Weathered by the weather

I had no plans to do the latest #Sundaystills prompt about weather. But I’ve spent the last 10 days being weathered and it gave me a concept.

Perhaps it’s true of most locations but somehow it seems like the wind is such an integral part of life on the Canadian prairies. So much that W.O. Mitchell wrote a book called “Who has seen the Wind?”

“Here was the least common denominator of nature, the skeleton requirements simply, of land and sky –Saskatchewan prairie…. But for now, it was as though a magnificent breath was being held; stiff puffs of cloud were high in the sky retaining their shapes for hours on end, one of them near the horizon…waiting for the unfailing visitation of the wind, gentle at first, barely stroking the long grasses and giving them life; later, a long hot gusting that would lift the black top soil and pile it in barrow pits along the roads or in deep banks against the fences…”

W. O Mitchell
Who Has Seen the Wind

So while I haven’t actually seen the wind I have been plummeted by it plenty this spring. We’ve commenced the once in a lifetime job of replacing the cedar shingles on our house roof.  That’s where the concept of this post came from; feeling the wind.

50+ years old versus just installed. Obvious which has been attacked by the weather.

If you’re into the details of what we did it can be found here at https://1918eatonseager.wordpress.com/2021/05/09/stage-2-act-2/ The house blog is a detailed record of the journey we’ve taken with our catalog house. I’m referencing it here because of the cedar shingles.

The story goes that Herbie and his sister Doris reshingled the house using the bucket of their tractor. We now believe that they only shingled the single story kitchen attic portion. The main three story roof shingles remain in decent condition and we suspect that they may actually be original. So while they are very weathered they’re actually in good condition. 100 plus years of wind rain hail sleet snow and the never-ending Prairie wind. Isn’t it amazing how something can stand up to the weather like that.

100+ years

When the shingles go on they are this gorgeous array of blondes to reds to deep russet browns. Interesting enough it only takes them about a week to fade out until they all look relatively blond.

Left hand side finished 5 days before right hand side. The garage was done 10.years ago. Only one structure remains to be done – can you spot it?

And then a year later they don’t appear to have changed much. Within 5 years they’ve developed a light gray patina. By  10 years on they are this lovely deep dark silver and they just keeps darkening with time.

1 year old shingles with a potential storm brewing to the west

Oh that we should stand up that well to the weathering that goes on in our bodies, especially if we spend all day in the wind and the sun. It takes its toll as can be seen by looking at any 55+ year farmer (or construction worker). I can actually remember going out to summer fallow (back in the days when that still happened) wearing a bikini so I could work on my tan. My dad was not impressed but whatever I got the work done. So even farm girls of that era can be worse for wear as who wore a hat, sunscreen or sunglasses back then?

But we should have been. It wasn’t until I had a grandchild that I stepped on the hat wagon. She had to so then Nan had to set a good example. I’ve worn sunglasses pretty consistently for years as my family has a strong history of some serious eye conditions so I’ve been working on prevention of what I can. Sunscreen is, unfortunately, kind of hit and miss. And that’s a serious issue across the world. In fact more people will die from skin cancer this year than will be affected by the side effects of the Astra Zenecia vaccines but who will hear about that? I was going to post a statistic about the number of men (more so) and woman and what countries are the hardest hit with this preventable cancer but decided to keep it a breeze (nice wind reference hey) post.

Havent mastered a good selfie yet and I could/should have smiled but here I am with hat, sunglasses and  sunscreen at the park with my grandchildren.

It’s up to us as individuals to take into account the weathering weather does on our bodies and protect as we can. This is most definitely a different tangent than Terri over at https://secondwindleisure.com/2021/05/09/sunday-stills-weathering-memories/ but it’s what I was thinking about up on the roof in the spring wind and endless sunshine.

There is no doubt that the weather I dislike the most is wind but it is perhaps not the one that does our human bodies the most damage. Although I am not so sure my lips would agree with that statement. I love me some sunshine but spending a lot of time in it does indeed carry some risks. Something to think about as the hot dry summer unfolds in front of us.

Bernie