This is Gord Snarr's Farm Home page.

Welcome to Gord Snarr's Farm home page.

Thanks Dale VE4DRC for the arial picture!

My Background...

I'm a graduate of the Agriculture Diploma Program at the University of Manitoba.(1995)

Since then I've been mostly full time farming except during the winter and of course flood time! My farm is located just a bit north of Morris, Manitoba; about 25 miles/50 kilometers south of Winnipeg.
The farm is made up of about 1400 acres of farmland, mostly along the west bank of the Red River. We have about a mile of riverfront property within 7 river lots. We also have land west and away from the river adding quite a variety to the farm in soils, crops, etc.
Soil types include Red River clay (gumbo), Ozborne clay (worse gumbo) and Riverdale silty clay (best gumbo located along the Red River). Some of the farm is divided into riverlots as well as the regular section designations. River lots were surveyed when the French settled the area in the late 1700's to the mid 1800's.
Crops include most cereal grains, oilseeds (mainly flax and canola) occasional pulse crops such as Soybeans, as well as various pedigreed seed crops

If you are heading to the United States from Winnipeg (or vice versa) on highway #75 you will be driving right through the farm!

-Be sure to wave or honk your horn when driving by! :-)

Here's a simple map of the farm and adjacent area

Some Agriculture related business links

Canadian Wheat Board

What I like to do...

I'm a licensed mechanic in Manitoba and I enjoy working on the usual cars and trucks, as well as larger trucks and farm equipment. I have experience working on most north american vehicles as well as many of the various imports. If you are interested in getting some repairs on your vehicle/equipment give me a call. I'll be glad to help you out!

Latest flood reports from Water Resources

2010 flood pictures

2009 flood pictures from low earth orbit

Gord's Weather Links:

Webcam (weather conditions)

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Current Weather Conditions

I have installed a Davis Vantage Pro weather station in the yard to aid with various farming operations, and to make local conditions available to the public via the internet. The data is updated through an application called WeatherDisplay which forwards the data to WeatherUnderground and my server here at gsfarm.ca. If the internet fails locally data is sent via VHF and HF (10MHz) every 15 minutes, and enters the internet through one of several Amateur Radio APRS Igate systems. These Igates may be as close as 20km, or as far away as Australia. These Igate stations transfer the data from the RF network to the internet.

The graphic below updates every 5 minutes. Click on the link below it for the station generated weather report and more graphs & charts.

Various charts and graphs from my weather station

Forcast and Radar links for the Morris area

Conditions & 5 day forcast for Morris

Storm tracker radar image from Intellicast

Environment Canada's Woodlands radar image

Ham Radio

I am also involved in Amateur Radio. This is an extremely interesting hobby that involves various modes of communication to basically anywhere in the world. You can generaly hear me checking in on various nets around the province (Manitoba) and surrounding areas. My call is VE4GLS, let me know if you hear me on the air or send me a QSL card (a card telling the time, frequency, mode and signal strength, usually on a glorified post card, sent in the mail). Memberships I hold in this hobby include:

Manitoba Repeater Society

Radio Amateurs of Canada

University of Manitoba Amateur Radio Society

Local Used amateur equipment links:

Manitoba Repeater Society Swap and Shop listings
Manitoba HF SwapNet

Me digging out the VE4MAN cabinet at the CBC Starbuck transmitter site (Photo by Ellis, VE4AJO)

I run an APRS station at home and also have a Kenwood D7AG portable radio and GPS for use as a tracker. Click here too see where I am (ve4gls-14) mobile.

My Tractor (combine) Mobile

Where am I today?

Click here if you want to look up a callsign, or are looking for the callsign of a ham who you know.

My Ham Tower & Antennas

NASA Shuttle and ISS Frequencies. The packet radio digi is working very well on the ISS thanks to the flight crew who installed some new antennae and related equipment in and on the Zarya module. Information on the ISS AX-25 up/down link and operating procedures.

PCSAT is a satellite that is set up as an APRS digi. The link has frequency and operating info. Please read the use agreement, print out a copy, and sign it if you are going to use the system.

ARES Flood Operation in Southern Manitoba

Manitoba ARES was activated in late April of 1997 to provide backup communications in the many communities in Southern Manitoba. Stations were set up in Emerson, Letellier, Dominion City, St Jean, Morris, Rosenort, St Agathe, Sanford, and St Adolphe. Winnipeg ARES helped out with providing operators for the South Centeral ARES operations as well as providing valuable communications for sandbagging inside the City of Winnipeg.

Here's some info on our Morris ARES station during the flood. (Some really neat pictures taken in Morris during the flood too!)

CDN Repeater Update

I should be adding stuff as time progresses. Look forward to some interesting links!!

This is a satellite picture of Morris and the area surrounding the town. This one takes a while to download (over 1mb!). This image was taken during spring flooding in April 2001; note the areas covered by the swollen Red River!