Dog River
Dog River is really Rouleau near Regina and is about 250 miles away. The crops here are very good but they don't want to pay much for them. Forty years ago a bushel of wheat bought 10 gallons of gasoline but today you need 2 bushels to pay for one gallon.
Around here the pickup truck is the only transportation available. They have public transport in Saskatoon but that's 120 miles away. Once I've driven that 120 miles I'm not likely going to consider parking my truck to ride the bus.
On the subject of cost of heating the natural gas bill at my brother's yard was $3900 two years ago. We fabricated a coal burning hot water heater to heat the house and shop last winter but left the gas furnace in the house for when the coal fire died down. This brought the heating bill down to $700 for gas and $400 for coal. $400 of coal gives the same heat as $3200 of gas and they're talking a 30% price hike on gas this year. We're going to make a few alterations on the coal furnace this fall to try eliminating the gas entirely.
Maybe a person needs a coal gas cooker in the back of the truck. A cubic metre of coal has lots more available energy than a cubic metre of straw.
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