Seeding time for Russian thistles

Yesterday we drove from Tisdale to Swift Current and back. A small snow storm, a trip through the desert and almost an hour of wallowing in fog at 40 clicks. Between Eston and Kyle the Russian thistle parade eastward propelled by the wind cheerfully sowing their seeds as they tumble along from one fence line to the next.

For all our talk, our dreams and confusion, the facts of Saskatchewan are simple. Look at the CP yard in Swift Current laid out at sunset filled to overflowing with hooper cars to carry grain. Sure there is oil, there are mines and once there

was logging, but Saskatchewan is really and truly all about growing things. Field after endless field, waiting for the tractors to drag this year's seed into place, time for prayers for rain and insurance for hail, but it all comes down to producing a crop. Be that crop wheat, hay, canola, or debts, Saskatchewan is about fields and what goes on and in them.

The gophers, coyotes and deer own the place and we share it with them and a few thousand hawks. This is Saskatchewan and we need to make the very best of it.