Still Alive

Yes, I'm still alive but have not posted anything since July. Blogger can be difficult sometimes but seems to work tonight. Wow, is it winter, and early. Going below zero (F) tonight and enough snow drifts around to make it heavy walking around the yard. I've shovelled the bare minimum needed to get around and open doors. Everything is starving it seems. Cattle eat up the hay in the feeder real fst and complain for more. Two missing cats returned home to make a total of 7. I have doubled the cat food rations along with some baked potatoes. They clean it up nd will come to the house and sit outside the door accusingly as it they are starving. Ground up a load of oats for cattle feed yesterday. Although it ran over into two days as I got an unexpected late start. The tractor ran out of gas just after sundown and I was not about to try and finish in the dark. The cold Northwest wind was none too encouraging plus I had a bit of a headache and sore shoulder after slipping in the grain hopper tank and landing hard. Finished the job up this morning after feeding hay. The old tractor sat out all night on the belt and was none too eager to start necessitating a trip dragging the big batter booster and cords across the yard to finally get started. The starter drive is getting so bad on this old Cockshutt that I might have to resort to crank starting soon. Then spent a lot of time perusing parts books online and then on the phone ordering what I hope will be the necessary parts to get two tractors back on the job. Yes, currently both my snow clearing tractors are out of commision and I'm beginning to need them. It will take about $1400 worth of steel washers to get the big blade tractor (2090)'s clutch working properly again. The little John Deere 2140 that will run the snowblower currently sits in the workshop waiting for me to finish the fuel injector replacement that I began over a week ago. Complications of course. I somehow lost a critically important part (fuel line nut) in the course of removal and have spent hours with a trouble light and down on the floor searching for it. I finally gave up and ordered a new one today. Sure enough, a few hours later I did find the lost part. Now if I can just get the fuel lines threaded onto the new injectors without cross threading and ruining them I might just get it back to gether and running. l Earlier this week I hauled home the last of this summer's hay bales that had been left out in the hundred acre woods. Being cold and miserable weather I opted to use the comfortable and warm 2 wheel drive 41 year old pickup truck. It took some time and effort to load compared to a front end loader but was much more comfortable on the 5 mile drive home. I guess theres more but I'm not writing a book here. Naturally there is some video to go along with everything I do.

Roads And Fences

Interesting article from my area about big farmers wanting to farm the roads as well as all the land. For unknown reasons the link did not work so try again. https://saskdispatch.com/articles/view/a-road-allowance-and-the-farming-gold-rush?fbclid=IwAR1ihaiYznxqB8SGD7Q8BPiVmlnVw8JQ7cJ11EYqIZ5741r8Q0mrPYK6Hk0 Good growing conditions for crops and gardens here this year. Much better than last year when it was so dry.

Seeding Done and Video Update

I finished up crops seeding just over a week ago. Just a little later than normal but whats in the ground is off to a good start with plenty of moisture. Chem fallow spraying done as much as possible but due to a shortage of glyphosate of any kind I had to leave a couple of fields for tillage weed control. I'll try not to complain too much about the outrageous high price of diesel fuel and cultivator shovels because I haven't got the bill for the glyphosate yet either. No matter what we want this year it is going to cost way more than it did last year. On the slim chance that many people will actually be interested enough to watch it I have uploaded a video update today to youtube. Garden is doing great. Early potatoes are well up out of the ground and should be eating new ones by mid July. Hope so as the old ones in the bin are pretty rubbery.

May 20 Snow

Too cold and miserable to do much outside so I put out a new video of today. Cold enough I need to cover up the few potatoes that are out of the ground already. Ove six inches of rain so far in May which is good but it would be better if we had a chance to get the crop planted. Getting late already.

Drought Might Be Over

As much as we needed rain here it is a bit poor timing. Just when we should be in the field planting crops we are now rained out with over 3 inches over the past week. I managed to get out in somewhat muddy conditions and finish applying anhydrous and glad I did it yesterday. Some of the big acreage guys are well into it with many acres seeded but I'm guessing many like me have not started. I know one of these days I will find out what each of those big tanks of anhydrous cost me but right now I don't want to think about it. Or the many gallos of diesel fuel even a small farmer like me has to burn to get the job done. High grain prices help but I wonder if they also help push up the cost of our inputs? Or can we blame it all on Putin's war?

Easter Calf

Not the Easter rabbit. This little heifer was born late afternoon of Easter Sunday. I'd been watching this heifer for the past few weeks thinking she could not be far from calving. She is the one I raised as a pail fed calf a couple of years ago so very quiet. That evening at feeing time she was missing from the herd. A short walk up on "separator hill" and I was able to spot her out on the "big flat" about a quarter of a mile away. Still a few snowbanks but most of the fields are bare, but muddy. Hated to make ruts with the tractor but that was about the only option to get out there to check. Sure enough the calf was born just fine but laying on the wet slough ground getting cold. I considered leaving them out overnight but hearing the coyotes howling nearby earlier changed my mind. I already lost one to coyotes back in January. It wasn't a real heavy calf that I carried out of the flat and set down in the front end loader bucket on a good layer of straw. I headed slowly for home in reverse hoping the heifer would have the sense to keep right up following her calf. I was in reverse and it was a slow trip home. Not quite dark when I got back with it to the cattle shelter. About half way through the journey the heifer realized what was happening and began heading home too. She pretty much caught up to me at the shelter as I was unloading the calf into the corraled off area of the shelter. I was able to entice her to follow me in there with a few handfuls of hay. Locked in for the night with some hay and water I hoped by morning the calf would have figured out where it's nourishment was and get busy. It did look hopeful by morning and by later the next day there was no doubt this calf and heifer (now cow) knew what to do. So nice when everything works the way it is supposed to. They are still in the enclosure 4 days later as the forecast is for some nasty weather and I think the calf is better off under a roof than out in the rain or wet snow.

Buried The Plow

Wow, yet another winter storm has buried us in snow drifts. I've been taking pictures of the lawn ornament plow in my yard through this winter and as of today there is only a few inches of the front spindle sticking up through the snowdrift. Got to be a good three feet. I had to shovel to get into the barn this morning and again late afternoon. Its become a snow tunnel to get to the chop bin and the oat chop is getting pretty low. I need to grind up some more oats pretty quick before the bin runs out. Cattle need a little grain to carry them through this cold. I'm so thankful we got the last of the January grain contract hauled out with only hours to spare yesterday. Weather was already turning bad by mid afternoon but nothing like it got by night time. Roads not fit to travel all across the South end of the province. The little calf born two weeks ago seems fine out in the cattle shelter with the rest of the herd. I've got mountains of snow to move soon as it lets up a bit. Ran the hundred gallon tank of winter diesel empty yesterday filling up the vac tractor. Don't think I've ever used that much in a winter before. I'm going to mix up a little summer diesel with Howes concentrate to thin it enough that the fuel won't gel in the remaining cold weather that is in our immediate future. I don't want to buy anymore winter diesel at this point even if the fuel truck could get into my yard. And lets not even talk about the cost of fuel. High grain prices are fine but by the time we pay the fuel bills and inflated crop input prices I don't think we will be any better off. Not complaining too much as I know there are parts of the world where they have cold weather and no shelter or services thanks to a dictator that wants to take over their country by force. How can this still happen in 2022? Has the world learned nothing from past history? Everybody is scared that Rasputin is going to push the nuke button. Its probably a bluff but they do say that dictators don't usually have a retirement plan either.

Looking Back

As this miserable pandemic winter drags on it is entertaining to look back on better times. I've been converting more old home movies to digital from vhs video and uploading a few to my youtube channel. People seem to like them. This latest one shows some kids learning to pedal bikes and drive go karts. Is there a better place to grow up than on a Saskatchewan farm? I can't imagine it. Hope the "kids" don't mind being on the movie. I didn't identify anybody by name.

Sunshine Wind and Snow

We got it all today. Cool and cloudy morning but still looked promising enough to plug in the tractor to finally open my driveway. Sun came out briefly too but by the time I got to the tractor shed it was blowing snow in high winds so I put that idea on hold til afternoon. By afternoon brilliant bursts of sunshine illuminated the blowing and drifting snow. Temp went up above normal but by late afternoon it was headed down into the discomfort zone again so the tractor idea got pushed ahead into tomorrow. I need the driveway open by 1:00 for an appointment but I'm starting to think of cancelling. This has been one crazy winter. Hardly a break between wind storms. Lots of snow for the fields but its being blown off the fields into ditches and yards where it won't do us much good. On the good news side, grains prices are still at crazy high levels and I have some to sell if the weather ever gives me a few days in a row without wind and blowing snow to get it hauled. On the bad side, crop input costs have jumped about as bad as grain prices have gone good. And of course the general unrest in the whole country. Interesting times indeed.

The World Through A Keyhole

I call this viewing the world through a keyhole. I know a lot of people access the internet with a cell phone. In fact i am doing that now,but not by choice. Seems my meagre "starvation ration" of 50 gb from sasktel has almost run out before month end.So i am reduced to using my i phone as a hotspot to get internet on my laptop. Which actually works quite well,when it works. Ìt took 2 hours of trouble shooting and experimenting before it connected to my laptop last night. While waiting i tried using the iphone to watch a few yt videos and readinng forum comments but as i said, like viewing the world through a keyhole. Incredibly slow and frustrating scrolling side to side and up and down. I can certainly see why spelling, punctuation, grammer, etc. Are so bad on the net. And abbreviations so popular. I hate pecking away at an onscreen keyboard with one big clumsy finger when i am used to speeding along using all ten fingers and thumbs.. it has taken me half an hour to peck out this short rant which normally should take maybe 2 minutes. Stressful too. I neneed a rest now.

Hot Day In July

Its -20F and high wind chill out there right now so its time to be reminded of summer time hot days when I could take an evening crop tour in the old Merc with the window open. Turn on the  vintage "Eskimo" fan for some cool air. I recorded this way back in July of 2021 but just edited it here on Feb 3 of 2022. 

A Few Rotten Apples

 Head of Canadian Military Condemns Anti-Vax Convoy Protesters ‘Dancing on Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’ (pressprogress.ca)

As much as I am in favour of this "Freedom Rally" going on in Ottawa right now, this news item really turned enthusiasm down a lot. These protesters desecrating the tomb of the unknown soldier are not the kind of people I want representing me. The guy in that tomb likely died carrying a gun in the name of freedom in World War II. Unlike the loud mouthed knuckle dragger waving his arms dancing on the soldier's tomb. 

No doubt there are some opportunists that see the whole thing as a chance to go out and create mayhem on the streets in the name of freedom. There is even talk there are paid protesters put out there to make the whole thing look bad. Could be possible. Plenty of room for conspiracy theories here too. 

Grave Dancer

Snow Trip Jan 4

Stormy day to go to town but I had not had my mail in over two weeks. Getting low on cat food too. I can survive on freezer beef and home grown potatoes for months but those cats won't live on the few mice that might wander into the barn. 

The weather had been so below normal that I kept putting off the trip waiting for a better day. It never came so I took a chance on today. Visibility was poor in blowing snow and the ground was the same colour as the sky. 

So now I am well stocked up on groceries and cat food for however long it is before the weather improves.