to Elmer Dove of Lizard Lake area on his recent stay in the hospital after a snowmobile mishap.
Baljennie has almost been a ghost town for some years, yet there were livable homes still there. Warren and Cecilia Parkinson and family have been living in the town site for a few years now. This winter the population has rose a little with some new families moving in and some moving out. Some farms sold and new owners came in. There have been more children on the school bus. It is nice to see a few new families who can keep Baljennie on the map for a while yet. A good many of the older families have moved out over the past 10 years.
Did the groundhog see his shadow or not? In this area we started out with a cloudy sky but by noon it changed to a clear sky. Whether he did or not does not make much difference for this area, as there will likely still be six or so weeks of winter weather.
Some roads and streets have been icy after the melt we had in late January. The road patrol grader has been out to help remove the icy sections.
One semi truck driver did not have too good of luck on what we call Lloyd's hill, where Dwayne and Cheryl Bater now live. The semi truck spun out on the ice and jack knifed on the hill at the steepest area and dumped the trailer over the bank to close the road off on the hill for the day. A temporary road through the hay field was made, but wasn't good for some vehicles to travel on. The school bus did not operate due to the road conditions.
Tow trucks had to be brought out of North Battleford to help get the semi truck and the trailer back on the road and it took all day to get the road cleared.
Lloyd's hill is getting to be a popular place for road travellers to experience mishaps. There have been many over the years. Parts of an accident that happened in May 2015 still remain at the locations, at the edge of the field and partly in the ditch. Why has the owner not come back to finish cleaning up his mishap? There the machine sits on the edge for a farmer's field.
January was a pretty good month weather wise, but there were a few days that kicked in some cold January temperatures that we used to get. Then it did get milder to melt some snow and leave slush and icy areas on the streets. The main highways have stayed in good condition. There has been very little snow in our area, yet other areas have lots while others in the southern part have no snow at all.
The ski hills have been able to build up a good snow base on their runways, but it has been very spotty for the snowmobile riders. They will be now waiting for what snow we have to melt, then they will be out with their four-wheel quads.
