A person forgets what 40 below feels like. It's probably self preservation - shutting out the memory of your nostril hairs all crystalizing together in a brittle lacework restricting air flow to your lungs. Mind you not getting the frigid air all the way to your lungs is likely a good thing too- you just run the risk of freezing them too. Suffice it to say that it's just plain nasty out there tonight.
But beautiful in a surreal sort of way. There is a full moon, and when you combine its white light shining on the white snow in the achingly clear coldness, the scenery is breath-taking. I had to stop at the end of the driveway yesterday morning to try to take in the ghostly beauty. It's not often that the moon gives off enough light for you to be able to see the horizon - a silver-blue line in the distance. It was so dark a camera would have never been able to pick the details up so I took a moment to try to store it in my own memory bank. A scene like that doesn't happen too many times in a lifetime.
And, before I put my vehicle in drive again I got out and walked around it to do a tire check - they were all round although it took nearly a half mile before they felt like it. Gotta love how 40 below can make it feel like you are driving on square tires.
The weatherman promised me at supper time that it would warm up all night long (which is good news) and the wind would start to blow (which is not good news). Glen's brother and nephew were over this week with the tractor and snow blower and cleaned out the yard so that I would have no trouble getting in or out. Depending on the direction of the wind and how long it blows, I may or may not be able to make it back out of the driveway to work tomorrow morning. We have had inch after inch of light fluffy snow for weeks now - a howling wind across the prairies is all we need for a fine old blizzard/white-out conditions. Which is all fine and dandy if everyone you know and love is safe inside somewhere ...
I guess that means I should head off to bed early, and set my alarm clock for an earlier call - just in case I have to shovel or fire up the big truck so I can get to town.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Well, here we sit at the beginning of a new year; I wonder what this one will bring? Health? Prosperity? The winning Lotto Max ticket? I think there are quite a few places on the planet where all people want is for it to quit raining - the Canadian prairies being one of them!
Not to take anything away from the problems of the folks in Australia, but we're not going to be in much better shape come spring. The ground was still at its saturation point when freeze up came and we have already had the snowfall we would normally have for a whole winter, so unless it quits snowing right now (and it's snowing as I type tonight) we are going to get more than our fair share of the white stuff, too. Mother Nature must love watching farmers getting stuck. If you want to see some interesting photos of what went on during harvest on the prairies last fall look up stuckinthemuck.com. An implement company sponsored a photo contest this fall so there is a lot to look at. Unfortunately, the contest was set up so that the winner was chosen by the number of votes a photo got, not how stuck they were. I think the winner just had the most friends on Facebook.
As we have turned most of our farm over to pasture and hay land, the rain did us nothing but good. The hay crop this year was bountiful, to say the least, and the bale stacks are impressive. Glen has always said that you can never have too much feed - just in case next year is dry - but the first cut of hay was so plentiful that he never even considered a second cut. His actual words were "he was putting the second cut in the bank" which means that he wanted the plant life for holding snow cover this winter and for it to rot back into the soil for fertilizer in the spring.
In his job as a catskinner (it's not as bad as it sounds - he operates large earth moving equipment - a Caterpillar tractor - to prepare sites for oil rigs) Glen has a chance to observe lots of soil types. When a field is over grazed the soil is packed harder than concrete and just as dry, but he had the opportunity to do a build on an organic farmer's land and he said the soil there was amazing - it rolled up in a solid sheet of sod: intact, alive, and smelling like soil is supposed to. I don't know how many people who read this will be shocked at this confession of my childhood, but back when I was a kid I remember if an inquisitive child turned over a dried up cow pie (now there's a strange name, eh?) she would find a whole insect kingdom underneath. You don't see that anymore - the soil is over used and over fertilized. The plant residue and organic material just isn't there to support healthy microbe growth. But Glen's experience on that organic piece of ground proves that it does come back if the land is treated right.
Right now, with the ground finally frozen, the company Glen works for is trying to get some work done. The summer and fall were so wet it was almost impossible to do anything in the oil industry. There has been a whole new field open up about 100 miles from here in southwestern Manitoba. At first Glen was doing that drive twice a day and I worried about him falling asleep on the road with all the hours he was putting in. Eventually we decided to see if we could find a suitable house in Melita so that he didn't have to drive. We found a very satisfactory deal and hope to rent out bedrooms to other oilfield workers in the same long distance situation.
So, we begin this new year in separate houses. I usually head up to see him on the weekends and he was home for almost two weeks over the holidays, but the solitary week nights take some getting used to. I have identified all kinds of jobs I can tackle in the evenings to keep me busy, but so far there have been no earth shaking changes to my usual after-work laziness. Maybe re-starting this blog will set me on a path of future fruitfulness ...
Not to take anything away from the problems of the folks in Australia, but we're not going to be in much better shape come spring. The ground was still at its saturation point when freeze up came and we have already had the snowfall we would normally have for a whole winter, so unless it quits snowing right now (and it's snowing as I type tonight) we are going to get more than our fair share of the white stuff, too. Mother Nature must love watching farmers getting stuck. If you want to see some interesting photos of what went on during harvest on the prairies last fall look up stuckinthemuck.com. An implement company sponsored a photo contest this fall so there is a lot to look at. Unfortunately, the contest was set up so that the winner was chosen by the number of votes a photo got, not how stuck they were. I think the winner just had the most friends on Facebook.
As we have turned most of our farm over to pasture and hay land, the rain did us nothing but good. The hay crop this year was bountiful, to say the least, and the bale stacks are impressive. Glen has always said that you can never have too much feed - just in case next year is dry - but the first cut of hay was so plentiful that he never even considered a second cut. His actual words were "he was putting the second cut in the bank" which means that he wanted the plant life for holding snow cover this winter and for it to rot back into the soil for fertilizer in the spring.
In his job as a catskinner (it's not as bad as it sounds - he operates large earth moving equipment - a Caterpillar tractor - to prepare sites for oil rigs) Glen has a chance to observe lots of soil types. When a field is over grazed the soil is packed harder than concrete and just as dry, but he had the opportunity to do a build on an organic farmer's land and he said the soil there was amazing - it rolled up in a solid sheet of sod: intact, alive, and smelling like soil is supposed to. I don't know how many people who read this will be shocked at this confession of my childhood, but back when I was a kid I remember if an inquisitive child turned over a dried up cow pie (now there's a strange name, eh?) she would find a whole insect kingdom underneath. You don't see that anymore - the soil is over used and over fertilized. The plant residue and organic material just isn't there to support healthy microbe growth. But Glen's experience on that organic piece of ground proves that it does come back if the land is treated right.
Right now, with the ground finally frozen, the company Glen works for is trying to get some work done. The summer and fall were so wet it was almost impossible to do anything in the oil industry. There has been a whole new field open up about 100 miles from here in southwestern Manitoba. At first Glen was doing that drive twice a day and I worried about him falling asleep on the road with all the hours he was putting in. Eventually we decided to see if we could find a suitable house in Melita so that he didn't have to drive. We found a very satisfactory deal and hope to rent out bedrooms to other oilfield workers in the same long distance situation.
So, we begin this new year in separate houses. I usually head up to see him on the weekends and he was home for almost two weeks over the holidays, but the solitary week nights take some getting used to. I have identified all kinds of jobs I can tackle in the evenings to keep me busy, but so far there have been no earth shaking changes to my usual after-work laziness. Maybe re-starting this blog will set me on a path of future fruitfulness ...
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