I’m writing this on September 11. I know this day is a reminder of the tragedy that happened 22 years ago and none of us will ever forget but today is also my mom’s birthday! My mom is the kindest, hard-working, compassionate, supportive lady. She is an excellent cook, and baker and her cookies are spread around the district as she loves to share her work. My mom is a people person, and we all call her to find out birthdays, how people related and who belongs to who! Shane and I are incredibly lucky to have her in out lives. We wish you a great year momma. Since the cattle sale was cancelled on Saturday, I was able to take my mom into the Manitoba Fibre Festival. We just did a day trip. Of course, my mom was concerned that I was missing a day at home but if the Sale was on, I would have missed it anyway. It was an impressive show and Simone LeBlanc from our very own district had an impressive amount of product on display that she had crafted up! She represented Northwestern Ontario very well.
Well last week was a crazy one! My boss Holly spent the week with us, and she got to experience the craziness that we seem to have each week. The abattoir staff were a problem, so the manager spent some time here venting which led us to close the abattoir. This is obviously not part of my research station duties, but she was patient enough to allow me to deal with that. My fall helper started but that was the easiest part of the week since Katie has worked here in the past and it is likely the quickest transition I have even had. Brad from Almaco (the company that built our new combine) spent most of the week with us as well. Lucky thing that he came as he found a few things that were not quite correct on the combine, and he made the changes. He went over the entire machine with me, and we had to wait until Friday to get to try it out because we had nearly 1.5 in of rain that kept us out of the field. The combine is impressive but somewhat complicated. I need to make better notes this week when we get back out in the field or at least take some pictures and store them on my phone because once harvest is over, I won’t be touching it for a year! The complicated part is the computer, and the company has wonderful service so I will never be stuck. The samples are bagged right in the cab so I will always have a helper riding with me. I am certainly feeling more confident now and plan to use it for the soybeans and dry beans. There is an option to combine larger areas as well. I jokingly told my boss that we could start selling deer feed to raise funds for the Station. The samples are very clean out of the combine, and we may not have to do much cleaning at all. That will certainly eliminate a big chunk of time. The other thing that happened last week was the Tait Bros. moved in to start on tile repair. The plans have changed a bit already after digging but we are excited to see what the outcome is. They are using an older machine here and it is quite neat to watch it in action.
I did get another good size load of square bales made last week and put away in the barn. We really lucked out with weather and making square bales is quite pleasant with more fall like weather. The lambs are all sorted and living in the corral. The lambs were sad to be taking away from their moms, but the moms don’t feel that way at all. We have successfully found a new home for the goat, and he will get to his new home later this week. The cattle are close to being out of grass again, but I am hoping I can hold off moving them until after this weekend since we are planning to preg check cows on Sunday. I think I move into the manure moving/hauling mode so that will mean that I need to juggle bulls, butcher cattle and horse around a bit. I still cannot believe how much the lawn is still growing. I tackled that on Sunday and even was able to finish about half of the trimming. I must say, it gets dark way too early for me!