Columns
In the mid-1940s and early 1950s when I was in public school, we were into mixed farming. We milked cows and shipped the milk to the Bluevale Creamery...
Change is inevitable. We often make bold predictions about what this change will look like based on firmly held beliefs in what ought to be, or what our analysis has led us to conclude. Farming is not exempt from these types of predictions...
"You guys got your plans for Groundhog Day?" Molly Whiteside asked as she passed out the menus at Mabel's Grill for breakfast the other morning.
As we start 2026, the news seems to get worse daily. Notes are still hanging in the air from songs about peace and love, but that seems to be a long way from current reality. Conflict, wars, and trouble around the world can make me feel discouraged...
We still have a breadmaker in our house and Jill likes making various kinds of homemade bread (we're now on our third such machine)...
Over the holidays I was also reading for a project I'm doing for a (not local) Conservation Authority (CA). They are trying to understand how to support farmers in their urban-adjacent watershed to do "best management practices" to improve water quality.
"I'm sick of winter!" Dave Winston told the other guys when they gathered at Mabel's Grill for breakfast the other morning.
"Good grief, winter only started the other week," said Cliff Murray....
The winter often brings time to reflect as we think about what went right, what went wrong, and how the heck did it go by so fast? Farmers deal with weather, markets, politics, changes in science and technology, guaranteeing that no two years ...
We're into the cold months now and if you're like me there's the temptation to eat an extra piece of pie for dessert to help get through the boredom of the winter...
"We got the last of our corn off just before the first snow of the year," Dave Winston told the other guys as they sat down at Mabel's Grill for breakfast the other morning.
"That's one thing that was good about this year," said George MacKenzie. "...
Access to farmland for first generation farmers is not easy in Ontario. By now most of us have heard the data many times ...
Music is one of my favourite things about the Christmas season. Last year I had the good fortune of joining the HuronSong Chorus. I say good fortune because it is not a choir that is looking for members. Currently 90 voices strong, there is usually...
In a world where rural life is seemingly ignored, Christmas is one time of the year when rural living becomes the centre of the celebration....
In the middle of my life, we made a few trips to Las Vegas with several other couples. For me the purpose of our trips was not to make our fortune, but to enjoy the hotels, the food and the shows....
The other day, I was reading an article about the organization called Your Old Barn Study and it brought back memories of the old barn on the farm I grew up on north of Lucknow...
As I write this column, we are caught in a confusing season that feels like high summer. But the calendar and the shortening day length tells us we are well into October. Most aspects of farming involve challenging weather conditions in one way...
It was 1940, a time of national emergency. At the start of the Second World War, Hitler's army ruthlessly swept across western Europe. Britain suffered devastating bombing raids and food shortages due to German blockades.
"Man, I'm already sick of getting up in the dark to feed the cattle and the short days of winter are barely beginning," moaned George MacKenzie when the gang assembled at Mabel's Grill recently...
When the alarm rang this morning, I had to decide whether to get up or turn it off and go back to sleep for another twenty minutes. That was my first decision of the day. How many more decisions would I make before the end of the day?...
Good grief, it was cold this morning when I came to work," grumbled Molly Whiteside when she delivered the menus the other morning as the guys sat down at Mabel's Grill...
Something nobody warns you about with aging is how fast bird watching creeps up on you. One day you are young and hip, and the next you're like... "Darn! Is that a yellow-rumped warbler?"..
Main street isn't what it once was. Locally-owned businesses have found it impossible to compete with international giants like Walmart. But one sector is still healthy: co-operatives...
Did you know that Bruce County, Bruce Township, Port Elgin and Kincardine are all named for the same person? That would be James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, who was Governor General of Canada when the county...
"I can't figure out these people who work at the post office," Dave Winston said the other morning as the guys sat down at Mabel's Grill. "It's got so I hate to waste energy walking down the lane to the mail box every day because, if there's anything...