Shellbrook Town Council passed their budget at a special meeting last week, agreeing to a two mill increase — the equivalent of approximately $50,000.

Mayor George Tomporowski said the reasoning behind the increase was basic inflation.

After being able to hold the line in last year’s budget the Town was forced to increase taxes to stay ahead of increasing costs, he said.

“The operating costs just keep sneaking up on you and if you don’t keep up with that we will really be behind the eight ball,” said Tomporowski, noting that the increase on an average house in Shellbrook would be around $110 annually.

The budget is $3.4 million with a very small surplus worked into it.

Cost increases include staffing, materials and policing.

Policing rates, which hadn’t moved for four years increased by $15,000 this year.

Also pushing costs up is approximately $85,000 in roadwork, $50,000 worth of curb and gutter work on new residential developments, $160,000 for pipe relining and the purchase of a new loader for $110,000.

The relining of the old concrete sewer pipe seems to be the most cost effective option at the Town’s disposal. The concrete pipe is quickly deteriorating and this process could extend their life by another 40 to 50 years. The process involves resin treated fiberglass sleeves being blown into the old pipe. Once its’ in place, super-heated steam is forced into the pipe causing the resin to solidify.

The process comes at a cost savings over conventional methods as it replaces the pipes with minimal disruptions and doesn’t require trenching.

Tomporowski said that the remainder of concrete pipes could be replaced in this manner over the next four to five years if work were to continue at the present rate.

Roadwork projects for this year include $60,000 of paving and $25,000 of sand sealing.

The budget also includes some long overdue upgrades at the Shellbrook Kinsmen Park campground. Approximately $13,000 has been budgeted for upgrades at the shower/ washroom building. With increasing traffic through the summer months at the campground, council opted to renovate the bathrooms and shower house  to a more acceptable standard.

Though very little reserve cash has been worked into the budget, the $25 infrastructure fee included on Town utility bills is set aside to help cover some of the capital required for local infrastructure projects.

Another added expense is the Town’s mortgage for the newly constructed sewage lagoon.

The $3 million low rate loan, provided by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation through the Municipal Infrastructure Lending Program, comes at an annual cost of $265,000 over the next 15 years.

The lagoon, which was completed late last year, came with an overall price tag of more than $7 million but grants from the provincial and federal government allowed the Town to get away with only paying one third of the cost.

Tomporowski said that the funding and the financing for the Towns’s share came at the perfect time as environmental regulations are continually becoming more and more stringent.

The previous treatment system was not performing at all close to Sask Environment standards and it was likely only a matter of time before a system change was forced upon the Town.

When the solutions are as costly as they are, it is very difficult for small municipalities to afford them.

“These (water treatment upgrades) are things we are legislated to do so it had to be done,” said Tomporowski.

The operation of the lagoon itself is also expected to cost the Town more this year but Tomporowski said the facility has not been running long enough for the Town to get a real handle on exactly what those increases will be.

A pair of road surfacing projects are also set to take place this year on the northeast side of town.

Paving is set to take place sometime this year on a portion of 5th Street East, running south from Highway 3 and sand sealing is scheduled to be done  on Service Road East from 5th Street to 7th Street East.

Paving the remainder of 5th Street east, to 7th Avenue East, is expected to take place next budget year.

]]> http://shellbrookchronicle.com/2012/05/taxes-on-the-rise-in-shellbrook/feed/ 0 http://shellbrookchronicle.com/2012/05/hoja-helps-raise-funds-for-elementary-school/ http://shellbrookchronicle.com/2012/05/hoja-helps-raise-funds-for-elementary-school/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 21:53:45 +0000 Administrator http://shellbrookchronicle.com/?p=1997

The Shellbrook Elementary School Gymnastics club warmed up the crowd with a gymnastics display.

Shellbrook Elementary School received some world class help in their quest for choir risers last week.

Acapella group Hoja provided the headlining act for a fund raising concert  at the Shellbrook Theatre May 10.

The event raised $3,227, of which $1,826,  came from the silent auction alone. Scotiabank is set to match those funds while the Shellbrook Investors Group will also kick in a donation of $500 in matching funds.

According to Principal Dwayne Tournier, the fund raiser was one of the best ones they could have gotten involved with as there was minimal cash outlay to the school or School Community Council. Hoja performed for a percentage of the ticket sales at the door while merchants from Shellbrook and area set them up with plenty of items for their silent auction.

“The silent auction was great. Everything was straight cash for us,” said Tournier.

Also, between the Scotiabank staff and School Community Council members, there was plenty of volunteer help to go around.

The project was kicked off due to the schools need of choir risers to be used for the annual Christmas concert at the Shellbrook Theatre and other concert events at the school.

Tournier said that they are still pricing out risers that will suit their needs. If what they need proves to be more money than what was raised, they could be purchased in two phases with a second fund raiser taking place next year.

If there happens to be money left over from the fund raiser, it will go toward purchasing playground equipment for the Pre-Kindergarten program at the school.

The show began with a performance from Pam Boettcher’s grade 4/5 choir and was followed by a display by the school’s gymnastics club, coached by Shannon Pritchard.

Lyle Morris left, and Roseanne Morris right, walked with Lyle’s Mom Shirley who was one of the oldest walkers.

For the second consecutive year, Shellbrook and area residents ran, walked and strolled on a route through Shellbrook in support of the Shellbrook and Districts Health Services Project.

Participation dropped considerably for this  year’s event, held on Mother’s Day May 13 but organizers were still happy with the turnout.

This year 85 took part, ranging in age from less than a year to 79 years old.  A total of 71 ran or walked the 5 km route while 14 ran the course twice for the 10 km event. Last year’s event drew about 140 participants.

The residents of Parkland Terrace also took things one step further as they raised approximately $800 in donations toward the fund raising effort.  Residents Shirley Morris and Edna Lens and embassador Nick Bilyk collected the donations and also made the 5km trek around town with the help of staff, family and friends. Meanwhile, organizers made the exception to allow Bilyk to travel the route in his motorized golf cart.

Once again, Shellbrook and area businesses pitched in to help make the event a success with donations of door prizes, event shirts and food for the light lunch provided to all of the participants.

Volunteers also pitched in a great deal to operate aide stations, manage major intersections to keep the runners safe and to collect items needed for the event.  Musical entertainment was also provided across from the aide station on 7th Avenue and at the Brookside Neighbourhood Restaurant on Main Street to help keep runners motivated.

Complete fund raising  totals were not available at press time.

Crystal Meier of the Ministry of Education’s Early Years Branch outlined the funding that the ministry will provide for the daycare and answered questions from parents.

Board members, Karisa Klaassen, Nicole Philp and Renee Kyliuk filed incorporation papers for the non-profit daycare following the provincial government’s announcement of 33 funded daycare spots allotted to Shellbrook. These spaces were announced as part of 500 distributed throughout the province last week.

Based on the 33 spaces, the parent board will receive $110,000 in capital funding to go toward developing the daycare. Very early estimates for the facility are in the neighbourhood of $650,000, based on the minimum requirement of 3,300 square feet, but actual numbers will be established once a design is developed and contractors provide quotes.  The remainder of the cost will be made up through fund raising and a mortgage.

According to Meier, a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment is the absolute maximum that the Ministry will allow, meaning that fund raising efforts will have to be extensive.

The Town of Shellbrook has stated that they would be willing to provide land for the daycare but have not established where that may be.

Government subsidy for daycare spots range from $626 for infants to $125 for school age children, paid monthly. These subsidies, combined with fees charged to parents would be the daycare’s income. Based on the costs of operation  and the subsidies,  parent board would have to determine what fees to charge for he service in order to cover their costs.

Meier stressed that each facility is different and that it is ultimately the parent boards’ decision how the daycare operates.

The board is still looking for a few more members as well as people who may be interested in helping out with fund raising.

The allocation is based on the 2012-13 provincial budget which provided $2 million to develop 500 new child care spaces across Saskatchewan, and an additional $4 million to cover the capital costs of those new spaces.

Or is it just the luck o’ the Irish?

A country with a population of just more than six million having four golfers with six major titles to their credit in the last six years is a mathematical and athletic anomaly. But with Padraig Harrington (three majors), Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke (one each),Irelanddefies golf gods’ logic.

So it would make sense for such a golf-dominant country to at least play host to a major championship one of these years, right? If things fall into place the way Wilma Erskine and others at Royal Portrush Golf Club on the north coast of Ireland are hoping, this summer’s Irish Open (June 28-July 1) will be a mere dress rehearsal for the Open Championship (known on this side of the Atlantic as the British Open) coming to Northern Ireland four or five years hence.

The Open has been held inNorthern Irelandonly once, 1951 at Portrush. Erskine, secretary manager at Royal Portrush, says the club has “a romantic dream of achieving our goal of playing host” to another Open, perhaps even becoming part of the Open Championship’s course rotation.

“The R and A will be looking at us carefully” when the club hosts the Irish Open this year, she said.

The Royal and Ancient (R and A), which runs the Open, uses a rota of nine courses — four inEngland; five inScotland. With the recent Irish success in the majors, public pressure in theUKhas been exerted to bring the Open west across theIrish Sea.

Erskine says if Royal Portrush is fortunate enough to be awarded an Open in the next few years, it will most certainly be ready. “We’ve done a complete renovation of the clubhouse, we have a new practice facility, including a short-game area, we’ve built eight new tees and we’ve lengthened the course to 7,143 yards (from 6,800),” said Erskine in a recent interview. Course irrigation has also been upgraded. “While others were saving (during the recent recession) we were spending,” she said.

This year’s Irish Open is guaranteed to be a huge hit, with all four Irish lads with major titles committed to competing, as well as other top names, such as reigning PGA champ Keegan Bradley, an American with strong Irish roots.

Watching, and almost guaranteed to be impressed, will be members of the R and A.

• Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “Hear about the latest Pro Bowl proposal, in which the NFL all-stars play the Cincinnati Bengals? They’d call it the Pro and Con Bowl.”

• CBS’s David Letterman, among his top 10 pieces of advice for today’s young athletes:

— “Don’t waste your money on fast cars and fast living . . . invest in tattoos.

— “Talk to friends, family and clergy about which Kardashian is right for you.”

• Greg Cote of the Miami Herald: “Six Cubs fans are walking 1,600 miles accompanied by a goat named Wrigley to help end the club’s 104-year curse. Yeah, I would think either that or better pitching would be the answer.”

• R.J Currie of sportsdeke.com:” TheU.S.town ofBoring(Ore.) just signed a sister-city agreement with the BritishvillageofDull. For good measure, they threw in the Chicago Cubs as a sister team.”

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, on Yankees closer Mariano Rivera blowing out his ACL shagging fly balls during batting practice: “If this is it for Rivera, it will be the worst ending to greatness since the final episode of ‘Seinfeld.’ “

• Cote again: “In summary, I would call the first month of the Marlins’ season a rousing success, other than the Muhammad Ali Opening Day calamity, the Fidel Castro crisis, the lack of hitting that sent the team spiraling to the NL East cellar, and the fact the new ballpark roof leaks and the outfield grass is dying.”

• R.J. Currie again: “Reuters reports a British man spent five years building a high-performance vehicle from scratch — despite being blind. So what’s Leafs GM Brian Burke’s excuse?”

• Headline at Sportspickle.com: “Classy Josh Hamilton dedicates 4 HRs to the memory of Albert Pujols.”

• Brad Dickson of theOmaha(Neb.) World-Herald, on the unlikely friendship of golfer Bubba Watson and singer Justin Bieber: “I’m not sure where Watson and Bieber met, but we can pretty much rule out a barber shop.”

• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: “When an NBA player gets fouled, or comes close to being fouled, he takes it like a man. Unfortunately, that man is Rudolph Valentino, superstar of silent movies whose dramatic overacting was necessary to compensate for the absence of dialogue.”

• Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com, on ESPN excitement when Tiger Woods makes the cut, guaranteeing his presence on the weekend: “Wow! So finishing is now a goal? Woods has gone from Jack Nicklaus to Danica Patrick.”

• Bumper sticker, as spotted by blogger Michael Higgins: “Always give 100%, except when donating blood.”

Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca

That is a loose description of the global economy these days as offered by Peter Hall of Canada`s Export Development Corporation. He provides a different angle on the doom and gloom we`re hearing these days in places likeEuropewhen governments are crumbling under massive debt.

While Hall acknowledges that government austerity – the flip side of the stimulus programs they enacted a couple years ago to prevent a recession – is resulting in the public sector withdrawing from the market. And that has a depressing effect.

But, he argues what we`re not seeing – the duck`s feet under the surface – is a better-than-expected improvement in private sector performance. As he puts it, the US government`s spending cuts will take a point or two off the nation`s GDP. But private sector growth is keeping it in positive territory…and without the government restraint, the American economy would be expanding by a respectable 4 or 5 per cent right now.

* * *

Saskatchewan`s hot residential market is trying to find a point of equilibrium.

Steady population growth and stronger income levels have been putting pressure on the housing market for the past five years and contractors have been struggling to find suppliers and land to keep up to that demand. One by-product of that growth spurt has been higher prices.

This is especially true inReginawhere onlyTorontohas been seeing sharper increases in the cost of constructing a new home. But, even in theQueenCity, though, it appears the toughest sledding may be over for both builders and buyers.

Earlier this week CMHC reportedReginais seeing a robust start to the year in terms of new construction and yesterday StatsCan added that the cost of building a new house remained flat inReginafrom February to March. That`s quite a change given that the year-over-year hike was nearly six per cent. This would suggest an easing in inflationary pressures at long last, which is good news for buyers.

 * * *

Saskatchewan`s manufacturing sector is on fire.

We`ve been hearing complaints from the heartland of this country that our manufacturing sector is unable to compete because Western Canada is so strong it is putting upward pressure on the Canadian dollar and making Canadian companies uncompetitive on the global stage.

Well if the latest figures on manufacturing are any indication, the folks in centralCanadaare barking up the wrong tree.

Yes,Ontariois down – sales in the sector were down about three per cent in February – and rose five per cent in the past year. But here inSaskatchewanthe story was dramatically different. Sales were up about three per cent in month and rose more than 20 per cent in the past year. That is the strongest growth rate in the country and suggests that we are not suffering from any competitive issues.

The big movers were steel fabricating and machinery – two areas of strength forSaskatchewanwhich is known for its agricultural machinery and equipment going into the resource sector.

Perhaps it’s the fact that the Saskatchewan Party _ notwithstanding some slippage this past legislative session on adding MLAs and a few other issues _ is still riding high under the charismatic leadership of Premier Brad Wall. And Wall’s success can be directly attributed to the success of the province’s oil-driven economy. Whatever the foibles of the Sask. Party government right now, there is little doubt that it’s free-enterprise philosophy is more in tune with what’s making the province work right now.

Whatever the case, it does seem like a lot longer than five years ago that former premier Lorne Calvert’s NDP ruled the province.

That said, it’s actually been even longer that Saskatchewan has had any federal representation from Saskatchewan _ an even more amazing reality when you consider that the NDP once dominated the federal scene in Saskatchewan nearly ass much as the provincial NDP dominated the Saskatchewan legislature.

Most of will recall growing up in a time when the majority of MPs Saskatchewan sent toOttawawere either CCF or NDP. In 1988, the province sent 10 of a possible 14 MPs toOttawafrom this province. The numbers did dwindle to less than half a dozen in the 1990s and early 2000s, but that was still a relatively health presence.

Then along came the distribution prior to the 2004 election in which there were no longer any pure city ridings _ something that greatly reduced NDP prospects. (Ironically, though, it was actually NDP MPs who most complained about representing rural ridings that were geographically too large.)

Nevertheless, since that 2004 election, the Saskatchewan NDP has been shut out in four consecutive federal elections now. One has to start to think that the issue goes beyond unfavourable electoral boundaries. And given the recent pronouncements of new federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, it’s rather evident the federal NDP is badly out-of-touch withSaskatchewan.

In an interview with CBC Radio recently, Mulcair expressed his distain for Western Canadian prosperity … or at least the way oil has created a high dollar that the NDP leader says is now responsible for destroying the manufacturing industry inEastern Canada.

“It’s by definition the ‘Dutch disease,’” Mulcair said in reference to the Netherlands economy of the 1960s that saw a North Sea natural gas push their currency higher and allegedly hurt that country’s manufacturing sector.

Mulcair went on to suggest that while an “artificially high dollar” might be “fine if you’re going to Walt Disney World” it’s “not so good if you want to sell your manufactured product because the American clients, most of the time, can no longer afford to buy it.”

Well, actually a high Canadian dollar tends to hurt the Western oil and gas sector or well. And then there’s the reality that much of the dollar issue is out of our control anyway because it’s driven byU.S.monetary policy that’s doing a better job of keeping their dollar artificially low.

But setting aside all this, plus the fact that eastern U.S. is manufacturing is struggling as badly as eastern Canadian manufacturing, what’s most irksome is how little respect or appreciate someone striving to be Prime Minister has for the West and its economy.

As Premier Brad Wall said on his Twitter account: “If Thomas Mulcair thinks a strong resource sector is a ‘disease,’ what is his ‘cure’? Higher resource taxes?”

The problem here isn’t just that the federal NDP doesn’t get the West. Given Mulcair’s view, it would seem the NDP has abandoned the West.

Is it any wonder thatSaskatchewanhasn’t elected an NDP MP in more than a decade?

Certainly, to hear some members of the media talk about its coming trek across the United Kingdom, you’d think Prometheus himself was about to deliver the gift of fire to humankind.

When the venerated Olympic flame arrived inVictoriafromAthens, back when we hosted the winter Olympics, CTV News opened with nothing less than an eight-minute story on it. Robertson and Lisa LaFlamme rhapsodized about “the everlasting flame” and the “12,000 torch bearers who will be carrying the message of peace and unity, symbolized by the Olympic flame.”

Everlasting flame? Peace and unity? The Olympic Torch is 73 years old. It dates to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler’s propaganda man Joseph Goebbels first struck on the idea of the Torch as the perfect symbol of Nazi vigour, purity, and classicism.

And the ancient Athenians—whose war culture was as pronounced as its intellectual achievements—made no use of any torch in their Olympiads.

(The Athenians did feature male athletes only, competing in the nude. Now that’s one tradition—picture nude men sailing off the end of the ski jump, or curlers sweeping their rocks into the house, or the hockey team without “athletic supporters”—that might boost tv ratings.)

But for some reason, Torch enthusiasts invest its lighting, in a parabolic sun oven by a bogus priestess inAthens, with quasi-sacred properties.

And so revered is the Olympic flame that great care is taken to ensure that, once lit, it’s not extinguished. To transport it fromAthens, a half dozen properly lit lanterns were buckled into a Canadian transport plane like so many votive candles.

When The Flame arrived inCanada, CTV newswoman Lisa LaFlamme gushed, “There’s something about that flame that has ignited an indefinable enthusiasm.” Perhaps its her very name, Lisa TheFlame, that lights her fire.

I have no problem with individuals who feel honoured in carrying the Torch. If doing so is highly meaningful for them, who could deny them? But the excessive reverence bestowed on the Torch and the lofty symbolism that’s attached to it generally amount to little more than jock-shlock and unabashed bathos.

If the Olympics really were characterized by idealistic amateurism and noble enterprise, the Torch would signify. But the Games have become as tarnished as they can be meritorious.

Consider the $9-million laboratory that was constructed for the 2010 Winter Olympics to test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs. Dr. Christiane Ayotte, director of the lab, referred to a technology arms race between cheaters and the authorities trying to keep up with the latest doping techniques. And she admitted the lab testing—for steroids, blood-doping agents, hormones or other substances—might not be able to catch all the cheaters.

“We cannot say pure sport, pure Games,’’ said Ayotte.

No, indeed. Prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a White House report charged that up to 80 percent of Olympians in some sports use performance-enhancing drugs. And the Torch is supposed to represent the uncorrupted virtues global sport is meant to bring together?

Equally tainting are the obscene cost-overruns of the Games, the outrageous security costs, the frequency of rigged judging and the well-documented corruption—see, for example, Andrew Jennings’ 2009 The New Lords of the Rings: Olympic Corruption and How to Buy Gold Medals.

Topping this mess was the announcement by the International Olympic Committee—now, happily, overturned—which declared that allowing women’s ski jumping would “dilute and water down” the significance of Olympic medals, because of the relatively small number of female ski jumpers worldwide.

So, the ski-and-target-shoot biathlon and four-men-hiding-in-a-torpedo bobsleigh events are deemed Games-worthy, but not ski jumping for women.

There’s as much flim-flam—or flame-flam, if you like—surrounding the Torch as there is idealism or grandeur. But it sure seems to work for thousands of people hungering for noble purpose and significance in this crooked world.

bronwyn.eyre@sasktel.net

The program once allowed residents to nominate several family members for immigration to the province. Changes to the family referral category reduce that number to one per household. Also changed, as of May 2, is that the applicant must have a post secondary education, training, a trade or an apprenticeship and have an offer of employment in a trade or occupation.

The Saskatchewan Government can currently nominate 4,000 for immigration but are lobbying the Federal government for an increase to 6,000, about a quarter of that number is dedicated to the family referral category.

The cold, hard reality here is that people moving toCanadafrom other countries need to bring something to the table other than a desire to live in a country other than the one they are from.

In moving toSaskatchewan, they will be eligible for the whole gamut of social safety nets, from medicare to social assistance, if they find themselves in some difficulty. Under the old rules, there is the possibility that those sponsored under the program could be lacking in marketable skills and ultimately become a burden to the system. Now family members must have a high skill job offer to be eligible.

This may be the only failing of the legislative changes as it could be difficult for potential immigrants to find these offers of employment while still abroad. Some way of matching desired skill sets jobs should be something that the government should put in place to make this process work more smoothly.

These changes may be disconcerting to some who have been trying to bring their loved ones over toCanadaand have now had the rug yanked out from under them but rules need to be in place to ensure that the province and the country are not taken advantage of.

Coming from anywhere else in the world, who wouldn’t want to live inCanada. Though we have cold winters we also have social policy in place so that nobody is really left out in the cold.

This is not a diatribe against immigration or immigrants themselves — this is a nation built, for the most part, by people who have origins somewhere else. This country has employment needs that are not currently being met by current residents, so an influx of new comers could help meet those needs.

With every system put into place, there are always those looking for ways to exploit it. Perhaps some may look toCanadato provide a better life for them and their families but really don’t have the skills to find meaningful employment.

These changes will help ensure that newcomers will be employable and can contribute upon their arrival and will help shield the country from those looking for a free ride.

It’s one which has been a theme in this space before, and for the most part something farmers are aware of, even if the need to achieve some level of profitability makes it hard to see from the side of the road.

Farmers have determined profits only come from productive acres, and so bluffs and sloughs which are idle in terms of production are often the target of the dozer blade and plow.

Even hedgerows and shelter-belts planted by an earlier generation to slow winds are being torn out because their usefulness has become somewhat obsolete.

A shelter-belt had two primary purposes when planted. One it slowed wind and thus lessened the impact of soil erosion on a field, and two it often acted as a snow-fence to help protect grid roads from winter drifting.

Erosion is less of an issue now since farmers have almost all converted to at least minimum tillage systems, and most employ zero-tillage which leaves sufficient trash cover to deal with wind.

Roads are built higher, and grading equipment much better today than a half century ago, so the need to have snow-fence is gone too.

So farmers have knocked down a lot of trees and drained a lot of wetlands in recent years and while it is understandable from an economics point of view, it remains unfortunate.

Nature is something which is amazing when you take the time to just sit back and enjoy what it has to offer.

Often in our busy world, jobs seem to demand our attention almost constantly, as do families, and volunteer efforts.

Our cell phones and laptops seem to be a tether to an electronic world too.

So connecting to nature is sometimes something which gets lost in the hustle and bustle which swirls around us.

In my case I have been lucky the last couple of weeks, having a few days off, I made good use of them taking the opportunity to get in some fishing.

The first jaunt was the Cutarm Creek south of Churchbridge.

The fishing spot is great, and not just because of the hungry perch.

You can’t go wrong on a warm May evening watching ducks landing and taking off from the water, or hearing a pair of Canada geese as they fly low overhead, or see a muskrat out for a swim, or a whitetail in the grass. Such sights have a way of making you realize Twitter and Facebook and the World Wide Web are not everything, that we don’t have to watch National Hockey League playoffs in May, and that we really are not indentured to our jobs.

It was more of the same Mother’s Day at the Canora Dam. I saw more fish jump, even if they were mostly suckers, than I ever have before, and I am now 52. It is a day I will never forget, as the water swirled in a foamy torrent, and the fish jumped, and oh yes I limited out on pike and pickerel which helped too.

But the full stringer notwithstanding, a day close to nature beats a lot of things we do in our lives and we all — farmers and non-farmers — need to do what we can to sustain what is an ever dwindling natural world, if we want our grandchildren and generations beyond that to experience the joy of a simple day with nature.