The Rural Voice, 2000-09, Page 16SCHMIDT'S
FARM DRAINAGE
1990 LTD.
• FARM DRAINAGE
• EROSION CONTROL
• BACKHOEING &
EXCAVATIONS
Frank Fischer, Harriston
519-338-3484
1-877-798-8821
"We install
drainage tubing."
FARM
TIRES
Good selection of Duals
Large stock of all brands
of passenger,
truck & farm
tires
232 Ri
On Farm Service'
Two fully equipped service trucks
Willits
Tire Service
Lucknow
519-528-2103
12 THE RURAL VOICE
Mabel
's Grill
Nobody from Environment
Canada would want to have walked
into Mabel's in the last few weeks. In
true shoot -the -messenger fashion
they might have ended up an
unknown body on some back
sideroad out in
the township.
Molly
Whiteside got
so sick of
listening to her
customers
griping about
the weather
that she asked
Mabel to
expand her
ban on talking
about religion
and politics to
cover the
weather too.
Mabel said the
The world's
problems are
solved daily
round the table
at MabeI's
guys had to get things off their chest.
"Besides, if everybody who was fed
up with the weather stayed away
we'd have nobody left to feed."
Things did get a touch nasty one
day, however, when Wayne Bruce
complained about the rotten weather
that ruined his vacation.
"Big deal, so the rain spoiled your
tour of the Royal Botanical
Gardens," snapped Dave Winston.
"At least you didn't have ten thous-
and dollars worth of wheat rotting in
the field."
"You farmers always think you're
the only ones who have a hard time,"
said Wayne. "Maybe if you had to
run a shoe store for a while you'd get
your eyes opened."
"Yeh, right, like about how much
you mark up a pair of work boots
before you try to palm them off on
us," said George McKenzie.
"Yeh," said Dave, "you know .
how much you're going to pay for
the shoes before you buy them, you
know how much you can sell them
for and you make a profit on every
pair. We have to pay whatever the
companies want to charge for seed
and fertilizer, we never know what
we're going to get when we sell the
grain."
"But somebody will buy your
grain at some price or other," said
Wayne. "Nobody guarantees me
anyone will buy the shoes I order in."
"But you don't have to worry
about weather," said Cliff Murray.
"Oh yeh?" said Wayne. "First of
all, the storm sewer backed up and
flooded the basement at the store and
I had to throw out 10 per cent of my
inventory. Then the warm weather
last winter and the rain this summer
have hit the shoe business hard. Shoe
sales have been down 2.5 per cent
across the whole country in the first
five months of the year."
"Whoa, a whole 2.5 per cent,"
whistled George. "Sounds tough to
me."
"It was tough enough to pint
Agnew shoes out of business and
they had 223 stores and 1,600
employees," said Wayne.
"Yeh and then there was Kaufman
Footwear in Kitchener that went out
of business because the mild winters
meant people weren't buying winter
boots," said Cliff.
"Yeh and beef farmers get hurt
• because they're not using so much
leather so the price of hides goes
down," said George.
"I guess the weather does hit
everybody more or less," admitted
Dave. "I hear the breweries are
having a bad year because it never
got hot this year."
"Which will hurt the guys who
grow barley," said George.
"Ah you guys cry in your beer so
much you probably reduced sales
yourselves," said Molly. "You buy a
pint and your tears dilute it into two."
"Who can afford beer these
days?" grouched George.
"Times are so tough you might
have to trade in your truck for a
cheaper one, eh George?" said
Wayne, winking at Molly.
"Might have to if diesel prices
stay so high," said George.
"I've got an old Chevy SIO I can
sell you," Cliff offered. "It's good on
gas."
"Has it got air?" George
wondered.
"Yeh, the air comes in through the
floor and the broken driver's
window," said Cliff.
"Guess I'll just have to save
somewhere else," said George.
"Uh,oh," sighed Molly. "There go
my tips for this year."0