The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Pa ge 2 6 T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 26 , 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a © D is ne y Director: CRAIG MARSHALL Music Director: LUMENA DANIEL Choreographer: JENNIFER MARSHALL Producer: LEANN PLAYTER Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater Book by Doug Wright Based on the Hans Christian Andersen story and the Disney film Music Adapted and Arranged by David Weinstein DISNEY'S THE LITTLE MERMAID JR. is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. / Phone: 212 541 4684, Fax: 212 397 4684 / www.MITShows.com JOHN ELLIOTT THEATRE / Georgetown Tickets $16 / www.globeproductions.ca Box Office 905 877 3700 MAY 1 and 8 @ 7:30pm MAY 2, 3, 9, 10 @ 2:00pm 140 Guelph St., Georgetown (across from CTK) 905-873-8196 SUCK UP THE SAVINGS! • 3 year warranty! • Deep cleaning • 46ft of extended reach Cleans BETTER THAN DYSAN... for LESS than 1/2 the Price!!* $139.99ONLY *Ask for details! Limited Time Offer We do ALL Automotive Maintenance CAA Approved Vehicle Repair Facility Serving Halton Hills & Georgetown Since 1985 ™ 354 Guelph St. Unit 21, Georgetown 905-877-8220 bstephens@quikautokrown.com SALTSALT • TRADE & PUBLICWELCOME • PICK UP/DELIVERED • ALSOAVAILABLE IN BAGS 519-853-2480 www.RedsGardenCentre.com 12771 Hwy 25 (2 Km South of Acton) 5 CALL TODA Y! BULKBULK 24/7 ALWAYS ON CALL COMMENT Okay, I've had it. I've been patient, tried my best to be positive about the weather. But I'm now in cranky mode-- I'm almost ready to pick a fight with Mother Nature. Geez, how much more do we have to endure? We've been frozen up since No- vember, without even a tiny thaw. The kitchen sink in the farmhouse has been frozen for weeks-- it seems the wa- ter didn't get away from the drain where it's not buried very deep, and presto! It's solid. And I'm not seeing any relief arriving in the not too distant future. The Sidekick and I are in it for the dura- tion, until the ground thaws enough to dig up the drain. In the meantime, I re-routed the drain hose from the dishwasher into a big pail under the sink. We can now run the dish- washer, and catch it in a pail, then dump it. There's more frost issues in the barn. I have heat straps on all the pipes in the barn, but at this time of year, there are several sheep being watered by pails, not with a heated water bowl. When an ewe gives birth to a lamb, she is isolated from the rest of the flock, and placed in a lambing pen, were mom and her lamb can bond for a few days before being re-introduced to the flock. So every morning we have to thaw out six or seven pails that are frozen solid. However, the most frustrating problem with the deep freeze is the lambs them- selves. As a rule, the sheep (with their body heat,) keep the stable around O de- grees Celsius, at times slipping down to -2 on a really cold night. But with this prolonged cold, the barn is now around -6 to -8 Celsius, which is simply too cold for newborn lambs. When a lamb is born, its mother usu- ally licks it off, and in doing so, dries its fleece, turning the little guy into an insu- lated little ball of wool. But with the extreme cold, the mom doesn't have enough time to get it dry, be- fore the second lamb (twin) is born. As a result, with virtually every set of multiple lambs (twins or triplets) we lost one of the lambs simply because the poor little thing couldn't get warmed up quickly enough. It only takes minutes for a wet lamb to die of hypothermia. My most dramatic loss was from our Number One ewe, one of the best moth- ers in the barn. She gave birth to triplet ewe lambs-- ordinarily, that's like win- ning the lottery. Sadly, she was only able to save one before the other two died from the -8 tem- perature. If I'd been there when they were born, I could have wrapped them in a towel and rubbed them down, giving them a fight- ing chance. But as luck would have it, she gave birth in the wee hours of the morn- ing. They were a significant loss. Of course, compared to the larger pic- ture in our towns and cities around us, where homeless people are dying out on the streets, or, most tragically, that little three-year-old boy who died after getting outside in the middle of the night-- well, my concerns at home seem pretty trivial. And we do know the mild temperatures will eventually arrive, hopefully soon. But until then, all we can do is bundle up, and be cognizant of the extremity of the cold. Cuz ya know-- there's no point picking a fight with Mother Nature. She always wins. A Ted Bit I feel like picking a fight with Mother Nature By Ted Brown tedbit@hotmail.com