37 Replies to “An Important Reminder For All City Folk”

  3. I miss Paul Harvey, thanks Ken, I loved that, brings back so many memories, tried to listen to Paul every noon. I thought of the fire line of Pauls while fighting last weeks grass fire, in which all the farmers who rushed to with discs and cultivators tractors cats and graders contained before more homes were lost.

  4. Thanks Robert and the above.
    Yes bartinky, this sort of community response still occurs on the land. When a farmer looses his wife or other family member, gets sick or some other local emergency, many of the neighbours get together to seed the crop, gather the harvest, fight a fire or rebuild a barn. This makes and keeps the community strong.

  5. A reading from the Truly Modern Book of Genesis:
    And then God created the Canadian Dairy Industry. And God said: “Let there be protected markets, and quota, and subsidies.” And the people of Canada rejoiced, because they enjoyed getting screwed on their food prices.
    And seeing the people’s great happiness, God said: “And let these farmers also grow corn for ethanol, and the governments shall subsidize them, and even though doing so will further drive up food and energy costs, I wish my people to be happy.”
    And the people rejoiced…..

  7. John Deere Model “BN” was a row crop design, had only one single front wheel, drive wheels on grooved axles which could be adjusted for varying crop row widths.
    Appeared similar to the Model “A” in photo.
    My parents grew “sugar beets” in Manitoba for a few years during in the early years of WW 2.
    John Deere sold the “BN” Tractor along with the planting and harvesting equipment to boot.
    Dufresne Manitoba. circa 1942

  8. The best of North American civilization has been produced by family farm values that dominated for so long. Here on the prairies those numbers are in such decline that the future problems will, heck, even current problems can traced to it.
    When the federal Conservative government closed the prison farm system, which was part of a rehabilitation program, they made a mistake. It wasn’t the trade of farming that was being instilled. It was the values.

  11. I hadn’t actually looked at the G&M article comments before you all drew my attention to them. Wow! Pretty much confirms my long held belief that more than a few Canadians have a deep seated hatred towards our American neighbours.
    When Canadians I know express such sentiments I often ask them this: “If you switched the word ‘Americans’ for ‘Chinese’ or ‘Arabs’ or ‘Africans’ would you dare say such a thing?” I always get the same reaction: stunned silence.

  12. Thanks,Ken,that’s a great video.
    Reminds me of the folks I grew up with on the Prairies a long time ago.

  13. I’d guess that much of what is presented may have been true 40 or 50 years ago. I’d have to check that with my farmer brother-inlaw. But he’s down in Mexico for a few weeks then home for a few days before they go on a trip to Paris and a cruise down south. His wife would like to get away for longer but there’s bonspiels that he’s never missed near the end of February and has to get home for them.
    His four siblings preferred careers off the farm and he’d be the first to admit that they put in way more working hours over the year.
    Now in his fifties, when it’s time to slow down a bit he owns land worth millions that were first accumulated by the hard work of his father and grandfather.
    Like Ken Kulak wrote, farm community life is wonderful. Something that is rare to find in a city.
    It’s wonderful for us to have a farm in the family, to visit and to see it continue in the family but remember, a farm kid can dream to become a dentist or a teacher. It’s not so easy to go the other way.

  15. And after God made the farmer, he made the men and women who get up every morning and go off to the factories to build the tractors, combines, ploughs, pickup trucks, and all the rest of the tools and machinery a farmer needs to get his work done.
    Amen

  16. “Straw hats and old dirty hankies,
    moppin’ a face like a shoe
    Thanks for the meal. Here’s a song that is real, from a kid from the city to you”
    Add to this over taxed, over regulated and saddled with price control marketing boards.
    Thanks for the daily meal guys and we’re behind you fighting the same enemy.

  17. After all these years the one dream I have left is to run one of those gov. guys that always told me how to farm through the pickup.Hard on the concave but would make me feel good.

  19. Of all the links in the food chain, farmers get more subsidies, bail-outs, and public sympathy. They contribute less to charities, coach fewer sports, pay less tax, have more free time. While I donate 400 hours and $5000 a year to coaching young athletes, I’ve yet to see a farmer offer to lift a Goddamn finger to help anyone. If there really is a 1% elite in this country, it isn’t in corporate boardrooms, it’s out there in farm country. And as for hard work? They eat their own young.

  20. And after God made the farmer, he made the men and women who get up every morning and go off to the factories to build the tractors, combines, ploughs, pickup trucks, and all the rest of the tools and machinery a farmer needs to get his work done.
    Well, except weekends and holidays, when all the breakdowns occur.

  23. Thanks Coach. I can remember driving tractor all night, I mean ALL NIGHT, so I could get away to coach my kids ball team and transport city and rural kids in my own vehicle, at my own expense, to weekend ball tournaments. And there are many others as well who do the same thing, both rural and urban. I don’t don’t know how much it cost me, though or how much time, I never thought to put put a monetary value on it.
    The name signed here is my real one……Coach.

  24. I am a farmer by heart. The farm is where I grew up and learned the most valuable lesson in life – the value of hard work.
    But I was also a bit of a geek and my interest in electronics eventually led me away to the big cities and a career in the mainframe computer business.
    I often wonder what kind of farmer I would have evolved into, if I had stayed home.

  25. Every coach I ever had in hockey,curling, baseball, and 4-H, with the exception of one rcmp officer,was a farmer.

  26. Norm @ 12:35
    I feel just the opposite. After growing up on the farm and leaving at 20 to get a job in the city, I would look forward every year to getting my week off in the spring and 2 more weeks in the fall so I could get back to the farm to help. The work on a farm is so enjoyable to me that I can’t wait to get back in the cab of a tractor or a combine every chance I get.
    Cows on the other hand…………….

  29. Thank-you for this video Ken and Robert.
    I grew up on a farm/ranch and I remember the days of ‘owning your own land’ and the fierce independence that graced the people who felt free to give and to get because they really did own everything they had – they were producers.
    I miss my Dad more than I miss the place that he owned but it is all one in my memory. Dad used to take us kids with him to fix fences, feed the cows, look at crops etc. He had a strange blend of humour and despair that would make us roar with laughter or cry alone for our Mom and Dad and for our place. Dad was always cursing at the CWB – that made us laugh – he called his horses stupid SOB’s but he never sold them to the glue factory; they always died at home. Bills and taxes were high and income was low; we never had ‘extra money’ and cattle and machinery always came first. The CWB and the CCF kept innovative farmers/cattlemen down; most sold out to big co-operations like the Hutterites (free labour) and Dipper pal conglomerates. The latter are not free men with the independent spirit. Like the Highland clansmen, the free farmer is having a difficult last stand but I am cheering for all of them because they represent all that is good and blessed in the world of collective Communists and cut throat greed.
    Thank-you SDA for cheering for the good guys.

  30. mosquitoes, itchy oat and barley dust, shoveling wheat and snow. cranking the tractor and burning wood in the shop. that’s what i remember.

  31. Jim@1:52 – I think you missed the point completely.
    No, I think he got it spot on. This little bit of tiresome fiction is part of the rationalization the welfare bum kulaks use to justify a life on the dole, a cradle to grave leeching off their fellow citizens. Disgusting.

  34. Thanks Ken for not airbrusing the JD Model # out. we could have had another “Guess the Tractor” model contest.
    So in place of that “As I recall one started it ….?

  35. A government bureaucrat stops at a farm in rural country and talks with an old farmer.
    He tells the farmer “I need to inspect your farm for illegal water use.”
    The old farmer says, “Okay, but don’t go in that field over there.”
    The bureaucrat verbally explodes saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the government with me.” Reaching into his rear pant pocket and removing his badge, the officer proudly displays it to the farmer. “See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…on any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?”
    The old farmer nods politely and goes about his chores.
    Later, the old farmer hears loud screams and spies the bureaucrat running for his life and close behind is the farmer’s bull. With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer. The guy is clearly terrified.
    The old farmer immediately throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs…..
    “Your badge! Show him your badge!!!”

  36. Fact: all of Canada’s dairy, egg, and poultry producers rely on a self-serving closed market system that makes it prohibitively exepensive for a young fellow to enter the business; grossly inflates the price consumers pay for their food; and constitutes a monopoly that is very bit as repugnant as the controls exerted by the recently departed CWB.
    Fact: the heavily subsidized corn-for-ethanol scam has artificially jacked up the price of corn, removed millions of acres from food production, and, has driven up consumers’ costs for food and fuel.
    Question: What percentage of farmers who are not currently screwing the public, wish they could get on board the gravy train?

  37. 5 pound brick of old cheddar in Sherwood Park, AB Costco: $28.99
    5 pound brick of sharp cheddar (same thing) in Kahilui Maui, Hawaii Costco: $11.99
    This aside, I miss the farm and our John Deere 4020. 8 Speed power shift with a rare addition of a turbocharger! We also had a John Deere model 40. First John Deere with a foot clutch!
    Spent many a restless night trying to sleep but even after 30 minute showers you can’t get rid of that itch after riding the bale stooker all day in 30+ degree heat. Add to this country dances, 500+ guests Ukrainian weddings and taking the back roads home, our city slicker relatives were the ones who I fell sorry for! We didn’t stress over what breed of designer dog we’d get. Everyone at any given time had fresh puppies should old Sport had got run over and you needed a replacement. Party lines on the phone. A real treat to drive 5+ miles into town to the coffee shop. Early mornings, late nights, determination and heartbreak, I could go on and on.
    Thanks Ken! Wouldn’t trade growing up on a farm for anything.

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