Okay, how freaky is this?  This happened just up the road from the cottage!!  There was a really bad thunderstorm that night... total heebie jeebies now!

Crop circles appear at Holmesville

Tornadoes, pranksters and the ever-popular flying saucer theory were topics up for debate by excited visitors gathered inside the series of crop circles discovered on the property of Bert and JoAnne VanMaar near Holmesville, Friday morning.

The formation, a series of five connected circles, ranging in descending order from approximately 55 feet, down to 16 feet, was discovered at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday by Don Wyse and Albert Wubs.

The Van Maars’ neighbour, Al Feddes said that when he drove by the field to check his barn at about 2:30 the same morning while the hydro was out, he didn’t notice anything unusual in the field.

JoAnne VanMaar said she hadn’t subscribed to one particular theory about how the pattern came to be in her family’s field but she was certainly enjoying the novelty of the situation. “I don’t know, it’s just amazing, just to see it,” she laughed. “That’s good entertainment.”

The VanMaars’ son, Jacob, hadn’t come up with a concrete explanation either, but did have a couple of ideas regarding the origins of the circles.

“It’s hard to say. We had a pretty close lightning strike at about 6:30, and I thought maybe it had something to do with that,” he said.

“A lot of people say it has something to do with being between hydro and water. Well there are hydro towers right there and there’s a municipal drain that runs right there as well about 50 feet closer to the house from it.”

Most of the people who saw the field on Friday morning were in agreement that whatever had made the circles, it seemed unlikely that it could have been constructed by people. VanMaar agreed.

“I’m reasonably sure that it wasn’t man-made. I went to the one in Hensall. I have a bit of interest in it, I have a couple of books on it at home, but that doesn’t mean I did it,” he laughed.

“Another weird thing was that the centres were kind of off center, which sort of throws away some people’s theories. It wasn’t wind. It’s too perfect,” VanMaar added.

The circles have damaged about a half acre of damage, according to VanMaar, but he points out that fortunately, the pattern is located quite close to the road, so visitors to the site aren’t likely to cause too much more damage.

By Monday morning, VanMaar said the field had received about 500 visitors, including a representative from the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network (CCCRN). Paul Anderson of the CCCRN confirmed that the group is looking into the circles in Holmesville. “We are still investigating it, so can’t say too much yet,” he said. “There are some interesting aspects to it, but also some reasons to be cautious, as to whether it is a hoax or not.”