The Rural Voice - December 2024

The

Rural Voice December 2024

THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE ... $3.50 PM 40037593

BRUSHING GREATNESS Candace Nivins grooms Millar Farms’ all-star horse, Chantilly

A STITCH IN TIME

Karen Poce preserves local quilts and their histories

SMALL TOWNS, BIG GOALS Palmerston and Kincardine hospitals rally for MRI machines

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Contents The Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

Published monthly by: The Rural Voice, Box 429, Blyth, Ontario, N0M 1H0 Telephone: 519-523-4311 Fax: 519-523-9140 E-mail: info@northhuron.on.ca Website: ruralvoice.ca

24

Publisher: Deb Sholdice

32

18

Columns

DECEMBER 2024

Mel Luymes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Departments Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40, 52 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Newsletters

National Farmers Union . . . . . . . . . .58 Perth Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Bruce County Federation . . . . . . . . .60 Grey County Federation . . . . . . . . .61 Perth County Federation . . . . . . . . . .62 Huron County Federation . . . . . . . . .64

• Cover Photo

Candance Nivins with Chantilly Photo: Clive Cohen/New Image Media

Editor: Melisa Luymes mel@northhuron.on.ca Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Gary Kenny, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Donna Lacey, Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot, Carolyn Crawford, Bonnie Sitter, Jeff Tribe

• Deadlines: Jan. Issue – Dec. 9

Advertising Sales: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca

18 Small Towns, Big Goals

Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell

February Issue – Jan 13

Palmerston and Kincardine residents rally to purchase MRI machines for their hospitals

24 Brushing Greatness

Candace Nivins takes care of harness race champion

27 A Stitch in Time Karen Poce works to preserve local quilts and the family stories behind them

30 AI, Data and Dignity

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40037593 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 429, BLYTH ON N0M 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Subscriptions: $30 (12 issues) $55 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $3.75 each.

Make cheques payable to: NORTH HURON PUBLISHING CO.

Wendy Wong speaks to the R2R Conference in Blyth.

32 Christmas Fudges Carolyn Crawford shares recipes and tips for the perfect fudge!

36 Saving Seeds Rhea Hamilton-Seeger’s tales about saving native seeds this fall

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited submissions. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. Editorial content may be reproduced only by permission of the publisher. The Rural Voice makes every effort to see that advertising copy is correct. However, should an error occur, please notify The Rural Voice office within 30 days of invoicing in order to obtain a billing adjustment.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.

Feedback Letters to the Editor: The Rural Voice, P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 or email to mel@northhuron.on.ca

Rural well contamination Dear Rural Voice, As the resident you mentioned in your article who raised alarm on Karst geology and rural drinking water, I would like to thank Rural Voice for addressing this crucial issue of groundwater quality. Mel Luymes’ quality article, along with the tips from the Grey County Federation of Agriculture on drinking water testing, are both very timely.

The article correctly explains how Ontario’s Water Resources Act (Regulation 903) regulates private well construction and plumbing, but this regulation does not cover the

aquifer feeding the well. If the aquifer is like a cup of soda and the well is a straw, Regulation 903 addresses everything about the straw—its materials, how to insert it, how to protect the opening, and how to document it all. The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) oversees rural homeowners’ compliance with this regulation.

However, what happens if everything about the well and water treatment is done correctly, yet the water still contains over 10,000 coliforms or E. coli bacteria? What happens if the contamination is not due to the construction of the “straw” but because someone poured contaminants into the “cup”? In the cases brought to my attention, MECP ensured that the private well was constructed to code, and that contamination sources were stopped, but that’s where MECP’s involvement ended. Homeowners were left with tens of thousands in financial damage, significant property value losses, and without access to clean water.

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for damages from a contaminated aquifer, Ontario currently requires the affected homeowner(s) pursue a private lawsuit. This process requires proving nuisance, negligence, or strict liability. Such lawsuits are daunting and costly, placing the burden of proof and all financial risks on the injured party, who must show that the aquifer contamination couldn’t have originated from any other source. This is rarely possible in practice. Yet Ontario’s laws do protect groundwater as a “public good” and assign liability for contamination through the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA) and the Environmental Protection Act (EPA). Ontario also guarantees all citizens access to clean water through its Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), which applies to rural severances as well. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that “groundwater quality is only regulated through Regulation 903.” In fact, groundwater quality is indirectly regulated through a combination of case law, common law, and several other important acts.

If government agencies fail to implement Justice O’Connor’s recommendations for proactive, swift, transparent, and responsible action, rural residents may need to file a class-action lawsuit to establish the right to clean aquifers as a source of drinking water, beyond merely ensuring well construction and plumbing standards.

I would applaud if government agencies and farm organizations recognized that certain “bad apples” are causing considerable harm to their community. Currently, regulatory follow-up leaves homeowners with the brunt of financial losses. Several contamination cases are under investigation, showing that these issues are not “isolated examples.” We face a systemic risk due to historic farm severances, which have created residential homes on private wells, combined with highly vulnerable Karst hydrogeology and intensified farming practices. Farmers originally applied for these rural severances, and government agencies approved them to increase the tax base. Yet, when contamination occurs, rural residents bear the consequences.

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Ruralite Kate Proctor Today, I am thankful for my neighbours, the skilled technicians who get us up and running again, all the people who keep the wheels turning behind the scenes, and everyone who understands the urgency we all feel to bring our crops home. -

Be sure to drive by the Palmerston hospital on Whites Road this month to see this tree light up with the donations towards the MRI+ fundraising campaign! See page 18.

see page 10

Chill December brings the sleet, Blazing fire, and Christmas treat. ~Sara Coleridge (1802–1852) "The Months"

For Christmas treats, check out Carolyn’s recipes and tricks for fudge on page 32!

•

Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom and humour from the McGavin files)

Seek joy in what you give, not what you get.

•

John Becker of Dashwood was proud to sit with his granddaughter, Jillian Simpson, the reigning Huron Plowman Princess, at the annual meeting of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture on November 1.

(See page 40).

Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot.

December 2024 5

Mel Luymes Mel Luymes is the new editor of the Rural Voice and hails from rural Wellington County.

A new page for me, and for the Rural Voice!

Well, well, well… 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 get to be the lucky one to take her place! I am so thrilled to be part of a small but mighty team here at North Huron Publishing and I’m looking forward to shepherding this magazine into the future.

If you’re a regular reader of this magazine, you’ll know I’ve been around for a while. I grew up on a small farm near Moorefield, where my family still farms (now a big one). I believe my first time writing for the Rural Voice was an opinion piece that I wrote back in 2012 or so, when I worked for a stint at Maitland Valley Conservation Authority. From there, Keith Roulston gave me a first assignment covering a meeting about agriculture software at the Listowel Ag Hall, and I was hooked. When Lisa took over from Keith as the editor 10 years ago, she got me in a regular rotation of opinion columns for the Viewpoints section and I was able to do some freelance stories for her as well.

So, I’ve loved the Rural Voice for a long time. For me, it was always a special treat to get to do from the side of my desk. I also work as a freelance project and non-profit organization manager, with a focus on agriculture, manure management, drainage, soil health and water quality, and you’ll 6 The Rural Voice

see that reflected in many of the articles I wrote for this magazine over the years. But I also loved doing the local-restaurants-with-globalfood series, trying new flavours and hearing incredible stories of how faraway people came to be small business owners in rural Ontario.

Writing for the Rural Voice has allowed me to travel around our readership area, meet new people, listen to their stories and share them with a broad audience. You know the saying that what you’re looking for, you’ll find? By keeping an eye out for story ideas, you flex a curiosity muscle in your mind to the point that pretty much every person, place or issue can become interesting.

Everyone has a life story full of joys and struggles; it is what connects us all.

I’m so grateful for all the people that I’ve met through my writing, and I never know where a story will take me. It feels like following runners in a patch of strawberries. An incredible phone call with Amy Stein earlier this year led me to an inspiring tour of her farm, and down a deep rabbit hole about farmland access and land trusts in the area. From that, a story on Ontario Farmland Trust introduced me to a new kindredspirit-type friend working with The Philosopher’s Wool Co. and she suggested another land trust to write about in the future, which I’m aiming to work on in the next months … and who knows where that will go next!

In the same way, I got to meet the incredible volunteers at both the Kincardine and Palmerston hospitals this month, and a suggestion that the Quilt Crusader be a good story idea, led me to a lovely chat over coffee with Karen Poce. She invited her friend Penny Crawford to join us, and Penny in turn introduced me to her sister, Debbie Smith. We had a great call which ended with my signing up for her sewing class. Thanks to these incredible people that shared their time and stories with me, I see both hospitals and quilts with a whole new appreciation.

As well, I feel connected to the

Rural Voice readership when I get feedback from strangers, or near strangers: the man behind the counter at the hardware store makes a comment on last month’s article, a neighbour says that he forwarded one of my columns about conflict resolution to his family, or a total stranger writes in to check up on my mental health after my February column.

And then there are the friendships that writing has brought me. During the height of the pandemic, I wrote an article about a one-room schoolhouse that used to be between Harriston and Clifford for the Wellington History Journal. Over the phone, and for a few Saturday mornings in a row, I interviewed a 75-year-old man that had attended that school before it closed. I was calling him in his hospital room, and we kept to our regular calls even after the story went to press. Once the pandemic was over and he had moved to a long-term care facility in Kitchener, I was able to meet him in real life and I still visit him there when I go into town.

Writing the Viewpoints column felt like writing a letter to 11,000 strangers, never sure who might read it. So, it was an absolute delight when a Rural Voice reader near Woodstock wrote me back a lovely handwritten note last year. We wrote back and forth a bit and I got to meet him on his farm over the summer. He is shy and quiet, a deep thinker and such a wonderful soul, that I wish he would write for the Rural Voice one day. (Hint, hint. And I know you’re reading this!)

So, I love this magazine because it has given me a voice and a huge community, but I also feel it serves a much bigger purpose for all of us.

While the world (and the media) seems to be getting more polarized, we have a free space to explore all the sides of rural and agricultural issues. How lucky are we that we have an independent and communityowned magazine that, thanks to our incredible advertisers and partners, comes to most of us for free! What

shall we do with this incredible resource? I’m curious what you’d like to read within these pages, what issues need to be explored and what voices would you like to hear more of? As well, if print media is shifting, what sorts of social media should the Rural Voice pursue?

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Rural Voice! As I’m planning the upcoming issues for 2025, I’d love to hear from you all how we might celebrate. Are there memorable stories from the past you’d like to mention? Have you, like me, made some meaningful connections through the Rural Voice that you’d like to share?

You’ll notice that we have a callout for local love stories that I would cover for our February issue, and we’ll print “personals” columns for free in our Valentine’s Day spread.

Deadline for that is January 13, but as for suggestions for the next 50 years of the Rural Voice, I’m all ears. Please get in touch with me at mel@northhuron.on.ca. ◊

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Keith Roulston Keith is former publisher of The Rural Voice.

He lives near Blyth, ON.

An enlightening story about Brazil 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. That’s how I felt when I read a recent article about farming in Brazil in one of the other farm papers.

I often thought Brazil was a big part of the problem of world-wide climate change, accepting images of farmers there clearing and burning Amazon forests. I got a new understanding when I read the observations of Matt McIntosh, a Canadian travelling to the country as a Nuffield Scholar.

McIntosh said I was not wrong when I pictured Brazilian landowners clearing the jungle so they could plant crops but the reality is more complicated. During the latter half of the 20th century there were periods of high levels of deforestation. But he also notes that for many years now the Brazilian government has enforced regulations to preserve significant levels of the natural landscape. In the Amazon basin, landowners are required to keep a minimum 80 per cent of their land under forest.

In the super productive province of Mato Grosso do Sul, 20 per cent of land must be covered by forest. There are also requirements to protect areas along slopes, waterways and mountaintops.

Despite the restrictions, Mato Grosso do Sul is one of the most productive areas of the world with a long, hot growing season that produces multiple crops each year and a productive area for growing beef cattle.

More than one speaker at the conference the Nuffield Scholars attended, highlighted Brazil’s

We thank you for your patronage in 2024 8 The Rural Voice

biodiversity as well as significant investment in biofuels. Indeed, McIntosh said, several times carbon was identified as a “northern hemisphere” issue.

It got me thinking of my own country and its story. As I look out my window, there are open fields where once the landscape was covered by trees. My own greatgreat-grandfather, as a 17 year-old settler, helped clear the land on his farm north of here on the southern edge of Bruce County.

The land around my house was cleared by other Scottish settlers.

They didn’t have bulldozers in those days 160 years ago. They cleared the land a few acres a year with axes, cutting trees and piling them to burn.

Over time the land became bare.

Eventually some realized that the land they had cleared should have been left in trees. I remember one hilly area near our farm north of Lucknow being reforested when I was just a lad. Yet in Ontario, municipal prohibitions against clear felling met consistent and fierce resistance, McIntosh points out.

As well, criticisms of carbonspecific policies are persistent. One of the most popular policies of Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre, for instance, is opposition to the carbon tax that the Liberal government has declared. People oppose the tax because it increases the price of filling up the gas tank on their car, even though most of us (not farmers, to be sure) get more money back in cheques or direct deposits in our bank accounts.

It’s late fall now, yet as I write this column on Halloween, the temperature reads 20 degrees. This is pleasant but it’s not natural. During the summer large parts of northern Canada have burned. This never gets mentioned by people like Polievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith who seem to think climate change is not a problem.

It’s been easy to shift the blame for climate change to Brazil, but if Ontario (and much of the U.S.) had never been cleared of trees would we have climate change today?

What McIntosh’s observations show is that we need to look at our own situation before we blame others. ◊

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Kate Procter Kate farms, hikes, canoes, and plays guitar in Huron County.

A few good lessons in efficiency 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, we were combining corn in shorts and t-shirts.

As farmers, we LOVE this kind of harvest weather. Everything goes so much smoother when the sun shines and things don’t freeze overnight. We

10 The Rural Voice

all go like mad, hoping to finish before the weather “turns” and we are fighting the elements again. When it doesn’t rain, that means lots of long days with no breaks in between.

Hopefully the only breaks that happen are mechanical failures and all the humans are able to catch enough rest to stay happy and healthy. I notice in myself… after about day 10, I have to focus a bit more to not miss that one little step that throws everything out of whack.

When corn moves at a rate of 5000 bushels an hour through your system, keeping your head in the game is essential.

In spite of our best efforts to maintain our equipment properly, things break, older equipment that may just be a little tired fails, and the unexpected happens. This year, Little Blue, my favourite truck that we use for hauling corn from the field, developed a leaky hydraulic seal on the hoist cylinder. This could be worked around, but is not ideal and we still had a lot of corn to hoist

when it happened.

I was in the combine thinking about Plan B. Knowing everyone is running like mad at this time of year to keep going, I felt a bit silly sending a few texts out to farmer friends on the off chance that someone might have a loaner so we could get a repair. It warmed my heart to see that within about half an hour, I had offers of three trucks, and someone to take a look at repairing Little Blue. Farmers tend to be independent types – but when it comes down to it – nothing feels better than knowing there are people who have your back and are happy to help.

We operate a GSI Top Dry drier, which I love, if you can apply that word to an inanimate object. One of the things I love about it is the service technician it comes with. It usually just runs the way it is supposed to. But one morning, just as we were hitting the halfway mark, the drier shut down with an unfamiliar error code. I texted the technician at 6:30 a.m. and by 8:00 a.m. the sensor was replaced and the technician was driving out the lane, with no down time.

We also had a saggy hydro line that was a bit too saggy for our combine to pass under. I called Hydro One, and within three hours, the line was repaired and the poles extended so the lines were higher to prevent a similar episode next year.

Contrast that with some of the other institutions that we also have to deal with. Over the past year, I have had the role of estate executor.

Everyone who has had this job will tell you it is tiring, frustrating, and can seem never ending. Especially if you are dealing with grief over the loss of your loved one and carrying out your normal life duties.

Yes – the government is slow and we wonder why things have to take so long with them, but my beef is with the bank. They make the government look like masters of efficiency.

I have had my frustrations with them over the years, so much so that we terminated a 50year relationship and took our

business down the street to the credit union. So yes, there is some history there.

I sit in the combine thinking about the millions of bushels of crops that farmers move from fields across Ontario into bins - dried, conditioned, and stored – sometimes within the space of just a few weeks. There are a lot of wheels turning, a lot of humans involved, a lot of mechanical parts that can (and do) fail. Yet with a couple of texts we keep the whole thing going and proceeding, always trying to keep one step ahead of the weather.

The bank? Not so much. I have been battling for over a year to access one account. Luckily I had paper statements and knew of its existence – or who knows what would have happened. We had to redo the probate paperwork because everyone on the bank’s end missed it. Unlike everyone else I deal with in my business life, I physically have to go to the local branch – talking over the phone is not an option, and calls are not returned. Being patient, as suggested, resulted in the whole thing “falling through the cracks”, as it was explained nonchalantly to me. I had to become the person who calls every day, and then just shows up with intentions to stay until the issue is resolved.

You may be thinking, “Oh Kate, come on … you’ve just had too many short nights and are feeling a little cranky.” I wondered that myself until I looked up the bank’s rating with the Better Business Bureau and read some online reviews. As one lawyer told me, banks are notorious for this stuff. I guess estate lawyers exist for good reason.

Today, I am thankful for my neighbours, the skilled technicians who get us up and running again, all the people who keep the wheels turning behind the scenes, and everyone who understands the urgency we all feel to bring our crops home.

So forgive me if I’m a bit cranky now knowing that Ontario farmers can harvest over 13 million metric tonnes of grain faster than a bank can upload one crucial document correctly. ◊

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December 2024 11

Jeffrey Carter Jeffrey is a freelance journalist based in Dresden, Ontario.

A question of place 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. Had we headed left, Moraviantown and a cost-saving gasoline fill-up was just a few miles away but our objective was to pick up apple juice and honey from stops nearby.

Rather than heading back the way we came, we continued westward toward Kent Bridge, navigating the twists and turns of our route and taking note of a sign advertising one of the more minor crops grown in Chatham-Kent, walnuts, or as the woman of the house informed us,

“English walnuts.”

These were contained in 20-pound sacks hung inside the drive shed along one wall. Looking about, I inquired if a group of little, 12-foot trees bore the crop but was informed that, “No, those are peach trees” – much to my chagrin. The walnuts were taken from a pair of largish trees and I was informed that, with all the rain, there was an especially strong yield.

We brought a sack home, enjoyed some of the most flavourful walnuts either of us had ever consumed and decided to replace, the following day, walnuts for almonds, in the fruit cake we make every year for Christmas.

The “wedding cake” recipe was handed down from my grandmother and, presumably, was used for her special day more than a century ago.

Eva was born to Moses Miller in 1885, one of several sisters raised within the upper reaches of the Thames. Pennsylvanian Dutch (or Deutsch) in origin, she married Valentine Carter, grandson to William Carter, who also immigrated from the United States to what is now

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Ontario not long after the turn of the 18th century.

According to family lore, “… as a little boy, William Carter was stolen

by Indians and brought up among them. The Indian Chief promised him that at the age of 21, he could have any 100 acres he wished, he travelled to Oxford from Pennsylvania, by covered wagon…”

I’ve driven past the property many times. Through its southeast corner, a little rivulet passes. From there it flows south and westward to Woodstock, Ingersoll and London, eventually passing by the farm downstream of Moraviantown where we purchased our walnuts.

Of William Carter’s story, I suspect there are elements of truth attached, though grants of land made by the Indigenous peoples at that time were generally not recognized.

The government-approved purchase was made in 1828.

My father, William’s great grandson, was tall, athletic, darkhaired and inherited the slightly bowlegged stance of his mother. The youngest of seven, he took over Valentine’s 100-square-acres, located just a few miles from the original Carter homestead, not far from the Phelan Creek, a small tributary to the Thames.

An archeological dig conducted many years ago determined that the property was, in the distant past, the location of an Indigenous summer camp. The little creek would have once provided fish and a forest pool – long since drained – would no doubt have been attractive to a wide assortment of game.

One could still, in the 1960s, find arrowheads when plowing the fields next to the woodlot and at the heart of the place, the central point of the 100 acres, a quartz-infused boulder lay. Each year it would trip the plow attached to our International tractor and if the little Ford was being employed, stall forward motion entirely.

It is where, as a young lad, walking the field in early spring, I heard my name whispered, carried it seemed by the breeze, gently passing along the undulating landscape. And then, a second time.

I would return to the spot, hoping to hear the voice once more, but

never again, never again.

Not all that long ago, I recalled the experience to a member of Ontario’s Indigenous community, a person who had been “scooped” from her family in the 1960s but since reunited. She told me three things.

“You’re freaking me out,” was one.

The second concerned the qualities of quartz, such as the belief it can amplify energy and facilitate clarity of thought.

The third was a confirmation. Yes, she said, you are a person of place.

My father was as well, his forebears having lived for multiple generations on this land. My mother’s lineage, in contrast, is Scottish in a general sense. Her mother’s people hailed from the borderlands, arriving in the latter half of the 19th century and her father’s people from an isolated island where the family members scratched out a living not far from a quarry where some of their number learned the necessary skills of stone masonry, a knowledge employed in the new land.

Place, however, is not so much about some geographical point on a map as a sense of belonging, contrary to the dominant narrative that divides, characterizing some as indigenous, others as immigrants (temporary or permanent), others still as settlers-colonials or, as put to me once, people who “crawled out of some hole in Europe” (and should return there).

I for one, am of place. Best to recognize and accept the past and move forward. As my father once intoned, “all people are the same,” and if I might add to those words, only the circumstance differs. ◊

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“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.

“I like it,” Molly said. “I persuaded Mabel to put on the Christmas music a little earlier this year. It cheers me up!”

Dave shook his head. “Christmas just starts earlier and earlier,” “A good thing too,” Molly replied.

“I see Christmas advertising starting on the TV as soon as Halloween is over,” grumbled George Mackenzie.

“Christmas movies, too” sighed Dave.

“Great, isn’t it,” said Molly.

“I saw Swiss Chalet offering a Christmas special about two weeks after their Thanksgiving special

finished,” said Cliff Murray.

“Wonderful,” said Molly sounding anything but wonderful.

“Now we’ll have customers driving all the way to the city to eat.”

“Oh they’re probably there already,” smiled Cliff. “If you think people going to the city is hard on restaurants, you should try owning a store downtown.”

“Remember when they made Christmas movies where people put up the tree Christmas Eve?” Dave wondered. “My wife wanted to put up the tree so early a natural tree got too dried out, so she went out and bought an artificial tree.”

“Have you seen how much those things cost?” Molly asked.

“Have you seen how much a real tree costs, and only last a couple of weeks?” Cliff asked.

“Yeah, but it’s part of Christmas, going out and buying a tree,” Molly said, then took the guys’ orders and headed back to the kitchen humming “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” along with the tune playing on the speakers.

“I still cut my own tree,” George

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said. “We had spruce seedlings planted along the river at the back of our place some years ago and I’ve been cutting the odd one, and thinning them out.”

“Wasn’t it a long time ago you planted them?” Cliff wondered.

“I guess it was,” George observed.

“Now I either have to cut a couple of feet off the bottom of the tree or raise the ceiling in the living room.”

“My wife seems to have forgotten how much money she spent on that artificial tree,” Dave sighed. “Now she still wants to spend big on presents for the kids.”

“That’s the nice thing about having kids that are all grown up!”

George chuckled.

“Yeah, my parents said we shouldn’t get them gifts anymore at all,” Cliff said. “They already have just about everything they need and all it’s going to mean is more stuff for them to find a place for when they have to move to an apartment.”

“I hate to even think about that day coming,” George sighed.

“That means you can save a bit on Christmas, at least,” said Dave.

“Well we decided we’d take the money we’d normally spend on their Christmas presents and give it to somebody like CARE or UNICEF in my parents’ names,” Cliff said.

“But a lot of the people you’re giving money to aren’t even Christians so they don’t celebrate Christmas,” George grumbled.

“Yeah, but they still like full stomachs,” Cliff answered.

Molly returned with the guys’ loaded plates and delivered Mabel’s observations. “Mabel says she agrees with you guys – Christmas starts too early, but you’re here an hour a day but I’m here eight hours a day so I win!” she smiled.

“I suppose we could always make a trip to the Tim Hortons over by the lake,” George said slyly.

“And spend extra gas money to get there?” Molly wondered.

“Besides, I’m not sure that corporate headquarters hasn’t decided they should play Christmas music early” “Yeah but I can pay the gas because I never tip at Tim Hortons,” George smiled.

“You must get good mileage on your truck if you can drive for the tips you leave me!” Molly smirked. ◊

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Viewpoints: Sandra McComb Sandy has enjoyed a lifetime of farming adventures in Perth County

‘Tis the season to ... overdo it?

The picture on the cover of the farm magazine of a woman holding a young lamb in her arms immediately caught my eye, and moistened it just a wee bit as well. If only I could have snatched that lamb off the page and held it close.

The answer to a question I am sometimes asked is that yes, I still miss the sheep and lambs. I never got tired of looking after them, and I did it well. (Just ask me.) However, lifechanging events beyond control ensure that nothing remains the same forever – and maybe it’s the lifestyle I miss as much as the livestock.

Growing up on what was known as a ‘“mixed farm” afforded me an early opportunity to hone my skills in the fine art of animal husbandry. A variety of livestock required care; everything from milking cows and their calves, to pigs and chickens, and, when I was very young, a Clydesdale named John, and later my quarter horse, Cherokee.

I have many fond memories of my childhood and with Christmas almost upon us, a song we will no doubt hear again this year will evoke yet another. It’s not a song anyone will sing in church or while carolling, celebrating the real meaning of Christmas, (that being the birth of Jesus), but instead the signature song of The Chipmunks, “Christmas Don’t Be Late.”

The chipmunk theme and the song were the brainchild of a man by the name of Ross Bagdasarian, (with a stage name of David Seville), who, back in the ’50s, spent $200 of his meagre savings on a state-of-the-art tape recorder which allowed him to switch speeds. His experimentation resulted in a duet between his real 16 The Rural Voice

voice and the accelerated version of it, which is that of the chipmunks: Theodore, Simon and Alvin.

Incidentally, the rodents were named after the three executives at Liberty Records, the record label at the time.

(I wonder if those men felt it was a blessing or a curse - especially the one named Alvin, as the chipmunk with that name was the wayward one, sporting an attitude.) The song was released on November 17th, 1958, and in seven weeks had sold four and a half million records, becoming a number one hit by New Year’s Day. Not bad!

We had a radio in the barn which was always on during chores, and when that song came on we’d crank it up and listen and laugh. We especially loved the ending when the song is over, and the man is trying to convince his three singers that they did a great job but they weren’t going to sing it again, even though they are clamoring to do so. He says, “No boys! Let’s not overdo it!” to which they reply, “What do you mean overdo it?” Everything fades out with a lot of chatter and disagreement. My parents would then often tease my sisters and me with that line, asking us to do something and then saying, “But don’t overdo it!”, and of course we’d come back with, “What do you mean overdo it?” That simple bantering always made even the most mundane task seem more like play than work, proving once again the importance and power of attitude.

Remembering the song also brings to mind something my youngest son said to me years ago.

He was watching me do something, which could very well have been making some kind of an arrangement for Christmas - the kind of thing I’m not naturally gifted at. Whatever the situation, I’ll never forget his admonition, honestly presented as always. I’ve mentally revisited it many times since and smile every time I think of it.

“Mom, you’ve got to know when to put down the pencil!” he said.

Loose translation: “Don’t overdo it.”

For instance, if three pine cones in an arrangement look good, that doesn’t necessarily mean that six will look

better. Okay son, I’ve got it!

Not sure how I birthed such a wise boy.Clearly he took after his father.

So this Christmas, given all the chaos and busyness the season entails, whether or not you choose to “overdo it” is totally up to you. No matter what your decision, I wish each and every reader a most blessed and wonderful time of celebration with family and friends.

Merry Christmas! ◊

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Rural Living

Small Towns, Big Goals Residents from Palmerston and Kincardine are fundraising to purchase MRI scanners for their hospitals, bringing lifesaving technology closer to home.

Owen Drost holding his bravery beads, smiling with his mother Stephanie for the MRI fundraising video, and Palmerston hospital’s sign from the Whites road.

S

tephanie Drost and her 8-year-old son, Owen, are in a park in Drayton, the subjects of a short video promoting a fundraising campaign for an MRI machine for the Palmerston hospital. Stephanie is a director on the Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation, but for her and her family, this campaign is closer than most.

“Owen was born with a complex congenital heart condition,” starts Steph, but she is interrupted by Owen.

“Don’t tell them that mom!” protests Owen with a smile.

“Well, can we tell them about your bravery beads?” asks Steph, and Owen is shy to share a long string of beads that marks every time he has had a test or procedure at the hospital.

Since Owen was born, the family has had to make several trips a year to Sick Kids Hospital in downtown Toronto for tests and MRI scans. It means leaving before dawn to beat the rush hour traffic.

“I like going because I get ice cream,” says Owen.

Stephanie smiles and explains that they always end their days at the hospital with something positive so that Owen creates good memories. But having an MRI machine in Palmerston for Owen would mean less driving and disruption for their lives going forward. Again, Owen protests and Stephanie assures him that they will get ice cream after an MRI scan, just the same.

Palmerston is a town in Minto, in the north part of the County of Wellington with a population around 3000. Its hospital is slated to get an MRI machine as early as the end of 2025. It has already been ordered and the tender package for construction has also gone out. The medical 18 The Rural Voice

• By Melisa Luymes •

professional staff are excited to move forward with a large project that will ensure the long-term viability of their hospital.

But all this hinges on the community raising eight million dollars for the project.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a body scan that is non-invasive and creates clear images of tissues and organs by using a large magnet, radio waves and a computer. It creates imaging that helps treatment, both for emergency and non-emergency cases. Wait times depend on patient priority level and, while the lowest priority cases are targeted to 28 days, the provincial average is currently 97 days and even worse in rural areas. The Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation estimates that to receive an MRI scan for a non-emergency case could take 133 days, and many appointments are scheduled in the middle of the night, due to over-subscription of the current units.

Furthermore, any residents of Palmerston would need to drive at least an hour for a scan.

“If you look on a map, Palmerston is right in the middle of what I call the black hole of MRI services in Southwestern Ontario,” says Angela Stanley, the CEO of North Wellington Health Care, comprising Palmerston, Mount Forest and Fergus hospitals.

She explains how the eight million dollars will be spent.

The actual MRI equipment is approximately two million dollars and construction costs are projected to be four million. The hospital already has “shell space” that is currently used as storage but will be reinforced for the weight of the equipment and copper will need to line the

walls, ceilings and floors, along with a safe zone around the magnet, preparation rooms and a front of house. The last two million dollars are earmarked for project management costs, a program to train local staff as MRI technologists, and a contingency amount.

By now, you may be wondering why the community needs to raise this money when we have public health care in Canada. Most people don’t know that the province only supports the operational costs of hospitals and clinics, like staffing and maintenance. This is why local hospital foundations continue to fundraise, year after year, for any beds, furniture, or equipment needed, even down to the stethoscopes.

Late in 2021, the Province of Ontario announced $20 million of funding to support the operation of 27 MRI units and made a call for interested hospitals.

The Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation quickly called a meeting to discuss the opportunity.

At that point, they estimated that they would need to raise six million dollars, but they didn’t hesitate to jump on the opportunity and make the commitment to the province.

“An MRI machine would be an anchor service for the Palmerston hospital,” says Dale Franklin, Development Officer for the Foundation. Palmerston’s hospital has 15 inpatient beds, hosts specialist clinics, performs day surgeries and has a 24-hour emergency room.

When the Province agreed to fund the operational costs for a unit in Palmerston, it came with a deadline.

It meant that the Foundation would need to raise the money in three years, and so the Foundation went straight to work in October 2023.

They began by creating a separate committee just for the MRI+ Campaign, co-chaired by Dan Hill and Mark Leslie. This group also has six sub-committees to cover Corporate, Agriculture, Major Gifts, Service Clubs & Community Groups, Events and Marketing. Over 40 volunteers combined are currently sitting on all the committees. They are a diverse group of young, working and retired folks from

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different parts of the community, and they have run two events themselves, but have been receiving the proceeds of several events hosted by local service clubs such as the Lions, Kinsmen, Agricultural Societies, Legions and so many more.

The co-chairs were pleased to share with the Rural Voice that the community had committed $6.2 million as of mid-October and that the funds had been raised from people and companies both nearby and in adjacent municipalities that will benefit from the MRI machine.

The campaign started with a donation of over a million dollars from the estate of Neil Faulkner and

The committee has made it easy for individuals to give by creating a “Five Over Five” initiative, that allows people to pledge $5000 over five years. This breaks down to about $2.75 a day, or the price of a coffee, and would have their contribution recognized on the donor wall. With the amount they have left to raise, Dale Franklin says they would only need 400 families to make a Five Over Five commitment.

But there will be other ways to contribute this holiday (ie. year-end charitable giving) season. The MRI+ Campaign will be running a Merry and Bright MRI Lights Campaign.

The tree in front of the hospital will

From all of us at (L­R) Dale Franklin, Development Officer at Palmerston & District Hospital Foundation with MRI+ Campaign co­chairs Mark Leslie and Dan Hill, in a cheque presentation from the Harriston Legion in July 2024. Submitted photo.

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has seen businesses, individuals and service groups contributing steadily over the past year; some of them are featured on the Foundation’s Facebook page, while others prefer to remain anonymous.

While they were thrilled, but not surprised, that the community had rallied in such a strong way, Dan Hill said that the last two million might be harder to raise, because it would likely be coming from families and individuals. It is a very large geographic area that will benefit from the MRI machine and the committee still hasn’t asked everyone within that area, so if you’re reading this, interested in donating and you haven’t been contacted, please reach out. Details are at pdhfoundation.ca.

be decorated with coloured light bulbs, purchased by a donation ($50 for green, $100 for blue and $250 for red). Each week, staff will replace the white bulbs on the string with coloured ones, so the town can see the donations coming in. They would make an excellent Christmas gift, especially at the last minute, or for those that are difficult to shop for.

No one has a doubt that Palmerston will reach its eightmillion-dollar goal, and it is likely that they will achieve it earlier than anticipated, says Dale, with a huge smile. It is clear she loves working in a community that has come together in such a big way for its hospital.

Stephanie Drost is also smiling.

“I’ve felt so much support from the community when we’ve been

struggling with Owen’s health issues,” she says. “And I feel the same community support with this campaign.

Kincardine Hospital When the Province first made its MRI announcement, there were several other hospitals that jumped on the opportunity. Some hospitals, like Owen Sound for example, purchased a second MRI machine.

Goderich is currently waiting on approval, and both Wingham and Kincardine hospitals were approved.

Wingham decided not to move forward with an MRI as they were already working towards a CT scanner. But for the Kincardine community, the MRI opportunity took their ongoing hospital campaign to the next level.

Kincardine is a town with approximately 12,000 residents along the shoreline of Lake Huron in Bruce County, and the population increases over 14,000 in the summer months. It is one of four hospitals operated by the South Bruce Grey Health Centre (SBGHC) and has a population base of 20,000, serving the rural areas of the Township of Huron-Kinloss and other municipalities, along with the town itself.

The SBGHC applied for approval for Phase One of Kincardine hospital’s redevelopment in 2018 and in December 2021, Kincardine & Community Health Care Foundation launched their large campaign Building Health Care for Generations. The plan aims to modify and add space in stages, with Phase One focusing on emergency care and Phase Two on long-term care and building a North wing.

Depending on government approvals, Phase One construction and renovation could start by 2027 and would likely take up to three years, with no interruption to current services.

The end goal is a well-designed layout that was developed in consultation with current doctors and nurses, increasing the footprint of the hospital by two and a half times.

Their hospital will be equipped with CT and now MRI imaging equipment, an improved decontamination room, laboratory,

and registration area, along with several more inpatient beds. (And if you’re wondering what a decontamination room is, the Kincardine hospital is Bruce Power’s designated hospital for patients who have been radiologically contaminated; however, there has not been an incident to date.)

The original hospital was built on the same site in 1909 and had several additions over the decades, with the original structure torn down. The last major renovation in the Kincardine hospital was in 1988 and for many years, it has been under-serving the community that needs it.

“Per capita, we have one of the busiest emergency rooms in the province,” says Graham Mahood, cochair of Kincardine’s campaign.

While many other hospitals have been forced to close their emergency rooms (ER) at certain hours, Kincardine’s ER remains open. They

hospital decided not to go ahead, the need in Kincardine was even greater.

Considering the proximity to a growing staff at Bruce Power, the bursting tourist population in the summer months, and its distance from any other major hospital, it just makes sense to invest in Kincardine’s hospital.

As mentioned above, the Province of Ontario doesn’t provide funding for hospital equipment and while it has agreed to support the planning and design, along with 90 per cent of the eligible construction costs of Kincardine’s hospital, there is still a “local share” that the community must raise, along with the equipment and commissioning costs. While the total project cost of Phase One will be $80 million, the community will be responsible for raising 18 million of that.

By 2019, the SBGHC determined that a CT scanner could not wait for

(L­R) Mark Womack alongside a few of Kincardine & Community Health Care Foundation’s long­standing volunteers: Graham Mahood (Campaign co­chair), Carol Collins, Becky Fair (President), and Jack Nancekivell, standing with the Kincardine hospital’s CT scanner, installed in 2023. the redevelopment in Phase One host visiting professionals from other because the need was so great. So, hospitals, like a cardiologist from when they were approved by the London every week, gynecologists, Province, they had the scanner diabetes support, along with a dropinstalled and running by March 2023 in mental health clinic every Friday. and are currently running about 3500 When the announcement for MRI CT scans a year for local patients, funding came out from the province projected to run 5000 a year over the in 2021, the SBGHC also responded next few years. and once they were approved, they CT (Computed Tomography) did a further “needs analysis” to scans are more often used in determine if their hospital was the best site in the area and the emergency settings than an MRI Foundation said an overwhelming image. CT scans use X-rays that can yes. Especially once the Wingham identify issues with bones, lungs and December 2024 21

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internal bleeding. Previously, a patient in critical condition would need to go 30 minutes to Walkerton in an ambulance with at least one nurse for a CT scan, which took valuable resources from the Kincardine hospital. Now, they can scan the patient in-house, while arranging potential transport to a city hospital and send the imaging over for the receiving doctors to review in advance. They will be saving critical time that could be the difference between life and death.

MRI imaging, on the other hand, is better suited for soft tissues, organs, muscles and the brain, though it may also be used for emergency imaging. Both MRI and CT scanners require trained technicians and are a long-term commitment to maintenance, staffing and replacement over the next decades.

They also mean a bright future for a hospital. This equipment and the promise of a state-of-the-art hospital in a friendly rural town with gorgeous lake views has allowed for Kincardine to recruit four new doctors recently. The upgrades will also allow for community members to recover in a hospital closer to home, and this would especially be important for the large Amish and Mennonite communities nearby that would have a difficult time visiting a loved one in London or Stratford hospitals.

“We know that keeping our residents in the community helps with their treatment and their healing,” says Mark Womack, the Capital Campaign Manager who was hired in 2023. He has run fundraising campaigns for several charities in the past and works with Kincardine-area volunteers on this campaign. Like Palmerston’s Foundation, they chose not to hire a professional fundraising firm, instead relying on volunteers and the trust and relationships they have built in the community to get the job done.

“This is unprecedented, to fundraise this large of a hospital campaign from this small of a community,” says Graham Mahood, who co-chairs the campaign alongside Kathryn Freimanis. Still, he is confident that this project will

be a success. Graham is a retired lawyer who has lived in Kincardine his whole life; he joined the Foundation in 2010 in the hopes that the expansion was moving ahead at that time, but when the Province stopped their plans, he stayed on the Board expectantly until the next opportunity came, about a decade later. It hasn’t been easy to work on the negotiations with the Province, but the fundraising has been rewarding.

So far, the Foundation’s campaign has raised just about $10 million for the Phase One redevelopment.

Kincardine’s campaign started out with a bang from major donations by Bruce Power, the municipalities of Kincardine and Huron Kinloss, along with Duncan and Lesley Hawthorne and Hurontel that started the momentum. The campaign enlisted about 25 local volunteers to work as ambassadors in the community, getting the word out, giving presentations and making requests for donations. For those who would like to support the Kincardine hospital’s campaign, go to kincardinefoundation.ca/capitalcampaign.

“Hospitals are something that everybody needs,” concludes Dan Hill, “and it is so important to have quality health care close to home.”

Especially in rural areas, places like the dialysis unit in Palmerston or the cancer treatment centre in Mount Forest mean the world to many in our communities. Several communities in the Rural Voice readership area have experienced emergency room closures over the past years, straining rural healthcare access and forcing them to travel longer distances for emergency care.

From Kincardine, Graham Mahood echoes similar sentiments to Dan, describing the personal importance of our hospitals. They are the places where people in our communities are born and where they die, a sacred place of joy and of sorrow, a place that brings us together in our humanity.

For those of us in rural areas, our hospitals (and our volunteers!) are lifelines. Please consider a year-end contribution to your local hospital. ◊

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Harness Racing

Brushing Greatness

Dungannon native Candace Nivins takes care of a harness racing champion at Millar Farms

F

rom the moment she burst onto the scene earlier this year, two-year-old Chantilly has been making a name for herself in the highly competitive world of Ontario harness racing. The pacing filly has had a perfect rookie year - she’s won every race she’s run, is officially the fastest two-year-old in North America, has already won somewhere around three-quarters-of-a-million dollars, and she’s still just getting started.

But for Chantilly’s groom, Dungannon native Candace Nivins, all of that success is just background noise. In fact, when The Citizen sat down with Nivins to discuss the art of grooming a champion, it barely came up that the four-legged phenom had clinched her ninth-straight victory just a few days earlier. “I try to focus away from all that, because I’ll psych myself out when I get to thinking about it,” Nivins admitted. For Chantilly’s team, the health of the horse always comes first.

Nivins has a great deal of respect for owner George Millar and trainer Nick Galucci, who don’t like pushing their two-year-olds too hard, too early, even if it means more money and accolades. “They’ll say ‘yeah, she did amazing this year - let’s save something amazing for next year, when she’s three and a little more physically strong.

Let’s not break her just to get our name out there.’”

Though content to be a groom for now, Nivins hopes to someday be a trainer like Galucci.

While Chantilly may be their breakout star, Nivins also works with some of the other horses on Millar Farms.

Currently, Chantilly is sharing her groom with Silver Label, Power Train, Chain Gang, and Win Me Back. Each 24 The Rural Voice

one has their own distinct personality that requires respect, and their own individual wants and needs. “I love all of Candace Nivins spends her them. They’re all time with a rising star: a two­ different, and they’re year­old horse, Chantilly, all their own horse... pictured racing above at pretty much, they all Mohawk Racetrack. get along. Silver and ~ Photo by Clive Cohen/ New Chantilly are getting Image Media. pretty jealous of each other. Silver is another good mare that I look after. When she’s in a big race, I’m more focused on Silver, so Chantilly gets a little jealous. When Chantilly is in a big race, Silver gets a little jealous,” Nivins explained. “The groom’s job is to know your horse as well as you can, to help them be the best that they can be…. You know how professional athletes get massages and stuff? That’s usually what the groom does. Some horses need asthma medication, other horses, like Train, get a really sore back easily, so he needs a lot of liniments and stuff to try and soothe it. He gets a cold back really easily.” Nivins has been working longer with Power Train than any of the other Millar horses. “He’s my baby. I’ve had him since he was three... my favorite all-time horse, who was sadly sold for bigger and better

• By Scott Stephenson •

things, was Better Buckle Me Up he was my heart horse.”

Despite growing up on a steady diet of classic young adult literature like Black Beauty, Nivins didn’t start thinking about seriously pursuing an equine-oriented career until high school. “I did my co-op at a ranch, and I liked that avenue. I went to school through Ridgetown at the Clinton campus. I job shadowed for two weeks at a standard-bred racing farm, and that’s when I fell in love with racing.”

It wasn’t long before Nivins landed the job at Millar Farms near Milton, and the opportunity to groom Chantilly soon followed. “I was lucky enough that her previous groom moved on, and I was picked to look after her. That was before we knew she is what she is.”

Even when it isn’t race day, Nivins stays as close to Chantilly and the other horses as she can. “I live on the farm, so it’s really nice it’s a 10-step walk to where my horses are. And when the work is done, it’s not really done. I go out for them a lot. If they’re sick, I go out for antibiotics for them in the afternoon. Sometimes, it’s hard to sleep, because my bedroom is right beside where they’re stalled. So if they’re making a racket, I can hear it… one of them really likes feed time, and they can start learning how to tell time - like ‘if the sun’s at this position, I get worked up, because I’m hungry, and I’m excited for food’. One of them is scared of grass cutters, so when the grass cutter is around, they’re a little anxious, a little rowdy. One of them really likes to jog, so if they’re not jogging first, they get a little anxious. A little ‘come on, let me go!’” During rare moments of horsefree downtime, Nivins likes to go to the gym and play Dungeons and Dragons.

But what is it about Chantilly that makes her such a once-in-a-lifetime racehorse? She’s obviously in top form, physically, but Nivins believes that there’s more to her than just good, old-fashioned horsepower - Chantilly is a horse with heart. “She has a really good

attitude about racing. She loves racing. She doesn’t want anyone to pass her. I don’t know - she’s a professional.” From a groom’s perspective, the emotional temperament of an animal is just as important as physical fitness. “The one horse I had, who has moved on to be a brood mare, was Velvet Stinger. She was a lot of hands-on.

You had to race her right, you had to keep her in shape, you had to groom on her a little extra hard. And then you have Chantilly - she has the

talent, and she has more of an easy time. You can just go okay, Chantilly, we’re racing. I’m going to point you in the right direction, you do all the rest. It’s more about keeping her happy than keeping her sound. Velvet was the other way around - she was always happy, but she needed a little more extra help.”

Whenever possible, Nivins attends the races to ensure everything goes as well as possible. “I go with my horse. Some grooms don’t, but I like the one-on-one.” ◊

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Family Heirlooms

A Stitch in Time • By Mel Luymes •

Karen Poce works to preserve local quilts and their family stories Karen Poce delicately opens up a large quilt made of dozens of fabric pieces, including upholstery and hand painted details, pointing out the delicate embroidery. This is called a crazy quilt, without any set pattern, and every last stitch was done by hand. Whose hands, however, we will never know. Karen rescued this quilt from a landfill. It could have been a family heirloom brought here from another country, but its history is now gone; we can only imagine the creativity and dedication of a woman (presumably) who would have spent several months, and maybe years, between all her other chores to stitch this beautiful quilt together.

This is just one of dozens of quilts that Karen has rescued and now includes in her traveling “Quilt Crusader Trunk Show” for local audiences, in which she also shares her window into the world of second hand and vintage clothing in the global economy. She sheds light on how our clothes are made and where they go after we donate our used clothing, how that has changed over time and the impact of synthetic fabrics and “fast fashion” on the world.

When it comes to the new trend of “up-cycling” clothes, Karen points out that is exactly what women were doing throughout history with their quilts.

A quilt has three layers, and the front patterned layer is arranged from scraps of fabric, often from old clothing, and stitched together first. Then a cotton batting layer is added between a back layer, with small stitches going through all three layers traversing the length and width of the quilt to

Karen Poce (top) with a selection of quilts at Thornbury antique show. Submitted photo. Below, the crazy quilt that Karen saved from the dumpster, from unknown providence. give its textured look. Often, this last step was done with a small group of women working on the same piece together, talking and spreading the news of the day as they stitched by hand.

While sewing machines and longarm quilting machines allow for quilts to be made more quickly these days, some are still making quilts in the old tradition, including our Amish neighbours. To this day, it remains a labour of love; the number of hours put into a hand-stitched quilt can never be fully compensated. As such, quilts are often gifted or put to auction or raffle to raise money for a community cause, such as the Amish School Auction.

When Karen sees quilts, she connects with the people December 2024 27

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28 The Rural Voice

who made them; she sees their creativity, their precision and their dedication. And on a rare occasion, she might even see a pinprick of blood from a slip of the needle.

Quilts are more than just a blanket to keep us warm, more than something beautiful to decorate a wall, they often have a story and mark a special occasion or gift in a family, passed down as heirlooms between generations.

Karen was steeped in her own family’s traditions, growing up in an Italian family in the West end of Toronto. Her grandmother, mother and aunts crocheted baby sets and sold them during the Depression. She developed a love for textiles that carried her throughout her career picking clothing for vintage shops, to the Royal Ontario Museum and to her work today as a “Quilt Crusader.”

In the early ‘90s, Karen replied to a job ad and became a part-time “picker” for Union Made, a vintage wholesaler. She would visit Torontoarea factories as they were processing clothing that had been discarded from second hand shops and either baling them for export to the developing world, making them into rags or sending them to landfill. She would sort through it all looking for quality vintage clothing that would be purchased from the factory (by weight) and would be resold at some of the trendy shops in Kensington Market.

Not only did she develop a keen eye for fabrics and quality, but Karen also found a love for quilts, which she would rescue from landfill by buying from the factories herself. She restored and re-sold quilts downtown at the St. Lawrence Market. She loved knowing that a restored quilt could be enjoyed for another hundred years.

At that time, she also worked at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and eventually became a full-time Preparator there, handling and mounting artifacts, preparing various galleries, cases and mannequins to display textiles. She met her now husband, Chris Palmer, who also worked there and together they bought a rural property near Chesley

in the mid-90s where they would spend their weekends and holidays.

In 2010, when both retired from the ROM, the couple moved permanently to Chesley.

Karen continues her passion for quality, textiles, fashion and history as a quilt crusader, buying, restoring and selling old quilts at antique shows in Aberfoyle, Keady, Elora and Toronto. She has a Trunk Show of 25 rescued quilts that she shows to various quilting guild audiences.

She also works with people to document and preserve their family quilts for the future. One of her first customers was Penny Crawford, also of Chesley. When her mother, Lila (Baker Cain) McKay, passed away in 2017, Penny and her sister, Debbie Smith, inherited a legacy of several quilts from their mother, grandmothers, great-grandmother and a great aunt, on both sides of the family. Karen worked to document the history and to photograph each piece, storing them in acid-free paper in museum-quality boxes that would protect the quilts from pests, moisture and light.

One of Penny and Debbie’s favourite quilts that is now stored safely away is a Canada Day quilt that their mother made, and it still is shown at Fall Fairs from time to time. With the emblem of every province of the country, in red and white, her mother Lila was quite proud of it. But when a blue chalk marker that she used to mark her top stitches wouldn’t come clean, she

was devastated. Washing only made it worse, but time and some sunlight have made the blue stains barely visible today.

Another quilt in their family history is a crazy quilt that was made from upholstery samples by their paternal great-grandmother for her grandfather. Their grandfather had a tremendous fall from a grain elevator, and they don’t remember much of him working on the farm, but of him smoking his pipe by the woodstove near this quilt. Their aunt thought it was quite ugly, which Penny admits it was, and it smelled strongly of smoke. When they donated it to the Grey Roots Museum, the staff stored it in the freezer for some time to take the smoke smell out of the fabric (which it did!) and it is now part of their collection.

While it would have been quite difficult to sew upholstery and it is rare to see such a piece, quilts could be made of any sort of scrap fabric.

Karen recalls seeing a quilt that a mother had made as a gift for her daughter, quilted out of all the flannel nightgowns that she had as a child. Historically, it is common to see old feed sacks incorporated into quilts. Especially in the Depression era, flour companies would put colourful prints into their fabric sacks, that women would use to make clothing, dolls or quilts.

Karen herself quilts with a group of local women about twice a month and while Penny laughs that she can’t

quilt well enough to do it, her sister Debbie followed in their mother’s footsteps and is an excellent seamstress and quilter. Debbie was a long-time member of a large quilting guild in Newmarket, and when she moved to Mount Forest two years ago, she joined the Four Corners Quilter’s Club. Established in the late ‘90s, the guild is about 50 members from the area that meet in-person and by zoom to learn more about stitching and quilting, see what projects others are working on, and make quilts for community donations. Debbie is now the president, alongside Sue Ewles.

Debbie also teaches quilting and sewing to a next generation at Creekbank Sewing Centre in Conn.

While she sees that the average age of women in quilting guilds is going up, she is hopeful that new people will take up the hobby like the generations before them.

If you have an old quilt that you don’t quite know what to do with, feel free to reach out to Karen to discuss. You can find her at www.quiltcrusader.com or at one of the local markets. If you’d like to learn from Debbie, you can contact Creekbank Sewing Centre by calling (519) 323-2693 to sign up for a class.

And for the quilters or soon-to-be quilters out there, Karen urges people to sign and date their work so that they can be recognized as the quilt is hopefully passed down through the generations. ◊

The Canada quilt made by Lila McKay (L); Penny Crawford and Karen Poce talk quilts at Bruud Coffee Bar in Chesley. (R) December 2024 29

Technology

AI, Data and Dignity at R2R Conference Approaching artificial intelligence from a human rights perspective could correct the imbalance of power looming over AI and data, says Wendy Wong, author of We, The Data • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

S

peaking at the Rural Talks to Rural 5th Biennial analog-beings and more so, we are human-rights bearing beings. We need to claim our ability to speak up and stop Conference in Blyth October 16-18, Wendy Wong being passive about ‘datafication’.” said data is sticky and the speed of AI is alarming but At the same time, we need to be very aware that big tech viewing it through the pillars of human rights –dignity, governs. On computers, we use only two operating systems liberty, equality and brotherhood – might help us all determine how we are going to crete agency to deal with it.

“Human rights can channel political action between the values of dignity and equality,” she said. “Because data is immortal, as far as we know, we have to come to terms with that and correct the imbalance between sources of data and collectors of data.”

While not an expert on rural issues, Wong said no one is exempted from data questions. “Data is becoming more granular, fine-grained and even intimate,” said Wong. “And we are all caught up in it as most of our communication occurs via electronic communication.”

She shared the story of “Roman” as an example of the longevity and life-changing situations AI can bring to our lives. Roman is a “tech ghost”, an AI companion designed by the software company Replika using 8,000 of real-life’s Roman’s text to friends and family.

Missing him, Roman’s friend created a Roman “bot” so she could continue to communicate with him after his death in his own conversational style.

“If digital data can be used to recreate people, what does it mean to become data?” asked Wong. "What happens to our rights when the device we rely on to conduct life is used in this way?”

Think of how data is being collected today to allow facial recognition, loyalty cards, online shopping preferences, digital assistance, home surveillance, etc.

“Our lives are ‘datified’ so much that they are both analogue and digital in an enmeshed way,” she said Wong believes human rights are the only way out of it.

“Human rights can help us think of ourselves as data stakeholders,” said Wong. While data collectors may be powerful, underground and beyond our understanding, they do NEED analog people as data providers. This cannot be forgotten. “Remembering this, means we can speak out and claim our place in the system.”

Too many people think of data as detritus or a commodity to be bought and sold, but these ideas cut Wendy Wong speaks at the Rural to Rural Conference in Blyth humans out of the system. “We are physical and October 16­18, 2024.

30 The Rural Voice

Peter Smith, R2R Conference organizer and Wendy Wong take a minute to chat before Wong spoke on data and artifical intelligence at the Rural Talks to Rural conference held in Blyth October 16­18.

– PC or Apple. With our phones, it is Apple or Android. “These platforms mediate how we react and they collect tremendous amounts of data," said Wong. This allows the companies to make the platforms more valuable to us yet they sell that data too. “It’s a self-reinforcing cycle. Is it a virtuous or vicious cycle?”

Another problem with data collection is that it may not align with our values. Neither is it entirely representative of who we are as individuals or as a broader rural or urban community.

But we also need to remember that data is useful! In agriculture, data has allowed for precision agriculture and in the wider world, it helps with such things as travel, allowing us to move around traffic traps. Data has helped us with productivity and communication as well, said Wong.

Using human rights as a lens to govern data and AI, what can people do? Wong said she would like to see policy makers “remove the granularity of tracking people.” She would also like to see data collection based on human rights versus financial gain and have this aspect

also governed.

Moreover, Wong says consent is a huge issue. For instance, tire pressure monitoring systems (TMPS) collect data which can be harvested. “But I never gave consent to that. That is my data.”

In summary, there needs to be more governance on how data is collected, by whom and that individuals should be asked their consent on what data they are willing to share. The way that begins is not viewing data from a narrow window of financial gain, but from the broader collection of human rights.

Wong’s presentation was part of the larger theme of “Exploring our Differences Together” that encapsulated the focus on this year's Rural Talks to Rural Conference.

The conference is put on by the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity as an avenue to “share ideas and discuss our directions of travel,” said co-organizer, Peter Smith. The event supports rural development in Ontario and contributes to a strong Canadian rural voice through collaboration, dialogue and building collective wisdom.◊

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Recipes by Carolyn Crawford

In Favour of Fudge For The Holiday Season

W

hen my brother, sister, and I were young and celebrated Christmas at my maternal grandmother’s aka “Grandma B.’s” house in the seventies, one of the foods we looked forward to having was her homemade fudge. It was so tempting to sneak a piece before turkey dinner with all the trimmings and dessert was served, but Grandma kept a close eye on her fancy lidded candy dishes strategically set out for after our meal! Heaven help you if you got caught! When Grandma B. tired of making this confection, Aunt Joan Judge (Joanie as we lovingly referred to her) continued the fudge-making tradition. Yours truly, who has no business eating fudge, now makes it occasionally for our Christmas get-togethers or for fundraising bazaars. It shocks me as to just how much sugar (and fat) goes into the making of each pan!

Fudge is its very own inflammation attack and diabetes spike in a one-inch square piece! Moderation is a necessity—as Dad says, “It’s meant for young kids not old kids!” All that being stated, it is a rare treat. These recipes do not have many instructions, but I will share some tips to assist you in making the perfect batch.

Grandma B. and Joanie’s Maple Cream Fudge Grandma B. would make this in her cast iron frying pan on her gas stove and Joanie made hers in her electric frying pan set at 350°F. Both claimed that the temperature stayed evenly distributed that way. Interestingly, when I looked this recipe up in my file box, it was the same recipe that my husband’s Aunt Marion Jose (who said she got it from her mother, Ruby Crawford) made every year at his Crawford family Christmas parties. Aunt Marion would “set” her fudge on a deeply curved China plate instead of a baking pan.

Ingredients: 3 cups light brown sugar 1/3 cup corn syrup 1/3 cup whole milk 2 tbsp butter 1/8 tsp salt ½ tsp vanilla ½ cup chopped nuts (optional) Directions: Measure sugar, corn syrup, milk, butter, and salt into a heavy bottomed saucepan (Aunt Joan used her electric frying pan set at 350°F). Stir gently over low heat until dissolved. Boil WITHOUT stirring to soft ball stage (238°F). Remove from heat. Cool. Beat until creamy and thick. Add vanilla and nuts if desired. Pour into a well greased 8' x 8" pan lined with parchment paper which is also greased. Yield 1 1/4 lbs.

Maple Cream (with no maple syrup) This next recipe, submitted by Shirley Breadner and Hilda Neely, is from the 1968 Ladies Orange Benevolent Association Dublin 889 Campbell’s Cross cookbook entitled Our Favourite Recipes. At the end of the recipe, 32 The Rural Voice

Maple Cream Fudge (Grandma B’s recipe) the comment is “This candy isn’t as rich or sweet as some others.” I beg to differ—look at the first ingredient! I got a ribbon at the fair for this fudge.

Ingredients: 4 cups brown sugar 2 tbsp flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 cup milk or cream (half and half works great here) 4 tbsp butter A few grains of salt 1 tsp vanilla Directions: Mix ingredients together, cook stirring constantly (medium low heat is sufficient) until mixture forms a soft ball (238°F with a candy thermometer) when tried in water.

Add vanilla and beat. Add nuts if desired. Pour into an 8” x 8” pan that has been greased with butter and lined with either foil or parchment paper and greased again. Chill well before slicing.

Chocolate Fudge In the same cookbook, Shirley Breadner also submitted a chocolate fudge recipe.

Ingredients: 3 cups brown sugar 1 cup milk (whole) 3 tbsp cocoa Butter, the size of an egg (roughly about 1/4 cup, but you can “measure with your heart” on this one) 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions: Cook together until it forms a soft ball in cold water. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and nuts if desired.

Beat until cool.

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(Carnation) Five Minute Chocolate Fudge with Pecans (Carnation) Five Minute Chocolate Fudge Again, in that same cookbook, Mum’s cousin, Joyce Wiggins, submitted a chocolate fudge recipe from the Carnation evaporated milk can label that the company first put out in the sixties. Joyce and her daughter Ruth have won many prizes over the years for fudge at the Brampton Fall Fair.

Ingredients: 2/3 cup undiluted Carnation regular evaporated milk (not 2% or fat-free) 1 2/3 cup white granulated sugar 2 tbsp butter 2 cups miniature marshmallows 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (mini sized ones stir in quickest) 1 tsp vanilla ½ cup chopped nuts (optional) Directions: Line an 8-inch square pan with waxed paper. Combine evaporated milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan.

Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat stirring constantly. Boil for 4 minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in marshmallows, chocolate chips, and vanilla until marshmallows and chocolate melt. Pour into the prepared pan. Chill until set. Cut into squares and store in the refrigerator.

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(I like to microwave the marshmallows just before stirring them in to make it easier).

White Christmas Fudge This recipe is something I have eaten but never made. With candied fruit, it would look very festive. You could do all red and green cherries (diced or coarsely chopped) or do a variety of colourful fruits—dried cranberries, apricots, coloured candied pineapple, candied orange, lemon, or citron—or just use finely chopped gumdrops. Any dried red fruit and green pistachio nuts would make a nice combination too. Or make the fudge plain and tint it with red or green food colouring. This recipe version is from Rose Murray’s The Christmas Book published in 1979 by James Lorimer & Company.

Ingredients: 3 cups granulated sugar 1 cup corn syrup (if you want your divinity fudge to be snowy white use clear corn syrup) 1 ½ cups light cream 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract (you can use clear vanilla, if desired) ¾ cup pecan halves ¾ cup chopped walnuts 1 cup diced red and green candied cherries 1 cup diced candied pineapple Directions: Grease an 8” x 8” pan with butter for the finished fudge. Lightly oil a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. In it, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and cream. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to moderate and heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Cook, without stirring until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (240°F).

Remove from the heat. Beat immediately until it begins to lose its gloss and starts to get stiff. Add the vanilla. Slowly stir in the nuts and fruit. Pack into the prepared pan and chill. Cut into small squares when cool. This delicious fudge will keep soft for weeks if stored in an air-tight container in a cool place. Yields 36 pieces.

Tips for Top Notch Fudge Follow directions exactly!

DO use fresh, quality ingredients.

Use real butter and other dairy—not a substitute. Use fresh nuts—it is too much sugar to waste if on the first taste, the nuts have gone rancid.

DO use a thick bottomed saucepan for even heat distribution. Oil/grease the sides inside the saucepan to keep the mixture from sticking and crystallizing.

DO NOT stir the pre-boiled mixture but rather swirl it gently to avoid splashing on the sides of the saucepan.

DO NOT stir/swirl it after it starts to boil. This causes your fudge to harden and crystalize on the bottom.

DO set a timer at the sign of the first bubble. If it says boil for 4 minutes, remove from heat precisely when the timer goes off or desired temperature has been reached on the candy thermometer.

DO NOT overbeat. Beat only until the glossy finish is gone.

DO resist the urge to completely scrape out your saucepan when pouring into the cake pan. This too will cause crystallization.

DO line the pan with foil, parchment, or waxed paper. Let some hang out on two opposing sides for use in lifting out the fudge DO chill fudge thoroughly before cutting DO score evenly first before cutting with a sharp knife dipped in hot water. Repeat dipping with every cut.

DO store fudge in airtight containers and keep in a cool place.

Do experiment with flavourings and items to add to fudge—maybe maple syrup should go in there somewhere. Savoury ingredients such as bacon or cayenne pepper would be a creative addition. Your taste buds are your only limit!

I wish you success in making fudge, memory-making family celebrations over the holiday season, and all the best in 2025! ◊

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Gardening Rhea Hamilton­ Seeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives in Goderich.

Why (and how) we save seeds Our fascination with native plants and the place they hold in the web of the environment around us is not new.

In 1900, the Society for the Protection of Native Plants was founded and became known as the New England Wild Flower Society. I remember reading some of their magazines I saved from the 1970s.

The Society evolved from wild flowers to include shrubs, trees, lichens and fungi. Now known as the Native Plant Trust, they oversee six rare plant sanctuaries, operate a native plant nursery, save plants in the wild, grow them for restoration work and are always looking at educating others on the value and use of native plants. No small feat!

So what are we doing north of the border? We have a number of

Butterfly Milkweed 36 The Rural Voice

nurseries growing native plants from seed collected sustainably, and programs developed and delivered by our Master Gardener program. The Nature Conservancy of Canada protects natural areas that sustain Canada’s plants and wildlife. With the help of a variety of valuable partners, both landowners and financial donors, they help protect 15 million acres.

My research led me down the proverbial rabbit hole starting with the formation of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) in 1970 in response to the serious loss of native plants around the world.

The adoption of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2003 at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity saw the focus move from simple conservation in botanical gardens to measurable targets in the conservation of biodiversity. Plant diversity is indispensable. It is more than simply plants and insects. We are talking about societal, economic, and political impacts.

The ideas grew and so did support.

In 2016 the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation (2006) was updated.

There are members from all over the world busy identifying species at risk and how we can protect them, taking

Foxglove penstemon

steps where they can do just that.

Which leads me back to saving seeds from the native plants in my wee backyard. Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library offered me the best guide for seed collecting and it started with the simple question, do you know the plant you are collecting from? Makes sense.

The site suggests using an online resource (you can find the website at data.canadensys.net/vascan) to determine if your plant is native to Ontario or Quebec. Their website links to a video that leads the viewer through the navigation of the site. A very valuable resource.

Once you’ve determined that your plant is native, use the site’s spreadsheet to determine if there are cultivars that exist of the native species. If there are no cultivars, you can donate seeds without knowing the plant’s source.

But if the spreadsheet identifies that there are cultivars, then donations of seeds must have the plant source identified. If your plant has known cultivars in your garden or in close proximity, then you cannot guarantee the seed is purely native. It is all about protecting the genetics of the native plants.

My plan in collecting seed is to increase my native plant standings.

Placing plants in swaths brings in

Nodding onion

striking colour patterns to a garden or yard. Great idea and now we use this same idea to increase native plants. I want to see swaths of native plants humming with pollinators.

With this in mind I collected seed from my Butterfly milkweed, Asclepius tuberosa; Foxglove penstemon, penstemon digitalis; Nodding onion, Allium cernuum and thimbleweed, Anemone cylindrica.

So are my seeds pure or have they been crossed with cultivars nearby?

According to the guidelines on the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library website, if there are cultivars nearby it is more than likely the native varieties have been crossed with the cultivars. I believe my plants are pure. Our neighbours do not have these native varieties, or cultivars of the same native plants. Depending on the species, pollinators may travel a few meters or as much as a kilometre, and I am still working on identifying the insects we see in the yard.

I have to tell you that the penstemon seeds are foul-smelling. I laid out the seed pods (which are quite pretty) on a sheet of newspaper to make sure they were dry enough.

When the room filled with a stinky odour, I tracked it down to the seeds.

So, I laid them out on newspaper in an open box in the garage instead.

Yes, the garage took on the funky odour too but after the seeds were loosely wrapped, the odour stopped.

These particular seeds need at least 30 days of cold, moist stratification. Or simply press the seeds into the soil but do not cover.

There is warm weather this week so I am heading out to plant a bit of seed now, setting some aside for winter sowing and the rest in the spring. If you are unfamiliar with this plant, it rises from a lovely rosette of leaves, to a height of 75 to 90 cm. Lovely white tubular flowers have a lower lip of three lobes and an upper lip of two lobes. It is versatile and grows in full sun to part shade, dry to wet conditions, and is a wonderful host plant for caterpillars of the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly. So, yes I get excited when I see nibbles out of these garden plants. ◊

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December 2024 39

News

Rural planning crucial to saving farmland Professor of rural planning studies effects of farmland loss and urban to rural migration for future farm protection

By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

I

t is really easy to pave over a farm for development and that’s why rural planning is crucial to protect farmland, said Sara Epp at the Huron County Federation of Agriculture annual meeting held November 1 at the Clinton Legion.

“Farmland is really easy to develop,” admitted Epp, an Assistant Professor of Rural Planning and Development at the University of Guelph. “Rural research is so important because rural and urban areas are so intrinsically linked. We cannot separate them.” As cities grow, they need room to expand but changes to the rural base affects food, water and air which are “huge longterm impacts,” said Epp. It’s not uncommon to see the sold sign put up by developers on farmland but the land loss actually happened years ago when the local council changed their planning policies and allowed that land to be redesignated for other purposes.

“A lot of these planning decisions were made in the 1970s and 1980s and once those decisions were made, that land was lost,” said Epp. Growing up on a farm near Niagara-on-the-Lake, where her parents grew concord grapes for juice, she remembers how fragile owning land was back then. When the Cadbury Schweppes factory in nearby St. Catharines closed in 2007, it forced her family to redefine their farm. They switched to tender fruit, growing peaches, until the factory processing their peaches closed.

Their land is now rented out to a winery and grapes thrive on the land once again.

“My grandparent’s goal was to be farmers and it has since become political and emotional,” says Epp, which is her driving force to be a rural planner. “You can’t zone for people but we do need to consider 40 The Rural Voice

Dr. Sara Epp, University of Guelph, headlines the Huron Federation of Agriculture’s Annual General Meeting on November 1 at the Clinton Legion. land impacts on farmers and their families.”

She shared a slide revealing redesignations in Southwestern Ontario between 2000 and 2017.

During those years, Huron County approved two official plan amendments (OPA) related to the loss of prime agricultural land resulting in 25 hectares being developed. In comparison, Grey had 15 OPAs contributing to 107 hectares in development; Perth had 72 OPAs leading to 254 hectares of developed land; Bruce had 35 OPAs leading to 43 acres of development and Oxford had 16 OPAs leading to 843 acres of farmland being developed.

Ultimately, farmland needs to be protected and planning decisions need to be made judiciously so that “we don’t erode the agriculture industry by 1,000 cuts,” she said.

Epp also discussed data and the availability of historical information of planning decisions from municipalities. There was a time when all that data was available online but since many counties have

revised their official plans, this older data was removed. “Now I have to send an email to each municipality to access the data,” said Epp. This is time taxing but doable, yet the lack of data online limits accessibility to the public and Epp believes this is a concern.

Having access to data is necessary to track, record and analyze rising farmland values, farm consolidation, rural estates, severances and retirement lots. Epp shared a few unattributed quotes highlighting the necessity of planning and data management: “While southern Ontario contained the majority of Canada’s best soil and may appear abundant to some, it simply cannot be replaced elsewhere. We won’t understand the true cost of this until we reach a crisis point.” Another quote stated: “I never liked the retirement lot idea. I was against that all the time because you would give a farmer a retirement lot, he would live there for a short time, move out or pass away, an urbanite would move in and now I have a headache.”

During the question period, one HCFA member said the way to save farmland is to save the farmers.

Farmers who are profitable aren’t forced to sell land to developers to make a living so saving the farmer will save the land, he said.

Epp agreed, saying many business people outside the rural community “don’t really see the value of farm and farmers” which makes them push harder to develop farmland.

Current research by Epp in rural planning includes measuring farmland loss, urban to rural migration, veterinary capacity, cannabis production, agrienvironmental stewardship and increasing local food purchasing.

“All of this will contribute to a viable, resilient and successful agriculture sector,” she concluded.

Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture Award After Epp’s presentation, President Murray Workman announced the winner of the HCFA Outstanding Contribution to Agricultural Annual Award as Neil and Joan Vincent.

Erica Murray stood up with a list a mile-long of all the volunteer positions both Neil and Joan have held including positions in 4-H, on county council as Reeve, Warden and councillor, the Plowmen's Association and of course, many, many years with the Huron County

Federation of Agriculture.

“We’ve always been pleased to work and volunteer and make this a better place for our children and neighbours,” said Joan, accepting the award. Neil added that “it’s fun to do things” and he commended all volunteers who “dig in to do things to make our communities thrive.”

Personally, he said “it’s been to our benefit to make friends with so many people” in the years they’ve been active.

Update from MP Huron-Bruce Ben Lobb, MP for Huron-Bruce also attended the meeting and provided an update on Bill C-234, an Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, his private member’s bill. “After the senators made amendments, it was sent back to the House of Commons, where it still is,” he said. “But it will soon come to a vote and hopefully, lower the cost of food for people who go to the grocery store everyday.”

Ethan Wallace, OFA Director Ethan Wallace, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture Zone 7 Director for Huron-Perth, also took to the floor to share how much he enjoyed being part of government relations work in Ottawa via Premier Day April 1 and the annual Queen’s Park Advocacy Day held April 16 this year. “I met with three different downtown Toronto MPPs to discuss

agriculture,” said Wallace. He feels the OFA has also built a “fantastic relationship” with the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) .

He was also excited to report on the OFA’s commitment to training future leaders by engaging future farm leaders at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting and participation at the Queens Park Advocacy Day. Locally, he cited the Revive Fund with enhancing rural projects such as the slow moving signs put up in Huron County. Mental health awareness and promoting the phrase “It's okay not be okay” has been successful locally and across the province as well.

He encouraged those in attendance at the HCFA annual meeting to chat with neighbours and ask them to sign OFA’s HomeGrown petition.

HomeGrown is a public awareness initiative showcasing the threat to rural lands from urban sprawl and development. “We now have over 85,000 signatures to protect Ontario farmland,” he said. ◊

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Markets Scott Krakar is a Grain Merchandiser with LAC Inc., Hyde Park, 519­473­9333

What to expect after the U.S. election?

Is there anything else to talk about rather than the U.S. Election? This election has dominated the news cycle for a long time now and there are many passionate advocates on both sides of the political spectrum.

Many pollsters had shown the election to be extremely close and pundits had said it could be quite some time after election day before a winner is declared. Both sides of the political spectrum had confidence and trepidation in the final result.

With such uncertainty how do market

participants anticipate future government policy? Prior to the election they could not.

Prior to the election, questions abounded. What will the U.S. ag policy be going forward? What (if any) trade tariffs will be introduced and what would other nations do in response? What will the U.S. renewable fuel policy look like in regard to Biodiesel and Sustainable aviation fuel? These few questions can have a dramatic impact on U.S. commodity valuations (and ours) both nearby and for the longer term.

Many nations had been asking trade related questions under both election result scenarios.

Consequently it is supposed that some importing nations have been stocking up on grains and oilseeds ahead of the election and subsequent inauguration, to provide buffer stocks in the event of trade challenges. An example of this is Mexico. It is expected that Mexico will be the world’s largest buyer of corn again into this crop year. The majority of their corn imports come from the U.S. and therefore they are heavily

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reliant on U.S. corn. Of course they may look to broaden their sourcing, however this would only be financially viable for the most part if trade issues arise, increasing costs.

Trump has a stated goal of renegotiating the Canada, U.S., Mexico trade agreement. Whether this will be a catalyst towards this diversification will depend on the results of this negotiation. Currently, Mexico has sourced from other nations such as Brazil – but only in a minor way, accounting for only about four percent of Brazilian corn exports.

Many know that one of Trump’s campaign promises is to increase tariffs for goods entering the U.S., as he looks to bring the country into a more protectionist strategy. Most notably he has been outspoken about his interest in adding tariffs for goods entering from China. If this does occur, what is China’s response? It is likely that agricultural imports from the U.S. may be one of its first targets if restrictive tariffs are brought against the nation. China has already been looking to diversify its sourcing away from the U.S., with large investments in South America.

But while this may be its desire, it is not necessarily easy or quick to achieve. It takes significant resources to change production levels, it takes time to develop trade flows and it takes investment capital. A trade war with the U.S. would come at a large cost to China itself. The Chinese market fell sharply upon the election of the Trump administration, while the general U.S. market showed increases.

Upon Trump’s election, some policy ambiguity has been lessened, but not eliminated. While we

The Rural Voice welcomes letters and will publish as many as space permits.

Write to: The Rural Voice, Box 429, Blyth, ON, N0M 1H0

generally had an indication of what the overarching policy might look like under various candidates – how they would implement their policy in detail is not precise. But the markets respond immediately to what they know and what is anticipated. And therefore, writing this the morning after the election, commodity prices turned negative. The U.S. dollar is expected to be strong going forward and commodities and the U.S. dollar typically trade in opposite directions.

Commodity prices now await to see the tariffs that will be issued against other nations – most notably China, potentially bringing trade disputes and economic disruptions. How these tariffs will be implemented are yet to be seen, but most assuredly they are coming.

While these trade tariffs are generally considered negative to U.S. agriculture, U.S. vegetable oil may see support. Currently the U.S. imports used cooking oil from various countries for biofuel production. It is reported that there is mislabeled (fraudulently) palm oil that enters the U.S., being declared as used cooking oil to receive Federal tax subsidies. A general tariff on imported goods from China would lessen the economic incentive for this mislabeling and allow U.S. produced oil to realize higher market value.

But enough about policy, as we turn briefly to production. Harvest has been rapid this year. The dry fall season has been supportive of field operations and growers have been active. The pace of the quick harvest, along with generally strong yields, have backed up grain receiving at various port facilities here in the province, as vessels seem to be coming in more slowly than the crop wants to come off the field.

Generally, growers are happy with yields and harvest moistures have been extremely low this year. Much of the soys have been dry off the field, and in some cases, even dry corn has come off the field. While dry corn harvest does occur at times to the south in the U.S., this is extremely rare in Ontario and shows the extraordinarily dry and warm fall weather we experienced this fall. ◊

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December 2024 43

Woodlots Donna Lacey is a forester with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority

Dodders, deadlies and other woodland climbers

Well, now that the leaves are mostly off the deciduous trees, it is easy to see through the canopy to assess the individual tree crowns.

I don’t know if anyone outside of tree professionals can be as frustrated by leaves as I am. Those pesky tree feeders block my view more often than not. As a short person, I am often underneath a subcanopy of dense leaves trying to see into the upper canopy to determine a tree’s health. I like to say “good riddance” to these two layers of leaves as they fall to the forest floor, and kind of

“ha” as I can now see all that they were hiding.

While I am normally looking for cavities, bad crotches, holes, or disease, another thing more easily noted in the fall are the vines. Like most people I enjoy seeing items made from grape vines, dried bittersweet berries, and of course grape jelly. What I don’t enjoy seeing is the damage done by these vines.

There are many ways to classify vines. Each classification system is quite different depending on the purpose of the classification. I like to look at the woody vines as crawlers or climbers. One classification that I was taught was termed dodders. By the definition I was taught, dodders are vines that climb up trees without causing the tree any harm, living symbiotically with the tree. An internet search will define dodders as a former member of the morning glory family, a specific group of plants. Parasitic vines, on the other hand, are those whose tendrils penetrate the tree bark and steal nutrients, causing harm to the tree.

Now, I know that I just said that

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dodders climb trees without causing harm, but there is more to the effects of the vine than simply climbing the tree. Like all plants, climbing vines reach for the sunlight, using trees to get closer to the available light. As these trees support the vine and the vine absorbs the sunlight, the vine grows and continues to add more leaf and woody matter. As a vine increases in growth and mass, slowly the weight of the vine crushes the tree branches and smothers out the tree leaves. This damage slowly causes tree mortality.

Vines that fall under the dodder category in our forests are poison ivy, Boston ivy, English ivy, virgin’s bower, Virginia creeper, grape, honeysuckle, and nightshade. There are some vining plants that are present in our forests, and some invasive vines on our doorstep.

The only climbing vine in our forests that I put into the deadly category is bittersweet.

Oriental Bittersweet is an invasive species in our forests, while American Bittersweet is native to our forest. Like a constricting snake, this vine swirls around the tree. However, unlike the snake, the swirling is not to kill the host, that only happens by coincidence. This vine needs to wrap itself around the host to get higher in the upper canopy. I should mention that the vine doesn’t continue to tighten on the tree, although problems can occur if the tree grows in girth while the vine is wrapped around it.

Bittersweet specimens do not have vine- or hair-like tendrils that can attach themselves to the bark of the tree, the vines are quite smooth. In some instances, this vine will even reach from one tree to the next to try to get higher.

Bittersweet has a poisonous berry for humans, but the berries are still sought after as they are a beautiful orange berry that dries very well for use in dried floral bouquets. Some people are troubled with the idea of poisonous berries being used in decorative arrangements because berries like these are bright-coloured, resembling candy. Truly, one of my relatives had a two-year-old ingest some bittersweet berries from their wedding bouquet of dried flowers. As a person who likes plants, I was their

first phone call. “Are those orange berries from my bouquet poisonous?” they asked, and my answer was “yes, I will call the poison control centre”.

Turns out something bad could have happened if the youngster had eaten a really large number of bittersweet berries, like many cups of berries, not the five or 10 berries that they plucked off the stem.

I believe Virginia creeper, which is another vine that can climb, is our most popular crawler. The forest floor can be covered in its leaves, which turn into a beautiful mix of colours in the fall. During the winter season, I occasionally mistake the shoots of Virginia creeper for poison ivy stems, as I see the two have a very similar bark colour and shape. It is always a good idea to take a second look before touching.

Virgins Bower is our native clematis. This vine is a fine vine and can have a large mass of leaves and flowers. The seed heads on this vine are very attractive and last for a long period of time, decorating the forest edges. Due to the density of the leaves, this vine could cause mortality to the host plant.

On the contrary, poison ivy vines typically do not have leaf density to choke out or snap tree branches.

Poison ivy vines are generally quite hairy with a rougher looking bark.

Anytime I have found poison ivy vines, the forest floor contains many stems of the plant. I feel that this is worth mentioning just in case you decide to go out and save your trees from vines by cutting them off.

Poison ivy vines have the same residue on the bark and inside the stem as does the ground plant or shrub.

While grape vines may make many neat crafts, they kill many trees. The best jelly is made of wild grapes picked after a hard frost.

Vines that are low to the ground offer us these berries, while those vines that have climbed the tree are no longer sharing their fruit with us. If you have grape vines in your forest and you would like to maintain healthy trees, please cut off the vines at the ground. ◊

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Agrilaw John D. Goudy is a partner in Scott Petrie LLP Law Firm, and also farms north of London.

Fraudulent Conveyances

A

ccording to Ontario’s Fraudulent Conveyances Act, any conveyance of real property or personal property made with the intent to defeat, delay, or defraud creditors or others of their just and lawful actions is void as against such persons. You can’t transfer ownership of your property to someone else in order to keep it out of the hands of your creditors.

The Courts have established a system for identifying the types of behaviour captured by fraudulent conveyance legislation. These guidelines, referred

to as the “badges of fraud”, include: a) the donor continued in possession and continued to use the property as his own; b) the transaction was secret; c) the transfer was made in the face of threatened legal proceedings; d) the transfer documents contained false statements as to consideration; e) the consideration is grossly inadequate; f) there is unusual haste in making the transfer; g) some benefit is retained under the settlement by the settlor; h) embarking on a hazardous venture; and, i) a close relationship exists between parties to the conveyance.

Courts have interpreted the term “creditors and others” broadly to include potential beneficiaries of a guarantee (even if no demand has been made) and future creditors. In some cases, courts have held that the presence of existing creditors at the time of a transaction is not required to establish an intent to defeat

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creditors. In situations where there has been good and valuable consideration (i.e. an actual conveyance for real value), a transaction may still be deemed a fraudulent conveyance if it was not conducted in good faith or if it was made to an individual who knew of the debtor’s intent to defraud. Some transactions like those done for estate planning may appear legitimate, but property transfers may be considered fraudulent conveyances and set aside where there is evidence that the estate planning was undertaken because of outstanding debts.

A case recently considered by the Court of Appeal for Ontario involved a creditor seeking to enforce a 2009 judgment against property owned by the spouse of the debtor. The debtor had borrowed $250,000 and defaulted on the loan. The creditor obtained default judgment against the debtor (“default” because the debtor didn’t defend the proceeding) for $268,920. The debtor claimed to have no assets to pay the judgment, asserting that he dealt only in cash, kept no business records, and had a gambling problem. The debtor’s family home and a cottage were both registered in his wife’s name and the debtor claimed that he had made no contribution toward the purchase of the properties. The debtor also alleged that his wife made all mortgage payments from the income earned from her part-time jobs.

In 2018, the creditor commenced a new action against the debtor and the debtor’s wife claiming that the debtor held a beneficial interest in his wife’s properties against which the 2009 judgment could be enforced. The creditor alleged that the transfer of title to the properties into the debtor’s wife’s name and not into their names jointly (or into the debtor’s name alone) constituted a fraudulent conveyance. While the wife passed away prior to the trial, there was evidence from her admitted in the trial that she was to be the sole owner of the properties to safeguard them from any future debts arising from

the debtor’s gambling habit. She had attempted to demonstrate how she was able to pay for the mortgages without contributions from her husband. The wife’s total income from 2010 to 2019 was only $15,471, yet bank records showed total debits to her account of $449,668 in the same period. The source of these funds was redacted in the records, and neither the debtor’s wife nor her legal counsel disclosed the origin of the funds. As the trial judge found no evidence that the debtor himself had provided any of the original funds to purchase the properties, the Fraudulent Conveyances Act claim seeking a declaration that the debtor had an ownership interest in the properties failed. The debtor had never owned the properties or transferred them to his wife.

However, that’s not the end of the story. The trial judge did find that the debtor’s wife had received $434,000 from unidentified sources and drew an adverse reference against her for the lack of disclosure regarding the sources of the funds.

The trial judge also did not accept the claim that the debtor made no contributions to paying the mortgages or the household finances generally.

The judge considered that each spouse would be apportioned an equal share of the unidentified source funds, meaning that the debtor was considered to have contributed $217,000 in value to his wife. On that basis, the trial judge ordered that the transfer of $217,000 was a fraudulent conveyance and void as against the creditor. He ordered the debtor’s wife’s estate to pay the creditor $217,000, which fell short of the full amount owed under the 2009 judgment.

The creditor appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the trial judge erred both in not attributing a 50 per cent beneficial interest in the properties to the creditor and also in his analysis and computation of the amount of cash to be awarded to the creditor. The Court of Appeal accepted the trial judge’s finding that that there was no

fraudulent conveyance of real property. However, the Court of Appeal found that the trial judge erred in designating only $217,000 as the amount fraudulently conveyed by the debtor to his wife (to be paid by the wife’s estate to the creditor). The Court of Appeal decided that the correct interpretation of the trial judge’s adverse inference was that the entire $434,000 was attributable to the debtor and available to the creditor for execution of its judgment.

I thank our law student Lauryn Miller for her assistance in preparing this article. ◊ ______________________________ John D. Goudy’s law practice includes real property and environmental litigation, expropriation law, energy regulation, and regulatory offences. Agrilaw provides information of interest to the farming community, not legal advice. Readers should consult a legal professional about their particular circumstance.

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48 The Rural Voice

Send cheque or money order for full amount to: Books: North Huron Publishing P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 or call and pay by credit card 519-523-4311 MAIL BOOKS TO: Name:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________ Code _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Phone: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Prices subject to change with increases in wholesale prices, postage, taxes, etc.

Please refer to current issue for correct figures. Incorrect payment will delay delivery.

People

• By Gary West •

First ever “Rockton World’s Fair” a huge success

A

large crowd of Perth county 4-H dairy club members from all over central and southern Ontario took part in the first ever Rockton World’s Fair, “Countdown to the Classic” dairy show, before the upcoming Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.

There were a total of 107 4-H dairy members showing their 4-H projects including 15 seniors, 28 intermediates, 35 juniors, 19 novice, and 10 peewees.

The official judge for the day was Brent Howe from Aylmer.

Here’s how the top level competition went: Morgan Anderson from ChathamKent was grand champion showman, while Devin Coleman from Brant County was reserve grand champion showman.

Owen Vis from Elgin County was honourable mention.

For grand champion calf, Emma Stere from Waterloo County took the honours, while Karson Vis from Elgin County was reserve with Owen Vis from Elgin County named honourable mention.

The Supreme Champion 4-H competitor was Owen Vis from Elgin County, who took home the winning award sponsored by the “Ontario Dairy Youth Trust Fund”.

Eleven County groups of three were entered with Elgin finishing first overall and winning the Quality Seeds sponsored class.

In the Top Herdsman competition, and winning the CDX trophy was Flamborough in first, Waterloo County in second, Ancaster club in third, Elgin County in fourth and Oxford County in fifth.

With the Rockton 4-H show, the last before the Royal Dairy Classic show, Chairman Jeff Stephens felt it important for 4-H members to get the experience before heading to the world-class competition in Toronto.

He thanked his hard-working committee of Jennifer Peart, Jenn Kyle, Collin Allardyce, Jamie Wood,

Connie Stephens, Chelsey Stephens, and McKenna Stephens for all their time and dedication.

A total of $8050.00 was raised

from interested sponsors over the previous eight weeks, in order for the first show of this kind to be held in Rockton.

4­H dairy calf competitors from counties in central and southern Ontario took part in this year’s Rockton World’s Fair, a countdown to the Royal Classic Dairy Show. ~Photo by Clarissa McCallum

Showmanship Champions at Rockton World’s Fair were (left to right) Morgan Anderson (champion showperson) from Chatham­Kent and Devin Coleman (reserve champion showman) from Brant County. Honourable mention was given to Owen Vis from Elgin County. ~Photo by Clarissa McCallum December 2024 49

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People

• By Gary West •

Bob and Winnie Trachsel earn 50-year veteran breeder pin A prominent dairy farming couple from South Easthope township in Perth County were recently recognized with a 50-year veteran breeder gift and pin for being a member of the Perth County Holstein Club and Holstein Canada for five decades.

Bob and Winnie Trachsel have always been dairy farmers milking purebred, registered Holsteins on the Sebastopol road (Line 29), between Tavistock and Stratford, while raising their family and having been involved in various organizations in the community.

The following is an excerpt taken from Perth County Holstein Club past President, Andrea Cnossen, who presented the couple with their pin.

Bob bought his first farm with the help of his grandfather, when he was just shy of 21 years of age. He married Winnie soon after and they bought a farm. “We had no money so you should’ve seen the place. The house was so rundown that Winnie cried when she first saw it”. But they worked hard, fixed it up, and renovated the existing barn to make it suitable for milking dairy cows.

They began with a grade herd of cows and things were going really well for them as Bob credits much of their success to hard work and fantastic neighbours in SouthEasthope township.

He said “back in the day, everyone just helped each other out,” and to him farming was never a job, it was a way of life that he lived. To this day, he’d

rather stay home and work than go on a holiday.

Unfortunately, after only 10 years, things took a turn for the worse, as they lost the entire herd to a disease known as brucellosis. Bob’s friend and neighbour Tony Danen, knew of someone selling a really good purebred herd of cows in Oxford County, along with the quota, and encouraged him to purchase it. So Bob and Winnie did and Bob and Wynn Trachsel are shown receiving their 50 started the Robwynn year “Veteran Breeder” award from Perth County prefix.

Bob focussed his Holstein Club Past President Andrea Cnossen. breeding on butterfat bit towards more of a freestyle type and mammary systems (udders) and he cow. He is also quick to add that their would bring cows to the Perth County daughter, Tarra, became an Holstein show, but with a chuckle says accomplished teacher. “that he went more for the good times Bob’s advice, to any young dairy than the ribbons!” Nevertheless, they farmer, is not to be too quick to believe had quite a few class winners and even what the experts tell you. Sometimes won the coveted “Breeders Herd” class your best information will come from a at the county show, representing the seasoned farmer, because they are the high quality that the Robwynn herd ones that actually have experience from were then known for. doing the work, he advises.

Bob is proud that their son Tim In later years Bob and Wynn were joined them as a partner in the farm 27 able to own a boat on Lake Huron and years ago. That is when they built a enjoyed their leisure time fishing, new freestyle barn and milking parlour while taking time to relax away from and changed their breeding strategy a the farm for a day or two.

Wishing you all the very best!

The Rural Voice staff would like to wish Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot all the very best on her “retirement”. Thank you for your contributions to The Rural Voice and the North Huron Publishing family! ~~~~~~~~~~ We also would like to welcome Mel Luymes as our new Rural Voice editor. We look forward to the unique voice you will bring to the agriculture stories of the region!

Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Mel Luymes

December 2024 51

News

• Press Release •

Erneweins are pasture winners

S

teve and Lisa Ernewein and family of Meadowbrook Family Farm in the Brockton/Walkerton area are the recipients of the 2024 Mapleseed Sheep Pasture Award.

The award, sponsored by Mapleseed, the Ontario Forage Council, and Ontario Sheep Farmers, was presented in October at the Ontario Sheep Farmers Annual General Meeting in Cambridge. For their exceptional pasture management while running a highly

involved multi-faceted enterprise, Meadowbrook Family Farm received a cash award of $250 and a bag of forage seed, courtesy of Mapleseed.

The Erneweins’ Meadowbrook Family Farm operation includes approximately 1,100 ewes in total.

More than 800 ewes make up the meat flock which are Dorset/Rideau cross. They also milk more than 300 British Milksheep/Lacaune cross ewes for their milk production. On the grazing cycles the dairy herd is always grazing the highest quality

(L­R) Scott Fisher from Mapleseed, Kimberly Lippert, Jordan Ernewein, Lisa Ernewin, Steve Ernewein, Patricia Ellingwood from Ontario Forage Council, and Art Alblas from Ontario Sheep Farmers.

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portions of pasture out of the approximately 240 acres of grazing area. They are not organic certified but use “organic practices”. The meat flock is on a year-round accelerated lambing syllabus, lambing 100-150 per month. The dairy generated 50,000 liters of milk this year and the goal is to take that to 100,000 liters over the coming year.

The Angus/Limo beef operation is utilized as part of the dual species parasite control in conjunction with clean and safe grazing practices.

Steve says, “Never say never, and never say always!” In context this “mantra” is what drives progress at Meadowbrook Family Farm.

In reviewing this nomination, Scott Fisher, Western Ontario Sales Manager with Mapleseed said, “The crew at Meadowbrook have a lot going on and that alone endorses the need for finite husbandry and care, which includes movable fencing, species diversity and intense pasture management.”

“Meadowbrook Family Farm is an excellent example of a self-sustaining pasture ecosystem,” said Patricia Ellingwood, General Manager of the Ontario Forage Council. “The Erneweins carefully manage each element to benefit the whole operation. They are truly stewards of land and flock!” ◊

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52 The Rural Voice

Press Release

Grain Growers of Canada celebrates passage of Right-to-Repair Legislation

OTTAWA, ON – November 1, 2024 Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) applauds the passage of Bills C-244 and C-294, an important step forward and significant victory for Canadian farmers. After years of advocacy, these bills provide farmers the ability to repair their own equipment, ensuring the continued functionality of the advanced technology essential to modern agriculture.

GGC extends its gratitude to the Members of Parliament and Senators who supported these bills, and especially to MPs Wilson Miao and Jeremy Patzer, along with Senators Colin Deacon and Leo Housakos, for their dedicated sponsorship and guidance of this legislation through Parliament.

With Bill C-244 amending the Copyright Act, farmers will now have access to crucial diagnostic software needed to repair sophisticated machinery, from tractors to combines and sprayers.

Similarly, Bill C-294, also amending the Copyright Act, facilitates the interoperability of parts and equipment, enhancing farm productivity and efficiency.

Together, these Bills enshrine the right to repair, helping farmers manage their operations sustainably and independently.

As we celebrate this federal achievement, we call on provinces to consider similar measures to address the specific needs of grain producers in their jurisdictions.

About Grain Growers of Canada (GGC): As the national voice for

Canada’s grain farmers, Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) represents over 65,000 producers through our 14 national, provincial and regional grower groups. Our members are trade-oriented, sustainable and innovative. As a farmer-driven association for the grains industry, GGC advocates for federal policy that supports the competitiveness and profitability of grain growers across Canada. Learn more at: www.GrainGrowers.ca.

December 2024 53

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Gladys Munro Realtor® “Welcome to connect with me anytime.”

Direct: 519.389.8242 Office: 519.396.3300 gladysmunro21@gmail.com 926 Queen St. Kincardine, ON

Choose from: Hazelnut, heartnut, Persian and black Walnut, chestnut, hickory, pecan, pawpaw, persimmon, mulberry, fig and more.

979 Lakeshore Rd, RR3 Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0 Tel: 905-YEH-NUTS (934-6887) Fax: 905-YEL-NUTS (935-6887) E-mail: nut.trees@grimonut.com Catalogue Site: www.grimonut.com

B U S I N E S S

DL Distributing Dave Mustard 519-794-3334 Authorized Dealer

Tough on Winter, Easy on You

Email: dlmustard2@gmail.com 556735 Strathaven Road, Chatsworth, ON

PACKERS: WE BUILD Order Now

RUBBER TIRE PACKER SPECIALISTS

Also large fold-up steel drum packers, lawn & estate rollers, custom manufactured

RR #2, Arthur, Ont. (519) 848-2799

SALES & SERVICE INSTALLATION & PARTS

Rissler KEITH SIEMON FARM SYSTEMS LTD.

81987 Perth Rd. 180, R.R. 4, Walton 519-345-2734 (anytime)

www.keithsiemonfarmsystems.com email: keithsiemon@tcc.on.ca For Free Planning and Estimates

Lucknow Auto Parts Supply CUSTOM PROCESSING ———— CUT & WRAP Howard & Rosanna Brubacher 7335 12th Line RR2 Alma ON, N0B 1A0

519-846-1319

37521 Amberley Rd., Lucknow 519-528-2220

Spike’s Auto Parts

252 Queen St., Kincardine 519-396-1515 Email: lap@porters.ca

December 2024 55

C E N T R E

TREE TRIMMING & REMOVAL Any Size. Any Place • FULLY INSURED • FREE ESTIMATES • OVER 18 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

5554 Highway 23 Harriston, ON Office: 519-638-0121 Cell: 226-885-0045 FULL SERVICE: Tree Trimming • Tree Removal • Stump Grinding • Brush Chipping •Thorough Cleanup • Fire Wood & Wood Chips Sales Monday-Friday 7:30 am - 6:00 pm Saturdays on request We accept payment by cash, cheque or E-transfer

Leadership in energy and environmental design

Devon Henry 519-505-2473 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

devonjhenry@hotmail.com

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

-------------------------------------------COMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------Christkindl Market and Messiah in the barn, December 6 and 7, Friday 4:00 to 9:00pm and Saturday 2:00 to 9:00pm at Glencolton Farm near Durham. For information and tickets: christkindlfarm.com -------------------------------------------South Western Ontario Dairy Symposium, Thursday, February 20, 2025; Woodstock Fairgrounds from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. www.dairysymposium.com -------------------------------------------CONSTRUCTION -------------------------------------------Liquid manure tanks, bunker silos, foundations and pads. All are 100% engineered. Serving Ontario since 1968. De Jong & Sons Ltd. 519-348-0523.

-------------------------------------------DAIRY -------------------------------------------Screened bedding sand, delivered.

Call 519-625-8242 or 519-2741490.

-------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale - 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse. Closed Sundays, 519-3383920.

--------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------TEDDY BEAR AND FIGURINE COLLECTION - I have a collection of approximately 150 teddy bears and figurines looking for a new home. For expediency and efficiency, I would prefer to sell the collection in sizable lots. Most of the collection was purchased in the 1980s and consists of a wide variety of "plush" bears, as well as an assortment of resin and stoneware bears and non-bear figurines. The assembly features a varied representation of items from a broad spectrum, including Gund, Bearinton, Ty, Boyd's and Pendelfin. For more info phone 519-357-9062, or email turner.det@gmail.com -------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK BEDDING -------------------------------------------MIRACLE FIBRE Livestock Bedding.

Also, coarse wood mulch for horse and cattle walkways, wet areas around water troughs and bush lanes. Also available is dairy pack starter bedding. 519-669-2456.

Sittler Grinding Inc. Rick Sittler.

-------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Merry Christmas and all the best in ’25. Come and see us early in the new year to make your bull and heifer selections. Silver Springs Farms, James, Joan, Robert and Emily McKinlay. 519-599-6236 --------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------LIMOUSIN breeding bulls, quiet, thick, semen tested, guaranteed breeders, delivery included. Quality breeding heifers available. Posthaven Limousin, John Post, 519-766-7178; John Jr. 519-831-1869. www.posthavenlimousin.com -------------------------------------------Limousin - Bred heifers and cows available for sale. Come pick your new herdsire prospect. Smart Limousin, Meaford, 519-372-7459, smartlimousin@gmail.com, www.Smartlimousin.com -------------------------------------------RESTORATION -------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored (vintage autoclock radio repairs). Golden Oldies Antiques For Sale. Belgrave 519357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca, oldetymeradiocentre@gmail.com -------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------Maple & Moose - Christmas Shopping at its finest, unique artisans/crafters, gourmet foods and custom gift baskets.

December hours: open daily until Christmas.

398 Queen St, Blyth (519) 5234276.

--------------------------------------------

Place your ad in the classifieds today ~ 519-523-4311 56 The Rural Voice

-------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------Little Falls Artisan Market - Over 100 Artisans to choose from! Large, varied selection of interesting gift ideas. Headquarters of popular 18 inch doll clothes. 83 Queen St. East, St Mary's; www.littlefallscraftersmarket.com -------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------Cronin Poured Concrete Ltd. Since 1976. Liquid manure tanks to 200'.

Heights of 8'- 14' (1-pour).

All jobs engineer specifications/ inspections - guaranteed. Best firm quote in Ontario.

Mark Cronin. 519-274-5000. www.croninpouredconcrete.ca -------------------------------------------Income tax filing for farms, small business, truckers and individuals.

Will make house calls in the North Huron, Perth and surrounding area.

Call Shirley in Wingham. Cell: 1705-434-8187 -------------------------------------------

RESISTS CRACKING & PEELING Water based, solvent free, Liquid Rubber Seal Roof creates an adhered, flexible membrane.

SURFACES

• Metal (inc. galvanized & aluminum) • Wood • Concrete • Manure Pits • UV Resistant

-------------------------------------------SERVICES --------------------------------------------

Find Your

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

RR 1 Crediton, Ont. N0M 1M0 (near Exeter)

Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 Eugene Glavin 519-228-6801

DONALD A ANDREW ACCOUNTING Accounting & Income Tax Services for FARMS, BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS 296 Ross St., Lucknow

Ph. 519-528-3019

Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: info@sgsltd.ca

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

-------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------Metal Robert Bell or favourite threshing machine with straw cutter and John Deere grain binder.

Phone evenings 905-983-9331.

-------------------------------------------Farmland - Long or short term.

Cash rent, share crop. Contact Paul at Hill & Hill Farms, 519-233-3218 or 519-525-3137 or email: paul.hill@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------Young farmer looking for land rent, sharecrop, or custom work opportunities. Good environmental stewardship and professionalism.

Short and long term. 519-2007845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com.

-------------------------------------------Scrap Cars Wanted. 20, 30, 40 yd. scrap metal bins available. We sell quality used auto parts. Wanted to buy - scrap cars, trucks, farm machinery, heavy equipment.

Kenilworth Auto Recyclers. 519323-1113.

--------------------------------------------

DEADLINE For the January 2025 Rural Voice is December 9

Seeking single farmers, rural dwellers, and more from The Rural Voice readership area.

Submit your “personals” listing under our “Perfect Match” word classified heading FREE for publication in the February issue; deadline for submissions is Monday, January 13th, 2025.

Contact us to learn more or to include your ad!

Happy Valentine’s Day The Rural Voice 405 Queen St PO Box 429 Blyth ON N0M 1H0 Phone: 519-523-4311 Email: info@northhuron.on.ca

Editor’s Note:

Have a “love story” you’d like to include in our February issue?

Reach out to mel@northhuron.on.ca

Merry Christmas!

MATTHEW RAE MPP – Perth-Wellington 519-272-0660 matthew.rae@pc.ola.org matthewrae.ca

December 2024 57

National Farmers Union – Ontario NEWSLETTER ● Strong Communities ● Sound Policies ● Sustainable Farms

Phone: 1-888-832-9638 E-mail: office@nfuontario.ca Website: www.nfuontario.ca

2024 - A Year of Advocating, Learning, and Organizing with Our Members

This year, NFU-O members and farm leaders fought hard to protect Ontario farmland, learned valuable skills to help support their growing businesses, and organized around issues that impact their livelihoods. Here is what NFU-O members got up to this year!

Advocating for Farmland Protection We denounced the farmland expropriation in Wilmot Township through a letter to Premier Ford and Elected Officials in the Region of Waterloo. NFU-O members held and joined rallies to fight against this farmland threat.

We advocated to Prime Minister Trudeau to bring the federal Pickering Lands being held for a potential airport into an expanded Rouge National Urban Park to protect its natural heritage, support healthy soils and sustainable food production, and increase equity and diversity within Canada’s food system.

We advocated that electrification development should be complementary to farmland protection in a letter to Minister Smith regarding the green energy procurement guidelines. We also submitted a response for the new Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) advocating for a balanced approach to development and farmland protection.

We added a new NFU-O website feature that helps track and fight against farmland grabs in Ontario.

Learning About Soil Health, Nutrient Management, HR Practices, and Land Access We worked with farmers to release our newest report, “Ontario Farmers for Agricultural Conservation,” on farmer attitudes and perceptions of nutrient management detailing the impacts of agricultural runoff on Lake Erie’s water health. Some recommendations included exploring cross-compliance for on-farm conservation practices and tax or federal program incentives, and working with farmers to develop synthetic fertilizer regulations, as British Columbia has done.

We hosted our 2024 AGM & Convention, “Soil: A Matter of Biology” where 75+ members participated in

panel discussions on soil health, nutrient cycling and soil performance, heard about funding pathways for soil health initiatives, discussed policy, and elected new leaders.

We ran an informative series of four HR workshops with over 95 participants, focusing on topics like: hiring and incentives, HR fundamentals, interpersonal dynamics, training and retention, planning, task management, and delegation.

We held 12 land access workshops in the GTA, Grey and Bruce Counties, Kingston, and Ottawa. We discussed land access stories from the field, diversity in farming, alternative strategies for land access, and more!

Organizing Around Concerns That Impact Livelihoods We held a meeting with over 40 participants to explore opportunities for non-quota egg production after hearing from members about challenges they faced with selling their non-quota eggs at market.

We held meetings with farm members in eastern Ontario to discuss ongoing challenges in accessing abattoirs, especially after the devastating fire at Quinn’s meats. Many farmers need to travel hours to get to an abattoir, if they can get in at all. ◊

Do you have any concerns you would like to discuss with us?

Call Dave Thompson: 705-738-3993 x102

FBR season is just around the corner!

Choose the NFU-O on your FBR this January! Scan the QR code or call Agricorp at 1-866327-3678 to renew your FBR. Select the NFU-O and join thousands of passionate, innovative farmers across Ontario working for a food and farm system that is better for farmers, eaters, and the land.

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 58 The Rural Voice

Henry Groenestege, President

Perth County

* The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com

Pork Producers NEWSLETTER

Remembering Richard Yantzi

By Clare Schlegel A Tribute to Richard Yantzi, lifelong Perth County farmer who passed away October 17th, in his 59th year after a short battle with cancer.

Life is short.

The following was included at his funeral: At an early age, Richard wanted to be a farmer. He took care of his first pig at age of 9 and increased the herd from there. He was an innovator and loved to try new farming methods such as no-till. Richard was a member of Perth County Pork Producers for many years and supported many charities such as International Needs Canada, Compassion, Teen Challenge, Pork for Life, and Food Grains Bank. He enjoyed spending time in the bush and nothing made him happier than woodworking. He would start by cutting down the tree, sawing the wood into boards and planing it, and then using the wood in many beautiful and practical ways.

He loved spending time with his family and friends at the cottage he designed and built. There were many things he did himself such as the stonework, flagstone stairs and patio as well as the flooring and wood panelling. His specialty was building a fire for roasting marshmallows to make s’mores - a favorite tradition for his grandchildren. In the last few years of semi-retirement, he enjoyed traveling around the world and tasting local food. Richard had a passion and a heart for youth, he and Darlene were youth leaders at Wilmot Missionary Church for many years.

He was a businessman with Christ at the center of his daily life with those principles being evident to those around him.

The name Jakin, which means “He establishes”, was specifically chosen as the farm name because Richard knew that the Lord was the provider in all areas of his life. And in these last days in his battle with cancer, he

Richard Yantzi Tavistock, ON May 3, 1966 ­ October 17, 2024 leaned on his faith and that gave him peace and thoughts of heaven. He was always thankful for his Christian upbringing.

I am so grateful for being Richard's farming partner for many years (~35).

By working together we could afford

better machinery, we could benefit from increased scale, especially when money, access to capital by each of us was limited. We were one of the earlier systems to adopt three-site production for hogs in Ontario, attempting to better the health of our animals and increase efficiency of production. We definitely benefited from the expertise and efforts of each other. We could bounce all kinds of ideas off each other. Schlegelhome clearly benefited from the innovation Richard brought such as no-till etc.

We were friends as well as business partners. We had similar values, similar goals. With Richard's support, I was able to serve on the Ontario Pork Board and the Canadian Pork Council. Richard would always put my farm ahead of his farm and hopefully we did the reverse.

A life such as Richard’s should remind us all how brief life is here on earth and how important each day is.

His life made a positive difference to many us. I had the opportunity to say goodbye to him two days prior to his death. Richard accepted that he would only live a few days longer.

Richard was at peace as he passed to his eternal home. What a lasting legacy! ◊

LOCAL PORK PRODUCTS Fill your freezer with local pork products Order today from: Tanya and Darryl Terpstra (519-291-7603) or visit Leis Feeds in Milverton – Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon

Pork supplied by: Perth County Pork Producers BBQ services for large groups are also available, contact: perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com for more details.

December 2024 59

Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca website: brucefederation.ca

NEWSLETTER Discover Georgian College’s Business-Agriculture Program Georgian College was thrilled to launch its new Business-Agriculture program and welcome its first cohort in September 2024.

Over four academic semesters and one co-op work term, students develop the essential skills to thrive in the agricultural sector. Courses develop each student’s understanding of business principles and a deep insight into agricultural science, ensuring graduates are well-prepared to navigate the complexities of the agribusiness sector.

Program Highlights: • The Business-Agriculture two-year Diploma program features a co-op work placement, allowing students to gain real-world experience.

• With a blend of business-focused and agriculture courses, students explore critical topics such as soil science, crop production systems, agriculture regulations, and marketing and financial accounting.

• The program emphasizes practical, hands-on learning through outdoor experiences, modern labs, and classroom instruction, ensuring that graduates are well-prepared to meet the challenges of the agribusiness landscape.

College credit for local high school students Georgian College has partnered with

the Bluewater and Bruce-Grey Catholic School Boards to offer an Introduction to Agricultural Business dual credit course this February. This is a great way to localize agricultural studies in Grey-Bruce! Students enrolled in dual credits receive both a high school credit that counts towards their OSSD and a college-level credit that they can use to fast-track their post-secondary academic career.

Georgian College aims to cultivate the next generation of agricultural leaders through these initiatives. As a partner in the region, Georgian College has the capabilities and commitment to be a supportive and collaborative local partner in driving agribusiness growth, fostering innovation, and creating sustainable economic development in Grey-Bruce.

For more information, please visit: https://www.georgiancollege.ca/acade mics/programs/business-agriculture/ You can also reach out for more information: Paul Tarsitano Program Coordinator, Business – Agriculture paul.tarsitano@georgiancollege.ca Amanda Mejia Business Development Manager Research, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation for Grey-Bruce amanda.mejia@georgiancollege.ca

519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA

Annual General Meeting shares successes and challenges over past year At the recent BCFA AGM, President Chris Cossitt shared successes and challenges over the past year. Including our projects highlighting farm safety, working with all levels of government on agriculturally-related issues, community and member outreach and the medical student tour. As always, we welcome new board members, so please contact us if you would like to join.

The board moving into the new year representing BCFA is as follows: Past President: John Rodgers President: Chris Cossitt 1st Vice President: John Gillespie 2nd Vice President: Robert Rodgers Directors: Joe Detzler Jayne Dietrich Lorne Underwood Thomas Lennox Les Nichols Reagan Taylor Lindsey Dykeman

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

The Bruce County Federation of Agriculture Executive and Directors would like to wish a Merry Christmas and a healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year to all the farm families in Bruce County and thank you for your support this past year. * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA.

60 The Rural Voice

519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 Grey County Federation Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: greyfederation.ca of Agriculture * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA

To Build A Barn

GCFA is undertaking a shared initiative with Saugeen Valley Children’s Safety Village to Build a Barn at their facility on the edge on Hanover. Thousands of students visit the village each year and receive safety training from professionals. The vision is to add more farm education to support the current

Merry Christmas and all the Best for 2025!

safety shed that is located there. We have raised enough to start building and the foundation went in recently. As we fundraise through the winter for the remainder of the required funding, we hope you will consider helping us out.

For more information, please contact our office.

Thank you to Crete Werx from Elmwood for getting the foundation installed.

Grey County Federation of Agriculture recently held their Annual Meeting. Representing Grey Federation this year are:

The Grey County Federation of

Past President – Dianne Booker President – Keith Reid 1st Vice President – Lindsey Coles 2nd Vice President – Emily McKinlay Directors:

for a Merry Christmas and a

Allen Hughes Karen Gorman Jackie Pennings

Mark Nicholls Paul McQueen Richard Suchow

Agriculture would like to extend best wishes Happy New Year to all OFA members and farm families in Grey County and thank you to everyone for their support

GCFA President Keith Reid

this past year.

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA.

December 2024 61

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Office: 1-833-229-6834 Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Derek Van De Walle, President

Another Season of Ups and Downs

Seventeen years ago I decided to bring the world a little bit of colour. I am incredibly lucky to get the opportunity to bring joy to my customers' faces for two months of the year. As “The Crazy Glad Lady” I get to see my customers' faces light up with the array of colours and selection of glads we offer each August and September. 2024 was a tough year for market gardeners not just for flowers but vegetable stands as well. We realize that our customers have less discretionary income and that buying local may have been next to impossible this year. Many families were just trying to figure out how they were going to feed their families each night.

A year like 2024 will have longreaching ramifications though, many of the bigger market gardeners in our local area will not be back for another season. The growing conditions this year were out of our hands, too much rain and then God turned the taps off for four weeks, making it next to impossible to supply the crops that

you have come to love and expect.

Customers were different this year too. Sales were down at most roadside stands and that is going to change how growers plant next year. Farming comes with good and bad years, sometimes it is just hard to wait for a good year to come back again.

My customers light up my world, the joy that I see in their faces fills my heart for the rest of my year. I hope that next year will be the turning point but with a roundabout slated to be built in 2025 it doesn’t sound like it will be any better. A month from now when I close my eyes to dream of next season, full of purples and pinks of deep reds and whites, I will let that dream carry me into the next season of possibilities. Maybe I will just need to hold on to the joy my customers share with me for a little while longer.

Laura Good is the owner of The Crazy Glad Lady and operates a farmstand near St. Pauls, ON. You can also find her at the St. Mary’s Farmer’s Market in season. Laura joined the board of the Perth Federation of Agriculture last year and has found it very rewarding to be involved in local agricultural issues.

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Perth County by the PCFA.

62 The Rural Voice

Index

Adam Lesperance ........................9 Agri-Solve ......................................4 Axiom Mutual Insurance..............13 Ben Lobb MP................................15 Bernie McGlynn Lumber ............45 Bervie Supply Energy ................50 Britespan Building Systems Inc....3 Business Centre ....................54-56 Canadian Co-operative Wool ....53 Chalmers Fuels ............................15 Courtney Grain & See ..........23, 35 Creative China Decorating ........35 Crop Quest Inc ............................63 Cross County Eavestrough ........50 CT Environmental ......................20 DeDell Seeds................................19 Dundalk District Credit Union ....33 Easy Lift Doors ............................31 Elma Steel & Equipment ............16 Easy Lift Doors Ltd ......................21 Farm To Table ..............................4 Ferguson Apiaries ......................37 Gaffney Electrical Solutions ........8 Green Valley Heating Inc ............47 Grey-Bruce Farmers’ Week..26, 28 Hanover Honda ..........................34 Hayden Water Wells....................33 Hayter & Associates ....................14 Hidden Home Wood Products ....19 Highland Fuels & Supply ............45 Holiday Shopping ............17,38, 39 Howick Mutual Ins.......................34 Kelly’s Electric ..............................4 Kenpal Farm Products ................25 Kia of Owen Sound ....................52 KMM Farm Drainage ..................43 LAC ..............................................42 Lakeside Shelving & Racking ....22 Legge Fitness Cover 7, Back Cover Lisa Thompson MPP ..................35 Live Landscape ..........................37 Maitland Valley Cons. ................44 Mapleview Agri ............................13 Marquardt Farm Drainage Ltd ....15 Martin Farm Wagons ..................12 Martin’s Nursery ..........................35 Matthew Rae MPP ......................57 May Apple Financial ....................11 McLeod Water Wells Ltd ............13 Millstone Crop Services ..............11 Moore Hemsworth ......................37 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ..37 Nature’s Wave Inc ........................10 Nu-Matic Systems ........................9 Ontario Used Tractor Parts............20 Parker & Parker Farm Drainage ....22 RT Bolton ............................Cover 4 RCS (Rushton Custom Services) Cover 3

Riverside Welding & Mfg ............43 Rural Voice Books ......................48 Saugeen Valley Cons. Auth. ......46 Schmidt’s Drainage......................41 Schweiss Doors ..........................53 Seed Directory ..............................7 Siefried Farm Equipment ............22 Silver Creek Nursery ..................37 Small Homes..................................2 South Easthope Mutual Ins. ........13 Spruce Green Tree Service ........56 St. Helens Wood Products..........45 Steffen Well Drilling ....................63 Superior Barn Painting ......Cover 5 SWO Diesel Inc ..................Cover 5 Townsley Barn Painting ..............57

Triple P Consulting ............................42 Usborne & Hibbert Ins. ........................7 Varna Grain/Hill & Hill ..............Cover 2 W.D. Hopper & Sons Ltd ............47 Waddell Engineering ..................50

STEFFEN WELL DRILLING

• Agricultural and Domestic Water Wells • Well Cleanouts • Pump Testing • Camera Inspection • Irrigation Wells

519-531-0355 TEESWATER, ON

mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca

REBUILD YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL  Nutrient Management Plans  NASM Plans

 Feasibility Studies & MDS  Soil Health

December 2024 63

HURON

42 First Avenue, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

Vincent’s recipients of HCFA Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award

Pictured from left is Erica Murray presenting the HCFA Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture Award to Neil and Joan Vincent.

HCFA president Murray Workman with guest speaker Sara Epp and Vice Presidents Rob VandenHengel and Shawn O’Rourke.

Neil and Joan Vincent were the recipients of HCFA Outstanding Contribution to Agricultural Annual Award. Both Neil and Joan are Past Presidents of the HCFA and both have been involved in numerous organizations in the community. Congratulations Neil and Joan and thank you for your dedication.

The guest speaker for the Annual meeting was Sara Epp, Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph in the Rural Planning and Development Program. Sara discussed Rural Planning and how the land base and support businesses (veterinary, processing..) are crucial for the success of agriculture. Sara discussed how good planning decisions can impact the agricultural landscape for decades and how there are many pressures that contribute to the loss of agricultural land and agricultural business.

During the Regional meeting portion Ethan Wallace provided an update from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. The 2024/2025 PAC members were selected as Erica Murray, Murray Workman and Rob VandenHengel. OFA Convention delegates election results include delegates of Mike Eckert, Neil Vincent, Anna Vincent, Matt Denys, Arletta Hallahan, Shawn O’Rourke, Annette Mackenzie, Dave Frayne, and Joanna Wallace. Alternate Delegates are Carol Leeming, Ralph Deweerd and Lori Gordon.

The Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HCFA) Annual and OFA Regional meetings were held at the Clinton Legion on November 1st, 2024 The results of the elections are: Township directors: Bluewater - Paul Klopp Huron East - Shawn O’Rourke North Huron - Anna Vincent South Huron - Teresa VanRaay Ashfield Colborne Wawanosh, Morris Turnberry and Howick are vacant.

Directors at Large: Rob VandenHengel, Erica Murray, Joan Vincent, Murray Workman, Ian Scott Current commodity representatives: Beef - Harvey Hoggart Chicken - Ralph DeWeerd Egg - Matt Denys The HCFA President and Vice-Presidents will be selected at the next HCFA board meeting.

Farmer Wellness Initiative 24/7 counseling to farmers and farm family members, free all year round 1.866.267.6255 https://farmerwellnessinitiative.ca/; and frequently asked questions about FWI: https://farmerwellnessinitiative.ca/faq

Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca

Upcoming Events December 5 - Huron County Plowmens Annual Meeting at OMAFA building in Clinton December 10 and 17 Environmental Farm Plan workshop in Belgrave.

Day 1 is December 10th and Day 2 is December 17th. lsinclair@ontariosoilcrop.org (519)955-3139 December 25 - Merry Christmas

HCFA Board Meeting There will be no Board Meeting in December Next meeting is

Monday, January 27, 2025 8:00 pm Vanastra Office

The HCFA Board of Directors wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

OPP Non-Emergency Line 1-888-310-1122

Room for Rent

The HCFA has a board room available for rent for $40 including HST. Call the HCFA office at 519-482-9642 ext 2 to book your meetings.

Huron Federation Office Hours Monday 9-12 and 1-4 Alternate Fridays 9-12 and 1-4

The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA members in Huron County by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture

64 The Rural Voice

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Make your gift giving easy Give the gift that gives all year long!

1-Year Digital & Print Combo: $40 (includes HST) 2-Year Digital & Print Combo: $75 (includes HST) 1-Year Print: $30 (includes HST) 2-Year Print: $55 (includes HST) 1-Year Digital E-dition: $15 (includes HST) 2-Year Digital E-dition: $30 (includes HST) Please include full name and mailing address for the recipient along with payment (see payment options below) and specify option you are purchasing from above list.

Stay connected with a subscription to the Rural Voice • Columnists - Gardening - Recipes - Woodlots - Agrilaw - Markets - Ruralite • Business Centre

• Feedback • News & Advice • Upcoming Events • Classifieds • Feature stories about innovative ag practices • Newsletters - OFA, NFU and Perth Pork

• Feature pages: - Daytrips - Design & Build - Seed Directory - Beekeeping - Home & Garden - Cover Crops • And so much more!

Mail a cheque made payable to: North Huron Publishing Co. PO Box 429 Blyth ON N0M 1H0 We also accept credit cards, debit, E-transfers to accounts@northhuron.on.ca Or subscribe online at ruralvoice.ca Office phone 519-523-4311 ~ Be sure to include full name and mailing address! ~

Your Infrared Sauna Questions - Answered

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We’ve been carrying Canadian Made Real Wood Infrared Saunas for 18 years, and these are the top three questions we’ve heard… and the answers.

1.

“Will I really sweat in an Infrared Sauna?”

Answer: Yes! The difference is that Infrared is a warm, gentle heat that is perhaps best described as the warmth of sunshine, versus a blast of heat like the hot air Saunas. This is good news for anybody with a health concern where intense heat is not favorable. Remarkably, we perspire more deep toxins in an Infrared Sauna, because it’s a soothing, penetrating heat versus primarily a hot surface heat.

2.

“Who can I trust?”

Answer: First, examine the Certification Label and look for Made in Canada and CSA. Second, there should be no chemical smell inside, and no shine on the outside. Third, check EMF’s with your own meter. Lastly, go to the factory.

That’s what we do.

3.

“How do I know which Sauna is the best?”

Answer: This is probably the most important question. For anyone considering buying a Sauna online or from a mass retailer, we can say from past experience, buyer beware. For 18 years, we have been privileged to offer our clients one of the only Canadian Made, Real Cedar Wood, CSA (Canadian Standards Association) certified Infrared Saunas on the market, and they are manufactured right here in Ontario for over 30 years. Visit our showrooms in Listowel and Fergus and sit in our Saunas, compare them, and make an informed decision!

Interested? Got more questions? We’d like to hear from you!

Call, email or walk in and remember to ask about our “Detox Sale” on Saunas right now!

LeggeFitness.com 1-800-695-7338 202 Main St. W., Listowel

105 Queen St W., Fergus

Your Family Fitness, Wellness and Mobility Store Since 1988!

Move over old age, stiff joints, weight gain and low energy...fitness is moving in!

As the cooler weather comes, we start thinking about moving fitness inside, in the comfort and convenience of our home. Now is the time to renew our commitment to fitness, wellness and longevity and also look at ways to bring fresh life into our routine, perhaps with a new fitness product addition. Whether your goals are for building strength, increasing endurance, boosting energy, managing a healthy weight and physique or even recovering from an injury or accident, we have you covered with a wide selection of quality and comfortable fitness and therapy products designed to serve you for years to come. Did you know with a good fitness program we can turn back the ‘internal biological clock’ by up to 30 years? Even that one benefit is worth 30 minutes a day of our time!

LeggeFitness.com 1-800-695-7338 202 Main St. W., Listowel

105 Queen St W., Fergus

Your Family Fitness, Wellness and Mobility Store Since 1988!

Turn Back the Internal Biological Clock Specials on Now!