It's another stunningly beautiful hoar frost day out there today. We have had countless stretches of foggy days when the moisture builds up a laticework of frost crytals on every surface it touches - steel machinery, fence posts and wires, and all plant matter left above the surface of the snow, from a single blade of grass to whole stands of trees. The denser the fog the thicker the frost. And then, when the sun finally comes out and the sky is once again bright blue, nature's work of art is revealed. I've never been able to catch this multi-dimentional beauty on film; I guess too many of the colours are shades of white so the depth just doesn't show. All I can say is it looks like the world has been dusted with diamonds.

There is an old belief that six months after heavy fogs you get rain. I'm sure it's as unscientific as you can get, but there are people who keep track of this out of curiosity. With the amount of fog we've had this winter, we should be busy into boat building in preparation of what is to come about mid May. We have yet to see any significant snow in this corner of the province, but the days of sunshine we've had could be counted on our fingers. This area is usually known for lots of sunshine so it's been a long, dreary time of it - there's been lots of time to wonder if this is another indication of global warming and changing weather patterns, or is it just one of those flukey years that happen from time to time?

Tomorrow is the big election. The polls are predicting that the Liberals are on their way out and that we may even get a Conservative majority. I think Canadians are just weary of politics and want it to be over, which means that a majority would at least keep the politicians at bay for for years. Letting the Liberals think that they are worthy of that kind of trust anymore would be a mistake, so that leaves us with a Conservative government. Not that I think they would be any more trustworthy given a long run either; I'm old enough to remember their previous record. There was a political cartoon a while ago that depicted a woman asking how best to use her vote strategically - she wanted the Liberals out but wanted to keep all the others from getting in. I think there are a lot of Canadians who would like to know how to do that. What does it say about our goverment/system when a whole country feels that way about their leaders?

The community of Redvers is in the midst of putting together a history book. This is something that many prairie towns have done over the past two decades - I guess we recognize that the ability to capture the stories of settling this land is something that will be lost forever if this generation doesn't do it. Actually, Redvers was one of the first towns to do this 25 years ago for our 75th anniversary, but the work was done in such a hurry and the idea of local history books was so new, that the resulting book is a mere shadow of what it should have been. This time we are trying to do it up right - much more research, much larger base of names, past and present, to ask for family histories, and a much more realistic time frame to work within. The unfortunate part is that we have lost most of the original pioneers in the past quarter century so the actual eye witness stories will be lacking. I have volunteered to to the history of the local Rural Municipality of Antler #61 and so that is my next project. I don't know what I've got myself into yet. Chances are the time and effort it takes will be more than worth the interesting bits of local history I'll come across during my research.

Off To a New Start

One week into the new year and things have settled down nicely. As much as we loved to see the whole family and visit over the holidays, I cannot say that I haven't enjoyed the peace and quiet we've had since everyone returned to their own homes - and I have no doubts that they feel the same way too. It was great while it lasted, but it's wonderful to get back to normal too.

Our household has been lucky to dodge a miserable cold that has been making its rounds. Glen had a touch of it before Christmas and I seem to be fighting the sniffles, but it's nothing compared to what my sister Wendy had. I don't know how I've managed to escape it - one of my fellow employees has been having quite the time of it too. Guess I'll just count my blessings (and knock on wood).

It's been back to work for me this week, and Glen has spent most of the week out on the CAT, too. The oilfield work has slowed down over the holiday, but with so little snow cover, the conditions for clearing land are excellent. Before we were married Glen did a lot of this. That was back in the day when farmers were after as many acres as they could get. They wanted to cultivate clear across every field with no trees to go around and no brush to trap snow (so that the spring melt would be slower). We all had this ideal of grain farming on big, effecient tracts of land. It just might have worked, too, if grain prices were anywhere near reasonable when stacked against the cost of putting a crop in.

We've gone through our share of growing pains, and in the process have had to re-evaluate what we are doing here on the farm. There may be farmers out there who are making a go of it at straight grain farming, we never discovered the secret, though. But, we weren't prepared to give up our farm either. It has family ties for Glen, but more than that, we liked living here for ourselves, not just because of the history of the place.

Cattle seems to have been the answer for us ( although we wondered at out timing when BSE showed up just months after we acquired our first cows.) Glen loves working with the animals and it's something we can do on the land that we own. The irony of it all is - we could sure use more trees on the place. 30 years ago some dumb farmer pushed them all over and burned them. Now, if he wants to shelter his cows he has to build them an expensive barn. He sure has spent some time these past few years muttering about how dumb that guy was. And, every time he goes to clear land for other farmers he tells them what he thinks before he starts - just in case they might think better of their plans. Hasn't worked so far.

Glen has been doing chores in the dark all week because of work, but he got home before sundown today due to a breakdown. It will soon be time to start watching the cows for signs of calving. None of ours should be coming until April, but we bought a dozen new animals at the auction and you never know about them. They are all supposed to be checked before the sale and marked for the month they are due, but we've discovered that this method isn't to be trusted 100%. Glen is already suspicious of one of them. Whenever they do start coming is likely when winter will hit again. The only real winter we've had so far was in November and early December. At the moment we have hardly any snow and the temperatures are almost shirt-sleeve mild. You just know it's got end sometime.