In the mid 1880s, there was a Gypsy troupe that travelled across Spain. There was natural apprehension in the villages they passed through, for the gypsies were free folk, and there was always resentments for their free lifestyle. They had a role in society among both the poor and the wealthy; they were great tinkers, entertainers and rogues. Their freedom allowed them to perform and to watch them perform was to enter tha...

This is a tribute to my wonderful dog Brock. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was going to the dog pound to see if I could find an Airedale terrier. I had fallen in love with the breed when a friend of mine brought her Airedale to my house while visiting me. He had been one happy-go-lucky guy, and made a great impression on me. So years later, I had gotten a part Airedale-part Husky female; I called her Allysa. I had...

This story takes place at harvest time again. It was a time when our cell phone did not have great signal strength, as we are situated between two signal towers. It's better now but still not great.I was at home, and decided to give Ed a call to see if he needed anything or just to ask how he was doing. See, I am the perfect little farm wife. He had been clearing the field of flax straw at the time. I kept getting the mes...

As you probably know by now, I am an animal lover. Therefore hunters and I don't really get along well. The area we live in has been popular with hunters for who knows how long. The reason being, that the population is pretty sparse, and of course there is a lot of wildlife. The sloughs are usually loaded with all kinds of waterfowl. In the springtime, the Canadian geese come, followed closely behind by the swans.The swan...

The Beast is the older of our two grain trucks. I better describe it , so that you have a picture in your mind of what it really is like. Its a 1968 Dodge grain/dump truck, built like a tank, unlike the newer converted grain trucks that have been used on the highways. The capacity of the box is 16 tons and it has 20 gear shifts. The PTO runs the hydraulics that hoist up the box when you unload the grain. Don't tell anyone...

Well, I now finally had my goat. I had waited for this for an awfully long time. There was just one problem now. How was I going to get the dogs to accept her and vise versa ? I lay in bed that night, thinking up different scenarios, on how it was going to go down. The first thing I had to do was get her to trust me. That wasn't going to be easy, since I scared the living daylights out of her by dragging her around by the...

To set this story in the proper time and place, I have to take you back to my teen years. Back a few years to my first encounter with a goat. I was visiting a friend on the outskirts of the City. Margaret was getting us some nice cold drinks while I sat on the back steps of her house. She lived right next to a farm that had a pen full of goats, and I could see them from the steps. There looked to be at least a dozen of th...

Farm Tales Firstly, let me tell you a little about myself. My name’s Kari and I am an import. What’s an import you say? It means that I either am from another country or the city. In my case it’s the city. Being a city girl, I had very little knowledge of farming or farm ways, so I have been flying by the seat of my pants. I used to spend my summer holidays at my grandmother's farm, but it was only 10 acres and what is ca...