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Saturday's winter festival features outdoor fun

Meota News: Sturling bonspiel also slated for Feb. 12
sleigh ride
Horse-drawn sleigh rides will be among the fun activities offered Saturday as Meota ADRA hosts a winter festival.

MEOTA ‑‑ What a mixed bag of weather this past week ‑‑ wind, snow, rain, you name it. We had three of the coldest days of the winter, back-to-back, but we survived as usual. Some days the wind made the visibility poor on the roads as any loose snow was up in the air. In Alberta, last week, the wind was so strong it blew small cars off the dry road into the ditch and I'm sure any semi drivers with empty rigs knew enough to stay put.

Meota ADRA is hosting a winter festival Feb. 17 at the outdoor rink. There will be sleigh rides, a scavenger hunt, skating and a fire pit to roast wieners for hot dogs. The event runs from 1 to 4 p.m., weather permitting.

There was no bridge Tuesday at the Pioneer Hall because of the storm, but they had three tables playing Thursday with top score by Jeanine Beloin and Jean Lawes. Second were Donna Scherman and Catriona Winterholt.

At the Do Drop In Feb. 4, there were two tables of Norwegian Whist and two extra players played canasta. Whist top score was by Linda Ard, followed by Arlene Walker and Eric Callbeck. Tied for fourth were Nestor Fransoo and Joyce Luckey. 

I had a pleasant surprise Sunday afternoon when a dozen grey partridges stopped under my bird feeders and had a feed of fallen seeds. Seeing them up so close was exciting, as I don't think I've seen them before. While the dozen dug into the snowbank looking for feed one stood on top of the snowbank and watched out for any disturbance.

Meota Curling Club is hosting their "Broom Enough for Two" sturling bonspiel Feb. 12. The bar and kitchen will be open from noon to 5 p.m.

Meota Curling Club

The league saw an upset Tuesday night in a David vs Goliath matchup, as Wanda Weber celebrated retirement with a huge win over the high-flying Schmidt rink, that sent shockwaves through the Meota sports-betting scene. Up by two points heading into the final end with the hammer, Weber didn’t have to throw her last shot and held on to win 7-6. Weber’s supporting cast includes Gordon Moore, Duane Clarke and Steve Ackerman.

Other games Tuesday night included the Demontarnel rink knocking off Brent Czuy 11-4 to remain unbeaten in 2022 and the Pat Mohr rink edging the Doom rink 8-2 to remain unbeaten in their last six games.

The Weber and Czuy rinks also both played again Thursday night, in a matchup that was postponed in December. The Weber team, who attributes staying hydrated contributed to their Tuesday night win, stayed with that superstition and took down the Czuy rink 10-5 in six ends.

A chorus of applause could be heard on the featured sheet Thursday night as Gwen Drury made her long-awaited return to the Grand Slam of Curling as she was a trade deadline pickup by Team Becotte for the upcoming playoff push. The Becotte wagon, coming in hot on a five-game unbeaten streak, came to a screeching halt courtesy of the Welford rink, who stole a point in the eighth end to win in a 5-3 nail-biter. Terry Tait and company were feeling generous and gifted Kirsten Bru a five-ender for his 50th birthday on Thursday, as the Bru rink celebrated in style with a 10-4 win.

Curler of the Week is senior-ranking member of the club, Gordon Moore. After making a tactical move using the delivery stick in the off-season, Gordon has gone from being a great curler to being the gold-standard of leads. An elite-level pickle ball player, Gordon has transferred that winning attitude and skill from the court to the rink and was a dominant force on the front-end of the Weber team both Tuesday and Thursday night.