PDF Version - Western Financial Group

Transcription

INSIDE:
MANITOBA CATFISH s VILLAGE RAILWAY s POLAR BEARS s SLOW BBQ
West
Weste
Financ
Group
...because we live here.
WESTERN CANADA'S MAGAZINE s SUMMER 2013
PLUS:
Cruising on a BC
coastal freighter,
Farmers’ markets,
Outdoors artists,
and More
BACK TO THE
PAST
BROOKS MEDIEVAL FAIRE
y
a
s
r .ca
ougazine
y
e a
v m
Haisit west
v
TRAVEL is
the only thing
you purchase
that makes you
RICHER
Book Your Vacation NOW and SAVE
Earn AIR MILES Reward Miles and turn your AIR MILES into Marlin Travel gift certificates
allowing YOU to SAVE up to $400 per person. Early Booking Bonuses will apply.
You could WIN $500 off*
your next vacation package!
Book your vacation between August 1- November 30, 2013 and be entered
to WIN 1 of 4 prizes of $500 OFF* your next vacation package.
*One prize of $500 to be given away by random draw at each of the 4 locations listed below
Minimum package price of $500.00 per person (excluding tax)
Marlin Travel Okotoks
333 201 Southridge Dr
Okotoks, AB
1-888-887-8108
403-938-5544
Marlin Travel Strathmore
105B 100 Ranch Market
Strathmore, AB
1-866-934-2999
403-934-2400
Marlin Travel Brooks
315B - 2nd Street W
Brooks, AB
1-888-505-5356
403-362-4011
Marlin Travel Drumheller
300 South Railway Ave E
Drumheller, AB
1-800-263-0017
403-823-8747
†Base reward mile offer is 1/$35 on vacation packages, cruise fares and charter flights. Not applicable on scheduled airline or rail tickets, hotel and car reservations
paid locally, taxes, service fees, non-commissionable items, foreign exchange and insurance. Other conditions may apply. ®TM Trademarks of AIR MILES International Trading B.V. Used
under license by LoyaltyOne, Inc, and Transat Distribution Canada Inc. Marlin Travel is a division of Transat Distribution Canada Inc. ON Reg. #50015084, BC Reg. #23567.
Head Office: 191 The West Mall, Suite 700, Etobicoke, ON M9C 5K8.
West
Western Canada's Magazine
•
Summer 2013
Features
16 Cruising on a working boat
Laurie Carter thought it might be fun to see the BC coast from the deck
of a small freighter. Her report from out of the way spots on the coast will
probably cause a sudden rush of passenger reservations.
20 Painting northern Saskatchewan
We usually hear from Miriam Körner in winter. This time, it’s glorious summer
and Miriam is out in her backyard, the world’s largest, with an old friend who’s
teaching her how to really see nature.
24 Farmers’ markets make a comeback
Believe it or not, just a few years ago there weren’t a lot of farmers’ markets in
Western Canada. Now they’re all over the place. Judy Waytiuk visits a few and
finds great buys and fascinating characters.
28 Manitoba’s ugly fish
Inspired by US TV show Hillbilly Handfishin’, which is exactly what it sounds
like, Bruce Masterman heads home to Manitoba to catch channel catfish and
returns to Alberta as a Master Angler.
32 The good old, really old, days
16
20
For two days every year, Brooks, Alberta, normally an energy and agriculture
centre, becomes something else – a medieval town complete with lords,
ladies, and jousting. Victoria Chatham reports.
38 The unlikely Southern Prairie Railway
9
Bill Armstrong reports that, like a lot of Saskatchewan small towns, Ogema
got creative in attracting tourists. They started with restoring the old railroad
station then thought “Hey, why not a train?”
Departments
6
Letters to the editor
9
Roundup
38
Manitobans as generous as ever … How clear is your lake’s water?
… Rattler at the rodeo … Manitoba’s polar bears … Saskatchewan in
jewelry … Disappearing hot springs … The ultimate small town history …
Real Mexican food in a small town … Blake Berglund on the farm … plus
Short shorts.
43 Health Matters
Nurse Angela Morrison looks into the perils of Lyme Disease, now a
problem in Western Canada.
49
44 Terroir & Simple and Delicious
Cinda Chavich on BC’s extraordinarily delicious Dungeness crab. Then
she walks us though the process of smoking – slow barbecuing –
large cuts of meat. Also extraordinarily delicious.
48 Backgrounder
What’s up with all the Medieval Fairs? … How to find a farmers’ market …
Ogema was supposed to be Omega, but …
On the Cover:
Alison Mercer, historian at the
Military Museums in Calgary and
jouster at Brooks Medieval Faire.
Photo by Bryce Meyer.
50 Editor raves
He’s worried about pronouns of all things.
West  3
West
A Full Line of
Products to
Ease Your
Peace of Mind
As one of the largest property
and casualty insurers in Canada,
Wawanesa Insurance has the
breadth of products to meet your
diverse and ever-changing needs.
With our outstanding claims
service, policyholders become
customers for life.
Contact your local Western
Financial Group Insurance Broker
for more information about
Wawanesa Insurance products.
Weste
Financ
Group
Published by Western Financial Group
1010 – 24th Street SE, High River, AB T1V 2A7
All rights reserved.
To inquire about reprinting articles,
excerpts or photographs, please email
[email protected]
Send Letters to the Editor to above address or
email [email protected]
PUBLISHER: Scott Tannas
EDITOR: Mike McCormick
General Manager: Bruce Masterman
CONTRIBUTORS: AP Photo/George Frey, Bill Armstrong,
Laurie Carter, Victoria Chatham, Cinda Chavich,
Deep South Pioneer Museum, Christalee Froese,
Jason Grover, Mike Kerr, Miriam Korner, Deborah Lawson,
Manitoba Tourism, Bruce Masterman, Angela Morrison,
Bryce Meyer, Diane Selkirk, Southern Prairie Railway,
Mike Sturk, Thinkstock, Tourism British Columbia,
Judy Waytiuk, Shel Zolkewich
Publications mail agreement No. 40030911
Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to:
RedPoint Media & Marketing Solutions
100, 1900 - 11th Street SE
Calgary, Alberta T2G 3G2
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscriptions in Canada: $12.00 plus GST for one year,
$22.00 plus GST for two years. Payment may be made
by cheque, money order, Visa or MasterCard to:
RedPoint Media Group Inc.
If you are receiving this magazine “Compliments of
Western Financial Group” and would like to write to West,
please contact: [email protected]
All other subscription inquiries please contact:
Phone: 1-877-963-9333 ext. 262
E-mail: [email protected]
rsr
Produced by:
RedPoint Media & Marketing Solutions
100, 1900 – 11th Street SE
Calgary, AB T2G 3G2
www.wawanesa.com
Auto – Home – Business – Farm – Life and Group
4  West . ISSUE 29 . Summer 2013
PRESIDENT: Pete Graves
Head of operations/CREATIVE: Anders Knudsen
Senior account Manager: Pritha Kalar
Senior project manager: Kelly Trinh
ART DIRECTOR: David Willicome
Sales MANAGER: Darrell Ittermann
Account executives:
Jocelyn Erhardt, Lindy Neustaedter
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Mike Matovich
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Jamie Buechler
Sales Traffic Coordinator: Andrea Hendry
PRINTING: Transcontinental LGM
Circulation & Distribution Manager: Rob Kelly
Welcome
Welcome
back to West
This is our 29th issue.
A
re you familiar
with the term “Old
School”? It seems
that we hear it a lot
lately. It’s not the same as old,
but it’s related. Old School
refers to a way of doing things
that was a lot more common
in years past.
Oddly enough, it’s a fairly
new concept. For most of
human history it took decades
for anything to change and,
occasionally, a century or two
would go by with nothing
changing at all. Now, with
major changes every few
months, we probably needed a
new term to describe something slightly out of date that’s
still in use by a lot of different
people, young or old. Converse sneakers is one example.
Another might be cruising
the BC coast in a freight ship
instead of a luxury liner, as
Laurie Carter did for her story
in this issue.
You may have noticed that
Old School can pop up in just
about any aspect of our lives.
Driving a stick shift even in
a brand new car is Old School.
So are reading a printed book
(or a printed magazine like
West), cooking a meal from
scratch, mailing a letter, having
a fireplace that burns wood
instead of gas.
Most elements of Old
School are neither good nor
bad though that might depend
on your perspective. For instance, a friend told me about
seeing some kids playing pond
hockey in February. Apparently the same kids were playing
touch football in an empty
field last fall. Both scenes were
once common in Western
Canada but now they’re Old
School. In neither case were
the kids supervised by adults
and they were having a lot of
fun. Only one of the hockey
players was wearing a helmet
and any of the football players
could have tripped over a
furrow. So playing an informal
game outside and unsupervised is potentially dangerous.
Thirty years ago, it would have
been entirely unremarkable
but it’s Old School now.
Even some businesses are
starting to add an Old School
element to how they handle
customer service. A great
many people are quite happy
contacting companies via the
Internet or a toll-free telephone call. The Old School
way is in person. Western
Financial Group does it every
way you can think of and you
choose whatever’s convenient.
You could even email to tell us
you’ll be dropping in.
All the best,
Scott Tannas
President and CEO
Western Financial Group
West  5
Letters
Dear Editor,
We love the magazine as it has great stories
and information. Thanks to Cinda Chavich’s
article (Terroir, Spring 2013) we found out what
tree we have in the backyard and will try to get
more fruit from it. It is a sea-buckthorn, quite a
nice looking tree.
Tom Feist
Trochu, Alta.
Thanks for writing and glad Cinda’s Terroir
helped. Being from Trochu with its wonderful
arboretum, you would certainly know a nice
looking tree when you see one. Ed.
INSIDE:
BIG OLD TREES s FEARLESS FALCON FIXER s WORLD’S BEST BEAGLES
West
WESTERN CANADA'S MAGAZINE s SPRING 2013
GIVING
POSTAGE
ITS DUE
PLUS:
Hello,
Just wanted to let you know that I like your West
magazine. I am a fourth generation Calgarian and
I am developing a real deep love for my city and
country. Your magazine exemplifies the beautiful
place we live.
I loved the article about the stamps and looking for a way to access these beautiful works of
art. I would like to enlarge some of them to frame
and hang in my home. Or is there possibly a site
where you could purchase them as a poster for
hanging? I look forward to hearing from you and
thanks in advance.
Leslie Barrell
Calgary, Alta.
We wondered the same thing, so our Bruce Masterman got in touch with Canada Post. Here’s
the response:
Bruce, the issue is gorgeous — we so appreciate
the coverage. As for the reader’s question. The
old stamps aren’t on the premises. They live at
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and we need
to approve usage of every stamp. We give permission to publishers, filmmakers, organizations
relevant to the stamps, etc., and the requester
has to pay a fee to get a file copy. But we (and
LAC) simply aren’t set up to approve requests
from individuals. There are also copyright concerns if they happen to sell the print down the
road or quite innocently make a few to put on
eBay — that kind of thing.
The good news is that we sell framed prints of
our more recent stamps. And if they aren’t in your
local post office, you can order them online at
http://www.canadapost.ca/shop/gifts-art/framedprints.jsf . We produce some new frames almost
every quarter, so they should check back often
East Kootenay outings,
Perils of sugar, Hidden
art of YVR
“International Agreement on Humane Trapping
Western
Financial Standards”. (www.canadainternational.gc.ca)
Group
y
r sa .ca
you azine
ve ag
Haisit westm
v
— the next quarter has some real beauties. Hope
that helps.
Again, thanks for sending me the new issue.
I’m thrilled to see it and Deborah Lawson was a
delight, full of well thought out questions — and
really doing her research. I’m glad we had the
chance to work together.
Joy Parks
Officer of Research
and New Business Development
Canada Post
Dear West,
In a letter to West (Spring, 2013), a reader from
Kelowna, BC expressed her disappointment with
the article on “The Thompson Fur Table — A
Tradition of Trapping.” I am writing to clarify a few
inaccuracies.
First is the claim that “animals caught in traps
suffer immensely while waiting for the trapper to
come and kill them.” Trappers must check their
traps daily, as stated in our province’s trapping
regulations. Not only is this the ethical thing to
do, but predators will make short work of any
animal carcass found in a trap if it is not promptly
picked up.
Second is that your reader clearly lacks knowledge of any modern, humane traps or trapping
standards. The new generation of “body grip
traps” (e.g. Conibear design) does not hold any
animal by the foot, paw, or leg. Leghold traps
are banned in Canada unless used in a drowning
set (for beaver). Canada was instrumental in the
research and development of the new generation
of humane traps, and completely supports the
Third is the lack of awareness of the role of trapping in modern wildlife management. Trappers are
often called upon in rural areas to harvest nuisance
beavers, which cause millions of dollars of damage
to highways, railbeds, bridges, agricultural land,
and other infrastructure. They also control problem
predators such as coyotes, wolves, and bears in
rural Canada, especially in the western provinces. Trapping controls animal populations that left
unchecked can easily become overpopulated and
then, inevitably, they become controlled by Nature’s Laws, such as starvation, disease (rabies) or
sarcoptic mange.
Wildlife is a renewable resource. Modern
trapping seasons and regulations do not endanger
any furbearer. It is habitat loss which leads to most
declining populations of furbearing animals. The
trappers I have known over my career have the
utmost respect for the land and the bounty it produces, and are keenly aware of the wildlife found
in their registered traplines. They are frequently
the “eyes and ears” out on the land, and work
closely with wildlife biologists, foresters, and other
resource managers. Regional Furbearer Councils,
run by trappers on a volunteer basis, would be the
first to recognize falling numbers, and take steps to
respond to the situation.
It would be great if more Canadians could visit a
remote northern or First Nations community to see
first hand how important those few extra dollars
from the trapline really are. Then they would
understand the smile on the face of the young boy
during his visit to the Thompson Fur Table.
A big “Thank You” to West magazine for providing a forum for Canadians to inform and educate
others on sometimes controversial issues. Keep up
the good work!
Bob Austman
Education Coordinator
Manitoba Model Forest
Pine Falls, Manitoba
Dear Mr. Austman,
Thanks for an interesting letter filled with info. Ed.
WEST is always delighted to hear from
readers. Please write: West Letters,
Western Financial Group, 1010 – 24th
Street SE, High River, AB T1V 2A7 or e-mail
[email protected]
50 oFF
%
ursday or
monday – tH
ple
0137
0141
tickets
online
day. Save 42 % .
2013 operating
Valid on any one
print at home,
of
se
Ea
4 + GS T.
4 tickets for $8
der online at
Or
s!
ion line-up
beat the admiss
th any other
wi
rk.com. Not valid
ww w.calawaypa
rate, or after
up
gro
or
ily
fam
dis count, offer,
2pm rate.
e only!
cHase onlin
pur
save
42
%
rk and
Calaway RV Pa
1 night stay at
Park for
ay
law
Ca
to
4 one-day passes
Campground and
– May 19, 2013.
17
y
Ma
:
ds
en
ek
We
$109 + GS T. Open
2013. Limit 1 per
24 – September 2,
Open Daily: May
Not valid during
ly.
on
ht
for firs t nig
reservation. Valid
No cash value.
).
13
20
e (July 5 – 14,
Calgary Stamped
or information,
s
on
ity. For reservati
.
Subject to availabil
40
ll 3-249 -7372
ypark .com or ca
visit ww w.calawa
.
13
20
2,
er
Septemb
Coupon valid until
or Includes
✃
rides,
ludes unlimited
ursday only. Inc
in our 2013
y
da
Valid Monday – Th
1
for
ng
ns and parki
value.
shows, attractio
people. No cash
. 50 % off up to 4
group
or
ily
fam
operating season
er,
off
y other discount,
an
sent
th
Pre
wi
T.
lid
GS
va
t
+
No
to $71
m rate. Value up
sale or trade.
for
t
rate, or after 2p
No
s.
sk
kio
r admission
0141,
this coupon at ou
2013 . PL U Reg
til September 2,
Coupon valid un
0143
Jr 0142, and 50 +
peo
For up to 4
rv Having
F u n y et?
count
playcation dis
✃
133
y
l
i
m
a
F
r
you
!
n
o
i
t
a
n
i
t
s
e
d
n
o
i
t
a
c
y
pla
ne only!
reserve onli
save
42
%
For general park inFormation, reservations and discount tickets visit
www.calawaypark.com
West  7
“A lot of thought went into finding the perfect first house,
...that’s why we insure our home through Western Financial Group.”
tern Financial Group-Wes
To get a quick quote visit or call:
HOME
INSURANCE
-B
-
westernfinancialgroup.ca • 1-800-THE WEST
est Service Guarantee
Auto
|
Home |
helping our communities with all their insurance needs
Business
Breathe
easy.
|
Farm
|
Life
|
Travel
|
Pet
| Financial Services
Take with you:
• $10,000,000 Emergency Medical
• $150,000 Coverage – for unstable
pre-existing medical conditions
• 10% Annual Renewal Discount
• 5% Companion Discount
• And more*!
Call: 1-866-890-1960
Click: www.westernfinancialgroup.ca
Visit: your local Western Financial Group office
TravelMate
®
Tra v e l I n s u ra n c e
*The language in this document may not be the same as the actual policy wording which will prevail in all
instances and is available upon request. Certain exclusions, limitations and conditions may apply. TravelMate
is a registered trademark of and is administered by North American Air Travel Insurance Agents Ltd., d.b.a.
Travel Underwriters, a licensed insurance broker. 11th Floor–6081 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC Canada V6Y 2B2.
Insurance is underwritten by Industrial Alliance Pacific Insurance and Financial Services Inc. and certain Lloyd’s
Underwriters, severally and not jointly.
ROUNDUP
The man
from Moose
Mountain
Courtesy of Blake Berglund, photo by Jason Grover
I
t’s no surprise that Blake
Berglund’s new album will be
called “Ranch Colts”.
Berglund, the 2011 Rising
Star at Saskatchewan’s Country
Music Awards, is all about the
family ranch that shaped his life and
his lyrics. He grew up in the hilly
terrain near Kennedy in southeast
Saskatchewan.
His country/alternative sound on
tunes like Where have all my horses
gone, Love is like a rodeo and Get
off the table, Mabel have made
him a hit throughout the prairies
and helped prove that there is an
audience for down-to-earth ballads
and rural-based lyrics.
“Being raised on a farm has kept
my music real and has allowed me
to create a very authentic sound
and style,” said the 29-year-old
touring musician, who returns home
between gigs to feed cattle and
ride horses.
“I love getting up at 5 a.m. and
getting on the tractor. With all of
the hustle and bustle of life on the
road, going around and around for
15 hours a day is my escape, my
meditation.”
To listen to Blake Berglund’s music and see a list of upcoming shows,
visit www.blakeberglund.com W
West  9
Photo by Deborah Lawson
ROUNDUP
The simpler the better
L
eonardo da Vinci
pretty well nailed it
when he said “Simplicity is the ultimate
sophistication.”
Consider, for example,
the 1865 invention of Jesuit
priest and astronomer Pietro
Angelo Secchi. His simple
device to measure water
transparency in lakes and
oceans is still very much in
use around the world.
In Alberta, volunteers
have been using the 20 cm
diameter (8”) version of the
Secchi disk to measure water
transparency in the province’s lakes. (Ocean disks are
about twice the size.)
The concept is simple
but you really have to pay
attention. The weighted disk
is attached to a measurement-marked rope or surveyor’s tape and lowered into
the water until its black and
white quadrant markings are
no longer visible. The depth
at which the disk seems to
disappear, the Secchi depth,
is a measure of water transparency. Simple, right?
A volunteer group associated with the Alberta Lake
Management Society and
formed by retired electronic
engineer Philip Sutton, has
been using Secchi disks to
conduct a province-wide
survey, beginning with the
nine Central Alberta Recreational Lakes (CARLs). For
information about volunteering, contact Philip Sutton at
780-450-1277. You can see a
virtual Secchi disk demo at
www.mainelakedata.org/recertify/index.php. W
Photo courtesy of Tourism British Columbia, photo by Russ Heinl
The Shaken Springs of Haida Gwaii
At first most folks thought the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Haida
Gwaii and BC’s northern coast last October did little more than generate
a tsunami scare.
Despite the size of the powerful earthquake, Canada’s second strongest ever, there were no injuries and only limited damage.
But then people noticed that Hot Spring Island, known locally as
Gandll K'in Gwaay, had lost its hot springs. The usually steaming pools
were empty and the rocks were cool to the touch.
Apparently this had happened before and, according to Haida mythology and oral history, the springs should return. By April, there was some
thermal activity but no water in the pools. Not yet, anyway.
The Geological Survey of Canada is now trying to determine whether
the loss of the 26 hot springs and seeps which produce water ranging
from 32 to 77 degrees Celsius is permanent. We sure hope not. W
Those
Manitobans
are at it again
Last December, Tim Hortons
launched a promotion called
Random Cups of Kindness in
which customers selected at
random got their orders for free.
Nice idea, but drive-through
customers at the chain’s Beaverhill Boulevard store in Winnipeg
took it to a whole new level.
It started when one customer
paid for the driver next in line.
That actually happens with
some regularity in Winnipeg
but this time it went on for 228
orders, one after the other, over
three hours!
Nobody in Manitoba was
really surprised. For 14 years in a
row, it has been Canada’s most
generous province, according
to Vancouver’s Fraser Institute:
highest percentage of donors
to charity and highest average
percentage of annual income
donated.
Michelle Robichaud, manager
of public relations for Tim’s, said
“It was incredibly heartwarming;
it was an avalanche of kindness
that our team members at Tim
Hortons will never forget.” W
Your guide to exploring
exciting tourist attractions in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
A T T R A C T I O N S
A E R O S PA C E M U S E U M
C A L A W AY PA R K
C A L G A R Y S TA M P E D E
CALGARY TOWER
CALGARY ZOO
C A N A D A’ S S P O R T S H A L L O F FA M E
FORT CALGARY
GLENBOW MUSEUM
H E R I TA G E PA R K H I S T O R I C A L V I L L A G E
N AT I O N A L M U S I C C E N T R E
T E L U S S PA R K
T H E M I L I TA R Y M U S E U M S
W I N S P O R T ’ S C A N A D A O LY M P I C P A R K
Valuable coupons at calgaryattractions.com
West  11
Photo by Mike Sturk
ROUNDUP
Unrattled
rodeo dudes
L
ast August's 47th
annual Writing On
Stone Rodeo was
about to begin when
a big prairie rattlesnake
started slithering across
the dirt infield toward the
bleachers. The announcer
yelled “Get your cameras out
folks ...” but most of the folks
just scattered.
Perhaps the snake was disturbed from its territory by
the rodeo stock on the other
side of the infield or maybe it
was just out hunting. What
mattered was that it settled
under the bleachers. After a
few minutes, rodeo officials
located the unwanted visitor
and one of them, Deane
Don't try this at home.
Hughson of Foremost, Alta.,
grabbed the snake by its tail,
making sure he kept the
fangs at arm’s length. A cowboy offered a metal garbage
can as a temporary cage until
the rattler was released in the
nearby hills. The whole thing
looked so routine, you’d
swear it happened every day.
The two-day rodeo is held
every August in a beautiful
southern Alberta setting
about 40 kilometres east of
Milk River, not far from the
US border and Writing On
Stone Provincial Park. Well
worth a visit. W
More grasshoppers, please
Photo by Christalee Froese
They’re surprisingly delicious. The fact that they’re even here in tiny
Verbank, Sask. is surprising.
“Most people order (grasshoppers) as a dare, but when they come back,
it’s one of the first things they ask for,” says Kevin Zimmerman who opened
The Grotto Coffee House & Eatery with his wife, Cecilia, in 2007.
The traditional Mexican cuisine comes from the soul of Cecilia Zimmerman, a Mexican journalist. She and Kevin met at the University of Oaxaca
(wa-hah-keh). Three years later they married and moved to Kevin’s home
town in 1993.
“I missed my homemade tortillas so I started making them and I cried and
cried because I couldn’t make them,” said Cecelia. The ingredients were not
like those found in Mexico. This propelled Cecilia on a multi-year quest to
villages in Mexico to learn their authentic cooking traditions.
In 2007, after having two children and mastering Oaxacan cooking, Cecilia knew it was time to share her passion with a wider audience.
Kevin says that Cecilia’s passion resulted in a long wait for a table at The
Grotto. Best to reserve three or four months in advance. Then hop on over. W
When it comes to claims service,
we’ve got you covered.
At Aviva, we promise to deliver great service at every step of your insurance
claim. And we back that promise with the Claims Service Satisfaction Guarantee*.
That means if you’re not happy with our claims service, and we can’t resolve it,
we’ll give you a cheque for the amount of your current premium. That’s right.
All of it.
To find out about all our insurance solutions, and our claims guarantee, speak to
your Western Financial Group broker.
avivacanada.com
Home | Auto | Leisure & Lifestyle | Business
Aviva and the Aviva logo are trademarks of Aviva plc and used under license by Aviva Canada Inc. and its subsidiary companies.
*Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.avivacanada.com/claimsguarantee for details.
West  13
ROUNDUP
Not your
typical smalltown history
book
T
he three-volume,
1,500-page combined histories of the
Saskatchewan towns
of Montmartre, Kendal, Candiac, Moffat, Mutrie and the
Carry the Kettle Reservation
were recently released after
more than four years and
50,000 volunteer hours.
Yes, there are family writeups and the classic community snapshots, but the scope
and scale of this project has
made it one of a kind, “ …
almost like an encyclopedia,”
said Frank Korvemaker, an
appraisal archivist with the
Saskatchewan Archives Board.
Montmartre: History of the
Village and RM 126 begins
with French settlers who
came to Saskatchewan believing they were coming to a
scenic land where log cabins,
food provisions, livestock
and farm equipment would
be provided. “No log houses
awaited them; no trees broke
the rolling grassland seen
below them from the hills;
there was no river in sight.
They spent their first night
under the stars being eaten by
mosquitoes …”
“We hope,” said Marrianne Couckuyt, chair of the
Montmartre History Book
Committee, “that when
people read the book they
have a sense of pride in all
the things people endured
and all the things that were
accomplished.”
For more information, contact the Village of Montmartre
office at 306-424-2040 or Sandra Brown at 306-424-2622. W
Jewelry that looks like Saskatchewan
Jolene Dusyk of Montmartre, Saskatchewan makes jewelry,
and most of it actually feels like Saskatchewan.
For instance, the scratches, dents and bumps on thumb-nail-sized pieces of metal come from barbed-wire fences, Saskatchewan snowstorms
and birch bark.
Then she created Saskatchewan-shaped pendants. She calls them
Sask Tags. “I just love Saskatchewan and I do see actual fields and fences
when I’m working with the silver and copper,” said Dusyk.
“When I made the Sask Tags I was so excited because we have so
much going on in Saskatchewan right now and this was my way to celebrate that.”
Dusyk began experimenting with orange, red and black glass to create
a design resembling Saskatchewan’s provincial flower, the western red
lily. She says customers love that they can wear a little bit of prairie pride
in a fashionable way.
“I might not paint my face green and white on Saskatchewan
Roughrider game days, but this is my own way of showing my prairie
colours,” said Dusyk.
To see more of Dusyk’s jewelry, visit www.jojobeads.com. W
Where oh
where are the
Polar Bears?
Is Manitoba's polar bear
population shrinking or just
moving to Ontario?
Some scientists believe that
summers are longer up north and
winter seal-hunting seasons are
shorter, threatening a population
once pegged at over 1,500 and
now thought to be under 1,000.
Many of Manitoba’s polar
bears make their winter birthing
dens in Wapusk National Park,
but last summer researchers
stumbled on a happy discovery
southeast of the park along the
Hudson Bay coast near Ontario:
a lot more dens!
They always knew there
were some dens there, but not
nearly as many as they found,
said Daryll Hedman, northeast
Manitoba provincial regional
wildlife manager. The number of
denning females in the area is
at least equal to Wapusk’s and
there could be even more.
The discovery at the southern
edge of the bears' range could
mean that Manitoba’s polar
bears are not in as much trouble
as scientists had feared. The
province has launched a threeyear study aimed at getting more
information about the situation.
Maybe the bears will just keep
moving until people stop bothering them. W
ROUNDUP
Short shorts
Photo of Kelly Olynyk AP Photo/George Frey
Manitoba’s more than honourable
position as Canada’s #1 charitable
province … our favourite US college
basketball team, the Gonzaga
University Bulldogs of Spokane,
At least Winnipeg’s Jets won’t be
in the Southeast Division anymore.
Next season, they’ll be the only
Canadian team in what is so far
called Division B in the Western
Conference. The general idea is to
create time-zone friendly divisions
and reduce travel … Vancouver’s
Fraser Institute once again confirms
Washington – just south of the border – finished the season ranked
#1 nationally. The Bulldogs were
led by two Canadians, 7-footer
Kelly Olynk of Kamloops, BC and
6’ 2” Kevin Pangos of Newmarket,
Ont. … a motorist driving along a
remote road on Vancouver Island
came across a large African tortoise
walking along the highway. The
motorist took
the spurred
tortoise,
named Alf, to
a sanctuary
which eventually reunited
the escapee
with the family that has had Alf for
15 years. They were surprised to
learn that Alf is a female … most of
the action in the current bestselling novel Canada by Richard Ford
takes place in rural Saskatchewan.
According to the back cover, it is
“… a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and
reconciled, and the mysterious and
consoling bonds of family.” Naturally, it’s about Americans. W
West  15
Story and photos by Laurie Carter
Closer to
the waves
Cruising in and out
of BC’s fjords
F
rom my wind-buffeted vantage point aboard the
motor vessel Aurora Explorer, the vivid yellow of the
grasshopper-like logging machine squatting on our
cargo deck is the sole relief in a world reduced to
shades of grey — pewter sea, dove-hued clouds, surrounding
forest rendered in charcoal.
The only other vessel in sight on Johnstone Strait between
Vancouver Island and the mainland north of Campbell River
this mid-September afternoon conforms to the colour scheme.
Rhapsody of the Seas looks like the White Cliffs of Dover
towering over us as she muscles past, with no visible signs of
life behind her rows of dark tinted windows. I reflect on the
relative comfort of the 2,000-plus souls she carries — wouldn’t
trade places for anything. My fellow adventurers feel the same.
16  West . ISSUE 29 . SUMMER 2013
This is a different
kind of cruise
The sighting of the Rhapsody sparks a
lively discussion on cruise travel among
the 12 passengers sitting in our own
white linen splendour polishing off the
complimentary wine after a homemade
family-style meal of fresh green salad
with should-be-bottled balsamic dressing, butter and lemon breaded halibut, a
platter of firm, fresh broccoli, cauli and
carrot slices, warm rolls and pecan pie à
la mode.
Bottom line, we all agree the passengers on that floating island have no idea
what they’re missing. No way can they
sail to the head of a slender fjord deep in
the flank of BC’s all but uninhabited wilderness, nose up to a driftwood strewn
beach for an impromptu shore excursion
or float at the base of an unnamed ribbon
of water cascading from the rainforest
into the sea. They won’t feel the splash of
white-sided dolphins frolicking off the
stern quarter or smell the fishy breath of
a spouting humpback. We have.
Almost like home
Three days ago, I boarded the 135-foot
landing craft via the drawbridge bow,
greeted by Captain Ron Stevenson and
his crew of five including Donna Sawatzky, our all-important cook, and Shannon
Brown, the mind-reading steward who
anticipates our every whim. Squeezing
past a diesel tanker and bags of fertilizer,
pallets of tree seedlings, pick-ups, coiled
cables and miscellaneous freight, I make
my way to the stern castle where I’m
soon settled in a closet-sized cabin, then
back out on deck for departure.
No calypso band or fruity drinks, but
I’m welcome to pour a rum from my
private supply and, anyway, I’m too busy
checking out the surroundings to care
about a band.
It doesn’t take long to navigate our
little world. Above the accommodation
deck, the main cabin serves as lounge
West  17
A slender fjord deep in
the flank of BC’s all but
uninhabited wilderness,
nose up to a driftwood
strewn beach.
and dining room. Big windows provide
expansive views and, hanging in the corner, a TV monitor constantly updates our
charted GPS position. The mini fridge is
stocked with soft drinks. Coffee and tea
are always hot and Donna kills us with
an endless supply of fresh baked cookies.
A narrow companionway accesses the
bridge overhead, where passengers are
welcome any time with comfy seating
arranged so that we can see the action
without getting in the way.
Passengers don’t
work, but the crew
sure does
Our first stop is a pick-up and I watch
in awe as the crew shoehorns a massive
yellow logging machine onto the already
crammed cargo deck. Throughout the
voyage I’m impressed with their skill and
efficiency, scooting around with a pair
of forklifts, shifting boxes and trundling
deliveries onto the steep landing stages of
remote logging camps.
We’re heading for one of those camps
as we motor up Loughborough Inlet
toward Frazer Bay. I’m reminded of the
Chilean fjords. The Coast Mountains
aren’t as tall as the Andes and we won’t
spot any glaciers, but it’s the same kind
of narrow passage — straight-sided walls,
impenetrable forest.
Suddenly I realize a shadow is crossing
the deck and a faint hint of watery blue
veiled by high thin cloud appears. It’s
not much, but enough to bring life to the
trees and shimmer to the sea. Before long
the sun breaks through.
I have to strip off rain jacket, fleece and
long pants. It’s lovely, baking in capris
and T as we nose up to the tidy cluster
of prefabs that forms Frazer Bay logging
camp — complete with tiny helicopter
pad on the point and floating repair shop
at the landing. I bring my glass of red
wine to the bridge deck, break out a chair
from the locker and settle in to soak up
some rays. Donna’s laid on bruschetta
for snack time, perfect with the wine.
Warmed inside and out, I exult in the
vivid blue sky, turquoise sea and multihued greens of the mountainside.
When we’ve offloaded enough supplies
to keep the loggers fed for weeks, Captain Ron orders the engines into reverse.
He and his mate Kevin Ryan constantly
wow us with their seamanship as they
maneuver the ungainly Aurora up to
floating bunkhouses to top up domestic
fuel tanks or pilot her into miniscule
spaces like Echo Bay where there’s about
a metre to spare between us and the
lovely sailboat tethered at the dock.
Face-to-Face
With a Legend
This is a stop we’ve all been anticipating
because it’s the home of coastal legend
Billy Proctor.
A round golden dog limps down the
angled jetty beside a wiry character of indeterminate age wearing blue jeans, blue
peaked cap and a bulky cardigan knit
in a red, white and blue sailboat pattern
straight out of my memory of the 60s.
Ron gives us 20 minutes and we swarm
up the plank for our first steps ashore in
two days.
Billy’s little museum is housed in a
clapboard cabin filled with floor-toceiling shelves. Rows of beached bottles
form neat ranks backlit (once-again) by
grey skies. Antique bits include glass net
floats, stone anchors, hydro insulators,
a parade of fishhooks and a newspaper
with a headline proclaiming the moon
landing. Even in this remote place,
Billy’s museum attracts more than 3,000
visitors a year.
Travel
Insurance Tips
What would you do in the
event of a medical emergency
while travelling?
Having a reliable travel insurance
assistance provider lets you travel with
confidence, but knowing what you can
do to protect yourself is essential. Here’s
why calling your assistance provider is
the first step in protecting your health
and financial well-being.
Not all medical facilities are created
equal. When you are away from home,
it’s difficult to know where to go. Call
your assistance provider immediately.
They’ll help you locate and get to the
most appropriate facility.
Far left: The Aurora’s tireless steward,
Shannon Brown.
I buy two of his books and he signs
them. When Ron toots the whistle, Billy
walks us back to the Aurora, grumbling
about damn pictures because everybody’s
begging him to pose. That evening I get
started on Heart of the Raincoast: A Life
Story — riveting.
Glimpses of
Coastal Life
The muted thrum of the engine is our
constant soundtrack. As I lie in my bunk
one morning, a change in the tone alerts
me to new activity. I roll over for a look
out the window and find a pair of boom
boats whipping around like sheep dogs
herding a flock of floating logs. Their
operators jump on and off, trotting along
the slippery tree trunks as though they’re
out for a jog in the country.
Another day I’m lingering over coffee
when the settlement of Alert Bay appears through the mist. On a hill above
the harbour, totem poles pierce the sky.
With only one hour shore leave I beeline
for the First Nations burial ground and
eventually realize that I’ve spent too
much time and won’t be able to make
it into town to visit the museum next
Near left: Captain Ron Stevenson
maneuvers the ungainly Aurora.
Above: Waiting for the tide to be right
before leaving Alert Bay.
to the ruins of a residential school and
the little white church with its Gothic
gingerbread steeple.
On our final day I’m perched on a
guest stool in the wheelhouse. Shadowy
headlands slowly solidify and darken as
we come abeam and each tree crowding
the shore stands in sharp focus, the tideline drawn with a ruler. Ron points out a
solitary bald eagle and, later, a couple of
sea lions swimming off the point as we
make our turn home into Menzies Bay.
We’ve covered 456 nautical miles in five
days and I’m ready to go again. West
Okanagan-based writer and photographer Laurie Carter is hard at work on her
next Grandma Wears Hiking Boots book.
Visit her at LaurieCarter.com
Not all facilities operate ethically. In
some cases, travellers have been
provided elective treatment, with or
without their knowledge. This is not
included in your policy and can result in
a claim being denied. Notifying your
assistance provider pre-treatment, will
ensure you only receive the care you
need.
Your provider may be able to coordinate
direct billing to cover medical expenses
so you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket.
Ensure you have access to a credit card
as well. In certain instances, hospitals
may request a deposit and will not treat
patients who cannot pay up-front. Keep
your original receipts and include them
when submitting a claim.
Your assistance provider’s toll-free
number can be found on your wallet
card, which along with your policy
details and a form of payment, should
be carried at all times.
For more information or to find a travel
insurance plan that’s right for you, visit
www.westernfinancialgroup.ca today.
West  19
Story and photos by Miriam Körner
2
The
Group
A Wilderness
Painting
Adventure
2
of
Rigmor Clarke waves her paintbrush at the fluffy
clouds. “See the mauve in the cloud? Little bit of Yellow
Ochre there, a touch of Crimson here.”
White clouds and blue sky, that’s all I see.
It’s Day 2 of our week-long painting
trip in northern Saskatchewan’s Wild
Country as Rigmor calls it. Sitting next to
the 77-year old artist I suddenly feel like
a five-year old as she points out colours
and shapes and describes patiently what
she sees.
“Light and dark, light and dark, that’s
all you do,” explains Rigmor as she slabs
bold streaks of paint on the canvas.
Within a couple of minutes a landscape
forms, simple, expressive, stark.
a windy day. Each canvas filled with
admiration and longing for the wild
country.
“I miss the rocky country,” she
had told me over a cup of tea. “It’s
been a long time since I was there.” I
mentioned my little cabin on a small
island 60 kilometres north of La Ronge.
Her eyes lit up. “Let’s go paint there in
the summer,” she said and the matter
was settled. Just like that.
“Let’s go paint”
The 14 foot boat is rocking gently in
the breeze. It’s early enough for the
vibrant colours of first sunlight. Without
hesitation, Rigmor picks up all the
colours she sees in the sky from her
palette and puts them down with a single
stroke, never correcting a line or colour.
Rigmor just started her third painting
while I still labour on my first canvas.
It’s my first time painting plein-air; my
I had first met Rigmor last winter at
Forest Raven Art Studio near Shell
Lake, 135 km north of Saskatoon. Her
studio was crammed with gigantic
canvases: tall spruce trees reflected
in the calm waters of one of northern
Saskatchewan’s 100,000 lakes, dramatic
skies over the charcoaled trees of an
old burn, a little birch tree enduring
And we head north
brush strokes are too careful, unsure and
corrected a million times.
The sun quickly rises and the heat
becomes unbearable. I have only one
thought: Diving into the cool water.
My brushstrokes become faster as soon
as I stop thinking about the painting
process. I loosen up. Done! Apron and
painting clothes are shed quickly. The
water is cool and refreshing. ‘There
are many ways to enjoy northern
Saskatchewan’s wilderness,’ I think,
smiling. Swimming is definitely one of
my favourites.
The call
of the wild
Over the years I came to think about
‘The North Country’ as Rigmor calls it
more and more as my backyard than
wilderness. We both emigrated from
Europe. Rigmor came with her parents
from Sweden in 1949, long before I was
born. I came from Germany in 2002.
We both have seen many places, and
we found what we were looking for in
northern Saskatchewan: Rugged beauty
and untamed wilderness.
West  21
“I’m always
searching
for that
elusive soul
landscape,
like the first
one I saw on
Lake Grycken
in Sweden
when I was
still a child.”
Rigmor first ventured into that
wilderness on a 1972 painting
expedition down the Churchill River by
canoe. For nearly 30 years she returned
year after year, turning her boat into a
moving art studio. To Rigmor, northern
Saskatchewan is a land that is hard,
cruel, unforgiving, wild, untamed and
immensely beautiful. “A land that will
suffer no fools.”
I moved to northern Saskatchewan 10
years ago. To me it’s simply home.
Listening
to the land
We are painting perched right beside a
waterfall on a small, unnamed creek.
“It’s so beautiful,” says Rigmor and then
I hear nothing from her; she is lost in
her painting. “I become emotionally
emerged into the landscape,” she tells
me later. “I’m always searching for that
elusive soul landscape, like the first
one I saw on Lake Grycken in Sweden
when I was still a child.” The little
creek tinkling over rocks and fallen
trees seems to be one of those special
places for Rigmor. I think about one of
Rigmor’s poems that starts:
the rocks and the trees. The land itself is
what I have to try to capture. I’m excited
to paint the same scene again, only now
I would look less and listen more. What
shape has the gurgling sound of water
rushing over rocks?
I have learned
To be as one of the land
You first have to let go of everything
you think you are
And become nothing,
Only then can you begin to see and
hear the land speak, […]
The sky darkens. ‘Faster,’ I say to
myself. ‘Paint faster!’ When the thunder
shakes the ground, we can’t ignore it
any longer. We quickly pack up our
paints. Rigmor’s words about a land
that suffers no fools echo in my head as
we rush to protect the paintings from
the sudden downpour. I’m drenched,
but when I look at Rigmor I can’t stop
laughing. She stands in the middle of
the wilderness, a day trip away from
It is not just a poem. It’s an
instruction on how to paint. I suddenly
realize it’s not about painting the water,
Suddenly,
thunderclouds
the nearest road under a polka-dotted
umbrella. Mary Poppins out-of-place.
We both grin.
The force of the thunderstorm
reminds us of why we are here.
Untamed nature. Lightning pierces the
sky, a cool breeze sweeps away the hot
summer air. We quickly launch the boat
when we see a break in the dark sky. We
sneak ahead of the next thunderclouds
rolling in behind us and sigh with relief
when we reach the warmth and safety
of the cabin. But I am restless; I want
to be outside and painting. Suddenly, I
realize why. This is how the land speaks
to me. I need to feel the wind tussling
my hair, feel the ground shake under
my feet, and anticipate the change that
is blowing over the land. This is my soul
landscape.
We move our outdoor studio indoors,
but the thunderstorm with its dramatic
sky has passed. I missed my chance.
I stare out the window into the dark
forest and pick up my paintbrush.
Suddenly, the forest floor comes alive
with the intense colours just after a
storm. The drama of light and shadow
unfolds before my eyes. I paint without
thinking. When I’m done a dark forest
is looming like a thundercloud behind
a crooked little birch tree. I can almost
feel the wind rustling its leaves, see it
shake in the echo of a distant thunder
and stretch its branches out to the rain
that will undoubtedly fall.
When the rain eases off, we walk
out to watch the clouds drift by. And
suddenly, I can see the colours in the
clouds: The washed out yellows and
reds on the dark underside of the clouds
shine clearly through the blue grey. As
if Rigmor can read my thoughts she
says: “You’ll never look at the clouds the
same way again, will you?”
“No,” I say and feel like The Little
Prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s
novel when the fox reveals his secret:
“It’s only with the heart that one can see
rightly. What is essential is invisible to
the eye.” West
Miriam Körner is a freelance writer,
photographer and wilderness guide. She
lives at Potato Lake, near La Ronge,
Saskatchewan. You can contact her at
[email protected]
Do you have a solid foundation?
Finally - An affordable 5-year term life
insurance policy
The lifeFoundation is a $100,000 tax-free benefit designed to
provide your family with a solid financial base should anything
happen to you while you’re building your life. It is great
protection and the economic benefits add up to a remarkable
value, starting with very reasonable premiums.
More important, your renewal premium will stay low and age
appropriate with no medical exam required, ever, all the way
to age 85.
Contact your local Western Financial Group
office for more information and to get the
right coverage for you.
www.westernfinancialgroup.ca/lifefoundation
Some conditions apply. This is a general description of coverage available.
Actual policy conditions govern. Available for individuals aged 18-64.
West  23
Story and photos by Judy Waytiuk
farmers’
markets
Local, real, fun
I
t’s a sunny, sweet Saturday summer
morning.
We’ve raided the kitchen money
pot for coins, and we’re off to the
farmers’ market where sellers appreciate
change in payment, because they often
run short.
On our list: fresh veggies, Jamaica
molasses loaf — if she hasn’t sold out,
Vietnamese spring rolls, elk sausage,
a bison roast, and potted wildflower
Prairie plants for the yard. We also have
to order fresh-frozen free range roasting
chickens for winter, and we want mint
and lavender soap.
An experience that
almost disappeared
Before there were grocery stores, farmers'
markets speckled Canada's frontier West
like measles on a toddler's face. But then
along came supermarkets.
By 1970 only four farmers’ markets
were left in Alberta, including the
Edmonton City Market, Alberta’s first
farmers’ market, established in 1900.
Now, Alberta boasts more than 100,
and in BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba,
the movement’s equally robust. Most
markets set up once a week for just a few
hours in parking lots in smaller towns, or
in roadside pastures in rural areas.
Towns and cities have begun adopting
the farmers’ market idea to bring
suburbanites back to downtown areas
for a day or two every week. A few
run indoors year-round in permanent
quarters, selling mostly craftworks and
home-prepared foods in winter. The
Saskatoon Farmers’ Market began in
1975 as an outdoor market, but moved
in 2007 to an all-year indoor spot in a
former civic garage at the city’s River
Landing, with an outdoor Market Square
for summer-only use.
In every province now, a farmers’
market association ensures the
markets remain wholesome, not overly
commercialized, and that what’s on
offer has been grown or made by the
seller. Buskers often entertain crowds,
with guitar or violin cases propped open
hopefully.
The St. Albert Farmers’ Market in
northwest Edmonton, Western Canada’s
biggest outdoor market with more than
250 vendors, has been running since
1982 and pulls in as many as 15,000
people every Saturday from June to
October.
Just south of Winnipeg, Marché St.
Norbert Farmers Market sprang into
wobbly being in 1988, on a patch of grass
with eight sellers camped in the open air
offering produce. It’s ballooned into the
province’s largest summer market, where
more than 150 vendors see thousands of
Saturday visitors.
’
West  25
You never know …
Consider Donamae Hilton, a St. Norbert
vendor. Every week, she bakes 2,500 dog
cookies (chicken liver, beef, sweet potato,
bacon/cheese, and a bunch of other
flavours dogs love).
She carries knitting everywhere she
goes, making sweaters of all sizes and
shapes. She started making sweaters
because she couldn’t buy any that fit her
dogs: a lanky basset hound and a little
bagel (basset/beagle cross). And she kept
on knitting.
Same with the cookies. “I didn’t
like that I didn’t know, or couldn’t
pronounce, what was in their treats,” she
says of her decision to start baking her
dogs their own cookies back in the late
eighties. When she joined the farmers’
market, she exponentially increased both
the volume of baking and her cookie
varieties — and shapes. “The dogs really
like their butterflies and their fireplugs.”
It’s obvious why shoppers flock to
these markets. “They want something
unique that they can’t find anywhere
else, and that’s a good price,” says Gimli
market quilt-maker Nancy Lamb. The
market she attends runs Saturdays,
squeezed onto a wide sidewalk space in
the small Manitoba town of Gimli.
… what you’re
going to find
Seniors, especially former farmers who’ve
retired to small villages, appreciate their
small local rural markets for genuinely
fresh vegetables, baking, tchotchkes,
pickles, pottery, all sold by the person
who grew it, raised it, or made it.
Organic growers and vegans tout
wholesome wares and bread made with
strange-name grains. If you’re hungry,
larger markets even have versions of
fast food stalls — grilled kielbasa on a
bun, cookies, cakes, coffee, hot dogs or
burgers fresh off small portable grills. At
the tiny Arnes market north of Gimli,
with fewer than ten vendors, an old
wood-fired stone oven, once used to bake
bread, now makes pizzas.
What's in it for the
people who grow,
make, or bake the
stuff they sell?
At first glance, not much. They haul their
offerings to their stalls every week, set
up, gab with strangers all day, take it all
down, and do it all over again next week.
Well, it’s one way to deal with an out-ofcontrol hobby, notes Lamb, a compulsive
quilter. She’s been at her stall every
summer for ten years. “After I had given
away so many, I still kept making them
— and I thought I’d better start selling
them and at least get some money back
for all the fabric I’d been buying.” Lamb
usually sells about three-quarters of
the quilts she makes, enough to justify
making more quilts for the next year.
Dorothy Freund and her husband
run a Christmas tree farm in winter,
and have a whole separate building
with a kitchen where Freund pickles
her heart out every fall, making up
hundreds of jars of Redpoll Farms jams,
jellies, and pickles. She sells them at the
St. Norbert, Steinbach and Pineridge
Hollow markets. “I grew up in a country
home, and we just always canned. I
remember always doing that at home,”
says Freund, who uses old recipes from
cookbooks long gone.
The resulting jars look professional
enough to have been done on an
assembly line, but nope. She says “I
still use the home canner that has
seven quarts in it at a time,” and she’s
sometimes been up until five in the
morning finishing her most popular item
— dill pickles.
It’s a lot of work for little cash return,
especially when the weather won’t
co-operate and some market grounds
become a muddy mess. “Would you ever
get rich on this or do it for a living? No,”
says Freund. “But it’s worth my time
because I’ve always loved gardening and
canning. The love of doing it is more why
a person does it.”
And Donamae Hilton, the dog-cookie
baker? “I like people — though I prefer
dogs more,” she says. “I go out there with
my silly hats on, and it’s always fun.” She
also has a fulltime job, but made enough
through the market last year to buy a
freezer and a coffee machine.
We added dog cookies to the list. Ours
love the cow-shaped ones. West
Manitoba-based travel writer Judy
Waytiuk crams her cupboards and
freezer full of goodies gathered in summer
from farmers' markets across Canada.
Saskatoon berry jelly, anyone?














West  27
by
Bruce Masterman
g
n
i
h
s
i
F Cats
for
When I was a kid in Winnipeg, we thought of catfish as
garbage fish. If we ever accidentally caught one, we’d
throw it back with childish disdain. So what was I doing,
decades later, fishing for catfish, and only catfish,
the bigger the better? Having fun, that’s what.
It started at the
crack of dawn
“Get ready for a fishing adventure like
you’ve never had before,” guide Todd
Longley announced when we met at a
pier on the Red River in the town of
Selkirk, just north of Winnipeg. Hype,
I thought.
Oh, how wrong can one man be?
Forty-five minutes later, the tip of the
fiberglass rod started an almost imperceptible tap-tap motion signaling a
biting fish. Longley cautioned me to be
patient. “Give it time to really eat the
bait,” he said. Then …
“Now!” he barked.
I cranked back on the rod and felt
dead weight. I thought I’d snagged the
river bottom, until the snag started
pulling back.
The fish fought hard, but it was no
match for the 30 pound test line and
sturdy rod. A few minutes later, Longley
netted the channel catfish and handed it
to me. At 32 inches and 14 pounds, it was
the biggest freshwater fish I’d ever caught.
“That’s just a baby,” laughed Longley.
He should know
Since he started his City Cats guiding service (www.citycats.ca) in 1999,
Longley has guided clients from across
North America to thousands of huge
channel catfish.
He strives to get his clients into
Manitoba’s Master Angler (MA) awards
record book, which requires anglers
to catch fish of specified minimum
lengths, with witnesses, of course. For
channel catfish, the magic number is 34
inches (86.3 centimetres). A 46.5-inch
monster caught in 1992 is Manitoba’s
biggest recorded catfish.
Even though I’d fished in Manitoba
practically my whole life, I’d never
caught a fish of any species that quali-
fied for an MA award. Longley had
promised to correct that. So had my
fishing partner for the day, Shel Zolkewich, a regular West writer who works
as a fishing and hunting consultant
for Travel Manitoba. She also made a
promise, only hers was to out-fish me.
Her exact words: “I’m going to kick
your butt.”
West  29
Like fishing
with ZZ Top
Even though Longley, 47, has never
played an instrument or sung a note on
stage, he bills himself as the Rock and
Roll Fisherman and he looks the part:
husky build, straggly shoulder-length
hair and scruffy salt-and-pepper beard.
He was wearing a sleeveless Harley
Davidson t-shirt, faded jeans and redlaced, red-soled sneakers. His biceps
sport tattoos, including a scary looking catfish on his left arm. Longley’s
professional motto, Go Big or Go Home,
seems redundant.
After working the graveyard shift
on the dock of a soft drink company
in Winnipeg, Longley drives off in his
truck, towing his 19-foot fiberglass boat
(with its 150 horsepower motor), to
meet clients at the dock in Selkirk.
Fishing for Manitoba catfish became popular about 20 years ago when
anglers began catching tackle-testing
20 to 30 pound fish in the Red River. It
flows north from Minnesota and North
Dakota through Winnipeg and into
Lake Winnipeg. The Red River soon
became known as the catfish capital of
North America. It boasts 90 percent
of the catfish that qualified for Master
Angler awards. Catfish thrive on the
river’s plentiful goldeye, sauger and
other fish, and are protected by provincial regulations that require bigger fish
to be released.
Word spread and soon anglers were
visiting from Missouri, Nebraska and
other states famous for catfish.
Catfish are ugly
Although catfish can be excellent
eating, almost all the cats caught in
Manitoba are released. We don’t go
after them for food and we certainly
don’t want them for their looks. They’re
singularly unattractive.
Their smooth bodies are blue-grey
with white on the bottom. Their heads
are huge, with wide toothless mouths
fringed with whisker-like barbels
equipped with sensors used to find
food on muddy river bottoms.
“There’s something slightly comical
about catching a fish that’s so ugly — in
a loveable way,” Zolkewich says.
Most anglers fish for them for
one reason: to experience the brute
strength of a big catfish at the end of
the line.
In recent years, the catfish’s unlikely star continued to rise through
American reality television shows like
Hillbilly Handfishin’, in which guests
use their hands and feet to catch big
cats in Oklahoma rivers and lakes. It’s
called noodling.
To my wife’s horror, I love the show.
Chasing the big whiskered trash fish
of my youth became a dream. Winnipeg is closer than Oklahoma — and,
apparently, a handfishin’-free zone —
so I tackled the big catfish the more
traditional way.
Previous page, photo by Shel Zolkewitch; this page, left and top right photos by Bruce Masterman; magazine cover courtesy of Manitoba Tourism.
Photo on page 28:
Todd Longley (left)
helps Bruce Masterman celebrate his largest catfish. This page,
clockwise from left:
Shel Zolkewich hoists
the day's biggest catfish; Longley measures
a channel catfish; a
monster channel cat
graces the cover of
this year’s Manitoba
Fishing Guide.
And that’s how
I found myself
on the Red River
last June
After that baby catfish, Zolkewich and
I managed to catch a few freshwater
drum, also called silver bass, including
one that missed qualifying for a Master
Angler award by a quarter of an inch.
But we were fishing for catfish.
With the boat anchored in the sluggish yet powerful current, we once again
baited our hooks with hunks of goldeye and jumbo prawns and let a heavy
sinker carry them to the muddy bottom.
As the morning heated up in the
blazing sun, I hooked another cat. At
16 pounds, this one was bigger than the
first but, at 33.5 inches, a half inch short
of the elusive Master Angler mark.
Minutes later, another fish bit and I
knew this was it.
A Master Angler
at last
The fish hugged the bottom for several
minutes. After a lot of give and take, I
managed to bring it to the waiting net.
When Longley laid it along the official
tape affixed to the boat seat, it measured 34 inches even. My first Master
Angler fish! After the 20-pounder was
released, I high-fived Longley and
Zolkewich and declared the next fish
was hers. My mistake.
At noon, one of the rods in the holders started throbbing and Zolkewich
grabbed it. The fish took her from
one side of the boat to the other, but
she wasn’t giving up. Finally, Longley slipped the net under the fish and
hoisted it aboard.
It was 35.5 inches and 25 pounds. Although Zolkewich already had “maybe
two or three” MA awards for channel
catfish, this was her biggest one ever.
More important, at least to her, it was
bigger than mine.
“I told you I was going to kick your
butt,” she said. “How do you feel now?”
Actually, pretty good. West
Bruce Masterman is based in High
River, Alta., where his one and only
Manitoba Master Angler award hangs
on his office wall.
IT ALL ADDS UP
KNOW THE REAL COST OF
DISTRACTED DRIVING.
Distracted drivers have a 3x to 23x higher likelihood of
crashing than attentive drivers.
Distracted driving causes more fatalities than speeding,
and drinking & driving combined.
PEACEHILLSINSURANCE.COM
West  31
by Victoria Chatham
Photography by Bryce Meyer
Brooks
Medieval
Faire
A festival
hundreds of
years in the
making
ust hangs in the
air and hooves
pound the dirt
as two armoured
knights charge
toward each
other. A lance
splinters against
its target and the
crowd erupts in
a loud cheer.
You might imagine we’ve wandered
onto a movie set, but no. This is Brooks,
Alberta, a city of 14,000 on the TransCanada Highway 180 kilometres southeast of Calgary. For one weekend every
August it is home to the Brooks Medieval
Faire, a world of lords and ladies, knights
and maidens, serving wenches and serfs.
The Living Backwards Society
(GNIVIL) from Edmonton has erected
gaily striped and spacious pavilions on
the Old Rodeo Grounds. Visitors are
invited in to admire authentic hand
D
carved chairs, trunks and rope beds
— inspiration for the expression “sleep
tight”. There are archers, jugglers, bards
and drama.
The sound
of clashing
steel
The Black Knight has abducted the
lovely Lady Tracey. When gallant
knights step forward to rescue her, a
fight ensues, and that’s not easy when
you’re wearing 100 pounds of armour
under a high, bright sun.
The crowd boos and hisses at the
Black Knight or, maybe, at the knights
and archers challenging him. Lady
Tracey’s rescuers prevail. Her betrothal
to her true love is to be celebrated at the
Feast that evening.
Meanwhile, Donald of St. Andrew’s,
Herald of the Tournament, blows a
trumpet that would not have been out of
place during the Crusades. He’s about to
introduce the grand melee.
A priest, another actor, blesses the
combatants and a very physical medieval brawl begins. The fighters are
good thanks to hours of practice with
a broadsword and the considerable
courage it must take to withstand an
onslaught, however choreographed it
may be.
The knights of Dragon’s Own from
Calgary show off their skills and the
Medicine Hat Medieval Society demonstrates the arts of fighting with staff and
sword. Although everyone is having fun,
this is a school of hard knocks — especially for the jousters.
Lance a lot
Jousting has been around since at least
the first recorded tournament in 1066.
Frenchman Godfrey de Preuilly is
credited with writing the rules for the
West  33
sport but he didn't live long enough to
see them in action. Since de Preuilly’s
rules didn’t specifically mention female
jousters, they’re here at Brooks. One
of them, Radar Goddard, an EMT and
longtime fire fighter, first saw jousting at
Littlecote House in Wiltshire, England
and was fascinated. She came home and
created the Society of Tilt and Lance
Cavalry jousting team.
Lady Radar’s opponent today is Lady
Alison Mercer, in real life a historian at
the Military Museums in Calgary. MC
Dale Laberge tells the audience “The
lances are 12 feet long, 10 feet of solid
pine with a two foot balsa wood tip
which breaks easily on contact.” She explains that a tilt consists of seven passes
and that jousters earn one point for a
touch, three for a broken tip, five for a
broken lance and 10 if the opponent is
unhorsed.
Lady Radar won the tournament.
Village life in
the Middle Ages
Once the jousters are done, spectators head to the food court or wander
through the marketplace where artisans
sell jewelry, tell fortunes, display medieval clothing, art work, pottery, leatherwork, chain mail, armour and swords.
The afternoon continues with storytelling, a medieval costume contest,
fire dancing, and juggling. Children
get hands-on with animals in the petting zoo or let off steam on the bouncy
castle. They can fling a tennis ball from
a replica trebuchet, a giant stone-hurling
machine you’ve seen in the movies. A
hay-ride in a wagon drawn by Percheron
horses is a great way for a family to see
the Faire.
“Come and join me,” invites GNIVIL’s
Lady Janet Budgell as she makes her
way to the lawn. There she explains
the importance of dancing in medieval
society. No one would suspect she is an
electrician by trade. “I love re-creating
history,” she says, before calling the steps
to an ever growing circle of dancers who
happily abandon their twentieth century
gloss and join in the fun.
West  35
Finally, the Feast
The succulent aroma of roast pig draws
ticket holders to a covered area where
the King and Queen of the Faire, elected
by the community, preside over the
Feast. King James Thomas, of Welsh
heritage and a proud promoter of
Brooks, and Queen Jeanne Morishita
have spent the day touring the Faire and
visiting businesses in Brooks. “I enjoy
the opportunity to give orders to my
subjects,” smiles Queen Jeanne.
A magician entertains guests before
the meal is served and Lady Tracey’s
betrothal is mentioned.
A skit brings applause and, later, the
sounds of fiddle and bodhran (an Irish
drum) draw people from the trestle
tables to the stage. Third Reel, a Celtic
band from Calgary has set up under the
stars and plays the night away much to
the delight of the crowd.
Sunday morning visitors can learn
about jousting, try on armour at Knight
School, watch Brooks’s Junior Citizen
of the Year being knighted or pay the
Insulter to denounce anyone guilty of
treasonous talk. Contestants in a Mythical Creatures costume event include an
Autumn Fairy, an Elvin Queen and a
young man from Calgary in a white unicorn mask. There’s a lot going on here.
A family from Bragg Creek saw an
advertising poster and thought the Faire
would be fun. Mom, Dad and their two
teenagers were not disappointed. Helen
McInley and Beryl McNeil, both from
Calgary, say the Faire brings history alive
for them with its colour, fun and realism.
At the final Court on Sunday afternoon, the King and Queen present
awards to the winning fighters and
jousters and invite everyone to visit
again next year.
2013 marks the 10th anniversary of
the Brooks Faire. It runs August 10 and
11. For more information, visit Brooks
Faire’s Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/brooksfaire West
Victoria Chatham is a Calgary freelance
writer who writes articles and short
stories and is working on her second
historical novel.
I N S U R A N C E F A C T:
Water-damage has
now surpassed fire
as Canada’s leading
cause of personal
property claims.
LEARN WHY
insuranceisevolving.com
Ask your Western Financial Group insurance broker
about getting protected with Intact Insurance today.
West  37
by Bill Armstrong
Ogema’s
wonderful
time machine
Near Ogema, Saskatchewan in a restored 1922 railway car
rolling through gentle hills under an impossibly blue prairie sky.
S
ome of the people on board
are train buffs, some have
never been on a train before,
and everyone, it seems, is
documenting the experience
with a camera or smartphone.
We’re on Southern Prairie Railway’s
heritage train. It was officially launched
in time for Ogema’s one-hundredth
anniversary in July, 2012, almost sixty
years after the last scheduled passenger
service along the line.
Eleven-year-old Sophia Stang and her
sisters, nine-year-old Madeline and sixyear-old Georgia, are first time riders.
Their parents, Kim Byrns and Neil Stang
of Regina “… think it’s important for
kids to see Saskatchewan and experience
what it’s like in small towns like Ogema,”
according to Kim.
It’s also a first-time experience for
Ogema, population
320 and about
135 kms south of
Regina, was initially
Regina
1
Moose Jaw
called Omega (the last
letter of the Greek
alphabet) to signify the
end of the railroad line, at
the time, but another town
already had that name so
the early settlers just
switched the m and the g.
6
39
6
Ogema
13
Amulet became no more than names
on maps, Ogema chose a different path,
according to the town’s energetic mayor,
Wayne Myren.
Using the past to
create a future
“There are a lot of different reasons
why Ogema has survived, and the Deep
South Pioneer Museum was a part of it,”
says Myren, whose parents used to own
the property where it sits.
“It began with a farmer who had
an old plow that he had restored, and
wanted preserved. A few old boys got
together in 1976, and they incorporated
the museum the following year,” he says.
Deep South is now an impressive
agricultural museum, with rows of
vintage machinery and more than
thirty buildings, many of them hauled
from the town’s main street when new
buildings replaced them. When the
museum drew tourists, other projects
followed. Two brick structures dating
from 1915 — the town’s original fire
hall and an imposing firewall erected to
prevent a repeat of a disastrous fire that
tore through the downtown — grace
Main Street.
One good idea
leads to another …
Alexandria Michael, 20. She and her
mother, Veralin, live in Calgary and
arranged their holiday time to ride the
train together. “There are lots of ducks,”
Alexandria observes. “You get to see
much more that you can’t see in a car
from the highway.” Veralin, 53, keeps in
touch with happenings in Ogema, her
hometown. She’s proud of where she
came from, and what the people have
accomplished. “While other towns have
disappeared, Ogema has grown,” she
observes.
As she speaks the train rolls by the
site of the once-bustling community
of Amulet. A single streetlight now
watches over a stone cairn and a historic
marker. While many communities like
The railway project started at a meeting of the local Agricultural Society
in 1998, when board members kicked
around ideas to add another attraction.
The first step was to fill the gap at the
head of Main Street where the CPR station had stood until it was torn down in
1971. Since railways often used standard designs for their stations, Myren
was able to find an exact match for the
Ogema station after searching provincial archives. It was sitting in Walter
Klypak’s farmyard near Simpson, about
two hundred and fifty kilometres north
of Ogema. Local farmer and longtime
community volunteer Roger Farr picks
up the story.
“Mr. Klypak was using the station for
grain storage, but he was willing to let
us have it if we’d build him grain bins to
West  39
WE GO THE EXTRA
MILE FOR YOU
1
for $20
AIR MIL
reward ES
mile
in prem
ium*
Roger Farr, waiting
at the station under
a cool old sign.
Contact a Western Financial Group broker
today to learn more about RSA, or visit us
at rsagroup.ca.
store his crop. So, in 2002, twenty-three
people helped build two new grain bins
on the farm over a weekend.”
The following summer, volunteers
held a work bee to clean the station and
to landscape the area around it. A new
station platform was added, but at that
point only the farmer-owned Red Coat
Road and Rail short line railway passed
by the station. Making a tourist train a
reality took several more years and too
many volunteer hours to count.
… and another
© 2012. RSA is a registered trade name of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada. “RSA” and the RSA logo
are trademarks used under license from RSA Insurance Group plc. ®™ Trademarks of AIR MILES International Trading
B.V. Used under license by LoyaltyOne and Roins Financial Services Ltd.
* Terms and Conditions can be found at www.rsagroup.ca.
075 west_ad_summer2012_01a.indd
1
 West
40 RS
. ISSUE 29 . SUMMER 2013
3/23/12 1:09 PM
Local business owner Carol Peterson
tossed out the idea of adding a tourist
train as an attraction at a meeting in
1998. Her suggestion was for a bare
bones service.
“We didn’t have a passenger car; we
didn’t have anything,” Peterson recalls,
“not even a railway station at that point.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and that
was one of those times. I’ve heard the
saying, ‘How do you eat an elephant?
The answer is: ‘One bite at a time.’”
Not much happened with the tourist
train idea for a few years, until Cheryl
and Devon Generous, who are crazy
about trains and were looking for a
community interested in operating a
tourist train, heard about Ogema.
Previous page: Train at Ogema station courtesy of Southern Prairie Railway; historical images courtesy of Deep South Pioneer Museum; This page: Photo by Bill Armstrong
Insuring your home and car with RSA
comes with its own reward – you can
earn 1 AIR MILES® reward mile for every
$20 in insurance premium* which can be
redeemed for great travel and merchandise.
Devon had worked as a mechanic for
BC Rail before he and Cheryl settled on
a farm near Assiniboia, the hub of three
short-line railways. Devon works as a
mechanic with the short lines.
With the Generouses an obvious good
fit, the Deep South Pioneer Museum set
up a transportation committee to pursue
the idea. They found a “44 tonner” switch
engine in New Hampshire and a seventyseat passenger car in Pennsylvania. The
local credit union put up a loan to buy
and move them. Myren points out that
every member of the Heritage Railway
Association board signed the note.
Seed Now
Pay Later
Make No Payments on Seed Purchases
Until October 31, 2013.*
Volunteers
are crucial
Over the summer of 2011 the town’s
website allowed people to track the
locomotive and passenger car on their
journey. About a hundred volunteers
donated more than six thousand hours
to refurbishing the train before the
triumphant launch of Southern Prairie
Railway on November 4, 2011, with
hundreds of onlookers cramming the
railway station platform.
The following winter the non-profit
Ogema Heritage Railway Association
began marketing the new tourist attraction. Operating every weekend from June
through September, the train more than
broke even in its first year. And the association had more items on its to-do list.
A baggage-express car built in Montreal in 1952 will be refurbished as a
place to sell refreshments and souvenirs.
The association is looking for a dining
car and another passenger car. “A heated
and air conditioned dining car allows
you to operate earlier and later in the
season, and travel farther to enjoy the
rugged scenery near the Big Muddy Valley,” Peterson explains.
It’s taken more than a decade for
the audacious idea of a tourist train to
become a reality and the folks in Ogema
appear to be gathering speed. West
The Card For Those Who Grow. Apply Today.
*Some conditions apply.
Learn more at
www.southernprairierailway.com
Bill Armstrong is a Regina-based writer
and photographer with a special interest
in heritage and history projects.
BankWest.ca
West  41
“It’s funny how a newborn can change your perspective on everything,
...that’s why we have life insurance through Western Financial Group.”
To get a quick quote visit or call:
westernfinancialgroup.ca • 1-800-THE WEST
LIFE
INSURANCE
-B
est Service Guarantee
Auto
|
Home |
Business
|
Farm
|
Life
|
Travel
|
Pet
| Financial Services
WestGUARD Employee Benefits Program
WestGUARD is our unique employee benefits program designed to meet the
needs of both your employees and your budget.
WestGUARD offers you:
Immediate premium savings
• Rate stability generated through pooled structure
• Program flexibility with many coverage options to choose from
• Online administration
• Pay direct drug and dental card
•
For more
information visit:
www.westguard.ca
or call toll free:
1-800-665-8990
health Matters
by ANGELA MORRISON, RN
Lyme Disease:
A New pest in the west
L
yme disease is moving into
western Canada. It had to come,
sooner or later. It’s already the
most common tick-borne illness
in North America and Europe.
We didn’t even know what it was
until 1981 when Willy Burgdorfer, a
research scientist in Montana, identified
a specific bacteria found in deer ticks.
But the problems in the US started
in the early ’70s when doctors in Old
Lyme, Connecticut and neighboring
towns began noticing an unusually high
number of cases of rheumatoid arthritis
among children.
Puzzled, they looked for a cause.
Because cases occurred mostly in the
summer and mostly among children
who’d spent time in the woods, they
decided to look at deer ticks. Burgdorfer,
who’d been investigating Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever, also caused by ticks, took it
from there.
Since there’s not a lot authorities can
do about ticks, Lyme disease has spread
inexorably across the US and eastern
Canada as well as parts of western Canada.
It’s mostly avoidable
You're more likely to get bitten if you live
in grassy and heavily wooded areas where
ticks carrying the disease thrive. In most
of Canada, these are usually the deer tick
or blacklegged tick. In British Columbia,
it’s the western blacklegged tick. It might
help to know that:
Lyme disease cannot be spread from
human to human
Your family pet can bring infected
ticks into your home but you cannot
get Lyme disease from your pet
People spending more time in the
great outdoors, like hikers, campers
and hunters may be at a greater risk.
Lyme disease cannot be contracted
from eating the meat of an animal
infected with the disease
Death from Lyme disease is rare.
And, caught early,
it’s easy to treat
But there are serious health consequences
if Lyme disease is left untreated.
Symptoms usually occur in three
stages. Stage one is characterized by a
circular rash called erythema migrans
(EM) or “bull’s eye” rash. EM occurs in
70 to 80 percent of infected people. Other
symptoms include chills, fever, headache,
fatigue, muscle and joint pain and swollen
lymph nodes. The bull’s eye rash is often
all physicians need to diagnose and treat
Lyme disease.
If left untreated, the disease may
progress to the second stage where
symptoms can last for several months and
include extreme fatigue and generalized
weakness, heart palpitations, multiple
skin rashes, arthritis, and central and
peripheral nervous system disorders.
Progression to the third stage of the
disease can often have symptoms that last
for years, including debilitating arthritis
and neurological problems.
Diagnosis is usually made through
physician examination of the bitten
area, history of symptoms and history
of patient encounters with blacklegged
ticks. Blood testing for Lyme disease is
often used for diagnosis. Blood tests also
become more reliable as the infection
progresses. Lyme disease is treated with
antibiotics. Most important, contact your
medical provider immediately if you
develop any symptom. West
Illustration by David Willicome
Precautions advised by the Public Health Agency of Canada include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Wear long pants tucked into boots or socks and long sleeves when in tick infested areas.
Avoid sandals and wear closed toed shoes.
Light coloured clothing allows you to easily spot ticks.
Apply DEET-containing insect repellants as these repel ticks also.
Check yourself, small children and pets after being outdoors in tick infested areas.
Carefully remove any attached ticks by grabbing the head and mouth areas as close to the
skin as possible with a pair of tweezers, trying not to twist or squash the tick as you may
leave parts of the tick in your skin.
7. After removing the tick, wash the bite with soap and water or a disinfectant.
West  43
Simple & Delicious
Story and photos by Cinda Chavich
Smokin’
S
ummer weekends are made for
slowing down and kicking back
in the sunshine with a cool one.
But in our busy world, it can
be hard to justify that kind of downtime
unless, of course, you’re cooking a pulled
pork dinner or a feast of ribs in the backyard smoker.
Smoking, also known as slow barbecue,
is a method of cooking large cuts of meat,
from pork butt and brisket to whole chicken, low and slow over a charcoal fire.
Whether you use a bullet shaped smoker, a ceramic kamado grill or a boxy Little
Joe, a smoker must be slowly stoked with
hot coals and wet wood chips for many
hours. It’s the perfect excuse for a lazy day
in the back yard.
THE RAW MATERIALS:
The classic meats for slow smoking are
fatty cuts like pork shoulder, ribs or beef
brisket, but you can also smoke anything
from chicken pieces and whole trout to
onions and tomatoes for smoky salsa.
Meats are seasoned with spice rubs then
cooked indirectly over charcoal fires, keeping the heat very low. The basic rub contains sugar, salt, paprika, granulated garlic,
onion powder, cumin and pepper, but you
can customize your rub with any herbs and
spices you like. Many barbecue cooks start
by coating meats with ballpark mustard so
the spice rub adheres well and forms a nice
crust to seal in juices while cooking.
Cook over chunks of natural charcoal
and add wet apple, cherry or mesquite
wood chips to create smoke.
The largest cuts may require 12 hours of
smoking, so expect to spend six to eight
hours to get a pork roast that’s tender
enough to pull into shreds for sandwiches.
THE PROCESS:
Once you learn the basic technique, it can
be applied to a variety of barbecue meats.
Rub the meat liberally with ballpark
mustard (don’t use Dijon, it doesn’t con-
The perfect
excuse for a
lazy day in the
back yard.
tain enough sugar), then sprinkle heavily
on all sides with your spice rub. Let the
rub stand for 10 minutes to get tacky before you place the meat on the grill.
Build a charcoal fire using natural charcoal (briquettes contain chemicals) and
cook your meat indirectly — i.e. build the
fire under half of the grill and set the meat
on the cool side.
You can place a drip pan under the
meat, and fill it with beer or fruit juice
to add flavor. Some barbecue cooks like
to spritz or mop the meat occasionally
with beer, wine or apple juice to keep the
meat moist.
Add more pre-lit coals as they burn
down to keep the heat even and low, ideally around 200-220˚F. Use wet wood chips,
soaked overnight, for an occasional burst
of smoke. Resist the temptation to open
the lid. You will just lose the heat and add
to your cooking time.
THE EQUIPMENT:
There are all kinds of smokers on the market. You can even smoke your pork butt
indirectly on your gas BBQ, using a special
metal box to hold the wet wood chips over
the flame to create some smoke.
Many competition barbecue teams
use the basic Weber kettle barbecue for
THE EMBELLISHMENTS:
Barbecued meats are so delicious they
need few embellishments. But many
barbecue cooks create their own sauces to
douse the meat once it’s off the smoker.
In the Carolinas, there’s an ongoing
debate about the perfect sauce for pork.
In eastern North Carolina they use a spicy
vinegar-based mustard sauce, and on the
other side of the state they swear by a tomato-based barbecue sauce. In Texas, the
beef brisket usually comes with a smoky
dark tomato-based sauce, sometimes
enhanced with coffee or cocoa.
Ribs are often brushed with barbecue
sauce after they come off the smoker, but
if you’ve removed the fell (skin) from the
back of the rack before smoking, all the
flavour will have infused into the meat,
making sauce unnecessary.
When it comes to pulled pork sandwiches, it’s nice to make a simple cabbage
and carrot slaw to layer on top of the pork
sandwich.
And, of course, nothing goes better with
barbecue than cold beer! West
Cinda Chavich is a Victoria food and travel
writer whose books include High Plains:
The Joy of Alberta Cuisine.
G
DEL
s MO
S t
Wes
OU
TM
12
G 20
RN
WESTE
ZINE
MAGA
DA'S
CANA
RIN
s SP
SGr:ouse, to Albe,rta,
PLU
g on al Road Legally
use
...beca
we
ern l
West
ncia
Fina up
Gro
live
e.
her
We
st
INSI
DE:
HO
LSTE
INS
WEST
ERN
CANA
DA'S
MAGA
ZINE
s
TO
WH
ISK
Ys
EART
HQ
UA
K ES
& TO
RN
AD
OES
s
BC ’S
...b
SpyinOrigin mp – fé
The ing He Nun Ca
GrowHappy
The
ARS
KaBil C
a
tonM,ussell:
s
e
O
v
NE ns
Ste
EdowO
AB Y
West
d
K
0
n
a
R
12of ups ONCINRIDD F
E
eca
use
we
T PR
live
AW
NS
We
Fin stern
Gro ancial
up
her
e.
THOMPsOn FUR TABLe s ALL-WHiTe ORCA s HOW TO COOK sQUAsH
Western Canada's Magazine s Fall/Winter 2012/2013
Western
Financial
Group
sa
y
inside:
SPO
SUMM
ER 20
12
e.c
a
HIS
s Y
RS
ATO
ELEV
ga
zin
NARC
E: A
SID
IN
NTA
RAIN
Ha
v
tw e y
est ou
ma
r
IN
YURT
visi
smoking meats indirectly over charcoal.
A bullet smoker is a simple affair, too. It’s
a bullet shaped dome with two or three
grills, a fire box and water pan below.
The Big Green Egg is the choice of top
chefs, a heavy and very expensive ceramic
egg-shaped smoker modeled after the
classic Japanese kamado. There are now
knock-offs on the market for half the price
— units like the Vision Grills kamado or
the all-metal Big Green Keg.
All have the advantage of holding the
heat for very long periods using little fuel,
and can be used for high temperature
charcoal grilling, much like a wood-burning oven.
Or you can spring for a full competition
rig, the kind of barbecue on wheels, with
offset firebox, that serious barbecue cooks
haul off to shows and big barbecue competitions (a great way to meet like-minded, slow cooking aficionados and pit
masters who can teach you more).
,
IK ES
R
PLU
S:
Wal
Talk king am
Ghosing to ong
tly Sa Dr. Fo rattles
nato th, W nake
rium hale s,
s,
2 people, 12 dogs,
22 days at -40°
r say
.ca
Have you
magazine
visit west
Mushing
to nowhere
PLUs:
Small town shopping, BC’s
jade, Legendary Twelve Foot
Davis, and More
y
r sa ca
you azine.
ve ag
Hasit westm
vi
SUBSCRIBE
NOW!
Western Financial Group’s West
magazine is a celebration of the
western Canadian lifestyle. It’s a
reflection of the spirit and pride
that radiates from the people
who live in the four western
provinces. Simply put, West is
written by western Canadians
for western Canadians about
western Canadians.
Bring West
magazine into
your home!
Call 1-877-963-9333
ext 262
E-mail subscriptions@
redpointmedia.ca
Or mail payment to:
RedPoint Media
Group Inc.
100, 1900 - 11 St. S.E.
Calgary, AB T2G 3G2
West  45
The Reign of Terroir
Story and photo by Cinda Chavich
West Coast
Crab
I
n the US it’s blue crab but on Canada’s west coast it’s Dungies.
Pacific (Dungeness) Crab, named
for a port in Washington state,
scrabble along the bottom in shallow
waters all along Canada’s west coast, from
Vancouver Island north to Prince Rupert
and beyond.
On any given weekend, you’ll find
amateurs tossing their crab traps off the
long wooden pier in Sidney or suspending
them from brightly coloured buoys in
watery inlets. Crab fishing is both a hobby
and a commercial endeavor — and a
uniquely BC fishing experience.
There are more than 100 different
species of crab in BC’s coastal waters but
only two, the Dungeness and Red Rock,
are fished with the Dungy being the larger
of the two.
How to catch them
At gofishbc.com you’ll get all the information you need for a day of crab fishing.
There are specific seasons for crabbing,
but in and around Victoria you can fish
for crab year round. All you’ll need is a
trap (or ring) and a Tidal Waters sport
fishing licence.
Bait the trap with fish heads or other
offal, throw it into an area with eel grass
beds nearby, and wait. In 30 minutes to
two hours, you should have a few edible
specimens.
Don’t set your traps in navigation channels and make sure they’re clearly marked
with colourful buoys.
Only male crabs are taken, and only
those with a carapace, back shell, at least
165 mm wide at the widest point. Females
are thrown back to reproduce.
Tim Webster of High Gear Seafood
brings his catch to Victoria wholesalers
like F.A.S. (Finest At Sea). They also have
a retail store down near Fisherman’s
Wharf where you can buy crab, salmon,
clams and other local seafood.
How to buy them
Webster says the best crab is the largest,
as you’re getting the best meat to shell
ratio and, unlike lobster, there’s no
problem with larger specimens. The
average Dungeness Crab is about 1 to 1.5
pounds, with three or four pair of walking legs and a couple of large pinchers
or claws. The price for crab fluctuates
throughout the year with the lowest prices in mid-summer. When you go to the
fish market, ask for #2 crab and pick one
missing a smaller leg — just a tad less
crab at half the price per pound.
How to cook them
You can cook a whole live crab by plunging it directly into a pot of boiling, salted
water, then cooking, covered, for 10-12
minutes. But it’s easier to have your crab
killed, and cleaned, at the fish market or
on the dock.
Chop the body in half, remove the
shell and viscera, then rinse the rest.
You’ll be left with two halves or “clusters”, each with lots of body meat, the
legs and claws attached. These halves
cook quickly — in just about seven
minutes in boiling salted water.
Then you can eat your crab hot,
straight out of the pot, or plunge it into
ice water to cool completely before
shucking out the meat to use in crab
salads or crab cakes. It’s a fiddly business,
and takes time, which is why crabmeat is
so expensive. But a crab’s easy to shuck.
Just break the body sections apart to
release the meat and pick the rest out of
the claws and legs.
A great way to eat fresh crab is simply
dipped in garlic or lemon butter, with a
nice baguette and bottle of white wine
on the side. Or you can brush the raw
clusters with garlic butter and cook them
on the grill.
For a big feed of crab, cook them like
they do in Louisiana, outdoors over
portable gas flames. Layer the crab halves
in big pots with fresh shucked corn,
new potatoes and onions or even spicy
sausage. Add some salted water and boil
the whole thing up until everything is
steamy and cooked through.
Then you can drain the pot and pour
the whole mess out onto a picnic table
that’s been covered in newsprint. It’s
messy and time consuming to eat but it’s
a summer feast fit for you and a dozen of
your closest friends. West
Protect
yourself
At SGI CANADA, we know you do your best to prepare for the unexpected. That’s why our Western Financial Group brokers offer a wide range of products and services that protect you from life’s mud puddles.
We’ve got you covered.
West  47
backgrounder
nesota’s RenFair. Ontario
hosts the most medieval fairs
in Canada and in Western
Canada major fairs are held
in British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
BC’s annual Renaissance
Fair in Langley happens over
a weekend in July and the
Medieval Faire in Brooks,
Alberta in August. Saskatchewan’s Regina Highland Games
Survival of a small town
Homesteaders began settling
the area around Ogema as early as
1908, in anticipation of the railway
line that soon followed.
With the arrival of the railway
the village flourished and incorporated as a town in 1912. The
community suffered a setback in
January, 1915 when fire destroyed
several Main Street businesses.
Another fire that same year destroyed a livery stable, prompting
the town council to build a fire hall
on one side of Main Street, and a
substantial brick firewall across
the street. Both of these structures
have been restored, along with a
1923 British American Oil Company service station a little farther
along Main Street.
The battle of Castille, 1453, by Philippe Lariviere
Eventually, Europe recovered
and segued nicely into the
Renaissance.
We don’t celebrate the Dark
Ages or the plague much,
but we must like something
about the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance because Medieval and Renaissance fairs
abound across Canada and
the United States.
The US’s largest is Min-
have a medieval component
with groups such as the Society for Creative Anachronism
re-enacting old battles. In
Cooks Creek, Manitoba, the
every-two-years Medieval Fair
runs in July at the church of
the Immaculate Conception.
Performers at the fairs
usually include dancers, musicians, jugglers and acrobats.
Attractions may include
falconry, jousting and archery displays with, perhaps,
a ducking stool to drench a
wench or soak a serf. Misbehavers could find themselves
locked in the stocks.
Medieval costumes aren’t
necessary but male visitors
from all walks of life dress
up as characters like Robin
Hood, William Wallace or
maybe an early medieval
Magyar. Ladies’ costumes
range from long sleeved
dresses under open sided simple tunics to full, flared and
elaborately decorated gowns
and headdresses. Fare at the
fairs can range from wild
boar to roast pig and turkey,
washed down with, naturally,
a tankard of good ale. W
First came the Dark Ages …
A
Courtesy of Deep South Pioneer Museum
fter Rome fell in
the 400s, Europe
slumped through
the Dark Ages
for 600 years while the rest
of what we call the civilized
world did pretty well. Medieval Europe got off to a pretty
good start until the 1300s
when the Bubonic Plague
killed off a third of the population. Back to square one.
backgrounder
Go. Buy. Cook. Eat. Yum.
There are lots of terrific farmers’
markets across the West and most
of them are listed online.
St. Albert Farmers’ Market, St.
Anne and St. Thomas Streets in St.
Albert, Saturdays 10 am to 3 pm,
June 15-October 6.
British Columbia:
Victoria Downtown Farmers
Market, Market Square. Year-round:
Wednesdays 12 pm to 5 pm (April 4–
end October), Saturdays 11 am to
3 pm (1st and 3rd Saturday,
November to March).
Calgary Farmers' Market, 510 77
Ave. S.E., Calgary, Thursday
through Sunday 9 am to 5 pm,
year-round.
Steveston Winter Farmers and
Artisans Market, Inside the Gulf of
Georgia Cannery National Historic
Site. 12138 Fourth Ave. at Chatham
St., corner of 3 Ave. & Moncton St. in
Steveston Village, every second Sunday 11 am to 4 pm, October to April.
Saskatchewan:
Saskatoon Farmers Market at
River Landing, 414 Ave. B South,
Saskatoon, Saturdays 8 am to 2 pm,
Wednesdays and Sundays 10 am to
3 pm, year-round.
Battlefords & District Farmers'
Market Co-op at Battleford Furniture
Thursday morning, Carousel Bingo
parking lot; Saturday morning May
through September; Co-op Mall Saturday morning October through May.
Kelowna Farmers and Crafters
Market, Dilworth and Springfield
Rd., Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8
am to 1 pm, April to October (indoor
winter market from first Saturday in
November to last Saturday in March,
9 am to 1 pm, at Parkinson Recreation
Centre, Harvey Avenue).
Hudson Bay & District Farmers'
Market Co-op, Legion Hall in Hudson Bay, most summer Thursdays
11 am to 3 pm (call Diane at
306-865-4136).
Alberta:
Pincher Creek Pioneer Farmers'
Market, Kootenai Brown Village
(1037 Bev McLachlyn Dr.), Fridays
11 am to 2 pm, June 8-October 12.
Manitoba:
Arnes Farmers’ Market, 16 km (10
miles) north of Gimli on Hwy 222,
Saturdays & Sundays until 2 pm,
May 19 to October 7.
Pineridge Hollow Farmers’ Market,
off Garven Road on Heatherdale
Road N, adjacent to Bird’s Hill Park,
Saturdays 9 am to 1 pm, June 30September 15.
Steinbach Farmers’ Market,
Clearspring Mall east parking lot,
Thursdays 3 to 6:30 pm, June 21October 4. W
After struggling through the
1930s like everywhere else, Ogema
suffered another setback when the
Canadian Pacific Railway ceased
grain hauling from local elevators.
Rather than see the rail line
torn up, six local farmers bought
the branch line from the CPR and
formed Red Coat Road and Rail,
Saskatchewan’s first short-line rail-
way. Local investors also provided
funding and sought out donations
for the Southern Prairie Railway
tourist train, which operates on the
Red Coat right-of-way.
After years of population decline,
Ogema is benefiting from Saskatchewan’s recent boom, stimulated
by the establishment nearby of an
intensive hog production facility,
improving agricultural prospects
and expatriates returning to a slower, simpler lifestyle.
Ogema mayor Wayne Myren,
who has his hands in every heritage
and economic development project
in town, would like to see the house
originally used by the North West
Mounted Police restored, along
with the wooden water tower that
stood beside the railway station.
Ogema received a gold medal
for heritage management from
the International Livable Communities organization in 2008 and
continues to tap its rich vein of
local history with a long to-do list
for the future.
More connections at ogema.ca
and southernprairierailway.com W
West  49
West’s editor rants…
Is English going
backwards?
T
he English language changes
according to the way people
use it and that’s a good thing,
otherwise we’d still be speaking
like Chaucer in the 1390s: “Whan that
Aprille with his shoores soote …”
New words pop up all the time and
other words just about disappear. For
example, it’s probably been a while since
you’ve heard “Gadzooks” and longer
since “Forsooth”. The only place you’ll
hear milady or varlet these days is a
Medieval Faire. New words appear as we
need them, as if by magic: byte, Internet,
hip-hop, wellness.
We’re always getting new versions of
old words; cred (credibility) and props
(proper respect or treatment) are part of
the lexicon, at least for now. New meanings for words like, oh, hustle (from hurry to scam — how did that happen?) enter the language almost daily and grand
old words surprise us in the strangest
contexts and then quickly morph into
something else. “Don’t disrespect me”
had barely entered the linguistic fray
Our language may
be devolving
Normally, changes to English rise or
fall on their own merits. “Cool”, from
the ‘50s is still, well, cool here in 2013;
“groovy”, a child of the ‘60s, was lame
by the ‘70s. English has a way of keeping
the cool and dropping the dopey.
That may be changing.
I’ve been worried about the adverb
for some time (for instance, most people
who say “more importantly” really mean
“more important”) and now it looks like
our pronouns have been hijacked.
And it’s such a boring topic that
nobody pays attention. The mercifully
short (bad) version: “Nobody cares about
their pronouns anymore.” Nobody is
singular and their is plural. It’s not just
bad grammar; it’s confusing because it’s
not at all clear whose pronouns we’re
talking about.
This kind of thing has been going on
quietly for centuries but it’s been accelerating over the last few years. There is
a prima facie case for it but it’s almost
always unnecessary. If there’s a problem using he, him, his as the indefinite
3rd person singular pronouns, we can
always write around it. It’s as easy as, for
example, changing the above sentence to
“People don’t care about their pronouns
anymore.” That would have the salubrious double whammy effect of a) being
correct grammatically and b) being
an untrue statement, because its use
suggests that people do care about their
pronouns.
We can only hope.
Mike McCormick
Illustration by Mike Kerr
when it morphed into “Don’t diss me.”
We shorten things. That may be what
we’re best at: diss, ‘net, and chopping
rock and roll down to just rock and
country and western to just country.
Somehow we’ve managed all these
changes for centuries without an official
language watchdog like the French have.
It’s been great, a nearly perfect flow of
flawless linguistic evolution.
Until now.
Freedom. Comfort. Peace of mind.
Travel
Home
Automotive
Commercial
Collections
Books
Coins
Stamps
Peace
of mind,
you’ve
earned it
Experiencing a loss can be difficult, and although
insurance may relieve you of a ﬁnancial burden, it cannot
totally eliminate the stress and disruption that results
from a loss to your personal belongings. Let Falkins
Insurance Group give you peace of mind by ensuring
you have the perfect insurance policy tailored to cover
the items you enjoy every day—such as jewelry, ﬁne arts,
coin and stamp collections and even golf clubs.
We believe you have the right to enjoy your
lifestyle, not spend time worrying about it.
Falkins is your most trusted insurance
group for over 100 years.
Automotive
Home
www.falkins.com
Travel
A PARTNER OF
1.866.426.2205
Commercial
...becausewe
...because
welive
livehere.
here.
“Financial
“Financialsecurity
securityhas
hasalways
alwaysbeen
beenimportant
importantto
tomy
myhusband
husbandand
andme,
I,
...that’s
...that’s why
why we
we still
still invest
invest through
through Western
Western Financial
Financial Group.”
Group.”
For more information visit or call:
westernfinancialgroup.ca
westernfinancialgroup.ca •• 1-800-THE
1-800-THEWEST
WEST
INVESTMENT
SERVICESee-Be
st Service Guarant
Auto
Auto | | Home
Home | | Business
Business || Farm
Farm || Life
Life |
Travel
| Pet
Pet || Financial
Financial Services
Services

PDF Version - Western Financial Group

Transcription

Similar documents

wlfm-postcard starburst - Westland

Horticulture Innovation Lab Regional Center at Zamorano in Honduras

BBCAN3 Calgary flier.pages

JOSOS project completed (PDF Document)

PDF Image - XII Manitoba Dragoons Museum

Inside Saskatchewan - SEDA - Saskatchewan Economic

attached

opportunity in saskatchewan

Join a Club Make a Difference

Medieval Times