Here Comes Summer

I have downsized my garden this year – more than I had planned. I had decided to cut back and not sell produce this year. It is very time consuming and a lot of work. Too much I decided, so I was going to put a much smaller garden in. Having a new grandson around a lot of the time and our daughter is more fun than pulling weeds. Getting to the garden and planting it became kind of a to-do. Between not being rototilled, too dry, and too wet – the only thing I have planted is some potatoes which went into the ground today and 6 cucumber plants, much later than I had planned. Oh well, this is why people go to Farmer Markets – to go and get what they don’t grow themselves (or to a friend’s house that planted too big of a garden).

People will be looking to hit the lakes this summer. Weddings seem to be in abundance – after the two years of Covid lockdowns, people are ready to get together and party. And don’t forget the grad parties. I was at one the other night. It was fun to be out and about with a crowd of people, laughing, partying and having fun.

I have been trying to finish my cookbook up to get it on Amazon as an E-book first and then paperback. It is another learning curve. To self-publish I needed to have it done in Adobe as a PDF file. Now to go back to an E-book it has to be in Word. Word is what I originally typed it out in, but the final edits were all done in PDF and exporting and importing has destroyed some of the formatting so back to the drawing board and start formatting again. It is going very well; I have almost completed editing and formatting it. It was supposed to be done by last weekend, but that didn’t happen. Maybe this weekend I will find some me time to get it finished. Realistically I think it is going to be the next weekend – Father’s Day weekend.

And on that note I guess I better say something about “fathers” since I gave “mothers” a nice write up last time.

Fathers seem to carry a different role than mothers to a certain degree. Fathers are seen more as the disciplinarian. The old “wait till your father gets home” was used many times when you got into trouble whether it be at school, talking back to your mother, or fighting with a sibling. Fathers are often thought of as the provider / the bread winner. However, over the past decade or so this is changing as women have gone back to work and a lot of them are powerhouse women and have chosen careers vs staying home and being the main caregiver. Fathers can often be found helping with coaching sports, showing children how to fix things, throw a ball, how to bat, catch a football, change oil in a vehicle, chop a tree down, use a lawnmower, etc. And the big one – teach the teenager how to drive. Many fathers have many abilities and can help in ways that the mother doesn’t. Some of these roles have changed over the years and mothers are doing what fathers did and vice versa. And there you have it – a short summary of fathers.

One of my favorite memories with my dad was hauling grain to the local elevator. I enjoyed being outside and doing things with my father way more than being in the house and hanging out there. This memory is from when I was about 5 years old. We would get a load of grain by using the auger that went into the granary and would then auger the grain into the box of the truck. I would get to stand on the front end of the box when it would go up in the air to be loaded and unloaded. Probably not safe in today’s world, it was like a fair ride you could say. Then we would head for town once the box was full of grain. Hopefully wheat and not barley. (Barley is very itchy.) I would sit right next to my dad – no shotgun riding for me. Right beside my dad was the best place. Once we got to town I would get a dime and walk down to the local café to buy a treat for myself and my siblings. I could get a chocolate bar or 30 jawbreakers for a dime. 3 for a penny. If I went with the jawbreakers I had lots of candy for myself as well as to share. Good deal I figured. I’d walk back to the elevator and smell the grainy smell and dust that the elevator provided, which always smelled good to me. Sometimes we would have to visit with the grain buyer for a bit. I could explore the elevator and it had some cool places and things in it too. Especially the grates where the grain went into the floor. How did that grain go down there and end way up high in the elevator? I still don’t know that answer. Haha!

Happy Father’s Day is coming and don’t forget about your father and go see him or call him. Let him know he is special in your life.

I am going to leave you with “The Best Day” by George Strait.

It is just another favorite artist of mine. Talk about a great singer. I watched a documentary about songwriter, Dean Dillon and he eventually wrote a lot of songs for George Strait as well as other artists. 15 of George’s biggest hits were written by Mr. Dean Dillon. (Just a little trivia for you.)

Merle Lee Ann Pratt – merleleeannskitchen.com – Email: merleleeann@gmail.com

This column is sponsored by MacKenzie Funeral Chapel and Crematorium – We will be there when you need us – Bev and Brian Stobbs

130 9th St. E, Prince Albert, SK

Phone: (306) 763-8488

https://mackenziechapel.ca/

by Merle Lee Ann Pratt – Merle Lee Ann’s Kitchen, author of “A Baker’s Dozen”

Here Comes Summer

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