15May / 2012

Cell Phones and Farming

I have an iPhone. I carry it everywhere with me. I use it a lot! My husband gets mad at me sometimes cause I’m on my phone most of the day.

Today I went outside with the kids to weed my huge flower planter. I left my phone inside cause I knew I’d be busy pulling weeds.

Brad had just left to go spray some land we’ve rented from a neighbor. It’s a few miles away and he said he’d be gone a couple hours.

The kids and I came in the house after about an hour and my cell was ringing.
It was Brad and he was MAD! A part on the sprayer had started leaking and he needed me to come pick him up.

We drove over to get him and he headed for parts in town. He gave me a lecture about always keeping my phone with me when he’s farming. So all the time pretty much.

I giggled inside at the irony of him giving me crap most days about always having my phone and also him telling me to always have my phone today.

The argument is over and the spraying has continued.

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10May / 2012

Lake Alma, Saskatchewan Farm

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10May / 2012

Hauling cattle

Working with cattle can be trying on a person’s nerves. Add in my husband’s temper and stubbornness and sometimes it’s just not fun.

This week, my husband and I attempted to haul 30 yearling heifers and 2 cow/calf pairs out to pasture. We also had both our young kids with us. It was a trying experience to say the least.

The first load went smoothly. He loaded all 12 heifers by himself and we hopped in the truck to drive them 70 km to our other farm. The kids slept on the way there and we were all okay.

Getting back home to load the second load, we left the kids in the truck and thought we’d be done in 20 minutes. Needless to say, it took over an hour. With my husband yelling and swearing at everything and my kids crying in the truck, my nerves were wore thin.

We finally got on the road again and the kids were sick of being in a vehicle. We dumped that load off and hurried home. As we loaded the last load one cow kept jumping over a barrier we had set up. It was beyond frustrating and I thought we were going to murder each other or that stupid cow. I helped him load the last trailer full and took the kids in the house. He made that trip alone.

Sometimes it’s not all fun and games around here. Our fun family time quickly changed to being absolutely sick of each other. But better days are to come!

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17Apr / 2012

Seeding

We have hardly had snow at all this winter. Which is incredibly weird for our area. Last year we had so much there was flooding everywhere on the spring.

Husband has looked at the 14 day forecast and is depressed. It looks like rain every second or third day which means no seeding. He is not a sit in the house and pass the time kind of man.

For the past six years we have been grain farming organically. Unfortunately, due to many reasons husband has decided to go back conventional farming. This means more work and more cost involved. And this is the main reason why he is so stressed out about seeding. We rented land from a neighbor this year as well so we have more acres to put in.

I really hope the forecast is wrong. We have big input costs to cover that require all our land getting seeded. Even if we grow the bare minimum of bushels, we will do well.

Good thoughts to all farmers out there and all you gardeners as well.

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30Jan / 2012

The Love of My Life

I’ve been married for almost four years and with my husband for almost nine years. He is my complete opposite but we go together great. I can’t imagine my life without him. He is the father of our two little ones and I wouldn’t have chosen anyone different.

Last July we found out he has a heart condition. It’s called Wolfe Parkinson White syndrome and it means he has an extra electrical valve. So his heart races fast and slows right down. It simply doesn’t beat properly or pump blood properly. It was a scary weekend last July that he spent in the hospital.

Now we got the call that he is to go in the hospital this week to have this valve burned off. There is a small chance he will need a Pacemaker if they burn both valves by accident. And I of course dwell on the bad. I am a constant worrier and I can’t seem to help it. I don’t show my worrying around my kids but it’s always there. Especially in the dead of night as I try to sleep.

I can’t imagine my life without this man. He is the best part of us and the best daddy to our kids. He works hard and always finds a way to support our family. I try to appreciate him always but some days love gets sidetracked by kids and mundane household chores.

If you read this, please think a good thought or a little prayer for my soul mate. He means the world to me. He is the love of my life.

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27Jan / 2012

Things I Didn’t Know

Before I moved to rural Saskatchewan I had not a clue about anything farming related. I still haven’t learned all I want to but learning takes time. And patience, which my husband doesn’t have alot of.

In high school I went to my first farm party. As my friend was driving in the farmyard she said let’s go check out the grain pile. I replied with what’s a grain pile? It turned out to be a pile of grain on the ground. I got made fun of alot for that one.

When I was a young child I thought brown cows made chocolate milk. My husband still can’t believe this.

I did not know how to drive a car before I moved to this farm. Luckily my husband taught me the basics and then hired a driving instructor to teach me the rest. I am so glad I can drive.

I had no knowledge of seeding, calving, harvest, etc. I was totally ignorant has to how a farm worked. And how my food got to my table. Now I can converse quite well with people about our daily farming life.

Besides being able to drive an automatic car, I now know how to drive a tractor and a manual pick up truck. I’ve even driven the standard while pulling a flat deck trailer. Maybe someday I will learn how to drive the semi, although that scares the bejesus out of me.

I can check the calving cows with confidence when my husband is sleeping or not home. But if a calf needs to be pulled for whatever reason I need to phone someone to help with that. I’ve watched and helped my husband pull many over the years but I have never done it myself.

I know what a gopher looks like and a mouse. I know the howls of a coyote quite well. I’ve seen eagles and hawks and owls all over our farm. There has been deer in our yard many times.

I will continue to learn alongside my husband and children as the years go by. I actually really want to learn to bale hay. Maybe once my kids are a little older I can talk my husband into teaching me.

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25Jan / 2012

Hardworking Husband

My loving husband has worked many jobs in his almost thirty years. He’s been farming since he was a young boy. And that is his passion. To pay for this passion of his means he has to work an off farm job.

He’s worked on the drilling rigs before we had kids. He’s worked at a mechanic shop in town. I liked this job cause it was the only one with 8-5 hours 5 days a week. For the past four years he’s been driving an oil tanker. He owns a semi and works as a lease operator for an oil company. Uses their trailer and short hauls oil and water from place to place.

He’s gone by 6 or 7 in the morning and not back until anywhere between 5 pm and midnight. He doesn’t see our kids often when he’s working and I don’t wait up for him on the late nights. His schedule is a 7 on, 3 off, 7 on, 3 off, 5 on, 3 off continuous. Simply put, we miss him. Especially our two year old. He loves to feed our cows and do anything in the tractor. He only gets to do those things on Dad’s days off.

We both hope that one day our farm will be able to support our family and he won’t have to work off farm. He really only drives truck during the winter months. He drives truck some during the summer months if the farming isn’t too busy. I sure get lonely and sad during the winter months out here on the farm when he’s working these long days. I don’t know if my loneliness is more so since we had kids or less.

It’s hard on all of us. We almost never have family suppers or breakfasts or much time at all. I hope the day comes soon that he can be home with us more and just enjoying his farming.

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23Jan / 2012

Calving

It’s that time of year again at our farm! We wait and wait and wait for the first calf of the year to be born. Constantly checking the cows and heifers everyday for weeks before we finally come across a new baby. The first ones are always exciting but as you get into a month or two of calving it gets tedious and a bit boring.

For the first five years I lived out here my job was to check at 3am so my husband could get some sleep. I loved the simplicity of those middle of the night cow checks. Me and our old dog Homer walking in the cold still night. Everything dark and quiet and just really peaceful. If something was calving I would hurry back to the house to wake up my husband.

We’d go back out together to bring the new calf and momma into the barn. Get them bedded down with new straw and make sure the calf was sucking. Some nights there would be more new ones outside after we had just got others in the barn. We spent many hours out there in the middle of the night working together to make sure the new babies were warm and fed. On the really cold nights I would climb in the hot box with a calf or two as my husband fed other new calves.

I haven’t done those late night checks for three years and I probably won’t do them this year either. Our own babies have joined our family now and I can’t catch up on sleep as easily I could when we were kid free. We bundle up our kids and take them to the barn to see new baby calves throughout our calving season. I miss the freedom and silence of those late night cow checks but maybe in a few years when our kids are in school I can start doing it again.

Our first calf hasn’t come yet this year so here we sit waiting to see what will join our cow family. A heifer? A steer? What color? How big? Twins? This is such an exciting time of year!

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18Jan / 2012

Farm Driving

When I first moved out here to my now husband’s farm, I didn’t know how to drive. I had no need to drive while living in Ontario and even living in small town Saskatchewan. After being out here a couple months and constantly having to rely on my always working boyfriend to drive me anywhere I decided to get my license.

My boyfriend gave me an old, well used 1982 Dodge truck to drive around in. He taught me how to parallel park by putting two round hay bales the perfect width apart. He wasn’t the best teacher as he is easily frustrated and yells alot but I got the hang of it. Two tries and I had my license!

Here I thought I’d have great independence with my shiny new drivers license but alas I was really just a parts girl running to town for my busy boyfriend. I drove that truck for a couple years until it started to become unreliable.

I had just left town one evening heading home and discovered the brakes had quit working while I was driving 90km down the highway. I was terrified!!! I did a movie style u turn at an intersection in order to get home that night.

In the winter, I was constantly sliding through stop signs in town and spinning tires as I tried to get going again. And the battery cables were so rusted it was hard to get my old Dodge started.

I hauled a round straw bale in the back of that truck from a neighbor’s field to our house. I thought it would roll forward and squish me and kill me while I was driving!

I think about that old truck and the good memories I made in it often. It now sits out in our yard and we use it as a garbage truck. Maybe someday our kids will learn how to drive and parallel park in it.

Whippy's Words Of Wisdom