The Rural Voice, 1992-09, Page 10It Pays
to Know
About
FCL
Shared Risk
Mortgages
FCC's unique Shared
Risk Mortgage offers
farm borrowers the opportu-
nity to minimize their exposure
to interest rate fluctuations.
If interest rates change
between anniversary
dates during the six-year term,
FCC splits any change equally
with the borrower.
Total rate increases
cannot exceed 2 112%
over the whole six-year term.
A Shared Risk
11"-1111 Mortgage from FCC
is your guarantee that, no
matter what happens to
interest rates, you're
protected.
To find out how FCC can help you,
call:
Walkerton
Owen Sound
Goderich
Stratford
Listowel
1+1
Farm Credit
Corporation
Canada
881-1490
376-6338
524-5366
271-0460
291-3450
Societe du credit
agncole
Canada
Inveslug in Good Business ... Canadian Agriculture
Long -Term Loans
Shared Risk Mortgages
Ai: Farm Syndicate Loans
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Gisele Ireland
All things must end ...but rain
I've always assumed that all things
have a beginning and an end. No
matter how much fun Super Wrench
and I had at a party, eventually it was
over and we went home. Every fight
we've ever had,
began with a
spectacular
beginning and
fizzled out when
it ended. Even
the most boring
speaker eventu-
ally finishes when
the audience is
finally put to
sleep. There's an
end to everything
.. except the hay
this year.
We began the
hay like every
other year. It wou d take at the most
two weeks, and we'd go for a little
trip before the grain ripened. We
bought several dozen haying gloves,
stocked up on the groceries to feed
the hungry haying horde and got the
machinery in shape for a fast -paced
haying season. It would have
worked, had someone not turned on
the water, and went away and left it
running. I didn't know there was that
much water up there.
The second week, the machinery
was gone over again, just in case the
skies cleared, and we occupied
ourselves with jobs we'd been saving
for a rainy day. We still talked about
a trip with some hope in our souls.
We even took our bathing suits out
once in a while and imagined how
we'd look in them on a sunny beach.
The third week, the sun peeked
out, taunting us for a couple of hours
at a time and playing peekaboo be-
hind angry black clouds. We were
determined to keep our spirits up.
We tried to calculate how many inch-
es of rain might have fallen in bibli-
cal times when Noah built his ark.
We must have been getting close.
During the fourth week we
stopped kidding each other. There
was no end to the rain. We'd run out
of rainy day chores and were just
getting on each other's nerves. Our
favourite radio program was the
weather report, and even that became
boring. It reported different varia-
tions on rain, precipitation ranging
from intermittent to severe weather
warnings, and totally omitting
mentioning any hours of sunlight that
could be expected.
The fifth week clearly showed that
even the most even tempered indivi-
dual needs a certain amount of sun-
shine to maintain a semblance of joy
in their personality. I knew things
were really bad when Super Wrench
began having puppet shows with the
hay gloves to entertain his grandson,
who also just wanted to go outside.
We put the swimsuits away and
started planning how to put pontoons
on the combine for the grain. The
rainy day chores were all done so we
just snarled at each other whenever
the topic of hay came up.
The sixth week gave us a break.
Three days of sunshine, back to back.
We were on a roll. Super Wrench
kidnapped bodies off the streets of
town to help and we got the kitchen
geared up to feed them at whatever
hour they wanted food. I was so glad
to actually get at the hay that I would
have fed Atilla the Hun and his entire
army just to see some bales on the
wagon. We smiled, we joked, but it
didn't last.
The seventh week brought 'er back
in buckets. I hid all the ropes, but
was still apprehensive about leaving
Super Wrench home alone when I left
for work in case he found them. At
this point, one half of the hay crop
was destined to grow mushrooms for
some greenhouse, one quarter of it
went to the zoo to feed hippos and the
other quarter was going to be offered
to animals who weren't too fussy
about what was put in front of them.
There's still hay out there, and
there are still rain clouds all around.
We've stopped talking about any
trips, swimsuits, picnics or barbecues
outside. We faithfully tune in the
weather report because in all those
clouds, there has to be sunshine
somewhere. Doesn't there?0
Gisele Ireland is from Bruce County.
Her most recent book, Brace Yourself,
is available for $7 from Bumps Books,
Tees -water, Ontario. NOG 2S0.
1