Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #33 - Doug Weir

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

Born & raised in Lloydminster Doug is a long time Vet who owned & operated Weir's Veterinary Services. He is another Community Pillar. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday. Hope everybody's having a great week. We got a great one on tap for you today. But of course, before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. First, we've got Jen Gilbert and the team for over 45 years since 1976. The dedicated realtors of Colwell Bank or Cityside Realty have served Lloyd Minster in the surrounding area. Star Powers what they're providing their clients with seven-day-a-week access because they know big life decisions are not made during office hours.

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residences and like commercial work. If you're looking to build your dream house, head to macconstruction.ca and look no further. Jim Spenrath and the team over at three trees, tap and kitchen. I got to get over there. I obviously haven't been in in a couple days because a couple days, a couple weeks. It looks like, by doing a little creeping, creeping, their patio has got a roof on it now. That's what I'm like pausing here to look at it again because I'm like, oh, that looks interesting. It says, Hex Dex obviously did the work.

They're so happy with the space turned out. Two-thirds of the patio now complete with barn doors on the south end. And it's real cozy with the fire pits and heaters. So I'm going to have to go check this out. Of course, slide on down there for a couple of my local favorites, Fourth Meridian, Ribstone Creek. I mean, they just got everything on tap. if you want to slide down for a nice pint. Of course, they've been having a little bit of live music there as well on different nights.

I always suggest don't be me. Call them Book of Reservation, 780-874-7625, all right. If you're looking for outdoor signage, the team over at Read and Right is who I go through. I'm always talking about the wall quote, the frosted window, the outdoor billboards, the wraps, everything. That's Read and Right. I always hassle Mrs. Deanna-Wanler. Give them a call 306. 8255-5-3-1. And finally, Gartner management is a Lloydminster-based company, specializing

in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs. Whether you're looking for a small office or a 6,000 square foot commercial space, give Wade Gartner a call at 8808, 5025. And if you're heading into any of these businesses, make sure you let them know. You heard about them from the podcast, right? Now, let's get on to that T-Barr-1, Tale of the Tape. Born in 1956 here in Lloydminster. He graduated from the U of S with a veterinary medicine degree in 1982. Soon after, in 1986, he took over ownership of Weir's veterinary

services. He's a community pillar. I'm talking about Doug Weir. So buckle up. Here we go. It is February 28, 2021. I'm sitting down with Doug Weir. So first off, sir, thank you for coming in today. Yeah, my pleasure to be here.

I'm actually excited to have a chat. Well, A, the snow was fallen, or it was falling, was it falling when you came in? Nope, it's done. It's done. Wow. Stopped. The weather this morning when I left was a little blestery, and it felt like it was starting to warm up, though. Like, because we had a real cold snap.

We went from, what, minus 50? Yeah, plus four? Yeah. Now back down to minus 20? It's... Yeah, and then next week's supposed to be good, so we'll take it. What do you think? We got a few more weeks of winter, or are we going to spring?

Oh, no. I think we'll have a little more winter yet. Got a few cows that will have a prolapse out in the middle of boonies on a cold night yet, I think. Well, that's your background. You're a vet here in town. You come from a line of vets. Yep, yeah. And when you say people said you should write a book, I assume it's the stories from being called out on late at night, freezing cold.

you're at the lake and you're laughing because you're like, yeah, yeah, okay. Well, we'll get into some of that because I'd love to hear some stories. Sure, yeah. Now, I always start, or I try to start with maybe some of your first memories as a kid growing up here in Lloyd. When you look back at your younger years, what's some of the fond memories that you can recall? I mean, I guess in maybe comparison to nowadays, I think we had great freedoms. You know, we, as a young kid, you'd hop in your bike and ride all over town and nobody worried about it. And you came back, came home as long as you're home by supper, it didn't matter.

And kids nowadays have a lot shorter leash and maybe for a good reason. But yeah, we just had great freedom and fun and lots of, would I say, unorganized time, you know, where we could just be kids. Yeah, it's different now, isn't it? It is different, you know. I'm not saying it's better or worse, but it's definitely different. Yeah, I can remember we lived right on Husky Road, and for years and years it wasn't paved. It was gravel and dustier than heck. And I remember the summer they paved it, and they had these great big piles of gravel down the road.

And me and a couple buddies would be on our bikes trying to do jumps over the gravel and scratching our knees up and all that stuff. But nobody worried much, you know. What was it? What was the bike you had back in the day? Was it, you know, as a kid, I remember Giant as being one of the big bike makers, manufacturers. Yeah. What was, what was it? Was it the Schwinn?

Well, actually, I mean, in my day, the kids wanted a banana bike. It was called with the banana seat. It was kind of a long banana shaped seat with the handlebars that came up. So I didn't get one of those, but I remember my buddy getting one. So I remember his bike. I don't remember my own. The banana bike. Yeah.

That's kind of come back in popularity, has it not? Am I thinking similar ones? Yeah, I think handlebar-wise anyway, maybe not the seat. Not the seat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, your dad was a vet in town. So you get introduced to the vet world at a very, very young age, I assume. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, our house actually had, well, it looks like a garage on the side of the house, but it was a vet clinic when I was a kid. So, yeah, when I was four or five, the vet clinic was attached to the house and people just knocked on the door and came in with their pet or actually didn't bring cows into the clinic in those days. I mean, it was all ambulatory or on farm for all the cattle horsework. But, yeah, all sorts of pets and stuff coming to the clinic and kids with injured birds and all that stuff, you know. And that was only the first few years of my life. I mean, I think dad built the clinic when I was about five or six. So it's just, I only have a very vague recollection of the host being the vet clinic, but I do remember it.

That would have been an interesting time, wouldn't it? Yeah. Everybody bringing their pets and everything else right to your front doorstep. Yeah. And of course, I mean, it was a very small town then, of course. But, you know, I guess the fact that your home is your place of business too is a little different. you're quite accessible, I guess. If you're home, you're ready to work sort of thing.

Yeah, you wouldn't be taking a sick day, would you? No, no sick days, no. No. What did you learn from your parents? You know, you get to work with your father. Yeah. And you go into the family business. But back when you were a young whipper snapper,

yeah. What were your parents impressing upon you? No question. question work ethic was a big deal you know yeah they believed a little bit in nothing a little hard work won't solve kind of thing you know but I think they also impressed upon me that you need to take a little time for yourself too even when we were dad was smoking busy you know building a vet clinic and stuff he always found time to take us on a little family holiday you know so and

And I remember when I took over the business, that was one of the things he commented to me. You'll always find a reason not to go on a holiday. It'll always be a reason, but you find a reason to go. So I thought that was pretty good advice, you know. But he didn't, he expected me to work hard, and I think I did. But yeah, there was another side to that. So, yeah, and fairness for sure. I mean, he was a big, big believer in treating everybody you met fairly and the rest will follow sort of thing, you know.

Where did you take your family vacations to? Out to the Okinawagan, a little place called the Soyuz. Okay. Yeah, right on the U.S. border. Actually, the lake kind of goes into the U.S. Yeah, interesting. So my mom and dad took me to this same little old hotel, nothing fancy at all. I think we first went there in 1961.

And I've been there about 40 times to the same little spot. And it's not fancy, but it's right on the water. Kids can run. You didn't have to worry about, you know, they couldn't go anywhere. And it was just super relaxing. And it was our own holiday, too. It wasn't a bunch of people that I knew from here. We met people from Seattle and Vancouver and Palm Springs and all over there that became

really good friends. And so that was just something different. You know, you weren't talking about the Lloydminster stuff all the time there. It was, I could have told him I was a brain surgeon if I wanted. I guess they wouldn't have known any different. Have you ever operated on any brains? No, not live. So you are, your family is of the belief then, of going to the same spot all the time for vacations?

Yeah, well, I don't know, but we did do it. We did some other holidays too, but yeah, we enjoyed that. And I think the reason is it was the people draw. You know, we got more value out of the people than we did the place, I think. Yeah, we enjoyed going other places too, but that family holiday was... That's an interesting thought. I've never really... I come from the I want to see different things.

Yeah. You want to meet different people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, different. And I... So I'm curious then, what's... If you look back on the 40 different times you've gone to this little spot,

yeah. There must be a couple people then that stick out that have made it worthwhile going there. Oh, for sure. Yeah, there's probably six families. And it's quite interesting. So now, I mean, my kids, only one of my children still goes. But these other families, their children still go. And they are now bringing their grandchildren to this place.

So it's been a real, I know, there's something special about it. It's a small town. It's relaxing. And the weather is nice, you know. But I think there is that people thing. You're on this little beach and it's, oh, hi, how are you? Yeah, yeah. You know, and you can visit in and out of the day.

and golf together, ski together, whatever. How did your dad find it? Do you just pick a spot in the map and go? They had been to Vernon one year, and with an uncle of mine, and an uncle's friend said, oh, they're building a new hotel down on a Soyuz. And I think the year we went,

and I don't quite remember this, but I think only the first floor was open for business sort of thing. It's a two-story thing, nothing massive. But, yeah, so we went and tried it and never left. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, and actually, I mean, so my dad and his brother-in-law went every year for a number of years. And then my cousins from Lloyd Minster area, my mom and dad would take one of them each year for a number of years.

And then my uncle Jim started going. And yeah, it was just one of those things that kind of... It became almost, well, it did become a tradition. Yeah. Of going to Osayas to that little hotel where you get to meet everybody. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? That's cool.

Yeah, it is cool. Yeah. A lot of people like a tradition, right? Like something to look forward to, but to keep it going that long and to have that strong of feelings where only did it start with your dad, then you kept it going and to see other families that did it with not only their parents and them

and then to see their kids doing it too. That's interesting. Yeah, no, it really is. And I don't know. I think that might be my whole, not my whole draw to Lloydminster, but it's the people thing, you know? I'm a believer that the place is the people.

You know, I mean, you could go to, you know, you could go move to Colone if you want, and if you don't meet the right people, I don't know, just the environment probably isn't enough to keep you happy, you know. So meet the right people in whatever place and probably life will be good. Kelly Sadorke had, uh, from town here,

was writing an article for, um, start up Lloyd, I think. And at the start of it, It's this little tiny short story. And it's a newcomer comes to town and talks to the old guy. He says, what are the people like here? He says, I don't know. What were the people like where you came from? And he goes, I didn't like him very much.

I'm happy to get out of there. You'll probably find more of the same here. And then the next day, another newcomer comes to town and talks the same old guy. And he goes, what are the people like here? He's like, what are the people like where he came from? Oh, excellent. I'd go back there in a heartbeat if I could. Hmm, I think you'll find more of the same.

Right. Where you're at. Right. And that's exactly what you're talking. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You can find the good or the bad anywhere you go.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm a believer in. I'm not saying I do it, but I do think you have a choice when you get up in the morning, you know, to a certain extent. Are you going to have a good day or a bad? You know, I mean, how you process it. And like I say, I don't consciously ask myself that question, but, yeah, we can all find reasons to have a bad day.

I mean, man, I am. but basically I'm a believer the world is full of good people and I guess maybe that's why I get taken sometimes too because I'm a real believer you know I believe in honesty and good people and trust and all that stuff but but I do believe that they are out there and most of them most are like that

well I know well see on the podcast when people hear this I don't know if they get annoyed or not I just know they it comes up because I say it all the time. I'm a firm believer in positivity spreads just as quickly as negativity. You get the truth. And I've been across all of Canada.

I've been through parts of the United States or get a chunk of it, married a girl from the United States, been across to Europe. And all I ever find are good people. And are there bad people out there? Sure, yeah. And are there bad people in life? Yeah, sure.

So, I mean, there's just as many good. Well, there's not just as many. There's way more. more for sure yeah and so i i'm a firm believer in that but you don't have to wake up in the morning and go i mean you can yeah but you don't need to go hey i'm going to have a good day no no that's right half the time i probably do that unconsciously right so i think that's really cool yeah no i i do i mean i think uh yeah well we've we've we've both met those people that can't see that positive thing it could be staring them in the face and they go yeah yeah man weather's cold or whatever

got this new car you are but weather's cold old, you know, sort of thing. So, I don't know. I guess so if we have to. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly. Go back to your childhood. What was, what was, what was, what was, I don't know if you would have had Saturday morning cartoons.

I can't remember where along the line that hit, but do you remember what shows you used to watch on television? No, not. I mean, not the cartoon stage. I don't. I mean, I remember, you know, the gun smoke and Beverly Hillbill. and that kind of thing and mash, but yeah, not, I don't remember the cartoon stage. Did your parents ever restrict shows from you? That's where I was going with this is now you go back to when we were talking about kids having shorter leashes.

And back then they had, you know, you had a longer leash. Now, you know, the access to information is unnerving at times. Unlimited. That's right. Yeah. Almost omnipresent. And you can just go anywhere at any time if you want to and know how to get there. It's pretty crazy.

As a growing up as a kid, did they ever go, you know, no, that show isn't for you? I don't think so, but I guess, you know, I'm not, I don't recall any bad shows being on before my bedtime sort of thing, you know. We watched Walt Disney and all that kind of stuff and Ed Sullivan and, so no, I don't recall that. Maybe in my teen years or something, but not as a youngster. I sure don't remember it. did you do in your teen years? What were, were you a part of clubs? Were you in sports? Yeah, more sports. I mean, I tried the, the Cubs for a year or so, but it wasn't really my thing. But yeah, I played ball and played hockey and just played outside, you know. But I really

enjoyed baseball. And I didn't start hockey until I was like pee-wee age or something like that. But I don't know how much, I guess there was hockey before then, but my parents were pretty busy, you know, and I guess that's the, maybe the reason behind it. But, yeah, dad used to send, he would send one of his other vets to take me to a tournament sometimes because he felt he was too busy. So that would be one of the vets jobs to take me to a tournament or, you know, a ball game or something like that. So you're going to get paid today to take my son to a baseball game. Yeah. Eat popcorn and sit back and enjoy it. Yeah. And yet he, they got there as much as they could, but I think it was a different time and place a little bit too. I mean, they, I remember my mom taking me

of the 6 a.m. hockey practices and stuff, but they sure wouldn't sit there and watch you, you know, it would be drop off and pick up and, um. You had 6 a.m. prices back then too. Yeah. And midgett we did. I remember. Yeah. Yeah. How was that? How was that back then? I'm curious if you had the same thoughts I did 30 years after you. Yeah, I did not care for them at all. But yeah, I wasn't, I mean, that was midget, whatever we had in double a here or something like It was all, you know, but it just seemed a little excessive for my level of abilities, that's for sure. Well, I tell you what, I'm 30 years younger than you. And so 30 years later, we had 6 a.m. practices.

And I just remember my fingers hurt more in the morning at that time. They didn't want to even tie up skates. They were just like, this sucks. Yeah. Yeah. So. How about in high school? when you were thinking about what you wanted to do in life, was it always fed?

No, no. Interestingly enough, I don't know that I had a real plan. I was sort of a math science kid, you know, that was my strong parts. I think I was maybe a little young and rebellious at that time because I wasn't going to be a vet, really. I'm not saying that I out and out said, oh, I'll never be a vet, but it wasn't on my radar, you know. And I ended up taking a year off after high school and going to Australia for about, six months and something and I don't remember if there was any life-changing moment but something changed and when I got back I applied for or to go into pre-vette and through agriculture and yeah never kind

of looked back I guess why Australia um well kind of interesting um so the creche family are my relatives and they had had um a couple of young boys work on their farm that were kids of veterinarians that my dad knew. So dad had this, you know, this connection, found a job for these boys on the Kreech farm. So I think that was kind of the driving thing. We knew we had these contacts in Australia and these two kids that had worked on the farm and we were going to go back and sort of visit them. And so yeah, Bill Kreech and I went, we went for six months to Australia and New Zealand. And we actually stayed with the dean of the vet college there for about a month or six weeks or something.

And I don't know if it was something during that time that changed my mind. I kind of doubt it because we didn't hang out at the vet college at all. But anyway, something. What did you do for six months? We toured around, but we worked in the Melbourne Zoo for a month. That was... You had to work in the Melbourne Zoo? Yeah.

That's the great thing about having a vet for her dad? I guess. Well, this dean of the Werrabee Vet School there, they looked after all the animals, I believe, or he had some connection with the Melbourne Zoo, and he's the one who got us this job. We were just maintenance guys there, but it was also my first exposure to real union-type workers, and it was an eye-opener for a couple of kids that were used to working on the farm. How so?

Just, you know, when it's coffee time, you stop, and you take a break, and you don't work a minute past five o'clock, and, you know, that's not your job. You should let so-and-so do that. And we got in trouble a couple times for working through our break because we were, well, we were almost done the job. We said, let's just finish it up, you know, and we'd get back late for lunch and then be like, hey, you guys, don't be doing that. Let's expect us all to do it.

And they were good guys, but it was just a different mentality, you know. Well, if you've ever worked for anything unionized or that mentality, it is very interesting coming from the farm when you get told you're working too hard. Yeah. Because I've had that told to me once. You ain't working too. I'm just working. Yeah.

Yeah. And I don't know that all unions are like that, but that was my first exposure. And it just seemed odd to me that, you know, there was some guy needing help with something. And we kind of wandered over and gave him a hand. And the guy goes, hey, you guys aren't on that crew. Get over here. You know, so. Yeah.

What did you come from small town, rural, Saskatchewan, Alberta. I was about to say border city, but that. Yeah. going over to Australia, seeing New Zealand, what were some of the things that just you took away from that? Like, was there certain things that just stuck out to you immediately? You know, the vastness of Australia, very similar to Canada, and we went blind.

I mean, it's not like nowadays, I don't think, where you would have been researching on the internet, and you knew, I mean, we landed in Sydney and phoned this, our contact, and realized he's like 12 hours away. We're going, oh, okay, now what are we going to do sort of thing? So we just kind of flew by the seat of our pants. But yeah, he put us to his uncle and we found a car and toured along.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Australia, even then, you hear about laid back Aussies, you know. And I think even then, that would have been one of our general impressions that life was pretty laid back and I don't want to say easy. but nobody worried too much. Have you ever gone back? Just my sister lives there now, so I've been back a couple times, I guess. Oh, okay, okay.

And how has it changed since you went? Like, lots? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. It's much more fast moving and that sort of thing, but there's still that the beach kind of feeling. And I guess maybe as tourists, you're attracted more to those areas too, where it's the, you know, relaxing, take your time sort of thing. But, no, it's, it's big sense.

city, big industry, you know, lots of agriculture and all that stuff for sure. And in general, the world has started to move fast, doesn't it? That's right. Yeah. So when you come back from there, you get, you go, something's changed. I'm going to school. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I'm not sure. I was kind of wondering about maybe engineering was sort of in my mind a little bit, you know, before that. I was always planning on doing some sort of secondary education. But yeah, it's still to this day, I think about it every now and then, and why did I all of a sudden change my mind?

But it also might have been more that it was in me before. And somehow I dropped the rebellious side of it, you know, and let it surface is more likely what it was, right? I'm not going to do what my dad did sort of thing. But yeah, maybe it'll be okay. Yeah. When you go to the U of S, is that where you meet? your significant other?

No, we had met in high school, actually. Oh, met in high school? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she was Bob Jack's daughter. So Bob Jack's along. Oh, okay. Right? You know Bob Jack's.

Yeah, absolutely. Bob Jack's a very familiar name here in town. Yeah. So, yeah, we went to high school together, and we started dating just before grade 12 was done. So you were dating a girl while you were in Australia and New Zealand. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Hey, no judgment here. My wife, we were dating when I was in Finland and she was in New York. So I completely get the distance to say that's interesting. Okay. Yeah. Well, let's talk about Debbie for a little bit. Sure.

I had not realized she'd passed away in 2017. So obviously married for 40 years dating since high school. I had not realized that part. Yeah. What was it that attracted you to Debbie back then for 40 years? What was it about it that made a tick? You even mentioned, I think, before we started, that she was one of the most influential people on your life,

obviously being married together for that many years. She would have some impact. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, that's a tough question. I mean, she was full of life and spoke her mind. You know, she wasn't one of these people that just kind of hung back. in the corner and obviously in my mind was beautiful so yeah that's probably what stood out to me you know we got married at a very young age too we got married when we were 19 and yet yeah our we went through tough times you know financially

and whatever else and you know we had our first child when I was still in university so we had lots of kind of lean times and I'd be studying in the bedroom and trying to keep the baby quiet and holy man But yeah, we got went through all those little in hindsight, I guess, little trials and tribulations and life was good, you know, so. Yeah. Married at 19. I always, I always bring this up to people. When you look at a 19 year old now.

Yeah. They seem like a really young kid, don't they? Yeah. I mean, you're almost twice my age and I'm saying that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I remember, and maybe you're the same. At 19, you probably thought you had the world by the tail.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I obviously thought I had some direction and knew where I was going, you know. But I'm sure our parents, you know, probably looked at us and go, oh, boy, where are these two going, you know? But yeah, and I guess maybe that's part of its luck, I'm sure, but we both had good family values, good families that gave us family values, I think, and a little bit of try in us and a little bit of work in us. And so I think that's what made it work. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, so Deb was going to university too. She had her Bachelor of Music and Music Education. So you had, we're both going to university and had a child while you're both going to university?

She was done university by then because I was in school for seven years with the three years for pre-vete and four years of vet school. So she had been done for a year or two. Yeah. What do you, now that you're older, did you enjoy? What part of kids did you enjoy when they're young? The, I don't know, pre-teen years, the teen years, the adult years? Oh, probably the pre-teen years are more fun. You know, they're, yeah, they're just excited about life in general, you know,

and they're exploring learning and carefree and, you know, not. all those social pressures that I think start for them in those mid school years. Deb always used to say grade eight was the worst three years of my life sort of thing because all the kids went through, you know, they were fairly close together and it seemed like a stressful time when the kids are growing up, you know. So yeah, I would say before then was more fun. Yeah. Now going back to 40 years of marriage, I always, it's something I strive. I hope that in, well, we're just coming up on seven, so 33 years from now, I can say the same thing, right? Like, that's what I hope.

It's something that I really admire on people. 40 years, I chuckled because you go, well, we had our shit-fares downs and ups and ups and ups. You can't possibly just have straight-ups. Like, that doesn't work. And that wouldn't make the, like, the ups and downs are will make a relationship. You bet. So when you look back at 40 years, well, actually, it would have been more than how many years were you with Deb since you started dating?

I guess another three or four years before that. So about 43, 44 years. Yeah. Over that span of time, what lessons that did you learn about maybe being with somebody else over that time? Like what advice could you give, I guess, is what I'm trying to pull out of you. Right, right. For other people that are maybe in year one America, maybe you're just dating somebody. I have no idea.

Yeah. I think maybe there's a happy medium and everything, you know, and there's a little give and take, I would think. Like, you can't have it your way all the time, and yet you can't give in all the time either for things you firmly believe in. I'm not going to say you can't stick to that level if it's going to wreck the relationship. Somebody's got to be willing to meet in the middle. And I think we were very good at that. I really do. I mean, there was, there was somebody. things that she stuck to her guns, you know, about. And she was, she was the disciplinarian for sure with the kids, you know, and, and if she said they weren't going out to such and such a party, they weren't going. And I was probably more that, well, you know, no, and she was right, you know,

so that's what I mean that I had to come around and realize that. You were the good cop. Yeah, I was a good cop. That's right. Yeah. But yeah, no, and I, and I believe that in life in general, sort of, I don't know exactly what that term means, but that happy medium thing, you know, there's, it's like even in politics, right? In the U.S. right now, there's, there's a happy medium there somewhere and one guy was too far this way and the other guy's too far that way. And it should be a little more midline on a lot of things in life works out better. Like old, um, grandpa Pike, who was Jim's dad, um, used to say, uh, something like, um, you know, a happy. medium and everything. He said you can have too much food, too much exercise, you know,

too much religion, too much whatever can make you off balance or things. Somewhere middle of the road and the middle of the road is different for everybody. That doesn't mean it's my middle, but there is a middle ground there that is, tends to be suitable. Yeah, that appeases the mass as you would think. Yeah. And I would say that the, the, the middle of the road is slowly redefining itself year by year because, I mean, you go back 100 years. The middle of the road was a hell of a lot different than it is now. Absolutely. Right?

And that's not a bad thing. That's not a bad thing. No. No, not at all. Yeah. Yeah. Do you care to talk about 2017 at all? Yeah, I mean, you talk about ups and downs in life, you know?

I mean, when Deb got diagnosed with cancer, that was in 2000. It was totally a fluke. we'd come back from our holiday place in a Soyuz. Well, been back in that same week, she had just a general physical, and they found some enlarged lymph nodes, and, you know, on it, went from there. She had breast cancer and surgery and chemo and radiation and all that stuff. But, you know, on the upside, so we had a good life for 17 years after that. Was there trials and troubles in there?

You bet there was, you know, lots of doctor's appointments and, you know, stresses. and for seven, whoa, 17 years? Yeah. So 2000, she found cancer. Yeah. And lived with it for 17 years. Yeah. Yeah.

And there was lots of tough times, but there was lots of good times in there, you know? Different a little bit, you know, but still good. So, yeah, 2017, I mean, it, you know, obviously got much worse from sort of August to December sort of thing. and it is interesting how you that no longer defines Deb that part you know even so we're three years whatever just over three years ago and that's not the part I remember of life so that's a good thing yeah absolutely yeah you know you mentioned uh she was pretty steadfast on certain things I'm curious, when you look back, what's one of the things she grinded on you? Because you wouldn't do it or you were slow at doing it or maybe she believed it and you didn't.

I'm always, the wife and I have are certain disagreements. Not sure I can recollect one of those right now, to be honest. Yeah, probably that I guess work may be came first too often. for me, you know, like we'd get back from that summer holiday and usually within a couple hours I'd sneak off to the clinic to see how things have been going and what had happened and, you know. But she understood too. She, you know, back in the early days when we didn't have the cell phones and stuff, when I went out on a call, she answered the, you know, she answered the WeirVet Clinic phone and helped them out as best she could and said, yep, Doug will be back in

45 or an hour. He just went to do a calving or whatever it was, you know. So she got it. And she was a extremely hard worker, as I think most ladies of families are. They, I think, and maybe in the farming side, I think this maybe is even truer, but man, I see a lot of farm ladies that work hard. Wow. Just, and it's not five days a week. Mind you, farming isn't five days a week either. But I guess if I revert back to even my thing, you know, like I might have been done at five or six or six 30, whatever it was, but the wife and the family typically is not. They're still organizing the kids for the next day and getting lunches and running them to whatever. So yeah, she was a very busy lady. Well, you came in here and said, you're a busy guy. And I went, I don't know,

like, and that's part of it because my wife's at home with three kids right now doing whatever she's got to do. and when I get home and then it just, it doesn't stop, right? Yeah. So it's all a state of mind almost. It's a perception. Yeah. Yeah, you bet you.

I wonder, do you miss the times before cell phones when you were just out on a call or were you nervous to get home to go, how many more did I miss and where am I going next? Yeah, I know. Yeah, I think it was a better time, you know. I think people's, what's the word I'm looking for? expectations, you know, are so much higher now that, you know, gee, I phone and you weren't, you didn't pick up or you weren't there. Well, yeah, I had my cow in the, or my hand on the

side of a cow sort of thing, you know, like, it's a strange thought, isn't it? Yeah. Because if I, well, if Doug texts me today and I miss it or I don't look at my phone for an hour or two, you think, well, that's, like, you're on the other side going, I didn't, hasn't texted it back in, I wonder what's going on there. Yeah. Right. And then you start thinking too far into it when, in fact, it could just be, you just be, you're going to be, you be like you think about 20 years ago well I mean all through college I didn't have a cell phone I didn't want one right I didn't want like uh I like this right here because the phone's off and even if it's ringing I really don't care people should know by now on Sundays here I sit and talk to somebody and we don't have a lot of this anymore no because if we were in a group of 10 people somebody's on their phone almost 99% of the time one of them is and actually probably if you looked at watch probably 50% of the time, five or more of them are on their phone, right? And that's how, that's, it's just always there, which is, there's a lot of good things about it.

There's a lot of drugs. A lot of bad things, yeah. Yeah. I, uh, so Deb's mom, we still get together almost every Sunday night for supper and kind of sometimes a fair bit on Saturdays for coffee with the kind of immediate family. We just had this discussion yesterday about, we were talking about something and, uh, I pulled out my phone to look up. what we were talking about. And I know Deb used to say this too, but whatever happened to just a good discussion

where we don't have to pull out a phone to prove who's right or wrong. And there's some truth to that too, you know. I mean, you're having this discussion about, you know, who won the World Series and whatever. And I think it was so on. So we go, well, wait a minute. And what did we do before that?

What did you do before that? If they said, who won the Stanley Cup back in 19, I don't know, I'm going to go old, 1951. Yeah. Who was that? Geez, I don't know. Like, does it just, did we just, did you just used to have conversations where you just forgot about it? I think so. Yeah, just left it. Yeah, I have to look that up sometime, you know, like, yeah. So, you know, you're right. I mean, there's a lot of good and a lot of bad, but, you know, you back to your question about do I long for that time in a way. To a certain extent, yeah. Interesting. I can remember how did you communing? So how did you get by without? that in some respects in a in a practice it was busy and still had lots of emergencies happening and I'll just tell you one little to me funny scenario I

was I'm guessing 10 or 11 at night and I was heading out west of Kit Scottie to do to do a prolapse on a cow and and no no cell phone no pager then and we always still had two people on call because we were fairly busy and I'm driving out west there and all of a sudden this guy comes out, Ted Allen was his name, they lived out just straight south of Kit Scottie and I see this guy and kind of walking out onto the road and he waves me down and so anyway my partner in the business had phoned Ted Allen to say, I don't think Doug Willa past your corner yet stop him because the cow died so it's a lot further so tell them to turn around and get back to the office. So kind of funny how do you manage,

you know, and there's just a funny, to me it was a funny little story. This poor guy he was probably 75 or 80 then. The last phoned him to go out in the middle of the night, basically to flag me down. But anyway, we managed, you know. Problem solved. Yeah. That's, when I hear that, I go, like,

I think he had to go, huh, you left, yeah, to do it with, probably hasn't got, because what happens if he goes out there and you just, I don't know, I waited for five minutes. He wasn't there. Yeah, right? And I guess the difference is probably in, I don't know, It was like 86, let's say, for a guess. There probably wasn't much traffic at 10 o'clock at night out on the country road either, you know.

So it's a little, it's different now. There's just more everywhere, right? So. When we talk about you going to school for seven years, did you enjoy it right from the start? Did you, was it like, yeah, I made the right choice? Yeah, I mean, it was, I found it really hard work. Like, I studied hard and I worked hard. And it's funny, I remember my sister, she's 18 months older than me, and when I got accepted into vet school, so this is after their initial agriculture.

But she made some comment like, well, you're not going to like it, you know, it's going to be really hard. And I said, if I don't like it, I'll quit. She goes, you will not. And I said, I will. Like, if this isn't my thing, I'm not going to do it, you know. But anyway, to kind of, I enjoyed it. And again, I think I didn't enjoy this. the hours and hours of studying and the stress of exams and that sort of thing. But, man, I made

some lifelong friends, you know, and not that I knew it at that time, but really good people from all over Saskatchewan and eventually in vet school from Alberta, wherever. And, you know, that's a big drawing card. On lifelong friends, I was having this discussion about a week ago. So you have to entertain my brain. Yeah. I was saying I have three older brothers, an older sister. So immediately lifelong, we all get along, which is good. And so we hang out a lot, which means, as you know, as you get older and have kids and a wife and everything else and the commitments of work and everything, your time gets limited. Yeah.

Which means you only have so much time for friends. You just, that's just the natural fact of it, right? Over your time, did you ever, we were talking about, how rare it is that somebody actually gets to enter your circle, so to speak. They got to be the right person. They got to hit you at the right time. And that in itself is unique. Now, you've got lifelong friends from college.

Yeah. Did you ever, over your years up until now, have somebody enter your circle later on in life, after college, let's say, where they became a really lifelong friend? Did that happen? Did I phrase that the right way? Yeah, you phrased it the right way. I'm not so sure, you know. And for, I can't, yeah, yeah, there probably is, I guess.

Yeah, there are. I don't mean to put you on the spot to give an exact name. No. But you understand what I'm. Yeah, yeah. I think there are other ones that become lifelong friends, but I'm not, I think they come a little more casual. And I think at least at university, at vet college, you're 60 of you in this class,

and you basically move everywhere for four years. So you really get some exposure. And obviously the ones that you don't get along with, you know, go elsewhere and you form this little group. And I think you really get to know the inside of people. It's not one of those casual, yeah, pretty cold out today kind of things. And even though we have lots of that still, but there's a deeper relationship than that.

And that's not as easy as you just alluded to to break into that. because partially because of your comment about time, at a certain stage in life, you don't, I'm not going to say have that much time, but you don't take that kind of time to develop those relationships, you know? So I have some lifelong friends that I met through my children, right? That our families hung out a lot,

and I've known them for 30 years, and they're good friends, but I don't, they're not at the same level as my three vet school buddies. So you still get to, together with the three vets school buddies? Yeah, you know, we went, the one I do quite frequency, quite frequently. The others, we got together for like 35 years in a row for a four-day golf trip every year. We never missed, you know, and we still talk and that sort of stuff. So, yeah.

Where do you go golfing then with them? Has it been all over? Yeah, I mean, you know, typically like radium area or Kelowna area or usually one of those two, but we've been. We've gone to Vancouver and once to the U.S., but try to keep it simple. You know, not go too far, too expensive. We all had young kids and kind of sneak away for three or four days and get back at it kind of thing, you know. Yeah, you know, you talk about hard work and you think you're a hard work, to even make a friendship last that long where you're not in the same town and you're going to places and have a due year after year after year.

That's hard work, too. It takes work. It doesn't. Yeah, I often say that doesn't happen by accident. No, it does not. No. It's yeah, somebody somebody's got to put in the effort. Yeah. Now going back to college, you graduate, you now have one kid? Yeah. Did you come specifically rate back like were you talking to your father going, hey, I want to come work in town? No, I mean, I guess because Deb and I were both from Lloyd, I think it was in the back of our minds that eventually we would end up here. But we were actually looking forward to going elsewhere for some length of time. We didn't have any. you know, real. If that isn't a common thread

at everybody I think that comes from Lloyd. Okay. Right? I think so. Yeah, probably right. Yeah, I want to go. Let's get out of town. Yeah, I'm,

let's go somewhere else. Let's go to Cologne. Let's go somewhere this night. It's funny. You hit a certain age and we all come back. Yeah, yeah. It's a lovely spot. Yeah.

If the bloody wind would die down, we'd like a lot more. I know. I know, yeah. Although then probably a lot more people would like it and probably stick around on it. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's true. That is a very common theme when you think about that.

People want to leave, but how many drift back eventually and make it home? It's a, like, it's a beautiful spot. I know there's, you know, it doesn't have the mountains and stuff like that, but like the, even the city size right now, it's still small enough where you can really get an intimate feel with a lot of Lloyd. Yeah. And surrounding community. I mean, I'm a Hillman kid, right?

Yeah. I mean, there isn't any smaller of a town than Hillmont, Saskatchewan. Yeah. When you came back, when you first started out, where did you go? I went to Red Deer first and then down to Fort McLeod after that. Working in different vet practices? Yeah. What was the biggest thing, not the biggest thing.

When you went from, you know, the book, reading the book to like the practical experience, now you're working and working on animals, were you a little nervous at the start? Oh, absolutely. And it's funny, there was a technician back when I first worked in Red Deer that had been there a long time, and she was a taskmaster, I guess you'd say. And of course, I was slow at doing surgeries, you know, and I can remember her coming into the surgery and just taking the anesthetic machine and goes, turns it off. You're done. And you'd be like, ah, so you can start sewing faster, faster, faster, like, so it was stressful, but it made you realize,

hey, you better learn to pick up the pace here. We got other things we got to get done in a day. And, you know, so yeah, it was stressful, but yeah, you know, and I'm not sure it's totally different now, but it's probably tougher for new graduates now. But back then, I think we just did the best we could. And people accepted that not everything is going to work out right. And it is harder for new graduates now. And I guess because of the media, you know, people, you can look on TV at all sorts of vet shows and you have expectations of MRIs and CT scans and, you know, put a prosthetic limb on. I don't know, but. Have you had somebody asked for a prosthetic limb? No.

But we've had some, you know, like the glass eye thing and, you know, all those kind of things. Yeah. So I think their expectations are high and it's tougher for new grads. I mean, we just, we, we were going to fail, and we accepted there were going to be some failures. And I think new graduates are a lot more fearful now, that's for sure. What was, what was, in your years in vet, a vet, what am I saying here? In your years as being a vet. Yeah.

Not as a vet. Anyways, what is some of the, like, what has been a major change in those years from the very start till now? I mean, from a veterinary medicine standpoint, the diagnostic abilities for sure is what's changed the most. You know, I mean, now most clinics have their own blood analyzing machines right in the clinic. They all have x-rays. They have ultrasounds. So, I mean, if you bring in a horse or a pet or whatever with an internal medicine problem, I mean, you can do, you know, check their thyroid, check their blood count, check their chemistry panel. do an x-ray and do an ultrasound in two hours and have the results, you know. What did you do in 82?

You used your best guess. I mean, you still, I think we were probably a little better, I'm going to say, at analyzing the patient and ruling out. Well, it can't be thyroid because this is a whatever dog of this age of that type. So we're going to take that out. Whereas nowadays, it's like, well, no, we better check it just in case. So you do all this host of tests before you didn't have that. So you made your best judgment and came up with a treatment. And that was also part of your diagnosis.

Like, oh, we tried that and that didn't work. So what about, you know, because the majority of them aren't life threatening. And not just like when you go to the doctor, right? It's usually something that you're not going to be in real trouble in the next 48 hours. It's, yeah, there's just this thing, right? So yeah, I think we, and we became better, I think, at evaluating hands-on with the patient maybe. And history becomes so important trying to diagnose that stuff because, well, it just does. I mean, if the dog was just playing with a chew toy, yeah, maybe that's related to what he's got going on, you know?

Yeah, so we never relied anywhere near as much on diagnostic procedures, you know. Yeah, veterinary medicine has come a long, long way. What brings you back to Lloyd? You do your traveling. You know, you mentioned red deer and a couple other places. Yeah. What sells you on coming back to Lloyd? Well, I think I knew I was coming back,

and my mom's health wasn't good, to be honest. So, you know, dad kind of made the call and said, well, and dad was 65 then I think about. said, you know, if you're thinking on coming home, now would be a good time. So we would have liked to stay away for another year or two, to be quite honest. But it's funny, you made the story about what was the last place you were at, you know. Well, when we moved down to Fort McLeod, I mean, talk about wind blows and it's kind of gray and dull and like not much of a town down to Fort McLeod. We loved it there.

Met great people and we could have stayed, could have stayed, to be honest. you know, so yeah, we were a little disappointed to move home in some respects, but yeah, we had lots of family and friends. And it is funny, though, when we moved home, one of the thoughts in my mind was, well, you know, I'll get together with all the old high school buddies and whatever else. By then I'd been away from Lloyd for 10 years or something, and it's funny how you move on, you know, because I never really, never really did. I mean, I'd see them and say hello, but I never got hanging out with any of my old high school

friends. So yeah, life changes. You don't understand. We were we were talking about, I can't remember what we were talking about now, to be honest, but we got talking about that about when you're in high school, you think it's the best days of your life. You just don't, you can't fully understand. How can you possibly imagine what college is going to be like? Yeah. What your early 20s after college is going to be like when you have no, well, some of us don't have kids. kids responsibilities now now a lot of people don't have kids no later in their 20s yeah but how good those years get and the thing about university that you mentioned you created some lifelong friends what I always found interesting about

university or college was you know in high school it's kind of like you're taking a shotgun approach to subjects you're gonna take all these and we'll see where you come up but you get to really cinch it in university. Well, I mean, you're in Batman. How many people are. And so now you have people who are of the same thoughts. Same mindset. Mindset. Goals, that kind of thing. And you get around that, well, now you got some commonality. Right. So to me, I always, I chuckle about it, because I remember hearing you got no cares and everything, which is very true about high school, right? You don't have distresses. Right. You think you do a bit at that time, but.

But I think it gets so much better after you graduate. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. The world just kind of opens up because the possibilities are endless. And then even when you're in college, the college years are fun. Right. And I'm sure, like I went to college, but I would think even early in your working years, like, let's say you didn't go on to secondary education. I think 20 to 25 has got to be great as well. You know, you're making a little money, can do a few things. And so yeah, yeah, I think it's got to be. Have more than five bucks in your pocket? Yeah, that's right. I don't know about you. I can't speak for you, but you'd mentioned living on a hairstring budget.

I remember in college working a job for the college where we got paid. I think it was less than minimum wage at the time. It's $5.25 an hour, I think. But that was enough to get you just enough beer, craft dinner, and the occasional burger from burger cake. And you were happy. What more do you need? I know.

I know. It's funny how you never, always had enough money to go out for a beer with the guys, right? matter how short cash was, you always scrounged up enough for that. Yeah. Oh, we had lots of fun at that school. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. What was the fun thing to do at vet school? You know, in first and second year, we used to put on these Friday afternoon skits in each, so there's first year, second, year, third year, fourth year, and everybody was required to put on a skit or some entertainment on the Friday afternoon happy hour or whatever. Yeah, those were great fun getting together and planning them and putting them on and and just yeah I don't know I got you know sort of like you said about the

commonality and and people have a you know somewhat common goal I think just even being together whether it was golfing or playing squash or whatever was great times you're a squash player I was I used to really enjoy it yeah I often said that that's the toughest workout I ever had in my life playing squash oh my gosh there's a sport you don't hear a lot about no No. Yeah, I got tennis elbow. I remember my wife bought me a brand new squash racket. When we moved back to Lloyd, actually, thinking I'd get back into squash, but my elbow couldn't take it anymore. Squash courts at...

They used to be at the communiplex. At the communeplex. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if they're there anymore. I don't think so. No. Yeah. So the only thing I've done with squash of late, I bought an airplane recently that has these little angle. iron things under the wing that you can really crack your head on.

And I met a guy about two weeks ago, he says, oh, you got to put squash balls on those. So just cut open a squash ball and shove it over this chunk of angle iron, so to speak, so you don't crack your head. So that's my only recent squash. Oh, gosh. I'm going to throw a dart out there because I don't know if you'd know the, or if you were around editing this time.

Were you in Saskatoon when they almost got an NHL team? Am I completely spacing on my time frame? I don't recall that. I think it was after. I think that was after I left. After you left. Yep. Yep.

I was doing mental math in my head, and sometimes I'm a little bit off. I can't remember exactly what year, and I'm going to use your thought process. We're not going to look it up. We're just going to leave it. We'll leave it. Yeah, there you go. We'll let the listeners go. Oh, Sean's that idiot.

That's like 10 years after. Exactly right. Going back to bringing you back to Lloyd. See, come back to Lloyd. You start working with your. dad. Yeah. Was that like, were you, was that awesome? Was that tough? It was both. It was awesome. Yeah, because he, you know, he had so much knowledge and sort of, you know, they talk about gray knowledge. It's a little bit like I was saying to you about not using all the diagnostic tools,

just kind of using common logic as to why things. And he had a lot of that, especially with the cattle side of things, you know, um, where yeah, sick cow such and such and such and well, it can't be that and it can't be that because she's a Holstein and she's six and she's whatever. So look at those two things sort of, you know, so I learned a lot of that kind of thing from him. Um, and his, you know, the other thing my dad was exceptionally good at was customer service. So from a business standpoint, he was exceptional at that. And, and, and, and, And not from a, I want something back because of it. He enjoyed people that much, sort of, you know.

And so he would go above and beyond to give good service, but it's kind of because he enjoyed that bond, you know. And actually my son is very much like that. My son that is with me in practice right now is very, very similar to dad in that respect. So, yeah, it served him very well. And yeah, I think we're all of us, pretty lucky that we enjoy people. Dad used to have a thing that, um, he said behind, behind every animal owner, if you want to call it that, is a, is a person. And if you can't,

if you can't, uh, talk with and get into that person, discuss with them, you're not going to solve the animal problem. And it's very true. You know, like over the years, we've had so many, um, volunteer kids or, you know, say, oh, my daughter or my son wants to come in because they just love animals. And I'm not saying that's not a requirement, but it takes to at least do what we do in private practice, it takes more than that. You know, you, if all you want is the animal satisfaction, you're, you're going to miss out, I think. I would say there's very few jobs in this world where you don't deal with people. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, no, it was fun, though, working with dad. The one tough thing was that a lot of the clients thought that,

I knew where they all lived. You know, like, oh, yeah, come on out and check that cow. I'm going, so do you live north or south? You know, like, I know I've seen you in here since I was a kid, but I have no idea where you live, you know? So stuff like that was kind of funny. Actually, up in the Hillmond area, there's Jim Priest. You'd know of Jim Priest, right?

So I just bumped into him in a restaurant the other day, and he says, you ever get that cow up? And I just started laughing because he'd called, and I was only home a year. something two years and he had a down cow and so I said I'd come out and have a look at it and I ended up going into Earl Priest's yard drove into Earl's yard he had a down cow in the yard nobody around so I start working on this cow and then I realize I'm in the wrong farm yard so then I went over to gym's but he said yeah you ever get that cow up so you would know the area

circumference around Lloyd very well yeah is there another profession that knows it as well as vets? I'm guessing maybe the Bob Jacks kind of guy, the heating air conditioning guy. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. You know, they've been on a lot of farmyards too. But yeah, we used to, and, you know, it has changed a bit where, you know, people used to have 60 and 80 cows and lots of people had a dairy cow or whatever and a few pigs, right? So that's kind of changed.

So that's funny when I'm up flying now, I look down, I say, oh, yeah, that guy used to have cows and you can see from the crowds there hasn't been a cow there for many years you know so it has got more centralized sort of but how long have you had your pilot's license um about 20 22 years I think oh yeah I should pause for a second and go I'll give you shout out to dad because dad and the oil field workers know this area extremely well you give them the land location and boom right we live in a town where probably more people than I give credit to know exactly where everything is Now, going back to flying, how long did you say? About 20 or 22 years, I think now, yeah.

So over a 22 years span of flying above the areas, you can see the change is happening. Is it kind of like a weird angle to have? Yeah, it is a bit. It is a bit for sure, yeah. And I think maybe that's why it's not like I'm out there snooping, but it gives me a little. You're creeping, aren't you?

Yeah, absolutely. He's got 200, Kyle. I'm not getting that work. No. But yeah, it does give you a little deja vu kind of moment when you're looking down there and used to go to that guy's place and used to go to that guy's place. And yeah, they don't have cows anymore. But yeah, and I think that's why I still really enjoy just flying around the area,

just kind of recognizing farms and I don't know. I think I got a fair bit of farm love of farming in my bones, I think, because I just enjoy looking at agriculture and seeing what's happening and the crops growing and the, you know, all that stuff. But, yeah, no, it has changed for sure. Interesting. Dad used to make the comment when we first started flying together. He goes, man, look at all those farm lights. We'd go up at night every now and then he says, you know, when I first came to this country, nobody had a yard light.

Nobody. He said, and you'd be out there in the dark a night trying to pick out a farm site or something, you know. So he always used to find that so amazing. No, well, I mean, nobody had power. No. Until, you know, I'm going to stretch this. I want to say somewhere between 45 and 50 out on it. Yeah.

So, I mean, in his day. Yeah, because he came here in 52. Right. So it would have been, like they wouldn't have had any power out on the farms to run out, light off of. No. Yeah. Or certainly they weren't going to put up a yard light. Certainly, right.

Yeah. Use what little power they have to just beam a light out there. Yeah. So do you do? sticking with flying, do you enjoy the night flying the best? Or does it matter? No, I guess as I get older,

I'm a little more cautious maybe. Sure. You know, being up at night with a single engine plane, you go, eh, maybe it's not the smartest thing. So, no, I don't do much night flying anymore. You'd mentioned as a surreal moment in your life was flying with your dad. Yeah.

What was it about, was he a pilot? Did you mention, Maybe I missed this part. Was he a pilot beforehand and owned a plane, or did you guys buy a plane together? He was a pilot way back, yeah, in the 50s. Yeah. And he owned a plane right up until about nine years

before we bought this one together in 98. So he owned a plane until about 1990, I think. And then, you know, he was, what was he, 60 then, 56 or something like that? No, more than that, I'm thinking. The mass not coming out. Yeah, 65, I guess. and thought,

eh, I'm not going to fly too much anymore. And he was, he wasn't flying much. So he sold it and then just rented a plane. But, yeah, when I said that I would love to get a airplane, he was all over it. So, yeah. Now, is it having an airplane like having a, I don't know, a motorbike kind of thing,

you just go up and go for a tour? It's interesting. So when I first looked at buying an airplane, people would say, what kind of flying do you want to do? and I'm a newly minted pilot. I go, I don't know, I just want to fly. But now I realize there is a very, depending on what you're going to do as to what kind of airplane you want.

Like, are you wanting to fly to Lethbridge all the time or Saskatoon, Regina? Then you want something that just gets up and goes. If you're just wanting to, you know, tool around the patch, so to speak, you don't want something that's going 180 miles an hour. You want to have something that goes slow and, you know, you can just look. So, and I've had kind of little parts of, I've been partnerships mostly with my airplanes. And yeah, it's been great. I've a partnership in one that kind of gets up and goes somewhere. And the most recent one I bought is more of a bush plane.

So I hope we'll see how this works out. But going forward, I kind of hope that I can land in the buddies field and, you know, farm clients that have known for 30 years and stopped for coffee and a visit and take off. That's what I'm hoping. and if it doesn't work out, that's all right. I'm enjoying the flying the plane anyway. All I can ever think of my childish head is buzz in the tower. A little top gun go flying by the farmhouse, nice and close, wake everybody up. Yeah, yeah.

When did you decide to take over the clinic? Well, I was actually only home about two years before Dad kind of wanted out. So Les Ellis, who had been with dad for not quite 40 years, at that time he'd been with dad almost 30 years. He and I bought dad out. So, yeah, he was just with mom's health, you know, kind of deteriorating. And he'd just had enough. It's interesting. He made a comment one time that I'll miss veterinary medicine, but I won't miss the business kind of hassles, you know.

And it's funny now we look back and go, what hassles did you have? But there always are, you know. whatever time you are running a business, there's some stresses and issues to deal with. You know, they're different in this generation maybe than the last, but they're still there. There's still stresses. Yeah. Yeah. They're just ever evolving.

Yeah. Absolutely. What did you learn off of owning a business for as long as you did? You know, I think I made that comment about the happy medium thing. I think there's some truth in that, too, with business with, you know, we were. I don't know, there's only five or six of us when I took over and we were, we're up to like 30 or something now. And it's not 30 employees. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. We got 10 vets in there. Someday, yeah, 10 or 12 vets, depending on the day kind of thing. But so yeah, I think that whole happy medium that you can't solve every problem, but somewhere in the middle is a spot that should work for everybody. And I think we've done a good job of that. I mean, we've got some really, really long term people. there you know we've got veterinarians that have been with me over 25 years and lots of

people over 15 and so we found a way to make it work you've you've seen both sides of the coin where you came in and took over the business from your father and now you have a son who's done the same or yeah so seeing both sides of that yeah I assume that's something you're very proud of. I am exceptionally proud of that. You bet. Yeah. And yeah, and it's really, I think I'm, I'm proud of, obviously very proud of my son.

He's doing a fantastic job. But I think I'm also proud of myself that I'm able to step back and watch this happen and let him go. And he shouldn't do things the way that I did. There's newer, different and better ways, I don't want to say better ways, but different ways of doing things. And that's one thing I did learn when I was away from. for the couple years in other veterinary practices,

there's more than one way to do it, you know. And, yeah, whatever works. There's some basic principles of fairness and honesty and giving value, you know, that need to be followed, but there's lots of different, lots of ways of delivering that. So, yeah, no, I'm exceptionally proud of our clinic and exceptionally proud of our, the people I have in that clinic, obviously I couldn't be where I am without them.

and yeah they just really really good people you know worked hard and um you know i think have that common goal of let's deliver what we can for that pet through the person you know that's our end goal is to sure save the pet make the pet healthier but you also sometimes that can't be done but you need to have a person that feels good about whatever the outcome was and that and that That's veterinary medicine. It's not just fixing and surgery and that sort of thing. Yeah. You mentioned at the start of this conversation that people have been on you to,

and maybe this was before we started recording, but people have been on you to write a book and you haven't written a book because you've got great stories. And you've shared a few of them with us. I'm wondering, what is your A role? What are a couple of stories you got from your time, medicine where you just had to laugh or you enjoy telling it. Is there a story or two you could share?

You know, I don't know. I guess one of the ones most interesting one that I can, there's probably lots of them. And I always have difficulty recalling them on the spur of the moment. One of the ones that comes to mind is a little terrier dog came in. This is 15 years ago at least, maybe more than that. had a little sore right behind his rib cage that the owner had noticed. So we said, yeah, we'll give him an anesthetic and, you know, explore that a little bit, see what it is. And so we get him under anesthetic, clip up this area, and start exploring, and there's, it looks like a little piece of wood there.

So long story short, is I start pulling on this wood and it's a full popsicle stick. So this is like a 12-pound dog that has swallowed a popsicle stick hole. I assume with something else on the popsicle stick, a fudgycl or a popsicle or whatever, he never missed a meal, never vomited, and now it's gone through his stomach wall and starting to come out the side of his abdomen. And this dog never missed, I mean, we pulled out that popsicle stick, sutured him up, and he never missed a beat. It's like, I wish people could see the look on my face right now. Yeah, it's unbelievable, you know, and the powers of healing, and I'm sure it's in human medicine too, but some of the things, you know, like dogs that come in with terrible, like let's say, you know,

out running in the field and get hit by the cultivator, you know, those are just terrible and sew them up and, you know, kind of care for them and, you know, keep them clean and, like, the next year the dog comes in and go, you go, is that that same dog? Like, just heal up amazingly. So good old mother nature, I'll tell you, it can heal a lot of things. And of course, we've seen that a lot in horses over the years, you know, where you get, I remember a horse coming in when I was first here that it had actually got gored badly by a boar and just chewed up, you know. And I remember that horse coming in the year later and just, there was some scars there, but man. Yeah.

So, yeah, those are, and there's always, you know, one of the most instantaneous, satisfying sort of, things in my career has been doing calvings for people, you know. And yeah, I think just because you do the job, you have results immediately, and usually positive, you know, like usually a too big a calf that can't come out and you do a cavern or twins that are twisted up and you get them out and they're, they're not always live, obviously. But, you know, majority of the times the outcome is good. Yeah, it's positive. It's positive.

And it's not like, well, we'll see what he's like in a week. it's like, oh, an hour later, yeah, we know, he's alive kicking, and way we go, you know. So that's been a very, even though that's where most of the middle of the night cold stuff comes along, it's been a very rewarding part of my practice. And actually one of my vets called me in a couple of weeks ago, and she couldn't get this twins that were mixed up, figured out. And I'm laying on the cement floor there in the clinic and it was one of those deja vu moments. I went, wow, I wonder how many times I've laid on this cement floor in my life, you know,

It was all good. We got them out. The cow went home. So, yeah. What's your favorite animal to have come in? Is it cattle? Or do you enjoy the smaller animals? You know, I've been extremely lucky that way.

I really do enjoy a big variation, you know. I wouldn't say I'm an accomplished horse person by any stretch, but bring me in a horse cut or something like that. I'm totally good with it. But even some of the oddball things, like I don't do as much anymore. We have another veterinary in the practice that does it, but, you know, the hedgehogs, the gerbils, the snakes, the, you know, I used to take a challenge in that. And we have a crow that comes in for a beak trim and nail trim. And I think he's been coming in for 15 years. A crow.

What? Yeah. Yeah. Somebody has a pet crow? Yeah. somebody has a pet crow and I should know his name because everybody else in the clinic does

but it's not coming to me right now but yeah oh yeah he comes in routinely how do you get a pet crow I don't know how it all ended up I might have to look into this guy the pet crow guy he should be in here talking yeah a pet crow yeah

I gotta be honest that's a new one I've never heard that before yeah the only one I know so go back to this he comes in for what trimmings beak beacon and nail trims because he's not out in the wild doing his normal thing. So his beak keeps growing.

Yeah. Yeah. What has been, you know, as a guy who probably has to read a ton on different things and different animals and everything, what is the most, not the most, that's a, what is some random piece of information off of an animal you know that you're just like, I don't know why I know this, but I've had to learn a lot about XYZ. Yeah, well, I would Yeah, I Because when it comes to When it comes to horse and cattle I don't think there's probably a useless piece of information

But I don't think you got 50,000 snakes coming through your things So you probably know something about something Well, it's funny you mentioned about snakes So I remember one time this little I'm trying to remember the breed of snake now And I can't think of it But anyway, these people were coming in They'd phoned the snake hadn't eaten for

Three or four days or whatever it was And of course I'm saying, geez, yeah, bring them in I'm not sure what it'll be. And anyway, I get out, we used back then, used to get these books. Of course, it wasn't internet stuff. So they were called Vet Clinics of North America, and it was one on rodents, reptile, snakes. So I'm flipping through this book before they come.

And what's the most common problem in a snake is stomatitis, which is infection or inflammation of the tongue. So I get this snake in and get them to bite on a syringe case that's kind of clear, and I look with a light, and sure as heck, his tongue's all red and swollen. And so I treated him for that like the book said, and he was cured. So, yeah, it was cool. You don't know this, but I hate snakes. I tell you what, if you better have 10 vets working with you because I'd be like, I ain't touching that.

I'll touch you just about anything, but I ain't touching that. Snake. Oh, yeah. That is a, that's a weird animal. Oh, they are. And, yeah, I mean, we had a tarantula come in one time that somebody had a pet tarantula and we're trying to figure out what was wrong with this thing, you know, it's like, oh my, and turtle, like, turtle, like, how the heck do you figure out what's wrong with a turtle,

you know, but anyway, and, but the interesting thing, how some of that has changed now, I mean, the referral clinics in the city, man, they do all sorts of stuff with birds and reptiles and, you know, oh, yeah, well, you phone them and they'll say, yeah, you should get a blood sample and and doing this. I'm going, blood sample, how are we getting a blood sample from a turtle? But anyway, it's progressed. It's probably pretty crazy how the diversity has, you know, over since you were a kid, until now how much diversification of pets people have. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, and you can't know it all. You know, and I guess that's the beauty of, you know, there's lots of great veterinary information sites that you can be members of. and you can log on and search things out. But I was mentioning earlier about the expectations. And I do think that that's what makes it tougher for new graduates now. I mean, 30 years ago, if somebody brought in a snake, they go, well, do what you can. I mean, whatever, you know, I don't think it's quite that easy now.

So, yeah. That hadn't been pretty gratifying, though, when you open it up. Oh, yeah. Actually, how do you take a look at that? That's right. Give him a couple drops of this. They'll be good. Way we go.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's been lots of fun stuff like that, that's for sure. In Lloydminster specifically, since you were a kid till now, what has been, you know, everybody talks about the population change and just how big it is now. And, you know, you mentioned the dusty road. Well, we don't got too many dusty roads anymore. And the infrastructure is just grown.

But over your time, is there either a building that was built or maybe. maybe an event that came to Lloyd or, I think, one of those two, that in your time you were really excited. I think of, you know, just to give you a little more backer, I think of like, I'm a hockey guy, so I think of arenas, you know, like the multiplexes, a big, or maybe the Civic Center back in the day. Those are really big things. I think it was the Russell's who talked about the building the golf course, just things

like that. Or was there an event happening, Lloyd, which you never thought would ever come through. It could be any sort of event at the Vic Juba Theater for, I mean, before the Vic Juba Theater, but that kind of thing. Is there one of those that stick out that Lloyd,

you were excited across your time? Not that I can think of specifically. I mean, there's been, I think there's, and I don't say growth, I don't mean from a population standpoint, but I just think becoming a city has been quite a evolution, you know, like we have a main, always was a main street, but it's, it's more professional, it's more appealing, it's, you know, four lanes and all

that sort of stuff. I think just seeing that happening, to me, is, yeah, I think we've had pretty good leadership, you know, in Lloydminster over the years, and I think it's, it's developed into a, into a real hub and I'm yeah I guess I'm impressed with that yeah by the time this comes out and people get to hear it will be well into either getting out of COVID or will be into deep dark ages of the second year of COVID right what have you not thought of COVID that's not I guess just in your lifetime I assume COVID has been the most unique event to ever happen across the span of time But what are your thoughts on it? I guess I really wonder, as we're, you know, coming up to a year here,

I think everybody was thrown in and had to make some very, very on-the-spot decisions. And I think made the decisions with the information they had at hand. I really wonder, looking back 10 years from now or 15 years from now, will we go, yeah, we handle that pretty well. Are we going to go, ooh, we were off base there? And I'm not sure I know the answer to that. But, yeah, I think we're at a point now where, you know, after a year, I think we've, I'm talking from a government standpoint,

from a whatever standpoint that we've learned lots. And I think, you know, we need to make sure we're using that information correctly, you know, at this point in time. I worry about the economics of our country, I guess. Yeah, and I think it'll just be, it'll be really interesting to look back and say, was it, did we do it right or did we do it wrong? Or could we have done it better, not wrong, but, you know. If you could look back and go back to your 19-year-old self, 20-year-old self, somewhere in that time frame,

and you right now go back there and impart some wisdom on them, What would you tell your younger self? I guess, hmm, that's a, that's a deep question that is right there. It should be a sign on my door that says deep, deep conversation only. Yeah, that's right. I mean, yeah, I think it would be something along the lines of work hard but play hard. You know, like, I think back to I said earlier that my dad thought, you know, a little hard work will cure a lot of things.

And I think there's truth to that. But I think you also have to have that happy medium of, yeah, but reward yourself with a little play. And again, in the sort of perception line of things that I think we've, perception of playing is different for everybody. but I think as a society we might be a little off base that we think the only time we've had a break is when we've gone to Hawaii for a month rather than I went to Sandy Beach for the afternoon and kicked back. So that would be my thought process, I guess, is that, yeah, enjoy the free time you have and use it wisely. And it doesn't have to be a big scadoo and a whatever to make you enjoy life. It's time and people. I don't think I could say it any better than that

and I don't think we should leave it any better than that I think that's right where I want to end I really appreciate you come in and I don't know entertaining my thoughts my questions but I really enjoyed this Doug I appreciate you coming in sitting down yeah I appreciate it as well for sure and I think yeah you do a good job of it Sean so I appreciate it

well thank you hey folks thanks for joining us today If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix.

Until next time.