Times past

Before steel bins became available and affordable for farmers they built wooden bins to store the grain before shipping. The bins were often built in or near the grain fields so as to cut down on transportation time during the harvest. The risk, of course, was that the bins were vulnerable to thievery of the grain by unscrupulous farmers who wanted to meet their quota. The main disadvantage of these square-cornered buildings was in loading the grain. Someone had to crawl inside the bin and shovel the grain to the auger. I remember the dust and the hard work of moving the heavy grain by shovel. If I didn't put a handkerchief over my nose and mouth I would suffer from inhaling the dust. The worst grain for nasty dust was oats.
These bins I photographed a few years back near Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. I've "colored" the photo to make it look like it was taken much longer ago to try to recreate the times.
I enjoy the progressive falling of the bins all in a row--symbolic of time passing.

Advertising for herbicides

Farmers face a barrage of advertisements extolling the virtues of this or that herbicide, fertilizers and the equipment to apply them with. I took this photo on the side of the elevator in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan and turned it into a black and white to give the message more clout perhaps. The artwork intrigued me and reminded me of the Soviet style propaganda photos one sees extolling the virtues of the workers in the Motherland, etc.
Herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides are a big industry and farmers have little to say about prices of these products. In order to compete they have to apply these products even though many realize the potential harm to the soil and to people. Farmers can't raise their prices in order to cover the additional costs of applying herbicides, etc., and so are at the mercy of the suppliers.
Organic farmers are working hard to counter this trend and we should support them for it as far as I'm concerned.

Holiday Greetings

I wish everyone the best of the holiday season and may you have much to look forward to in 2009. In spite of the looming difficult economic times, now is the time to tap into the goodness of human nature and do what we can to see each other through the hard times.
Even though we may be losing part of our history as the prairie grain elevators are torn down, we must do like we do when we lose an old friend: Remember the good parts and use those memories to add to the goodness of our own lives.
Happy blogging!

Marengo, SK

I received a comment on my YouTube site about Marengo. I checked my slideshow-video and realized that Marengo was not included as one of the 100 elevators. I have photos of 110 elevators and decided to limit the video to 100 in commemoration of Saskatchewan's Centennial in 2005.
I'm posting the photo here with a link to the YouTube video (that omits Marengo), in case the video's of interest as well.

Same elevator, different story

It seems the Hepburn elevator is a favourite of mine. I found a write-up on this grain elevator and thought I should include it as it shows how a community can save these prairie icons if they have the will and the where-with-all.
A spiral staircase to the top with a tea house? Food for thought. I'm sure they'd appreciate everyone's financial contribution to the idea. It sure would be a good tourist attraction.
And, here's another photo rendition of this elevator.

Celebrating snow in Kenaston

I've posted this photo previously (See November 2006) but I "messed" with it in Photoshop to dress it up a bit and as a way of helping Kenaston, Saskatchewan celebrate their long, snowy winters. It's not too many places that would choose a permanent snowman as their town symbol.