Some people get their underwear in a knot when you mention winter.
Some things you hear people say: I wouldn’t have to plug in the car, shovel the walk, hire someone to snowplow the lane, buy winter tires or ice tires (if you have not used ice tires; they are great on icy roads), pay to get the oil furnace serviced or maybe spend the price of a vacation on a new electric furnace, heat pump, and larger electric service. If I complain about the amount of oil that we use, I am advised to invest in new triple-glazed windows! Our neighbours go south for the winter – why can’t we?
Some folks who grew up on a farm might see things differently. I’ve heard Dad and Grandpa talk about having to prop open the storm door on the house to prevent a big snow from blocking the outside door from opening, because last night there were two feet of snow, and when it blew there was a snow drift four feet high against the door in the morning. Grandpa had to jump out the upstairs window to get out and then shovel out the door. Dad often had to take the empty manure sleigh for a trip from the barn to the manure pile in the field and back to break the road before forking on the cow manure to take it to the field. All this was common for our ancestors every winter. When most people lived like that, it was accepted as a way of life.
When Dad was young, he and his brothers went to work in a lumber camp each winter to make a few extra dollars working in waist-high snow every day cutting trees with a cross-cut saw. There was no worry about flying south for the winter, no airplanes, and no money to go, either. For generations, most trees were cut in winter when they didn’t get sand on them because they fell in the snow. Sand on the logs would dull the saws at the sawmill and maybe the next load of logs would be very hard to sell once the sawmills found out how dirty your logs were. Wood used for burning in the furnace or box stove could be cut year-round because it was ‘blocked’ after being felled and before it was moved, so any soil that was on a block would go out with the ashes after burning.
Before roads were snowplowed and cars became year-round transport, the family enjoyed a cutter ride to church on Sunday or to visit the neighbours any night. If one of the neighbours had a pond large enough for a hockey rink, there was always an eager group of boys to clean the rink once the ice was thick enough. An Eaton catalogue made a primitive goalie pad. Bob-skates were a coveted gift at Christmas. Once a covered rink was built in Shawville, a special CPR hockey train was organized on weekends to bring hockey fans from as far west as Fort Coulonge to the game at Shawville. More girls cross-country skied on primitive wooden skis than figure skated on the pond. Before ice-boxes and refrigerators were invented, the meat from a butchered beef, hog, or deer could be buried in the oats in the granary ‘till used up, or when it got warm in the spring. Any meat not used by then was cooked before it spoiled and canned in meal-size quart sealers so it wouldn’t spoil.
Global warming wasn’t even mentioned until recreational airplane traffic, cruise ships, and automobile traffic became more common than walking or bicycles. Now fingers are pointing at animals for causing air pollution. When the covid pandemic shut down all unnecessary travel, air pollution diminished and the hole in the earth’s ozone layer even healed over! With our Canadian dollar valued at only seventy cents American, this might be the time to attack global warming here at home with less expensive vacations closer to home. “Zoom” has became a much less expensive and less time-consuming way of conducting meetings and delivering specialized education than face-to-face meetings or conferences conducted hours or even days away from home. Technology is a wonderful tool if we can learn how to make the best use of it. With the cost of transportation, lodging, travel, and food escalating faster than we can afford, let’s make more use of the technology that is at our fingertips.
I had a farm neighbour who once said that it’s not what you make (money), it’s what you spend, and learning how to live in your own skin that makes life easier. Let’s teach that to our kids!
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
