An Uneventful Move

Just a quick update for all who asked. The move was the biggest non-event I've ever seen for a large group of horses. It took us a half hour to load everybody on the semi this morning and they spent another half hour enroute. They got off and ran around the new place for about five minutes, then they put their heads down and started to graze. When I left eight hours later, they were STILL grazing ! I'll be surprised if I hear differently before I go down there in the morning.

The Day Before the First Big Move

Tomorrow, we move our first group of horses to the new farm. To say that we have been busy this week is an understatement. Melissa has been coordinating things at the College Grove farm while I have been in charge of things at the Lynnville farm. At the end of the workday today everything was workably complete at the new place which is going to have to be good enough for now. Although it is reasonably proximate to our current location, our new farm is a few miles farther from the bright city lights than where we are currently. Everybody working with me at the new farm also farms themselves; we're fortunate that they understand what we're trying to do without us having to explain it forty seven times. Special thanks go to Locke Brothers Fencing Co. for putting a hurry up on the fence around the barn and the barn itself and to Foster Garrett and his crew for pulling ALL their trucks away from whatever they were doing to haul crusher run for me today. If there are better or more honest folks than these to work with in northern Giles County, I don't know who they would be. As we have been everywhere we've lived, we are again blessed with good neighbours.

To any of our Lynnville neighbours reading this....I hope the Richland FFA Benefit Truck and Tractor Pull didn't get rained out tonight, and I hope the crowds were big and that everyone enjoyed it ! Given that it was being held in the park downtown, the whole town participated whether they attended or not ! LOL ! Although I find tractor pulls a little noisy for my poor old head, I believe in and support 4-H and FFA where I can. I'm sorry I couldn't be in attendance this year.

View looking toward the barn from the driveway. We're still lacking the porch across the front of the barn, the barn doors, shutters, and, of course, the cupola. :)

View toward the run in shed from the front of the barn. Each pasture has a 16 foot drive through gate and a 4 foot walk-gate with water troughs and a hydrant located between the gate openings. This should make it easy to monitor everything while feeding. We may eventually add a place right at each walk-gate to store blankets and sheets.


We had a FULL crew of guys working today with vehicles, trucks and trailers parked everywhere !

View of the barn area from the rear. That's our neighbour Terry Locke leaning on the railing of the scissor lift. :)

Rural Reality

Just to prove that one never knows how animals will react to certain stimuli, this evening we had a covey of hot air balloons land on a farm (with the farmer's permission, as I took the time to find out) a few miles away. Melissa and I were in the back finishing up chores in the Big Boy's Field and we watched the whole show. The balloons weren't close and as far as our horses go, they never even noticed; one or two lifted their heads momentarily while the rest just kept grazing, completely unperturbed. But the whole non-incident got me to thinking about just how out of touch with rural reality some people have become.

Mostly, our immediate neighbours do a pretty good job of not treading on our property rights and in that respect we are pretty lucky. What many in our community don't get any more is that the pretty cows and horses out in our fields actually do more than enhance the landscape...they are how I earn my living. This is a working landscape filled with working farms. It is NOT a public park. Our fenced fields full of livestock are most certainly NOT somewhere we want you walking, riding your bicycle, drinking, landing balloons, hunting without our permission, etc. When something, someone or some nearby activity has the potential to seriously disturb my animals, I take it as a direct threat to my ability to continue to provide a living for my family and I promise that when I confront someone involved in doing any of these things, I react very strongly to it.

There is truth to the Robert Frost poem, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbours". Many of the folks in this neck of the woods that farm for a living (me included) keep excellent, sturdy boundary fences, if for no other reason than we can't afford to have our livestock running amok over the neighbourhood and/or up and down the road. I take boundary fencing so seriously that checking fence is the first job I impress upon ALL of our help, and all of our boundary fence at both farms is checked, and repaired if necessary, each and every day. Just as I don't want the neighbours using my farm as their unauthorized personal park, I don't want my horses and livestock dallying in their geraniums if I can help it.

Hope everyone is having a good week. I am sure enjoying spending my days at the new farm. With as much work as we have to do down there to continue building and finishing it out, I ought not to complain very much about being bored in the next little while ! :)

Eating Humble Pie

Given the seriousness of my recent posts, I think it's time to lighten things up a notch and tell a few tales on myself. Here are a couple farming stories gone awry to wet your appetite. There are PLENTY more where this came from.

1. Frost Seeding Clover into winter wheat- Every year on a cold morning at some point late in the winter, after the snow pack had pretty well gone but before the ground had done much thawing, all my neighbours and I would begin broadcasting clover seed into our winter wheat. Seemingly without fail, and apparantly without even really trying, my neighbours would unfailingly gain an excellent stand of clover which reduced their fertilizer bills and helped build their soils. Goody for them. Every year, no matter what I did....and I tried EVERYTHING to make it otherwise....I got exactly nothing except red ears and a wet behind for my efforts ! After awhile, it became a running joke in the farming community and something I ate A LOT of crow over...there's Jason out broadcasting clover seed....again....d'ya think it'll grow for him this year....nope....never has done before....he sure works hard at it though.....ayup....let's drive by and give him the thumbs up again (evil grin).

2. Prior to my first "hot" date with Melissa, she asked me if I could drag her ring for her as her dad, who would normally handle the job, was out of town. I'd gone all out for the occasion....starched the shirt and pressed my jeans, but ever the man to impress, I said sure thing ! Melissa, similarly primped, jumped up and sat on the fence, fully prepared to be impressed with her new man's mechanical aptitude and farming ability. After starting one of her father's new tractors, I backed it up to where the whippletree and chain harrows were parked. I dismounted the tractor, parking brake set, noting that I had parked it on the cusp of a long, steep hill. As is often the case with this sort of equipment, the chain, clevis and pin were buried deep in tall grass just behind the tractor, so I had to monkey around for a few seconds hunting the connection with my back turned to the machine. Finally, I found the damn thing and when I straightened up, I gave Melissa my best winning smile. About this time, I heard a distinct click, and I finished turned around, smile still plastered on my face, just in time to witness the tractor's brakes fail completely. I remember the smile fading as I screamed "Holy [word that rhymes with truck]!" I briefly stood watching the scene unfold in slack jawed, horrified amazement, whippletree connection still in hand. My hot date's father's new tractor was literally rocketing away from me....picking up an incredible amount of speed as it pointed itself at the row of hickory trees in the fencerow at the bottom of the hill. At some point, I must have felt action was called for, because next thing I knew I was running full tilt after the tractor, cussing a blue streak the entire trip. It was going way faster than I could....WAY faster... and in spite of my adrenaline laced best efforts I never had any hope of catching it. Somehow....I don't know HOW...except to say there is a God and He was sure enough looking after me that night.... the tractor managed to hit the only gap in the fencerow and it came to a stop in the next field all on it's own, none the worse for wear, thank you Jesus. After I caught my breath and shoved my pounding heart back down my throat, I turned around again, just in time to watch my heavily primped date rolling around in the dirt and pounding her fist into the ground, belly laughing so hard she was crying.

Weekly Progress Report

Although it may not look like it, we've made a lot of progress this week and it's a good thing as we are very close to *needing* to move horses down here. This week saw the completion of fencing around the barn, the barn roof as well as window installation and framing. The exterior sheeting on the barn ought to go very quickly this week, as should the addition of a "porch" across the front of the barn. Next comes yet more gravel, followed by finishing the barn interior...once the basics are done I will be working at this by myself after we have horses on premises.

As you can see, I'm still pretty proud of my water line ! :)

Hope everyone enjoys their Labour Day holiday !

View from the southeast...this is what you'll see coming up the laneway.

Water Line = Self Satisfied Grin

View from the rear

View of run in shed with fence.

Another view from the front

A Health Care Comparison

Well, if my previous posts haven't managed to fully alienate my slim readership, this one is sure to get people fired up on both sides of the border ! I probably field more questions about this topic from both Canadian and American friends and acquaintances than I do any other topic, so here is my attempt at a *balanced* comparison of my verisons of Canadian and American health care !

First of all I will address the rumours !

While it is POSSIBLE to die in the streets waiting for treatment in the US because you don't have any money to pay the bill, this outcome is highly unlikely for visiting Canadians no matter whether they carry a US health insurance policy or not. For a variety of reasons, this outcome is also highly unlikely for most Americans, although it can get expensive fast if one has unprotected assets, is under-insured (or not insured at all) and/or one doesn't know how to work the system.

Similarly, it's POSSIBLE to die while waiting in a queue for a doctor to show up and treat you while on holiday in Canada, but this would be an equally unlikely outcome for most Americans (and for most Canadians) in the majority of cases. Most of the time, people who need care get it in a relatively timely fashion, although in many cases the wait is considerably longer than it would be south of the border for the same treatment. When I lived there, the wait for a "routine" MRI was as long as several months, depending on the severity of one's condition and the availability and proximity of the nearest MRI machine.

Outcome for outcome, the quality of care in both countries is very good. Depending on the severity of the issue at hand, timeliness (and sometimes the degree of thoroughness) of care and reasonable access to doctors, specialists, and second opinions is (or was) probably the biggest gripe in Canada.

Conversely, so long as one has good insurance OR one knows how to work the system, timeliness of care and access to specialists in the US is generally very good. The biggest gripe down here is the cost (and sometimes the availability) of non-cancellable comprehensive health insurance.

Canadian health insurance is not "free" and it's not particularly comprehensive, either. It covers a percentage of most doctor and specialist visits, some instances of follow up care and physiotherapy as well as most care provided while a patient is actually in hospital. It does NOT cover dentistry, most ocular bills, chiropractic visits or alternative medicine, nor does it routinely cover perscription drugs for those under 65. Many Canadians carry extra insurance, often sponsored through their employers, just like here in the US, to bring their health care coverage up to a standard they feel comfortable with.

One of the few real differences that I have found between Canada and the US is the system of health care between the two countries, even if the overall outcomes are similar. Canadians, both liberal and conservative, voluntarily pay very high taxes to support their provincially run universal coverage health insurance systems; despite the griping, most of them are very happy with it....so much so that the easiest way to never get elected again in Ontario is to suggest a return to free market health care. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly everyone in the country supports the idea that every Canadian should have equal and affordable access to health care, regardless of who they are or their ability to pay.

Interestingly, for all the rhetoric levied against various parts of the US health care system from (gasp) Socialist Canada, the US government already exercises considerable involvement in many health care situations. Medicare (and to a lesser extent Medicaid) is quite similar to the system in place in Canada right now. The biggest difference between government run health care in the US vs government run health care in Canada is that one has to be retired and 65 or below a certain income threshold to qualify for it down here as near as I can tell.

My only personal gripe is the ever escalating cost (and potentially the availability) of affordable, reasonably comprehensive health insurance in the US, especially for sole proprietorships and other small businesses that don't qualify for group health insurance. I've said for years that I would like to own (and pay out of pocket for) a family policy that mimics the coverage I had when I lived in Canada, but extensive research has shown me that such a policy really doesn't exist down here. I don't care too much about routine doctor visits or perscription drug coverage. At the end of the day, what I really want is to know that our medical bills will be fully covered and our insurance won't be cancelled in the event of a catastrophic and progressive disease or accident.

And so wraps up my post ! Any readers left out there ? :)

I Don't Want Your Tax Dollars !

I recently learned that the lady who owned the farm Melissa and I bought some months ago was basically getting a cheque from the USDA NOT to grow corn and soybeans. It wasn't the kind of cheque that you run and buy a new Porche on, but it wasn't chicken feed, either. I know this because I got a letter in the mail recently asking me, as the new property owner, where I would like this year's cheque sent, which is just unbelieveable to me. I wrote back and asking not to be signed up as a part of this program and to please cancel my current cheque because I wasn't going to accept it.

At the root of it, seemingly easy money makes me feel pretty uneasy. Call it an old fashioned notion if you want, but I don't much enjoy feeling beholden to anyone, although like everyone alive, I know that I AM beholden to some folks for various reasons. I also don't really trust that which I don't fully understand, and I don't understand why the government would want to pay folks for not farming land in a way they see fit to do. At the end of the day, I'm not sure whether it's the first step in a power grab, a vote getter, or something else entirely, but I do know that said cheque probably wasn't issued from the good of the government's heart.

As a new American, I honestly don't care all that much about party affiliations. As far as I'm concerned, the man most likely to get my vote next election day will be the one explaining how he's going to ELIMINATE some of the hugely wasteful and unneccesary programs that already exist. In my books, this would include the one that was going to send Melissa and I an unwanted and poorly disguised government welfare cheque to not do something that I was never going to do anyway. As far as I'm concerned, if they can't save it, they ought to give the money they didn't spend on me to the old people, or veterans, or some other group that actually deserves it.

If they REALLY want to help me out, maybe they could take the money and form a task force that could help answer why as small business owners our health insurance premium is the largest single line expense we pay every month and also why it went up by 15 % last year despite no significant claims from either of us.

Stepping down off my soapbox now. :)