Around Innisfail, Hockey, Fire, and Ice

Just got in from a walk with my dog Nickey.  It was a bit chilly, especially as we are less than a week away from April.  The weather (always an interesting topic) has been a might unusual lately – colder than usual with our share of storms it seems.  A few times mother nature has teased us with some nice warm sunny days, but then throws us back into winter.

I really like getting out around Innisfail, as they have an excellent walking trail system.  My hats off to the town of Innisfail employees who keep the trails cleaned so that those of us who enjoying walking can do so safely.  Good Job!

Out walking, I see the large piles of snow beside all the driveways from the recent snow storm.  I am sure that many are not happy with all the snow.  I know my boys were grumbling about shoveling.

But I am happy it snowed.  Being a farmer all my life – I never want to say no to moisture.  Especially as I farm out in Saskatchewan where we are not quite as blessed with summer rainfall as the farmers around Innisfail.  And these types of snows at this time of year are excellent for the farmers (unless you are calving).  The fresh snow seems to slow down the regular melt allowing more water to seep into the soil, as well as the new snow itself melts right where it lands, not all blown away in trees, fence lines and sloughs like the regular winter snow.  So the tops of the hills get some well-deserved moisture.  And this snow hit a good portion of the prairies, so I am sure farmers in places like Oyen, Compeer, Macklin and Kindersley are very happy with the extra moisture.

Around town a few activities happening.  Big news was the fire at Bigfoot sports on the corner of main street.  The fire wiped out the building leaving a regrettable whole in our classic looking main street.  More information on the history of that building can be found at the Innisfail Province in this excellent article.

The Innisfail Minor Hockey Association held their wind-up banquets this week.  On Tuesday night the young kids – from Tyke to Atom enjoyed pizza and some end of year reminiscing.  And then on Wednesday night the Peewees, Bantams and Midgets had their chance for Pizza, awards and horse play.

On a final note, I was at our regular monthly Library Trustees meeting last week.  Things at the Innisfail Library our going well, Colleen our librarian does an excellent job.  The library will be having a booth at the Innisfail Trade show coming up in April, an InnisfailOnline.com will be sponsoring the library booth.  So make plans to come down on April 17-18 to check out the library booth.  As for the new library that we are planning on building, the town has applied for funding through both the provincial and federal governments, so now we are hoping that things go well and we are able to move ahead with buidling a new – and desparately needed – Library.

Here at InnisfailOnline we are looking for volunteers to help make the site better.  We want this to be your home on the net.  So let us know if you can help us out by contributing a story, reporting the news, or any other ideas you have.

Thanks,   Jack Zenert

Category: Around Town