Northern Farmer

Rainy day here today, well not much rain today but last night we had us an inch and a half of rain, plus the power knocked off for most of the night. No big deal, was sleeping anyhow and there ain’t much need for power during that time. Managed to wake up at our normal time too, well maybe a few minutes later than normal but I still managed to wake up at five am. Did morning chores then got a little bored so I headed to the co-op to buy some new mud rubbers, it was time cause my old ones got the boots wetter than not having any at all. Funny how that works, the water can leak in but it sure doesn’t want to leak out. That might be an idea for someone looking for a few million dollar research grant, figuring that mystery out would sure go a long ways in solving all the problems in this old world.

But with that huge problem solved for now till the next set of mud rubbers get wore through I figured it would be a good day for some tractor maintenance. I didn’t feel like putting up some fence even with the new mud rubbers cause they only go up to the ankles and the wet grass goes a bit higher than that. So the newer tractor got drove up to the garage and parked outside of it. It won’t fit in the garage cause the garage wasn’t built for that, but all the tools are in the garage and I don’t feel like making fifty trips back and forth to the machine shed with tools, filters and twenty gallons of motor and trans/ hydraulic oils. (Boy, this is starting to look like all I want to do is take it easy). Besides it’s a dirt floor in the machine shed and the lighting is nil, especially on a cloudy day such as today. Got the tractor all taken care of after a few hours of trying to figure it out and then did chores and came in to some great homemade chili. Talk about hitting the spot! It’s times like that when life is good!

Now I know I’ve mentioned before about our predator problems in this neck of the woods and the hits we sometimes take from all sorts of critters on the prowl. Not much problem with the cattle getting hit unless it’s from a semi on the road when they’re out but our poultry sometimes really takes a hit. Even lost faith, (what little I had) in the chicken tractors. They can be dug under or tore into which just happen recently but we were lucky there was only one chicken in the tractor. That was a broiler that couldn’t even walk when the main batch was being raised up but it miraculously recovered when all the rest were butchered. Kinda became the family pet back there behind the main garden. Well, either it got raptured or whatever tore into that chicken tractor got itself a good meal. It’s been suggested that a good dog will take care of the predator problem, but our dogs are worse than the predators around here when it comes to chickens. And if I get a “good pup” to raise up and protect the place, well knowing my luck it’d start to love eating chicken, farm fresh.

Besides, now we for sure have a new and improved predator lurking around the area, a cougar. I’ve strongly suspected this for the past few years, finding the tracks and signs, but I’d never seen it which is OK with me. And I figure I’m pretty safe out in the woods with our trusty chainsaw roaring. But for years here the DNR which is the Dept of Natural Resources here in Minnesota, has been down playing it to the point that if you reported a cougar sighting that chances were pretty good you’d be hauled off to the nuthouse, or at least be laughed at and publicly denounced. Well it seems like the local farmers have the last laugh because of the wonders of technology. A neighborhood resident got the cougar, or a cougar on a motion camera they’d had set out. And that’s not all that they got, they happened to get a black bear on their candid camera too! But the neighborhood gossip is that when the DNR came out the camera owner first showed the DNR the tracks and the cougar sign, and the old DNR went into their denial mode. I have to give the person credit for approaching it like this, just showing them the evidence before showing the proof. After getting the old run around and basically told that they had no idea what they were talking about, out comes the photos, (gee, I love this), and that turned it into a whole new ballgame. Made the local papers I hear, although I don’t really read them, and now there’s no denial anymore, at least for a season.

I know this isn’t big news or earth shattering for most, but its news here and poetic justice to boot! Not that I really give a hoot what the DNR thinks or says. They are a non entity as far as I’m concerned on this land. We do what we do and that’s about it. Don’t have time nor the inclination to be reading up and following their rules. Oh, that reminds me of one time a couple years back when I had them call me up. I happened to sign a paper, (never sign a paper), that let a young teenage cousin of mine deer hunt a weekend here without purchasing a license. I have a soft heart for young’uns and figured I’d be doing the world some good letting him special hunt. They even came with the paper for me to sign and that guy was so happy. Now a month went by and one evening I got a phone call from the DNR telling me to prove that I was the landowner. Now for those readers that know me you can just about imagine the cooperation that they received! I don’t know if the DNR is used to receiving total un cooperation, most just bow down in fear of them, but let me tell you, they heard it that evening. Who do they think they are telling me to “prove” that I own the land, sheesh! So to cut the drama short, they didn’t get any proof and I never heard from them again on the matter.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.