I have spent the whole week last week holding my breath that I would not wake up to snow or heavy frost. A day or two had me wondering which drawer I had stored my winter woollies in. We seem to have escaped the killing frost for now but my fingers and toes are still crossed that we will receive global warming not winter.
I don't look forward to winter. In fact I begrudge the fact the leaves are turning color and I know bleakness and dull grey is coming. I find it sad when the land is no longer nice green. I don't like winter. It is just a marking of time until we can go to green again. I look upon winter as a waste of time. One must live another day just to see spring again. What ever happened to aboriginal summer or whatever they are now calling it?
On the home front we have managed to combine two truckloads of wheat until da devil sent rain on us. I had Glen and Lyle haul it up to the stone elevator in Lloydminster. That is where the best deal was. When we get combining again maybe that is where the rest of the wheat will go. I had contact with Lansing Grain Ltd and they offered me $6 a bushel loaded in a producer car. That was very attractive but where are the cars? I will check into some more later after I have my crop in the elevator.
The swather guys are fixing and swathing, fixing and swathing. We have only 250 acres left and maybe by the time you read this we might be done swathing, I hope! It can't happen too soon for me. I am tired of buying gas and repairs.
The canola went from too green to swath to shelling in about two days. I am not alone in my swather troubles as a neighbour told me he is having the same roller bearing and canvas troubles and his swather is only two years old. For the amount they charge for this equipment you would think that they could invent a system that lasted. Overpriced and under engineered, as I frequently say.
In other news, the latest announcements coming out of the Canadian Wheat Board has me shaking my head in disbelief. They have bought the Prairie West Terminal for $43 million, the "concrete" between Dodsland and Plenty. It also has four wooden elevators besides at Dodsland, Plenty, Luseland and Kindersley. The concrete elevator has a high capacity cleaner, a colour sorter and a high capacity drier.
They have also bought the Great Sandhills Terminal in Leader, which has 23,400 tonne storage. They paid $17,426,227.
They are building a new concrete elevator at Pasqua, east of Moose Jaw to open in 2016 with 42,000 tonnes of storage. It will be complete with a cleaner and 134 car track spot. No cost in the announcement.
They are building a new elevator at Colonsay east of Saskatoon to open in 2015. It will have a 42,000 tonne capacity. No cost announced
They are building a new elevator at Bloom, Man. near Portage La Prairie with 33,900 tonnes storage and a 130-car spot. No cost disclosed. What does a new elevator cost these days?
They have also bought the Mission Terminal at Thunder Bay, Ont. It has 136,000 tonnes storage capacity. The purchase price was undisclosed. Along with the Mission Terminal, they receive the elevator at Alexander, Man. - 5,800 tonnes - and a transfer elevator at Trois Rivere, Que. with 110,000 tonnes storage. Also a company, Service Maritimes Laviolette, providing stevedores for maritime shipping. With the purchase of Mission Terminals they also get interest in producer loading facilities in Willow Mud Trading Co. at Frontier, Willow Grain at Willow and Boundary Loading Group with four loading facilities in southern Manitoba. They also received interests in five short-line railroads, the Great Western Railway, the Great Sandhills Railway, the Long Creek Railway, the Boundary Trails Railway and the Lake Line Railway.
They have also purchased two lake freighters.
Where did all the money come from? That is big time spending!
They are doing as well as any sailor in a whorehouse with someone else's credit card. The Canadian Wheat Board is broke, they have no money. That is what they say. The only money they have is farmers' money. They claim there is no money in this mysterious contingency fund. Sorry, but how can you do all this stuff without any money? Lies, lies and more lies. If there ever was a case for the auditor general, this is it. What is going on here would make Mike Duffy's indiscretion look like chicken feed.
First they said there was no money in the contingency fund. It started off at $60 million, then it was raised up to $200 million. Then it disappeared. How much money was in there anyway? Now Ian White, president of the Canadian Wheat Board, says that money in there is not the farmer's money. Where did it come from if not check off of Canadian farmers' grain? The Canadian Wheat Board does not have any other source of income. Now suddenly they have all this money that mysteriously appeared and was available. There is a perception that we farmers must be a dumb lot as the big suits keep screwing us again and again and keep getting away with it. I am tired of it.
Joke of the week: Larry and Susan's barn burned down one summer and Susan called the insurance company. She said, "We had that barn insured for $50,000 and I want my money! The agent replied, "Hold on now, Susan, it doesn't quite work like that. You don't get cash! We will determine the depreciated value of the old barn and provide you with a new one of comparable worth." Susan thought about that for a moment and said, "I'd like to cancel that policy on my husband." Ooooh boy!
