Drumheller’s community garden, and members of the Valley Growers community organization behind the project, will be featured in an upcoming post on The Zone 3 Perspective gardening blog.
Winnipeg bloggers, Cathy Cook and Justin Metzger, who are behind The Zone 3 Perspective, made a stop at the local community garden on Monday evening, June 19 on their western Canada road trip.
“We were trying to plan an outdoor vacation, and in July last year I started visiting other gardens around Winnipeg and decided to just take that across western Canada,” says Cathy.
The pair, along with their dog Potato, left Winnipeg on Saturday, June 17 and are making some 30 stops visiting community and private gardens along their trip to Butchart Gardens on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island.
Drumheller was the fifth stop on their tour; this was Justin’s first time visiting the Drumheller valley, and Cathy’s first time visiting since she was a child.
While in the valley Cathy and Justin got to enjoy some local attractions including the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Badlands Interpretive Trail, and Cathy interviewed members of the Valley Growers organization while visiting the community garden, learning about their gardening experience and what they have learned over the years.
These stories, and the rest of their western Canada trip will be shared on https://thezone3perspective.ca at a later date.

A Carbon softball player has been named to the Canadian National Team.
Kristen Boyd, daughter of Heather and Stu Boyd, has been pursuing her softball career for years and is currently playing at New Mexico State at the NCAA Division 1 level. She has officially made the 20-player roster for the Canadian National Women’s Softballl team.
“This is the first time she ever tried out,” her mother Heather tells the Mail.
Kristen has been busy playing for many years. She graduated from Acme School and lettered excelling in volleyball. She started playing ball in Trochu and then played in Strathmore. She made the Alberta Summer Games team. She also made an all-star team and competed in tournaments in the US. When her family saw she was serious they sent out videos of her playing and got into contact with college coaches.
The fielder then attended a Texas Junior College at Temple for two years during COVID, and is now at New Mexico State, going into her third year on a full scholarship.
While she was playing in college, during the summer she would return home and work at the Carbon swimming pool. This year she decided to buck the trend and tried out for the national team.
She went to Vancouver the same day as Carbon Sports Day (precluding the family team from entering Sports Day) and was selected to go to Toronto for the next round of selection camps. Last Sunday they asked her to be on the 20-player roster.
“Not bad for her first time trying out,” said Heather. She’s the only one at this camp that has never been there before.”
So now she is training in Toronto and will shortly be heading to Nashville to play in a tournament. After that, she will compete in the Canada Cup World Series. This is a roster that includes players who have competed at the highest level internationally for years. Canada is currently ranked fifth in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Rankings.
This will give her a taste of ball at the highest level. The 2023 WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Group Stage being played from July 22-26, 2023, in Castions di Strada and Buttrio, Italy will only carry 15 players, and she did not make the official roster.
“If there is an injury, she is in the athlete pool and she could be called up at any time,” said Heather. “Kind of like being in the minors. She is second on the depth chart.”
“We just think she is awesome, and if she takes it somewhere, great, but if not she is going to have a heck of a summer.”