Herman Crescent resident Pat Rhodes is asking anyone who lost Christmas decorations from outside their home to contact her, as they may be the ones she found spread around her property.

“We found some laying in the street in front of our house then we found more laying in the alley behind our house,” said Rhodes about her Dec. 4 and 5 discoveries. “The one in the front was the Abominable Snowman and he was claimed and then in the back there was a candle and a couple strings of lights and one of those white spirals…they’re supposed to look like a Christmas tree when you stand them up. Then there was three light-up gifts with a star and another set of lights attached to it.”

Rhodes said the candle and one string of lights was claimed by the United Church and returned, but the Christmas tree spiral, the gift bags and a string of blue LED lights is still in their possession. She said all the lights are still in working order and nothing seems too damaged.

“We’ve had some people phone asking about reindeer, but nope there wasn’t any reindeer,” she said. “So there was more (decorations stolen around town) and I guess the Catholic Church had some stolen too, but they found theirs by the school.”

Rhodes said there hasn’t been any mention to her of anyone else around town who found missing decorations. She said the job right now is just to get these ones back to their rightful owner before Christmas comes.

“It’s just they’re here for whomever that they belong to to come and claim them.”

The largest crop in Saskatchewan’s history and record yields all across Western Canada has resulted in some strains in grain being moved by trains this fall, but when taken in perspective everything is going smoothly.

Derrick Vetter, general manager of Cargill Ltd. in Davidson, said local producers have had “pretty good crops” the past four or five years while other parts of Western Canada have suffered through wet land, problems seeding or the crop just not coming in as big. He said this year is different as there are big crops spread out all across Western Canada.

“We’ve been lucky and maybe a little bit spoiled the last couple years when we’ve had good crops and good quantity and good quality, so we’ve been probably able to get a little bit more than our fair share when we talk (about) our local marketplace here, between the two cities and either end between the lakes,” said Vetter. “Now that this year when everybody has lots of quantity and for the most part the same quality it’s just getting spread out over a much bigger geography.”

Last week Statistics Canada estimated Saskatchewan’s 2013 crop is 38.4 million tonnes, which is 40 per cent above 2012 production and 48 per cent above the 10-year average. It further indicates this province’s canola crop is estimated to the largest on record at 8.9 million tonnes, an increase of 37.5 per cent over 2012. Production levels for wheat, canola, peas, lentils, chickpeas, oats and flax are all estimated to be above the 10-year average.

Vetter said this has resulted in a bit of a delay in grains being moved by trains, but it’s more company specific and they are “probably not” experiencing much of one. He said they still have a little bit of October grain to move, but for the most part they’re fairly current.

“When we’ve actually started looking into as far as trains running this year versus previous years, other than the month of October for us, we’re probably ahead of where we typically would be this time of year as far as shipping by rail,” he said. “It’s one of those things. There is lots of talk about the doom and gloom, (but) I think if people were to look at the stats it’s maybe not as bad as what the perception is out there.”

A Canadian Grain Commission release last week showed exports of Western Canadian grain to be higher this year to date compared to data from the same time last year and the five-year average. It states the volume of grain shipped by producer cars is also higher than at the same time last year.

As of Nov. 24, the Canadian Grain Commission states 5.1 million tonnes of wheat and 2.3 million tonnes of canola have been exported this crop year. The five-year average for exports of wheat by this time is 3.9 million tonnes and for canola 1.8 million tonnes.

That means 2013 exports have seen a 31 per cent increase in wheat exports and a 28 per cent increase in canola exports compared to the five-year average. This amounts to Western Canadian producers shipping 105,700 tonnes of wheat and 5,500 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by producer car, while in the 2012-2013 crop year producers shipped 64,600 tonnes of wheat and 5,300 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by this time.

To read more please see the December 9 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

It was the time when the Soviet Union was falling, the Berlin Wall was crumbling and apartheid was ending.
Important events that changed the world.
Closer to home, however, all newly engaged couple Colleen McMasters and Mark Frobisher want to do is plan a simple wedding.
They soon find out that nothing is simple when two completely different sets of parents get involved. Add some bridesmaids who are girls who just want to have fun, a cast of other eccentric characters, the unexpected appearance of an old girlfriend, set it to the soundtrack of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and you have the makings of a pretty good musical comedy.
The version of Altar Egos, presented Nov. 28-30 by Davidson’s Kinsmen Club and Davidson Community Performers, was made great by the comedic and musical talents of the community’s performers.
From the band that played the music, the choir that provided the beautiful voices, to the actors on the stage, all turned in exceptional performances. Some gave memorable ones. Everyone in town now knows who Cory Dean is.
Mandy Tichit, delivered a Melissa McCarthy worthy performance as bridesmaid Maxine.
Appropriately big-haired Kelly Allan, as Colleen, conveyed the stress felt by many a bride-to-be who was foolish enough to have not eloped, despite her father’s (played by Peter Sarich) $20,000 incentive. Jason Low, as Mark, whose idea it was to have a simple wedding in the first place, quickly learns that nothing is simple when it comes to planning nuptials.
The audiences were appreciative of performers’ efforts and those of director Arlene Low, co-director Karen Reich and musical director Tracy Hodgins.
It took a lot of work, countless hours of preparation by cast and crew. In return, audiences received an evening of excellent entertainment and the opportunity to see yet another side, this one tie-dyed, of Jim Cross.

The Davidson United Church is trying something new in order to build the spiritual well being of the community and the individuals within it.

Mary Smillie, a leader with the multi-faith Rural Spirit Study project initiated by the Davidson United Church, said they are going to be installing “around $10,000” worth of audio-visual equipment in the church, so they can use the resources of the Internet to start content-driven conversations among community members. She said this would be phase two of the three-phase $30,000 research project that is funded by the United Church of Canada and is being conducted by the church and the Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry (CiRCLe M) in Saskatoon.

“We saw, ourselves as a congregation, the need to understand better what it is that makes people’s spirit tick,” said Smillie about the purpose of the Rural Spirit Study. As “a church we’re supposed to exist for that, but as everybody can see in Canada and North America church populations are generally dwindling. That doesn’t mean people don’t still have a spirit that they want to nurture and we as a church need to change how we approach people from a spiritual point of view. We can’t do that unless we understand what it is that makes people’s spirit tick.”

Smillie said the word spirit is representative of things such as wonder, awe, and a person’s purpose, meaning, and connectivity in the world. She said religion is “not essential” in the steps they are taking to nurture the spirit of the community and individuals in the community.

“The end goal would be to take what generations before us built in terms of this church and this structure and this space…and continue to have it evolve and expand in what it does to be more relevant to more people in this community,” she said, noting they are not trying to get more people to attend United Church services with this project.

Cam Harder, executive director of CiRCLe M, said phase one of the study identified a number of factors through focus group research that resulted in a sense of spiritual well being in a person. He said one of these factors is the importance of having a place where people can have a content rich conversation about things that are important to them and that is something the church can provide using some of the funds from the scholarship.

“People felt that having these conversations was a really rich experience, so we thought what if we set up a space where we can for example Skype somebody in on a large screen TV from anywhere in the world really who could share something really interesting with us and we could have a back-and-forth with them,” said Harder, noting they could also show the self-development video TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks or YouTube videos and then have conversations about them. “We could (also) have the young people come in and they could share their favourite content piece from the Web…and it would allow for some intergenerational sharing of resources. It would allow for some content rich conversations.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The community will gather Dec. 11 to celebrate the inaugural lighting of Davidson’s Memory Bulb Tree.
Davidson’s public works department, with the aid of the town’s bucket truck, was perched high in the sky last Wednesday, stringing lights atop the tall evergreen tree beside Davidson’s town hall.
At 7 p.m. next Wednesday, the memory bulbs will be lit and the names of the people for whom the bulbs were purchased will be read aloud. After this, everyone is invited into the town hall to enjoy fellowship, Christmas music and refreshments of coffee, hot chocolate and cookies.
The aim is to have a simple festive gathering where people may gather and share the community spirit, says Erin Gust, of Davidson’s Communities in Bloom committee.
People may purchase a bulb on the string of lights as a tribute to someone. Some bulbs are being bought in memory of a loved one or friend who has passed away. Others are being bought to signify an individual who is special or important in someone’s life.
The memory bulb tree is a joint fund-raiser for Communities in Bloom and the new swimming pool fund.
Davidson’s Communities in Bloom committee borrowed the idea from Dundurn where last year more than 900 light bulbs were purchased, setting the town’s spruce tree aglow and helping raise $20,000 towards building a new fire hall.
Davidson hopes its tree will similarly light up the night sky as people consider buying a bulb for a loved one this Christmas
There is still time to buy a memory bulb. They are available for purchase at the town office, local businesses and from members of Communities in Bloom and the swimming pool facility committee.