Weather helping crops slide toward harvest

The weather is much like other years as we slide into August. The old sun is putting heat on the crop and we are fast approaching harvest. That was not the case this morning as we woke up to showers and drizzle. The thought went through my mind “Is this going to be another monsoon August?” By noon it had cleared up and we are off to summer again.

About this time of year I start to get nervous about killing frosts. I know killing frosts come three or four days either side of a new moon. On my calendar I have a new moon Aug. 14 and I have marked traces of rain for Aug. 18. I think that is too early for Jack Frost to visit us. I hope not, anyway. Then Aug. 29 we have a full moon. I have a hoar frost rain marked for Aug. 28. There is always a possibility for a frost there. I hope I am wrong. My hoar frost calendar has been totally wrong all year, so we will see. With this global warming the media always talks about, how about it, Big Guy, no frost until Christmas?

On the home front, I am still feeling a little astounded and overwhelmed by the people who came out to my birthday party. I think about 300 people were in the Waseca Hall. I also have received some very nice cards from people I knew in the past and I am overjoyed to hear from them. I know they are fine and still with us. Thank you to one and all for those who came and those who sent cards.

I have received a nice letter from Mike Raymer a professional painter from Blaine Lake. He explained to me what could be wrong with the airless paint sprayer I bought. A big thank you to you Mike for taking time to write a letter to help out an old dumb fat guy. I will check out what you told me. Thank you.

In the shop, Jaco has discovered what was wrong with my 7.3L environmental polluter. It just quit, leaving me stranded in my hills. I was able to get son Ron on the cellphone and he came down and towed me home. Jaco played CSI detective until he found a corroded electrical cord. A trip to Keranda and a new soldered on end and the truck runs again. Jaco is a handy guy to have and I am glad I got him out of South Africa. His resumé says he has worked on airplanes. This is valuable knowledge when it comes to working on electrical problems in vehicles.

In the meantime I made a trip to Paradise Hill and made a deal on a different truck. My two farm trucks are getting up in mileage both are in the 380.000+ K range. I went to look at a 2004 F-150 and could not make a cash deal. I bought a 2012 F-150 at a dollar down and a dollar a week. You know the routine. The truck is black. This truck has a V-6 and gets double the gas mileage of my two old trucks. The last time I had a black vehicle was back in 1965 when I had a black Pontiac convertible. I quickly grew disillusioned with that car. If you put the top down in the country you were covered in dust. If you put the top down in town, you attracted attention and every cop would stop you and find something to write a ticket about. I hope this doesn’t happen here.

Last week Jaco and Ty changed out the old shop door. I think the new door really looks good. That is now done and I will declare the house renovations to be finished. I could get the back deck re-stained but I think not now. We now have two other projects. One is to mount a deer killer on the front of the new truck. Two is we have some work to do with the elevator. I have two augers that I want to mount to take grain out of the bins in the elevator. I have an air seeder tank I have mounted outside, above the grinder. The plan is to use the meters from the air seeder tank to meter the grain into the grinder. After it goes through the grinder it falls into the pellet mill. One of the augers I was going to use, upon close inspection, looks like the chickens were pecking at it. This looks like the end of the Mayrath. I think this auger is 60 years old and it is rusted right out. I will have to get a new plan. This project has been a four- or five-year job, so I would like to see it working.

By the time you get to read this the media is speculating that Stephan Harper will call an election. Election date is Oct. 19. That would make an 11-week campaign. The media is in a tizzy because the other parties have no money to fight an election. If they can’t get themselves organized to get money for an election, how are they going to run a country? They knew when the election is going to be. Have for two or three years. Sucks to be them I’d say.

Joke of the week has been censored because both reporter Jayne Foster and editor Becky Doig both gave it a resounding “eeeeew.” Perhaps if it had been shared with the male members of the newsroom they would have voted otherwise, but we don’t think so.

Victor Hult