One of my favourite songs on any summer’s day is Billie Myer’s “Kiss he Rain.”  Everytime we have drought in my desperation I often ask our local DJ’s to play the song.  With rain delaying fall harvest I wish I knew of another song.  Like they say, when it rains, it pours.

East West is back this week featuring your loyal scribe in the lead.  We’ve been writing that piece now for 3 and a half years starting at Cktimes.ca.  Check it out.  I write about how my relationship with Dr. Haque over a 18 year period has effected me.  To put it more generally, I’m writing about how we in he west don’t get it unless we know someone from the third world.  It’s about how we need to put ourselves in their shoes to think, learn and adapt to world events.  Click on East West to learn more.  Dr. Haque chimes in with some gems.

I have made some major improvements to the Farm Management link on the site.  Farm Management in this case stands for my feature articles from Country Guide magazine.  As many of you know I’m a regular contributor  to that monthly farm management guide.  I’ve added pictures to each article plus cleaned up the links.  The latest article is “Meet Me In Louisville”, my reflections on the best farm show in North America.  When you click on the link, a PDF file will be downloaded to your computer.  Feel free to email them to your friends or other farmers or agricultural businesses.  Clicking through “previous articles” will get you to other pieces I’ve written over the last year.

For something new you might go to www.ontariocorn.org and click on the Market Trends Podcast.  As many of you know I’ve been writing that market commentary for the Ontario Corn Producers Magazine since June.  Using some of the technology I use on this site, I suggested that we “podcast” market trends.  The Ontario Corn Producers Association decided it was worth a try so now it is reality.  Web surfers who now go to the OCPA site will now be able to listen or read the commentary.  If they don’t have time, they can easily download it to their iPod or MP3 players and listen at their leisure.  The technology is no longer new, but in the agricultural world there isn’t a lot of it.  Having a Macintosh computer makes it seamless for me to produce.  With Windows computers unfortunately dominating Ontario farm country, this new technology of “podcasting” is being seriously limited.

Click on Under the Agridome and At Issue this week.  I’m talking about local economic growth in Chatham-Kent in At Issue.  However, there is wide application to whereever you live.  The one week delay in Under the Agridome puts us talkin about corn futures and stabilization policy.  Stay tuned in future weeks.  You can always find past Agridome columns.  You just have to click on previous articles.

And of course those Pistons.  My guys are back at training camp.  Are “we” going to get back to the championship level this year?  Hmmmm, I don’t think so.  Big Ben and the Chicago Bulls, plus the Heat look pretty tough to me.  However, “I Love This Game!”  That’s the NBA game I mean. Yes, I’m Canadian but somwhere along the line I missed the point about hockey.

My Podcasting continues.  I’ve refined the sound a bit.  Let me know what you think.  My speaking engagements are filling up for January.  If you need some work done don’t hesitate to contact me.