The Rural Voice, 1992-02, Page 3Editor: Darene Yavorsky
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crops extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Neil McCutcheon, farmer, Grey County
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Bob Stephen, farmer, Perth County
contributing writers:
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Roulston, Cathy Laird, Wayne Kelly,
Sarah Borowski, Mary Lou Weiser -
Hamilton, June Flath, Ian Wylie-Toal,
Susan Glover, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb,
Peter Baltensperger, Sandra Orr,
Yvonne Reynolds
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production co-ordinator:
Tracey Rising
advertising & editorial production:
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Anne Harrison
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Darene Yavorsky
Editor
It's the second week of January as we pre-
pare to meet the deadline for our February issue.
I made a point of dashing out to make photos for
the cover on the snowiest day of the Christmas
holidays — scenic shots showing bare fields
would hardly be appropriate for February's
magazine, so I took advantage of a rare snow-
storm. Surely winter would seule in with a ven-
geance in the new year. Or so I thought, but to-
day's expected high is plus 4 degrees, and it's
been raining on and off most of the week.
I consulted The Old Farmer's Almanac, and
here's its entry for February 1992:
"We don't have honest snowstorms in my
neighbourhood any more, it seems. No longer
does the snow simply fall for a longer or shorter
time and then stop. The last couple of years our
winter storms have too often been apologetic,
bobtail affairs, which, after dropping their snow,
finished up by raining for a couple of hours to
make amends. I despise weather that has not the
courage to do its work and go, but must back out
the door with a cringing drizzle. These modem
storms, devious and craven, have no character.
"One thing is cenain: When a bobtail storm
at night is followed by a hard freeze, as often
happens, the next morning can come as a sharp
surprise. For that departing rain falling on the
new snow will have frozen into a crust with a
high, hard ceramic glaze and the toughness of
the deck of a battleship. That shiny crust is the
most impossible surface that nature has to offer.
You can't walk on it because it's too slippery;
you have to kick holes in the ice in order to go
anywhere. A trip to the mailbox becomes a
polar ordeal, like crossing an Antarctic glacier in
one of those expeditions where they wound up
eating the sled dogs.
"And speaking of dogs: for the animals I
know, a new crust is disconcerting, puzzling,
and finally, perhaps, a lark. The dog is let out in
the morning, slips, scrabbles, then sits and glides
grandly 20 feet into a snowbank. A young cat
pops out the back door, lands on the ice, slides,
hits the brakes, and loses it, clawing at the
glassy surface and spinning all four wheels as
she is shot across the frozen flower beds. If the
storms of our day lack the bluff, straightfor-
ward simplicity of more vigorous times, at least
they have a sense of fun."
So from this vantage of early January, it
looks as though the snows of yesteryear truly
are a thing of the past. There are advantages:
livestock have an easier time of it, and so do
their keepers, whose feed supplies go further
thanks to milder temperatures and the less rav-
enous appetites of their animals. Less fuel is
spent on clearing snow from laneways and
farmyards, and it certainly makes for more rea-
sonable heating bills.
Still, in the tradition of complaining about
our weather — too cold, too hot, too dry or the
wrong type of precipitation — it would be nice
to experience a good old-fashioned wintry
snowfall. As it says in the almanac, "A foot or
two before we're through!" At least in time for
our February publication date...0
A Slice of Rural Life
Chore time can be enjoyable when the animals are eager, the weather co-operates and you've got the
friendly companionship of your enthusiastic farm dog. (Photo by Darene Yavorsky)