Video: Witching Stick Water Finder

The other day a photographer from the Edmonton Journal newspaper called. His first comment was that it "was a slow news day" and he wanted to do some photo's on witching water wells. When he was out at the farm a couple of years ago, we were telling him that Keri and Randy had just drilled a water well that they had witched. We had also successfully witched the last water well that we drilled on the farm. This photographer lives on an acreage outside of Edmonton and struggles getting enough water at his home, so maybe that's why he remembers the conversation. Being a good delegater, I thought who best but Keri and Randy to do this, so I just gave him their phone number. He came down on Thursday took lots of pictures, several videos, and we showed him how to witch his own well. Keri's picture was in Saturdays journal with a link to the video. Check out the video.

Video: Witching Stick Water Finder

A close call for a local landmark

We were very fortunate to have not lost out local community hall this month. It all started when a couple of kids decided to do some camping out under the spruce trees by our local hall. They lit a fire under the shelter of the spruce trees to keep warm. We think that they put the fire out when they left but didn't realize that the fire had gone into the roots of the trees. After about one week of smoldering and traveling along under the trees the wind came up fanning the flames creating an intense grass fire. Luckily one of our neighbors Mark Mountain was driving by, noticed the flames. If he hadn't noticed it then in about 5 minutes the grass fire would have travelled the 50 feet and reached the 113 year old school house and the rest would have been history. This hall has many special memories for me as the spruce trees were planted in part by my Grandfather Wilfred Edgar under the supervision of my Greatgrandfather William. Wilfrid took all his schooling there, as did my father, my aunt, and all my uncles as well as many of the people in the community. They closed this school in the spring of 1958 and I started school in the fall of 1958, so I just missed going to school there. After closing the school this building was then turned into a community hall, a gathering place for many seasonal functions such as the Christmas Concert. This was the place where I first met Santa Clause In those days we only saw him once per year so it was indeed a memorable time. Not like now where he is in every mall and on every street corner.

Covering the Silage Pit

Today we covered our silage pit with plastic and tires. To keep the air out of our silage we have to cover the pile with heavy plastic. We then place old used tires on top of the plastic to keep the plastic tight to the silage and to keep the plastic from blowing away or whipping in the wind and tearing. We carry the tires to the edge of the plastic with the tractor and then hand place them on plastic. We then unroll more plastic, place more tires until the job is done. We then place a couple of rows of round bales at the base of the pit to keep everything in place. This little job only took an hour and a 1/2 . As long as the wind doesn't blow and with enough people it goes quite easy.

Cutting Silage

Yesterday was silage day at Edgar Farms. We hire a silage cutter, and a couple of extra trucks for the day to put up our silage. In one day we we put up close to 1000 tons of silage. After the crop is swathed into windrows, left to dry down for a day we then go through the field with a silage chopper that cuts the plants into approx. 1-2 inch long pieces. The machine then blows these pieces (silage) into the the truck travelling along side the chopper. The truck then travels back to the farm yard where the silage is then dumped into a pile in front of a large concrete storage facility called a silage bunker. We then push the silage with a large tractor up into the bunker spreading it out evenly. We then drive the tractor back and forth over the silage to squeeze the air out of it so the silage will ferment and not spoil. Similar to fine wine. Once the bunker is full and completely packed we then completely cover it with heavy plastic to keep out the air. We eat our noon lunch on the go in our vehicles and our daughter Keri made us a great meal for a sit down supper before returning to the field. Doug's job is to drive the push/packer tractor and Elna drives the tandem truck picking up silage and bringing it home. This is an older truck that we bought new years ago but is still in very good shape. The problem with this truck is it has the old style transmissions in it which makes it difficult to drive. It has a 5 and 4 transmission meaning it has 2 transmissions giving you 20 forward gears. There is a complicated series of combinations of gears between the two transmissions to shift to operate this truck. Elna does very well shifting these manual transmissions even sometimes not having to use the clutch on certain shifts. I tell her it was my good teaching ability that allows her to do so well.

Swathing Silage

My father used to say "the problem with this country is, there is 6 months of winter and 6 months of getting ready for winter". Sometimes I wonder if maybe there was some merit in what he was saying. For the last week or two we have been putting up silage (a form of cattle feed) for ourselves and other neighbors around here. This is a picture taken on the 2nd. day of swathing silage for our neighbor who farms just east of Innisfail. He had a great crop of barley and silage peas. It was some of the worst cutting I have done in a while, but I did persevere and did finally get it finished. We also had to drive this swather down the Cottonwood Road to Innisfail, across the overpass and down a gravel road to his place. The problem is that this unit is approximately 27 feet wide, so it does take up the whole road. Fortunately I can pull over, put two of the wheels in the ditch, stop and wait for the traffic to pass, although it does seem like you're stopped a lot of the time. After we moved home from these fields we did some of our own, and it went extremely easy compared to the peas and barley mix of our neighbors.

Elna's Birthday

Today is Elna's birthday. Her day starts as normal just before 6:30 getting the pea picking staff started for the day, finding the right spot in the field for everyone, gathering up containers from the market etc. and it's only 8:00 AM yet.
Her busy day continues till 4:00 when her granddaughter gets home on the school bus and she has to have a family birthday party for her Grandma. At Elna's birthday party her mother came over with a present and to share a piece of cake. We opened her presents from everyone and she blew out her birthday candles (only 5 of them) A present from our daughter Angie even arrived today in the mail just in time along with my e-bay present for her that came just in time. Right after we were done opening birthday presents and eating cake she had a phone call from a Cheryl, a very close friend of hers from Chilliwak B.C. just to wish her happy birthday and try and find a time they can get together a visit. The day will then continue by her delivering peas to Innisfail growers, then attending a weekly Innisfail Growers meeting and then hope full home by 10:00. Just another day on the farm.

Hand Picking Beans

For the last while we have been picking beans. ALL OUR BEANS ARE HAND PICKED. Right now we have lots of green and yellow beans. We only pick them in the afternoon after the dew has dried off. If we pick them when they are wet they get rust marks on them. These marks don't hurt anything but they sure don't look appealing. If we don't have them at a particular market, it was probably to wet to pick because of a rain shower or a heavy dew. We also have our favorite, french fillet beans which are a small tender bean. Due the freezing temperatures on the night of July 1 these plants have been suffering all summer. We will have a limited supply.

New Pavement to Edgar Farms

Over the last few days the County of Red Deer has been putting 2 new lifts of hot mix payment on the Cottonwood Road which goes from the QEII highway to Edgar Farms. This will be a big improvement for our road. Yesterday the crew was doing one of their passes right in front of our gate and Elna took this picture.

Keeping things running

Lately we have been just going along keeping things going, getting ready for silaging and harvest as well as picking peas and beans. Yesterday as we were servicing some equipment my cell phone rang, with Shelly B. on the other end letting me know that one of our cube vans wouldn't start. Luckily the van was only 2 miles away and finished for the day. This van had just came back from Millerville near Calgary and previously was at Sherwood Park near Edmonton and was slated to go to Calgary the next day. How lucky can we get that it broke down at the end of the day back at home, rather than stranding us in Edmonton or Calgary.
Randy and I jumped in the service truck and went over to have a look. After some investigation, we found a faulty solenoid that was hard to see because it was buried down underneath (as per usual). On Sunday we will be sending a different truck to Calgary and on Monday we have to try and find some parts to get this truck back on the road again. Monday is the only day of the week that we don't go to markets and we usually wash and service our trucks then.

Picking Peas in the Rain

The last few days we have received quite a bit of rain and it has made the field very muddy. Even though it is raining we still keep on picking. The only way we can get to the field is with our quads or our old John Deere AMT that has to be about 25 years old and still going. We don't use it a lot but in this weather it works perfect.
This morning it was +10 degrees at 8:00 when they started work and warmed up to +11 for a high of the day. Our loyal employees just put on more clothes, complete with thin cotton gloves with plastic gloves over top for their hands, then pull up their hood and get to work. What a difference a week makes compared to +30 last week.
Pictured above is Cheri with a big smile for the camera picking peas, and Valente and Martin heading back to the field with some empty containers to fill with more peas.

First Day of School

Today was our oldest granddaughter's first day of school. Grade one this year.
In Innisfail they are fortunate to have what they call "Year Round Schooling" This means a different school calendar than the traditional one. They still attend school the same number of days per year, but summer holidays are only for the month of July, then back to school before they forget everything learned last June. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter holidays are all about 3 weeks each giving the students longer breaks throughout the year

The other picture is of her graduation from kindergarten. I never got to go to kindergarten but I am sure the kids that did, didn't get a cap and gown for their graduation picture, if they even got a grad picture.

Edgar Farms Open House

This weekend we hosted our open house at the farm. On Saturday we hosted both Innisfail Growers Customer Appreciation Day and Country Drive.ca guests to our farm. On Sunday we hosted Country Drive guests. We set out an sample table so you could taste some of our products we grow on our farm. We had our Asparagus relish with cream cheese on a cracker, Sugar Snap peas that to eat you just pop in your mouth pod and all, Beef jerky from our butcher who just won the best in Alberta award for his beef jerky, Asparagus pickles, and our newest product, an Asparagus dip similar to guacamole but much better.
We had the petting zoo for the children and the adults alike. One nice lady from Calgary told me she got to pet a frog and a chicken in the same day, something you can't do in the city. We had free kittens to give away. There was the same bale fort that we had in the spring as well as the Edgar Farms temporary tattoos for the kids and grandma's alike. Tours to the bagging shed were available to show people how we package and chill our peas. On Saturday we had tours to the field with everyone in their vehicles following one of our quads to the asparagus field for a look at the fern and then off to pea field to pick some peas. On Saturday evening we had 4 tenths of an inch of rain so on Sunday we set up a hay ride behind the tractor and did the same tour.