KAMSACK — As one business that has served the farming community in the Kamsack area for more than 40 years closes, another, which is using much of the same equipment and similar expertise, is opening its doors.
Alvin Harambura, who has owned and operated Prairie Manure and Feed from a shop in Runnymede, closed the business at the beginning of March as Keith Strutynski opened Raodside Hydraulics Co. on March 1 in a large shop on his farm on Highway No. 8, located 30 kilometres south of Kamsack and 12 kilometres north of Wroxton.
In the weeks leading up to the beginning of March, Harambura and Strutynski have been moving much of the hydraulics inventory from Runnymede to Strutynski’s shop.
Harambura, who has been a valued resource to Strutynski, expects to lend a hand when he can while the new shop gets underway.
“We’ve been operating the shop in Runnymede since 1973,” Harambura said.
After acquiring much of the stock from Alvin Harambura, left, Keith Strutynski is using his large, heated shop on his farm, located about 30 kilometres south of Kamsack, where he has opened Roadside Hydraulics Co. At right is Kaili Strand of Calder, an employee with 18 years of experience in the hydraulics industry. | Photo by William Koreluik
After graduating from the Kamsack Collegiate Institute in 1966, Harambura worked in the mines at Snow Lake, Man, until 1972 and then returned to his home on the farm at Runnymede, where he opened Prairie Manure and Feed. By the time of his retirement, he had been working in his shop, that measured 40 feet by 72 feet.
“We manufactured all kinds of things,” he said during an interview at Strutynski’s shop on March 10. The business included metal fabrication and machining “of all kinds.”
“Alvin is known as being able to come up with a solution,” Strutynski added.
Harambura, who estimates his customers were basically from a radius of about 100 miles from Runnymede, began listing the type of work he had done.
“I must have made about 1,000 bale forks,” Harambura said, explaining that much of his inventory has been moved to Strutynski’s shop, including hoses, bearings, seals, sprockets, chains, hydraulic motors and various fittings.
Harambura is known for his skill in fabricating all kinds of metal parts farmers need to replace a broken item on a piece of equipment, as well as designing and creating larger pieces, including a fancy barbecue, which he shows in a short video on his phone. He also constructed the water fountain at Kamsack that was commissioned following a successful centennial event in 2005.
He said he would need a book of notes to be reminded of all the things he has constructed in his shop over the years.
He and his wife Georgina, who has been involved in the business doing office work and the paperwork, plan to move to Davidson on March 22, where their daughter and son-in-law, Donna and Rob Stone, operate a farm. Much of the equipment from their Runnymede shop is being moved to Stones’ farm near Davidson.
Georgina and Alvin also have a son, Robert, who lives in Calgary, while Donna and Rob have two sons, aged 15 and 12 years.
Harambura said they plan to have a sale of their remaining Runnymede property this summer.
Asked what he knows about the farming scene after having worked in the shop for 42 years, Harambura said that “things have changed 1,000 per cent.
“At one time, a 100-horsepower tractor was something; now it’s a toy,” he said. “It’s the size of the equipment and the size of the farms that have changed the most.”
The system of farming has changed, he said, mentioning GPS (Global Positioning System), computers and computer-assisted designs.
“What will you miss the most?” he is asked.
“Well, I like people, but I’m tired of the public,” he replied.
“It has been a unique business,” he said. “Keith is off to a good start, and he will be adding more inventory, including oil.
“Provide the service, and the customers will come,” Harambura said. “If farming does well, this business will do well.
“Keith will do all right.”
A grain farmer since he was 18 years old, Keith Strutynski lives on the farm with his wife Tricia, who, in addition to assisting him with the farm, is a full-time travel agent who works at Vacations Yorkton.
The couple has three children: a daughter, Kenley, 15, who is in Grade 10 at the Yorkton Regional High School; a son, Ty, 14, who is in Grade 9 at the Yorkton Regional, and a son, Turner, 13, who attends Yorkdale School.
“Our daughter is in gym, and our sons are into football,” Keith said, adding that in a couple of days, the family would be travelling to Richmond, B.C., where their sons will be competing in football games.
“We’ve been very busy with them,” he said, adding that his mother, Martha, has been working as a nurse at the Kamsack Nursing Home for more than 40 years.
Strutynski attended school in Kamsack to Grade 9 before transferring to the Regional High School in Yorkton, where he graduated in 1995. He worked “on the oil patch” for four years and then returned to the farm to concentrate on his custom farming business.
Roadside Hydraulics Co. specializes “in Aeroquip Hydraulic Hose replacement from 3/8-inch to two-inch hose, and adapters for both agricultural and construction applications,” Strutynski said. “We also have chain, sprockets and a wide selection of Timken bearings. We also stock miscellaneous items such as hydraulic oil, hand cleaner, funnels and shop towel.
“We’re a provider of custom-made, affordable, reliable hydraulic hose assemblies made to order for agricultural and construction applications.”
Strutynski is operating the business from his large, 50-foot by 160-foot heated and insulated shop.
“We’ve been using the shop for cold storage, but I had always wanted a heated shop. Now with the business, we can justify heating it,” he said.
Working the business by himself, Strutynski said that Harambura has agreed to visit from time to time in order “to supervise.”
He also said he was fortunate to have found Kaili Strand of Calder to work at the business.
Strand is experienced. She has worked at a hydraulic shop in Yorkton for 18 years.
“I started as a receptionist and bookkeeper,” Strand said, adding that other responsibilities were added to that.
“We’re happy to have persuaded Kaili to come here to help,” Strutynski said.
“Alvin’s customers will recognize that we’re using his parts counter,” he said with a laugh. “It’s Alvin’s trusted parts counter, and we moved it over specially.”
“We plan to be open regular business hours, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with reduced hours in winter and extended hours in the season,” he said.
A big part of the business is hoses and the things that go with it,” he said. “If you got hoses, you need bearings.
“We have variety and availability,” he said. “We have inventory for large construction needs plus day-to-day stuff farmers need all the time.”
“Keith will have the best selection of hoses between here and Saskatoon and Regina,” Harambura said.
Alvin Harambura has moved much of his stock from his shop in Runnymede to Keith Strutynski’s shop south of Kamsack, and much of his equipment is being moved to Davidson, where it will be used on a farm shop by his daughter and son-in-law. | Photo by William Koreluik
