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From the Smoky lake Signal, February 27, 1980. CBC Comes to Smoky Lake When CBC comes to town - it really comes to town. Handing out knitted toques and silk-screened T-shirts as they went, a crew from CBC Edmonton's Alberta Today fanned out across Smoky Lake on Monday to meet the merchants and talk to the people. They were getting the town ready for its starring role in the first-ever Radio Week promotion by CBC, which runs from February 24 through March 1. By noon, the ingredients for the Smoky lake broadcast were gathered in Town Hall. The hall was half filled with the nervous ones - those soon to be interviewed - and half filled with those townspeople who had come to see how a live radio show is done. It's done like clockwork. Six technicians and announcers were in stage center, surrounded by wires, microphones and monitors. First the deeply resonant voices of show host Garnet Anthony and agricultural commentator Dennis Sherbanuk ran through the weather reports, the cattle prices and the various out-of-prairie spots. Then, on cue from producer Kathryn O'Hara, the local interviews began. What followed was a tense and emotional, yet relief-filled two hours as the professionals from Edmonton helped each of the locals turn fears of embarrassment into the joy and satisfaction of being able to to say what each had always wanted to say about his or her life and the community.
Expert View of County's Farm Trends District Agriculturalist Grant Gillund took CBC Dennis Sherbanuk on a short philosophical tour of the mixed farming of Smoky Lake County. The "tour" went from the beef cattle operations in teh soutehrn part of the county to the many hog barns starting to appear in the south. Dairy cattle are just beginning to be important, Mr. Gillund said, and will grow in numbers now tha tthere is a dairy products processing plant in the town of St. Paul. While the trend in this area is toward larger farms, the agriculturalist said, the county is still mostly made up of family farms, owned by local persons. The trend here is similar to what happened in the 1950s in southern Alberta, with larger farms more specialization in cattle, hogs and -- and lots of rapeseed. The lack of hopper cars? not much of a problem yet, Mr. Gillund said, but bad on the farmers when they can't deliver because the elevators are plugged. High interest rates? really tough for young farmers starting out, but most of the people here still have a sense of optimism. "We've had some fair prices lately. The crunch hasn't come yet," Mr. Gillund declares. The Man Who Helps Farmers Grow More For Roger Cole, the ten minute interview on CBC was a dream come true. It was his best chance to tell an interested audience of farmers the value of the products he has to offer them. Mr. Cole is the local dealer for Shell bulk fuel and an agent for Sherritt Fertilizer. He said that, when he came to the area three and a half years ago, anhydrous and bulk custom blended fertilizers weren't available. The 40 mile drive for farmers to pick up supplies ended when Cole's Farm Service built their bulk plant. With costs of production high, every winter, farmers are always saying they will cut costs by summer fallowing instead of seeding. But, because land prices are also high, Mr. Cole said, the farmers have to face the fact that they can't take the land out of production. Three years ago, top land was $55,000 per quarter section; this year its going for $74,000 to $80,000 per quarter. Both younger and older farmers are realizing that, to get maximum production out of the land, they have to go the full route and fertilize it well. One of the problems of continual cropping is Canada Thistle. But, Mr. Cole said, the farmer is becoming more specialized in weed control and more scientific. There also is a greater emphasis now on soil sampling, Mr. Cole said. Yet farmers still seem reluctant to follow the advice the government gives them on their samples, simply because of the costs. It's hard to tell a farmer he has to put on $25 per acre worth of fertilization this year when $7 went on last year. With land in this are constantly changing from a No. 1 soil to sandy soil within the same quarter, there is a real need for this type of soil management, Mr. Cole said. When the Museum Should be Ready "By spring of 1981, we should have the Smoky Lake and district museum opened," said Steve Romanchuk, president of the Cultural and Heritage Society, to the CBC radio audience. The Town of Smoky Lake donated the four acres of land beside the complex and the county has donated the old Victoria School, No. 75, to house the artifacts, Romanchuk said. "By Spring, we'll have it moved from its present site on the HAK School grounds to the full concrete basement," he continued," This week the Pakan Ferry, donated by the provincial government, should be placed on site to act as a footbridge across the small stream on the property." It was Father Loren Kubin who started the project in 1975, Mr. Romanchuk said, "and to him should go the credit." When the museum is completed, the heirlooms and handbuilt tools of the pioneer era will be properly displayed.
Ups and Downs of Starting a Hog Farm Farmer Bill Serben spoke to the CBC audience on the joys and sorrows of starting out in the hog business in the 1980s. He leases three quarters from his father and two more from neighbors. "There is just no way a young farmer can start out owing $200,00 to $400,000 for the land," Mr. Serben said, "So we leased. At the end of the lease, the arrangement is that I buy the farm. That way, everyone in the family gets a share." Until then, he has risked erecting a $100,000 hog barn on leased land. "Hopefully, hog prices will go up and the problems of delivery will be sorted out," Mr. Serban said. "When you have payments to make and can't sell the hogs, you've got problems." On the joyful side of farming, Mr. Serben mentioned the independence and ability to be your own boss. He said he does feel that before a young farmer settles down to take over the family farm he should get out, spend a few years in the city and find out what that type of life is about. "It'll make you appreciate the life you have on the farm. (Click here to jump to a story about Bill Serben in 1999!)
Saving Hanmore Lake for Sports Fishermen Dennis Holowaychuk brought his fight to keep commercial fishermen away from Hanmore Lake to the airwaves of CBC Radio Week. That's one of the battles he has been leading for the past year as president of the Waskatenau, Warspite and Smoky Lake Fish and Game Associations. When he was at the mike here, he told his audience that the commercial boys fished in the 600 acre lake in the 1950s - and then they did it again in June of 1979. Mr. Holowaychuck's goal is to keep them from coming back anymore. "It's just too small a lake to support both commercial and sport fishing," he said Monday. "It also is an important lake, because its one of the few lakes where you can angle for white fish and catch them." The delegation of the fish and game association sent to St. Paul last year, with 779 names on petitions, convinced the government that it should reduce the annual commercial fishing catch to half the origional 10,000 pound quota. "Ironically, they couldn't even catch that many fish in the time allotted," he said. "It just proved our point that the lake can't handle that kind of demand." The problem of cleaning up the beaches in the county also was brought out in his interview. The county should be willing to put more effort into keeping the beaches and campgrounds clean - more effort than just the July-August Student Temporary Employment program, said the fish and game president. The club has offered to send men out to pick up garbage in May and June, in September and October - "if the county pays for a truck to haul the mss to the dumps, but they won't. They turned us down."
A Remembering of Life in the Depression Joe Beilish is one of those who lived through the depression. "People were begging for jobs when I went to school," said the husband of Senator Martha Beilish, in his interview here on CBC. "The doctors and lawyers couldn't pay for 50 pounds of flour at the mill I worked at. that was when I decided to go on the farm. If nothing else, I could eat. "No one tried to make money in those days," Mr. Beilish reminisced. "They had big families, and a good life. The schools were filled, the kids provided baseball and hockey teams. We were a nation of participants, not fans, and we were happier because of it. "Work, yes," Mr. Beilish concluded. "We could and did work. The Smoky Lake area shipped 300 pigs a week. they couldn't do that kind of production again. With a small farm, a farmer can get off the debt cycle and be happy as master of his own destiny."
Helping the Elderly Stay Independent In their part of the CBC Radio Week broadcast from Smoky Lake, Public Health nurses Marion Lalonde and Pat Chern spoke of the need for Preventive Social Services (PSS). Mrs. Lalonde said that although the area has twice as many elderly people as the provincial average, there is no program of help for them, no meals on wheels, no homemakers or handyman service. "The people who most want to retain their independence and remain in their homes can't, because the support services are not provided," she added. "Our problem is in convincing both the local town council and the county what their needs are because they're hard to put down on paper," Mrs. Lalonde said. Nurse Chern said that the lack of PSS has prevented the implantation of a Home Care Program in the area. This program which was designed to allow patients to leave the hospitals and get medical care in their home surroundings, "can't be implemented until meals on wheels can supply the patient with a hot cooked meal and the homemaker service can keep the home in a livable shape." she declared. "There are a great bunch of people in the area," Mrs. Chern said, " and they want to stay in their home, with dignity and independently." "Eighty percent of the funding for PSS is provided by the province and the remaining twenty percent comes from the local governments," she continued. "The Town of Smoky Lake felt the 20 percent was too much to carry on their own and suggested that PSS organizers push to have the County of Smoky Lake participate. The county said no. "Our next step is to approach the various volunteer groups in the area and document what we feel are the proven needs," said Mrs. Chern, "then take the results back to the county and the town councils."
Priest Whose Work is Never Done CBC Consumer Commentator Ethel Marliss found Father Loren Kubin, of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension, to be not just different - but an extremely hard working young man. She said she had never in her life met a priest who served eight parishes, attended university part-time and, when needed, would help make flowers and write on Easter eggs at the store of one of his parishioners. Fifteen parishes, Father Kubin corrected her, which is down from the 24 parishes he used to have in the Lac La Biche area. The Ukrainian people in the Smoky lake area are different, too, the priest said. Coming from the Bukovyna region of Ukrainia, they brought with them a different culture, different attitudes, and different way of observing such occasions as weddings and funerals. To emphasize who closely the Ukrainians keep tot heir Old World customs, Father Kubin said the young people amongst them who now live in Edmonton are faithful about coming home for the western celebration of Christmas on December 25, for the Ukrainian Christmas on January 7 and for Malanka, the Ukrainian celebration of New Year's.
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