When Elaine stepped inside the Hanson Acres cleaning plant she found three generations of Hanson men all focused on the same thing. Her father-in-law Dale was balancing at the top of a six-foot ladder, trying to hold on to one end of an eight-foot iron shaft as he pulled it out of the fanning mill. Elaine’s husband Jeff was on ground, staggering under the weight of the other end of the shaft as he tried to set it down safely.
“Don’t drop it! Don’t drop it!” her grandfather-in-law Ed was shouting from his perch on a stool across the room. “Do you know what it would cost us if we had to take that thing to a machinist?”
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“Geez, Dad,” Dale shouted. “This thing must weigh 200 pounds.”
Elaine watched as her husband and his dad lowered the large shaft down to the cement floor as gently as possible.
“Thought you two were gonna crack the cement floor,” Ed grumbled.
“If we had one more guy it would be easier to handle this thing,” Dale said.
“You can’t do a repair job like this without a supervisor,” Ed said, rubbing his bad hip and wishing he could help, or at least that he could stand up instead of sitting back like an old man while everyone else worked.
“Looks like I came out at the wrong time,” Elaine said, pulling off her toque now that she was out of the cold winter wind.
“Not if you want to watch an accident,” Ed grumbled.
Dale climbed down from the ladder, and Jeff leaned against the wall, panting and rubbing his sore arms.
Elaine got straight to the reason she’d come out to talk to the men. “I just had a call from my friend Sarah. Jeff, you remember her from university, don’t you?” Jeff nodded. “She’s got a government job now. In the agriculture ministry. And she has an offer for us.”
“She’s from the government and she’s here to help us?” Ed said.
“She has an extra invitation to the CIGI course. The ministry sponsored a few spots, and someone just dropped out. She can send one of us on the Grain Industry Overview Course in Winnipeg in March.”
“Ciggie?” Ed asked.
“The Canadian International Grains Institute,” Elaine said.
“Oh,” Ed nodded. “We’d better get in on that while we can. That outfit won’t last without the wheat board to prop it up.”
“No,” Elaine said. “CIGI’s been working with grain companies and farmers. It’ll carry on giving courses and making sure end users know about Canadian grain, no matter what happens to the CWB.”
“Huh,” said Ed. “I don’t see how they can last if they think we need a farm course. After 60 years at this, I could teach that course.”
“There’s always something to learn, Dad,” Dale said. “When is it?”
“March 19 to 23,” Elaine said.
“That’s a long time to be away,” Dale said. “By the time a guy drives all the way to Winnipeg, it’s darn near a week off the farm. And the end of March? The phone’ll be ringing off the hook with farmers wanting seed.”
“It’d be a shame to turn it down,” Elaine said. “The course normally costs more than $1,200. But since we have a sponsor, we only have to pay for meals and entertainment.”
Ed chuckled. “Remember when Rick Wilson came home from that farm course in Winnipeg? He couldn’t stop talking about all the ‘entertainment’ he saw. When those corporate reps took him to see the ‘naked ballet.’”
“What?” Elaine asked.
“That was years ago,” Jeff said. “I’m sure they don’t do that anymore.”
“Yeah, right,” Ed said, winking.
Dale ignored his father. “I don’t know, Elaine. Spring is just too busy around here,” Dale said.
“I knew you’d think that,” Elaine said. “I phoned Earl Geddes, the CIGI director, to see if he thought the course would be worth taking so much of our time.”
“He’s not going to tell someone not to go to the course he runs,” Ed said.
“Well no,” Elaine said, “But he has seen a lot of people who took the course and went home satisfied. Earl says learning more about the industry and our end customers can help farmers make better business decisions. And the course even has a section about transportation and logistics. You were just saying yesterday that you wished you understood railway pricing better.”
Dale had to agree with that.
“And Earl says the best thing is that it gives you some connections in the grain industry, so when you have a problem you know who to talk to. Remember when we had that mix up with our cash advance? It took us four days to figure out who to phone.”
“Well,” Dale said. “I suppose I could get away for a few days. But I’ll have to leave the lists of who’s coming to pick up what. Geez. The middle of spring.”
Jeff stood back, looking distressed, until Ed intervened. “I thought we were going to let the kid make more decisions around here. Maybe we oughta send him.”
“Oh, yeah,” Dale said. He was embarrassed to have been caught assuming automatically that the opportunity was meant for him. He knew he had to work harder at giving his son a chance to make decisions. “Guess you’re right Dad.”
Then the door opened and Dale’s wife Donna asked, “Is it safe to come in?” As soon as Dale said “yup,” a red blur zipped into the cleaning plant, stirring up a huge cloud of dust. It was Elaine and Jeff’s toddler in his red snowsuit. Donna ran behind, gasping for breath. “Being a grandma is exhausting,” she said. “He’s been chasing the cat all over the yard.”
Donna leaned against a bench until she caught her breath, then turned to Elaine. “Did you tell them I think you should take my car to the course in Winnipeg? It doesn’t make sense to drive your big SUV, especially when you’re leaving the boy here with us.”
Elaine turned red as all three men turned to look at her. “Well…,” she said.
Donna immediately figured out what had gone on, and shook her head. “Of course we’ll send Elaine. She’s taken on a lot of farm work this winter. She’s looking after the books. She filled out all our seed declarations. Sorted out our cash advance mix-up. She’ll need good contacts to keep doing this stuff. ”
“I don’t know,” Ed said. “What’s the point of sending a woman all the way to Manitoba to see strippers?”
“What?” Donna asked.
“Just ignore him,” Dale said.
“That’s what you meant earlier?” Elaine was incredulous.
“I’m sure they don’t do that anymore,” Dale said.
Jeff nodded. “It makes sense to send Elaine. And Elaine’s friend got us on the list in the first place. I can manage the baby on my own for a week. With Mom here to help.”
“Right. Well, okay,” Dale said. “This is for the best. And then I’ll be here to make sure the customers get the right seed. And handle the late-season seed cleaning.”
Donna smiled, then sighed as the door opened again and a blur of red snowsuit whizzed out into the yard, squealing. “I’d better go after him. Anything could happen if he actually gets hold of that cat.” CG
