By Jack Elliott
Correspondent

The Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra Serpentine, is not all that common a site. Widely distributed across eastern North America, it is found across the Rainy River District in lakes and streams. Sometimes you can see them basking on logs or stream banks, but more often they will be laying in shallow water with only their snorkel nostrils above the surface.

Submitted by
Carol Lavasseur

The River Runners Canoe and Kayak Club began it’s Thursday night paddles on June 7th and will continue every Thursday throughout the summer. Paddlers meet at Peace Park at 6:00pm to determine the destination for the evening.

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

In my last column, I discussed hardiness zones and how they affect the plants we choose to grow.
Zones cover large areas of landscape while microclimates relate to smaller areas. The size of a microclimate can vary greatly in size, referring to, for example, the Rainy River District or a small corner in your backyard next to the shed.

By Kendall Olsen
Principal

Over one hundred and twenty people were in attendance at Riverview School on Monday, June 11th for the Family Fun Barbeque. The children had a great time with the water balloon toss, face painting and old fashioned sack and three legged races. The whole event was sponsored by the school council who applied for and received a Parent Involvement Grant to underwrite the expenses of the evening. It was great to celebrate the successes of another school year and to honour Debbie Wagner who retires at the end of the week after teaching at Riverview for the past 31 years. Students sang songs, recited poems and presented Mrs. Wagner with flowers. Staff members reminisced via speeches and a PowerPoint slide show about Debbie’s life and teaching career before presenting her with a tree on behalf of the school community. Congratulations Debbie, you’ve made a real difference in the lives of students.

By Al Lowe
Contributor

This is by far the biggest gland you have. It weighs 2.5-3.5lbs. Perhaps it is so large because it does so many things for you.
Your liver is mostly at your back, just below your diaphragm, at the upper right. It is made up of four lobes, two quite large ones and two smaller ones. You probably know what animal liver looks like at the butcher shop or at home. Well, your liver looks just like that, dark red, soft and floppy tissue.

By Fr. Dan Debano
RR Ministerial

A few years ago, Fr. Dave, a Marian priest, was called to court to be a witness for a young student he knew at a university nearby where he lived. He was asked to testify to the student’s character. The court clerk said, “Sir, please state your name and address.” Then he told the priest to place his hand on the Bible and asked: “In the matters before the court do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Father Dave responded, “I do.” Then he took his seat in the witness box and confidently offered his testimony for the young person.

By Gary Sliworsky
Ag. Rep.

Recently Statistics Canada released the latest snapshot of the nation’s agriculture industry, using new data from the 2006 Census of Agriculture. This is the first of a number of data releases from the 2006 Census of Agriculture. All farm and operator data are available for free at www.stat.ca Comprehensive information about agricultural operations across Canada and the people managing those farms is available in three reports: Snapshot of Canadian Agriculture, The Financial Picture of Farms in Canada and Farming in Canada’s CMAs. Here is a snapshot of some of the information.

Moving the Early Years Centre into the Rainy River community centre is in our view a move that could not have come sooner.
The taxpayers of Rainy River built the community centre. Many citizens volunteered thousands of hours to put the buildings up and for decades the buildings were used a lot.

I have a new lawn mower. It wasn’t that my last mower had died. In fact, it hadn’t but the deck around the mower had several large size holes appear that shot debris and the occasional stone my way. Having been stung in the shins by more than a single missile, over the last two years, I reached that point of understanding and pain that my safety had to come and the dependable mower of almost 30 years had to go.

Over the weekend I travelled to Winnipeg to attend my cousin Jay’s wedding.
Now I knew this was going to be a very traditional wedding but I was not prepared to experience a wedding that has traditions going back thousands of years.