HANLEY, Sask. – Chad Haaland laughs while visualizing a five-year goal for him and his wife, Carissa.“I might be one of the first cowboys to drive a Mercedes Benz with poop on my boots and spurs on,” he said.The couple has been involved in the cattle industry since 2006 after buying a half section from […] Read more
Farm Living
Young couple embraces change and challenges
Celebrate Dad with chicken on the grill
It is a typical June day. As I consider the garden jobs to be done, the school bus arrives along with the chattering of my children as they enter the kitchen.The peace quickly disappears.One child needs my help in composing an eight line song, our youngest child desperately wants me to play the Candyland game […] Read more
Children torn between honouring birth father, stepfather
Q: Every year on Father’s Day, our grandmother takes my older sister and me to take us to the cemetery to put flowers on our father’s grave. This is getting to be a bit much. Our father was killed in an automobile accident 16 years ago, shortly after I was born. My older sister was […] Read more
Close study reveals what horses really need
BLACKFOOT, Alta. –Elaine Hardstaff’s best days are spent looking at the side of a horse.The horse therapist has been soothing, healing and massaging the muscles and bones of horses for 12 years.“How can you call it a job when you love it so much,” she said from Blackfoot, where horse plates and ornaments decorate the […] Read more
A is for alfalfa, B is for barley, C is for canola
WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. – By teaching high school students to cook roast beef or elementary schools to grow potatoes in tubs, British Columbia’s Agriculture in the Classroom program is reaching thousands of youth each year.Program co-ordinator Lindsay Babineau started the program with the ministries of agriculture and education, which provided her with a computer and […] Read more
Project to detail how co-ops benefit communities
The federal government is investing $1 million to help fund an unprecedented research project to investigate the benefits that Canadian communities receive from co-operatives.John Anderson, director of government affairs and public policy for the Canadian Co-operative Association, said it will be the largest research project on the co-operative movement ever undertaken outside Quebec.He will oversee […] Read more
Students shine at science fair with grain bin lid
MIDALE, Sask. – A science fair project by two Grade 12 students from Midale, Sask., has turned into an award winning invention that farmers could really use.Erick Vandenhurk and Jarika Penny were down to the deadline to choose a project when they settled on designing and building a better grain bin lid.Existing lids blow open […] Read more
Programs needed in money management
As the Canadian 4-H movement struggles to recruit new members and make its 97-year-old principles and programs relevant to the 21st century, Matthew Tweedy has a suggestion.The 20-year-old business student at the University of Prince Edward Island said 4-H could begin teaching its members the basics of business, money management and business plans.“We think that […] Read more
AWI fulfils mandate by helping women in crisis
The Alberta Women’s Institutes hasn’t backed away from a challenge in 101 years, but the latest project comes with plenty of heartache and pitfalls.The AWI is helping fund and support Second Stage women’s shelters within Alberta, fulfilling the organization’s mandate of helping women in home and country.“Our mandate 101 years ago was to improve the […] Read more
Business with a twist
KINGMAN, Alta. – Chatter at this early morning fitness class has a slightly different tone.Instead of grunting in silence, the women in Joleen Carr’s Josky fitness classes talk about seeding, shock chlorinating their water well and moving cattle on the weekend.“We have rural concerns,” said Maxine Anderson, one of the regulars at the early morning […] Read more
