MACKLIN, Sask. – The Bast family’s hard work isn’t immediately obvious on a quick visit to their western Saskatchewan farm yard.
There were no cows in the corral this muggy July afternoon and the nearest oil battery was out of sight a kilometre away.
But the apparent calm is deceptive. The phone rings inside the farmhouse located in the heavy oil patch straddling the Alberta/-Saskatchewan border.
Collyne and her husband Len take shifts in Blue Moon Oilfield Services Ltd., a seven-days-a week, 24-hour a day business that maintains oil pumps and storage sites.
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The couple set up the business in their house eight years ago with Len’s brother Andy and cousin Dan. The Basts found they couldn’t survive on farming alone with 20 percent interest rates and poor crop and livestock prices.
Their foray into the oil business began with $25,000, a huge time commitment and contacts Len and his family made while working on oil rigs.
“At the start you’re starving, so you’d have to go in and give ‘er,” says Len. It’s now a success because “we were all owners. It’s your name on the line, there.”
Despite that, Len says he would give it all up: “I’m coming 36. If I could just farm when I’m 40, I’d be happy.”
The name of the company comes from a television show called Moonlighting in which the characters ran the Blue Moon detective agency. Collyne said the Saskat-chewan Blue Moon was set up by moonlighting farmers.
The company has about a dozen trucks, 35 regular employees and a lengthy list of casual workers. There were 46 on the payroll in June, their busiest month to date.
The amount of work they do is a source of pride and frustration. Their suppliers keep 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours, unlike Blue Moon which often gets called for emergencies at night and on weekends.
“Sometimes we don’t finish lining up crews until 10 at night. Then it rains in the morning and you cancel it,” said Len.
Collyne became a partner in 1989. As office manager and in charge of the books, she says they “can’t stand still. Every time you think you’re getting it under control, something happens.”
Collyne and Len married in 1979 and lived in Lloydminster with Len returning to the farm to help his dad every weekend. In 1982 they moved to the farm but it wasn’t paying so Len worked the rigs. He quit and came home to find work because his son “knew my brothers better than me.” Then came Blue Moon.
“Businesswise, I don’t write five cheques a year. Collyne’s good at it. She keeps Dan and Andy and I going. She’s smart. We’re not village idiots but …”
Collyne interjects: “I see we all specialize where our skills are.”
Prefers rural lifestyle
Being a city woman from Edmonton, the farm was a shock for Collyne at first. They talked about moving to town four years ago “but we want our life here with the kids and Blue Moon,” said Collyne. And while a recent accident has left her wary of the cattle, it hasn’t soured her on farm life.
She was knocked down by an overprotective mother cow while doing a night calving check and got a severe gash in her head that needed 50 stitches to close. Ironically, Len was in town attending a meeting on how to get a new health centre.
Even though blood was streaming down her face, Collyne thought she just needed “a massage and a bath.” Luckily there was a nurse on duty in nearby Macklin, otherwise she would have had to go to the hospital in Provost, Alta., 43 kilometres away or 48 km to Unity.
Len jokes their ranch’s brand, a Bar C, is now partially etched on Collyne with her C-shaped scar.
After enduring a five-week headache and forced rest, Collyne has hired a housekeeper to do chores and watch the kids while she tends to Blue Moon business.
The Basts are active boosters of their community which they say is growing. The oil industry has definitely helped keep the population stable and there are 30 kids in each grade in the school. Macklin recently built a new arena with community donations. Collyne is secretary of the local chamber of commerce – “my little contribution to society.” The chamber is working on a campaign to get relief from the provincial sales tax so more people will shop at home rather than in Alberta.
Around the farm, Len handles the bulk of the work with some help from Collyne and their children Cody, 10, Lee, 8, and Laura, 6.
They have crops and a commercial cow herd that produced 170 calves this spring. The cows are trucked to pasture about two hours north each summer.
They raise hay on 70 acres, but with the dry season, they plan to buy more this year. They also grow wheat and barley for green feed and have 300 acres each of canola and wheat.
The farm lost money last year and is not paying its way. But it’s the future for the Basts and their children if they can make enough money out of Blue Moon to fund a total switchover to farming.
Their son Cody helps with branding and ear tagging, but Collyne teases that when she tries to get the men to work in the house, they won’t even touch the cat’s litter box.
The lighter side
“How can you show your kids the fun side of farming when you work all the time? It’s tougher to find the fun. Just about all the guys who work for us are farmers,” said Len.
In the short term the Basts have tried to make time for fun. Len relaxes with team penning competitions and two years ago they went on vacation to Mexico. The boys would like to play hockey, but that means driving three times a week so they settle for baseball.
Len is earnest about his philosophy: “If the work’s there you don’t take off four days to go skiing. You’ve got to give up things if you want to be your own boss.”
And it’s a way of life he and Collyne are teaching their children.
“You can’t just give it to them. They work and help and know more than most kids their age.”
