Another week of spring-like weather. If you think it was warm and melting you are sorta partly right. It was nice and melting except for that hurricane wind on Wednesday and now I thought my eyes were going Friday morning. I had to double rub them as I looked outside and it actually was foggy and it was not my eyes. Spring weather, you don't know what you're getting until it comes.
I think all the crows and geese are back. Some geese seem to be paired up already so those will soon be planning some nesting with eggs. The ones still in flocks I assume will be headed farther north. The ravens have disappeared so I would guess they have gone back north. The gophers are up and ready to reproduce so they can eat off crops and grass, the buggers!
I have no hoar frost rain or snow marked until April 24, so we will see then.
On the home front, Eddie is fighting to start that cursed Ford, so we can get it up to the shop and change the oil. That tractor has me wondering what nickel and dime thing it has in store for me this year. The next thing on the "to do list" is going over the airseeder. We have to put the auger back on the tank after the rollover last spring when it got made into the shape of a number seven. Some cutting and welding and a new piece of tubing and it should be good to go. We ran it after it was fixed and it ran OK, but it had a bit of a clatter that I am sure will go away after some grain and fertilizer go through it. I am going to see if we can't make a better mount for it on the tank as it can jump around too much in the field when it is folded up. Not turning too short and breaking the pole off the cart would really help the auger live longer. I don't need that kind of help!
In farming news, the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus is still spreading in the hog herds and it is a mystery how it gets from one herd to another. It is fatal to young weanling pigs. Forty-five herds in Ontario have been infected. This past week scientists from Ag Canada came out with the recommendation that farmers not feed the protein supplement blood meal to baby pigs. I-yi-yi!! Have we not learned anything? Apparently when farmers weaned their baby pigs they could buy a prepared feed to start the piglets on. It contained blood meal and the pigs did really well except the thought now is that some of the blood meal contained the PED virus. That is an almost identical scenario of how we got BSE, the Mad Cow Disease. Processors were rendering down anything they could get their hands on, dead horses, sick cows, sheep with scrappies, anything. After removing the fat and muscle, they ground up the bones and made mineral supplement. The BSE virus survived the rendering process. Farmers and ranchers thinking they were practicing good management, fed this mineral supplement to their livestock. The BSE is such an insidious disease that it might take up to seven years for disease symptoms to show up. Once the animal had the symptoms it was a death sentence. The evidence was all gone, the mineral was all eaten and the animal died. The CSI would have trouble sorting this out. Farmers and ranchers should practice a closed herd policy and not bring anything onto the farm they don't know the origin of. They need to ask themselves if the risk of unknown origin supplement makes me more money or would I be better off just using my own grain and feed? Think about it!!
I will tell you a true story that raised the hair on the back of my neck. About the time that the BSE crisis was in full swing, my friend Lorne and I and our wives went on a February break to Vancouver Island. Landing in Victoria and we drove up to Tofino. We saw the long beach and it was impressive, but the town was a tourist trap and being cheap farmers decided to seek cheaper accommodation. Looking on the map we saw a little town called Uculet. We went there and motel rooms were half the cost. Next morning when we were having breakfast in the local coffee shop, we started talking to the locals. They told us that they were a one-industry town. Fishing boats would bring in anchovies (little fish) and the fish plant would grind them up. Then tanker trucks with cow blood from slaughter houses would come. It would be mixed with the ground up fish and they would add gel making a four foot square block. It would set up and when the boat came it was loaded on board. Then it went all the way over to South Korea. They had a crew on board and they would cut it up in one-inch squares and repackage it. It was apparently a delicacy in South Korea. Jello, fish and cow's blood! Yuck! If someone died of Creutzfeidt Jacobs Disease in South Korea, I guess we would never hear.
In Ottawa, the federalists are rejoicing at the defeat of the Parti Quebecois and their leader Pauline Marois. The Liberals took 70 seats and the PQ was reduced to 20. Marolis has resigned as leader and also lost her seat in the Quebec National Assembly. Quebecers didn't want separation and didn't want government imposed state secularism to ban all religious symbols at work. The people have spoken and I have great faith in the collective wisdom of the people.
Also in Ottawa disgraced Senator Patrick Brazeau is in trouble again. He is charged with assault after he came home and found all his worldly possessions thrown out the front door where he lived. An altercation occurred and he is out on bail with court-imposed rehab. Sooner or later this guy is going to be in the Big House. Also in Ottawa, Revenue Canada is scrambling trying to fix their computer system as they have been put out of business by the Heartbleed Virus. The lack of sanity of trying to go paperless by Revenue Canada is blatantly obvious if one little computer bug from India can put the whole system out of commission. Eventually all this computer business is going to leave ordinary citizens rolled in the ditch with nothing. The banks are pushing in this direction also. Will your savings disappear "when" the virus gets the banks, too?
On a sad note, on Wednesday there will be a state funeral in Toronto for Jim Flaherty. His eight years as finance minister was a period of stable, well run government. He will be missed.
Joke of the week: Jimmy came home from school and told his mother that he had been given two free ice cream cones. "How," she replied. "I certainly hope you didn't steal them." "Oh no," said Jimmy. "I took one in each hand and told the lady behind the counter, "Please get the money from my pocket, but be careful not to hurt my pet snake."
