***Original published in Crossroads This Week, Oct 19, 2018***
Hog Advocacy Group takes Issue with Farmer’s Hog Barn
The RM of Yellowhead received a special presentation from the advocacy group Hog Watch Manitoba during their Council meeting in Strathclair on September 25. Hog Watch’s representative, Ruth Pryzner, went over a lengthy submission to Council regarding perceived violations concerning a hog barn located in the former RM of Strathclair.
The 17,905.7 ft2 hog barn in question is located along with an existing hog facility at NE 32-16-21 and is owned by Wilhelmus Verbruggen. When he was contacted for comment, Mr. Verbruggen was unaware of any issues arising from the barn that has been in operation since the spring.
As confirmed by Ms. Pryzner, Mr. Verbruggen was never contacted by Hog Watch representatives. They never visited the site and did not consider asking for a tour. He was never contacted by the RM with any concerns and as far as he knew he had followed the correct regulatory procedures and was operating the barn in accordance to provincial regulations.
Hog Watch Manitoba’s main concerns include: the RM did not conduct a Conditional Use hearing on the expansion of the existing pig operation at the site; since the RM operates on the ‘honour’ system, there is no mechanism to verify information supplied by building permit applicants; the manure storage capacity for the new barn will be inadequate; and the farmer may be in violation of the Water Rights Act.
In their opinion, Hog Watch feels that Yellowhead RM and the Province should enforce their regulations and policies. Ruth Pryzner stated that lawbreakers should not be rewarded and punitive measures should be levied. She has documents from when Mr. Verbruggen undertook an unsuccessful Oakview Conditional Use Review back in 2016 for a 6000 head feeder barn. She contends that the farmer should have known that he could not have gone ahead with this latest barn without a Review. In her estimation, there are too many issues to be resolved and the hog barn will be unable to ever be brought into compliance.
For their part, the RM Council is going to fully review the matter. According to Mayor Yanick, it does appear that a mistake occurred and that Council should have conducted a Conditional Use hearing regarding the construction of the hog barn and expanded operations on the site. Meanwhile, the Council’s intent is to contact Mr. Verbruggen and gather information related to Hog Watch Manitoba’s concerns. After they have had a chance to conduct their due diligence, Mayor Yanick says they will determine the best course of action moving forward.
The Council’s findings and recommendations will be discussed at their next regular meeting on October 9.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Spending time with your animals and out in the wild is invaluable experience. Today’s youth are too caught up with swiping their tablets or blowing out their eardrums to loud music. Even their parents have trapped themselves indoors and rely on directed information instead of gathering their own first hand knowledge. My recommendation and hope is to have some of these bon mots be an inspiration to a person or two to get out and see and understand real living for themselves.
When you are herding cattle out to pasture, plan for frequent stops for the animals to catch their breath. Cattle that have been in pens all winter will have low stamina and their calves will tire easily. You also need to keep ahead of the lead cows to slow down the herd. Quite often they are so excited, the animals will run themselves to exhaustion. Also, once they are in the destination pasture, hold the herd for a bit just so the calves do not lose their mothers.
Cattle are not smart enough to keep moving through a pasture from new to old grass. They will tend to keep eating the new growth and overgraze an area. They need to be periodically shifted from spot to spot.
Animals can have all sorts of ailments affecting their internal organs. If they have stomach issues, the catch all phrase is colic. Symptoms include confusion, agitation, distention of the abdomen, throwing themselves to the ground, random kicking at their midsection with their hide legs, listlessness, and death. Treatment includes tubing with Bloat-Eze, mineral oil and other medicines. But unfortunately, if the animal has bloated for too long or there is a serious issue with their stomach, often they will die within hours. Bloat In Young Calves & Other Pre-ruminant Livestock
Bulls will act like jerks to other bulls to exert dominance. They will even attempt to drown their opponent if that means winning the fight. A much smaller bull pushed a rival with a sore leg into a dugout and kept pushing him back in and under until his opponent made it to the far end and made his way out.
Be careful when feeding corn, stalks and all to horses. If they get too much they can get grain overload which can cause stomach bloating and death. You do not have to be as careful with cattle because they’ are too stupid to know they should be eating it. They are just as liable to play or trample the feed instead of eating it. Cows are dumb!
It is unfortunate and somewhat stupid that when an animal has to be destroyed for an illness such as a bad foot, that the carcass cannot be used for any purpose including cat or dog food. It seems the height of idiocy that a literal ton of meat must be buried instead of being put to good use.
The neonicotinoids used on seeds such as canola are only effective for about three weeks once the seed is in the ground. Therefore, bees cannot be affected by gathering pollen off of treated canola plants.
Porcupines always spin their back to you. They are slow moving and easily killed with a stick. Be careful of the quills and skin them from the belly out.
Ok, stop believing Disney and thinking animals are all cute and friendly. Everything eats everything in the wild. Chickadees and squirrels eat beaver meat, Fishers love the taste of cat, coyotes will eat each other and Martins hunt squirrels. One animal can be dead in a conibear trap and its buddy will push it aside to finish eating the bait. Plenty of times if the animal is dead for a time, other animals will chow down on it.
When you are out checking the cattle, look for groupings of magpies or crows. They are probably eating something like a stillborn calf that a cow has slipped.
During winter, frozen cow turds can turn into knee-high missiles when a tractor tire occasionally squirts them out sideways. Beware!
Deer are mean to each other. If there is a supply of feed, a senior doe will chase calves and other does away even when she is finished eating. During rutting season, bucks will herd a doe into a small bush area and will keep her penned in until he breeds her. If you see calves that seem to be wandering aimlessly, their mother was probably chased off by an amorous buck.
If you need to put down a cow by shooting it, there’s a sweet spot in the middle of the forehead. Make an ‘X’ from the base of the ears to the eyes and try to shoot straight in from about a foot away. It should kill the animal quickly as you have hit the brain. Even a small calibre .22 will kill a large cow this way.
If you have put an larger animal down and intend to just use it for coyote bait, partially skin the underbelly so animals can get to the innards easier. If an animal freezes without the skinning, it is too difficult for a coyote to break it open.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Long time RRSD bus driver Ed Zatylny – Photo Credit Brenda Wood
***Original published in South Mountain Press, Oct 19, 2018***
The Wheels on the Bus go Round & Round
Now that the school year is well into October, everyone including the Rolling River School Division (RRSD) Transportation Department has gotten back into their regular school routine.
Getting approximately 920 RRSD students safely back and forth each day throughout the school year falls to Transportation Supervisor, Cam Woodcock and his team at the District’s Transport Department. Cam is in charge of the process that smoothly ensures bus students are picked up and delivered home safe and sound each school day.
Here are some numbers associated with the RRSD Transport Department:
RRSD buses about 920 students of the total 1760 student population
The SD has 29 buses plus 8 spares for their 29 routes
There are 29 regular bus drivers plus 26 spares
Each day, the District’s buses travel 4154 km
The longest run is for Lake Audy high school students who transfer in Onanole on their way to Erickson
Each bus driver has a Class 2 drivers license or higher plus a special school bus endorsement certification.
Ed Zatylny is one of the SD’s long time drivers and a regular driver on the Lake Audy to Onanole route. Ed described his daily routine as, “I leave the yard at 7:05 then make my first pick-up at 7:30 in Lake Audy for the trip to Onanole. Then in the afternoon, I do a short trip with 7-8 students from Onanole and back to the school for the return trip. After driving 200 km for the day, I return to the yard by 5.”
When asked what he appreciates the most about the job, Ed really enjoys seeing many of his riders grow up from Kindergarteners to High School graduates. Over a couple of decades of service, he has had the pleasure of transporting hundreds of great local kids.
As to his greatest challenges associated with driving the bus, it has been poor weather that causes Ed the most problems. The Lake Audy run usually receives more snow and ice compared to the rest of the SD, so Ed plans accordingly. “I leave early and take my time. Safety of the students is my first priority”.
Safety and forward looking at the weather forecast are also uppermost on the Transport Supervisor’s mind. Snowfall events like the early fall storms that passed through the area recently are carefully monitored for severity. As Cam explained, he and the Superintendent keep a close eye on the weather in order to decide if the buses will be cancelled.
To begin with, each driver always has the option of not driving their route if they feel the road conditions are not safe. Cam regularly makes calls to drivers like Ed to determine local conditions.
Then by 7:15 in the morning, if inclement weather warrants bus cancellation or school closure, the word will go out via radio stations, the SD’s website, and an automated call out system to parent’s phones.
But the weather can be tricky and although Cam said it has not happened under his watch, there is a plan in place on the off chance that students end up storm stayed in town. On the annual school registration form, parents can designate a ‘Storm Billet’ who is able to take a student in during a severe weather event.
The professionals of the SD Transport Department enjoy keeping the ‘wheels of the bus going round and round’ and work hard to ensure the safety of their charges.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
***Original published in Crossroads This Week, Oct 5, 2018***
Hodgins Family Opens up Farm Gates
Recently on September 16, over 40 Manitoba farms participated in the annual Open Farm Day throwing open their farm gates for the public to come and visit. One of the family farms welcoming guests was that of Cameron and Lisa Hodgins of Hodgins Farm just southwest of Kenton.
Lisa was really unsure of what to expect for numbers as this was their first time participating in Open Farm day. They had some of the fencing and shelters that they use on display in the yard, as well as bee hives, and some cover crop plants with written information so people could self-guide themselves. Cameron took people on guided tours out to see some of the animals, plants, etc. and provided more of an explanation.
Back in the garage, people were able to enjoy hot beef and pork on a bun, coffee and lemonade, as well as learn more about the farm and products. Guests then had an opportunity to purchase farm produced products before they left. The Hodgins direct market their foods on a year round basis.
‘We had people register and we had about 50 adults and 20 kids come and join us at some point that afternoon. We thought the afternoon went great! The weather was rather cold and rainy to start but the rain stopped and it sure didn’t keep people from travelling out and enjoying themselves. Definitely something we would look at doing again next year.’
‘We were just willing to open our farm up and give people a chance to come out and see how we raise our animals, and hear a bit of why we do things the way we do. We wanted to pass on to visitors that we are farming as a family and working with Mother Nature (in the ecosystem) to produce good quality, healthy food.’
The farm’s centerpiece enterprise is their grass fed beef cattle operation. Lisa and Cameron manage about 200 cow/calf pairs with 140 being owned by them and Cameron’s parents Ed and Debra, and 60 custom grazed cows in the summer. They also manage 120 yearling heifers and steers.
There is also a small menagerie of other animals which include 50 pastured pigs, a flock of 15 sheep, 600 pastured chickens and 50 pastured turkeys this year. Also for good measure, they have two dozen bee hives and a small flock of 15 laying hens.
The family manages 1850 acres, with a mix of leased and owned land consisting of mainly perennial grass and hay.
The Hodgins Farm is not currently certified organic, however they continue to follow organic practices. Managing the farm holistically has helped them develop their practices to utilize the relationships between soil, livestock, people, and water. Lisa says that their visitors seemed genuinely interested in learning more about where and how their food is being produced and they enjoy making those connections with their customers.
Lisa had this advice for those wanting to follow our example, ‘Start on a small scale and don’t be afraid to try something new.’
For information on next year’s Manitoba Open Farm Day and the list of farms in your area or if you would like to register your farm for visitation, go to their website at http://www.openfarmday.ca/
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
RMBR Chair Jim Irwin introduces a presentation by the Lake Winnipeg Foundation
***Original published in South Mountain Press, Oct 5, 2018***
Local Water Conservation Groups Meet
On September 20, the Lake and Stream Health Working Group of the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve (RMBR) hosted a presentation afternoon at the Crossroads Community Center in Erickson. Stakeholders representing local water conservation organizations were on hand to hear presentations from the Lake Winnipeg Foundation (LWF) and Manitoba Sustainable Development.
Jim Irwin, Chair of the RMBR, convened the session to pass along information to help address water quality problems in the area’s lakes and streams. To that end, Alexis Kanu and Chelsea Lobson of LWF, gave an excellent presentation and Q & A session on their water quality efforts that have been underway since 2005. The Foundation’s focus has been on improving the health of Lake Winnipeg through the efforts of freshwater research experts and citizen volunteer scientists all working in collaboration with private and government stewardship organizations.
The main contaminant bringing all these groups together to compare notes is the chemical element phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential building block for animal and plant life. It is found naturally in mineral deposits, and in human and animal waste. It is also in high demand by the world’s farmers as a vital plant fertilizer.
But when too much phosphorus is present in warm Manitoban waters, it helps to promote the growth of blue-green algal (cyanobacteria) blooms. These blooms may only appear to be unsightly and smelly but the real danger is their possible life threatening toxicity. Whether or not a particular batch of algae is harmful can only be detected by water sampling. Boiling or adding chlorine does not remove algal toxins from the water. Blue-green algae represents a clear threat to human and animal populations and should be avoided.
So back in 2016, increasing cases of algal blooms spurred the LWF to start a volunteer citizen based water sampling project. The aim of all the water testing is to create a credible provincial phosphorus data base. Once there is enough data, then the Foundation can identify hotspots. If a specific source is pinpointed, then the process of mitigating or stopping the contamination can begin.
The program has grown from humble beginnings and now has close to 50 volunteers sampling water in over 100 sites. Sampling takes place in the period from the spring freshet to winter freeze up. In order to ensure quality assurance, Chelsea Lobson, the Foundation’s Community-based Monitoring Co-ordinator, trains the volunteers with specific, standardized water kits using rigorous shared protocols. She performs regular field audits and the water is comparison tested with different labs.
The use of volunteers is key to the success seen by the LWF project. They have found that phosphorus spikes occur during spring runoff and significant rainfall events. Numerous citizens scattered throughout the province are nimble enough to respond quickly to sources of high water flow such as after a heavy rain shower.
Chelsea Lobson of LWF shows off some of the water sampling gear volunteers use for water testing
After learning a relatively simple protocol, a volunteer can complete a water sampling test in about 10 minutes. The PVC sampler kit costs about $6 to manufacture. The vision is to keep expanding sampling sites and to attract and gain the help of more volunteers and conservation groups. When there is an adequate water sampling apparatus in place, the next logical step will be to pinpoint what is causing the phosphorus hotspots in the first place.
For the moment, when it comes to the phosphorus culprits, everyone is pointing figures at each other. Friends of a lake community blame the cottagers with their faulty waste holding tanks. Farmers blame the cities and towns for their raw sewage dumping. Activist groups blame hog farmers with their ‘factory’ pig barns and liquid manure spreading. But other than some deductive speculation, it has been difficult to pin down exact sources if the origin of extra phosphorus is not obvious.
To that end, the Foundation has been partnering with organizations such as Agriculture Canada and the University of Manitoba. At the U of M, research is beginning that will use isotope technology to determine exactly where a particular phosphorus sample originated from.
Ag Canada will look at the Foundation’s data and if changes are needed, they can work on developing best practice recommendations for producers.
If the residents of larger communities realize that significant amounts of their sewage is causing problems, then political pressure can be applied to improve infrastructure.
Water quality is vital and important to all Manitobans and we all have a vested interest in this precious resource.
If concerned citizens or conservation groups are interested in the RMBR Lake and Stream Health Working Group or the Lake Winnipeg Foundation water sampling project, they can contact the RMBR Chair Jim Irwin at jimirwin@ridingmountain.ca or the LWF at info@lakewinnipegfoundation.org
For more information on the dangers of blue-green algae a detailed information sheet can be found at the following provincial website:
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Like any good Navy ditty, this tale starts in a bar. Little did I know, a visit to the local Legion in my home village of Kelwood, MB would end up as a quest to uncover some of my own Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) family history.
While sipping on a beer, I was perusing the mass of military memorabilia on the Legion walls. Then to my great surprise, I saw the crest of my old HMCS Athabaskan 282 up on the wall labeled with the date of the original Athabaskan’s G07 sinking. A relative identified it as a donation from my deceased Great Uncle Willie. Unbeknownst to me, Able Seaman William Dearl Trickett, RCNVR, Stoker (1st Class), V38773 had served onboard HMCS Athabaskan G07!
Due to my obvious RCN ties, I wanted to know more and started my first queries with my parents. Mom said, ‘Oh yes, he was a Japanese POW and complained that his stomach was never the same after being interned.’ Well, the family’s account of Uncle Willie’s war exploits was about half a world off and the wrong Axis power, so I started hunting for actual documentation to see if I could uncover Willie’s true war experiences.
Signed by R.A. Westaway, RCNVR Toronto, CAN, MARLAG(M) Germany March 4, 1945
As a previous bridge officer and Public Affairs Representative for HMCS Athabaskan 282 for two years, I was already intimately acquainted with the history and sinking of the original ship. The ship had been one of four RCN flagship destroyers and the pride of Canada. While taking part in an action against a German task group, she was fatally struck by torpedoes off the coast of France, April 29, 1944. The sinking of one of Canada’s cherished destroyers and loss of 128 men, including the Captain, was the greatest RCN loss due to enemy action of the war.
The RCN regularly conducts Remembrance ceremonies near the site of the sinking each time a ship is near that particular stretch of French territorial waters. In fact, in 2015 while on a NATO deployment to the Mediterranean, my Athabaskan did a ceremony over that lonely patch of the English Channel. I was unaware that 70 years previously, my young Uncle, oil soaked and hypothermic, was desperately clinging to life at that very spot. In a twist of fate, their sister ship HMCS Haida, was unable to stay in the area long enough to rescue all their stricken comrades but the German torpedo boat T24 that they had been hunting just a few hours before returned to fish the Canadians out of the sea.
There have been numerous writings describing the exploits and disposition of the ill-fated Athabaskan G07 and her crew. Two excellent books, Unlucky lady: The life & death of HMCS Athabaskan and All The Ship’s Men, detail the history and personal stories of many of the crew. After poring anew through my copies, I found Uncle Willie’s name listed on the crew manifest and a couple of photos. In one, he is clearly seen seated in the back of a truck flanked by German soldiers after being brought ashore at Brest, France. In another, he is lined up with his messmates in the POW camp Marlag und Milag Nord, near Bremen, Germany. Luckily, he did not appear to have suffered any severe injuries from the torpedo blasts, the resulting explosions and fire, or his hours of floating in the oily debris of his sunken ship. Unfortunately, he and 82 other Athabaskans spent the rest of the war locked up as German POWs.
But other than a few tantalizing tidbits of specific information, Bill Trickett’s military story might have easily gone to his grave when he passed away in Victoria, BC, December 14, 2004 at the age of 79. Considering the trauma of shipmates dying all around him in the water, the hardships of POW life, and some friendly fire tragedies leading up to his liberation in May 1945, it was no wonder that he never really spoke of his experiences.
Of course, complicating matters as I continued to dig, most of his military memorabilia had been liquidated and was scattered who knows where. But I turned up an old Ebay ad for his Y.M.C.A. Wartime Log (POW No. 1295 of Marlag und Milag Nord, Germany). After a lot of sleuthing, I tracked the logbook down to a military collector in California who graciously sold it back to me.
The Canadian Y.M.C.A. in December 1944 gave every Canadian POW a Wartime Log so that they could keep a diary of their experiences. Although Uncle Willie’s logbook did not have much in the way of personal writings, it did contain much of the flotsam and jetsam that a Navy sailor collects during their travels.
The men of Room “V” Barrack. Possibly a depiction of Bill (upper bunk) and William Edgar Connolly.
Many of Bill’s friends drew intricate drawings and cartoons in the pages of his logbook. There are old photos of G07, the POW camp, and fellow sailors. He had a receipt from his mother, Mrs. W. Trickett, listing the contents of a POW parcel. Daily camp rations were basically a chunk of bread and a potato. Red Cross parcels and food mailed from relatives saved the POWs lives. There were also receipts for cartons of 300 Sweet Caporal cigarettes from Mr. W.E. Trickett, Mr. A. Trickett, and Mrs. Lyle Wilson of Kelwood. Cigarettes were too valuable in camp to smoke and were traded with the German guards for food and material. For example, the going rate for a radio was about 5000 smokes. In letters to home, prisoners would often ask for the prized Canadian commodity as German cigarettes were rather inferior. Aid groups and support from the home front made the tedium and privations of life behind barbed wire tolerable.
Also, to my surprise, William D. Trickett had been presented the Soviet Union’s Jubilee Medal “Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945” from the USSR Ambassador to Canada, Aleksei Alekseievich Rodionov on October 1, 1988. Known as the Murmansk Medal, only a small handful of non-Russians have ever received this honour. The RCN, USN and Royal Navy convoy runs up to the high Arctic region of Russia from 1941 to 1945 kept the country in the war and provided the critical eastern front that divided Hitler’s forces.
Bill Trickett was a genuine, unsung war hero. It was sad that his story had been in danger of slipping away. Precious few veterans are left and although the mantra of ‘We will remember’ is repeated each November 11, most of their tales have faded away as they have. Their accounts of their experiences are fascinating, compelling, tragic, and occasionally interspersed with a bit of levity. They are worthy of our attention and remembrance.
Talk to the veterans who are left including those from Afghanistan and all the other Canadian Armed Forces deployments. Listen to their stories, write them down, pass them on, and actually remember what these people have done to guarantee our Canadian freedoms.
This Remembrance Day, I will be presenting an Athabaskan 282 main gun 76mm shell casing to the Kelwood Royal Canadian Legion #50 in the name of my Great Uncle Willie and fellow Athabaskan. Dubbed as a ‘Sister of the Space Age’, Athabaskan 282 was the last of the RCN’s destroyers and will be the last ship to carry that proud name.
Able Seaman Bill Trickett’s Wartime Log has been scanned in its entirety and is available for viewing in a series of blogs on my website at: http://www.happydiver.space/?cat=265
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
