Another beautiful week to combine. Those who are not done yet are in the "hurry hard" mode. Some are done and are sitting back saying, "Whew! I'm glad that is over." Others, who still have jam left, are putting on anhydrous. One job less in the spring.
There are grain bags all over the place. It is hard to look out across the countryside without seeing those white bags. I suspect that the grain in most of those bags is tough or damp. Guys want to get done and when grain wouldn't get dry they bagged it. It will keep in the bags with no oxygen and they can deal with it later. Most all of the bags are put there by the "spray and straight cut" crowd. I don't know what their plan is to deal with this tough and damp wheat. At four dollars there is not much wiggle room to still make any money if you are drying or hope the grain companies will help you out. Anytime I took grain that was tough or damp to the elevator I was treated with the same distain as a wet dog in a crowded elevator. The elevator companies do not want any extra work. They want to buy your grain for less than it is worth, load in rail cars and ship it out of the country and sell it for double what they paid you.
I swathed my wheat and it cured and was all taken off dry. I tried that straight cutting years ago and I guess it works farther south but I never found it to be very satisfactory. Spraying helps. Swathing is more work, swathing costs less money than spraying but it works. Enough said.
On the home front, we are done combining! Yaaah! We would have been done yesterday but da devil made a bearing go out on the return elevator. Then we came home with the wrong bearing!. All made for a long frustrating day with not much done. Jaco got going again and we are now done. Sven will be done harrowing later today. Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Sven and Jaco are both invited.
My wife is planning a house full for Thanksgiving and I like good food. That is the only time I get pie. I like pie. Well I did get pie before she went to Victoria. I think she was giving me sympathy pie because I was not going. Well I am glad she is back. I have been married 46 years, 47 in November. I remember back when Dad and I were batching. I do not have fond memories of that time. I was the frying pan cook and he did the dishes. Being married is much, much better. I hope never to be a bachelor again. It can be fun when you are young maybe, but for me, not now. I'm too old. I don't like change. I like the quiet comfort of sleeping in the same bed with my wife. The damn cat when she was away is not the same. The cat only wanted Beverly anyway. I swear the cat looked at me like I had done something to Bev and it was my fault she was missing.
Parliament has passed the OK for our Canadian Air force to start bombing ISIS. One hundred and twenty armed forces personnel from Trenton will go first to co-ordinate the air strikes. They will be based in Kuwait. Six fighter jets CF 18 from Cold Lake, two surveillance planes CP-140 Auroras and a refueling plane. It will take three weeks to get in place. I'm not impressed. This is an exercise in futility. This is like shooting gophers or sparrows with a 7mm rifle. Extreme over kill, big time. The fact of the matter is that we do not have the right equipment to effectively fight this kind of war. The Americans with the Apache attack helicopter is much more effective. It carries twice as much firepower as our fighter jets and has the capabilities to fight at night. It is designed to wipe out ground troops and tanks. We Canadians don't own anything like that.
With what the media is showing I'm not sure if the Americans are saving the world or just taking out the competition. So far all I have seen is bombing oil refineries. The Americans are always looking after the interests of big oil. It is good to not let ISIS have fuel for their tanks and trucks but how are they getting all this stuff anyway? Who is supplying all the bullets and rockets they are using? Just like Hamas in Palestine, they had over 2,000 rockets they shot into Israel. Where did they come from? Is there no one in the world media that can figure out who is supplying these guys? I don't think it is fair to expect out troops to fight someone they don't know about. How about "the rest of the story?"
Joke of the week: In the middle of the forest, a hunter was suddenly confronted by a huge, angry bear. All attempts to shoot the bear were unsuccessful, so he turned and ran as fast as he could until he ended up at the edge of a very steep cliff. His hopes were dim. Seeing no way out of his predicament, and with the bear closing quickly, the hunter got down on his knees, opened his arms, and exclaimed, "Dear God! Please give this bear some religion!" The skies darkened and there was a bright flash of light followed by lightning crackle. A few feet short of the hunter, the bear came to an abrupt stop looking somewhat confused. Suddenly, the bear looked to the sky and said, "Thank you Lord, for the food I am about to receive!"
