P.E.I. bees in peril
RD: I am hoping that dealing with the COVID-19 crisis might make Dennis King, the premier of P.E.I., realize that preventing an outbreak of an exotic disease or parasite is far easier than dealing with it once it has become established. Our bees are also facing a new threat – the Small hive beetle (SHB) – and the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture seems set on a course that is very likely to bring it to our province.
Read MoreRequired reading
RD: Our son has loved Rural Delivery since he was able to flip through books on his own. It has everything he loves. Tractors, vegetables, and animals! We often have to hide the newest one before he claims it as his own, or we will never get to see it. Thought you guys would enjoy seeing your little reader.
Paean to winter wood
RD: There was a time when almost every rural home had a woodshed – sometimes attached to the family house. If so, the “outhouse” would probably be back in a corner, so it wouldn’t be necessary to go outside to “go!” In the winter, a side of beef or pork would often be hung from the “carrying beam.” Us kids would throw the wood in through the “wood window” and pile it. Times change – not many woodsheds now.
Life well-blended
RD: Thank you for your paean to Stephen Poplawski and his home kitchen blenders (“Midwinter mix-up,” RD Dec. 2019, pg. 5). When I was 10 years old my mother made me wonderful milkshakes in her brand new Osterizer blender. I am now 72, and that same blender is now making me wonderful breakfast smoothies
Unwelcome adviceRD: I don’t live in the Maritimes, but I have visited the Maritimes several times the first time to visit my son who chose to get his university education in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I was so impressed with the friendliness of the people I encountered there that I seriously considered moving.
Read MoreBig argument for small living
RD: Ms. Foster’s article, “Which way to the pool?” (RD Sept., pg. 18) resonated with me, and probably many, many people from rural areas, as she asks, “Who benefits when bigger is always synonymous with better. Who loses?” Anyone in a small community who has lost a small school loses! The people who decide to close small rural schools are almost always from towns and cities, and have little or no experience of rural life and of the importance of small – small schools, small farms, small stores, small businesses. The anger and frustration that these communities feel is immeasurable. It really and truly is like talking to a brick wall when these communities explain the importance of a small school; there is no understanding, and the lack of empathy is excused by dollars and cents. The money is a very short-term saving, as the longer-term harm extends over several years and generations as these small, vibrant communities wither, struggle, morph into bedroom or seasonal places and see their children, their future, bussed out of their homes. It is time for governments of all stripes to get off the bigger-is-better bandwagon and actually do something constructive for rural small communities. Keep and support small schools, give small businesses some breaks, ensure that decent high-speed internet is available for all. People should not be punished for choosing to “live small.”
Dianne Powell
Wentworth, N.S.
Exhaustive reading
RD: I thought you might enjoy this photo of my cat, KoKo, resting after a long read of Rural Delivery.
Judy Nelson
Moores Mills, N.B.
Treat your farmers well
RD: Elizabeth May gets it. She was in P.E.I. last week and clearly stated that supply management is important to Canadian farmers and should be protected. This is the first time I have heard a federal leader say this during this 2019 federal election.
She says farmers will be expected to do a lot for the environment and are currently doing things that are good and they need to get paid.
The Conservatives and Liberals are currently working in tandem to get rid of supply management. They say it is not on the table going into a negotiation. They give a big chunk away. They say they will compensate for damages. They apologise and say it won’t happen again. Then they repeat.
This has been their method of operation since the WTO came along in the first place. The Conservatives, Liberals, and agricultural economists are pushing for the neo-liberal agenda – that means the ultra-wealthy get to make money and everyone else exists to make them money.
Judge the parties by their actions, and know that the fate of any nation can be judged by how it treats its farmers.
Ranald MacFarlane, farmer,
Fernwood, P.E.I.
Two limber limbers
“This big old limby spruce was cut around 1944 on Cobequid Mountain, Cumberland County, N.S., by my father and his brother, using only a crosscut saw and double-bitted axes,” writes Esther Bradley, of Dorchester, N.B. “Must have been fun cutting all those limbs. Not sure what they used it for – probably kindling. Must have made a crash when it fell!”
Not-so-smashing pumpkins
RD: One of the casualties of hurricane Dorian is the Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Regatta. Although the race was scheduled for October, the combination of an extremely wet and cool spring, and the loss of vines and leaves during the storm, means that the giant pumpkins used to transport human cargo in the race are too small this year.
Get cookin’
RD: Just had a thought that it’s soon time that you tapped someone on the shoulder and appointed that individual in charge of manufacture of The Maritime Rural Delivery Cook Book. I see several editions possible … all available one at a time, a month before Christmas.
No stump left unturned
RD: As Ripley might say, “Believe It or Not.” I’m now in my 73rd orbit of the sun and I’m still at it! But, as the monkey said when he got his tail caught in the lawnmower, “It won’t be too long now!” Because, when the four stumps behind me (see photo above) are behind me (figuratively!), my stump-digging days are done! Taberduker! I will no longer be a “stump-knocker”
Aligned for resurrection
RD: Talk about coincidences! Just today (Friday, April 12) I picked up a copy of Getting Rid of Alders at our Perth-Andover, N.B., library, and came across the item “Making country butter,” from 1987 by Susan Restino (pg. 72), and just this past Tuesday (April 9) I was helping a friend do a demonstration of old tools to some youngsters, probably mostly under age 11 or so, at this same library, and my friend used an old “...
Bull tales
RD: This ain’t no bull – these are true stories. We lived on a farm in Cumberland Co. Every year Dad would raise a bull to sell to the butcher. This year we had a nice one – plump and fat! When the butcher came to get this one, he would not walk up the ramp to the truck.
Read MoreMaul improved
RD: Just finished reading the Jan.-Feb. issue of RD. I always read “Pot Luck” first. I too still split wood by hand (“Pot Luck – The big chill,” pg. 8). I graduated to the Fiskars X27 splitting axe, which is a pleasure to use. Especially for a senior like me. The X27 is 36 inches long and fairly lightweight, and you can swing it with a mighty stroke.
Getting a foothold
RD: My mind is racing these cold winter days, so here is another true story. I used to visit a couple on an old farm in Albert County, New Brunswick. It was a big old farm, slowly running down. They had a small garden, kept a few cows, and cut hay for the cows. They cut pulp and firewood on the many wooded acres beyond the pasture.
Tomato bounty
RD: Regarding the Garden Gleanings column: “One of two things money can’t buy,” by Megan de Graaf (RD, December 2018, pg. 21) – that being decent tomatoes in winter. I’ve attached a photo of my remaining tomato harvest as of December 16, 2018. After harvest, we spread all our unripe and/or green tomatoes out on newspaper on the cool basement floor.
Remember Django
RD: You are probably getting all sorts of responses to your editorial about the friend who (OUCH!) cut two fingers off in his table saw (RD November, “No disaster,” pg. 6). I want to pass on my sympathies for sure, as I cannot even write the words without flinching, but I hope he keeps his sense of humour and also an open mind.
Forest policy vindication
RD: Bill Lahey’s Independent Forestry Review Report is a long-awaited vindication of what many woodlot owners, harvesters, and environmentalists have been saying for years: we need a forestry industry that leaves a significant portion of forest intact. We have been exploiting our forest – with too much clearcutting and planting of monocultures – in an unsustainable fashion.
Just plain grand
RD: Your magazine is quite grand as is. Lewis Dingwall was my son-in-law so I like to keep in tune with goings-on in beautiful Nova Scotia. Keep up the good work. The rhubarb muffins were tops!
Alma Carter
Stony Plain, Alta.
Return of the Monarchs
RD: Earlier this year I submitted an article and some pictures of Monarch caterpillars and butterflies here at our home in Eastern Passage, taken last year (RD April, Letters, pg.10). I have attached two pictures of the caterpillars taken four days apart this year (July 17 and July 20), demonstrating how fast they grow.
Stumped!
RD: Back in 2016 I sent an item in to Rural Delivery that became “Wood Splitting 101” (RD Dec. 2016, pg. 30), as I was then rapidly approaching my “three-score and 10.” I made it! I still split my wood by hand with my double-bitted axe. I may have slowed a tad, but ….
Scattering seeds for thought
RD: We took all our magazines to the seed swap to give away. I hope it garners some subscriptions for you. This is a great magazine.
Jean Dakin
Golden, B.C.
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