The Big Guy sent us all a Christmas present. He took the -30 C crap away and gave us weather that was just below freezing. I don't mind this single digit minus.
We had a one day Calgary Chinook last week, but it must have been metric. It was very brief lasting only about a day, raising temperature 18 degrees in one morning. Then temperatures plummeted back to -30 C that night. When I say it must have been metric it is because every time we have had something converted to metric you got less than you had before and you had to pay more. I don't remember the last time we had a Chinook, I might have still been in short pants, but it used to come and last a couple of days, usually in January. The results were always the same. When it left, down to -30 C. Now we have had this metric Chinook lasting only part of one day, then down to -30 C. What does a poor old cow think on a deal like that?
For those who keep track of the hoar frost, mark June 20 and 22 on your calendar. Looks like a good rain coming. Looks like a lot of rain for June. For those who don't believe, you could always listen to Environment Canada, but you can't depend on them.
On the home front I have taken this opportunity of nice weather to get the snow plow tractor running and clean out the bin yard. There is an amazing amount of snow back there. I think some of it must be the neighbour's and they just let it blow away and into my yard. Since they won't take it back, I will just pile it up here and wait for it to melt in the spring. We are careful where we put the snow as we don't want melted snow causing creeks in our yard in the spring. We also don't want a big snow trap that will cause more snow in the yard. A person has to try to plan ahead.
My semi has resisted arrest. It didn't want to start. It was not plugged in. We have now towed it up to a plugin and it will be warm next time we need to start it. We can also put the battery charger on it. The weather feels like it is turning bad so everything can just sit where it is until a better day comes along. I hate this floundering around in the snow in the winter and if it hadn't been for my man Chris, I would never have got this done. When the weather improves we will clean seed.
This past week has been many dinners and get togethers. I am impressed with two things. The women in this family are really good cooks. The other thing is I can't believe how much the grandchildren have grown. We have 15 grandchildren. I see them often yet am in awe of how they are growing up. I can see that in not so many years, the youngsters will have graduated school and be off making their own careers and families. Get togethers are going to be harder to have. Such is life. Thank you Big Guy that they are all healthy and full of energy.
In watching the national news I can't help feeling sorry for the people in Ontario and New Brunswick who are out of power because of the freezing rain storm. I can only question why there are so many trees and branches able to fall on the powerlines shorting out and putting the power off? Do they not have a policy of trimming the trees back? Was it not just last year the same thing happened? Would underground power not be smarter? Maybe if you are a tree hugger, I would point out that with all these trees falling on the powerlines and shorting them out you might have to realize that too many trees will mean you are going to be cold and in the dark at some point.
If we had the same kind of storm here, most people would be in trouble just as big. Last summer during the rainstorms we had many power outages. I know we should be better prepared with standby generators and a system of heating not dependent on power. We are not and other than talking about it, we have done nothing. I did phone SaskPower to inquire about what I had to do for windmill, solar or standby generator power They were not very enthusiastic about it. If I got a system to generate power, I could only reduce the power bill on only one meter. I have one meter on my house and yard and another two meters at the elevators. There was a $15,000 expense for the equipment to hook into the power grid so if the power went off my generator would not put power down the line and kill someone trying to fix it. After that, you had to buy the equipment to make the power. Not a money making scheme at the moment!
Joke of the week from Randy: Bill, an experienced hunter, agreed to take Bob, a greenhorn, hunting with him. Bill cautioned Bob that he had to be really quiet and all was good for a little while. Then Bill heard a blood curdling scream and Bob came running up as fast as he could. Bob said, " I know I agreed to be quiet, and when the snake bit me on the ankle, I didn't make a sound. Then a coyote snuck up and bit me on the leg. That really hurt but I didn't say a thing. But when the two squirrels ran up my pant leg and I heard one ask the other, 'Should we eat them now or take them with us?' That was too much!"
