Remembering Tim Marshall

One year ago today, on October 12, 2014, my friend and mentor, Tim Marshall passed away in Jakarta, Indonesia.  He was 63, suffered from the usual combination of bad things that affect people who spend too much time on airplanes or eating at state or other banquets: high blood pressure and diabetes.  He had been warned years ago to slow down but it was not in his make up to slow down.  He told me once that he found what he did (at the time, it was herding cats) to be so easy and relaxing it was like being retired. For Tim was involved for much of his life in international trade and trade development.

When it came to China, the Former Soviet Union and SE Asia, Tim knew everyone who was anyone who had influence in the purchase of things Saskatchewan exported.  He moved in fairly high circles and was in his glory dealing with Ministers, Deputies, Ambassadors and the like.

Tim Marshall and George Grushchenko, Trade Commissioner, Canadian Embassy Ukraine
at the Western Canadian Farm Progress Show  Regina, Saskatchewan, June 12014

Tim was born in England and educated as an Agricultural Engineer.  He moved to Zambia shortly after graduating and ended up working for Massey Ferguson.  He was recruited by Saskatchewan in 1986 because he had experience in three-way trade deals and knew his way around the Soviet Union and China.

He was working for The Saskatchewan Department of Economic Development and Trade (EDT) when I met him in the late 1980s. We hit it off immediately, possibly because we were in many respects opposites. Tim was the smoothest most diplomatic person I ever knew.  I used to tease him that everything I knew about diplomacy I learned from him.  He always said that he wished I wouldn't say that.  Those of you who know me will see the humour in that exchange.

 Many of the trade delegations Tim brought to the province had to do with agriculture; crop and forage seed, farm machinery and livestock genetics, so it was natural that he would connect with Saskatchewan Agriculture staff.  I helped him with itineraries and sometimes driving/guiding the livestock groups.  Then in April 1991, he talked the department into letting me be part of a trade mission to Kazakhstan SSR.  This was my first experience in international travel and livestock trade development.  I was hooked.

In the next few years I was in China several times with Saskatchewan delegations that Tim led.  The logistics of one of these trade missions was a nightmare for anyone but Tim.  Plane schedules, hotel rooms, meetings were all painstakingly scheduled and rescheduled.  Keeping tabs of a bunch of eager novice travelers was no easy task, either (hence herding cats). But Tim managed it all. Along with, I need to add, a wonderful office support staff and the world's most patient travel agent, all of whom went with Tim when EDT morphed into Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP).

We learned how to deal with other cultures.  When we went to Kazakhstan in 1991, we of course had to travel through Moscow (it was the Soviet Union still at that time) and ended up two tickets short from Moscow to Almaty.  A couple of cartons of Marlborough and several pairs of nylons later we had our tickets.  In Beijing we learned to arrive early at the airport and find our check-in counter.  Tim would stand at the counter with all our documents.  We would pile our baggage around him like a fort and then stand in a half circle outside our luggage facing outwards.  When the counter finally opened, we realized why the precautions.  No room for politeness or queuing in the Middle Kingdom in those days.

I went to China several times with Canada Livestock Services (CLS) which in those days was breaking into their beef genetics market.  And in January 1997 Tim talked the department into sending me to Ukraine for a short livestock seminar.  Saskatchewan was working hard at breaking into the Ukraine market with livestock genetics and farm machinery.  Instead of going home after the seminar I ended up with another delegation led by Tim going to Zimbabwe and South Africa, replacing a member of CLS who had to cancel.

When I got back, Saskatchewan Agriculture had a pink slip and a check waiting for me, which extended my life and the lives of those I reported to by at least a decade.  For a short time, I worked at STEP and finally joined Canada Livestock Services.  There were many other projects I worked with Tim on - missions to Turkey and to Iran, a great many incoming trade missions and study tours to be organized.

In 1997, Tim engineered a partially CIDA funded project in Ukraine to be delivered by STEP.  The Canada Beef Forage Program was a four year program to take Canadian beef and forage production technology to Ukrainian livestock and crop specialists.  Tim wanted me to take the lead in developing the material and teaching the beef section of the first three 3-week courses.  My Tanya was in the first course I taught and came to Canada the following year with five of the top students from the three courses.  The rest is history. I think I was in Ukraine at least once every year after 1999 and since it always, from Day 1, felt like home, I moved here when Tanya and I got married in 2006.

Tim got tired of being micro-managed and retired in 2011.  By retired I mean he went to work for his long time friend and former colleague at STEP Murad Al-Katib at Saskcan Pulse (AGT Foods).  No more cats to herd.  Tim was on the road marketing Saskatchewan pulses all over the world.  That is what he was doing when we lost him in Jakarta.  His wife Hanne had been on the road with him as a sort of holiday and had not long before, left for home.

I owe him a great deal for all the education and opportunities (as well as for a wonderful wife) and for his friendship. It is hard to think of a world without Tim.  One thing I learned: NEVER take for granted that someone you care about will be there tomorrow.

Winterizing the Dog House

Last fall I built a doghouse for Volk (Wolf) and his wife Kashtanka (Little Chestnut).  I used green pine, nominally full dimension 1x6 (25x150).  I say nominally as some boards were not a full 25 mm thick and some were not an even 150 mm width from end to end.  Our contractor put a metal roof on it.

As green lumber is wont to do (I always wanted to use that word), it dried over the summer leaving 10 to 15 mm gaps between the boards.  Not overly conducive to keeping out the chilly winds of autumn and the icy blasts of winter.  So I decided to foam the gaps.  .

I bought a can of expanding insulating foam with visions of laying this nice even bead in each crack and then nail a thin strip of moulding to cover the foam bead.  How difficult could it be?  Like watching my cousin with 50 years experience laying a silicon bead around a newly installed bathtub or sink and thinking this can't be too hard.  Right.

Friday, I got Sveta to help me as she would have a steadier trigger finger and lay a more even bead of foam than I could.  Which she did. But the foam never quit expanding.  There were white "growths" from every gap.  We finished the can of foam and left it to dry overnight. I would deal with the mess on Saturday. Which I did.  All my utility knife blades were gone, used in the service of other projects by other people.  So I stole a kitchen knife and trimmed the foam "growths" and nailed strips over the foam filled gaps.

With a mouthful of 1" nails and a small Estwing, I was tapping away and wondered if people still used hammers and nails.  The advent of compressed air driven power nailers in all sizes has made mundane pounding of nails a thing of the past in most commercial work.

Two inches of Styrofoam in the floor and ceiling, lined with rubber backed carpet

If it is warm next weekend, I will ask Masha if she wants to paint it

 After completing the foaming process, Sveta and I went to help Tanya finish burning branches from Babushka's yard, piled the previous fall.  The pile had been so big that two good fires had failed to get everything around the edges so that was what we were gathering and piling.  And that made a huge fire in and of itself.

Lots of clean-up fires burning tonight again as people take advantage of calm dry cold day to do controlled burns of weeds and brush.

The clear area was a huge pile of dead dry branches.

The wind was blowing from the high weeds and grass so the fire would not get away on us

Turkish Holiday

Tanya and I don't look much like Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck but at least our holiday ended happily.  We have been home a week now but it has been hard getting back into a schedule.

We spent 18 wonderful warm days on the Mediterranean Coast close to Kemer which is about 40 km south-west of Antalya.  Our resort was called Larissa Blue, a 3 Star which suits us perfectly.

Our room was bright, clean, and quiet; the grounds, including pool and bar, were quite nice and well kept.  The beach was about a 10 minute walk, more is you stopped to play with the kitties along the way.  Gravel and coarse sand  were hard on tender feet getting into and out of the water.  The sea was warm (28C) and the water clear.  Great for swimming as the shore dropped off sharply into 5+ meters of water.

Barrier ropes outlined an area about 300 meters by 150 meters to keep swimmers and boats apart.  We had parasailing boats going and coming on both sides.  There was enough current that a paddler like me was glad of the barrier ropes or I would have drifted off to Lord knows where.

We did morning and afternoon shifts in the water.  I would stay about an hour or two then head for shore.  Tanya would stay two or three hours, sometimes four.  Mostly we swam, slept, ate and read books.  Tanya finished four books and I finished two.

The difference between a three and four star resort seems to be mainly in the food.  The salads and desserts were very good and quite varied over the days were were there.  Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  The main courses were 2 Star in our opinion but certainly nutritious and sort of varied.  Like the guy who had only bread and cheese to eat said "Some days I eat bread, some days I eat cheese, some days bread and cheese and others cheese and bread". Fish, chicken, and kofta pretty much every day cooked in a wide variety of ways with rice, potatoes, pasta and millet (?) rotated through two at a time.  Lots of cooked veggies, too.

Then there was the chicken liver and hearts EVERY dinner and supper cooked any number of ways but served 36 meals when we were there.  Good thing I actually like them and enjoyed them at 9 meals. We cook them up at home for the cats and keep them in the fridge.  The cats and I share them.

Most of the other tourists in the resort were Russian, Belarussian or Kazakh. Tanya made friends with two ladies from Ulyanovsk (Lenin's birthplace) who were in Turkey for the first time.

View from our room door - pomegranate orchard

The pool, where only the beautiful people hang out

Our walk to the beach

Even this late in the  season it was crowded

Tanya and Luda from Ulyanovsk, Russia

Day cruise boats made out like fake sailing ships

Date Palm

Three little kittens playing in some boards

The sea by our swimming area

Ready to go home

Pfft you were gone

Blame this on Juno.  He started it.

Business as Usual in Ukraine...or not

Someone chided me for not updating the Ukraine situation in a long while.  I guess it is time.  There is a great deal of change or none depending on what you look at. There are likely more than 50 articles per day across my Facebook news feed or my email.  some days I read them all and some days I can't face any of them.

Minsk II calls for "special recognition" in a new Ukrainian constitution of the Russian controlled Donbas.  This is Russia's attempt to bury the Donbas inside Ukraine in such a way that it will render the country ungovernable and totally under Kremlin control.

Europe and America continue to put a great deal of stress on Ukraine unilaterally living up the the Minsk agreement whether or not Russia does.  Russia, of course, says it has no responsibility to the Minsk agreements as it is not involved in the conflict.

A new constitution has gone to the Rada for first or second reading (I forget which).  It does devolve certain powers to the Oblasts but falls far short of making Ukraine a Federation as Russia demands.  It contains a clause that says to the effect that special status for the Donbas will be determined in a separate law.

Proroshenko says there will be no further discussion of special recognition until all foreign troops and equipment is removed from Donbas and Ukraine is back in full control of the Russian border.  Like that will happen.  Ukraine's best bet is a frozen conflict that leaves Russia holding the bag.  Whether Putin will allow that to happen or not is open to debate.

Putin has opened another front in his hybrid war with the west, this time in Syria.  Russia has a naval base in Syria and has openly supported Assad against all comers.  Russia is moving troops, planes and ground equipment into Syria and offering to "cooperate" with America against ISIS.  This puts America in the awkward position of either refusing help against ISIS or helping Russia to support Assad, whom America has been opposing through support of certain rebel groups.  There is also suspicion Putin will try to trade this for a freer hand against Ukraine.

At the same time the ceasefire is suddenly holding.  There have been no shelling, no rocket attacks, no infiltration of rebel troops, no one killed or injured for the first time in 18 months.  This is likely part of Putin's strategy to sow more discord in Europe relating to non-renewal of sanctions. The Russian economy is in the tank and Putin needs to get at least EU sanctions lifted so he can in return lift the bans on imported food, medicine and whatever.  The Kremlin's response to Western sanctions has always been to make the Russian people suffer.

The new constitution is not without its detractors.  Three far right nationalist parties, led by Svoboda, held a mass rally in front of the Rada during the reading and voting demanding that all devolution of powers away from the central government be removed.  A grenade was thrown and three National Guard were killed and several people injured. Russian agents may have been involved in stirring the pot as Russia uses both the far right and left to its advantage.

Adding insult to injury, I just saw this today.  Russia has of course been hauling coal across the line from Donbas to Russia since day 1 and their "humanitarian convoys" have loaded high tech equipment from Donbas factories for their backhaul.  Now armed Russians have entered Donbas with combine harvesters and threshed the sunflower crop, hauling it back to Russia, leaving the farmers with bare fields.

More some other day.

Remembering the Farm - Cows III

Milk is not my favourite beverage.  In terms of volume consumption, coffee ranks first, tea second, water and juice third. Milk is about 257th. I enjoy chocolate milk or on corn flakes and other cereals and any kind of dairy product that doesn't taste like milk.  Natural yogurt is out as is buttermilk or kefir. I love cheese of all kinds, ice cream and milk shakes, flavoured yogurt.  Anything but liquid drinkable milk. I have drunk kumis (fermented mare's milk, bluish, 6% alcohol) and shubat (fermented camel's milk, thick, no alcohol) just for bragging rights.

It is a learned behaviour going back to the days of my youth when milk was forced upon me. If you put a bag of mothballs up to a cow's nose, the taste and smell will be in the milk within minutes. Our milk cows feasted on stink weed laden stubble fields in spring and fall, crested wheat grass pasture in summer and absorbed the flavours of 10 to 15 animals, bovine and equine, kept in a small barn during the winter.

Until my dad got a job driving school bus in the fall of 1960, we depended on the cream check for cash money.  Not sure how many cows dad milked but likely 5 or 6 maximum.  Our cream separator was driven by a small electric motor after 1953 when we got power. Skim milk went to the calves who were stunted for lack of energy.  Cream was kept cool down the well in long slim cans hung from chains.  Not sure how often we shipped.  We had two five gallon cream cans and one three gallon.

Our separator was rigged with a pulley and electric motor after 1953

Typical cream can, though some were painted around the top

The cream was taken to the railway station in Cavell and sent to the creamery in Biggar 40 miles away.  The empty cans came back two days later.  The cans were tagged with a cardboard tag fastened with thin silver wire. Tag wire served as the duct tape of its day as it was useful for fastening anything.

Mom would wash the separator, cream cans and milk pails and scald them with boiling water.  Milk was strained into the bowl on top of the separator through a cloth.  Especially in winter it "took the lumps out". Shelf life of unrefrigerated milk was about 15 minutes.  If I drank today what I drank as a kid, I would be so sick as I would have no tolerance for the bacteria. There are other dangers as well.  Two of my friends spent a year in a sanitorium with TB from drinking unpasteurized milk.  My late wife did not get TB but her blood titre was so high that all the scratch tests for TB were positive and so it was X-rays all the way. To this day, I am fanatical about people drinking only homogenized milk.

Eventually I was old enough to milk cows, though Dad always did the morning milking. Unless a cow is an easy milker, a young kid with not enough strength in their hands to milk quickly and smoothly can ruin a good cow by making her hard to milk.  Some of our cows were killers to milk.  One cow, Jane was her name, part Jersey from her horns but quiet enough to milk in the yard untied, was so hard to milk.  I hated milking her and was glad when she was old enough to retire to hamburger and roasts.

Ollie tried to slip the ring on Leena's finger while she was milking.
 For 20 minutes he was engaged to Bessie the cow

Her teats* were a bit on the large size for small hands.  But she was apparently nothing like my grandfather's cow named Turnip Teats. Another cow I recall was called Brenda, after the neighbour's daughter from whom we bought her.  She was a good milker and easy to milk, (the cow, not the daughter).  Other cows were Ramona and Beauty, purebred Red Poll.  Good cows but a bit spooky.  More than one bucket got kicked over.  Worse case scenario, a cow would get her foot in the bucket, necessitating a trip back to the house for a clean pail.

Once the school bus checks started coming we were down to one cow milked for home use.  She would be milked at night for just how much we needed and then her calf turned loose until next morning.  I have always been in favour of letting calves do the milking

*Note: it is teats, not tits.  A tit is a bird. Though I suppose that if someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger is a dedicated music lover, then a dedicated bird watcher would be someone who can see a pair of Great Tits and not think of Dolly Parton.

Cows I and Cows II are here and here.

Remembering the Farm - Beets, turnips and jacknives

We dug the last of the beets today, to go down in the root cellar.  Tanya and I were sitting in +33C shade cutting the tops off when I remembered an incident from my distant past.

At age 10, I had saved enough money to buy a Stockman's knife.  A real knife, not one of those $2 toys that some of the boys took to school, so dull they wouldn't cut butter.  It was $10 at the Leipzig Coop and I had been watching it for months hoping it would still be there when I had the money.

Early October I bought the knife and proudly carried it home in my jeans pocket.  It was very sharp and Dad warned me to be careful.  If I cut myself the knife would sit on the window over the sink for a month to remind me to be more careful.

The day I brought it home we dug the turnips. I was topping turnips with my new knife and, of course, sliced my thumb. Dad was so upset.  He put my knife up on the window as he said he would but because I had been working, not fooling around, all I had to do was ask any time I wanted to use it.

Over time, the point broke off the long blade (don't ask) and the bone handles broke but unless someone threw it out it should still be in a treasure box someplace.

This is exactly what my knife looked like