Raining, raining and more raining. After getting about an inch Thursday night now we have had rain all day today (Saturday). I have one place in my yard that I can park a loaded truck on and that's the hundred yards from the road to my house. I have put many loads of gravel on that short stretch.
In the hoar frost calendar, I have marked June 25, 27 and 28 for rain. So far the rain has been coming a couple of days early.
My bin yard is just a giant frost boil. I feel my three-quarter ton sinking when I drive through and I have to be in four-wheel drive. There is water laying on the ground in front of my seed bins. Not that it matters anyway as it is too late and too wet to seed anything. To the north of my house where I park my machinery, there is water on the ground all around it. I used to think of myself as living on higher ground, but not this year. I have never lived in such a swamp
On the home front, we have battled swampy conditions all spring and the Devil is winning. Pulling out combines, stuck air seeders, broken down equipment. The devil has had his way with me this spring and I don't like it!
I had a couple of loads of wheat in my elevator that I needed to get out. I arranged for the trucker to come. He couldn't come last week. He couldn't come until Thursday. He loaded up, got out to the turn on the driveway and was stuck! We had to borrow Ron's tractor. Ron's tractor is very experienced at towing stuck trucks. Then the trucker makes a point of telling me he will not come back until the ground at the elevators dries up! Geeze! When will that be? He won't come when I asked him to, he loads up on the 13th after an inch of rain and gets stuck. We pull him out, nothing broke and nothing busted, just a half hour time delay and he is on his way. Does this trucker think I enjoyed having him stuck in my driveway? Does he think I'm stupid about wet ground?
In political news, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is questioning the $20,000 fee Justin Trudeau charged Saskatoon Literary Conference and other charities to hear him speak in 2012. Brad Wall says it is inappropriate for elected officials, who are already paid by the government, to accept speaking fees. The government paid the air fare and accommodations at Saskatoon. Of course the Liberal Party is furious calling it a smear campaign. I think Brad Wall has a point here. But is this any different than the double dipping senators?
In Alberta, Health Minister Fred Horne has fired the complete Alberta Health Board. They wanted to pay out $3.2 million in bonuses to the administrator. He asked them not to as the government is following a policy of financial restraint. All government employees in Alberta are under financial restraint. The teachers got no increase, the doctors got no increase, nor did the nurses. What does this board do anyway? I suspect they hold meetings and shuffle papers. They do not see patients, prescribe medicine or perform surgery. I don't think they will be missed. That $3.2 million would pay 10 or 12 rural doctors.
The board defied the boss, Fred Horne, when he asked them not to award the bonuses. In the real world when you don't do what the boss asks, you get fired! This board needed firing! My hat is off to Fred Horne and Allison Redford, it was the right thing to do and you did it. Congratulations.
Last week I had occasion to talk to a young man named Victorin Dias. He is born and raised in Sri Lanka. He is 39 years old. His English is very good. He is married with two children. He is Roman Catholic and has attended St. Sebastian College in Sri Lanka. He has a drivers' license and is qualified to drive cars, trucks and buses. He would like to come to Canada to work. He has some experience in cattle handling and handling broiler chickens. He needs someone with a favourable LMO to offer him a job so he can get a work permit. If someone needs a reliable young man, I have his resumé here and you can contact me.
By the time you all read this Father's Day will be over for another year. We went to the Lashburn Golf Course for breakfast and what a feast it was. Granddaughters Faith and Torrie gave me a large flashlight and said it would be great to have if I needed one at night when I was fixing things. I am thinking that I am not planning to be out at night fixing things, I will be home in my chair having coffee in the largest mug I have ever seen, present from granddaughter Sydney. Thanks girls. Thanks to son Ron for Father's Day supper. I have been well treated today.
Time for a bull joke: Three bulls heard the farm had bought a new bull. They were not pleased. The big farm bull said, "he's not getting any of my cows." The middle sized farm bull said, "he's not getting any of my cows." The little farm bull just said, "mine neither." The day arrived that the new bull came to the farm. The three bulls were there waiting and watching. The new bull came out of the trailer, this bull was big. He filled the whole doorway. The loading chute collapsed and exploded as he came down. This bull was huge. The three farm bulls were dumbfounded. Suddenly the little bull started bellering and pawing the ground. The other two bulls said, "What are you doing, that guy could kill you?" The little bull said, "I'm not going to fight him. I'm making sure he knows I'm not one of the cows!"
