This past week has been a godsend for the guys trying to get the crop in the bin. No rain, for the most part sunny, some mornings a little dewy and the old cutterbars were doing a little chomping first thing on some of the mornings. Patience guys, patience, slow down a little. Don’t get all rammy and break something. It will be dry by the time you got ‘er all fixed. In the meantime you had the repair expense and the extra stress for nothing. That extra cup of coffee and time with your wife will not hurt you.
In the area, a lot of acres of wheat have been done this last week. As far as I know it all came off dry and a good grade. Some of the areas in the fields like hillsides are not producing much wheat but the protein and grade are excellent.
Large areas of canola have been swathed but there still are green fields, but it is coming fast. There is some wringing of hands and stressing about when to swath as there are dead ripe plants and green as grass plants. If you leave it too long the ripe stuff will shell out on you and it is lost. If you swath too green the seed will either retain the green and the elevator will gleefully downgrade it or the seed will shrivel up and blow out the back of the combine. This could be a lose-lose situation. Guys are leaving it as long as possible and trying to swath when it is tough at night or early in the morning. No matter what you do Mother Nature is not going to allow you to go to coffee row and brag about your yield unless you lie and, trust me, there is a lot of that going on.
About three weeks ago my F350 7.3L environmental polluter died. No power anywhere, no start, no gauges, no lights, no radio, nothing. Towed it to the front of my shop. Checked the batteries, they were fine. I had to enlist CSI detective Jaco and after much searching he found a corroded wire. In the meantime, all I had to drive was my old F250 farm truck. After harvest, I was thinking of buying another truck, but this time I was thinking of an older Dodge. I had one before and it got good gas mileage. I am unemployed, so I decided to begin my search early. I looked lots in Lloydminster. No older trucks to be had. In fact they appeared almost to turn up their noses when I asked. Maybe it was that I said I would pay only auction sale price.
Looking on the Internet, I found an older truck at a dealer in Paradise Hill. I did go up to look at it, but after some haggling about the price I could see that I could not make a deal. I am not paying more for a used truck than it is worth. Salesman Allan had just taken in this black F150 and after some haggling it was a dollar down and a dollar a week and I now drive an F150 with V6 motor and twin turbos. Me and Ford Credit are now partners in ownership of this truck. It gets twice as much gas mileage as anything else I own.
I would like to give a middle finger salute to Canada Post. On April 15 we mailed an invitation to my nephew David to come to my birthday party July 25. Sept. 1 we get the card back with a sticker saying “no such address.” Where has this card been for the last three and a half months? Is this any way to run a business? The rest of the family came, but he was not there. Now I have to phone him and apologize for him not getting an invitation. Thanks for nothing Canada Post. If we had known sooner we could have done something else, but now more than a month after the event, geeeze.
I have watched with dismay at the refugee crisis in the Middle East. As a country, why can we not do more? This is no different than the Vietnam refugees. Sweden is taking 100,000 refugees. We are only taking 15,000 or 20,000 over three or four years. In a country this large can we not do more? These people are desperate now. As a Christian country can we not help out our fellow man in time of need or are we only Christian on Sundays?
In politics, some readers are unhappy that I appear to be promoting Stephan Harper. I am 100 per cent guilty. I can only go by the reports I see on the news. I have two sons, two daughters and two sons-in-law making a living in the oil patch. I am sensitive to politicians from afar who would do harm to the industry. NDP leader Tom Mulcair called the oil sands the Dutch Elm disease of Canada. He is also against the Keystone Pipeline. High profile NDP candidate Linda McQuaig in Toronto said that the oil sands should stay in the ground. When I see statements like that it is a red flag that these people are not someone I want running the country. How are we going to make a living in Western Canada if we can’t sell our natural resources?
Joke of the week from Dwayne Mitchell. The children filed back to class Monday morning. They were all very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something and give a report and talk about salesmanship. Little Sally led off. “I sold Girl Guide cookies and made $30,” she said proudly. “My sales approach was to appeal to the customer’s civic spirit and I credit that approach with my success.” Little Debbie was next. “I sold magazines,” she said, “and I made $45. I explained to everyone that magazines keep everyone up on current events.” Very good said the teacher. Eventually it was little Johnny’s turn. The teacher held her breath. Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box of cash on the teacher’s desk “$1,863,” said little Johnny. “What in the world were you selling,” asked the teacher. “Toothbrushes,” said Little Johnny. “Toothbrushes,” said the teacher. “How could you possibly sell that many toothbrushes?” “I found the busiest corner in town,” said Little Johnny. “I set up a dip and chip stand and I gave everyone who walked by a free sample.” They all said the same thing. “’this tastes like dog poop.”’ I would say to them, “’it is dog poop, Wanna buy a toothbrush?’” I used the Trudeau/Mulcair method of giving you some crap dressed up so it looks good, telling you it is free and then making you pay to get rid of the bad taste out of your mouth. Little Johnny got an A+
As Uncle Horald used to say, ooooh boy.
