And It Went Viral...

    We quite often hear the term "it went viral." I don't watch TV and I don't watch videos so I miss most of the stuff that goes viral. 

   So here's the back ground to my story. Western Canada had a bumper crop in 2013. In fact, it was a record crop. Farmers thought they were off to the races. What happened next is unbelievable. Railroads hauled very little western grain to ports. There were complaints . As time went on complaints grew louder. Finally the Steven Harper government became aware of the problem and made a meaningless pompous statement.

    I was listening to an interview of a farmer. He explained how he had not sold any grain and he knew why. The railways were hauling oil instead of grain. This farmer was 76 years old and had been through tough times but never anything like this. At the end of the interview he was asked what he thought should happen. his reply was, "Harper (prime minister) should get off his ass and put his big boy pants on and make the railways haul grain."  Today I heard that the comment went viral!

   So there it was. A hardworking old farmer had something to say that went viral.

    So that's about  as close to anything going viral as I'll ever get.

    It makes one wonder what it takes to have something go viral.

No Green Grass for me yet!

     Some of the blogs I follow keep up  a running account of spring and how flowers are blooming and grass it turning green. Similar posts got me thinking about "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."

The only thing green is the spruce trees and they are mostly black

    So here there's not one tiny piece of green grass. I'm still living in a white world.

    
     It was a dull overcast day so the photos are rather dull.

   Today out temperature got up to plus 8 C (48 F). It hasn't been above 0 C for about 6 weeks. Some of those weeks were brutally cold. We had many over night temperatures below minus 30 C (minus 22 F).

    The sun rose at 7:05 this morning and set at 6:27 tonight. And I'll be setting my clock ahead before I go to bed.

    So I even though I might  envy those with green grass I hope you enjoy it. Our time for green grass is coming very quickly.

The Horse Healer

     I wanted to post another folklore post but Putin got in the way. I had to make a statement on Putin.

     I was recently sent for some physiotherapy and I began thinking about physiotherapists being healers. 

     I was reminded of a horse healer.

     My great grandfather was known as a horse healer. He would look into the sick horse's face and eyes and the horse quite often was healed. Sick horses were brought to him all the time. Two days before he died they brought a sick horse to the house steps. Great Grandpa came out and took a look at the horse. The horse got better but Great Grandpa died two days later.

    Now this healing ability was hereditary. It would skip a generation and show up in the opposite sex. So one of Great Grandpa's grand daughters would have had healing power on horses. Now I don't know if any of these women every realized they had this power or used it.

    My great Grandpa was a very influential man. He was a leader. He brought all of his adult children and their families to home stead in Canada in 1905. Also many of his children's in-laws came. Since the Lutheran church was not organized and they had no pastors , he was the lay reader. 

   I believe this must have been an old German folk lore belief. I've tried to find information on this belief but came up blank. 

   Does anybody else know about healing horses by looking at them and then passing  their ability to heal horses to a family member in the next generation?  Are there any other folk lore situations where the power is hereditary?

Disputin' Putin

     It was a very sickening feeling to hear that Russian troops had entered the Crimea.

      The Ukrainians were beating each other up which is not the correct way to solve problems. They  would have resolved some of their problems if they had been left alone.

     For Putin to march into the Crimea without permission was going to compound the problem rather than promote a solution. Putin had some debatable reasons for entering the Crimea. None of them were an emergency and could have been dealt with in other ways. Like , let's try talking.

   Putin seems to be gambling that no one will confront him and send him home. The Ukrainians are not in  position where they can take action. It would give Putin reason for stronger action. Putin has some of his own territory where people don't like him. These people could decide to take action while Putin is busy.

   Putin entering the Ukraine  is an all  round bad situation. 

    Now Putin has some poor examples to follow.

    I can make some self righteous comments but if I examine what we've  (Canada)  been involved in, we haven't been a good example. We waltzed into Iraq in the first Iraqi war. We gleefully entered Afghanistan where we were going to clean up all the bad guys. I know we said we had reasons for these two actions. But were they the right reasons? Were we asked to come into these countries to help them?  Have these actions accomplished anything ? Did they make it better or worse for the people? They were certainly poor examples for others.

    Now just because some one else entered other countries doesn't excuse Putin for his actions.

    All of us need to sit down and take a deep breath and try to find a suitable solution before armies become involved. Peace is so very valuable. You'd think we could work harder for peace.

   

March: In Like a Lion...Out Like Lamb

       Since it's March 1 and weather is on my mind, the little saying about March 1 came to my mind. I began to think of the origin of the saying. I wondered  about the  accuracy the statement.

      I have more than a passing interest in weather. Yesterday I did a whole post on weather. I have my private pilot's license and a good part of our training was weather and I found it very interesting. The grade eight science course had a unit on weather. I had fun with this unit. To wind up the unit we took a field trip to the radiosonde station and watched them prepare a weather balloon and send it up. It as a spectacular end to a unit. Now the radiosonde is obsolete.

     March definitely came in like a lion here. If you check my last post you'll know that conditions were definitely lion like. We had a low of minus 38 C (-24 F) last night  and a wind chill of minus 52 C (-33 F)

    So today I had to check the statement. I was very surprised to discover where the statement originated. It's based on astronomy. The constellation Leo rises in the east  in early march. The Aries constellation sets in the west in  late March. So there you have the lion in early March and the lamb in late March. Yes, it was conveniently applied to weather.

    Those who follow the Farmer's Almanac will find that the March statement is a standby.

    Since I have a bit of a science background , I wonder what the stats are on what happens. What are the odds of this statement being accurate? Does anybody know how to calculate the odds on this statement?

    How do you handle statements like "in like a lion and out like a lamb?" Do you have other weather statements that you swear by?

My Winter is Still Very Healthy

      I have noticed that a few bloggers are talking about spring. Some places it's warming up and green grass is making an appearance. Others report moderating temperatures. And some bloggers are extremely tired of winter and just plain fed up. You can pick your category.

     We have had a long and brutal winter. Our winter started in early November with heavy snow. (60 cm). December brought more snow 50 cm (36 in) and cold temperatures. We had a beak in January and had a thaw and long mild spell. February has just been one long cold spell with no break in sight. Yes sir, not even a hint of spring here.

     Today we had a daytime temperature of minus 20 C (-7 F)with a northeast wind of 20 kmh. This evening it is minus 26 C ( -15 F) with a wind chill of minus 37C (-23 F) . Our low tonight will be minus 38 C (-24 F)  with a windchill of minus 52 C (- 33 F). High tomorrow will be minus 25.

    The record low for this date is minus 35 C (- 23 F) set in 1962 and the record high was plus 14 C (+9 F) set in 1986. 

    On the positive side the sun rises at 7:23 AM tomorrow and sets at 6:13 PM. We get 10 hours and 50 minutes of sun tomorrow. 

    So winter still has a strong icy grasp on us right now. The seven day forecast doesn't show much relief.

    So we just have to sit tight knowing that spring will definitely come and be most welcome. 

    On the other hand there is something worse than the weather. I spent 6 hours in the mall shopping with my micro manager and that wasn't fun! Also one of my brothers is sitting in Phoenix and laughing his head off!!

   So to the people getting spring enjoy it. I appreciate your photos as it keeps me hopeful about spring.

    Does the weather bother you or do you roll with the punches?

    

Tales From an Account Book

   A few months ago I received a couple of simple account books that my parents used on their small farm. I've found some interesting things about their early life  with a young family. 

   One of the items I found that gave me pause for thought, was an entry for a $100.00 war bond. They had actually bought a War Bond or a Victory Bond! I stopped to think about that for a few minutes. At that time they had very little money. They had to operate a small farm that didn't produce much. They had the responsibility of 4 young children. They had 160 acres of land and rented 160 acres. Not all of the land had been cleared. Where would they ever get a $100.00 to invest in a War Bond? There must have been some dedication and sacrifice to scrape up the money to invest in a bond. I began to see how patriotic they must have been to support the war effort with their small investment.

   At the time they invested in the bond they would have had no savings. Little was produced on their farm and prices for their produce was low. 

    For the rest of their farming days they never had any savings. In fact, to run a farm they were in debt most of the time. Their retirement nest egg came from selling some of their farm. The astounding thing is that they gave most of their land to their sons! 

     For most of their life they had very little but they were happy with the life they lived. They worried some times and were stressed at other times , but overall they were happy.

    So I guess the saying, "You can do a lot with a little" made sense in that case.