Ok just to warn you – this is going to be a vent! Why is it people who have no idea about farming making stupid comments and complain about farmers?!

I was just doing some research for my work (not this website) and I was online reading an article from a city paper. At the end of the article there is an opportunity for comments. The article I was reading was about the dry weather that we are having and how the Alberta and Saskatchewan farmers are worried.

A couple of the comments that were made were just funny – like the guy who commented that he spent $300 on plants, it’s ok right now because he’s home to water them but if he has to go away to work – they’ll die and he’ll lose $300! Oh my goodness – how terrible! Then there were a couple of comments about how farmers don’t believe there is global warming but yet we are in a drought situation – well first of all I’m not sure why people think that farmers don’t believe in global warming and second – there were droughts before global warming really started affecting the earth. We farm and we do believe in global warming and we try to be environmentally friendly as possible. We grow our own vegetables in our garden, buy locally from our neighbors as much as possible, we recycle as much as we possibly can and we only drive our vehicles to town when it is absolutely necessary. I know some people who drive their vehicles to go for a walk!

The comments that really got me upset were the ones about how the farmers are always whining, are always the first ones with their hands out to the governments for subsidies, have millions of dollars of land and equipment so the city can’t expand and farmers sell overpriced, ‘tainted’ beef and pork (??)!

First of all, drought is a concern for farmers. If we don’t have enough grass or hay to feed our animals it means that good quality breeding animals will be going for slaughter. And being as this drought is so wide spread in most of Alberta and Saskatchewan it means that the markets are going to be flooded with animals which also means that prices are going to tank – not just fall – tank! This means that these good quality breeding animals are not going to be worth anything, but the farmer would rather sell the animals than watch them starve. Being as all of the crops including hay are so poor in Alberta and Saskatchewan there is going to be a shortage of feed which leads to price inflation. If the farmer does decide to keep the animals the feed will most likely have to be trucked in from elsewhere. We’ve already seen hay prices triple in just the past couple of months and the cattle prices are dropping significantly.

As for the government subsidies – well last year we got a total of $325 in government subsidies. Now granted we are a relatively small producer with just under 100 head of livestock but I think on the most part any subsidy plan that the government implements is poorly managed. Take for example the 3 million dollars that the Alberta Government put into a new subsidy plan. The 3 million dollars was supposed to be over a 5 year period but in the first year they ran out of money by paying out big amounts to farmers who did not qualify. Mismanagement?? I think so!

I’m not sure why they think our meat is tainted – where do you think McDonalds gets their meat from? What about all the packaged and processed food, wouldn’t that be considered tainted? And finally, our product is not overpriced. It is by the time it gets to the grocery store but what the farmer actually gets is no where near what you pay at the grocery store. Most of the pricing comes from the feedlot and packing plant before getting to the grocery store. And by the way, it costs money to feed, truck and process the meat that ends up on the grocery store counter. While I agree that meat in the grocery store is overpriced and someone in the meat industry is making a lot of money, I guarantee you it is not the farmer!

Why don’t we flip it around – I think pretty much everybody would like to make more money. And everyone pretty much thinks that their commodity (whether it’s a service that they provide or work that they do for someone else or an actual product that is being sold) is worth more than it is, but the bottom line is, your commodity is worth what ever someone else will pay you for it. Finally, when it comes to government handouts, it’s not only the farmers that have their hands open it is every citizen in this country. I mean really, tell me who would say “No thanks” to the government when it’s handing out money?

Summer Sun Facts

The hottest part of day also has the highest UV index, reduce your sun exposure by getting out of the sun or find some shade (take along an umbrella) between 11 am and 4 pm.

Clothing that is loose fitting, tightly woven, light weight and covers your arms and legs will protect your skin from harmful UV rays.  Always wear a hat in when outdoors.  Most skin cancers happen on the neck and face so make sure your hat covers those areas, such as a wide brimmed hat.  Baseball caps protect your head and face but do not protect the ears and neck.  Sunglasses is a very important accessory when outdoors.  The sun’s rays can be very damaging to your eyes as well.

A ‘broad spectrum’ sunscreen is most beneficial as it protects against UV-A and UV-B and look for an SPF of #15 or higher.  Apply sunscreen about 20 minutes before going outside and reapply every 2 hours.  Sunscreen should be used in conjunction with protective clothing.  Don’t think that you are protected just because you have sunscreen on.

Just because it’s cloudy out does not mean that it is safe to be outdoors without sun protection.  About 80% of the sun’s rays make their way through clouds.

Sunlight does have health benefits as it provides us with vitamin D through our skin.  Just a few minutes of unprotected sun exposure should be enough to meet your vitamin D requirements.

TV Commercials

We don’t watch a whole lot of TV in our home, well let me rephrase that, the kids & I don’t watch TV in our home.  The TV is on from 5:45 am until 6:30 am and then from the time my husband gets home until he goes to bed at night.  The TV is turned off during supper.

My son & daughter will be sitting at the table ready to eat, dad will still be watching the news.  My son will call to his dad, “Dad, come ‘n’ eat, supper ready, turn off tv!”  This happens almost every night, sort of funny & cute – although I wish the TV wasn’t on at all – but I guess that’s another issue all together.

Any way back to the TV commercial thing.  It’s funny how kids pick up on certain things, like for example, they love the song for this one packaged pizza commercial (McCain, I think).  It’s an Italian song, the commercial has an older guy making a pizza and another guy comes in with a basket of tomatoes.  Well the kids love the song, they come running when they hear it and start dancing around.  They’ve also figured out that McCain lumps their commercials together.  So for example if the McCain French fry commercial comes on, they know that either their pizza commercial or the McCain cake commercial will be on next.

The other commercial that my son likes is the one for the discovery channel with the song “I love the whole world” – I think that’s the name of it.  We also have the song on one of his cd’s and he just loves to hear it.

There’s a computer commercial that my daughter has started bobbing her head to as well.  And then of course there’s the commercial for the Calgary Zoo!  Both of them start yelling, “the zoo, the zoo!”

I’m just very glad that right now they don’t really care about the products that are being sold on the commercials, they just like the music.  But I can sure see how music affects and influences the marketing industry!

Oh yeah, the other commercial my son loves are the ford commercials – for some reason he really likes Paul Brandt.  Probably because he’s such a cowboy himself and thinks that Paul Brandt is an awesome cowboy too.

My Frustration with Telemarketers

I think I can speak for most of the general population when I say telemarketers drive us crazy.  Just because I am at home does not mean that I have time to answer surveys or listen to some sales pitch or whatever else it is that they are calling about.  Most of the time I’m in the middle of something with the kids (well when am I not in the middle of something with the kids!) and go running to the phone only to find out that it’s a telemarketer.  It’s so frustrating!  And not only that but they can be so pushy and rude!

The other day when I was busy feeding my kids lunch, a telemarketer phoned – well actually two of them called in a row, both from the same company.  They got me really upset and I ended up yelling at them.  My kids stopped eating their lunches and just stared at me with this “oh my gosh – mommy’s mad” kind of look on their faces.  That was it, that was my breaking point!  I now have call display on my phone (which in my efforts to consume less and save money had not used) and have put all four of our numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry (which apparently is not very effective).  So now I am only going to answer the phone if I recognize the number.

Back to why I was yelling at a telemarketer.  The first person I was talking to asked me if she could take a couple minutes of my time to answer a few questions.  I told her no, I did not have a couple of minutes and asked if I could be removed from their calling list.  She proceeded to say that she has some sort of free gift if I just answered a couple of questions.  At this point I should have hung up the phone but I really wanted to get my number removed from their calling list.  So I asked again if I could have my number removed.  She said she just had a couple of questions.  So I said fine ask me the questions.  I answered her questions, she then proceeded to tell me that I had ‘qualified’ for a free gift (which previously she said would be mine if I answered a couple of questions – no mention of qualifying) and that I could come by & pick it up at some sort of presentation and she proceeded to give me an address in a city located an hour and a half away.  I then told her I didn’t have time to come & pick up the gift and that I wanted to speak to her supervisor.  She said “But it’s a free gift”.  This is where I started getting mad – I just want to be taken off of their calling list!  I told her again that I do not have the time and that I want to speak to her supervisor.  After a little bit of yelling I finally got her supervisor on the phone and asked him to take me off the calling list.  He started with the whole “But it’s a free gift” thing, so I yelled at him too.  Why can they not understand that I’m busy, I do not have time to drive an hour and a half any where to pick up some “free gift”!  So finally I got the supervisor to agree to take me off of their calling list.  Then not even a minute later a different guy from the same company called again asking me if I had a couple of minutes to answer a couple of questions.  I blew my lid!!

The other type of call that we get daily is a recording asking if we are interested in their product to press #1.  Again, in an effort to get my number removed from their calling list I’ve pressed one.  When I do get someone on the other end and ask if I can have my number removed from their list, they simply hang up with nothing said.  Rude & frustrating.  The last time they called, I asked if I could have the name and nubmer of their supervisor and if I could speak to them.  The guy told me that his supervisors name is “Dial Tone” and game me some fake phone number.  I guess that was his way of being funny!

So I guess I’m just going to wait and see how the call display works on the telemarketer situation and maybe the National Do Not Call Register will actually work as well.  Save me some stress in my day hopefully!

Spring Time Farm Work

It is quite apparent that spring is finally here!  This morning while we were out & about, the kids & I saw numerous farmers busy doing their spring work.  This was quite exciting for my 3 year old son, after all he is a farmer in the making!  Recently he was harrowing the pasture with his dad, so everytime we saw a tractor working in the field, he would tell me that they were harrowing – regardless of what they were actually doing.  If he saw a tractor stopped in the field, he would tell me that it was broken.

I guess next year he’ll be telling me what make of tractor it is that we are seeing!