Busy Busy Bee

Pre-snow, thanks hubs

A darkened dawn, birds still asleep, greeted me this Monday morning. Air so crisp exhaled delicate, lacy frost patterns across glass. Remote start saved me the short-walk-but-you-run-because-it’s-cold. Coffee in hand, hubs and I trekked south.

This harvest, especially this last week and weekend, has shown me that life is constantly busy with always something ‘important’ happening. Over the course of four days I had returned to Canuckland, traveled for a wedding, came back to SoDak and then went to Nebraska. The days had been highlighted with mile marker events for friends and family.

If you want to put miles on and properly break in your vehicle you:

1)      Drive 7 hours in one day

2)      Drive another 1.5 hours each way the next day

3)      Take a chill day and only drive an hour round trip

4)      Now ‘rested up’ drive 7 hours in one day

5)      For kicks and giggles (but mostly for family) drive another 3 hours each way the following day

It’s really as simple as that. Don’t forget the snacks and the dog though. And the coffee, that’s important.

Annnnnd now we have snow in MB

The long days of harvest coalesced into one big, long weekend. Every farmer knows the sacrifice of personal time, family time and sleep. Somehow my calendar had filled with busyness and sacrificed personal time, time with hubs and sleep.

In the moment I might momentarily regret making the time for ‘x’ when I could have been doing something busy. But was I productive? Was I going to regret not making time when I looked back on the highlight’s reel of memories? Some say time is money. Some say time is love. I dare to say time is family and friends.

One short hour of work left in the day! Clearly a long day

I try to keep in mind that the work will always be there and it won’t miss you in return. However, family and friends will remember you being there for them. And no one knows the days or years they’ll be blessed to live. It’s the achievements, laughter, jokes, etc. that make a moment memorable. They say love your work but I think it should be said in conjunction with love your family and friends. Be passionate about what you do, be bold in life but share that bold passion with time with family and friends.

May your week be productive, have a good visit with a friend, and hopefully no snow.

Independence Days

Mondays, you got to love ‘em. First day of the week and this one is smack in the middle of two independence days. Canada day, eh, on July 1 and, of course, Fourth of July (the name speaks for itself). My first Canada day as a resident of this lovely country was also its 150^th birthday; pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Towns all over celebrated this milestone in different ways. One of the towns, a stone’s throw away from me, celebrated with a lunch, tractor pull and fireworks later in the evening. I haven’t quite found the thrill in a good tractor pull but I do love the spell that a good set of ear pro pulls over my hearing.

I will admit my first thought (a year ago when the father in-law told me the 150^th was coming up) was along the lines of, mental pause, ‘my Marine Corps is older, way older and people are excited about this?’ However, as the year marched onward and blasted the door open on this year, I began to get excited for this big moment in history for Canuckland.

It was fun to see how the Canucklanders celebrated as a whole and as families. And that the die-hard farmers could take a day off and enjoy the holiday too. I will always be comparing the independence day celebrations of my two countries, that’s life eh, but I’ve learned it’s so much fun to enjoy both and appreciate their differences.  

Logo. Photo credit: internet

Back at home, the annual maternal family reunion is taking place on the fourth, straight up at noon. As a kid, I recognized just about everyone that showed up. Nowadays, as those kids marry, throw some kids and the old folks earn new marks of wisdom (and sass) it’s harder to recognize everyone and what shoot of the family tree they belong to. Once the food is gone and the ice cold beverages are long gone in the simmering, sticky heat an efficient roll call of sorts makes the rounds so the younger generations have a slim chance of playing the memory game next year and winning. Surprisingly, the more wisdom one has, the sharper with names they are; with a few exceptions of course. It’s like someone took a sharpie and wrote them a cheat list, that also happens to be matched correctly to the face. 

Then it’s back to the farm to chill in the ac or find a pool for a swim. The fun stuff, the fireworks, are brought out as the sun gives a cheeky wink. Fireflies compete with sparklers and provide the perfect ground show for the sky high artillery shells exploding in shimmering arcs overhead. Neighbors have a friendly, unspoken competition with each other and it’s always apparent which one has the little kids. There’s more of the fountains and boxed, little artillery and crackling pops of rockets. 

Enjoy the fireworks and freedom!

Rain. Garden. Cloud

Rain. Every farmer’s dream or annoyance depending; of course, on what stage the fields are in. Recently there was a nice spell of wet weather in the rain-washed prairies so I went back north to Canuckland. There was a day and a half of ‘nice’ weather to work in. If you can call a brisk north wind puffing cold drafts down your neck ‘nice.’ 

The handy hubby had some time in the amount of spare change to work with me and he thought it was the perfect opportunity to put the vegetable garden in. Now, when he’d asked how big I had wanted the garden I said ‘small.’ Turns out ‘small’ now describes the well-defined borders of my new garden in the form of 30 feet by 40 feet.  Uff da. He’d gotten so excited about having a producing veggie garden with all kinds of yummy food that he had gone ahead and planted the sweet corn. Awesome! One less item I would have to plant. Imagine my shock when he’d planted four rows, with a couple different varieties thrown in for giggles. I think I can see a lot of blanching and freezing corn in my future this summer.  Oh, and shucking the ears. Perhaps I’ll design an outfit that will blend with all the silk that’s sure to stick like spider webs.

Shortly after planting all the veggies (I hope family and neighbors like cucumbers) and potting up a few of my new barrel planters (yay for flowers!) the rain caught up with me. Well, the ‘automatic’ watering system has kicked in. Finally. 

Since the rain followed me north like it had a tow line hooked to my truck hitch, I thought I’d take my chances and hopes for warmer weather down south.  Pack the truck, load the pup (in the back seat, not the front!) and off I go again. It’s always so nice to hear the ‘welcome home’ from the border crossing officer. 

Turns out while the rain ‘stayed mainly on the plain’ and in Canuckland, clouds were my constant companion. (Please tell me someone caught the My Fair Lady reference. Anyone?) Clouds are funny things, always changing and going somewhere.  But hey, at least there’s no chance of sunburn, right?

Tomorrow, I have the wonderful opportunity to speak with Bill Zortman on the Agri Business radio show. Perhaps if you have a tuned radio, you might drop in for a listen. Stop by around 10am on 1320 AM or 107.9 FM KELO Newstalk in SoDak.

Politics ‘n’ snow

What do politics and snow have in common? Well, three things. I think. 

1)      The US presidential race season has come to an end, beating winter’s end by a few months.

2)      Trump’s inauguration has met with a chilly response from parts of America. Good thing it’s winter, there’s an excuse to bundle up in layers.

3)      Just like this snow hanging on, Trump will be around for awhile now.

       

It’s that time, the time in which we FINALLY put political races to bed for another season. Over the weekend, speculation has run rampant over the new Trump administration. Trump was inaugurated as the 45^th president of the U.S. this past Friday. I, for one, am happy this presidential race season is done as I found the past year and a half or so of political ads and mudslinging quite tiring. 

However, I was surprised by the level of interest of those around me here in Canuckland. Maybe I shouldn’t be so naïve about the interest of Canucks; seeing as how US trade policy, et cetera affects pricing and commodities here in Canuckland. It will be especially interesting to follow Trump’s policies and trade as it affects farming. I know many farmers are keeping a concerned eye on the future of grain prices and demand, farmers on both sides of the border. 

This whole concept of being a farmer from the US and now learning how to farm in Canuckland is proving to be the adventure of a lifetime. It’s one thing to read in the paper of how trade deals or policies will affect foreign affairs and it’s a new thing entirely to now be in the thick of that ‘affect.’ For example: The US could potentially put new trade restrictions into effect that will affect grain pricing here in Canuckland. The reverse could then potentially happen with Canuckland (or any other country in the world) putting trade restrictions in place that would drop US grain prices through the basement floor. The farming roller coaster is looking like it will have a few new loops, drops and surprises. This year is quickly shaping up to be one of the more interesting years for me. 

And you thought farming was boring.

Getting the feet wet

It’s that time of year again.

Time to clean out the cobwebs, dust things off and… did you think I was talking about cleaning?!? Ha. Well, in a very roundabout way it could be considered cleaning; if you think about harvest as cleaning off the fields.

You got it folks, its harvest season!

I love fall; the trees changing colors, the crisp scent to the air and seeing the combines in the fields. Of course, I would be in one of those combines but it’s fun to watch others going as well. I much prefer red to green but in a pinch (or a lack of red around) I’ll settle for green. I do love my red combine, the cab is bigger than the green one I’ve been in and it’s much quieter also. I can actually listen to the radio without getting a headache. What can I say? I’ve got excellent hearing and that much rumbling and loud white noise makes it impossible to listen to a radio in a green cab.

Farming with the hubby here north of the border is nice but it really helps that harvest starts just a bit earlier than in the states. It gives me the opportunity to shake the rust off after the yearly sabbatical from combining. The flat prairies here and a lack of rocks hiding in the ground that usually can’t wait to pounce into my header (yikes!) is an easy way to get back into the groove and feel for combining.

I will say it will take me awhile (a couple of years anyone?!) to get used to the fact that harvest season starts about end of July (the very early side) and goes till about the middling of November. To me, July is finish spraying, mow and mow some more, and finish trucking season; most definitely NOT the precursor to harvest season.

Ah well, in my mind, it doesn’t really feel like harvest aka fall till the middle of September. This year it has been a glorious fall so far with the trees turning colors. Some years it sadly changes in the wink of an eye.

I’d love to chat but it’s time to run! It’s harvest time! 

Happy harvesting