Francis Thomas Contracting partnered with the Haliburton County Home Builders Association May 28 to host an educational site visit for Grade 12 students from Haliburton Highlands Secondary School.

The initiative, aimed at encouraging youth to explore careers in construction and mining, brought students to Francis Thomas Contracting’s quarry on North Shore Road for an immersive, hands-on experience.

Students began their day at the scale house, where they were introduced to the operational side of quarry logistics. They explored the digital systems that track and manage material flow, and gained insight into the responsibilities of scale house personnel – a critical part of the quarry’s daily function. Following this, students observed material stockpiling processes before taking a guided walk around the crushing plant, where the quarry’s crushing operations were in full swing.

“There’s a real need for youth interest in the skilled trades and mining,” said Keith Thomas. “We’re proud to help bridge that gap by showing students the real-world applications of what a career in construction can look like.”

At the Post House on Lake Kashagawigamog, chef Dan Sanders extends a container of locally-grown mushrooms to Haliburton Highlands Secondary School student Veronica Beynon to have a sniff.

Sanders was discussing his career with hospitality students June 12 as teacher Darla Searle’s class visited Molly’s Bistro Bakery, and the Post House to learn more about the industry. They also heard from Kayla Gardiner of the Bonnie View Inn.

Post House front of house manager, Justine Dart, took the students on a tour and talked to them about the business and job opportunities in tourism and hospitality.

Dart said the Post House operates as an inn and a restaurant “so there’s a whole bunch of different facets, and things that need to be covered, and as far as possible careers go, there’s lots of different ways to think about it. There is the serving side and the restaurant side, all the food and beverage, there is the cheffing side. Then, there is the business of getting rooms ready, and keeping them nice, and greeting everyone, and advertising.”

Gardiner talked about event planning. She handles weddings at Bonnie View, and plans others on her own. She told students she began at their age, starting a cleaning company in Grade 10, with many jobs after. She added the industry took her to Australia, Iceland and Banff.

Her advice? “Never too early to start and always having a side hustle.” She said being calm, goal-oriented and organized is necessary, as are communication skills.

Sanders’ advice for students wanting to one day chef was to get an apprenticeship, as it will get them into a kitchen as fast as possible. He suggested they work at the best fine dining restaurants to learn. He said it takes 10 years to get to be a chef. He added one has to be passionate and “into food” to choose the career. However, he said it takes hard work and requires constant learning.

Searle said, “as much as I can tell them in the classroom there’s eight sectors in the tourism industry, they still only think about the cooking as one. So, this opportunity provides them a way to see all of the different parts of the industry work together.”

She added most students don’t realize how much tourism and hospitality there is in the Highlands.

“Any time that I can expand their knowledge about the industry, show them real world examples of what this industry does; I also try to sell them that the hospitality and tourism industry is the one industry that is worldwide.” She said even if it is not their calling, it is a means to see the world as a young person. It can also provide jobs to pay for post-secondary education.

As for the day, Beynon said, “it’s been really fun…the small bakery was very nice and now we get to come to a larger scale restaurant kitchen. It’s nice to see the differences in person and talk to a chef.”

The County’s economic development and tourism team organized the opportunity, similar to the skilled trades event. Tourism coordinator Eric Casper said “the overall goal is just to get this sector of students realizing it is a career path.”

Line Pujos sits in the basement of a centuryold stone church by Maple Lake and scribbles in a notebook.

It’s a great space to create, replete with stone walls, a stained-glass window, and light pouring in through other portals to the outside world.

St. Peter’s, Maple Lake is the gathering place for the Algonquin Highlands Writers’ Group. It’s been going for about 20 years, and Pujos wants to ensure it remains for a long time to come.

“Look at the place,” Pujos says. “It’s the ideal place to meet. It’s quiet.”

She joined about two years ago, but says there are people in the group who have been around since its inception. Brenda Peddigrew started it all, “for people to feel comfortable reading stories or poetry and not feel that they were going to get blasted,” Pujos said. “There’s no critiquing.”

She jokes she is a “lousy writer” but her peers provide positive reinforcement.

The group now has a core of seven to eight people but they would like to see that grow.

“It’s a solid group. I really want to save it,” Pujos said. While numbers are stable, it does not take much for them to dwindle; someone travelling south for the winter, illness or injury, and bad winter weather.

“I think if we can add a couple of new members; I think anyone who’d like to write would benefit a lot from joining us because you are exposed to different styles.

I wouldn’t be writing this much if it wasn’t for them. It’s forcing me to write every two weeks; a story, I’m just sitting here and writing four or five pages.”

They meet every second Saturday – the next gathering is June 28, from 9:30noon. From 9:30-10 a.m., they talk about “writerly” news, things such as Bookapalooza, and the Arts Council Haliburton Highlands, which had a poetry jam at the Dominion Hotel in Minden recently. From 10-10:40 a.m., they write if so inclined, and then from 10:40 a.m. to noon, they share their writing. Some people write by hand, others with laptops or iPad.

Pujos stressed people should not be intimidated about coming. “This is garbage,” she says of the contents of one of her notebooks. “I tell them every two weeks ‘this is what I vomited today on four pages’. It doesn’t matter. It’s for the sheer fun of writing stories. I’m not in it to write something pretty, flowery, and beautiful.” She said what she pens is humorous, so she has unintentionally become the “cut up” of the group.

It’s also a fun way to start a writing journey, “because we’re not judgemental. There’s no right or wrong in the creative process. We’re about loving life, loving nature, being accepting and having a positive attitude.”

For more information, or to register, contact Line at writewaywritetime@gmail. com

Ian Macnab says there’s a new craze sweeping across Haliburton County, one that he hopes will bolster Canadian spirit and pride.

Since March, the Haliburton village resident has been handing out free pins emblazoned with the Canadian flag. There’s no catch or hidden agenda he told The Highlander during a recent interview, only a desire for people to appreciate what they have living this side of the 49th parallel.

“As Canadians, we’re pretty low-key people… known for being very polite, always saying sorry, but we’ll stand up and push back when we have to,” Macnab said of his inspiration. “This whole business around Canada becoming the 51st state – everybody thinks it’s just an old man kidding around… but this is an opportunity for us to stand tall, take pride in who we are and say, collectively, that we are Canadian and darn proud of it.”

The pins first appeared during a trip to Mexico – wanting something that distinguished him as Canadian, not American, Macnab ordered a pack of 35 from Amazon. He and wife, Jane, each took one, with the pair handing some more out while on the trip.

After returning home, Macnab didn’t really have a plan for what to do with the rest. He didn’t want to leave them sitting in a box gathering dust, so started offering them to friends and family.

“They all thought it was great, saying I should keep doing it. So, I ordered even more,” Macnab said.

The new red-and-white movement landed in Haliburton village over the spring. Whether you’re shopping at Foodland, Rexall, or Home Hardware, visiting the bank, or enjoying a leisurely stroll along Highland Street, Macnab wagers his pins won’t be hard to find.

He figures he’s given about 300 away so far, with no plans to stop.

“If I’m in line with somebody I might tap them on the shoulder, strike up conversation and offer them a pin. It’s all about spreading positivity,” he said. “People are usually pretty surprised, taken aback, but once they realize it really is just a pin with the Canadian flag, they’re fine. I do warn people though, mostly staff at these places, that I do checkins!”

Anytime Macnab leaves home he makes sure to have a dozen or so pins in his pocket. He recently took some to his daughter in Prescott, a town of just over 4,000 people on the St. Lawrence River about 350 kilometres southeast of Haliburton.

“We took the kids out for ice cream, and I gave one to the lady at the shop. I gave some more to the kids to give to their teachers and friends,” Macnab said. “This isn’t a Haliburton thing, it’s a thing I’m doing anywhere I go.”

Haliburton’s Greg Gillespie has added four more world championship ribbons to his collection, earning a trio of top three finishes at the 54th annual Ward Wildfowl Carving Competition in Ocean City, Maryland.

The wood sculptor entered six original pieces into this year’s event, which ran April 25 to 27. He’s been a regular since 2008, competing against other top-class carvers from around the world. The Ward competition was established in 1968 and is one of the most prestigious on the circuit, Gillespie said.

There are five different categories – levelled competition, the Lem and Steve Ward competition, the Danner Frazer Youth award, special submissions, and the official world championships.

In levelled competition, competitors are separated into novice, intermediate, advanced and masters.

Gillespie submitted two interpretive bird carvings and one decorative life-size songbird carving into the masters levelled competition, where he earned one of his ribbons. In Open Level-Bench of the Lem and Steve Ward competition, his walnut paddle finished tops in the division; a recreation of a common flicker feather in the special competition placed third. Another interpretive piece for the official world championship competition failed to place.

He was chasing a second-ever ribbon at the world championship level, after earning bronze in 2016.

“I didn’t quite get it – from talking with the judges, I have a feeling I came in fourth, which is the worst possible place to come in,” Gillespie said, noting there were 12 entries.

He spends months crafting each piece. The three interpretive pieces he estimates took between 300 and 350 hours to finish, the paddle took about 200 hours, and the flicker feather, which he painted with acrylics, about 30 hours.

They’re perfected in his Haliburton village home workshop, using mostly Ontario-sourced materials. Gillespie has become known for his trademark – black walnut.

“I don’t think I can hide my work anymore. These competitions, it’s supposed to be anonymous until the judging is done, so nobody knows who did what. But usually, when people see my pieces, they go ‘oh, that’s one of Greg’s’,” Gillespie said.

He always starts with large dark slabs, free-handing most of his designs.

“I don’t make many notes and I’m not a very good drawer – I’ll do some crude sketches of what I hope the final thing will look like, but the sculpture always changes and develops as I work,” Gillespie said. “I’ve been known to pivot completely part way through a project – that’s just how creativity works sometimes.”

The warmer months are typically spent outdoors, with Gillespie drawing inspiration from the Highlands’ natural landscape. He enjoys hiking, camping, and canoeing, and rarely returns home from an outing without a new idea. He then hibernates in his workshop over the winter, perfecting his ideas.

Gillespie has been carving since 1982, when a friend and fellow woodworker, the late Weldon Tracey, took him to his first Ward World Championship. While it took Gillespie some time to compete at the event, he’s been a regular for the past 17 years. He’s hoping to win a world championship before he hangs things up for good, but said he’s unsure when he’ll next compete.

“With the way the political climate is now, I was a little worried about going to the U.S. I last went in 2023, but had to go this year because I needed to pick up one of my older carvings that failed to sell at auction,” Gillespie said. “I probably won’t go down again now as long as Trump is in power. I don’t really want to support the U.S at this time.”