Joke of the Week 🤠
A man walks into a pet store looking for a quiet, low-maintenance companion. The owner smiles and shows him a tiny, ordinary-looking green frog. "This frog is special," the owner says. "If you clap twice, it will sing beautiful opera." Intrigued, the man buys the frog, takes it home, and claps his hands twice. The frog immediately belts out a flawless, breathtaking aria. Amazed, the man exclaims, "Wow! I wonder what it does if I clap three times?" The frog sighs and says, "Probably standard tech support, it's my day job."
🏔️🌻 Positively Abbotsford
Virtual School Students Gift Custom Mobility Device: In a brilliant show of community spirit, a group of Grade 6 to 8 student volunteers from the Abbotsford Virtual School teamed up with their teacher, Mr. Amendt, and the non-profit Make Good. Together, they built a custom, 3D-printed mobility trainer for a 5-year-old girl named Prescott who lives with cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Local families even partnered with Meridian Farm Market to help the kids raise $600 to fully fund the materials.
National Bronze for ASIA Sumas Student: Kate Brown, a student from the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts (ASIA) Sumas, took home a bronze medal at the 2026 Skills Canada National Competition in Toronto. She earned the national podium spot for her exceptional work in Architectural Technology and Design.
Crossley Park Upgrades Complete: Over at the city level, the brand new splash pad at Crossley Park (located near McAdam Road and Old Yale Road) was officially completed. The city partnered up with Saputo to get it built, right in time for families looking to beat the summer heat.
World Cup Watch Parties Announced: With the World Cup kicking off and a major focus hitting the Lower Mainland, Vancouver FC announced they will be hosting 10 completely free community watch parties over June and July at the Langley Events Centre stadium. They are setting up a massive video board, family activities, and food trucks to bring soccer fans across the valley together.
📅✨ Coming Events: What's On in Abby This Week
📅 Thursday, June 11
Go Play Outside
12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Mill Lake - Ware Street, 2339 Ware Street
Tiny Tots Art / Museum Exhibition 11:00 am - 12:00 pm The Reach Gallery Museum, 32388 Veterans Way
Introduction to Natural Skincare Workshop: A local hands-on workshop focused on the foundations of healthy skin and making natural products. (33735 Essendene Ave, 6:30 PM)
OPEN Space Community Gathering: A recurring weekly drop-in cultural and community social hub in the heart of the city. (Downtown Abbotsford, #110 - 33765 Essendene Ave, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM)
Friday, June 12
Community Soccer Watch Party
The world is watching… and so are we!
Archway Community Services is hosting a live outdoor viewing of Canada’s international soccer game.11:00 am - 3:00 pm(GMT-07:00)
Archway Community Services, 2420 Montrose Ave
🍓 Saturday, June 13
Abbotsford Farm & Country Market
The city's longest running traditional farmers' market9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Jubilee Park, 2552 McCallum Rd
U-Pick Strawberry Season Kicks Off: Peak June strawberry season is officially opening up at local local staples like Maan Farms, Taves Family Farms, Willems Berry Farm, and Bumbleberry Farms. (Check individual farms for exact morning hours)
Matsqui Trail Regional Parkrun: A free, timed weekly community 5K walk/run open to all fitness levels. (Matsqui Trail Regional Park, 9:00 AM)
Star Talent Dance Competition: A multi-day provincial showcase highlighting local and regional competitive dance talent. (Abbotsford Arts Centre, runs June 13 to June 16)
⛪ Sunday, June 14
BALLPITKID: Live Performance: A community evening event featuring live music, storytelling, and local art. (Abbotsford Vineyard Church, 7:00 PM)
UFC FREEDOM 250 WATCH PARTY
UFC Freedom250 5:00 pm
Wings, 1965 SUMAS WAY
Saturday June 20th
Free Family Fishing Day
Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery
8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery, 34345 Vye Road, Abbotsford, B.C. V2S 7P6
💜 All Week Long (On-Going June Highlights)
Lavender Wandering at Tuscan Farm Gardens: Winding paths and the lavender labyrinth are fully open for the early summer season. (6834 Mount Lehman Road)
Soft Serve & Fresh Markets: Neufeld Farm Market has officially brought back its famous seasonal soft-serve milkshakes and sundaes alongside their summer produce harvest. (32215 King Road)
Abbotsford History Moment
🦟 The Great Abbotsford Mosquito "Plague" (When Bugs Closed the Schools)
Long before Abbotsford became the thriving "City in the Country" we know today, early local homesteaders and the Semá:th people had to contend with a seasonal force of nature that completely paralyzed daily life: astronomical clouds of floodwater mosquitoes.
Before Sumas Lake was drained in 1924, the annual spring freshet of the Fraser River would back up into the shallow basin, turning the entire valley into a massive wetland. The moment the water hit the soil, billions of dormant mosquito eggs would hatch simultaneously.
It wasn't just an annoyance; it was a seasonal shutdown:
School's Out: The swarms became so dense and aggressive in the early 1900s that local schools across the area—including what is now Mt. Lehman—frequently had to close down entirely for up to six weeks because it was deemed unsafe for children to walk outside.
Fashion for Survival: To cope, local girls and women would wrap thick layers of newspapers around their legs underneath their stockings before walking down town streets, while men worked outside only if they were standing directly next to a roaring "smudge fire" (heavy smoke pits designed to keep the bugs at bay).
Livestock Loss: The swarms were so vicious that early agricultural records note local farmers losing calves and dogs to sheer blood loss and exhaustion from the pests.
The bugs were such a relentless part of the local ecosystem that the Halkomelem language even features an ancestral seasonal encampment name, Tehm-eh-kwiy-ehl, which literally translates to "at mosquito time." When engineers finally completed the massive engineering feat to drain Sumas Lake in 1924, local newspapers across the border in Washington state actually celebrated—not just for the new farmland, but because it finally "annihilated the whole blooming band" of the Abbotsford mosquito army.
Here is a fresh list of frugal living tips that go beyond the standard "stop buying lattes" advice. These focus on modern strategies, micro-habits, and leveraging technology to save money without feeling totally deprived.
1. The "Never Go Home" Delivery Rule
If you frequently order food delivery when you’re exhausted after work, make a rule: you can only order takeout if you physically pick it up yourself. Removing the convenience of delivery apps instantly cuts out delivery fees, service charges, and driver tips (saving you $10–$15 per order), and the friction of having to leave the house often convinces you to just eat what’s in the fridge.
2. Practice "Pre-cycling"
Before buying any new organizational bins, home decor, or single-use kitchen gadgets, give yourself a 48-hour window to see if you can upcycle something you already own. Use jars from pasta sauce for pantry storage, cut up old t-shirts for cleaning rags, or repurpose delivery boxes for drawer dividers.
3. Shift to "Tiered" Streaming Subscriptions
Instead of paying for Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and Spotify all at once, switch to monogamous streaming. Pick one platform for the month, watch everything you want, and cancel it to rotate to the next one the following month. You keep your entertainment fresh while cutting your monthly digital bill by 60% or more.
4. Use the "Cost-Per-Hour" Mindset for Big Purchases
Before dropping money on a non-essential item (like a new gadget or a designer jacket), calculate its cost based on your hourly wage. If you make $25/hour and want a $250 item, ask yourself: "Is this item worth 10 full hours of my physical labor?" Viewing prices through the lens of your time changes how you perceive value.
5. Embrace the "Buy Nothing" Hyper-Local Gift Economy
Join your local Facebook Buy Nothing Project group or use apps like Freecycle. People in your immediate neighborhood give away everything from perfectly good furniture and lawnmowers to surplus garden veggies and baby gear for absolutely free—simply because they are moving or decluttering and want it gone.
6. Track Your "Ghost" Expenses
Once a month, do a 10-minute audit of your bank statements specifically looking for "ghost expenses"—small, recurring $2 to $5 charges that creep up. These include iCloud storage tiers you don't use, premium app upgrades you forgot about, or small maintenance fees on old bank accounts. Individually they look tiny; collectively they drain hundreds annually.
7. Shop Your Pantry Before Your Grocery Store
Instead of writing a grocery list based on what you want to eat this week, write a list based on what needs to be used up. Build your meals around that half-full box of pasta, the frozen chicken breast, or the veggies at the bottom of the crisper. It slashes your weekly grocery bill and dramatically cuts down on food waste.
8. Use the "One In, One Out" Rule for Clothing
To curb impulse clothes shopping, implement a rule that if you buy a new item of clothing, you must sell or donate an equivalent item from your current wardrobe. The mental effort of deciding what you’re willing to part with acts as an excellent natural deterrent to mindless spending.
9. Master the 72-Hour Wishlist
When shopping online, never buy an item the moment you find it. Add it to a dedicated "Wishlist" draft or notes app and wait exactly 72 hours. More than half the time, the dopamine hit of "the hunt" wears off, you forget why you even wanted it, and you'll delete it from your cart without spending a dime.
10. Learn the Art of the "No-Spend Weekend"
Once a month, challenge yourself or your family to a weekend where you spend zero dollars outside of absolute necessities (like fuel for work). It forces you to get creative: you'll finally visit that free local museum, hike a new trail, play board games, bake with what's in the cupboard, or tackle a DIY project you've been putting off.
Which of these strategies feels like the easiest one for you to test out this week?
Hope everyone has a great week. If you have a local job available there are many students wanting work in our area. Send me a message at [email protected] and I will add them into our Employment Opportunities.
Still working on a Business Directory. If you want your local small business advertised in there you can also contact me about that.
Working hard to come up with new ideas for this Newsletter and new format.