Though we seeded fewer acres this spring, May was still pretty tense. After 24 years of service, our IH seed drill was replaced by an air seeder. Buying a used unit only adds to the adventure. The usual pre-sale reconditioning didn’t happen at the dealership but rather over 2 or 3 days in our yard…. Read more »
Every day for the past 35 or so years, I’ve read the Edmonton Journal. I’ve seen editors, columnists, reporters, cartoonists come and go. I’ve seen the paper shrink and grow. I’ve seen the addition of Sunday issues and color to its pages. One of my favorite new features is Venting which appears Mondays. Venting is… Read more »
A few years back my daughter Hilary and some of her friends toyed with the idea of starting a support group for teens. To join you must have a mother hooked on Home and Garden TV! Hilary knows whereof she speaks. After a lifetime of resisting, we finally said goodbye to Peasant TV (CFRN, CBC,… Read more »
Lately I’ve been thinking about Clinton. He was the salesman who first called on our business in 1987 when we were closed for repairs following Edmonton’s tornado. I was always pretty good at shooing away unwanted solicitation but somehow he managed to charm his way into our store. Over the course of several years he… Read more »
Write about the typical farm wife I tell myself. Take the many hats angle. Go for humor. Make light of the multi-function roles women play. Throw in a few horror stories. Why not? I’m living the life, how hard can it be? It wasn’t quite the cinch I’d expected. Because we sold our herd the… Read more »
For over 20 years I’ve studied at the School of the Land at a campus near Andrew. The program name was Farming 101. The tuition was high. The courses were self-paced and tough. Electives like marketing, business, bookkeeping, computer literacy, risk management, succession planning and more rounded out the offerings. Entrance requirements are rigid, which… Read more »
If you had the power would you turn back the clock and erase the world wide web and email from our existence? For those plagued by spam and pop-ups and “this page can not be found” messages the answer may well be “yes.” For those horrified by the graphic image of two adults engaged in… Read more »
Author Julia Cameron, in her book “The Artist’s Way” extols the virtues of creativity and tenderly nurtures the reader along the creative path. I believe each of us is creative in our own right even if we never pick up a paintbrush, write a best seller, dance on Broadway or compose a song. It takes… Read more »
Several months ago as I struggled to understand the apparently sudden death of a family acquaintance, the age-old question of living and dying with grace was again front and centre. It was only after the obituary appeared that I learned that the most dreaded news: “you have cancer” had been delivered to him a couple… Read more »
Where, oh where has the summer gone? The inevitable signs of fall are in the air. Back-to-school ads are everywhere. Those annoying little green flies are back. Weather forecasters are talking about frost. Cool dewy mornings and mist rising off the sloughs tell us change is in the air. The smell of hay bales, sweet… Read more »