The Rural Voice, 2003-10, Page 16UNIVERSAL TRACTORS
45 - 105 HP
KIOTI TRACTORS
19 - 65 HP
POULAN
Lawn & Garden Equipment
Sales & Service
BOYD FARM SUPPLY
Owen Sound 519-376-5880
INDUSTRIAL &
FARM SUPPLIES
• Nuts & Bolts (all grades)
• Hydraulic hose & fittings
• Belts • Bearings
• Grade 70 Transport Chain
• Roller Chain
• Tools
Springmount Industrial Park
Owen Sound N4K 5N7
519-376-0283 FAX 519-376-7202
BARN
RENOVATIONS
• Renovations to farm
buildings
• Concrete Work
• Manure Tanks
• Using a Bobcat Skid Steer
w/hydraulic hammer,
bucket, six -way blade &
backhoe
BEUERMANN
CONSTRUCTION
R.R. #5 BRUSSELS
519-887-9598
or 519-887-8447
12 THE RURAL VOICE
Mabel's Grill
The
world's
problems
are
solved
daily
'round
rhe table
at
Mabel 's.
"On top of everything else that's
wrong, I got my bill for the insurance
on my car and truck this morning,"
groaned George McKenzie. "With
today's beef prices I'd have to sell
about half my herd to pay for it."
"But don't you know the roads are
a safer place in Ontario because of
high insurance rates?" said Cliff
Murray.
"How, because people can't afford
insurance at all?" wondered Dave
Winston.
"Well the Fraser Institute claimed
there was more deaths and injuries on
the roads in provinces with low cost
government car insurance than in
provinces where there is private
insurance," said Cliff. "They claimed
the reckless young drivers couldn't
afford the insurance and didn't drive
as much here."
"Yup, private enterprise is always
best," said George.
"Hmmm," said Dave thoughtfully.
"Wasn't there just a lot of fuss about
too much obeisity in the country?"
"I don't get the connection
between high insurance costs and fat
people," said Cliff.
"Well I was just thinking," said
Dave, "if high insurance costs were
good for keeping people safe on the
roads, wouldn't high food costs be
good for making people eat less and
keep us from having all these
diseases brought on by being too fat."
"Great help you are," said George.
"With this beef surplus I need
everybody to eat more, not less."
"Yeh but I mean you should get
more for each animal you sell so you
won't have to sell as many," Dave
said.
"Ha!" said George. "You think
we'd actually see the extra money if
food prices went up? The super-
markets and the packers would just
take it and we'd be left with what
we've got now."
"Besides," said Cliff, "I suspect if
you want to get Canadians leaner you
need to put up the price of pop and
potato chips, not beef and pork."
"Well I was talking to my brother-
in-law in the city on the week nd and
I figured out I do have one product
on my farm city people will pay good
money for," said George. "Rocks."
"Rocks?" wondered Dave.
"You mean for landscaping," said
Cliff.
"Yeh, he was building this
waterfall in his backyard and he went
to a landscaping place and they
wanted a fortune for enough stones to
go around his pond. Me, my problem
is getting rid of all the stones that
keep popping up."
"The problem is getting them to
the customers in the city," said Cliff.
"A guy I know in construction said
he gives people the stones he finds in
his gravel pit, then charges them for
the transportation to make his profit."
"Geez, sounds like everything else
in farming, the guys in between make
money but the farm product is
worthless," said Dave.
"Maybe you could connect
directly with the people in the city
and cut out the middleman," said
Molly Whiteside overhearing as she
refilled the coffee cups.
"Kind of hard to let city people
know I have rocks for sale," said
George.
"Well, people are taking their
pumpkins down to the city and
selling them at farmers' markets this
time of the year," said Cliff. "Maybe
you could take a load of rocks and
sell them in a farmers' market."
"Would that be a food product or
a craft?" wondered Dave.
"Wouldn't that be a hoot if you
could sell off the rock piles to help
make up for the losses in beef," said
George.
"I always say, find something
people really don't need but think
they do and you can make a fortune,"
said Cliff.
"Yeh but the guy who's really
going to make a fortune," said Dave,
"is the guy who's around when this
rock craze dies and can charge a
fortune to haul all the rocks away."0