Columns

A few weeks ago, a message came across my news feed letting me know that screech owls were having a tough winter. The thick snow cover has been protecting the mice, moles, and voles causing the owls to hunt in areas that they would not normally ...

"I think I'll have the grilled pork chop," Cliff Murray said at Mabel's Grill the other morning.
"Grilled pork chop? For breakfast?" Molly Whiteside asked as she took their orders.  "Oh no, don't tell me you're getting into April Fool's Day jokes! ...

I was flabbergasted when I picked up the Farmtario paper and I saw that now, 50 years later, the federal government is letting go of the remaining farmland it assembled for a proposed airport near Pickering...

I love this part. While this might be one of the first columns you read this month, it is the last one that I write. I get to reflect on all the stories in the issue and pull a thread to tie them together...

"The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things," wrote Hans Christian Andersen. I love this quote by the famous Danish writer, who lived from 1805-1875 -- 200 years ago! ...

""I'll have bacon and eggs and orange juice," George MacKenzie said as he delivered his order at Mabel's Grill the other morning.
"We don't have orange juice anymore," Molly Whiteside replied as she wrote down their orders. "It'll have to be Canadian...

It is no secret that I am an unabashed tree hugger. I know the term carries some negative connotations, but considering the importance of trees, I am willing to carry that. I've planted hundreds of trees over my lifetime and now doing a ...

Although the 50th season of the Blyth Festival was celebrated last summer, we're coming up to a historic date this month, when I received a letter from young James Roy to see if I'd be interested in meeting with him to talk about starting...

"I'll just have toast and coffee,"   Cliff Murray said when Molly Whiteside was taking their orders one morning after Christmas at Mabel's Grill.

"I think I'll have pancakes and maple syrup this morning," Dave Winston  said as he placed his order for breakfast at Mabel's Grill the other morning...

"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable." While the origins of this quote are disputed, the sentiment holds true across cultures and history...

Sometimes we get so enveloped in the problems of today that we don't see how fortunate we are to live in 2025...

This month's issue is all about hay -- big and small hay -- growing, baling, drying, and shipping hay. Well, at least on the surface it is. But I was struck by an underlying thread in all of February's stories: the theme of relationships...

Maybe it won't seem like it, but I have never spent more time and involved more people in an article than I did for this month's story about South Bruce in the wake of its DGR debate...

For me, the turn of the year is often a time for reflection. The long, dark days, the damp weather, and the end of our cropping season all help to bring on sense of taking stock of the past year -- the gains, the losses, the lessons, and...

Recently, looking through one of the other farm publications, I was fascinated to read an article on how scientists in the United Kingdom have learned that soil micro-organisms can be used to generate electricity for a soil-powered battery...

"Do we really need the Christmas music playing already?" Dave Winston asked Molly Whiteside when she delivered the menus the other morning at Mabel's Grill...

A few weeks back, the missus and I made a short trip from Dresden to Thamesville, passed over the Thames and made a sharp right turn...

Talk to anyone who thinks about such things and you will probably hear that the autumn of 2024 has been unprecedented. The sun just never stopped shining. Instead of fighting mud, frost, and engines that need to be plugged in for the night...

It's so easy for us to think we are well-read and knowledgeable about other parts of the world and suddenly we can understand that we know so little...

As you would have read in the last issue, Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot has said a fond farewell, and decided to retire from editing the Rural Voice...

"I hate to see all the beautiful leaves fall from the trees," Cliff Murray said the other morning as the guys gathered at Mabel's Grill. "Soon they'll lose their colour for another year." ...

I'm late to the game, I know. By the time you read this, the date for South Bruce's referendum on hosting a Deep Geological Repository (DGR) for spent nuclear fuel will have passed....

I recently attended a meeting with all the Community Forest Managers of Ontario. This group gets together once a year to listen to speakers, tour a few sites, and discuss issues that have or may arise. This year we met in Aurora and toured some of ...