Noel McNaughton

There is a Japanese folk tale about a young woman who marries an older man. After a few years, the man sickens and on his deathbed asks his wife to promise not to marry again. Full of grief and with remarrying the last thing on her mind, the woman promises. Time goes by and eventually […] Read more

It is axiomatic in the business world that the customer is king, everywhere but agriculture, that is. Agriculture’s approach to its customers in many cases is “take it or leave it.” City people (and a growing number of farm families) worry that using pesticides leaves dangerous residues. They worry that eating animals given growth-promoting hormones […] Read more

I was speaking at the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture annual meeting and after my presentation, a young man wanted to know what advice I would have for him in starting to farm. He told me what he was doing already and there wasn’t much I could suggest. It seemed to me he was already […] Read more

It seems to Amy that she and Jim are just going through the motions in their marriage. She looks back occasionally to those heady days in 1974 when they were first married, remembering how much fun they had together and the passion they felt. She sometimes longs for those days, and all the promise they […] Read more

Whenever I ask farmers or ranchers what their biggest problems are, the top two on the list are always “not enough time” and “not enough money.” It is possible to get more of both at the same time, but most people give up one in order to get the other. Here is what I mean. […] Read more

In holistic management, the family starts by writing a goal that encompasses the quality of life it seeks, the nature of the work it wants to do for profit and the condition its resource base has to be in to sustain its enterprises indefinitely. The hardest part is writing the “quality of life” statement. There […] Read more

It is almost a cliche to talk about the struggles that can take place on a two-generation farm, largely because everyone risks something. My friend David Irvine, who worked with many farm families when he was a family counsellor, explained at a holistic management gathering in Lloydminster, Alta., what everyone has at risk. Let’s start […] Read more

Here is the scenario. You and your true love have been married for some time and you have discovered there are certain topics you just can’t talk about. Perhaps it’s about your irritation at the way your father-in-law puts his two-bits worth in about how to run your farm. Or maybe it is the way […] Read more

I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to retire – ever. I do plan to do more of what I want to do and less of what I don’t want to do. I’ll be 60 on my next birthday, and I feel more contented, optimistic and interested in life now than I have […] Read more

What’s going on in a man’s mind? (Yeah, yeah, I know. If you’re a woman, you may be thinking “not much.”) This question was on Shaunti Feldhahn’s mind, so she surveyed a bunch of men, in all kinds of settings and occupations, and was surprised by what she found. She thought other women might be […] Read more