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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1973-07-18, Page 2Sugar. and Spice. By • Bill This is going to be a tough column to write. I'm on my holidays. ' it's a beautiful summer day, hot but not muggy, 'and I'm as laxy as the eat;viho is.eurled up in "her" chair,dreaming. In Winter, se eats like a hog and becomes repulsively fat. In summer, She Subsists principally on bees, ants and butterflies, and slims out into a tigress, stalking her domain, the back yard. Her domain underwent a. big, change this Week. Two old friends died. YOu might Say they were cut down -in their prime. They were twin elms, lefty:and graceful', I've spent Many an hoUr sliriped. in a lawn chair watching the birds and the Squirrels in the elms, listening to the whispering of the two lovers as they leaned toward each other and caressed each other with their limbs. Hey, this getting pretty Sexy. ' Last spring they came out in leaf, but by Mid-siiiiitner they were dead of the Dutch elm: plague WhiCh has blighted my part of the' country, I was going to haVe them taken down this summer, anyway, but my plans were Spurred a bit When a small limb fell off and conked my neighbour on the head, And then a 'large littib cattle doWn and fell On my neighbotir'S Mute. They're good {sours,neib but that's Carrying things a 'lid heard all SertS of hertor stories about the lantastie prices people. charged to remove trees. I Was asSitred that it would tog me a couple of WM:Weddell:art per tree. This was nonsense, , AS horror 'MOWS So Often. are: I ideated a tree surgeon. who works for the hydro. His estimate was -$8t.. Eigach thy with titterted i: and 1 kicked, her sharply 'On the ankle. She is always worried about any deals I make. She thinks' 1 have no boiness sense and Will be diddled at every turn, She' is tight about the first 'prelate, but i have never' yet been diddled,- beta fie I trust people. She doeset and lias been diddled several tithet, Anyway, that was -firm • price for both treeSi and shop itiontid because I thought it was reasonable.. and thetes nothing 1 detest Mete than, trying to beat tottiehddy down oh aprides, Well, it WAS pretty etciting., George arrived With topes, chain saw and four husky assistants. Instead, of taking. the • trees down in pieces, he was going to fell them in the back yard,: toward the house, ,It'S a pleasure. to see an expert at Work. HO sized up. 'the trees by eye and reckoned they. wouldn't •. hit the, house. I had to take his word tor it. If he'd misjudged, one tree WOUld, have Slammed through the .French dOors 'and right into Our living-room. He went up the, tree like a monkey and. fastened ropes arOUnd The other ends of .the ropes were snubbed -around trees: near the house and the., boys stood by, ready to pull. Snatil'Went the chain saw, heave went the boys. WHAMS DOWn came number one, right Where he'd' lined 'er up. A. feW initaiteS later, down came number ttkiialtnost.tnisaing the peony bed.. Then they went to. Work like SO many beavers, some wielding chain saws, the others piling brush. In three hours' from go, the trees were ""'down, saWed into fireplace length, and everything Cleaned up; • : bave ceased worrying about the energy crisis In this Otitintry, i have enetigh elfin blocks stacked in wood piles all over the yard to see us through Until at least the year '2000, and titer that somebody else Can worry about it, • There's something snug and homely about a Wood pile, NOW, instead of look, Ing ,out and teeing flower bedS that need .,:weeditig,, I dMi- Sit and look at my wood, piles. I, didn't, lift a f inger myself, ball, feel AS Siting and: satisfied when 1 took at that Wood as any ,pi 'ever did When he'd' lot finished :cutting and stack 'g his' Wood, for the winter.-, Thereis only One cloud on the horiton. it's too good to be truei it bet that right now? 'beady-eyed bureaucrat In the 'Department OrNatitinal Revenue is trying to figure blit Seine *ay of hotWhitt* tog on that: wood. He'd .batiet not ',succeed therell , trdublea Rd tin sales WI Mei:int-We tak the, propertY tat ttie, but if he tries, to tat thy Wood pile Will the' final straw and: there'll be murder dem., The will be a, two-foot dropped Ire& the batirootii WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1973 -Serving Brussels and the surrounding community published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Torn Haley =.• Advertising , membei Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association. Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $4.00 a year, Others $5.00 a year, Single Copies 10 cents each, Second class:,mail Registration No. 0562. Telephone 887-6641, Commuters in the country Our farms certainly are becoming more efficient.. A recently discov-. ered clipping from The London Free Press says that while in 1900 the produced enough Canadian farmer enough food for 5 people, in 1969 he fed 31. Today efficiency has increa- sed even more. It is possible though, that our increased farm productivity involves sacrificing some of the old-fashioned rural feelings of community and net- ghbourliness. We are seeing a grad- ual'end to the hundred acre farms, each owned and occupied by one fam- ily, as these 100 acre parcels are bought up by' large larm operators. ' This results in a house being vaca- ted on each 100 acres and often being sought by commuters who have little or no connection with the farming community. These new rural residents form one or two acre islands in the middleiof the productive farm lands. They ldave their homes for jabs in nearby cities or towns each morning and return at night too tired to participate.in and probably with little,interest in established rural institutions like the Women's Insti- tutes or 4—H clubs. . The rural commuters often keep .,the friendships that they make in the cities and towns and have more con- nections with the communities where they work than with their farming neighbours. The increasing influx of city people to the country means that people whose livelihood may be pretty well divorced from the farm economy and, whose commitment to farming is not very intense are surrounded by productive agricultural land. Con- flicts of interest are bound to arise. One such conflict surfaces when city people who live in the country want all the good features of country living ,- clean air and peace and quiet and object to the drawbacks, like the occasional unpreventable farffi odours. * The need to feed the growing Cana- dian population as well as economies of scale, make larger and larger farm units inevitable. Arid the pol- lution and hectic pace in Our Cities means that there will be MOre coin-ii Miters seeking a farmhouse and a few acres as a permanent habitat. BUt it seems to us that SoMething a feeling of CommUnitY which comes out of sharing dothindoil1 ittereSts and experiences perhaps -- may be lost in out rural areas.• Perhaps thdughy a new kind of.com- munity, with commuters and farMers each bringing something quite di ferent and equally valuable-to 'it, will grow up in place of the old, close-knit telationship8. What do you think.? We invite your comments.