Still lots of planning for sales barn party

Well, I have one crazy week ahead of myself. Besides work and farming, I have meetings and lots of preparation for the Stratton sales barn’s 50th birthday party coming up this Saturday (Sept. 19) starting at 1 p.m.
Please give Deb Zimmerman or Susan Irvine a call if you plan to attend as we need to ensure we have enough to eat.
Gord Hardy, the president of Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, is attending.
I’m counting on my fellow farmers to bring some cattle down for a nice display of Rainy River cattle.
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Last week was a quiet one at the agricultural research station here in Emo with no student help. I managed to catch up on some data entries in hopes of having a student start this week and we can continue along.
Chantelle Bragg started today (Monday). It is always challenging to come in here with a huge list of jobs as I tend to not take the time to explain things. But we need to buckle down and get organized this week as I am off to New Liskeard next week.
I’m planning to have a majority of seed threshed so Chantelle can work on cleaning seed while I’m away. Plus, I need to take the thresher to Thunder Bay this week (normally I have someone meet me at Quetico so that I don’t have to drive the entire distance).
Chantelle and I will be harvesting most of the remaining grain plots this week. We need to hurry as we had about 400 geese here today (Monday) and they make a huge mess of things.
I’ve also caught a brown bear leaving one of our oat plots.
There still seems to be a lot of green seed, which we might have to harvest and put in our big oven to get it to dry down.
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My friend, “Fisher,” helped me move my cow’s home from Blackhawk on Friday. I’m still truck-less so thank God for friends and parents (my parents are lending me their truck so I can get to work).
Fisher hauled the cows after his bus run. I then vaccinated all the calves and have that job off the list.
The calves need to be vaccinated three weeks prior to the sale (Oct. 3) so even though I don’t know what I will be taking to sale, it needed to be done just in case.
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My mom turned 60 on Friday, so we had a barbecue her for her after the cattle move (we had enough food to feed Emo).
My brother was in charge of the birthday cake. He managed to get it to my house in good shape and I managed to drop the entire cake on the floor during her picture-taking part.
Luckily, my dad also had bought a cake and my mom made a new dessert, so all was not lost.
At least she’ll always have something to talk about for years.