The Dog Days of Summer

I know that the expression of "dog days of summer" comes from the position of Sirius, the dog star, during the summer months, but we've been having more than our usual share of dogs this summer.

Like any normal farm we have a large breed dog to discourage animals like skunks and raccoons from moving into the yard, and to act as a guard dog in our absences. We have a fondness for Black Labs; the one we have now is our fourth or fifth in two decades. He is big and old but usually good tempered. Our daughter has recently got herself a small terrier pup who just wants to be friends with everybody. Our dog is not impressed and tries to stay out of Fred's way as much as possible while they are out to the farm.

We've been Fred sitting since Wednesday while Sandy attended a wedding in Saskatoon. He's a pretty high maintainence job compared to a farm dog - I don't dare let him out on his own. He'd either run off and be a coyote snack by sundown, or he'd push Chubby to justifiable puppycide. I don't want to have to explain either to his owner. She should be back to pick him up in the next hour or so and we can go back to normal around here.

Glen is off to bale greenfeed this afternoon, Mitchell headed up to the waterslides at Kenosee Lake with a bunch of friends, and I've got the place to myself. I love it when that happens. I'm trying to catch up on the laundry that has been piling up while our water system in the house has been slowly dying.

On the farm we don't pay a water and sewer bill, but that's not to say that these things come free. We have our own well, but we had to locate a source of water and pay to have it dug and installed out of our own pocket. Same goes for sewage - the whole system is installed and paid for at the owner's expense. Once it's paid for, of course, it's clear sailing - that is until something goes wrong. There is no calling up the municipal service provider and saying "Come fix it." It's go figure out what's wrong, buy what you need for repairs, and in our case, Glen does the work himself.

Our old well caved in over a year ago, and although a new one was dug and we had plenty of water, the dirt and sand that got into the system at the time has created havoc with every single aspect of our water system. Friday was the big day when Glen and Mitchell tore out everything - pressure pump, pressure tank, and hot water heater - and put all new in. It was a long, hard day, but what a difference! You don't know what a luxury it is to take a shower and have the water temperature and pressure stay the same for the whole time. Glen was teasing me that it was kind of boring, but I can live with that kind of boring.

They went the extra mile and rearranged the water system appliances and set them all up on stands so that any maintainence needed will be much easier to do. It was a huge job and took both of them all day from 9:00 in the morning to almost midnight. With the hard work and the heat of the day their goal was simple - to be able to shower before they went to bed.

There are a lot of cattle out there ...

We spent this past weekend building a deck and set of steps onto our son's house just out of Winnipeg. You wouldn't believe the mosquito population there is on the prairies at the moment - and Winnipeg is widely accepted as the mosquito capital of Canada. Trying to work outdoors with hordes of blood-sucking insects decending on any exposed flesh was an ugly experience! And the weather! It was so hot ... and so humid ... we prairie dwellers just aren't built for humidex factors. Wind chill in the winter time we understand, humidex in the summer is like speaking Greek. What I do know is that I never want to go through that again. At night we set their big portable fan so that it blew directly on the bed and threw the covers on the floor.

The mosquitos and the humidity are both due to all the rain we've been having. Who ever is in control of the tap up there just can't seem to get it turned off. There is STILL water laying in the yard. I can't cut almost half of what I normally do in our yard, and everywhere that water sits still mosquitos thrive and multiply. I was talking to my sister in Calgary this morning, and even they are complaining about the mosquitos this summer. Calgary is usually pretty well bug free.

There is another population that is much higher than it used to be. On the trip in to the city, and again on the way out, I was struck with how many cattle there are these days. I have read somewhere how much the Canadian herd has increased by since BSE - I can't remember the percentage but it was impressive. Even knowing that, seeing the countless animals in fields along the road we travelled was still thought provoking. You have to wonder where we are headed? I firmly believe that Canada will come out of BSE ahead. Absolutely ahead of where we were before BSE, and I'm betting ahead of the USA when all the dust settles.

True, we've been unable to sell our cattle into the states, but that has forced us to finish our own animals, butcher our own animals, improve the testing we do, be ready to show our results to demanding markets, and step up production on all fronts. It has involved a lot of growing pains but we are way ahead of the game now. No one on this side of the border believes that the recent proven case of BSE found in Texas was their first, it's just the first one they couldn't deny. It leaves them looking like they're playing a defensive game - I think Canada has building a good solid offence for two years now.