Bringing in the harvest, or not?

Travelling along one of the back roads on my return from Owen Sound, a nearby city, I was met by several huge machines. I had to pull way off the narrow road so that these harvesters could get past. A bit further along the road I saw where they'd been coming from. The wheat had been taken off this field and the straw was already bound and ready to be shipped.

A close-up of another field shows the beautiful feathery heads of wheat stalks. But will the harvest yield enough this year?

Already hay in Ontario is at a premium and in some places animal farmers have had to begin feeding their fall hay. Many we hear, have begun reducing herds since they won't be able to maintain them over the winter.

I read earlier that Manitoba farmers living near the Assiniboine River where it was diverted during the winter to prevent serious flooding of the city of Winnipeg, are having trouble feeding their cattle. Fences are down, pasturing is poor and cattle are being shipped away to other places for pasture. There is great worry about the future of the herds.

What a strange year this has been in so many places around the world. Snow in Europe in the winter and early spring. Drought in the US midwest, more serious than the "dirty 30s" and crop yields precarious everywhere. Who can look at this and say it is an anomaly? Don't the combined reports from around the world indicate that there truly is a big climate change?

If it's true that there are always fluctuations, never have they been so enormous that the whole world has been affected. Time to wake up people! We have to adapt or else. We need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions, examine how we use fuels and that includes electricity that is driven by gas and/or oil.

And it's true, that every little bit that each person does, makes a difference. One less shopping trip in the car, one degree lower in heat or higher in air conditioning if you have it...there are lots of ways we can connect and make a difference... and it's never too late to start. Hope you'll join in working for environmental sustainability... in some way. This planet is too beautiful not to give it a try, don't you think?