While most gardeners are satisfied if they grow at least one pumpkin big enough to make into a Jack O'Lantern for Halloween, Ashley Hickey is more ambitious .

The 13-year-old farm girl, who lives in the Cole Lake area between Parham and Godfrey and attends St. Patrick's School in Harrowsmith, is a member of the GVGO (Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario), whose members have grown 100 plus pound cabbages and 1400 plus pound Hubbard squashes.

Giant pumpkins are Ashley's specialty, and the weigh-in at the Prince Edward County Pumpkinfest in Wellington is the moment of truth for her every year.

Last year her pumpkin came in 4th place at 877 pounds, and it was larger than any of the pumpkins grown in Prince Edward County and vicinity. The three larger pumpkins in the competition were grown in Eganville, Shawville and Pembroke.

“This year I wanted to get over the 1,000 pound mark,” said Ashley who grew her pumpkin from a seed from her 2014 pumpkin.

When it came time to bring her pumpkin to the festival this year, the family tractor was not big enough to lift it onto a pickup, and a special harness had to be used to ease it onto the truck.

The result – 1,011 pounds. The competition has grown so fierce at the Wellington Pumpkinfest however, that Ashley only received a 7th place ribbon this year, but again all the pumpkins that were larger had traveled a long way. The winner, at 1654 pounds, came from Ormstown, Quebec and used seeds that came from a 1,873 pound pumpkin.

To put Ashley's pumpkin into local context, the largest pumpkin from Prince Edward County came in at 784 pounds.

Incredibly, the Hickey pumpkin patch is a small plot of land, maybe 30 feet by 10 feet, with black, rich soil from all the manure and compost that they use to enrich it. Ashley starts her large pumpkins indoors in late April and puts out only the strongest plant, but she does not cull off all the other pumpkins aside from the one that establishes itself as the largest one.

“I like to bring 300 pound pumpkins to the Perth Fair with my friend,” she said, “that's also a lot of fun.”

She was pretty nervous when it came time for the weigh-in in Wellington because, “Although I knew it was close, or I hoped it was close to 1,000 pounds, I did not know for sure it was going to make it. I was pretty happy that it was that heavy,” she said.

Ashley started growing large pumpkins about three years ago, with encouragement from her parents, learning about what seeds to use, how much water to add, how much to fertilize, all of the ins and outs of growing giant pumpkins.

“The people I have met at Pumpkinfest have all been nice about sharing ideas about how to grow,” she said.

The giant pumpkins do not have a massive amount of seed, and Ashley said that she gives 100 seeds to the GVGO for their archive, and saves enough for herself. Although she was willing to share the growing techniques she used, that did not necessary mean she was prepared to hand over any of her spare seeds.

“It's not just the seed, anyway; it's also about how much water and how much fertilizer and what the weather is like during the summer. Also there is the problem of frost in the spring and the fall. I noticed, when we went to Wellington on October 17, that closer to Lake Ontario, they have had no frost at all.”

Her goal next year?

“1,500 pounds.”

Buck Tibbitt is a cabinet maker and contractor who lives on Buck Bay Road just south of Parham. Last Thursday afternoon (October 15th) he was working at a home near Parham about a 15 minute drive from his house. At about 5:15 PM that day a fierce electrical storm passed overhead.

“I was working and noticed the storm at that time and stopped to watch it,” he recalled.

An hour later, he packed up his tools and went home for the day. He didn't notice anything amiss, even after he turned onto his kilometre long driveway. But when he came over the final small hill just before his house, all he saw was flames.

“There were a couple of posts and some roofing tin still standing on a small section of the front porch but aside from that, everything else was gone”, he said, “The only form that was recognizable was the shape of my piano as it burned."

The South Frontenac fire department had been called in at 6:18 by neighbours who saw black smoke coming from the property.

“The fire department arrived 10 or 15 minutes after I did and hozed down the charred remains for almost three hours. When they checked it and saw that there were still some hot spots, they continued pumping water on it for another hour,” Buck said.

Two dogs were in the house at the time of the fire; Buck's 13 year old dog Pettibone and Davis, a younger dog that Buck had recently adopted from his niece Maple. It is presumed that both dogs died in the fire.

Tibbitt, who lives alone, lost all of his belongings, including custom furniture and objects that he designed and built over the years. He is a musician and a member of the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra and his extensive collection of guitars and other musical instruments and gear were also destroyed in the fire.

A workshop on the property was untouched by the fire and the wood that had been stacked along the south wall of the house for the coming winter was charred but otherwise intact. Buck said, “The only thing that didn't burn was the fricking firewood.”

Deputy chief Tom Veldman who attended the fire scene said the cause of the fire would be categorized as “undetermined/possible lightening strike”.

It has only been a few days since the fire, but Tibbitt said he hopes to be rebuilding next spring.

Funds are being collected through a few means to help that happen. Cheques payable to the Frontenac News with the name Buck Tibbitt on the memo line can be sent to Box 229 Sharbot Lake, K0H 2P0. Interac e-transfers can be sent directly to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Frontenac minor hockey community invites you to be part of our 3rd annual Frontenac Minor Hockey Association (FMHA) “Rinks to Links” golf tournament. There are many ways to be involved, including sponsoring a hole, contributing a prize for the silent auction or individual prizes for golfers. Our fund-raising event will be held Saturday, September 12.

With your support, FMHA fund raising is keeping hockey affordable for over 400 children in our community. Over the past two years, despite the rising costs of operations, the Initiation Program (IP) Tyke registration fees were reduced slightly, and our league fees have remained the same in all other age categories. Rep team jerseys have been replaced and (3) five week sessions of power skating were available to players at an affordable price. All of this could not be possible without tremendous community support.

This year we are offering two types of sponsorship: the $200 Silver Sponsor will be presented on individual signage that will be displayed on the course tee blocks or greens, as well as on a large thank you signage board for display during the tournament and at Frontenac Arena during the 2015/2016 season. The $500 Gold Sponsor package includes the above sponsor signage PLUS a Big Box Web Ad placed on our website's homepage for the 2015/16 season!

Your day will be complete - tournament registration begins at 12:30pm with a 1:30pm shotgun start, lots of fun, followed by a delicious pork loin dinner, prizes and silent auction all for $100 per person. 

Suzanne Clarke has been raising goats for about half a decade, which may not seem like a long time. And yet, from the first pair of Nubian does she acquired in 2009, she has carved out a niche market in the Frontenac region for her breeding stock. With multiple births common for the Nubian breed, a herd can grow quickly, and she currently keeps a couple dozen goats at her farm, called Heron's Pass, near Godfrey.

For a small hobby farm, Clarke's herd is sizable, but small compared with commercial goat operations, which can number into the hundreds. As such, her customer base is comprised mostly of small farms and homesteads, particularly younger people looking for a couple of does to provide a trusted dairy option for themselves.

The goats are classified by the Canadian Goat Society, which means they have been evaluated for characteristics that are associated with good milk production and general good health in comparison with breed standards. They are also raised under organic guidelines, which include a diet of certified organic grains and minerals on top of the nutrition they gain from browsing.

She notes that her interest in high-quality breeding stems from the initial motivation for high-quality milk. “I always have the milk, whatever I'm investing,” she says, stressing that the hobby comes before the commercial enterprise.

Clarke is also an accomplished hobby cheesemaker, and with a cheese making facility on the farm, cheese sales would seem like a natural extension to the breeding stock sales. But this is trickier than it seems at first glance.

Many small farms of Clarke's scope seek creative ways to market their goods outside of traditional supply chains. This can work well for, say, fruit and vegetables, where a farm stand by the roadside can be set up with minimal investment and little or no red tape. Even meats can be sold on farm as long as they have been slaughtered in a government-inspected facility (though this can also cause major logistical headaches – just ask a small-scale chicken farmer in the county), but dairy involves a series of major commitments.

While goat milk is not a supply-managed commodity (and no quota is needed to sell it legally) a prospective venture has to gain a license to sell milk; then invest in a bulk tank and have its facility inspected; and, finally, find a buyer and a licensed shipper. This generally only makes sense for large herds, and means milking year-round to meet continuous market demand.

Clarke points out that a commercial goat dairy takes a certain kind of person. “You need to be really productive, and knowledgeable and manage animals really well.”

Having been raised on a farm where raw milk was a mainstay, she stresses the importance of a healthy, tested goat herd, and awareness of potential diseases associated with raw milk. And while she does not sell the milk and its products, she is a local resource for anyone wanting to enter the steep learning curve of keeping dairy goats of their own.

Don Lee says that he is not as sharp as he used to be, his memory is not as good, he can't hear that well, can't see out of one eye, and he has been slowed down by a stroke several years ago. At 95 he still remembers a lot of stories from the past, “but I can't really tell you what happened yesterday,” he says.

Since we were interested in the past, that wasn't much of a problem. We also found out after the interview, which took place in midwinter, that Don still operates a chainsaw, and can even use up two full tanks of gas before putting down the saw.

Don was born in 1920, in the house where he still lives, on the Ball Road, on a farm that fronts St. Andrews Lake.

His father bought the next property over in 1879 and lived in a house there, but this property had the advantage of road access, and after purchasing it and extending the farm to 200 acres, he built a house in 1912. Don was the youngest child in the family, and he attended school at Kennedy school near the family home until he graduated grade 8 at the age of 12. In the midst of the depression there was never a thought of him going on to high school, which would have involved boarding in Sydenham throughout the week.

“There was too much to do on the farm and besides money was not easy then,” he recalls.

The land in the vicinity of his farm is still covered in open fields, even though there are few operating farms left.

“Every farm had cattle when I was young. You could look out the window and see cattle across the lake, the place was clean, there was no brush at all. If land could be worked at all, it was cleared and used. Our whole ambition was to get grass for cattle.

Although all the land in the region had been covered in White Pine, which had been cleared for the most part 50 or so years before Don Lee was born, he does remember there were some of the majestic trees left when he was a boy.

Mostly it was hard work on the farm in the 20s and 30s. “We had cattle, and sheep and we always had a few pigs,” but they rarely if ever ate beef or lamb.

“My dad would slaughter a sow in the fall, and we would preserve the meat in brine. We ate salt pork all winter, which I was not really partial to, I can remember that.” They ate potatoes as well, which they grew in a large garden that was overseen by his mother.

“We would put by 25 to 40 bags of potatoes each year, Green Mountains or cobblers, not the small bags but the 100 pound bags, and we grew turnips and carrots and everything else.”

They also grew corn, and in the fall they removed the kernels from the heads onto old sheets or old bags and “mother would set them out near the stove for a day or two until they were good and dry and then we would hang them in bags off the rafters for the winter. We did the same with apples.”

The day always began with milking and delivering the milk to the cheese factory a few miles away on White Lake Road in a horse drawn wagon.

“The milk had to be there by 8, we had to get an early start. But we never got much money for it, just pennies really. My dad used to say that if, when the fall came and he had the money he needed for taxes, and we had four bags of flour for bread and a bag of sugar, he was happy because he knew we would be able to get through the winter all right.”

One thing that Don remembers fondly, beyond all the hard work and hardship, was the way people looked after each other back then.

“People are pretty good now, I can tell you, but back then we were together all the time. If someone was injured, the neighbours showed up with food, we went out to cut wood, we did whatever had to be done and never thought anything of it at all.”

An example of the co-operative economy was the way wood splitting was done.

“There was always someone who had some sort of machine to saw up wood. Everyone would bring in wood all fall and winter and pile it up in lengths. In the spring the guy with the machine would come by and say he could make it for a week at some time. Everyone would get together at one farm and work for 6 or 8 hours. They would haul the logs up on a platform where the saw was set up, and they would throw the pieces off it afterwards. Some of the women would gather in the house and put a meal on at noon for everyone. Then we would move to the next farm, and the next, until everyone had their wood cut up, ready for splitting.”

In 1934, two things happened to Don Lee. He got his first job, and his first glimpse of a curly, dark haired girl.

The job he got was plowing a field for a neighbour, although he had to convince his father that working for someone was a good idea.

“When my father was young, his family went through hard times, and he was sent to work on a farm when he was 8. They fed him, but not too well. He told me he used to get ahold of a clean piece of straw and keep it in this pocket. When he milked the cows in the morning he would pull out the straw and sip some milk from the pail when the farmer wasn't looking. So he wasn't keen on me working, but when I told him I was going to be paid 50 cents a day, he said that was all right.”

As far as that curly haired girl is concerned, families used to ask Don's father if they could come on to the farm to have picnics on St. Andrews Lake, and he always said yes. One day, as he was fishing with another girl from a nearby farm, he saw a family from Bellrock out on the lake having a picnic.

“There was a girl there, she was only 12, but she was a pretty girl, with dark hair just as curly as you can believe.” It took another two years for Don Lee to get to know Gladys Reynolds, but it turned out that she remembered that summer picnic.

“I saw you out there,” she told me, “you had another girl with you. What happened to her?”

(to be continued)  

No one seems to have been officially informed, but a Canada Post official has confirmed that the Godfrey Post Office, which is housed at L.D. Powersports, will be closing at the end of business on Saturday.

Glen Baldock, who is now based in Belleville but until recently oversaw Canada Post services in Frontenac County, said that the Godfrey location is one of a number that are run under contract with the postmaster, who has their own lease agreement. Canada Post does not have a lease agreement.

“In the case of Godfrey, the postmaster applied for a position in Inverary, which was granted, and until we can make an alternate arrangement with someone else the outlet will close,” Baldock said

He added that Canada Post has decided to seek a new postmaster for the outlet, but did not know when a public call for proposals will come.

Doug Brown, who owns L.D. Powersports, said that although he has known that Dale Pigeon, the postmaster in Godfrey, had applied and been accepted for a position in Inverary, he had no idea that the outlet would be closing until he was told informally last week.

“I heard about it last Thursday and called Glen Baldock. I told him that LD was willing to let Canada Post have space for free, since they only pay minimal rent anyway, and he said that would be helpful, but I found him to be vague about everything else. I thought that at the very least there would be notice about this, but there has been none,” said Brown.

Brown added that Pigeon knew two months ago that she was going to Inverary, where she will have more hours, but Canada Post has not contacted him or anyone else about plans to find a new person, and he has his doubts that they are really serious about re-opening the outlet.

“Dale told me that the backup person, who runs the post office when she is sick or on vacation would be happy to fill in until a new contract can be worked out, but that does not seem to matter.” he said.

Even though Glen Baldock indicated that the closure of the Godfrey outlet is not, at least at this point, a permanent closure, he said that a communal box will be installed for those who receive their mail at the Godfrey Post Office.

At first glance, it would seem that the closure comes at least close to contravening item 13 of the Canada Post Service charter, which reads: “Where Canada Post plans to change delivery methods, Canada Post will communicate, either in person or in writing, with affected customers and communities at least one month in advance to explain decisions and explore options that address customer concerns.”

Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith was informed about the pending closure just two days ago, on Tuesday afternoon this week. She brought the matter forward at the Central Frontenac Council meeting late that same afternoon, and asked council members to get the word out and encourage people to call in to complain.

People who use the post office or have any concern about its pending closure are encouraged to phone the Canada Post complaints line. The number is 1-800-267-1177

The fourth annual “101 Nativities” show and celebration took place at the Cole Lake Free Methodist Church from November 21-23 and was organized by Jean Freeman and Kristine Caird. The exhibit included approximately 175 nativities from all over the world, and were lent to the show by members of the church congregation and the local community. This year, Mary Murphy of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Railton also lent a number of scenes. This year's standouts included one scene from Africa made from hammered tin, a Mexican scene carved from a single gourd, and a hand-knit nativity scene that was made by Kristine's aunt, Joan Fellow of Murvale. More than 150 guests attended over the three days and enjoyed holiday snacks and refreshments at a number of tables set up in the showroom. Caird said that this year's focus was on the youngsters, who were invited to make a number of shrink art holiday crafts. Each child also had a chance to colour and take home their very own nativity scene, which Caird said helps to demonstrate to them the true meaning of Christmas. The Cole Lake organizers paid back Mary Murphy's generosity by lending a number of nativities from their collection to her own church’s Nativity Sunday, which took place in Railton on Dec. 7. Both events are meant to connect members of the local community with the real meaning of Christmas, which Jean Freeman said “is the birth of Christ who came into the world to save us from our sins.”

by Lynne Tebo

Thinking of Christmas? Think Nativity, which refers to scenes or crèches displayed at Christmas depicting the birth of Christ, so visit the fourth annual “101 Nativities Exhibit” at Cole Lake Free Methodist Church on Friday, Nov. 21, 6:30 - 8:30pm and Sat. & Sun. Nov. 22 & 23 from 1:30 - 3:30pm.

The Nativity exhibit will include nativities from all over the world, made of metal, wood, glass, ceramic or plastic. Nativities that children can handle and play with will also be on display. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. Each child will be given an opportunity to make a craft to take home. The children’s craft room is decorated with birthday hats and streamers in celebration of Jesus Christ’s birthday.

The Nativity Exhibit has become a tradition at Cole Lake Free Methodist Church to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. "101 Nativities" has grown several ways since that first Nativity Exhibit in 2011 - in the number of nativities on display, the number of community members who have participated in the event, and the number of persons attending the exhibit.

Ladies from the church and community have contributed to the exhibit by bringing their nativities to the church for display, contributed their time and talents in the setup of the nativity exhibit, and contributed their time during the actual event.

A "Nativity Christmas Tree,” will again be on display, decorated with handmade nativities made by over 60 ladies and children from the church and community. This has brought women of our community together from a variety of faiths and backgrounds and the nativity exhibit has truly become a community effort. You will not want to miss out on this amazing event. We encourage all grandmothers to share time with your grandchildren by bringing them to the Nativity exhibit. You will be making memories that may last into eternity. We encourage everyone to get together with their family and friends and come to the fourth annual nativity exhibit!

“For unto us a child is born...” Isaiah 9:6

Geri Teeter was Drew Cumpson's neighbor for 11 years when he lived on Buck Bay in South Frontenac. She watched him grow up over the years and recalled him as “a wonderful young man who treated people exceptionally well, was always very polite and who just loved young kids.” Drew became a quadriplegic after suffering a body surfing accident while he was volunteering in Peru in 2011, and Teeter felt moved to do something for him. Months ago an Indiegogo campaign was set up to raise $35,000 to help cover the costs associated with a surgery to have Drew fitted with a diaphragmatic pacemaker, which will allow him to breath easier and could eliminate his need for a ventilator.

The campaign officially ended on August 27 after successfully raising $37,638, more than the initial $35,000 goal; however Teeter still felt the need to contribute to what she believes will be the ongoing medical costs for him and his family. With that in mind, Teeter and fellow members of the congregation of Cole Lake Free Methodist Church, Jean Freeman and Cheryl Silver, organized a bake/yard sale fundraiser on September 13. Members of the church and the local community donated all of the goods and a steady stream of visitors attended the event. The three ladies were thrilled with the generosity of the attendees, many of whom made generous extra cash donations to the cause. By the end of the day over $625 was raised. Those who missed the event and who would still like to make a donation can call Cheryl Silver at 613-374-3250.

Wintergreen Studios, the eco-lodge/educational retreat on Canoe Lake Road near Godfrey, birthed a new and separate business in November 2012. The Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op was founded following a community energy retreat that was held at the lodge that summer. The idea to form the co-op came about in June 2012 and its mission, according to its president and founding director David Hahn, is to “promote and develop renewable energy projects in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington region; offer investment opportunities; and educate people about the value of renewable energy.”

Those and other topics were the focus of this year’s Community Energy Retreat, which took place at Wintergreen on June 13. Members of the co-op and their partner, SolarShare, were on hand to discuss their recent partnership.

Since its founding, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op had engaged TREC (the project incubator of SolarShare) to do work for the co-op on a contractual basis. The work included evaluating one of the co-op’s potential projects and acting as their back office once members of the co-op began investing. Hahn said that once the co-op began focusing on three potential large scale solar projects in the Kingston area and after speaking with an EPC (an engineering procurement and construction company) about the projects, it became clear that the co-op “needed certainty about our being able to raise the funds to a level of security required by the EPC to purchase the potential project(s).”

It was then that that the co-op entered into a partnership with SolarShare, who was able to provide the additional financial security that the EPC required. “At that point we realized that we could not give them [the EPC] the certainty that we would be able to buy the project if they developed it, so we started talking to SolarShare and have since developed an agreement with them,” Hahn said.

SolarShare is currently the largest renewable energy co-op in Canada and develops commercial-scale solar electricity installations, offering investors the opportunity to “invest ethically and with impact, with 100% of the invested funds directly financing solar projects and helping to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.” The non-profit co-op offers investors Solar Bonds, which pay a fixed 5% annual return on a minimum investment of $1,000 for a 5-year term. The co-op, which to date has developed 23 solar projects in Ontario totaling 1.2 MW of capacity, generates revenue by selling the electricity they produce. The bonds are backed by 20-year power purchase agreements with the Ontario Power Authority.

Under the new partnership, Wintergreen and SolarShare will continue to explore projects to develop in the Kingston area. Wintergreen will also encourage their own members to invest in Solar Bonds and SolarShare will pay a fee directly back to Wintergreen Co-op to cover the costs of operations.

The partnership was discussed at length at the June 13 retreat with presentations by David Hahn, by SolarShare president Mike Brigham, and by Julie Leach, the company's community investment and marketing manager. There were also keynote presentations by Kristina Inrig of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, who also spoke on sustainable investing, and Paul McKay, who spoke about renewable energy developments. Following lunch was a workshop on SolarShare's Solar Bonds.

For investors wanting to go green, with a fixed 5% annual return, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op and Solar Bonds seem well worth looking into. For more information visit www.wintergreencoop.com.