Trucking Flax

It does'nt look much like spring in this video but the calendar says so. Plus it was a little above freezing the day I shot this video (March 17) so not a bad day to truck a load of flax to the cleaning plant in preparation for spring seeding. Roads are still solid but once it warms up it could be soft conditions for a while and heavy going. When all this snow melts there will be so much water in the fields that we wonder if it will even be possible to plant a crop this year. Still, I guess we have to plan and prepare for business as usual , even though the seed might stay in the bin til next year.

March 12 Snow Blowing

The calendar says March but yesterday's strong winds blew my driveway full of snow again worse than January. At least I had a nice sunny morning to work at clearing it. Maybe for the last time this winter?

Sod Breaking in Sask.

Something a little different this time. A John Deere 4440 pulling a breaking disk turning the sod in an old farm yard. First time this prairie had been broken. It grew some good crops in the following years.
I video taped this on a fine April day in 1993.

Lipton Parade 95.

Summer time parade in small town Sask. A nice change from the -30 C wind chill we are having today.

Flax 1999

A home video from 1999 showing how we harvested flax. My Dad driving his favourite old tractor at the end piling the straw for burning.

More Interesting Times

Listening to or watching the news lately I am constantly reminded of the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times". We are certainly doing that now. Middle east instability has driven our canola and other grains prices down and our fuel prices up in the past week and worse is yet to come according to some analysts.
Highest snowfall levels in 40 some years on top of the muddiest field conditions ever last fall are going to make it a "high fuel use" spring if we are able to get into the saturated fields.
The grain saved in our bins waiting for the anticapated higher prices has now dropped in value significantly. I'm not going to try and figure how much,don't really want to know.
Meanwhile we are 20 degrees below "normal " temperatures here today and most of the week. Thats -35F this morning which really takes away my enthusiasm for working on machinery out in the unheated sheds.
Back in high school years ago a teacher had a theory about the constant turmoil in the middle east could be related to their high temperatures being closer to the equator. He may have something there. I would think that if they had to deal with snow, and life threatening wind chill factors they might have less unrest and fighting. I really would like to send some of this weather over there.
On the upside, I've finally broken down and spent the money on 4 new winter tires for my Blazer. All the good things they say about 4 winter tires is true. Handling and traction on ice are way way better.
Plus,installing winter tires at this time of year will probably cause all the snow to disappear next week.
Its a hard winter on deer too.

White tails

Anna and Milovan - St. James Infirmary Blues

Just a version of an old classic that I really liked. Amazing the things you find on youtube.