RIDING THE RODS

May 27/08.
Lloyd arrived with 4 railway ties on his half ton. These could have come from the very railway that brought a young Rod MacKillop from Cape Breton in 1926 (and the rest of us are history). We dropped off the ties near the north fence across from where neighbour might subdivide a second acreage. The ties will support young Rod's storage container which arrives this weekend. I imagined a used ugly box sitting there and recall Dad saying years after I settled here, "I'm glad you never put a caboose car down by the rocks because I came west by train and never wanted to see another one." Amazing how things come around.
larry

CLUSTER BOMBS KILL KIDS

Dear Editor
Canada under Harper has become a clone of US foreign policy. Because previous foreign affairs minister, Lloyd Axworthy worked against American resistance to achieve a ban on land mines, a lot of kids have not lost lives and limbs. Now the world aims to stop using cluster bombs which kill people without damaging buildings. These bombs, dropped in bright orange packages, are picked up by kids in the counties we aim to liberate (sic) like Kosovo. The US is again lobbying allies not to sign this treaty. Canada, once respected as a peace maker, is going along with Uncle Sam. Meanwhile at the UN we are not even trying to win a seat on the UN Security Council. Seems we'd rather kill kids than make peace.
Sincerely
larry mackillop
Box 633
Nanton Ab
T0L 1R0
403 646 5643

Spring is Birds

Linda and I are walking in the fields we see a suburban over by the coulee. Just then 15 swans fly over us. At the pasture gate we meet Neal Campbell,whose family have banded raptors here for 30 years. He says my brother John taught him hunter conservation. He tells us he saw a golden eagle on her nest and that his bro John will be back mid June to band the chick(s) He also informs us of a nearby lek with grouse dancing by the road. We plan to be out there tomorrow am at sunrise.
Spring is birds!

LAMBS MAKE ME A MOTHER AGAIN

I wonder why I thrive on this recurring crisis. Yesterday, Margaret Thatcher, the oldest of my 4 surviving ewes (the cougars always kill the younger ones) was standing alone with her 2 gaunt lambs. I brought all animals into the barn as I do each night and checked Thatcher to find her bag as hard as a rock. I took the halter off Rowdy, the llama (I have to catch him each night and lead him into the barn as cougars eat them too) and used it to tie Thatcher to the corner of the pen. I milked her getting milk from one side but only blood from the udder (sic) side. Mastitis, Dirk, the vet (and a sheep breeder) confirmed by phone. Dirk recommended a different antibiotic than the one I had in my fridge. Since Linda was in town, I called the grocer, PO, bank and liquor store but I was always one step behind her. I dialed the cell phone we just acquired and Linda, hearing a strange musical sound coming from her purse, called home to ask if it was me ( I am very impressed she managed this technical advance). I asked her to pick up meds at the vet's office. Next I mixed up some milk replacer filled a bottle and capped it with a nipple. Linda came home with a vial of antibiotic.. I gave the ewe a shot and forced the nipple of my bottle into each lamb's mouth.. In past they have not always sucked but these guys did , especially Mutt the little one. (Jeff, the larger, has been getting most of his mother's milk). Then the lambs went after Thatcher's bag with vigour, hopefully stripping it out..
Before going to bed I went to the barn with rifle in one hand and milk bottle in the other to give Mut and Jeff a night cap.
This morning I was happy to see Thatcher still standing with her head bowed. She had drunk some water from the bucket but eaten nothing. I tied her up, milked her a bit and the lambs intermittently sucked her and the bottle. I slid some oats to her and noted her tongue licking at them. She too seemed to have the will to live, a zest not all sick animals possess.
After I let the other animals out and fed them hay, I trudged back to the house to get my own breakfast. Suddenly I recalled a late night in a Uganda hospital as I gave my very sick month old son a bottle of milk that his mother had expressed from her breast. I heard myself exclaim "You have to live!" His glazed eyes met mine as though he understood.

EATING DAD'S PROZAC

letter published in the Globe this morning.
Yes, but how do you feel?
Re Antidepressants Little Better than Placebos (Life, Feb 27): I've been awaiting this study for years. When my father, upon confinement to a wheelchair, had angry outbursts, the medical answer was to give him Prozac. I substituted icing sugar in Dad's capsules and, out of curiosity took the Prozac myself. This seemed to give my father a bit more energy in his final years, but left wondering what personality changes I might experience. I'm still normal, I think.

Wondering Where The Lions Are

Those Bruce Colburn lyrics ran through my head as I entered the barnyard yesterday morning. Emma had been barking but I assumed at the new neigbours going to work. Suddenly I saw 2 animals running up and down the fence. Coyotes trying to get in? I ran back for the shot gun and after an effort to stick a shell in the barrel, I fired a shot over the invaders. Then I realized it was a pair of cougar cubs, one outside trying to get in and one inside trying to get out. How cute they were at about 20 pounds with dark brown spots, until I saw the damage. A ewe dead by the fence with tracks in the snow revealing a cat had been dragging her along the fence trying to get the carcass over he fence. I ran back to call Fish and Wildlife. This time they would believe me with a cougar cub trapped inside my fence. "We'll be right over," said Keith Linderman, the officer who set up a camera here last May to get a photo of my alleged cougar returning. By the time he and another officer arrived, the one cub had managed to climb the fence and escape with his sibling. Finally I realized the kitties' mother had to have been close by.. The officers cut into the ewe, took photos and showed me how a cougar kills. They bite into neck and sometimes crush a skull. They eat into the heart and lungs first, unlike coyotes who eats the leg of lamb first (as do I). We found another dead ewe in the barn. "Lucky," a ewe with one floppy ear post dogs attack a year ago, did not make it. The officers said they could track and kill the cougar if I wished but trapping her with such young cubs would not work. Or I could keep my animals LOCKED in the barn at night. I thought of the cute cubs, thought of my grandkids and elected for the latter choice. The guys drug my dead animals down into the field and returned with a chorus of coyotes in the air. We made out a claim form and it was over.
So glad l did not purchase 8 new eyes with lambs last week! With 6 ewes and Big Daddy the ram left we are assured of a few little lambs running around this summer (IF I keep them shut in every night. At first I could not get one llama, Rowdy, inside the barn and left him outside. One night he sounded the alarm shortly after dark. I stumbled out of bed and fired a shot in the dark. In the morning I found cat tracks showing the came back and would have had llama had Rowdy not made a racket. Now everyone must be in at night, no exceptions. We are under siege and somehow we don't mind it.

FATE OF MY MOTHER

Our Mother, Mary Cecilia was born in Cayley Alberta on Jan 5, 1912. She was the 2nd of 4 live children (three still born Kinney children lie in the old Catholic cemetery north of Nanton). Her father Wm Kinney came here from Illinois to homestead in 1905. Anna had followed him by train to Montana and ox cart to Cayley. She told her youngest son, Frank, of looking up at a sky full of geese to decide this must be a nice place. (Her sister, Margaret while visiting later, was repulsed all by the Montanans carrying guns). Wm Kinney suffered from depression and according to oldest son, Bernard committed suicide after three attempts. He was buried in the old Catholic cemetery and later moved by Bernard to the Catholic section of the current Nanton graveyard. (Why were the 3 children not moved?) Cecilia (11) and Bernard were sent to Lacombe Home which hurt her feelings since it was for orphans.. The Ketchums, a childless couple, offered to adopt Cecilia but she refused. (Cecelia sounded proud when relating this to us).. When she was a teen, her mother took her to visit a convent in Illinois. Anna and Aunt Margaret wanted Cecilia to stay and become a nun. Apparently Mother Superior looked out the window and saw Cecilia climbing a tree. She declared, "I see her as the mother of many boys." Thus was Cecealed (sic) the fate of our mother and the 7 sons and 3 daughters she bore here in Alberta.
Song (I can't get out of my head!) Mother Dear oh pray for me
Whilst far from heaven and thee
Till in Heaven eternally, they love and bliss I share
Postscript: When I was 13, Cecilia sent me to a Jesuit boarding college. They attempted to make me a priest. Years later when I confronted Mom on this, she admitted her intent, adding, "But I found you had a mind of your own! " Was her acceptance of my escape tempered by her own experience?