Monday and Tuesday was spent relaxing and doing choirs. Each morning Dan started by washing two weeks of dust and dirt off the RV. Unfortunately, there are no “car washes” sized for RVs. So Dan starts by doing the roof, which is the most challenging; being 12 feet up in the air on a wet, soapy, rubber roof is not relaxing or easy. We used to try and complete the entire rig in one day, but now spread it out over two. It is amazing how the prairie dust is everywhere and gets in everything!Tuesday afternoon was spent visiting Ron and Lynne Curtis in Neepawa, Manitoba. In a previous blog entry we mentioned that Ron was a dive master that helped Ed and Elaine Riesmeyer with dive instruction. But we also knew Ron and Lynne previously when they visited us in Houma, along with Ed and Elaine, for Mardi Gras 2007. We won’t bore with you all details of Mardi Gras, other than to note that they left with a pick-up bed full of beads and Mardi Gras paraphernalia. Now many people catch beads during Mardi Gras and then let them collect dust in the attic or garage. Ron and Lynne had a future use for the beads and Mardi Gras items! Turns out Neepawa is the Lily Capitol of Canada, if not the world, and has an annual Lily Festival in July. Ron and Lynne designed a float for the local parade based on a Mardi Gras theme, playing Cajun music, and throwing the beads! Needless to say they won the competition for best float, and people were still wearing their beads days after the festival.
During the afternoon Ron took Dan to visit a couple of Hutterite colonies. Turns out Ron’s fulltime job is as an Agriculture Advisory to large farms, and by doing this work he has become good friends with several large Hutterite colonies/farms. We do not profess to know any real details of Hutterite religious beliefs or life style but it appears to be a farming colony (about twenty families) being completely self sufficient based on their religion. They accept and use modern technologies but not at the expense of their communal life style or religious beliefs. Children grow up speaking German until age five in the home; meals are cooked and served by one central kitchen; and housing is duplexes or town houses.
http://www.hutterites.org/
Ron and Dan started by visiting one of the older colonies, Spring Hill which was over forty years old, and then they visited a new colony, Rolling Acres. Both colonies were very similar. Noticeable differences were that the houses at Spring Hill had mature trees and beautiful flower gardens, the landscape was bare at Rolling Acres; the different support shops at Spring Hill were in different buildings and at Rolling Acres everything was under one roof. And we say self sufficient, we mean self sufficient. These colonies have complete electric shops, complete machine shops, complete welding shops, cabinet making shops, and emergency generators. Other examples – since Rolling Acres is a new colony, they are still constructing buildings. To save money they have built their own concrete plant to pour foundations; and bought their own mobile crane to lift roof trusses for the buildings.
The hi-lite of the afternoon was when Ron arranged for Dan to ride in the cab of a combine harvesting wheat at Rolling Acres. Dan joined a Hutterite named Joe and his son in a brand new New Holland CR-970 combine. Turns out there were two swath cutters, two combines, and one collector hopper harvesting wheat. First the swath cutters cut the wheat into neat rows; the combines pick up the cut wheat and separate the wheat seed from the stalks; and then the tractor with the collector hopper comes by and the harvested wheat is transferred while both machines continue to drive side by side. In this way the combines can run non-stop until the fuel runs out. Dan found it interesting that the tractors had at least one or two Hutterite children in the cabs riding along with their fathers.
Ron and Dan then joined Lynne and Corrie at Ron and Lynn’s house for dinner. They were also joined by Ed and Elaine, along with their daughter Kim and here husband Brian (another dive master). Ron bar-b-que’d up some excellent steaks purchased from the Hutterites. It was an excellent dinner finished off with Hutterite pies.
Ron and Dan started by visiting one of the older colonies, Spring Hill which was over forty years old, and then they visited a new colony, Rolling Acres. Both colonies were very similar. Noticeable differences were that the houses at Spring Hill had mature trees and beautiful flower gardens, the landscape was bare at Rolling Acres; the different support shops at Spring Hill were in different buildings and at Rolling Acres everything was under one roof. And we say self sufficient, we mean self sufficient. These colonies have complete electric shops, complete machine shops, complete welding shops, cabinet making shops, and emergency generators. Other examples – since Rolling Acres is a new colony, they are still constructing buildings. To save money they have built their own concrete plant to pour foundations; and bought their own mobile crane to lift roof trusses for the buildings.
The hi-lite of the afternoon was when Ron arranged for Dan to ride in the cab of a combine harvesting wheat at Rolling Acres. Dan joined a Hutterite named Joe and his son in a brand new New Holland CR-970 combine. Turns out there were two swath cutters, two combines, and one collector hopper harvesting wheat. First the swath cutters cut the wheat into neat rows; the combines pick up the cut wheat and separate the wheat seed from the stalks; and then the tractor with the collector hopper comes by and the harvested wheat is transferred while both machines continue to drive side by side. In this way the combines can run non-stop until the fuel runs out. Dan found it interesting that the tractors had at least one or two Hutterite children in the cabs riding along with their fathers.
Ron and Dan then joined Lynne and Corrie at Ron and Lynn’s house for dinner. They were also joined by Ed and Elaine, along with their daughter Kim and here husband Brian (another dive master). Ron bar-b-que’d up some excellent steaks purchased from the Hutterites. It was an excellent dinner finished off with Hutterite pies.
2 comments:
OK-which is more fun to drive-the combine or the RV?
At a cost of almost half a million, i don't think i had any chance at getting behind the controls. Besides the "game boy" control pad; touch screen computer; and eight speaker CD/satellite stereo in the combine, i would have been totally lost at how to drive the combine. - dan
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