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Oursuitcaseswereout in the hall, to be picked up by the bellmen before breakfast at 6 a.m. and our trip to Nanton to visit where 2 W Livestock pan- els were made, followed by the Flying E Ranch visit. Rain as we left Banff. Some of the group had rented a carriage for a ride around town last night be- sides walking down to the falls. They had been up- graded since their 4 p.m. check in had been de- layed, plus having appetiz- ers, and dessert bar left for them. There was a high fence along the highway to keep the wild life off the road and we saw deer, elk and coyote. "Don't dam Spring- bank.org" was a sign we noticed west of Calgary. Learned that Calgary wanted to make the val- ley a holding pond, so the city wouldn't be flooded if Bow River should be high again. We toured the auto- mated plant with a state- of-the-art powder paint system, robotic welding capabilities, and laser cut- ting equipment at 2 W. Amazing to see how the panels were made. Met Hal Sears, patriarch of the family and his family involved in agriculture: Larry, Rick, Jeff, Joanne and Mike. It was raining hard while we were at 2 W, and our lunch stop was changed from the rodeo grounds to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, honoring those who served with Bomber Command during World War II. This was danger- ous, and the men had one in four chance of making it back. 9,000 American men came to Canada and joined the Royal Cana- dian Air Force, trained here and went overseas. There are 300-400 names of Americans on the me- morial wall. Bomber Com- mand's main target was industrial, but they also mined enemy waters, sunk enemy warships, the "Dambusters" raid, and pinpoint attacks on Ge- stapo headquarter. The Avro Lancaster bomber had a crew of seven with pilot, flight en- gineer, navigator, wire- less operator, bomb aimer/ front gunner, rear and up- per gun turrets. The Lan- caster first flew in Jan. 1941 and by war's end 7,374 had been built, with 3,932 lost in action. Following our luncheon of beef on bun, beef ribs, kale salad, baked beans and cookies, we had a demonstration of the rear gun turret and how it could turn. The ranch originated in 1886 as the Victor Ranch; purchased in 1891 by George Lane, who helped finance the first Calgary Stampede, and became the 22,000 acre Flying E. 1926, Lane sold to Pat Burns, who in 1949 sold to Alf Lewis. In 1951, the Harold Sears family purchased 2,900 acres from Lewis, and in 1976, Sears Ranches purchased the lease land and some deeded from Lewis' estate totaling 7,600 acres. The Sears family came from Topeka, KS in 1910, purchasing homestead land. In 1919-20 they lost cattle in the spring snow- storm. They also have a 6,000 head feedlot. Hal's son Larry and his family split away from Sears Ranches, keeping the cow herd, while his brothers kept farming and focused on feeding cattle. Larry and sons are run- ning 600 cows plus year- lings. Flying E Ranch has three kinds of land. 1. Deeded, with the canola land valued at $ 3,000 acre; 2. Crown lease in a 10 year lease, valued 20 to 30% of deeded land. 3. Forestry land in a 5 year lease. The ranchers can sell the leases on the land. We noticed a short sil- very willow growing on the range land. They did control burns on the pop- lars and willows, with a hot fire in the spring. Until 1910 the Indians used to burn the land. Af- ter two burns the rough fescue came back. They irrigate the grain fields with wheel lines, but had 13 sections of pivot ir- rigation. Many ranchers were cutting hay, which looked only about 18" high. It might have been alfalfa and vetch. It had been raining, with low fog as we drove to the Flying E Ranch on graveled roads, to view the replacement heifers in the low rolling mountains at headquarters. It was about 4,000 ft elevation, with 20 to 22 inches of rain annu- ally. There were springs on the ranch, and we drove past a solar pump and wa- ter trough that is moved to different pastures. They have 36 developed springs, four dams, five miles of pipeline and nearly 25 miles of electric fence en- closing 17 pastures. They have a spring and fall calving herd of Angus cows. Like the black ud- ders because of the snow. White udders get sun burned. We viewed the High Level Bridge that spans the Oldman River in In- dian Battle Park enroute to our hotel. They say it is the longest and high- est bridge of its type and construction in North America. The 1909 trestle bridge is one mile across the coulee and 300 ft high. Cost $1.3 million to build. It was so muddy, when we got to Lethbridge for the night, Cort our driver took the bus to a truck wash. Sitting in the bar visiting with friends, we saw him make three or more trips with bucket and mop as he cleaned the mud we tracked into the bus when we viewed the cattle and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee with cookies. Next morning we visited Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump near Fort Macleod. It is a World Heritage Site. There is evidence of hu- man activity in this area for at least 11,000 years. This buffalo jump had ar- tifacts from nearly 6,000 years of buffalo hunting. The native hunt- ers killed bison by driv- ing them over a preci- pice. These communal bi- son hunts required much organization and special skills to lure buffalo from the gathering basin into the drive lanes and finally over the sandstone cliffs. The hunters then butch- ered the kill at their camp- site below the cliffs. A theatre screens a 12 minute film that re-creates the buffalo hunts. Built into the cliff is a seven story interpretive center with displays. The site's name is de- rived from a young brave who stood under a ledge of the cliff to watch the buf- falo as they fell past him. As the number of car- casses multiplied, his skull was crushed as he became trapped between the ani- mals and the cliff. Our guide was Ea- gle Woman, a member of the Blood Tribe, and the Blackfoot Nation. She said the grass fires caused the black feet, as they traveled south to Yellowstone, and north to Edmonton. When we were on top of the cliff viewing the jump, we saw marmots in the sunshine. They were larger than squirrels. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON Livestock tour goes from 2 W to WWII PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thankyou! COURTESYPHOTO Coffee and cookies were enjoyed in the mud at the Flying E Ranch a er viewing the replacement heifers by members of the Alberta Wild Rose Canadian Ranch Tour, presented by Western Livestock Journal. The Associated Press UNPHA, NORTH KOREA North Korean farm- ers work to pump under- ground water into parched fields. Instead of rice seed- lings standing in flooded paddies, the baked earth is cracked. A big lake that used to supply surrounding farmland with water is al- most completely dry. There has been almost no rain in this part of North Hwanghae province, an hour's drive from the cap- ital Pyongyang and one of the country's main rice- growing regions, accord- ing to farmers and local of- ficials interviewed by The Associated Press. While the situation in the single area that the AP visited looks grim, it is unclear how se- vere the drought is in the rest of the country. "Because of the drought continuing from last year, lots of land has been dam- aged," said Sin Ung Hyon, chairman of the Unpha County Farm Management Committee. North Korea severely limits outside access, so state media's recent claim of the worse drought in a century has faced wide- spread skepticism. Pyong- yang, eager for the possi- bility of outside assistance, has used similar phrasing to describe past droughts, and officials in rival South Korea have said there's no way to confirm exactly what's happening. North Korean authori- ties agreed to a request by the AP to revisit this area, which the government had highlighted previously as particularly hard-hit. An AP video journalist was ac- companied by local officials. Outsiders worry that that there could be trou- ble ahead for the country, which has a long history of poverty and mismanage- ment. Critics say the au- thoritarian government is more willing to spend huge sums of money on its mis- sile and nuclear programs than on infrastructure and basic welfare. The United Nations has warned that the lack of rain this year could cause further hunger. Hong Yong- pyo, South Korea's minister of unification, told lawmak- ers this week that Seoul was willing to consider provid- ing aid to North Korea to help with the drought, al- though Pyongyang has yet to make any official aid re- quest. Farmers interviewed in this part of North Korea said they are turning away from rice farming, and are planting corn and trying to tap underground water sources to keep what rice seedlings there are wet and healthy. But no rain would mean grim prospects even for the corn. "With the hardship this year, farmers have a lot of difficulties in trying to make the farm work, be- cause we haven't had this kind of experience before," said Kim Gyong Nam, a work team leader at Unpha town farm. "This year, be- cause of the severe drought, we could not do rice farm- ing, so we ploughed the land again and had to plant corn." Jane Howard, a spokes- woman for the World Food Program in Rome, said North Korea has faced wa- ter shortages since late last year because of low rain and snowfall. This could cause serious problems later this year because so much of the country's food production normally comes from crops planted from June to July. 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