The Rural Voice, 1995-05, Page 71RAINY RIVER
Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
R.R. 1, Devlin, Ontario POW 1C0
807-486-3622
The Rural Voice is provided to Rainy
River Federation members by the RRFA.
April 10, 1995
Two weeks ago, weighing heifers at
Cornell's Heifer Station, we found the
trails to be soft and very Spring-like;
last week we weighed calves at
Radbourne's and Hunsperger's in a
blizzard, standing on frozen turf. This
week, we're still shivering after
coming in from checking the calving
situation. It sure is great for spreading
the fertilizer; you can't get stuck!
The April 6 RRFA meeting had a
good attendance, with Linda
Armstrong, Joyce Witherspoon,
Tammy Hunsperger, Kim Desserre,
Shirley Morrish, Jack Vandenbrand,
Gordon Hoskins, Stan Armstrong, and
guests Derek Emond, Wilma
Sloetmoen and Dennis Brunn. Derek,
in his charming "cow" tie, gave the
latest membership stats, update on the
OFA happenings and hand-outs.
There are 352 farms in the Rainy River
District. This guy is a walking pack-
age of information. We also found out
that there is no legal tie between OFA
and RRFA. It was decided that Linda
and Derek would attend the Seed Fair
at Barwick on Friday, April 7, where
the local individuals could meet with
him. On Saturday, April 8, Joyce will
travel the countryside with Derek in
the morning and Tammy will take him
around in the afternoon to talk to lost
or prospective members.
October 21 has been booked at the
new Emo Legion for the Fall Dinner
and Dance. This is the 20th year cele-
bration, so if anyone has any glorify-
ing ideas, contact your local directors.
Kim is asking for volunteer help
with the curtain sewing, for the Farm
Progress Building. Everything is
ready to go. She also reported that the
Logo is now an official trademark.
Wilma Sloetmoen and Dennis
Brunn spoke on behalf of the school
board concerning the multi -use facility
to be built on the existing WestFort
High School. We were actually the
first group to view the drawings and
final plans. There is 38,000 sq. ft. of
floor space to accommodate the 1,100
students across the district. Decision
to build began in 1988. It is to be
completed by 1998, hopefully, by the
month of December.
Mike Zimmerman, Peter VanHeyst
and Rudy Sinninghe attended the dairy
meeting in Sudbury. Mike's report
will come at next month's meeting.
On Saturday, April 8, Purity Seeds
in Emo had Open House from 9:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Larry Lamb is the
owner. He sells forage seeds and
cereal grains and has expanded to sell
field chemicals that meet government
regulations. His plant is located five
km. south of Emo on Highway 602.
It's mating season for the Monarch
butterflies in Mexico, now. After
mating, most of the males die off; the
females then leave for the 5,000 km.
flight north to Canada. I'll leave that
with you to think about.
About 75 people attended the
RRFA annual Spring Dinner and
Dance on March 25. OPP Officer
Greg Brown was the guest speaker.
He touched on a number of farm -
related topics with a question and
answer period afterwards. Don Belluz,
the OFA director for this region, was
also at the meeting. He travels
monthly to Toronto to take concerns of
the members back to the OFA direct-
ors. He stated that OFA is the largest
volunteer membership in Ontario with
around 40,000 members. OFA is
working to get the message out that
Canadians enjoy one of the most
economical countries to eat in. OFA is
lobbying on a large number of issues
such as firearms legislation, abandoned
railways, crop insurance, and training
are only a few of the OFA concerns.
Don and Linda both urged members to
fill out the survey letter sent in the
mail recently. You have to let OFA
know what you want them to work on.
The RRFA annually honours an
individual for volunteer service in the
past year. The Bill Gibson award is
presented in Bill's name because of his
dedication and volunteer work before
his passing a few years ago. This year
the honour went to Ken McKinnon,
president of the Fair board. He has
given countless hours engineering the
new Grandstand project, spent time
with the Rainy River/Baudette border -
crossing issue and is involved with the
new RR District Feeder Co-operative,
to name only a few of his accomplish-
ments. Ken was presented with the
award by RRFA president, Linda
Armstrong.
The Clover Valley Farmers' Market
is opening for the season on May 6.
There will be two Easter sales as well.
One is this Thursday, April 13 from
3:00 to 9:00 p.m., the other is Easter
Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Manager, Deb Cornell -Darby said that
anyone interested in renting space for
the season or even the occasional
Saturday may contact her at 486-3409.
Rainy River Community Pasture is
accepting applications for a manager
up until April 18 at 4:00 p.m. at
OMAFRA. They are also accepting
applications for stocker steers, stocker
heifers, breeding cows and heifers and
private breeding groups for the grazing
season from May 21 - Oct. 1, 1995.
Spring Fever Days in Emo will take
place Friday, April 21 and Saturday,
April 22. Don't forget the big fish -fry
at the Legion.
"Learn from the mistakes of others
— you can never live long enough to
make them all yourself."
A number of area schools are
setting eggs in incubators this spring.
There are also classes booked for on-
farm visits.
"A little boy wanted $100 very
badly and his mother told him to pray
to God for it. He prayed and prayed
for two weeks, but nothing turned up.
Then, he decided perhaps he should
write God a letter requesting the $100.
When the postal authorities received
the letter addressed to God, they
opened it and decided to send it to the
Prime Minister. He was so impressed,
touched and amused, he instructed his
secretary to send the little boy a
cheque for $5. He thought this would
appear to be a lot of money to a little
boy. The little boy was delighted with
the $5 and sat down to write a thank -
you letter to God which ran as follows:
Dear God: Thank you very much for
sending me the money. I noticed that
you had to send it through Ottawa. As
usual they deducted $95."0
Shirley Morrish
MAY 1995 67