The Rural Voice, 2003-08, Page 18BARN
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
CANADA
SERVICE CENTRE INC.
- 479 MacEwan Street, Goderich • N7A 4M1 -
YOUR LOCAL SUPPLIER ISO 9002 REGISTERED
We carry a wide variety of
steel including hot rolled flats,
angles, tubing, sheet, plate.
beams, rebar, mesh matts,
expanded metal, stainless,
aluminum, cold rolled flats,
angles. If we don't have it
here, we'll find it for you as we
have other branches to source
material. Our services are
sandblasting, priming, cut to
size, shearing, and free
delivery.
Visit our website at
www.canadasteel.ca
Please Call:
TOLL FREE: 1-888-871-7330
PHONE: (519) 524-8484
FAX: (519) 524-2749
14 THE RURAL VOICE
Mabel's Grill
The
world 's
problems
are
solved
daily
'round
the table
at
Mabel 's.
"I suppose at times like these you
should be glad Canada's not a
nuclear power," said George
McKenzie as he stared glumly into
his cup of coffee the other morning.
"It'd be awfully tempting to use it if
we had it"
"Yeh, I guess it's like they say
about the danger of keeping a gun in
the house," said Cliff Murray. "You
get mad and you do something you
might regret later."
"Hey be careful," said Dave
Winston. "I can see how it would be
tempting to drop a big one on the
Japanese because they're hurting
your beef and sheep sales, but
remember a lot of the people you'd
wipe out eat my pork."
"This BSE thing and the mess
with the U.S. border is worse than
dealing with bad weather or disease,"
said George. "With that, you're
frustrated but you know there's
nobody can change things. In this
case you not only have to deal with
the Americans closing the border but
with the Japanese behind them.
There's got to be a way we can make
them feel some pain too."
"It's not just the Japanese that we
should be mad at," said Cliff. "I
mean the Americans may be justified
on beef because they have never
found BSE down there, but they're
not letting sheep in and they've got
lots of scrapie in their flocks."
"It's just payback for Canada not
going to Iraq," said George. "I knew
not pulling our weight would
backfire."
"Naw, it's just more of those
political excuses to protect their own
fanners," said Dave. "Sort of like
those countries that won't let
genetically engineered crops in."
"Speaking of genetical
engineering," said Molly Whiteside,
as she delivered a refill of the coffee
cups in a voice far too bright for the
mood this morning, "did you see
where somebody had genetically
altered some fish with a gene from
jellyfish and now they have fish that
glow in the dark."
"Why, so people can fish 24 hours
a day?" wondered Dave.
"No, it's for people with fish
tanks," said Molly. "They're going to
come up with all these other wild
colours too."
"What on earth are they going to
all that trouble for?" asked Dave.
"About $17 to $30 a fish instead
of a couple of bucks like usual tank
fish," said Cliff. "Have you any idea
how many fish tanks there ate in
North America?"
"Somebody's going to buy pretty
little fish for $30 apiece and I barely
get more than that for a hundred
pounds of beef," moaned George,
shaking his head.
"Isn't it wonderful how genetic
engineering is delivering on its
promise to help feed the world," said
Cliff.
"But it proves a point, doesn't it,"
said Dave. "If you want to make
money, you've got to produce
something people want but don't
need. I mean there's three things
people need to survive, right? Air,
water and food. They get the air for
free. They get water almost for free.
They think they should get food for
free."
"Yes, but people are willing to
pay a buck a bottle for water these
days," said George.
"Ah, but that's not just water,
that's special water," said Dave. "It's
designer water. That makes all the
difference."
"Yeh, remember when a dog was
a dog and you could get one for
free?" said Cliff. "Now you can't
give a mongrel away but people will
pay $300 for some ugly, useless
breed of dog as long as it's a
purebred. It's got to have the
designer name, like sneakers or blue
jeans."
"Do you think I could sell my
cattle as pets?" wondered George.
"They're purebred Herefords."
"Get Calvin Klein to put his name
on them. Then people will buy
anything," said Dave.O