Long weekend was hard to beat

That was a long weekend hard to beat! The much-needed rain came before most of us started our weekend and then we had sunshine for the rest of it.
Unfortunately, dampened the Rainy River First Nations’ annual fish fry but the meal still was top of the line.
Cliff Westover was the lucky winner of the weekly “Catch the Ace” draw, pocketing $400. But Cliff choose envelope # 8, which contained the queen of spades, which means the progressive pot will be roughly $4,500.
This week, the draw will be made on Saturday at 8 p.m. during the Emo Walleye Classic and we will make our draw on Saturday night at 8 p.m.
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Saturday was a busy day with the sheep again. We vaccinated all but three ewes and it was the first chance to make use of our new sheep handling system (it was much easier than wrestling them, let me tell you!)
The lambs still are small enough that we just picked them up and gave them their vaccinations and tags. The last ewe lambed Saturday, as well, so we can cross that off our list!
They all are doing well and soon will be out of the barn (happy dance!) The tentative date for shearing is June 9 and we will have some very happy sheep.
We also are planning to have the alpacas sheared this year. We understand people often only shear every second year but we’re all still learning about our new animals.
The alpacas have attracted a lot of company and it has been fun to show them off.
Marlee had her “country” birthday party Sunday/Monday so there was a steady stream of girls with them. They even had a wedding ceremony and no adults were allowed in the barn for this big event!
Having all these kids around are great for the animals. The girls all went home very tired and very dirty (I’m sure their moms may have wanted to hose them off at the door).
We have a week off before the second “country” birthday party hits.
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If you are looking for any red pine or white spruce seedlings, please get to the Emo Agricultural Research Station as soon as possible. We don’t have many left but the sooner they are gone, the better!
They come in bundles of 20 for $5.
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The Rainy River Federation of Agriculture is hosting an all-candidates’ meeting tomorrow night (May 24) at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of the Way School in Stratton.
I hope you will take time to come out and meet the candidates.
Thanks to RRFA for hosting this event!
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After last week’s rain, some of our plots are emerging out the ground. So are the weeds.
We really are pleased with how well our hops are doing. We have all the strings up now and the plants are beginning to climb!
We must spend a few minutes every day ensuring that they are climbing up the string but it appears they do that very well.
We will finish planting the yard early June!