TRACK WATCH April 2018

UPCOMING AT THE TRACK

MARK YOUR CALENDAR…

June 15th, 2018

5th Annual MRAS GOLF Tournament

Contact the office to register!!

June 16th, 2018

Millarville Farmers’ Market Millarville Half Marathon

July 1st, 2018

Canada Day Races

MILLARVILLE RACING &

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

Office Hours

CLOSED MARCH 30th Monday to Friday

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

403-931-3411 / 403-931-2404 Box 68, Millarville, AB

T0L 1K0 www.millarvilleracetrack.com

From the MRAS President…

Greetings from the Track! As we are turning the corner on Winter, MRAS is gearing up for the event season with event leads,

volunteers, staff and your board well engaged to make 2018 a successful year. Notes of particular interest:

• We are pleased to have Spolumbos back as our concession operator for 2018. Thanks Tom!

• On the facility front, work has been done on the rental house interior and preliminary estimates are coming in on the water plant capacity upgrade. Thank you staff and volunteers.

• We hope to have a couple of new faces around the Track this summer as our Summer Employment Grant has come through to support the hire of both a student maintenance helper and a student office assistant. More info to come on our website.

The Millarville Half Marathon will be our first event for 2018 in conjunction with the opening of the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market will see an increase in the number of vendors along with some additional attractions. Our half marathon event lead, Rick Charlton, was featured on Global TV this past Sunday – see the link on our website for more details. On Monday March 19, 2018, our arena roof collapsed. We are thankful that there were no injuries. The staff and board worked through the incident well and we are looking ahead to the next steps and to that end, Lisa has been working with arena users and user groups to transition them to new facilities where possible. Any additional facility opportunities for our user groups are APPRECIATED, please contact Lisa! So where are we at:

• Currently working through our insurance adjuster to determine cause and next steps.

• The arena will be taken down. We anticipate the demolition will happen in short order once the final numbers are in.

• The board confirmed that MRAS will rebuild.

• The board struck a new committee – comprising of 8 members - that will handle the rebuild – Sandy McKenzie (lead) and Malcolm Sills (co-lead) will be heading this project forward.

• It is anticipated that the rebuild will include improvements over the previous arena.

Thank you to our community sponsors, family and friends for reaching out and assisting to help. I welcome your comments and suggestions as we move forward. Please feel free to reach out to me at mraspresident@gmail.com. See you at the Track! Brent Foster

You can also reach out to the Track Staff with any questions, concerns, or ideas. We are here for you, this is your community and a little piece of your country “home”: Karen – Office Receptionist – office@millarvilleracetrack.com Sarah – Bookkeeper – accounting@millarvilleracetrack.com

Nick – Maintenance – maintenance@millarvilleracetrack.com Melonie – Market Mgr – marketmanager@millarvilleracetrack.com Lisa – Executive Director – ed@millarvilleracetrack.com

2018 BOARD OF

DIRECTORS

Brent Foster mraspresident@gmail.com

President

Ralph Onciul rtonciul@telus.net

Vice President

Nancy Seaman nseaman002@gmail.com

Treasurer

Michelle Parry mmparry40@gmail.com

Secretary

Malcolm Sills mrsills55@gmail.com

Past President

Colina J Clark info@ciansmustard.com

Blaine Clark

rblaineclark80@gmail.com

Kelly Hamzic kelly.hamzic@me.com

Roy Mathis

fmsl.roy@gmail.com

John McGruther barjbar@yahoo.com

Sandy MacKenzie

macfire.sandy@gmail.com

Bill Niles wicniles@gmail.com

Brad Robson

bradrobson@shaw.ca

GOLF TOURNAMENT

5th Annual MRAS Golf Tournament – Swing Into Market Season New Day: FRIDAY, June 15, 2018 ay the Turner Valley Golf Club Please join us for our 5th Annual Golf Tournament – Swing into Market Season! The MRAS Annual Fundraising Golf Tournament is an 18-hole scramble format, 9:00am Shotgun. Get to the course early to enjoy complimentary coffee and Breakfast on a Bun and warm up your swing on the driving range. After the round join everyone for the luncheon, team and hole prizes and check out the Silent Auction in the Clubhouse Tournament Room. Our fundraising goal this year is to assist with MRAS Capital Projects. Our recent roof collapse on the arena will likely require some additional funding to rebuild. As well, the MRAS would like to upgrade the aging PA system, which will further enhance our visitors' experience during our on-site events. The upgrade to our system is not only from an aesthetic and functionality perspective for normal MRAS activities but will also assist greatly if we must implement our Emergency Response Plan in the event of an emergency on the grounds. Your sponsorship, donations to the silent auction and most of all your participation in the golf tournament will help us reach our fundraising goals. Registration details: Date: Friday, June 15, 2018 Time: Registration starts 8:00am; 9:00am SHARP Shotgun Cost: $150.00 per player (includes golf cart) For more information contact the office at 403.931.3411 or email golf@millarvilleracetrack.com

Hope to see you at Turner Valley on June 15th for a day of golf and fun!

POSITION AVAILABLE

LIBRARY MANAGER

MILLARVILLE COMMUNITY LIBRARY

This is a part-time position, at least six hours per

week, coordinating all the volunteers and working

one shift, most likely Wednesdays from 3:00 – 7:30

pm. This position requires someone who loves

books and is computer literate. Training will be

provided, and preference will be given to those

candidates with library experience.

If you have any questions, please call Norma

Dawson at 403-931-3580. Send or drop off your

resume to Millarville Community Library, Box 59,

Millarville AB T0L 1K0.

ARE YOU A STUDENT? OR DO YOU KNOW ONE?

THE MRAS IS HIRING for the Summer:

1. RECEPTIONIST / VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

2. MAINTENANCE / GROUNDS HELPER

Visit our website on April 3, 2018 for more details.

Adorable no bake bird’s nest cookies recipe.

• Prep Time: 10

• Cook Time: 10

• Total Time: 20 minutes

• Yield: about 30 nests

ingredients

• 1 package (16 oz.) Chocolate Candy (I used CandiQuick, but you could use Wilton Candy Melts or your favorite Chocolate Candy.

• 1/4 cup peanut butter • 3 cups chow mein noodles • Cadbury Mini Eggs

instructions

1. Melt chocolate and peanut butter in the microwave. Heat for 1 minute and stir to see if you need any additional time. Heat for 15-second intervals if not fully melted.

2. Combine all ingredients (except eggs) in a mixing bowl. 3. Stir well to coat all of the noodles. 4. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Wait about a minute or two and form into nests. The dip in the middle

doesn’t need to be too big, but make sure there isn’t a hole in the nest. 5. Let harden. 6. Add eggs to your nests. 7. Enjoy!

Bunny Chow yield: approximately 10-11 cups

Chex cereal, kettle corn, and speckled Easter egg M&Ms all coated in white chocolate. It's a seriously winning combination!

PRINT RECIPE

INGREDIENTS: 4 cups kettle corn 5 cups rice Chex cereal 2 cups plain M&Ms (Easter eggs if available) 12 ounces white melting chocolate (like Wilton or Ghirardelli) DIRECTIONS: Pour the kettle corn and cereal into a large bowl. Melt the white melting candy according to the directions on the package. Once melted and smooth, pour over the cereal and kettle corn. Use a large rubber spatula to gently stir and coat everything well Add the M&Ms to the bowl and gently stir to coat. Spread mixture on a large nonstick surface (like a silicone baking mat or parchment paper) to allow to cool and harden (10-20 minutes). Break into pieces for serving or packaging.

10 Fun Facts About Easter You Probably Didn't Realize

As a celebration that includes chocolate and bunnies, Easter is at the top of my favorite

holiday list.

1. The tallest Easter egg chocolate was made in Italy in 2011. It stood at 10.39 meters and

weighed an astounding 7,200 kg.

2. Half the states in the United States banned the dyeing of chicks on Easter; however, Florida

recently overturned this law and now prevents the dyeing of all animals.

3. The art of painting eggs is called pysanka, which originated in Ukraine. It involves using wax

and dyes to color the egg.

4. The term Easter gets its name from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess who symbolizes the

hare and the egg.

5. The exchange or giving of Easter eggs actually dates back to before Easter and the giving of

eggs is actually considered a symbol of rebirth in many cultures.

6. Workers in Birmingham, who make the famous Cadbury Creme Egg, produce more than 1.5

million egg delights a year.

7. Peep peep… did you know Americans buy more than 700 million marshmallow Peeps during

Easter? This makes Peeps the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.

8. Americans consume more than 16 million jelly beans during this holiday. That is enough

jelly beans to circle the globe not once, not twice, but three times.

9. Are you an ears, arms or tail person? Seventy-six percent of people eat the ears on the

chocolate bunny first, 5 percent go for the feet and 4 percent for the tail.

10. The idea of the Easter bunny giving candies and eggs is said to have originated in Germany

during the middle ages.

No matter how old you are or where you are in the world, Easter is a fun family tradition that

never gets old.

From the Easter egg hunts to the taking your first bite into that chocolate bunny, it is not only

a special religious holiday that marks an end to Lent, but one that represents the resurrection

of Christ, too.

For those who aren't so religious, Easter marks a long weekend, filled with fun.

April Fool’s Day Fun!

April Fools' Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day) is an annual celebration in some European and Western countries commemorated on April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes often expose their prank by shouting "April fool" at the unfortunate victim(s). Some newspapers, magazines and other published media report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in smaller letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country.

Aside from April Fools' Day, the custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon one's neighbor has historically been relatively common in the world.

Cutting Ice Blocks - Memories in the Early 1950’s - An interview with Bill Jackson

Submitted by Lorretta Stabler, Historical Committee One of the winter chores Bill Jackson remembers vividly is cutting blocks of ice. Before electricity was brought to the Millarville area (approximately 1951), Bill Jackson recalls cutting ice blocks on a slough close to where he was raised. It was just across the west side of 192nd Street north of the racetrack on SE ¼ section 36 Township 21 Range 3 West of 5th. This land was originally homesteaded by E.R. Chance in 1894. Incidentally, this slough is one of the locations for Heartland, a Canadian drama series. A company called Parslow & Denoon (a commission agency at the Calgary Stockyards) owned a half section of land at the extreme south end of this slough. The slough also went partly into the Spooner place. During the Christmas holidays, his Dad John, Bill and brother Walter would always go to cut ice for the next year’s supply of ice as the slough was quite deep and close to their place.

“I remember one year driving onto the ice with the team of horses. We drove out onto the slough maybe 20 feet and realized it was just water, hardly any ice. So, we left the team at the shallow end, tied to the cottonwood trees and we walked out much further and shoveled snow off the ice. We soon realized It wasn’t thick enough for our team or thick enough to cut blocks. Going back a couple of weeks later it had been quite cold and there was about 12-14 inches of snow, so the ice still hadn’t become thick enough. That year we needed to wait until January for the ice to be thick enough. Father would chop a hole in the ice with an axe to test the thickness of the ice. If it wasn’t thick enough, we would shovel the snow off and wait a week.

We would cut the ice blocks with a 6-foot-long steel saw with 2 handles, one handle each for my brother and I to use. The saw blade was 6 inches wide with teeth about an inch deep designed especially for cutting ice. One trick we weren’t allowed to do was to stop partway through cutting a block. Father would come and spell us off if we were tired because if we left the saw sit in the ice when it was -20F it would freeze in. The choice was to either take the saw out or keep on sawing, so we usually kept on sawing. First, we would cut a line of blocks about 12 inches in width and then just push that first row under the water to get rid of

them, so we had more space to work with. Then we would cut rows 6-8 feet in length and cut crosswise to make blocks about 14-16 inches square, up to 20 inches thick.

When the team of horses came onto the ice with the bob sleigh (two front runners hooked to the tongue for steering) for hauling the ice blocks home, we’d stand back about 10-15 feet from where the hole was, and we would watch the water come up on the ice due to the weight of the team on the ice. Sometimes we’d get our feet and our pants wet but we never fell in. Then we would lift about 20-30 blocks onto the sleigh and home we’d go to unload our “ice harvest”. Occasionally we would find snail shells or leeches in the clear ice blocks.

We put the ice blocks in an ice house that Father built. It was made with 1 ply boards, no floor, about 12 X 16 and 8 feet high. We put about a foot of sawdust in the bottom, and then the first layer of ice blocks was laid. We would leave about 1 inch between the ice blocks and push snow in between the blocks, then 1 inch of saw dust between each layer continuing until the ice blocks filled the building. Then we would put 12 inches of

Ice saw that Bill Jackson, Dad,

and brother Walter used

sawdust all around the inside of the building and on top of the ice blocks to provide excellent insulation. Even the next winter there would be a few blocks in the shed.

We got the saw dust from local saw mills. There were three saw mills in the Millarville area: Murray Jackson’s, Bob Machum and we also had a saw mill. We would go with a half-ton truck and bring home a load of sawdust each year. If the sawdust got wet, it would freeze into a block and wouldn’t work very well the next year.

We would use the ice in our ice box to keep milk, cream and vegetables cool. It would hold one ice block in the top. It was important to drain the pan at the bottom which caught the melted water. If it wasn’t drained every day or two it would run over and would flood all over the floor, making a mess. Mother(Ida) usually got the ice out with large sharp pointed ice tongs and would carry it to the house. She always wore rubber boots without any socks and I remember one day she dropped one of the ice blocks on her foot. Two toes were broken so she was sort of handicapped for a while. Us kids helped her get the ice blocks until she was better. She coped very well.

If we ran out of ice, we had two springs nearby that ran all the time and we would put 5 gallon pails weighted down into the water. We would put cream, milk and meat inside the pails. In that way, we had cold cream etc. when we needed it.”

*************************************************************************

In the 19th and early part of the 20th century, ice harvesting was a lucrative “short season” industry in North America. Long continuous strips would be cut into the ice on large lakes and then individual blocks would be cut from these. Companies would deliver ice blocks to residential and commercial customers, until electricity and propane refrigerators became prominent in households. Ice cutting is still used for today for ice/snow sculpture events.

A historical connection could be that perhaps the inspiration for creating the kid’ game Don’t Break the Ice, 1968, might very well have come from this practical way of cutting ice

References: Cutting Ice photo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/rdb466/12197304196

Our Foothills, published by Millarville, Kew, Priddis and Bragg Creek Historical Society 1975, p. 102

Don’t Break the Ice Game Cutting Ice, Ottawa River

111th Priddis & Millarville Fair

The Priddis & Millarville Fair is unique in Canada as the longest-running, community-supported, old-time country fair. Each year we strive to balance new attractions

with traditional favorites, all for family fun and agricultural education. The 2018 theme of “Country Trails & Barnyard Tails” will be prominent in many areas including

the newly revamped Photography exhibits, and expanded livestock displays.

The Fair succeeds because of the outstanding support from our community including financial contributions, volunteer time and exhibitor participation. It is the time

of year when we are seeking donations that are used to cover direct operating expenses – equipment rentals, entertainment, supplies and prizes. Please use the

donation form for financial contributions. The information requested on the form is used to ensure your wishes on how your donation is used or acknowledged are

met.

TRACK WATCH DIRECTORY

ATB – BLACK DIAMOND 403-933-4357

ACREAGE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS LTD. 403-815-0004 clayton@adsltd.ca CRESCENT POINT ENERGY 403-693-0020 EAU CLAIRE DISTILLERY 403-933-5408 barclayc@eauClairedistrillery.ca INTEGRITY POST STRUCTURES LTD. 1-866-974-7678 LODGEPOLE TREE SERVICES 403-938-1797 MOUNTAIN TOYS POLARIS 403-932-4828 OKOTOKS FORD 403-456-6689 OKOTOKS GMC 403-938-7874 STAMPEDE ELECTRIC 403-860-1359 walterkemble@stampedelectric.ca SUNDANCE ENTERPRISE 403-968-0682 s_p_t_inc@hotmail.ca THREE POINT INDUSTRIES 403-519-8477

TRACKER PIPELINE & UTILITY LOCATING INC. 403-288-1196 info@trackerlocating.com WATERS EDGE PUB PRIDDIS 403-931-0155 WESTERN WRANGLER ENTERPRISES 403-968-0683 YEAR ROUND LANDSCAPING 403-236-1948

Our sponsors provide services to local residents in the MD of Foothills and beyond. Call one today!

THANK YOU TO OUR MAJOR SPONSORS

TIP OF THE MONTH….

Don’t treat your toilets

and drains as garbage

disposals. Septic systems

are designed for organic

products and non-toxic

non-corrosive liquids.

Any foreign objects that

enter your system can

block pipes, plug pumps

and cause avoidable

repair costs. Mild liquids

and decomposable solids

are acceptable.

Got septic questions?

Contact us any time at

403-815-0004 or email

at clayton@adsltd.ca