If you like to place the occasional wager, I suggest you buy a ticket or two for the new “Cow Pie 50/50 PLUS” raffle at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s Harvest Fall Festival on Sunday, September 12th. Since this is the raffle’s first year at the Festival, the museum has decided to scale things back… and, in the process, improve your chances of winning. Instead of selling400 tickets at $10 each, the total is now only 225. The prize structure though remains the same: on top of the grand prize winner, four bonus prizes of $75 will be awarded after the winning 50/50 number has been selected.
What makes this raffle unique is that a member of the Holstein family will choose the winning number. Here’s how it will work. A grid of numbered squares will be painted on a field and enclosed with a fence. On raffle day, a cow will be turned loosed inside the enclosure. If all goes according to plan, Bessie will leave a cow pie on one of the squares. And, if the number on that square matches the one on your raffle ticket, you win. For all the details, check out the raffle rules posted on the GPM web site. There’s a “click here” link in the “Details” section of the Fall Festival page.
There are two ways to purchase a ticket: online and in-person. If you’re comfortable using the Internet, virtual raffle tickets are just a few clicks away thanks to the museum’s convenient new e-Box Office at GlengarryPioneerMuseum.ca. You don’t have to attend to win, but the Harvest Festival promises to be a lot of fun. So, while you’re at it, you could also purchase your admission ticket(s) in advance. Doing so will help reduce potential bottlenecks at the entrance gates.
If you’d prefer an actual printed ticket, they’re available at the museum in Dunvegan, Caisses Desjardins in Alexandria and St. Isidore and the Dalkeith Plus Library in, you guessed it, Dalkeith. You can also contact Matt Williams (613-525-0796), Linda Fraser (613-527-2572) and Louise Leblanc Mazur from the Twistle Guild of Glengarry (613-527-7720). The raffle is for a very good cause and your support is much appreciated.
Harvest table reminder
With less than two weeks to go before the Fall Festival, I thought I should check in with Barb Newman, the volunteer in charge of the Harvest Sale Tent and see how the donations were coming along. I know that round about now the person in charge worries if they’ll have enough and start trying to fill the tables all by themselves. Barb reports that people are being very generous when it comes to sharing the fruits of their kitchens and gardens. Nevertheless, she admits that she’ll “start baking any time now… just like Terry did.” If you can, give her a call at 613-361-2703 and confirm what you’ll being contributing to the sale… be it pies, breads, cakes, cookies and squares, jams, jellies, pickles, garden produce or plants.
Colossal zuke contest
Barb also asked me to mention an additional attraction at this year’s Harvest Sale Tent: a “Glengarry’s Largest Zucchini” contest. I don’t have a lot of details at this point, but it’s not rocket science. Select a worthy specimen from your garden patch… securely attach a tag to it with your name and phone number… and drop it off at the Harvest Sale Tent on the day of the Festival. The heaviest entry will win the Surprise Prize. And no, you don’t have to be in attendance to win.
Mum’s day in Dunvegan
If you’re having difficulty finding a pot of mums in our local retail outlets, Dunvegan’s annual Memorial Sunday service on September 5th could be to blame. This special day of remembrance is when family and friends gather in the Kenyon Presbyterian Church to commemorate loved ones who are buried in the Dunvegan graveyard. Worship starts at 11:00. Unfortunately, because of Covid precautions, no Memorial Sunday luncheon will be served. Donations in support of the church’s cemetery are especially welcome. I also wanted to remind Dunvegan parishioners to reset their alarm clocks. Next Sunday’s service is the last one starting at 11 for a while. As of September 12th and continuing to the end of the calendar year, worship at Dunvegan’s Kenyon Presbyterian Church will commence at 9:30 am.
Fidget blanket report
Last week, I spoke with honourary Dunveganite Rosemary Chatterson about her fidget blanket project. She designs, creates and donates colourful mini quilts covered with engaging objects like buttons, zippers, snaps, cords and bells. For those suffering with autism, Alzheimer’s or dementia, the blankets help restore calm by providing tactile stimulation for restless, fidgety hands. To see what one looks like, check out Rosemary’s “Hillcrest Stitchery” page on Facebook.
Early in August, I mentioned that Rosemary would welcome donations of fabric and fidget items. And I’m delighted to report that a number of readers answered the call. Some dropped by with mattress pads, zippers, thread, large buttons, keys and tassels. Others showed their support through monetary donations, one of which… a cheque for $500… left her speechless. It also sparked a shopping spree at dollar stores from here to Maniwaki that will form the basis of many future fidget blankets. Thank you.
A farewell to bulls
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the highlights of my week is the periodic email (sometimes plural) that I periodically receive from reader Ken McEwen in Blackburn Hamlet. While he and his wife Chris travelled the world with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, their roots are here in Kenyon. In last week’s missive, he mused on how my reference to the cultural change in rural communities brought on by radio and other technologies had triggered for him a totally unrelated thought.
As Ken pointed out, one technical advance I had overlooked was in animal husbandry and the introduction of artificial insemination. It not only offered farmers a previously unimagined range of semen from prize bulls with excellent track records, it also made farming safer. Bulls have a reputation for being notoriously dangerous, with hair-trigger personalities that can change from docile to violent, on a dime. As way of an example, Ken told me about the pampered bull calf his father raised from the moment
it was born. One day, when fully grown, the bull turned on his father out of the blue. And this was no love tap. The raging animal smashed him
through the two-inch pine blanks separating one box stall from another. “Fortunately, he was able to scramble free and out of the stall to safety,” Ken wrote. “Minus a new pair of overalls, which the bull ripped off him.” And this wasn’t a one-time event. From that day forth, whenever his father entered the stable, the bull would fly into a rage. The only solution was to call the drover.
In those days, bulls were an ever-present concern. “When Lionel Michaud and I roamed the neighbourhood as young lads, if there was a herd in the field, we studied it carefully to see if there was a bull among the cows,” Ken told me. “If there was, we stayed within running distance of the fence.”
As I posited to Ken, this sea change in animal husbandry also had an impact on our modern cultural zeitgeist. The once-common meme of a raging bull chasing a city slicker across a farmer’s field popped up frequently in cartoons during the first half of the 20th century… both print and animated. Today though, bulls have virtually disappeared, apart from in Wall Street iconography, on cans of energy drinks and at the beginning of an eight-letter expletive.
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