Diane Rogers

WINNIPEG – With all her household hints, you’d expect Reena Nerbas to be a grey-haired grandmother. Instead, the youthful mother of four pre-teen children jumped around during her presentation to the recent Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference, unable to contain her enthusiasm for cleaning solutions. Nerbas grabbed a box of Borax and extolled its ability to […] Read more

Some of the best views are close to home, says a nature lover and author. Bill Stillwell of Neepawa, Man., has tracked down 60 hidden gems in his province that he would like more than the locals to know about. He has collected them in a book called Manitoba, Naturally, along with maps, photographs and […] Read more

DOMREMY, Sask. – A health scare led Monique Denis to a farm diversification project that works for her and her family. Eight years ago she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and while she recovered, the 27 year old decided she wanted to eat as healthfully as possible. Besides planting and eating from a large vegetable […] Read more

Like spinning straw into gold, any farmer willing to donate a truckload of rocks could eventually get a financial credit for them. The Bell Barn Society of Indian Head, Sask., plans to acquire a charitable number so it can issue tax receipts for in-kind donations to its restoration project. It hopes to raise $600,000 to […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Good websites aren’t as simple as they look, said a panel of Manitoba women entrepreneurs. The five women who spoke at the Manitoba Farm Women’s conference Nov. 7 said they all had someone design their businesses’ initial website. But eventually they wanted to take more control of what appeared on the internet. “The […] Read more

Sylvia Maljan of Unity, Sask., has already acted on the empowerment message she heard at a rural women’s workshop this fall. She was one of three women voted onto Unity’s seven-seat town council in last month’s municipal elections. While Maljan said she had already decided to run before the workshop, attending it reinforced for her […] Read more

The Canadian Farmers With Disabilities Registry needs one more person to complete a full hand of 10 provincial leaders. The registry is looking for someone to represent it in Alberta, said chair Carl Palmer of Nova Scotia. All the other provinces have volunteer leaders who have sustained an agriculture injury. Volunteers from the registry offer […] Read more

When enrolment at the school in Hazlet, Sask., slipped to a low of 40 students, the principal decided to recruit more from overseas. Principal Christy Sletten said the dropping enrolment was “kind of a kick in the pants” for the kindergarten to Grade 12 school. She had just returned in September 2005 from a year […] Read more

Cuts to the Heritage Canada budget were made to “address the needs of real Canadians,” says a department official. Veronique Bruneau, press secretary to federal minister Bev Oda, said $5 million was cut from the Status of Women Canada agency as administrative savings, while $4.6 million was removed from the Museums Assistance Program because it […] Read more

REGINA – The audience stood and gave Gail Bitner-Lewis a loud ovation, the only one of the day at the Associated Country Women of the World conference held in Regina on Oct. 14. In a hushed room she had just told the 96 delegates about her imminent death. She has ovarian cancer, something few women […] Read more