Plaguy weather
British author Jonathan Swift talked of “plaguy 12-penny weather,” when inclement weather forced a gentleman to hire a horse drawn coach or a covered chair to travel about.
We have had plaguy weather on the eastern prairies this spring but I haven’t heard of anyone who rented a coach to get from farm to coffee shop. As for a covered chair, by the time one covered four or five miles it would be time to head home again.
This is not to suggest that all farmers do is drink coffee, but when the rain comes down and turns fields into muck, a fellow needs someone new to grouse to. Grousing to a spouse doesn’t help much because she’s heard it so many times she has run out of soothing replies.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
This spring we got a glimpse of the slower pace one has to pursue when travelling behind or aboard horses. We had the Royal Canadian Mounted Police commemorative trek across the Prairies. Riders got many chances to make use of their slickers and ponchos. They groused a bit too, but they will agree it was a highlight of their lives.
Strangely enough, this year will make farmer conversation for the next four decades.
“You think this is bad? Why, back in ’99 ….”
It’s part of the farmer defense mechanism.They know there will be good years and bad, wet and dry. They know there will be grasshoppers, wheat midges and lygus bugs, not to mention sow thistle and wild buckwheat.
Once in a while a good year will happen and plaguy 12- penny weather will not be the burden it is this year.
That fact is what keeps farmers farming.
