Once again, I have really enjoyed having three days off and working on my list at home. If the weather had been better and the fields dry, I would have had to work. We are not near finished planting. You may have noticed that most of the north part of the Station has had more tile installed and this will eliminate putting in any research tiles in this area for 2024. I don’t know if I am happy or sad about this. The weather is not looking very positive this week either.
Saturday, I tackled my grass. It was wet but it was long and thick. I got rained on. I got stuck and the wind was nasty. I didn’t quit after the rain because even before it was wet so I didn’t figure there would be much difference. I got stuck and when pushing myself out I lost my shoe. Once I caught up to the lawnmower (I had put it in cruise to push it out) I went back and dug my shoe out. We are below normal in rainfall, but you would never know it.
I went around all my fence lines and hay fields looking for fallen trees and broken fence. I had to do a lot of back tracking and re-routing to get to all my areas. There were a few places that I didn’t trust I could get the side-by-side through. I only have a little hand saw and I cut most of the trees, but my brother came out and helped with a few bigger ones. The bush reminds me of mid-April after a winter with snow. It is wet and the grass is just getting going. The bottom line is, we need heat! I ran into a big porcupine. I don’t like them, and I sure hope he makes his way some place else. Then I found where a partridge was nesting, and it was a place that I needed to put in some staples, so I was trying to fix it quickly as I pictured her attacking me. I should be used to that because my ducks are always chasing me down and pecking me. The ducks are running around the yard now and I have been locking them up for nights. I hope this works for us as it is so nice watching them around the yard.
I started planting some flowers, but I have not nearly finished. When I looked at the weather, they said it will go down to 1 on Wednesday so I really don’t want to rush it. I am not sure that spring of 2024 is going to be remembered as a very pleasant one.
Thank you to those who attended the Abattoir AGM last week. Thanks to Ben and Kelsey who are our two new board members, but we are still one person short. Things are not going well, and we are desperate to keep things going. Last year we imposed an annual fee, and it looks like we are going to have to continue with that. Live cattle prices being higher are difficult for all small abattoirs across Canada, but we need these abattoirs to still be open when our market declines. Right now, we are in a real cash crunch and the new board will meet this week to try and make some plans. Thank you to Aynsley Teeple for the great Letter to the Editor last week. There has been a lot of response from her letter and if nothing else the board is pleased that there some people out there that understand the value of having an abattoir in our District. Stay tuned.
