The sun is shining brightly outside today, and I really should be out there, digging around in my flower beds and putting in the perennials that showed up in the mail on Friday. I do that every year - order seeds for the vegetable garden and then, because it's the dead of winter and I'm longing for green and spring, I "treat" myself to a few new flowers as well. The seeds come right away, but the roots and bulbs don't show up until planting time and by that time I can't remember what I planned to do with them and don't really have the time to do much more than plunk them in the ground. My rock garden is full of very hearty stuff - anything frail or tender doesn't make it past its first season.
I do have to get out there today and get this year's "surprises" in before the sun goes down today because I have a very busy week ahead of me and today is my only reasonable window of opportunity until next weekend. I wish the wind would go down - by the first week of May everyone in Saskatchewan has had enough of the wind.
Last weekend Glen and I went in to Winnipeg to attend Jesse's graduation from the University of Manitoba. She received her diploma in Agriculture on Friday with her class of 37 other graduates - one of the smallest classes that the U of M has had in their 101 years of offering that field of study. Our son, Wayne, graduated there a few years ago with a degree in Environmental Sciences, one of hundreds of students from all different faculties to graduate the same day. The two graduations could hardly have been more different. Jesse's class was small and focussed entirely on their field of study. The speakers spoke only on agriculture, noting that the class of 2008 was this small because of the pessimism in the industry two years ago when they enrolled, and how much enrollment numbers had swollen for the next term indicating the positive outlook of crop prices now.
The farmers around here are obviously banking on a good year (well, actually, at this time of year all farmers believe that the season in front of them holds nothing but the promise of great returns. Without that hope and confidence no one would put a seed in the ground.) There wasn't much field activity last week on our journey to and from Winnipeg, but this week the tractors have certainly been stirring up dust. That's a concern - how much dust there is - we need rain and a lot of it. The weather has been cooler that normal so I'm not sure if the ground is even warm enough to allow germination, but farmers are trying to get the seed in the ground as early as possible just to catch what little moisture there is. The trees aren't even budding out yet.
The immediate neighborhood around Redvers shut their operations down yesterday to attend the funeral of a man who had farmed here all his life - he was 91 years old and had actually actively farmed with his son up until just a few years ago. Although I would have to say that Dunbar was tougher than most, his life's example of hard work and love of the land was a common denominator within his generation. As I sat in the church yesterday and looked around at the few of that generation who remained, the word "pioneer" formed in my head. But of course, these are the children of the true pioneers. They were born here and spent their entire lives tilling the soil where their parents homesteaded. Dunbar actually was born, lived, married, and raised his family all within a circle less than a mile across. He never did retire and yesterday we laid him to rest not more than a mile from home - a fitting ending for a man who loved his piece of Saskatchewan soil with all his heart.
The news is full of stories and speculation on world food shortages these days. For the poor of the world this is nothing new, but to the millions and millions who shop daily, never thinking past one or two meals, this is a wake up call. Suddenly those in the know are putting a much higher value on what farmers do.
Over the last 100 years there have been good times, and also some times so bad that only the very best, or the most stubborn men and women, stayed on the land. It is not a decision of the head that makes you stay in times like that - it's a decision made in the heart. For some farming is the lifeblood that runs through their veins, and the world is fed because of it. It is also an inherited trait - at the graduation banquet last weekend the MC had the pairs of fathers and sons who had both graduated from this course over the years stand up and be recognized. There were six or seven of these - even in a class as small as this one was - and Jesse tells us that there were three three generation sets and one four generation as well.
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