Jeff stomped his boots on the step before he opened the door, then stomped again inside the porch to shake the rest of the snow loose.
“March is coming in like a lion,” he shouted down the hall to his wife Elaine. “It’s snowing so hard out there I could barely see the road. And it’s warm enough for ice to build up.
“Where’d you go?” Elaine asked.
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“I went to pick up the mail. Both of the customers that were supposed to pick up seed today cancelled.”
“Spring blizzards are the worst,” Elaine said.
“Marf warnf canfrm,” Jeff answered.
“What?” Elaine asked.
“Sorry, I was pulling my sweater off,” Jeff said. “I said the trucker cancelled too.”
“The one coming for that last load of lentils?”
“Yup,” Jeff said. “I hope he gets here before they put spring road bans on, or I don’t know when we’re going to be able to move these lentils.”
“It would be good to get paid for them,” Elaine said.
“Yup.” Jeff carried the stack of mail to the kitchen table and started leafing through it, sorting the junk mail into a separate pile.
“Jenny has dance practice after school,” Elaine said. “Maybe I’ll call and get them to send her home on the bus.”
“Good idea,” Jeff said, opening an envelope that looked like a bill. “My app says the weather won’t let up anytime soon. You don’t want to drive in this when it gets dark.”
“She’ll be disappointed,” Elaine said.
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “Living a half hour from town can be a pain in the neck.”
“Coffee?” Elaine called from the kitchen.
“Yes please.”
Elaine set a hot mug in front of Jeff, then sat across the table from him, looking through the junk pile. Jeff was flipping the pages of a spring auction catalogue.
“Don’t know why I’m looking at this,” he said to his wife. “Used equipment prices are through the roof.” Then he turned another page.
“Whoa!”
“What?” Elaine asked.
“Look!”
Jeff shoved the open catalogue across the table. The equipment for sale on page 17 and 18 belonged to their friends, Greg and Heather, a farm family from southwest Saskatchewan.
“They’re selling?”
“That’s what the book says.”
“Did you know about this?” Elaine asked.
“No! I talked to Greg a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t say a thing. We talked about summer plans.”
“This must’ve been in the works for a while,” Elaine said.
“But he just bought a new grain cart. And he was trying to figure out the best way to set up a bin yard.”
“You’d better call him,” Elaine said.
“Yeah,” Jeff said.
“I’ll go to my office and give you some privacy,” Elaine said. “I’m trying to figure out our workers comp payment.”
“Good luck,” Jeff said.
Jeff looked at his phone. The last time he’d been to Greg’s farm, Greg had just put up their new Century Family Farm sign. Didn’t Greg’s three kids want to farm? Greg’s son Max was a year or two older than Connor. And Jeff thought the twin girls were about 10. Surely one of the three would be interested.
Maybe Greg was sick. Or Heather? Jeff hoped it wasn’t cancer. Or worse. Was there anything worse? Or maybe Greg missed the high crop prices last year, and paid too much for fertilizer. Maybe this wasn’t Greg’s choice.
Jeff wasn’t sure he should call. Maybe Greg wouldn’t want to talk about it. But then Jeff’s phone rang and he looked at the screen. It was Greg.
Jeff picked up. “I was just about to phone you!” he said.
Greg laughed. “Damn. I meant to call you before you saw that auction ad.”
Jeff paused, wondering what to say. Finally he went with, “Is everything okay?”
“Better than ever,” Greg said.
“Really?” Jeff said.
“I can spend the summer with Heather and the kids instead of in the sprayer.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “It’s been a tough couple of years out your way.”
“No kidding. Last summer our canola only bloomed for half an hour. It was a Tuesday afternoon.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said.
“Land prices are higher than ever,” Greg said. “I’d be a fool to keep banging my head against this wall.”
But Greg was the same age as Jeff. Nowhere near old enough to retire. “What’ll you do all day?” Jeff asked.
“This spring we’ll get everything sold and clean up the place. Then we’ll take a summer off for once. I’m not worried about afterwards. I’ve already had offers from a machinery dealership and a chem retailer. Heather might get her massage therapy license back, since we’ll be in town.”
“You’re moving?” Jeff asked.
“Yeah, we bought a place in Swift Current.”
“Oh,” Jeff said.
“Heather checked the odometer on her car. She says between driving the kids to sports and picking up groceries, she drove 30,000 kilometers last year without going anywhere.”
“What does Max say?” Jeff asked.
“Max, he wants to be an engineer. All the kids are excited to live closer to their sports and their friends.”
“Oh.” Jeff didn’t know what to say next.
“Look,” Greg said. “The guys around here aren’t sure what to say either but trust me. This is the best choice I’ve made in a while. We’ll get out at the top and have a whole new life with less stress. Heather’s already planning a vacation for us. It’ll be during the kids’ Easter break in April. I’ve never taken a spring holiday in my life!”
When they finished talking, Jeff put his warm clothes on and went outside. If he didn’t blow the snow out of the driveway before the school bus came, the bus driver might get stuck in the Hansons’ yard and Jeff would have to pull her out. “Greg won’t have to worry about this when he lives in Swift Current,” Jeff thought.
On his way to the shed, he looked over at the seed cleaning plant. He’d have to raise prices again, the way power costs and carbon taxes kept going up. But how high could he raise prices and still keep his customers?
Greg would be selling everything for top dollar. Maybe Greg knew what he was doing. Grain prices could only go down from the highs of the last year. And all of their costs were going up, from fertilizer to fan belts. Machinery prices were stupidly high, and there weren’t even any new machines available at any price.
Maybe the Hansons were making a mistake. Holding on too long. Working all the time while their asset values crashed.
After he finished clearing the driveway Jeff put the tractor back in the shed. As he was closing the shed door his dad’s dog, Flora, came running over. Jeff bent down to pet her.
“Hey girl,” he said, pulling a treat out of his jacket pocket for the German shepherd.
Jeff wondered if Greg would take his dog to town. Flora and Buddy would hate being inside dogs. But you couldn’t build your whole life around a couple of dogs.
When he got back to the house, Elaine had finished the paperwork.
“I’ve been thinking,” Jeff said.
