The Saskatoon berries are calling

“That Saskatoon moon is calling to me…” Connie Kaldor’s tune seems like an apt theme song for this year. And why is that? I can say with confidence that this is the best crop of wild Saskatoon berries that I can recall.

And after more than 55 years of perusing berry bushes, this is saying a lot. Nearly every bush I have looked at is bearing fruit; even small shrubs that stand no higher than my knee are loaded.

According to reports from others, this berry bonanza appears to be widespread throughout southern Manitoba. And with relatively few mosquitoes buzzing about, the wood tick season nearly wrapped up, and moderate temperatures, the life of the picker is pretty darn good.

The clusters are amazing, with some of the fruit hanging like bunches of grapes, making for a quick job of filling your pail. And while in a normal year many of the berries are small, this year’s wild fruit are among the plumpest I have seen, on par with the best of the commercial U-pick berry producers.

Baseball’s mid-season fun is the best

When Kyle Schwarber blasted three home runs on three swings in the mini home-run derby to break a tie in Major League Baseball’s annual all-star game in mid-July, it just confirmed that of all the major sports in North America, baseball does it best when it comes to mid-season (or end-of-year) classics.

Baseball may no longer be the most popular professional sport in North America, but its mid-season all-star game is by far better than the exhibition efforts put forth by the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League.

Most sports fans would probably agree that if they could pick only one sport’s mid-season exhibition — the NHL or NBA All-star game, baseball’s Home Run Derby and all-star game; or the NFL’s Pro Bowl, which happens not at mid-season but following the Super Bowl — baseball’s version would win hands down.

Occasionally, hockey will dump its boring 3-on-3 hockey tournament and play something spectacular like the 4 Nations Face-Off in the middle of the season, but that happens only once in a while. The NBA’s all-star game is a joke, with no defence played and players shooting from long range all game long. Some of the scores in recent years have been 211-185, 184-175 and 163-160. Fans might see some great shooting, but not much else. The NFL’s Pro Bowl has always been lambasted for its lack of hitting, shoddy defence and general fooling around by the players, who treat it as nothing more than a vacation and a nice paycheque.

When Clydesdales are the family business

RM OF YELLOWHEAD — Tucker Thevenot is making trouble. He grabs a hose and drags it around the corner. The boy comes back with a stick in his hands, and taunts his family with a “sword fight.”

Stay away from the centre of the yard, his father warns. A one-year-old Clydesdale horse is being sprayed with cold water. The horse kicks backwards and its hoof bangs the metal rig behind it, buzzing the air like a bell.

The dad is keeping a close eye on the boy, warning about the dangers of horses while holding a stroller, in which a toddler girl is strapped tightly, letting out a short burst of tears. Meanwhile, Grandpa Blaine is being sprayed lightly with ricocheting water off the horse.

When the Sun visited in July, it was a busy afternoon for the family at Boulder Bluff Clydesdales. The multi-generational horse breeders were preparing to travel to the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion and Stampede.

STRATHCLAIR — Howard Hogg sits down at his desk. He opens Microsoft Publisher, and points to the computer screen.

A girl’s face looks out at him, through the pixels. Hogg points to her and explains that there are almost no lines on her skin. No wrinkles on her cheeks, no crows-feet around her eyes — her skin is smooth.

It presents a problem for the artist. When he needs to trace her face and draw it, he has fewer distinguishing lines to work from. Smooth skin offers fewer anchors for the artist. Shading will be important to get her face right, Hogg says.

The 70-year-old has been commissioned to draw the girl on a piece of wood art. Her grandfather requested the art, asking Hogg to erase the face of a woman in a wolf-headed hood and insert the girl’s face instead, in place of the protagonist.

Dairy Bar doesn’t disappoint

The Brandon Sun’s Summer of Ice Cream series is back for 2025. Over the next several editions of Westman This Week, I’ll be visiting some of those great little ‘treateries’ in western Manitoba that so often help to give our short summers a little more sweetness.

SOURIS — In a community known nationally for its free-roaming peacocks, the Town of Souris has at least one other feather in its cap — particularly if you’re a fan of locally-sourced beef, fresh-cut fries and cold ice cream on a hot summer’s day.

Located at 200 First Avenue West, otherwise known as Highway 2, The Dairy Bar is a small-town drive-in eatery that serves up some big flavours. And from the local reviews, Westman is catching on to this local fan favourite.

“Excellent food for a great price! I went with two friends, they each had wraps and I had the buffalo chicken burger. The wraps were so big, and they weren’t shy on the sauce! But my burger is definitely the way to go, it was so good! Milkshakes also,” wrote Brook Giesbrecht in a Google review late last year.

All-ages ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ opera fee-fi-fo-free

It will be a shush-free day at the Brandon Public Library when Manitoba Underground Opera presents a “for kids” operatic version of “Jack & the Beanstalk” and welcomes kids of all ages and their parents or guardians to this no-charge performance.

“Jack and the Beanstalk” is a 30-minute adaptation of the classic fairy tale. The libretto (story and lyrics) are by John Davies. The music is from the works of Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan), making it a delightful and light-hearted introduction to opera.

“It’s pretty faithful to the story you know,” says Brendan McKeen, executive director at Manitoba Underground Opera.

“Jack and his mother are going hungry, so they decide they need to sell their cow. Jack finds somebody (Trouble-Man) who says: Oh, sell the cow for these magic beans! The beans grow into the beanstalk. Jack goes up … and he finds the giant.”

McKenna departure a big blow for WHL

The most electrifying player in Western Canada hockey circles is chasing big bucks south of the border and won’t be displaying his ‘how-did-he-do-that?’ talent this winter in the Western Hockey League.

Gavin McKenna, 17, and the presumed No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League draft 11 months from now, announced July 8 he will enrol at Penn State and play for the school’s hockey team.

Instead of making $100 a week or so playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers and facing a gruelling 68-game schedule that would have taken him on cold bus rides to 22 other cities in the west, McKenna and his new Penn State mates will travel in luxury — short regional bus trips and the occasional flight.

What was the attraction? Why Penn State over Medicine Hat, which could have made another legitimate run at the Memorial Cup? There were, in fact, 700,000 attractions. As in $700,000, the reported value of the deal he signed with Penn State under the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s NIL (name, image, likeness) policy.

Fire won’t stop Rossburn Rodeo

Volunteers plan to use tents at the Rossburn Rodeo this year after a suspected arson burned down a key building at the fairgrounds.

Community members have donated two tents to use at the September event, Rossburn Ag Society president Neil Carson told the Sun.

Ag Society members will use the tents to do jobs that were usually done in a building that burned down in June.

“The rodeo will be good, Carson said. “All the events will be fine. It’s just, it’s a little more inconvenient for the members of the Ag Society.”

OUR SUMMER OF ICE CREAM SERIES RETURNS

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Province boosts doctor training at BU

The Manitoba government is adding 10 new doctor training seats in Brandon and renovating the Brodie Science Centre.

The goal is put more students on a career path to medicine in the Westman region, according to an announcement from three provincial officials. The addition will bring the total number of doctor training seats up to 20 in Brandon.

Premier Wab Kinew, Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara, and Advanced Education and Training Minister Renée Cable made the announcement in July.

“Our government is committed to rebuilding health care across Manitoba and we’re following through on that commitment by training the next generation of family physicians right here in Westman,” said Kinew.

Westman roads and bridges to be repaired

The Manitoba government is investing more than $189 million in infrastructure upgrades in western Manitoba, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor announced this month.

The money will be spent on multiple highway repair projects, bridge repairs and culvert replacements, the province announced.

The 18 projects include fixing Highway 5 for 15 kilometres north of Highway 2, and “structure replacements” at the Assiniboine River at Spruce Woods Provincial Park and north of Holland on Highway 34.

Also, several culverts will be replaced and improvements will be made to 115 kilometres of highway, including Highway 10 and Provincial Road 270, from the Trans-Canada Highway to Highway 25.

Skubal sparks Tigers’ rise from the depths

While the Toronto Blue Jays are having an unexpectedly great season, baseball fans in general are enjoying a terrific season on a number of fronts as Major League Baseball passes its halfway mark.

Trying to project a World Series winner in July is a fool’s game, but it was hardly in doubt back in April when most of the game’s followers were declaring the Los Angeles Dodgers to be a repeat winner of the October (that runs into November) Classic. And why not? The Dodgers dominated the 2024 season and returned with almost the same powerful lineup but with one key addition: Slugger Shohei Ohtani was returning to the mound. The Dodgers in a cakewalk, right?

Not so fast. The first team to get to 50 victories this year was somewhat of a surprise: The Detroit Tigers, who grabbed a wildcard playoff berth last year after languishing at or near the basement of the American League Central for nearly a decade. As the calendar flipped from June to July, the Tigers and Dodgers had identical records atop MLB’s 32 teams. Leading the way for the Tigers is arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Tarik Skubal, who won the AL’s triple crown of pitching last year (wins, ERA, strikeouts). He’s back at it again this year, with a 10-2 record, 2.13 ERA and 138 strikeouts in 109 innings.

But while the Tigers were the first to 50 wins, all teams in the American League must keep their eye on the New York Yankees, who would likely prevail in a best-of-seven championship series against the Tigers. Outfielder Aaron Judge is having another sensational season and is the mid-season favourite to win the MVP again. Free-agent pitcher pickup Max Fried is earning his hefty salary, going 10-2 with a 2.13 ERA at mid-season.

Stargazing in the dog days of summer

Is it hot enough for you? Are you out watering the garden twice a day? Could you fry an egg on the hood of your car? Is your pooch’s tongue lolling out of his mouth while he snoozes in the shade?

Welcome to the dog days of summer. And by the way, that part about your dog sleeping in the shade has nothing to do with the expression “dog days.” It’s more “astro-mythological.”

The moniker “dog days” is associated with the dog star, Sirius (a.k.a. Alpha Canis Majoris) and is the brightest star (not counting the sun) in the sky. It’s found in the constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog) which is sometimes said to represent one of the constellation Orion’s hunting dogs. Sirius is a daytime star at this time of year, so while you can’t actually see it, it really is up there.

You can take Tyler Foster’s word for it.

Kitchen renovation to come after $25k community grant

KENTON — The kitchen of the Kenton Memorial Hall will be renovated in order to keep community events in the forecast for years to come, thanks to a $25,000 grant from a local credit union.

Greg Facey from Fusion Credit Union presented the cheque to volunteers in July. The donation will be used by Kenton Community Enterprises to hire a team to expand the kitchen by relocating a wall, install a new double-wide fridge and new countertops, replace the sinks with three deep commercial-style sinks, add a commercial dishwasher, put in ventilation, add an island and maybe replace the stove.

Volunteer Adam Fordyce said the venue gives the community a place to host life events, and he said it’s important to ensure that continues. The hall attracts locals from around Kenton for events like weddings, fundraisers, funerals, and that keeps the rural community heartbeat alive.

“We want to see these buildings available for access to everybody in the community and surrounding areas,” said Fordyce. “If we don’t keep them up, that’ll disappear.”