Mossyhorn’s weather watch

ALEXIS CREEK — An old
rancher here — he shaves
with a straight razor, wears
a nightshirt and kneels every
night beside his bed to pray
(for the defeat of whatever
government is in power, of
course) — has developed a
particular hate of the people
who read the weather
forecasts on radio and TV
and prays space here to state
his case.
Old Mossyhorn, whose views
are sometimes extreme, claims
:" yadio stations have joined the war
“of City People against Country
People, and on the wrong side.
It’s all in their tone of voice, he
says.
‘ “To city people bad weather is
just an inconvenience and that is
the way the weather broadcasts are
shaped. ‘No barbecue partying to-
night, folks. The odds are 95%
that it will rain. But cheer up,
there are signs it will clear by Fri-
day and our weekend seems safe.’
“*That’s always the most im-
portant part of any weather
broadcast. The weekends. |
Weekends, national] holidays and
Grey.Cup games.
_. “What about us out here who
‘think we're lucky if we can work
on weekends and national holi-
days?
- “To us the weekend weather
_ doesn’t mean whether we can have
“a picnic or not. Weather makes
the difference between us keeping
our ranch or giving it back to the
bank.” -
Proof of Mossyhorn’ s claim lies
all about the land this summer.
.. Many hay crops are uncut, al-
. though they should have been by
“this time. Many others which have
“been cut have failed to dry and
‘ are about to rot.
Although the process may be as
“obscure to most city prople as the
tegal ‘codes of Hammurabi, haying
is almost a life-and- death matter
ona ranch. .
~ Winters in Cariboo and °
‘ Chilcotin are long and cattle must

"be fed during the dark months. So.

"on every ranch, even the biggest,
.. the size of the breeding stock de-
pends on how much hay can be

put up each summer.
The grass must be mowed, left
‘>on the ground to dry cure and
“then gathered up, usually now in
“¢innamon rolls or in stacks which

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

look like loaves of bread. No one
sleeps well until the hay is in.

Back in the days when Earth
was young, the ’30s and *40s, cat-
tle starved to death when there
wasn’t enough hay for winter, and
here in Chilcotin are mounds of
bones and horns from infamous
bad winters that followed bad
summers.

With modern transport, it is
possible now to import hay and
pellet feeds from the faraway so
cattle don’t starve to death any
more, but when the cost is pro-
hibitive, the rancher and his fam-
ily may.

Usually bad hay summers cause
a great sell-off of breeding stock
at the fall auctions, and because
everybody's trying to jump into
the same iifeboat the losses are
considerable.

In a summer like this one (there
was twice as much precipitation in
Big Creek in July as normally falls
in an entire year), every day isa
small new crisis.

The day begins with scanning
the skies and getting what infor-
mation may be had from fore-
casters.

Mossyhorn, who recently grad-
uated from the Farmer’s Almanac

. annual forecasts, is sometimes now

sorry that he did because the radio
and television broadcasts remind
him of how little his breed matter
in today’s society,

“We're told whether it’s going
to be good or bad for picnics.
Will it be a good PNE parade.
How much sunshine goo should
you put on to keep from getting
AIDS or cancer or whatever the

‘THI VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER

popular medical fad is. Nobody
seems to care if the agricultural
community lives ec dies.’

“When they do make forecasts,
it’s for regions so big they don't
mean much. A single forecast for
the aren all the way from Prince
George to Cache Creek. What do
I care what the chances of rain are
in Clinton? Nevet liked Clinton
anyhow.

“T want to know what chances
are in the lower Chilcotin valley.
As soon as a man buys a city
house with a gas furnace and a
thermostat he begins to hate the
relatives he left back on the
ranch.”’

it was necessary to tell
Mossyharn, once again, that in
the great new Age of Com-
munication, agricultural produc-
tion or any other old kind of pro-
ductior doesn't much matter any
more,

We aren't interested in produc-
ing things any more, but we talk
about it much more fluently.

“Exactly my point,’’ he said.
‘Hf it’s the Communication Age
why can’t they communicate with
us about the weather? In every
agricultural area of B.C. there is
an agriculture weather report
which you can get by dialling an
800 number. It tells you what to
expect district by district. But in a
summer like this, it rings busy all
morning. My finger is wore out
dialling.”

Hence the request, forwarded
from Mossyhorn at all weather
stations which serve farm and
ranch areas:

START BROADCASTING
AGRICULTURAL WEATHER
REPORTS.

Did you hear that, you non-
Turalites, you oppressors of the
producing classes? God did.
Mossyhorn talks to him about you
people, every night.

rniday A August 27, 1993 - North Shore News - 9

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