DAVIDSON—At the Fire and Water community auction Saturday, April 8 a crew of recent recruits received pins recognizing their one-year of service with Davidson Volunteer Fire Department.

But they’ll have to stick with it for 39 more years if they hope to match the ranks of fire department Captain Jim Schmit. He received a 40-year service pin acknowledging his longevity with the department. He also received an engraved watch for this distinguished service.

Schmit said the gesture was quite unexpected. He was happy to receive the watch.

“For 50 years, maybe I’ll get a walker with a red light and siren” he later joked.

He hasn’t any plans to give up firefighting. He enjoys the department and being part of the service it provides to the community.

“I’ll keep going until they tell me not to come,” he said.

He joined back in 1978, answering a call for volunteers because the department was short on personnel.

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DAVIDSON—A person can be forgiven for casting a wary look to the sky after seeing Greg Johnson’s black and orange tornado hunting pickup truck cruise down main street and park in front of Davidson’s town hall.

Fortunately, the third day of April is still too early in this part of the world for the tornado season.

Instead of chasing storms, Johnson was in Davidson to address a crowd of Riverbend Co-op employees who were at the Davidson Community Centre for the Co-op’s Branding Day event. Johnson, who makes a living as a professional storm chaser and photographer, also pays the bills as a motivational speaker. He was the keynote speaker, an end-of-day treat for those in attendance, who got to go home with not only a better awareness of Co-op brands, but an inspirational message relayed in a humourous and entertaining way.

“I believe all the best stuff in life involves risk,” he said. “These are the good things in life…falling in love, starting a business….”

He said even buying a boat, putting it on the water and taking your kids fishing is a risky thing.

He took a big risk when he left a career in the communications and marketing industry to become a professional storm chaser.

When he started, Johnson said his business model was to go out, take pictures of storms and market them.

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DAVIDSON—When the snow is gone, town council intends to take a tour of Davidson’s Community Cemetery.

Coun. Todd Lockwood, who is also the community’s funeral director, suggested council go through the cemetery and look at it with a critical eye.

“The whole council should go out there and see what I see, because I’m the one who takes the heat,” he said, adding that the condition is not too bad, the biggest problem is maintenance, or lack there of.

One of the first tasks to address the maintenance issue is the removal of grave covers.

“A lot of communities have been heavy-handed and just removed them, but I think we could be more sensitive about it,” he said, suggesting that damaged and sunken grave covers be the first ones to be removed.

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By Tara de Ryk

DAVIDSON—Of all the pigs roaming the land at Cobblestone Farm, Joanna Shepherd admits to having a favourite.

A purebred Berkshire sow named Pickle is closest to her heart.

“She’s just a really good mom,” Joanna says as the object of her affection tends to her three-week-old piglets. They are asleep on a bed of straw, soaking up the sun on the first day spring.

The pigs have free-range at Cobblestone Farm, although during farrowing season, as it is now, the sows and their piglets’ room to roam is somewhat curtailed to fenced-in corrals in the farmyard so Joanna can keep an eye on things.

Most of the sows and the registered Berkshire pigs have names. Joanna points to one sow. “She’s Bonnie—on a good day.” Joanna says, adding, “She’s not super duper smart.”

They have Gertie, a registered Berkshire who had that name when the Shepherds acquired her. Another one is called Punky because it came with three rings in her nose. Somewhere on the farm a sow named Pitter Patter is wandering around. Joanna says she named her that because when she was born, it was very cold outside and her mother laid on her so Joanna took the piglet off her and bottle fed her in the house. She called her Pitter Patter for the sound the tiny piglet’s hooves made while wondering around the house.

And then there’s Pancake, thus named a couple of years ago after she was found laying under a hay bale that had fallen on her.

Joanna figures she was under the bale for two days until they realized what had happened.

“Pigs have a will to live. They’re a lot better than sheep. Sheep have a will to die,” she says.

She was raised on a family sheep and cattle farm in England, so she has a lifetime of experience on which to base this opinion.

Pancake is due to farrow soon. Joanna checks to see if her milk has come in. It’s not there yet, so Joanna won’t be straying too far from Cobblestone Farm.

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