Diane Rogers

Every five years Canadian farmers worry about what the federal government wants to know about them. This May 16 will mark that occasion as the census of agriculture is held the same time as the general population census. While there are always some people who decline to fill in their questionnaires, traditionally most farmers “react […] Read more

When the price of a chocolate bar in the canteen rose to $10, the young people at the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association summer camp knew they had to do something. That’s when the lesson sunk in about co-ops, said Liane Courchesne, a former camper. She said the teenagers realized they were being taught an […] Read more

The high point this summer for Women’s Institutes members will be their national convention, to be held in Red Deer on June 14-17. The Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada meets every three years. The 2006 theme is “valuing our identity while adapting to change.” Speakers will include former Chatelaine magazine editor Rona Maynard and singer/actor […] Read more

Teachers in a British Columbia town had a problem they couldn’t solve, so they called University of B.C. education professor Charles Ungerleider. He was told that young male students were dropping out of high school to drive logging trucks. The teenagers wouldn’t return to school because they were making double or triple the teachers’ wages. […] Read more

ESTON, Sask. – Heidi Harpestad of Ridgeley, Sask., holds up a sample of malting barley from her farm and said she wants to understand germination and chitting. Although she prefers working with cows, she needs to understand the grain business and especially how the malting quality of their barley is based on whether it sprouts […] Read more

DUNDURN, Sask. – Beate Epp likes her horses rounded with lush flowing manes and tails. She also likes them purple and orange. The artist, who lives on a farm near Dundurn with her husband Paul, is driving seven of her paintings to a New York City art gallery for display this month. She is taking […] Read more

Once the wood fire burns down to coals, Brian Hughes rakes them out to make room for 30 loaves of bread to bake in the brick oven he built. Since last year, Hughes and his wife, Dianne, have been supplying bread to customers in northwestern Manitoba. From their half section of land near Sclater where […] Read more

HUMBOLDT, Sask. – One afternoon in 1976, Merv Copeland climbed out of the tractor seat as he had done many times before. On that day, he was working for a farmer near Paradise Valley, Alta. He didn’t shut off the power take-off. As he walked, he slipped and fell into the baler. His arm was […] Read more

Rural Saskatchewan women interested in changing their lifestyles can offer suggestions at meetings being organized by a group focused on rural women’s issues. Four meetings are planned for 2006 by the Rural Women’s Issues Committee of Saskatchewan, or RWICS, said committee member Lil Sabiston, a farmer from Kelliher, Sask. The meetings follow up on sessions […] Read more

Two university researchers are looking for Saskatchewan women who are willing to be part of a study about domestic violence. “We are looking especially for rural women,” said Wendee Kubik, of the women’s studies department at the University of Regina. “From my previous studies with farm women, I know how women in rural areas face […] Read more