Town & Country

C M Y K 6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SATURDAY MARCH 26, 2016 N E U B E R G T H A L TEL: (204) 758-3815 BOX 310 FAX: (204) 758-3085 ST. JEAN BAPTISTE MANITOBA R0G 2B0 www.winklergolfcourse.com FOURSOME WITH CART 400-15th Street, Winkler Mb. For Tee Time Call: (204) 325-7582 $ 160 Valid all week, one coupon per group Not valid for tournaments Expires Sept 30. 2016 with this coupon GOLF THE BEAUTIFUL WINKLER GOLF COURSE! • HARDWOOD • LAMINATE • CARPET • VINYL Andrej Wuerz cell: (204) 823-0787 19 Rampton St. Morden, MB R6M 1P9 Manitoba Fitness Council certifying quality fitness leaders since 1986. For courses, dates and more information visit: www.manitobafitnesscouncil.ca Vanderveen's Greenhouses Ltd. Box 957, Carman, Manitoba ROG OJO Telephone: (204) 745-3534Fax: (204) 745-3920 Come join us for the Manitoba Sunflower Festival July 22, 23 & 24, 2016 Visit our website at: www.altona.ca ALTONA Visit Us Today in the Altona Mall Hrs: Mon-Sat 8am-9pm, Sun 12pm-6pm SANDBLASTING & COATINGS SPEERHEAD ENTERPRISES LTD. KEN SAWATZKY PRESIDENT BOX 1384, ALTONA, MB R0G 0B0 PHONE: (204) 324-8429 CELL: (204) 327-7428 FAX: (204) 324-1895 EMAIL: speerhea@mts.net WEB: www.speerhead.ca ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND HISTORY BUFFS FLOCK TO NEUBERGTHAL By David Square For the Winnipeg Free Press Manitoba has a unique arts and cultural program located in the Neubergthal National Historic Site. W e have a subsidized artist-in-residence program open to creative people from all disciplines, and are becoming a cultural centre as well," says Margru- ite Krahn, a painter and active member of the Neu- bergthal Heritage Foundation (NHF). Winnipeg composer Andrew Balfour is a frequent artist-in- residence at Herdsman's House, Krahn's guest house, a restored Mennonite home occupied until 1965 by a descendant of the Klippenstein family, whose members began farming the area in 1876. The unique interior contains hand-hewn oak beams and colourful hand-painted floors created by Mennonite women who brought the artistic tradition with them when they moved to Canada from Russia. "The house is the only one of its kind in Canada," says Krahn. To create a fund to subsidize artists, concerts are organized and usually held on the top floor of the spacious housebarn owned and renovated by Krahn and her husband Paul. Entertainers have included the Brothers Landreth, who won a Juno for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year in 2015, as well as the New Lightweights whose original folk, pop and soul music you may have heard on CBC Radio 2. In mid-April, writer Armin Wiebe will be reading from some of his humourous novels, and singer-songwriter Paul Bergman will present a selection of his music. Wiebe, who was born in Altona, eight kilometres northwest of Neubergthal, has been short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour and won both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. Bergman has released five albums, the most recent being Anthropology in late 2015. His style has been compared to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. The occasion will mark the official opening of Herdsman's House. Tickets are available for $15 to $25, which includes a meal consisting of delicious foods such as hot chilli and fresh bread or cinnamon buns, all baked in an historic wood-fired oven. From June to mid-September, students are hired to guide visitors through Neubergthal, a traditional Mennonite street village about 2.5 kilometres in length, which was officially recognized in 1997 as a National Historic Site. The street is lined with cottonwoods brought from Russia as seeds by the first settlers. Eight of the dwellings are restored housebarns of European design adapted by Mennonites to harsh settlement conditions in Russia and Canada. The homes were attached to a barn that allowed farmers to access their livestock without the need to walk outside, a welcome feature in the midst of a prairie winter. A massive oven in the centre of the housebarn was used to bake the family's daily bread and to heat the main and upper floors of the home. "The heat from our oven can be so intense that we have to open windows even in winter to allow hot air to escape," says Krahn. The village currently has 40 households with about 100 inhabitants. Karen Martens grew up in Neubergthal but left to earn a degree in home economics from the University of Manitoba, and then spent more than three years with her husband, Ron, in Bangladesh as a volunteer nutritionist. In 1999, the couple decided to leave Winnipeg and move back to Karen's original home in Neubergthal. "We had three children and felt it would be a beautiful, safe area where they could spend their formative years," she says. Martens is also very active with the NHF. Among other projects, the foundation has restored the Friesen housebarn as an interpretive centre for visitors to the village. Inside, there is a traditional Pantry Candy Store, a delight for children in the summer, and numerous examples of early Mennonite culture and tradition. Today, Krahn and Martens are focusing their energies on their guest houses, Herdsman's House and Martens' Morning Dove, a log cabin just down the street from her residence. Both women charge the same rates ($80 for a single person, $90 for a couple and a small extra cost for additional guests). Krahn stocks the Herdsman's House with food guests can prepare themselves, and Martens offers a full-service breakfast with a choice of four menus. For reservations, call Krahn at 204-324-1612 or Martens at 204-324-1567. Learn more at neubergthal.com. HOUSEBARNS HOSTELRIES and " Neubergthal's historic buildings include housebarns, one of which has been transformed into a guest house. Photo by Darcy Finley

• Cover