It鈥檚 Monday morning, the start of another week. After having such a nice weekend it鈥檚 raining. Good for the hay crops and of course the gardens. They say it helps the fishing and that鈥檚 a plus.

A quote from Mark Twain which I quote quite often 鈥淓veryone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.鈥� Maybe a good thing as just might mess it up too.

Picnic

On June 10 the First Mennonite Church held church services and the school picnic at the Francois Lake School. It was a very pleasant service with the children opening the service with singing.

The regular service with Larry Larson as speaker. After the service everyone went into the playground for a picnic lunch followed by ice cream cones and watermelon.

All the children had a grand time on the swings etc. Picnics are always a lot of fun and help to wear off all the energy and of course have fun too.

Thanks for the invitation too. How well I remember the camp fires and the picnics we used to have in my growing up years. They never came around often enough or it seemed to me.

Boats

It seems I always remark every week on the lovely boats out on the lake. Lots of them are large enough to go out on the salt chuck and no doubt they do. I guess they have to take lots of fuel especially running wide open as they seem to be doing.

A far cry from our old 25 footers with a 10 h.p. outboard on the back. One advantage they were much easier on fuel but of course took longer to get there. We seemed to have more time in those years back then. As some guy said 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 stop progress鈥� and I would figure he is right.

Sports day

This morning I went up to the Francois Lake School to watch their sports day. What a day it was too. There were so many kids having a great time working off their energy.

It looked like lots of fun. So much energy. Everything so well organized so all the kids could take part. There were lots of treats too to help make it a real sports day. I didn鈥檛 realize there were so many youngsters at the school.

I was told almost 100 in attendance. Lots of dads, moms and grandparents were there too. Everyone likes to watch the kids sports. Now many years ago when they used to have the little old one room school, to open a school there had to be seven pupils and to keep it open there had to be five. How times have changed. I have been very fortunate to have seen it all, and all for the better as time goes on.

Bad accident

Another bad accident on Hwy. 16 outside of Prince George last week, and a bad one. Traffic was tied up for over three hours. We have had more than our fair share of accidents on the Yellowhead.

These tie-ups would be a disaster if an emergency ambulance trip got caught up in such an accident.

This is one reason that our new hospital must be able to handle all emergencies with an operating room rather than depend on ambulance service.

Every year our highways are getting more and more congested so more accidents on our highway will be the outcome.

No we can not rely on our highway always being open. The heavy truck traffic is also increasing so that could cause more congestion and Hwy. 16 is not able to hand this kind of traffic.

Plus the tourists trailers, boats, campers etc., it鈥檚 a busy highway and getting more so. I stand to be corrected as some folks had to wait for five hours for the traffic to clear.

No show

I notice a picture in the last paper showing the empty chair in the council chamber, looks like either folks are too busy or don鈥檛 care, could be a little bit of both.

Maybe serve lunch, nothing like a cup of coffee and a donut to bring folks out, it鈥檚 worth a try. Kind of like the donkey and the carrot.

House cleaning

Of late I have been cleaning out a few corners that have been in the house forever or just about. We have an old clothes closet hidden in a corner.

There were some 4-10 shells I wanted and low and behold I picked up an old handbag.

I shook it out, there were some papers and in the very bottom there was a beautiful bracelet of engraved copper.

I had never seen Jo wear it, it鈥檚 a treasure and to think I almost threw it out.

The family do remember their mother wearing it. Many of the oldtimers used to wear a copper bracelet as they used to say it would draw any poison out of their system.

I never saw my dad without one, he wore it for all the years I remember him. Whenever it went black it was drawing the poison out of his system especially arthritis.

Dad had a hard life but he never had arthritis he always said the copper drew it out of his system.

It sure worked for him. Lots of the oldtimers used to wear a copper bracelet and they said it worked.

I still have Dad鈥檚 bracelet. I would like to hear from anyone who was either seen or heard about wearing a copper bracelet it would be interesting.

Letters

In the letters section of our local paper you will notice a letter with the headline 鈥樠侵尢焯� Lake you deserve better鈥� by Dave Williams.

Everyone should read it as he has given us all something to think about. He is not afraid to speak out. A pat on the back for you Dave Williams.

Take care and have a safe week. Slow down and enjoy the spring, it鈥檚 God鈥檚 handiwork showing us all his wonders, it鈥檚 so precious. Always remember God loves you and so do I.