We now have exited the year 2013. I would say a heartfelt good riddance. Some may have had a good year, but not here. First was the problem of trying to get last year's crop off that we didn't get done in 2012. I had three days combining left in the fall. Then the geese arrived in droves. There was so much snow we couldn't even drive out there with a four-wheel drive truck. When we went to combine in the spring, we were stuck and stuck and more stuck. We even gave up for a week and tried to seed. The yard was so soft we couldn't get the seed truck out of the yard. I ended up borrowing some seed from my son Ron. We ended up towing a partly loaded truck to the road. After a week we tried combining again. It was better, but many low flat areas where the best wheat was, we had to abandon. We went back to seeding and in about three days the pole broke on the seed cart. The cart tipped over and rolled down the hill. Hydraulic hoses and air hoses were ripped off. The wiring harness was torn apart. What a mess. It took three or four days to put that all back together. Before we could get done seeding the rains came. At the end of June, I gave up on seeding and we summer fallowed half the farm. Then at harvest with a day left, one of my good John Deere 9600 combines burned up. We finished up with the other one. I am still trying to get insurance on the combine to pay me. What a *&@ gong show!
Also in 2013, we had several of our friends die. I hate the number 13 and I try to be extra cautious. With all that happened to us with machinery troubles and friends dying at one point I said to my wife, "We will be lucky to get out of this year alive!"
Well, here we are in 2014, we made it! 2013 didn't kill me and I'm looking forward to seeing what this year brings. I feel like a friend of mine who, many years ago, had a bad crop. He said he wasn't discouraged, the only way he was going was up. You can't buy attitude like that and it tends to be contagious. I lost that friend in 2013, and I really miss him.
As far as the weather, another week of a couple of days at single digit temperatures then down to 30 below again. This morning, here it was -35 C. When are we going to get a break? I am sick of this miserable weather.
For the hoar frost I have noted that we had light hoar frost on the first, second and third. That would fall on the beginning of July. Here is to hoping for some moisture at that time.
On the home front, we have not been attempting much with this cold weather. Friday it was -5 C and I wanted to move my semi to town to clean seed. Chris wasn't available but he had it plugged in and the charger on the battery. The truck fired right up! I made arrangements with my wife to come and get me at the elevator. I had to chew back and forth to get out of the bin yard but I got rolling and when I attempted to get on the road, I did not get over to the north quite far enough to make my turn. When I turned onto the road, the back wheels caught the snow and were only about a foot from coming up on the road when I spun out. The road was pure ice. There I was, road blocked, couldn't go backward or forward. I phoned my son Ron. He was out plowing for the oil patch. He was about 10 miles away and I had to wait about an hour until he could come. I was very lucky that he was able to come. The towing was easy and the truck is now sitting on the scale. The cleaning can wait for better weather. I need to pick a day that son Ron is free as I need his assistance to set the cleaner and spouts. The whole episode was really stupid. I turned too short at the road. I should have been going faster but I was worried about making the turn. I had no "trouble" truck running and no one to help. Murphy's law says if you put yourself in position for trouble, trouble will come. And it did! Luckily, I was rescued by son Ron, and then picked up by my wife and three grandkids.
We have had three grandchildren here for sleepovers since Thursday. Son Todd's daughter Sydney (eight) and daughter Crystal's boys Victor (nine) and Santiogo (seven). The house is busy again. There were countless games of Pick up Sticks, Old Maid, War and other games. Sydney, with Grandma's guidance, sewed a quilt for her cat Daisy's bed. She is quite pleased with herself, and she should be. The only problem with Sydney's sewing was that she was always wanting to go too much rabbit and not so much turtle on the sewing machine. I'm sure it will be the same when she learns to drive, just like every other kid.
On the hockey front, the Canadian Juniors lost again and came home without medals. Watching from afar it would appear our boys were just out of legs and gas. What did our boys do on their days off? It was a very young team with a couple of sixteen-year-olds and some seventeen-year-olds. The other countries had older players, so it got to be the men against the boys. The boys played hard but we got fourth. Finland won gold in overtime, Sweden got silver and Russia bronze. Next year?
I see on the news the government is going to ban incandescent light bulbs. Some halfwits in the government have decided they are smarter than the citizens and banned the manufacturing of the bulbs. The incandescent bulbs cost 70 or 80 cents. The energy efficient mini spirals cost $5 to $8 each. A friend of mine will not use these bulbs. He said if you burn out an incandescent bulb, nothing happens and you just put in a new one. He had one of the mini spirals burn out, it burned a hole in the tube and he said he had a burnt magnesium smell in the house for three days. Breathing that in can't be good for you. Sometimes newer isn't better!
I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
Little people's joke: Why did the birds fly south for the winter. Answer: It's too far to walk!
Joke of the week: A newspaper reporter was interviewing a 90-year-old woman. They covered all the reasons for her long life and it came out she had three sets of twins. The reporter said, "You must have been a very sensuous woman when you were young." "Not really," said the old lady, "thousands and thousands of times nothing."
