Another week has gone by, another week closer to spring. This was a week where it was above freezing then down to 20 below. I could stand this weather until the middle of April and then we can enjoy spring. There has been little hoar frost to mark this month and I expect that we will have a warm, but windy, July.
With all this melting and thawing there is ice everywhere. It is very treacherous walking. I am getting cramps in my feet and legs from clenching my toes as I try not to fall walking on ice. Please Big Guy, send spring!
We had an unwanted happening here as my computer that I have had for more than 10 years quit on me. It would come on for 20 seconds and then shut itself off. We decided it was time for a new one. On a trip to Lloydminster to see the accountant, we took time to look at some models in different stores. We came home with our heads spinning. It was just about too much for us old guys. Two days later we went back and found a model we thought would work. We got a new computer plus replaced the printer I hated. The SaskTel wireless stick is still here, but if it keeps acting like it has been, it will be out the door too. The new computer cost all of my old age pension cheque and $20 besides. Lord love a billy goat. Those weren't the exact words that were used!
After a long unsatisfying phone call to the store we bought it from, we ended up hiring local computer expert Nathan, who works out of his apartment in Maidstone. He came and got this computer running and took away our old one to see if he could get it fixed or at least get our stuff off it. He phoned back and said the hard drive was fried. I have lost all my Vic's Views although I have paper copies. All my email addresses are gone but the worst loss is the pictures. We have most on the camera cards but some were irreplaceable. Farm pictures, weddings and family get togethers.
I had an email from Harvey Graham with information about the railways and the revenue cap. The revenue cap is calculated by the Canadian Transportation Agency based on volume moved and an inflation index. Any money railways exceed the revenue cap by they have to give to the Western Grain Research Foundation, a farmer financed fund for research.
The information shows that the CPR had a revenue of $544,222,877. Their cap was $544,044,916. They exceeded the cap by $177,961 plus a per cent penalty of $8,898. This they had to pay within 30 days to WGRF.
CNR on the other hand had revenues of $556,589,140 that was $6,346,256 below its revenue cap of $562,935,396. This to my farmer thinking is about 1,900 cars short of what they could have hauled. Where were they? What were they doing? Why were they not moving grain?
I don't know all they were doing, but I have a good idea what is happening. I live in the country about a mile south of the CN main line. Every night at midnight you can set your clock as we can hear the train rumbling by. It takes about 20 minutes or more for the train to pass. They have a mile and a half long passing track at Waseca. It seems to be a long time that the train is going by my house. Old railroader Bruce McFayden tells me they don't stop trains coming from the east, because there is a 70-foot drop between Waseca and Maidstone. If the train coming from the east has to stop, it is difficult to get going again. The train coming from the west pulls into the passing track and waits until the train from the east passes and it is going slow because it is pulling up hill. When the train from the west pulls out, it is loaded and easier to pull going downhill, but is going slow because it just started moving. It is a train of oil tanker cars. That is why the trains are rumbling past my place for so long in the night. There are two trains. That is also why the wheat isn't getting moved. They are busy moving oil cars. I don't object to the railway moving oil cars, they have to get their product to market, too. What I object to is the railroads have taken on a huge job, but do not have the engines to move stuff to market.
This wheat marketing thing is a dog's breakfast. Some people have sold quite a bit and some people have sold not a bushel. The elevator companies don't have to buy any grain, because they have all the wheat signed up that the railways are going to move. There is no incentive to give you a good price or treat you fairly on grade or dockage. They have you and they know it!
My son Ron tells me you can still get $6 a bushel for wheat, but you have to load it in a producer car and ship it to Mission Terminal at the lake heads. That is nice but I still question when you would get all your money. I also distinctly remember the last producer car I shipped. It went to Prince Rupert. I thought it was good wheat between a No. 1 or No. 2. It came back Canada Feed. They said it had .0037 per cent non-cereal dockage. I was shocked. I phoned them and asked what the non-cereal was. They couldn't tell me. They said it was not ergot. I asked for a re-grade. It came back a No. 3. I was not impressed and I thought to myself "Self, I could ask for another re-grade, but I will just put a mark on the wall. If they are going to act like that, no more producer cars from me." So that is what I did, I took my money and I never shipped them another car.
That Statistics Canada report that proclaimed a bumper crop this year just kicked every farmer in the groin. The price went from $6 to under $4 in less than a month. I refuse to fill out the survey and they keep phoning me, threatening to put me in jail. I can't believe there are farmers naive and stupid enough to tell them what we have. Look what happens to us. Who else suffers drop in income of that size, not the elevator companies, not the railroads, not Statistic Canada employees, not the politicians. Every time there is a problem in the system, the farmer takes the fall. If you don't want the farmer to make a living here is a question for you, what does crude oil taste like, anyways!!
Joke of the week: One Saturday morning a family went out for lunch. After they ate, the father tried to give the uncle $30 for a pizza he had bought the night before. The uncle didn't want to seem greedy, so he refused to take the money. Likewise, the dad refused to keep the money. They eventually made a scene in the parking lot by trying to stuff the cash into each other's pockets. A man walked out of a nearby store and watched them for a few moments before offering, "I'll take it!"
