Trees pass by the dining room window of Roy Audet’s ranch house in Milk
River, Alta.
The Milk River, shallow enough to walk across last fall, reached flood
stage by early this week. Audet said he is happy to have the “drip,
drip” of water falling from his kitchen ceiling into a pan on the
floor. He doesn’t mind having to bail out the crawl space under his
valleyside home every few hours so the water heater will keep working.
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These and the plugged eaves troughs, sunken landscaping and new
channels cut by the river into his valley farm are “some of the little
things in life” he had forgotten about.
Audet has seen seven years of drought come to an end on his place, “at
least for now.”
Rain arrived for most of the southern Prairies this week – lots of rain
and even some snow.
Farmers and ranchers report hearing of neighbours and friends who
received 250 or 300 millimetres. Environment Canada said as much as 250
mm of precipitation was reported in a few areas between June 8 and 10.
The low pressure system causing the welcome deluge wasn’t finished by
Western Producer press time. Many areas received more than 50 mm.
Twenty-five mm equals one inch.
“It’s very slow moving. We expect it will continue for another day,
maybe a little longer,” said Bob Cormier of Environment Canada in
Saskatoon.
From Winnipeg to Calgary, much-needed moisture finally arrived.
Unfortunately, some of the most heavily drought-damaged farming areas
remain dry and the end of the drought in the middle and northern grain
belt is still to be written.
Saskatoon has received only 28 mm of precipitation since April 1,
and Vegreville, Alta., 24 mm; both only 32 percent of normal.
Much of the prairie map remains well below average for seasonal
moisture despite the recent precipitation in the south.
Rosetown, Sask., grain grower Jim Wickett got less than 25 mm of rain
in the past year. Only 14 mm have fallen this season and there was
little or no winter snow.
Last fall, he harvested his lentil crop only to recover the seed he
planted.
“My neighbours have got 15 cows on 2,400 acres and they aren’t sure it
can support them. Germination all over here is patchy and there’s no
subsoil moisture left for the crop,” Wickett said.
“My neighbour is buying hay for those 15 cows out of Steinbach, Man. I
don’t even want to turn on the radio any more. I don’t begrudge the
folks down south the rain. But I don’t want to hear about either. I
want it to start here. Even if it is just to show us it can,” he said.
At press time the large system that brought the general rain was slowly
tracking from the southern Rockies eastward, but it failed to reach
more than 100 kilometres north of the Trans-Canada Highway. Spotty and
sometimes heavy showers fell east of Saskatoon to the Manitoba border,
but for the region from Edmonton to Saskatoon, rain has been elusive.
For Wickett, the rain ends 15 km south of his farm: “They didn’t get a
lot there, but at least their kids now know what it looks like.”
Audet, too, is thinking about those who are still dry.
“I feel bad for them. I thought of them when they were having rain I
wasn’t. I just thought different things.”
