Columns
Though this is for the October issue, it is written weeks previously, with the soybeans still ripening in the fields around our house, and the corn still green. Still, as I look ahead to October, I think of Thanksgiving.
This summer has provided several interesting history lessons for me, right in my own backyard. Most recently, seeing the play at the Blyth Festival, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, helped provide greater understanding about the Farmerettes and other ...
A list of most influential women in the world of English literature in Canada would not be complete without the names of Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood.
Manitoba-born Laurence is best known for her 1964 novel, The Stone Angel and ...
"Sometimes," Cliff Murray said as he and the guys opened their menus at Mabel's Grill one recent morning, "I think the U.S. election should be Oct. 31, not Nov. 5."
"I'm with you," chimed in Dave Winston. "Anything to get them to talk about something ....
In Indigenous communities, the ongoing tenure of land was relational and inter-dependent over generations, bioregions and species. In nation states, specific areas of land, often rectangles, are parcels owned by an individual, family, corporation ...
This past July I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a tour with the Southern Ontario Section of the Institute of Forestry. These tours are amazing learning opportunities for all attendees as not only are they led by outstanding professionals...
I was asked to preach the sermon at the church service at the Sunday morning session of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association Reunion (a long, convoluted story in itself) and it got me thinking about my long history...
One of the great things about living in Huron County is that there is never an opportunity to be bored. There is always so much going on -- from all the amazing outdoor activities, to sports, festivals, rodeos, live theatre, and music...
In 1974, I began working on a tobacco farm a few miles east and north from Woodstock. When I drive along Highway 401 today, I think of the days in August and September I spent there among the deep sand fields.
My uncle talked about his own...
"It's coming up to September already," said Cliff Murray the other morning, shaking his head as the guys sat down at Mabel's Grill for their morning coffee. "Where did the summer go?"
"Yeh my wife's already going...
"Tillsonburg, Tillsonburg .........My back still aches when I hear that word."
Those are, of course, the famous words in the song bearing the same title, sung by that great Canadian, Stompin' Tom Connors, describing his tobacco-picking experience ...
Laundry was going and the dishwasher was running before seven in the morning to take advantage of lower electricity rates. Face washed. Coffee made.
It was already hot as I stuck sweaty feet into black boots to do the morning chores. Hot and dry...
Looking at columnist Jeffrey Carter's column a couple of months ago, I find it hard to believe how far the population of Ontario (and Canada) has gone from the reality of us needing to eat.
Jeffrey was dealing with the loss of farmland to urban ...
I recently attended a retirement party, a relatively new experience for me. For people working in the pork industry through the last 50 years or so, Dr. Doug MacDougald would be a familiar name. For those of you outside of the industry...
Anyone driving from Wallaceburg to Dresden along Highway 77 in Chatham-Kent is likely to notice a pair of signs proclaiming an area resident's feelings for the current Prime Minister of Canada.
The first reads, "Trudeau must go" and...
"Whew, it's nice to be able to breathe again," said Molly Whiteside fanning herself with the menus before she set them in front of the guys at Mabel's Grill the other morning. "Back in the kitchen it's really hot!"
When I was young, I liked to go back to the woodlot because it was a machinery graveyard. Rusted and nearly unrecognizable, as a mower or swather, trees had grown up through them. My siblings and I picked through old bottles, boards and bones...
I laughed out loud (more than once) watching The Farm Show: Then and Now on the Harvest stage in Blyth.
I didn't see the original Farm Show play but director Gil Garratt and cast incorporated its history ...
Looking out the kitchen window at a field that's planted in soybeans for almost as far as the eye can see, I got thinking of a book I read recently on early pioneer life ...
One of the things I have always loved about spring is the infinite number of shades of green. From the first timid hint as you run your eyes over the edges of the bush, to the lushness we see now, shades of green tell the story of the seasons...
Anyone experienced in research -- historians, journalists and the like -- go to source materials as a means to distinguish truth from perspective. If a source originates from an earlier time period...
"Good morning gents," greeted Molly Whiteside when she delivered the menus at Mabel's Grill the other morning, "Can I start you off with a coffee?"
"Of course," mumbled George Mackenzie...
I am not a prophet. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, much less next year or beyond that.
However, as a scientist, I read scientific literature and books about ecology, agriculture and dynamic systems...
Over the years, I've had farm women seek me out for advice on getting divorced. These are hard conversations. So emotional. Decisions need to be made but fear, shame, hurt and anger quickly make things dark and twisty...