Ice Storm (20 page)

What does a farmer do all day?
Dairy farmers and their families work very long hours. There are many chores to do as well as milking, like feeding the cows, feeding the calves and the young heifers (they get different feed), cleaning the stalls and equipment, managing the feed that goes into the silos, and growing and harvesting hay and grain to feed the animals. On top of that, many dairy farmers have other businesses as well. Some keep chickens or sheep. Some make cheese from the milk. Some work off the farm, sometimes as school bus drivers. In Québec, many make maple syrup like Sophie’s family. And farmers don’t get any days off, either. Cows have to eat and be milked every day, not just Monday to Friday.

Isn’t a farm a dirty place?
No! A dairy farm is kept very clean. Farmers wear surgical gloves just like a doctor, and wash and sanitize their equipment every single day to make sure that the milk is free from germs.

A dairy inspector comes regularly to every farm to make sure that the cows are being looked after and the equipment is clean and sanitary. These rules ensure that our milk is always safe to drink.

What does a farm do with all the manure?
A dairy cow creates about 50 kilograms of manure
every day.
But it isn’t just waste. Manure can be used as a fertilizer for the fields, or as compost. Some farmers dry the manure until it looks like sawdust, and then use it as bedding for the cows. And some farmers are even exploring ways to turn their manure into power. The manure is turned into methane gas, which can then be burned to generate electricity. That would sure help in a power failure!

Computerization on a dairy farm
Ever see a cow use a computer? Well, maybe that’s a little silly, but farmers use computers for lots of things. A computer figures out the best combination of food and vitamins for each cow. A computer keeps track of how much milk a cow gives, and when it’s time for her to have a new calf. On some farms, cows wear computer bracelets on their legs to count how many steps they take each day, because a healthy cow is an active cow. So, if you want to be a farmer, you have to
really
like computers.

Ice Storm Trivia

• Do you remember the movie
Titanic?
It’s the story of an ocean liner that hits an iceberg and sinks. This movie had just come out in theatres when the ice storm hit, and many theatre-goers only got to see half of it because the power went out.

• Seven line technicians who came from Newfoundland to help during the storm chipped in together to buy a Lotto ticket while they were in Québec. They won – and took home $1.89 million.

• Word of the day: the cranes that line technicians use to get up to the power lines are called “cherry pickers” in English. In French, they’re called
“girafes.”

• The final numbers: here’s how much power equipment had to be replaced to get electricity back up and running:

Pylons: 1,300

Hydro Poles: 10,750

Insulators: 84,000

Transformers: 1,800

Wire/Cable: 2,800 km

For more information, as well as great sites to visit, videos to watch and games to play, check out:
www.pennydraper.ca

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my cousins,
Shirley and Ken
Peer
of Hillandale Farms. Not only do they put milk on our table and keep our huge family in touch, they spent hours teaching me about life on a dairy farm. Any errors in the book are mine and mine alone. And to Caroline Peer: thanks for the helpful hints, and for not laughing when I grossly overestimated the number of dairy cows on a family farm!

My particular thanks go to my editor, Barbara Sapergia, who worked so hard helping me weave the disparate tales into one. I so enjoy our grammar debates, and will never look at a semi-colon the same way again!

And my most heartfelt thanks go, as always, to my family. My first readers, best critics and most patient supporters.

About the ­Author

Penny Draper
is an author,
a bookseller and a
storyteller who lives in Victoria, BC. Originally from Toronto, she received a degree in Literature from Trinity College, University of Toronto and attended the Storytellers’ School of Toronto. For many years, Penny shared tales as a professional storyteller at schools, libraries, conferences, festivals and on radio and television. She has told stories in an Arabian harem and from inside a bear’s ­belly – ­but that is a story in ­itself.

Penny’s books have been nominated for numerous awards in Canada and the United States. They have been honoured with the Victoria Book Prize, the Moonbeam Award Gold Medal and the Chocolate Lily Readers’ Choice Award (runner-up).
Ice Storm
is part of Coteau Books for Kids
Disaster Strikes!
series. The series also includes Penny’s
Terror at Turtle Mountain,
Peril at Pier Nine
,
The Graveyard of the ­Sea
and
A Terrible Roar of Water
.