A little sun, a little rain and that is the week that was. We are not suffering the plus-30 weather anymore and it has turned a little cool. We were down to plus 4 one night when it snowed the ground white in Jasper. We don’t want no winter yet! We will get a killing frost soon enough. The only thing that saved us was the weather was overcast. We know a killing frost comes on a clear night.
Killing frosts in the fall always come with wet weather and then the clouds clear off and the weather gets down to freezing. Also in conjunction with the wet weather, any time four days before or after the change of the moon is when we get a killing frost. I don’t know why it is, but it is just that way.
Looking on my hoar frost calendar, I see I have a rain marked for the 28th. There is a new moon on the 29th. This is not good! Of course, that is expecting the hoar frost calendar to be right, which it hasn’t been all year. We will see! If the big guy sends us a killing frost, we have to take it. Maybe the weather will be overcast those nights and we will escape again. If we can get by the end of this week we are good until Sept. 13 where there is the next new moon.
I don’t farm anymore but I like to drive around and look at the crops. Today I don’t see a wheat crop that could not be swathed. I see one man cutting canola at Lashburn. Before the end of the coming week the swather guys are going to be laying crop down left and right. Within two weeks, most of the canola will be meeting up with the swather. The fellas that desiccated their wheat will be starting to combine. The pea guys will be harvesting their crops this coming week. Harvest is here, the mad rush is on. Keep safe everyone. Lack of sleep and accidents go hand in hand. Remember that!
On the home front, Ty is putting cat walks up on the pelleter stand at the elevator. They have a system because Ty’s welding can be a little sketchy, so they are smacking the welding with a sledge hammer. If it doesn’t fall off, then is deemed to be safe to walk on. I didn’t invent that system, but as long as it works, go for it. Ty’s welding is improving every day. They have one more cross pipe to weld on, a platform and some stairs. Hand railings will have to be welded on both levels where there is a walkway. The ladder for the airseeder tank must be cut off and repositioned so we can get on to the top of the tank from the top walkway. This all takes time, but must be done.
I had two disappointments last week. First I have a little Miller portable welder that was light enough to pick up by hand and throw in the back of a half ton. It had a Honda motor on it and it ran and welded well. Someone borrowed it and the arc just quit. The motor ran but just no arc to weld. It was only four years old and had not welded that much. I took it into the repair shop and after presenting me a bill for $178 they told me it would cost the same to fix it as it would to buy a new one. Lord love a billy goat! That was a handy welder. Now I got nothing. That is not perfectly true, I have a dead welder all in parts and a bill!
The other disappointment was I wanted to put a deer killer bumper on my new truck. I had one already made that I was going to mount of my Ford F-450 one-ton flatbed truck. The guys spent almost all morning taking pieces of plastic off the front of the new truck to get to the frame. When we got it uncovered, we realized the bumper already made would not fit. The frame is boxed in and there was no way we could bolt the deer killer bumper on. There was no way to put the nuts on. I made them put all the plastic pieces back on. Ty threatened to only put half the bolts back on but after some threats to his well being he saw it my way and all the bolts got put back in. I think he was just jerking my chain but I wasn’t. My brain is now working on a new plan for a deer killer bumper for my truck. Lord love a billy goat again, and all the plastic on a truck. Over priced and under engineered for most of the stuff we have to buy. That’s what I say!
On the political front, the leaders are running from city to city making new promises that if elected they probably have no intension of keeping. Some of the promises are interesting and it is something new every day. Considering this is a long campaign, what will be left to promise by the time they are done? One must remember that the promises being made are going to be paid for with your very own money.
The Mike Duffy trial goes on and on in Ottawa. Some of the media are just fixated on whether Stephen Harper knew that Nigel Wright was going to pay Mike Duffy’s fraudulent living allowance. I don’t get the point! Is there something criminal in knowing that one guy is going to pay another guy's bill? The media seems to be losing track of the fact that one guy is a crook and has been defrauding the Canadian taxpayer. He is on trial and hopefully gets convicted and goes to jail. The rest of us, including Stephen Harper, are just spectators to a head shaking of an unbelievable happening.
On the political campaign trail, the Rhinoceros Party is back. Their main campaign plank is they would nationalize Tim Hortons to save it for Canadians They also say that Eve Adams can run in any riding she wants for the Rhinoceros Party. Eve Adams, who left the Conservative party, then ran as a Liberal but lost that nomination, is blond, unemployed and seeking a new job.
Joke of the week from little Victor (10): What is in an empty nostril? Answer “finger prints.”
