I can't believe that it's already been almost a month since I sat down to catch up my blog. They say that time flies when you're having fun, but I don't recall all that much extra fun going on around here lately. Maybe I'll have to own up to being lazy!
Spring is a busy time with my job as postmaster in Redvers. Not that the actual work in the office increases, but it is when my supervisor plans her annual meetings or training sessions. I've been to Estevan twice, one of the trips an overnight stay, and last week saw quite a few postmasters from rural Sask. in Regina for a day's training on health and saftey as well. It is always good to get together with your peers, so I always look forward to the meetings, but three in one month takes a lot of time out of what I spend on my jobs at home. I would normally have my garden planted by now, and all my bedding plants bought, if not planted, but this year all I have in the ground are the potatoes.
This weekend was going to be when I got the rest in but it's been taking turns with either rain or drizzle all weekend. Saturday afternoon, with Sandy's help, I managed to get 90% of the lawn mowed during a semi-dry period of the day. She had wanted to help me plant the garden too, but that just didn't work - she's back in Winnipeg, and it's still raining.
Sunday - morning and afternoon - Sandy, Mitchell, Glen, and I brought all the cattle in from the calving pasture and sorted them into smaller herds according to which cows go with which bull for the summer. It was a cold, damp job with the odd little hold up to make the day interesting. Glen had the list of "who goes where" in his head, so once we had them all crammed into the sorting pen, Mitchell manned the gate and Sandy and I stood by to push the animals he chose through to the gate. First he would go into the group of animals and bring out the mother he wanted, and once we had her penned on the far side, he would go back in to find the corresponding calf. They are all ear-tagged with their mother's number as soon as they are born, so this should be no problem.
All except for the time when we discoverd we had two cows tagged with 421. How on Earth we've gone for years not noticing this before is anyone's guess, but it sure stumped us yesterday. My theory is that, at some time in the past, one of them was 427 but the numbers have faded and the 7 was taken for a 1. At least we discovered this before we sent a calf with the wrong mother. As it was, there was at least one calf that kept running back to the yard all afternoon, and we went out before sunset to double check that we hadn't made a mistake. Mother cows will not let a strange calf nurse off them, so if you make a sorting mistake you could have two calves starve to death, and two mamas bawl themselves hoarse looking for their rightful babies.
We have just a few more acres of ground to plant. Glen had ten acres of corn that he swath grazed after freeze-up last fall, and it worked so well he has enough seed for thirty this year. Corn is pretty susceptable to frost so we won't put it in the ground until it warms up a bit more. And, as corn also needs a longer growing season, if it gets too late before it gets warm, he'll save the seed for next year. Corn seed is just too expensive to throw away at a poor weather year.
Tomorrow Glen heads back to working off the farm preparing oil leases; break-up is over. In the spring, when the frost comes out of the ground, the roads can't handle the heavy traffic of oil trucks and the rig moving equipment so road banns go on about mid March. It stops the oil industry in its tracks for at least six weeks. It gives the rig workers a break and the companies time to do some maintenance, but by now, everyone is raring to go again - it's a long time between pay checks.
