Congratulations to everybody who pitched in with floats and cars and trucks for the super huge High Prairie Elks Rodeo Parade July 31.
You can see pictures of many floats and entrants on our website at southpeacenews.com. Click on the pictures for larger versions.
Well done, everybody, and a Tip of The Page Hat to all of you!

* * * * * * *

Here’s another Tip of The Page Hat to all the volunteers who came out to help the Elks and Royal Purple with the booths and raffles and all the work that needs doing to make the High Prairie Rodeo one of the best and biggest in northern Alberta.
Thanks to everybody and good work.

* * * * * * *

The 2018 edition of the parade was darn near perfect!
We missed the classic cars, tractors, and hot rods, but there were still a few of these rolling works of art to make people smile. What we didn’t miss was the also “classic” block or two long gaps in the parade. It’s usually a case of the front of the parade moving too fast for the rest of the front half, and the middle front half, and the middle back half, and the back back half.
Well, you get the picture! When people start slowing down in the middle, the front just keeps on a going.
Maybe passing out a card with the parade Marshall’s phone number to everybody so they can tell the front to slow down is an answer.
This year was just about an exception. There was only one gap. Caused by candy tossers connected to politicians in the parade. Names will not be mentioned to protect the guilty!
We understand sore muscles recovered fairly quickly from the walk, even if those walking weren’t moving very fast! Blisters will take longer to heal.

* * * * * * *

If you check out this week’s commentary column on page 6 by Jeff Burgar, you will see he did a fast tour of many northern Alberta communities from High Prairie to Saskatoon.
One of the places toured is the very small community of Cochin, just outside of North Battleford in Saskatchewan. We mention this because Cochin sits between two small lakes, Murray Lake and Jackfish Lake. The two lakes can be reached by water by a 25-35 metre wide channel that joins the two. On the Jackfish Lake side, there are about 75 cabins, many with docks in the channel. Some of the cabins are old, old. Some are brand new.
Says Jeff, “We talked to some local cabin owners. One thing is certain, the people there sure are proud of their little lakes. They said people were always looking at renting or buying cabins, and that many of the inquiries were from Alberta.”
We find this interesting because you probably have never heard of Cochin. You might have heard of Jackfish Lake, because, well, there are many lakes everywhere called Jackfish. This particular lake is quite small. Mostly shallow, average of 2 1/2 metres deep, with the greatest depth a mere seven metres. Length is 20 km and width 10 km. Fishing is average.
A winter derby reportedly gets about 2,000 entries. Because it is shallow, it’s warm, and nice to jet-ski or wave surf, or just plain swim in.
And probably gets quite an algae bloom later in the summer.
Doesn’t come close to our own Lesser Slave Lake, though. Lesser Slave is still too much, as our MLA says, of being a “Best Kept Secret.”

South Peace News’ editor Chris Clegg received a cake from the bosses marking his 30 years at the paper on Aug. 1. Yes, he shared!