Area Committees Ensure Local Experience Guides Transportation Planning Decisions

source: Farm and Food Report

No one knows the volume of traffic that roads around Cudworth sustain better than Louis Kolla, Reeve of the R.M. of Hoodoo and a member of the North Central Area Transportation Planning Committee (NCATPC).

“With us being located more in the north, logging activities have a real impact on our road surfaces,” Kolla says. “Our area extends westward as well, so the Lloydminster traffic brings wear and tear on our road network there also.”

Started in 1995, Saskatchewan’s network of Area Transportation Planning Committees was established to ensure road upgrades and other transportation decisions made by Saskatchewan Highways were based on sound information.

Allan Carpentier is a Senior Transportation Planner with Saskatchewan Highways. He provides technical expertise for the Transportation Planning Committees in the southern third of the province.

“Our goal is to make sure those who use the highways and road networks have a means to provide us with some input on their priorities,” says Carpentier. “It is more of a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach. Instead of having decisions being made out of Regina, the whole idea is to consult locally on the issues and solutions to transportation challenges.”

One of the most important issues Saskatchewan road authorities are facing today is the rapidly changing grain handling network. Grain elevator consolidation and rail line abandonment are placing an increased burden on our roads in an era of government restraint and debt reduction. It is what motivated this investment in a strategic partnership.

“The Committees consult with Health Boards, School Boards, Regional Economic Development Authorities,” said Carpentier. “They deal also with ferries, airports, short line railways, and with how economic development, tourism, access to schools and hospitals are affected by the transportation network.”

Transportation plans are developed and submitted to the provincial government, which analyses them and goes back to the ATPCs to validate their findings.

“We have a solid discussion to establish where the strategic corridors are, as an example, for grain routes, economic development, and intensive livestock operations,” explains Carpentier.

“What happens is in the municipal system, there is a set amount of dollars for applications brought in under the federal Prairie Grain Roads Management Committee to assess and see if there is a real need for these roads. One of the key roles of these Area Transportation Planning Committees is that when these applications are submitted, the federal committee approaches the ATPCs and asks them if they are necessary, strategic routes. Is there any other information that can be provided to make this a good application? The ATPC provides their input and it just enhances the opportunities for these municipalities to get these roads upgraded or clay-capped.”

Louis Kolla has been a member of his Area Committee for two and a half years only, and already he sees an impact.

“This year, through the Federal Government, we got a three-mile long road clay-capped in our region through an application that had been submitted,” he says. “We know which roads are needed. Being on a committee like this enables us to share our knowledge with decision-makers. It is a win/win situation.”

For more information on Area Transportation Planning Committees, click here.

For more information, contact:

Allan Carpentier
Senior Transportation Planner
Saskatchewan Highways and Transportation
(306) 787-6559

The Butterfly Lady

source: Farm and Food Report

In her faded gardening cover-alls, June Baxter sits before a class of first-graders, a storybook in her hand. She tells the story of a larvae’s transformation into a butterfly. Baxter knows the journey well. She has witnessed it in her house at her Beechy farm many times before.

For the past two years, she has been raising Painted Lady butterflies as a hobby and a business venture. Her springs have been spent watching pupas grow into chrysalises, and then to butterflies. Saskatchewan’s climate only allows her to raise butterflies during spring and summer.

The butterflies, with their black and orange wings, are placed into rose bowls with a small floral arrangement and a bow around the rim. She sells them as Mother’s Day gifts, along with a letter from the butterfly to its new owner.

“I have been purchased for you because you must be very special to someone who cares,” the letter begins. Along with instructions on the butterfly’s care, the letter explains how an “ancient tradition believes that when you capture a butterfly, set it free, and in return for its freedom it will carry your wish to the heavens above, and it shall be granted.”

So far, Baxter said, the Mother’s Day gifts have been a hit. The rose bowls cost $25, which she said people who love butterflies are happy to pay: “Lots of people look and if they like it, they like it.” she said.

The second part of Baxter’s business — and her favorite one — is visiting schools to teach children about the growth stages of a butterfly. She always wears her gardening overalls on these educational excursions, and at times her butterfly-shaped hat as well. On the school circuit, she is known as “the Butterfly Lady.”

Baxter begins her talks by reading a story to the children that explains the process through which a butterfly matures into its final state. She has a brown suitcase full of props: stuffed versions of what a larvae or a chrysalis looks like, an assortment of books, as well as stickers for the kids.

At the end of her presentation, Baxter builds a butterfly hotel out of a used aquarium and places the chrysalises in it so students and teachers can watch their progress and set them free a few days after they become butterflies. Last year, she sent out 28 school kits, and visited schools in Beechy, Lucky Lake, Kyle and Dinsmore, and at the Beechy Hutterite Colony. What Baxter loves as much as doing the school presentations is receiving letters and pictures from the students, thanking her for her presence in their class.

A third idea, which Baxter has only tried a few times, is selling butterflies for use in wedding ceremonies. The butterflies, sold by the dozen, are each folded into a piece of paper and handed out to wedding attendants. At an appointed time during or after the ceremony, the butterflies are released from the folds of the paper and set free into the air.

Baxter got the idea to raise butterflies from a CBC radio interview with a woman from Winnipeg who was speaking about her hobby. After contacting her, she ordered her initial 100 eggs, and paid $25 for an outdated incubator from the hospital where she works part-time as a laboratory technologist. The incubator provides a constant temperature for the growing eggs, which is crucial to their development.

“I put one or two eggs in there,” said Baxter, holding up an empty film canister —any clear container will do. She cut a small square from a coffee filter, draped it over the container, and snapped the top back on.

“That little caterpillar is going to grow out of his skin five times, and he just lives in here,” she went on. “He doesn’t need any more oxygen or anything, he just needs the food.”

The food, Baxter said, is the biggest expense involved in raising butterflies. At $56.00 per kilogram, she spends more money on it than on any other aspect of her business.

After seven to 10 days in the canisters, the larvae attach themselves to the coffee filter with what Baxter calls a “spit button.” They curl themselves in a “J” shape, and become a chrysalis during the next 24 hours. After another four days, Baxter removes the filter from its canister and pins it to a funnel-shaped piece of netting. Ten days later, when the butterfly emerges, it will hang upside down in the netting until its wings unfurl and dry.

While she hopes in the future that her business will become more profitable, at the moment Baxter is satisfied calling it a pastime that brings in a little extra income. It is clear she takes joy in this unique hobby, and all of its facets.

“Maybe it’s the kid in me that comes out,” she said. “How many people get to play with butterflies?”


For more information, contact:

June Baxter
Butterfly Wishes
(306) 859-2066

Experts Hope To Curb Attitudes Towards Farm Safety By Focusing On Children

source: Farm and Food Report

Every second or third week, John Saum, an Occupational Health and Safety Officer with Saskatchewan Labour, hits the road to meet up with farm operators.

“I plan on visiting three or four farm businesses, maybe their machinery dealers, and then visit specific farm units to talk to individual farmers about safety,” says Saum. “They may be a dairy farm, a cattle feedlot, PMU operation, chicken or egg producers. We try to inform employers and employees on their rights and obligations according to the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations in Saskatchewan.”

Saum finds his hosts generally receptive to his observations.

“The farm sector is quite different from what you might see in a city,” he says. “Farmers often have two or three employees whom they work alongside. If there is a safety issue on the farm, the farmer is faced with that safety issue as well. The informed farmer takes action quickly, because if it is a safety issue for his or her employee, it is also an issue for him or her.”

But there is still a perception among the public on and off the farm that it is normal for accidents to happen on the farm, according to Saskatchewan Labour’s Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety, Allan Walker.

“Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations one can choose,” Walker says. “An agriculture operation is one of the few industrial environments — one where chemicals and heavy machinery are present daily — in which people both work and live. Children live and grow up in this environment. Around 125,000 Saskatchewan people live in this industrial setting.”

Every year, more than 300 injuries severe enough to require hospitalization occur on the farm; 20 deaths occur annually across all ages. The Farm Health and Safety Council and Occupational Health and Safety staff have been working closely with other stakeholders to break this acceptance of the normality of accidents on the farm. This starts with children, right at school, with Grow Up with Safety, an Agriculture in the Classroom project that provides health and safety resources for Grade 1-6 school children.

“We would like to see farm safety become part of farming culture. All accidents are predictable and preventable. At the same time, we are also well aware of the pressures the cost/price squeeze of farming imposes.”

Most injuries take place between May and October, during the busy time of the year. People take risks they shouldn’t. They get fired up to get the job done and they take shortcuts. John Saum sees unnecessary hazards and risk-taking on his field trips.

“Quite often you will find safety shields off of pulleys; the guard off the auger itself; you can find safety shields off of balers; power take-off shafts may not be covered with safety shields. You may find some of the farmers will go up on bins using ladders without cages and they fall. Falling is one of the most critical accidents that can happen.”

As John Saum drives across the province, he often wonders about the risks people on the farm take. But he also knows how the changes that have affected agricultural industries over the years have had other, more perverse effects.

“Safety may be a common sense issue if you have grown up on a farm. If you have not grown up on a farm, there is no such thing as common sense on the farm. You have to actually experience the farm component of it before you actually understand what is going on. It is like anything else. And more and more, in the agribusiness sector especially, it is difficult to recruit employees who have had a broad range of farm experience.”

Saum and his colleagues believe it is time now to work on the safety education component of agriculture and to curb our common sense “false friend.”

For more information on Grow Up With Safety, click here.

For additional information, contact:

Allan Walker
Executive Director
Occupational Health and Safety Division
Saskatchewan Labour
(306) 787-4481

A crew of Arbres Joyeux employees busily trimming treetops.
 

Christmas Tree Producer in the Business of Joy

For Arbre Joyeux, innovation in agriculture is a little like cooking at Christmas. You need an outstanding team, a few well-measured trends, a heaping helping of talent and just a pinch of ambition. Simmer briefly in market forces, until your kitchen fills with the aroma of your very own innovative juices. That, in a nutshell, is this Beauce company's recipe for success. Under the ownership of Renald, Norman and Yvan Gilbert since 1975, the reputation of Arbre Joyeux now extends beyond Canadian borders, setting the stage for success.

Through its alliance network with some 50 chains, including Home Depot and Canadian Tire, Arbre Joyeux sells over 200,000 balsam and Fraser fir trees annually, throughout Canada and into the US Midwest. The company's 2,500 acres of land is home to a stock of 1.8 million live trees. In addition, Arbre Joyeux negotiated substantial harvesting rights to meet demand in the US market.

Renald Gilbert says that he learned to speak English through his business transactions over the telephone. "I contacted American distributors to let them know about our Christmas trees. You can't ask for a better way to learn. Over the phone, you rely on voice and tone to communicate. You have to be clear and instil confidence with the very first call and you learn fast when you have to. We had the advantage of knowing our product and our delivery capacity well." Sales skyrocketed from $647,000 in 1995 to over $6,700,000 in 2003.

The Gilbert brothers have always had trees in their blood. "Our father, a woodlot operator in his day, liked to hitch up the horses in his spare time to fell the trees on our family's land. That's how we got interested in converting the cultivated land into a Christmas tree operation. And that's how we got started," explains Renald, a forestry engineer by profession. Renald and his wife, Marjolaine Tardif, first started the fir tree operation. Marjolaine created an entire computerized invoicing system. Then Renald's brothers, Normand and Yvan, joined the business, and it has been a wild ride. Renald explains further, "For the first few years, we were all working and we kept spending and spending to keep the business running. Then one day, we went for it!"

The turning point for the company was in the 90s, right in the middle of the recession. So the brothers relied on their savvy to set themselves apart from the competition. Based on where the market was going at that time, Arbre Joyeux anticipated that Canada would not be able to meet the demand for Christmas trees between 2001 and 2004. Arbre Joyeux was already increasing production by 10 to 20 per cent annually, and even this was not enough to satisfy demands from the very impressive partnership growing with American distributors.

The business had to go one step further to survive in this increasingly voracious market. The Gilbert brothers got wind that a producer in Saint-Honoré was planning to get out of the industry. Most of that producer's tree sales were to wholesalers - a less profitable option. Arbre Joyeux began looking into financing solutions, approaching banks and explaining that they wanted to purchase an additional live stock of 800,000 trees. This would double the operation's production capacity.

However, preparing a financing package for forestry requires considerable resources, which are not always readily available. Khalid Berrahou is Arbre Joyeux's financial controller: "FCC understands agriculture inside out, and therefore they were comfortable with the future value our trees would bring. They understood the importance of this opportunity for us and the real value of the land that Arbre Joyeux wanted to acquire."

It goes without saying that Christmas tree production is a sector unlike any other. It takes many years before the product leaves the ground to go to market. Christmas trees reach maturity after two years in a greenhouse, two years in a nursery and at least eight years in the field. All decisions are based specifically on future needs and demand.

When Arbre Joyeux cuts down 200,000 balsam and Fraser fir trees, over 300,000 are replanted to meet the anticipated increase in sales 10 years down the road. Factors affecting growth rate also need to be taken into account, such as disease, variable weather conditions and a loss rate of 5 per cent per year.

Similarly, competition tactics in the field reflect this strategic mindset. Despite the increased risk, Arbre Joyeux determined that it was more profitable to count on a balanced combination of harvesting rights and Christmas trees planted at 50¢ a piece. By making the necessary adjustments to the soil, the operators are able to optimize growing conditions and maximize the number of trees maturing in 10 rather than 12 years.

Arbre Joyeux's real expertise is in being able to predict the needs of its clients and their customers. Since Arbre Joyeux broke into the US market, order books have grown to include some 30 by-products and other specialities distributed throughout its alliance network.

"Two years ago, we proposed a piece of novelty merchandise to Home Depot, called Kissing Balls, that are polystyrene foam balls, decorated with fir branches and hung in a room the same way you hang mistletoe. We felt there would be a demand for this type of product. We made the proposal and we were right," says Khalid Berrahou.

Arbre Joyeux has had the same success with canes, crucifixes, hands and miniature decorated potted trees, for use in smaller homes with limited space and offices. Another product custom designed for the American market is a cover to place over graves made of a metal trellis wound with pine branches. "It's a very American tradition and when we developed the product, we satisfied a consumer need, without requiring distributors to invest any time or money." Berrahou continues.

The most daunting challenge is clearly the transportation of trees to their point of sale. Maintaining a solid business relationship with some 20 transportation companies needs constant attention and innovative solutions.

"We load 700 to 750 trees on each truck. Transporters don't like to waste time loading and unloading at point of sale, as the first trucks that are quickest to unload are the first trucks ones served by the warehouse receivers. We have developed a unique system of loading the trees on conventional palettes reducing waiting time for truckers at shipping and delivery points, and helping to negotiate more competitive shipping prices," Khalid Berrahou explains.

Renald Gilbert is the first to admit that his sense of innovation has always been born of a desire to help make the job easier for his co-workers. "When I worked as a forestry engineer, I had trouble understanding why loggers had to walk through the mud to get to the job site. With better planning the forest road network could have been better maintained. It just makes sense, doesn't it?" he concludes. Kudos!

Saskatchewan Christmas Trees: If You Plant That Seedling And Wait A While… They Will Come

source: Farm and Food Report

When Bob Mason and Cora Greer planted the first row of Scots Pine seedlings on their Kenaston-area farm in 1990, they knew they were embarking on a long-term project.

“We had to wait seven years before we could start selling them, and we had to cull a few where we had planted them too densely,” admits Mason. “This has been a learning experience and quite a ride.”

At first, Mason would sell the trees from the back of his truck at a Moose Jaw mall, then in Regina, from another mall. Then he discovered the “joys” of competitive marketing arrangements. When the anchor tenant grocer decided to sell Christmas trees as well, the contract with Mason Family Farm was terminated.

“I asked myself if this was really what I wanted to do. I was away from my family for the whole month. I found that difficult. Let’s see if there isn’t another way to do this?

”Welcome to Mason Family Farm’s you-choose Christmas tree operation, where 15 acres of trees await you, four kilometres north of Kenaston. Just look for the signs on Highway 11. You’ll find about 1,000 trees per acre in the plantation. All those ready to cut are Scots Pine. There is also a generation of Balsam Fir in the works that is not quite mature enough yet. As Mason will tell you, there are several obstacles to growing trees commercially in a Plains setting:

“The wide open spaces are not your friend, because wind desiccation takes such a toll on the trees during winter — but Scots pines do remarkably well,” Mason says. “As a result of the recent drought, we have felt compelled to set up drip irrigation for all new plantings. Balsam fir require special mycorrhizae fungi that takes some time to establish itself, as they are not endemic to southern prairie soils. They grow, but it takes longer initially.

”However, the rewards are satisfying at many levels. “Christmas time is generally a happy time for everyone. People come to your farm with big wide smiles. They’re in good spirits, and they’ve come here for the whole experience of cutting their tree as a family.”

Mason explains how many will easily spend a couple of hours at a time on their property on a weekend. “They bring the whole family out; they drive to the plantation and they start looking for the right tree. We tell them what to look for and they use the bow saw we loan them. Sometimes they’ll even bring refreshments and a snack with them, and they will have their own tail-gate party at our place.”

“When they have their tree, we invite them into the kitchen for cocoa and cookies. We even take their photographs. We realize that what we sell them is a lot more than the tree — it is the whole experience of being out here for a while. They take home the tree and the memories of great family outing.”

One might say that the Mason Family Farm is in the business of joy and not be too from the truth. Most of their guests come from a 60-kilometre radius, so this appeals not only to city dwellers, but to everyone.

“If you look at it this way, there is a lot more room for growth in this industry.” Mason also happens to be the President of the Saskatchewan Christmas Tree Growers’ Association Co-Operative, a small group of industry enthusiasts who hope this business will really take off over the next few years.

“This is not for everybody. You have to love trees and people. The required capital investment is not that great. But there is a fairly high attrition rate among our members because they might not have realized how long it takes to get a crop.”

For Bob Mason and Cora Greer, there is no turning back. They have just moved a barn into the farmyard to accommodate the weekend crowds enjoying the cocoa and cookies event, says Mason:

“The place turns into a bit of a zoo around this time of the year, but we love every bit of it.”

The Chinese Pavillion at Regina's Riverside Memmorial Park Cemetary. 

Unassuming Relevance

In the world of green spaces, few parcels of land are so rich in complexity and history as those places where our deceased peers are put to rest. I recently encountered a group of students from Robert Usher Collegiate at the Regina Cemetery who had been sent there to carry out a social studies assignment.

Cemeteries are as much places for the living as for the dead. We visit them to remember, to leave flowers, to pay our respects. We look at tombstones, seek peace and quiet, perhaps indulge in a little genealogical research. A lone figure stands quietly by a plot, a couple with binoculars looks inquisitively at the grosbeak feeding on white spruce cones, another couple attempts to locate the gravestone of a relative hopelessly hidden under the snow.

As citizens, we assume that cemeteries pretty much run themselves. We are generally oblivious to the fact that municipal authorities must contend with issues of maintenance, such as perpetual care. The latest trend in cemetery management involves self-sustainability forever - a concept more easily expressed than implemented. With older cemeteries being "filled" to capacity, generating revenue has become an almost impossible task. Especially when it comes to raising protective fences or fixing damaged gravestones. The considerations that cemetery staff must take into account rarely become issues expressed in the public domain. So, diligently, they pick up broken up pieces and try to contact relatives who may be long gone. When all else fails, they may, out of decency, apply a little tender loving care and fix it themselves.

When you visit an older cemetery, you will notice that monuments that will stand the test of time tend to be inconspicuous models, low to the ground and made of granite. You may have seen how wooden monuments eventually disintegrate. Nothing stops the forces of weathering. Marble is better than wood - and certainly beautiful - but a half-inch-deep inscription will all but disappear within 150 years. The same goes for limestone. If you want durability, granite is your stone. A half-inch inscription will remain legible for 800 years, as it will weather at the rate of 1/16 of an inch every 100 years. The Regina cemetery itself is probably the repository of millions of dollars' worth of headstones.

There is a definite understated culture to cemeteries at a number of levels. Take ethnicity. The Chinese area at Regina's Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery is quite revealing about the value which Asian society puts on ancestor worship. The new pagoda monument has to be one of the most architecturally interesting features of any cemetery in the Saskatchewan.

Nearby, a war memorial illustrates the sadness of lives lost in wartime.The monument serves as a reminder of the fragility and value of peace. We have, it seems, an inherent need as a society to give expression to those events that claim lives in circumstances where the outcome or its consequences are unsure. As such, cemeteries help reflect who we really are as a community of humans.

I can only commend the efforts of Eileen Schuster and her band of historical enthusiasts for launching Regina Ethnic Pionneers Cemetery Walking Tour Inc. That initiative led to the publication of a useful self-guided booklet that delves deep into Regina's past. We learn that the Regina Cemetery was delineated in 1884 and that it encompasses 29,000 graves. The booklet provides information on 55 sites and is available at the 4th Avenue and Broad Street entrance.

Eileen will occasionally lead tours of the cemetery, but you can custom design your own using the guide. As you walk and identify those sites, you get a sense of historical perspective unlike anything you will read in a book. I was particularly touched by the story of Clifford Tanouye, a 33-year-old man who was "hospitalized for an emergency operation to remove an obstruction in his respiratory system". He later died suddenly because of a piece of gauze that clogged his trachea.

The anesthetist was charged and he died within a year in a car accident.

Some stories are truly achievements. Take Florent Arnold, born in Alsace, France in 1836. He dropped out of college and enlisted in the army, imbued with a great admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte. "After leaving the army, he led a roving existence, visiting nearly every country in Europe, and spending eight years in South Africa."

He immigrated and settled in Regina in 1880, pursuing a career as a hotelier. Florent is also credited with building the Hotel du Canada in 1888, which was located on the northwest corner of 11th Avenue and Scarth Street. The hotel was known as a great gathering place for the horsemen of the district.

With the self-guided booklet, touring the cemetery will give you an impression of what the city looked like at the end of the 19th Century. Sadly, it will also give you a sense of how Regina's heritage has been lost through building demolition and "progress".

Long after those historical features - tramways, theatres, cricket clubs and opera houses - disappear, the cemetery remains. And one day someone will come and inquire as to the whereabouts of a particular fallen marker, a victim of time, weather and vandalism. The latter being a concern in any cemetery. Elongated, high, pointed or compounded monuments with elegant crosses and statues with weak necks are obvious targets for those who pass through cemeteries with less than noble intentions.

As cities fall victim to the phenomenon of urban sprawl, new cemeteries are established with the intent of enticing area residents to use cemeteries to the full extent of their potential. In accordance with the guiding principles of self-sustainability, it has now become common for individuals to sponsor trees such as green or mountain ash, Japanese tree lilac or scots pine, $200 and up. You may even consider a bench ($750) or a bicycle rack ($900). What better way to honor a relative or friend who has passed on, than to help make his or her place of eternal rest more inviting to those who live on?

A Theatre Experience Tailor-Made For Rural Saskatchewan

source: Farm and Food Report

“Farmer Joe is tired of losing his shirt on the farm so he plants the ultimate cash crop….” Talk about an attention-grabber. Farmer Joe and the Money Trees is Dancing Sky Theatre’s latest offering and yet another collective creation that is likely to hit home like no other, according to Meacham resident, actor and director Angus Ferguson.

“We stage entertainment that is tailor-made for rural Saskatchewan,” Ferguson says. “Our plays reflect what rural people experience. When you look at most television programming today, 90 per cent of what is aired targets urban audiences. There is very little out there that addresses rural life. We wish to change that.”

Ferguson explains that Farmer Joe and the Money Trees is a humorous and thought provoking look at priorities and values. The play is performed in the style of old English pantomime and loosely based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

“Pantomime lends itself extremely well to stories such as fairytales because it is a form of theatre that is extremely accessible,” explains Ferguson. "It’s great fun really. Think of it along the same lines as harlequin, burlesque and sketches. Its roots are hundreds of years old, but it is still relevant today because it speaks to the people and is clearly identified with the Christmas season back in England. Except that we are really creating our own rural Saskatchewan version in this case.”

The artists and the community behind Dancing Sky Theatre have much to be proud of. The company was started 10 years ago. The plays are staged in the old Ukrainian Orthodox Hall completed in 1925 and moved to its current location from four miles away in the early 1950s. The place is equipped with a traditional proscenium stage, but seating can be arranged in a variety of configurations, depending on production requirements. Up to 115 guests at a time have attended performances there.

An evening with Dancing Sky may involve a home-cooked meal served right in the hall.

“We are well aware of the needs of rural people who must drive long distances to go places,” Ferguson says. “Between 60 and 70 per cent of our audience is rural, with about 30 per cent who drive 40 minutes from Saskatoon. People who come from Watrous, Bruno or Lanigan appreciate having a meal before the performance.”

The Meacham-based professional theatre company prides itself in hiring only Saskatchewan actors. Farmer Joe and the Money Trees may well be the perfect Christmas present for rural families, but really, everyone is invited as long they want to have fun and their heart is in the right place. Performances will take place December 3 to 19. Tickets are available by calling (306) 376-4445.

For more information, contact:

Angus FergusonDancing Sky Theatre
(306) 376-4445
www.dancingskytheatre.com

Nativity Story Takes On Farm Flavour Near Regina Beach

source: Farm and Food Report

At the Two Spirit Guest Ranch and Retreat near Regina Beach, good ideas are harvested by the bushel.

Co-owner Denise Needham had always been curious about the one big story that moves everyone around Christmas. Her partner, Lee Tennyson, who also works as a United Church Chaplain at the palliative care unit of a Regina hospital, undertook to re-write the Nativity story in a reverent way and then interpret it in a contemporary setting. Thus, the “Christmas in a Barn Pageant” was born.

Last year, the two business women, who also operate a senior care home on the farm, welcomed 400 guests over 10 evenings to relive the story right in their facilities, with their livestock.

“Depending on the arrangements we make, people come to Homestead Hall. We can feed them a whole turkey dinner with all the trimmings, salads and vegetables,” explained Denise Needham. “We invite people to dress in Nativity scene outfits we provide. We then move over to the barn as a group.”

The whole yard has been specially decorated with lights in an arrangement that helps create the right atmosphere. Tennyson then proceeds to narrate the story while Needham cues the improvised re-enactors.

“Mary gets tapped on the shoulder in an improvised manner (she doesn’t have to say any lines); all of a sudden our pony appears and she is invited to get on his back. Soon after, Joseph is handed the halter… and so the story goes.”

Guests are invited to dress warmly and to bring an old blanket, as the temperature in the barn is the same as outside. At the end, guests are invited back to the house for hot chocolate. Blankets are often donated to people in need. Last year, the pair collected over a hundred for the Carmichael Outreach Project.

“We find that this is an opportunity for people to reconnect with the real meaning of Christmas. Someone loaned us a miniature donkey for the event this year. Last year, one of our sheep had a late lamb, which we were able to produce to be held in someone’s arms in December. We also had a very pregnant cow at the time,” quips Needham.

Asked if there were some special challenges in recreating the Christmas story with a multitude of animals, Needham recalls one performance in particular:

“Lee usually trains the sheep to go straight to a pile of strategically located oats a couple of days before we stage the pageant. Last year, one night, someone forgot to put out the oats. The four sheep were let loose and they went running around like crazy looking for their missing reward. Our guests thought this was a cleverly orchestrated choreography. I guess now… they know it wasn’t.”

The pageant also features musical pieces from artists like Manheim Steamroller, Reba McEntire and Jerry Vale… even Bob Marley’s Go Tell It On The Mountain is featured.

Tickets are available for nights between November 26 and December 31st on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Other nights are available for larger groups upon request. Just call (306) 731-2200 for more information or to make reservations.

For more information, contact:
Denise NeedhamTwo Spirit Guest Ranch and Retreat(306) 731-2200http://tinyurl.com/5dn6n

British Farmers Fall in Love in Saskatchewan

When John Lewis first came to Saskatchewan in late January of this year, he absolutely fell in love with the prairies.

“I am in awe of the space, the hospitality and the opportunity to start anew as an agricultural producer in Canada. It has become very difficult to operate a family farm in England and I’m a farmer at heart. My family and I are willing to consider all possibilities, even if it means immigrating. ”

Lewis came to visit his in-laws who immigrated to the Willowbrook area north of Melville after they bought a farm there in June last year.

On his second visit, in June this year, his wife Catherine accompanied John. They were about to spend a week travelling throughout the province, looking for a suitable property.

As they flew to Regina they looked through the window, fascinated by the expanse of land, the irrigation systems, the network of sections, quarters and roads that give our landscape its distinctive qualities.

They were met at the airport by Bob Lane’s farm real estate team. Since 1998, Regina-based Lane Realty has helped about 50 farm families move to Saskatchewan from Europe.

“About half of them come from the United Kingdom, the others are from Germany, Austria and France, generally. We list the farms and ranches on our Web site but we also attend agriculture trade shows in Europe where we tell attendees about the Saskatchewan lifestyle, farming practices, social amenities, and educational opportunities here,” says Bob Lane.

The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program has simplified the immigration process for farm owners and operators who wish to relocate to our province. Applicants must be individuals with proven experience in farming, substantial capital available to invest in a farming operation, and who have made a signed offer to purchase land for a farming operation in Saskatchewan.

James and Christine Akrigg are often used as Saskatchewan ambassadors by Bob Lane, who regularly brings to them potential immigrants from the UK. They themselves moved from England’s Lake District in 1999 and bought a farm in the Dysart area with their three grown-up sons. They realized that their new house was somewhat bigger than their needs warranted. Within a couple of months, they opened up the Jumping Deer Bed and Breakfast. A stay with them helps put their guests’ fears to rest.

“You literally burn your bridges when you leave England. You must sell your farm to secure financing here. It is very much a leap of faith. We left the mountains but we got in exchange all that sunlight that you have here in Saskatchewan. And the sense of community is priceless, ” says Christine Akrigg. “Newcomers with children must put them in school and start getting involved in local activities.”

This is what happened to Laura and Robin Smith, John Lewis’ in-laws. After a year and a half in Saskatchewan with three children, among which two are of pre-school age, they had to mix in. What they didn’t expect was to find themselves combining in sub-zero temperatures:

“For us to have imagined the environmental conditions in which farm producers must operate would have been difficult. For instance, back in England there is much to do on the farm in the winter. Here you are much more limited because of the climate. It is a different world.”

Reached on the phone in England, John Lewis still ponders what the future holds for his wife Catherine, their 4 children and himself.

“ We saw one property we liked on our last trip, but it was not the right fit for us.
We are keeping our ears to the ground. There has been a major development in our lives recently. We sold our farm — the entire lot as we say here. Someone approached us with an offer we couldn’t refuse. We are now tenants in our former home. As you can imagine, many questions enter our mind as to what the future holds for our family. Moving to Saskatchewan is one of the options we are considering.”

There is solace in knowing that newcomers can count on Saskatchewan hospitality to make their farming transition a little easier on the mind and the heart… John and Catherine are well aware of that.

Fall Colours Index: An Idea Worth Exploring

Sharing with guests the land's pulse is always a sure way to increase their engagement level with our home place.

"Bonjourquebec.com", the official tourist site of the Government of Quebec taps into this concept most effectively with the "Fall Foliage" report it publishes and updates regularly on the Web.

The report is contextualized in the seasonal transformations that Quebec's tourism products assume throughout the year. While Fall is a distinct season in itself, the face it shows visitors and inhabitants varies greatly as the colour of leaves changes from green, to yellow, orange and red.

The index is organized by region and provides a quick reference guide as to which regions are able to deliver the most vivid impression of a land getting ready for the annual big chill. Viewers are informed that: "the visual impact is already outstanding as soon as the percentage reaches 25% and the yellow, orange and red become dominant colours."

This initiative is indicative of the level of sophistication marketers can achieve when highlighting products that have very specific experiential aspects attached to them. Fall colours are like a new wardrobe for the landscape. Travelers who may have visited a destination in the summer, might wish to go back to dine, stay overnight and bike around in bucolic surroundings; or to simply experience the smells of Fall as one walks along designated trails in the forest.

Is there a lesson for us here on the Plains? Though our Fall colours don't generally assume the bright reds of eastern Canadian and American locales. Colours do change nicely here as well, more subtly perhaps. Here are some other suggested indices that might illustrate the rhythms of life on the Plains and be used down the road to make more accessible to visitors the transitions associated with Fall, in an organized region by region format:

Migratory Bird Update: we all know that when Fall comes, the skies become alive with them. Different staging areas welcome different species. A regular report on which birds are where might entice birders or potential visitors in search for a new weekend activity to hop on to the ornithological bandwagon and have a meal or stay in a town nearby to really take in the whole experience.

Harvest reports: agriculture-focused government bodies crank out "Crop Reports". It wouldn't take much to produce a region by region harvest report with visitors to rural destinations in mind. Is there anything sweeter than the smell of freshly cut wheat on a sunny Fall morning? I experienced this again recently. Golden fields animated by farmers bringing in the crops are always a charming sight. I know -- the price of grain being what it is these days -- the rewards are not as good for those sitting behind the wheel in the tractor's cab. But the harvest is a timeless ritual endowed with an inherent dignity that can inspire anyone to support farming as a way of life forever.

Fowl/Fall suppers report: if events rooted in this season are all fantastic in my mind at some level, none of them provide the satisfaction of an old-fashion meal cooked and served by rural folks in a community hall. Fowl suppers may be fundraisers for local projects, such as keeping the lights on in the hall in question. Their significance is much greater as a celebration of the harvest; as the Fall homecoming of relatives and friends from other towns and cities. They are truly authentic with the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin and berry pies that we stuff down our bellies, but also in the friendliness of the improvised car park attendant or waiters who will fill up your coffee cup between sips as if you were just part of the family. That is priceless!

Lastly perhaps, I shall lump in all the indoor rodeos, crafts fairs, livestock sales and threshing days events into authentic experiences that need to be promoted more effectively. For they show a bit of the essence of life on the Great Plains, a sliver of the prairie dweller's soul. Each of these events is a window to the community spirit garden out of which our towns and cities have evolved. They are pivotal in the way our collective identity should be reflected in the tourism images we generate for the Plains region.

The Organic Gallery

I'll admit willingly that investigating the perceptions we have of places and spaces gives me great pleasure. So when a recent guest from New York shared with me how she had loved her visit to the MacKenzie Art Gallery, I absolutely had to go experience almost immediately some of the sensations she had enjoyed.

The MacKenzie figures on my list of local places to revisit two or three times a year. It is easy to forget that this is a remarkable facility. It's just the right size. Not so big that it challenges our capacity to take in all its offerings in one visit; yet, it is large enough a public space to allow for a certain "atmospheric" quality to emanate with each exhibit. In this sense, every visit nourishes the mind.

There is nothing quite like standing in front of a painting that could cover entire walls of your living room and feeling that you can fully appreciate some of the impact the artist wished his or her work to have on the observer. Endowed with high ceilings and plenty of display space, the "New" MacKenzie really does take after the expansive quality of the plains landscape. Something the old location on College Avenue could only aspire to.

The MacKenzie grounds us into the territory we inhabit through the personal interpretations of the Saskatchewan artists whose work is lovingly displayed here. The current Land Titles exhibit on show until September 26 is an eloquent statement to that effect.

The journalist in me is always seeking to experience the "lived reportage" of the exhibits and events we are invited to attend. This is the themed and articulated story that informs us on a range of topics. In this case we are invited to share worldviews that stem from the relationship to the land Prairie settlement has engendered. Land Titles succeeds.

And until December 3, the exquisite new exhibit of prints and still life paintings by Canadian artist Mary Pratt allows us to dwell even further on our relationship with commonplace objects. Pratt's hyperrealist renderings keep you thinking about the companion things of sedentary life.

In an unusual development, guests are invited backstage into the printmaking process itself. Between 1993 and 2003, Mary Pratt worked closely with Japanese master print maker Masato Arikushi, based in Vancouver. This collaboration culminated into Transformations, and a rare opportunity to see the actual woodblocks that are used. Apparently, print makers usually destroy them. As you scan the woodblocks on the wall, you start to understand how print images come together.

True to form, the MacKenzie is offering school tours to interpret the exhibit free of charge. For more information contact Marina at (306) 584-4292. These public interpretations always add value to the exhibit itself by making it more accessible. They always help bring the art to life; they help keep the MacKenzie organic.

Where the Arabian Horse is King

Regina has once again been turned into the Arabian horse capital of Canada since earlier this week. The 47th annual Canadian Arabian Nationals, affectionately known as "The Royal Red," kicked off at Regina Exhibition Park.

This week-long event is amazing, not just because it features top-level horse show competition and a commercial trade fair that drew more than 25,000 spectators and brought in approximately 1,000 horses from Canada and the United States... or because the economic impact to Regina is estimated at $5.5 million (U.S. dollars). It is amazing because of how the Exhibition grounds are used to create a miniature city where the horse is king.

The barns take on the flamboyant colours of stables from around North America. Banners unfurl, benches and plants are artfully displayed in a symphony of landscape productions intended to celebrate the oldest known breed of riding horse. While the Arabian hails from the ancient deserts of the Middle East, it has become one of the most popular breeds in North America.

Sure enough, the people who own such noble animals take great pride in their relationship with them. They will spare no expense. Inside the barns and outside, sod is brought in, lumber is purchased to build walls and partitions. Furniture is rented, light fixtures are installed, and soon, the strangest and eerily beautiful horse-friendly indoor environment emerges. People set up luxury dining rooms, living rooms with television sets, playpens for children. Within feet, a rider puts bandages on the feet of his horse; another adjusts her breeches and boots, while yet another climbs on her mount and heads to the ring.

Royal Red City is not only an amazing display of grace and elegance; it is a temporary human settlement with distinctive rules and behaviours. While the use of cars is discouraged in the alleys and within the barns, the golf cart becomes the wheeled vehicle of choice to shuttle between barns, rings and RV. So many golf carts are needed for the event that they have to be imported from as far away as Calgary.

Royal Red City comes with various amenities. Vendors for straw, hay and wood shavings are conveniently located on site. A sheltered sitting area is established and daily newspaper dispensing boxes are brought in to occupy the more leisurely moment of these honoured guests who come mostly from the United States.

There is real joy for us local folks in walking on these beautiful grounds and in asking these passionate horse people what they think of Regina? Why they like coming back here? Their answers: "people are extremely friendly everywhere"... "We go to restaurant and people are very polite"..."when the show is hosted in other cities, sometimes nobody watches us in the ring. Here they cheer for us".

It is fascinating how the Royal Red enables this city to show its best side to the rest of North America. Perhaps it is not that surprising, given that the horse has historically played such a significant role in the settlement of the City.

There are many yet undiscovered aspects to this annual influx of equine fanatics we don't really understand. We are hosting another society in our midst with its own cultural system. How fortuitous that it is compatible with ours. May these guests come back and mingle with us for many, many years!

Journeys to the Entrails of Prairie Towns Fascinate

Think of it as a visit to the pits at a Formula 1 event or as a tour of a Russian Gulag with a labour camps historian. Exploring the back lanes of railway towns with an anthropologist is like acquiring a new map of Great Plains settlements. It can yield excitement, uneasiness, laughter, and certainly, a new appreciation for laneways. More importantly perhaps, there are paying guests with an appetite for hands on/behind-the-scene experiences great enough to try this out even locally. It's all in how the experience is staged.

"Having recently completed an MA archaeological thesis on urban settlement in Regina prior to World War I with a British university, I wanted to incorporate and interpret some of my more evocative findings through the excursions I have been marketing around Saskatchewan since 1998," said Great Excursions CEO Claude-Jean Harel.

"A couple of opportunities to do just that came up recently. I led a group of Saskatchewan housing experts on a field trip to Regina's Core neighbourhood. We looked at how the Core's grid layout affects activities such as crime, recreation and community development. Imagine 16 people (under a steady rainshower) carrying umbrellas and walking through some of the most notorious alleys in town, being part of an interpretation of the built environment and its significance today."

Harel adds: "in another instance, a group of 40 adult French immersion students were in the market for an urban field trip in a controlled environment -- one where I would communicate with them mostly in French so they could work on their fluency. I had identified a number of back lane types in Regina, featuring some characteristics my guests would find revealing about how the first inhabitants of the city used the lanes to barter, travel, to hide, to meet up, to keep their livestock or to use the privies. In many ways the back lanes were the backbone of the city in the early 20th Century-- all our guests were looking with fresh eyes at an environment they thought they knew."

John Brandon is a fellow archaeologist actively involved in cultural resource management in the province:

"You may know Claude-Jean Harel for his cheerful promotion of Great Saskatchewan places on CBC Radio and as the owner/operator of Great Excursions Travel Company. His training in anthropology and interest in spaces led him to study the layout of Regina and its effects on the perceptions of her inhabitants and visitors. Claude-Jean will show that archaeology, while the study of human behaviour through material things, needs not be limited to artifacts small enough to put in a bag."

The Regina Archaeological Society's Catlinite Tabloid writes:

"Every aspect of urban development throughout the history of the railway towns affected how residents perceived their home, yard, street, neighbourhood, network of friends, family and colleagues. These same aspects of urban development contributed to differentiating communities from the original site and landscape settlers came to populate. Drawing from his thesis, Claude-Jean uses spatial relationships in railway towns, along with the help of early photographs, maps, GIS and analysis to share with participants some fascinating aspects about the places in which they live. These findings may help those who are currently involved in revitalizing their railway towns tap into little known resources than can generate economic benefits locally."

One might say that back alleys are like a book that visitors and inhabitants learn to read over time. Saskatchewan artist Wilf Perreault has built a prolific career laying on canvas scenes of life in alleys. He started his journey in Saskatoon; he painted alleys even in Morocco. His work now on Regina is an important anthropological record; an invaluable gift offered for analysis, which is what the Back Alley Safaris achieve. Those same back lanes are dissected and their entrails exposed, through Great Excursions, as entertaining public interpretations -- as the newest and quirkiest tourism product to hit the market in Regina for quite some time.

This comes in the wake of a shift in the interests of travelers who are seeking more and more hands on experiences, even those who travel only locally. We all know that consumers are increasingly better educated. They have access to better research tools such as the Internet. The travel destination choices they make are better informed. If they can be convinced that a local resource such as back alleys can be the scene for a new type of urban adventure that will engage guests at an unexplored level, they will give it a try and willingly dish out what it costs to go on the journey.

There are a number of advantages to a product like this one. First, it provides an opportunity to integrate an additional product to local events such as rodeos, summer fairs or centennial celebrations. It also helps brand a tourism destination as authentic, thereby reinforcing the compelling quality of the tourism images that towns and cities are trying so hard to establish in the Great Plains region. Lets face it; our destination is relatively unknown to the rest of the world.

To dismiss Back Alley Safaris as a niche product that is unlikely to interest a broad range of visitors to the prairies would be to not fully understand why people travel: to escape, to immerse themselves into an unfamiliar environment, to gain new perspectives on life and to accomplish something memorable.

It may take some time before Back Alley Safaris are run regularly across the province, but when they were introduced this Spring to the international travel trade in Montreal at Rendez-vous Canada, the country's oldest and most prestigious marketplace, more than a few buyers gave the nod to this promising new market-ready experience.

By the way, Rendez-vous Canada is coming to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 2005.

For more information contact:

Claude-Jean Harel, CEO
Great Excursions
(306) 569-1571
Email: cj@greatexcursions.com
Web site: www.greatexcursions.com

In Praise of Interpretation

"Take scrapings from the driest outside corner of a very stale piece of cold roastbeef, add to it lumps of tallowy rancid fat, then garnish all with long human hairs (on which string pieces, like beads upon a necklace), and short hairs of oxen, or dogs, or both, - and you have a fair imitation of common pemmican." EARL OF SOUTHESK, Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains, Diary, Nov. 20, 1859

The Earl, obviously unimpressed with the gastronomical traditions of the first inhabitants of our land, never took leave of his ethnocentric views. He never saw the ingenuity of this food preparation method. The lean dried meat pounded with stone hammers to a soft mass. Berries were added and melted fat poured over the mixture, to make it more palatable. He never understood that dried meat weighing six times less than fresh meat was easier to carry, sewn into leather bags that were walked upon before the contents became hard from cooling, until they were six or seven inches thick. A single sack or ‘piece’ weighed close to 90 pounds. It was ‘pieces’ such as these - traded at forts and trading posts - that the Earl must have unhappily feasted upon while voicing his disgust. Pity!

Our success as ecotourist operators depends on our ability to make our guests forget where they come from for a few seconds, a few minutes or a few hours if we are lucky. There are a number of ways to do this, but there is a common thread. We need to nurture a genuine relationship between our guests and the experience they are subjected to.

A hike into the grasslands need not be gruelling excursion of an hour and a half. It can as easily be a five or ten minute walk to a patch of undisturbed prairie, at the end of which we all sit and explore the richness within our reach: the delicate elegance of the "comb" of the blue grama grass that will take an eyelash-like appearance once it has shed its seeds; the hygroscopic ability of the needle and thread grass to absorb moisture from the air; the overwhelming colonizing qualities of the crested-wheatgrass and its implications for the ecological integrity of the native prairie. How easily an hour goes by when we stop to really look with scrutiny…and forget everything else.

To interpret, to help that relationship establish itself between our guests and the environment - whatever it is ( a museum, a path, a farm) - we must find within ourselves the essence of what motivates us to lead people to that particular destination. What is it that draws us there? Then, we have to do our homework. We have to dig for new information. That's the fun part. The ecotourism industry should attract only curious people… shouldn't it? Let us equip ourselves and grow. Let us challenge our guests and take them beyond their own expectations.

Perhaps you already do this unconsciously. Some of you may already incorporate into your experiences resource people who can lead guests into journeys of discovery. We have, at least, the good fortune of having a number of passionate and eager walking and talking knowledge banks within our midst.

At a recent powwow, I brought a number of visitors who for the first time found themselves alone as non-aboriginals. They were in awe and quite content to sit and listen to the songs and sounds, while watching the vivid colors and movements around them. They didn't ask questions. I took it upon myself to explain to them how I had gone to make a donation to the powwow committee and was offered a cordial handshake in return. I explained the meaning of the dances and songs. I bid them to get up to see for themselves that the drums and songs were not recorded. Before the advent of speaker systems, dancers would have performed around the drums. As we explored the grounds, I asked them if they wanted to try some rice and deer stew with bannock. They dipped their spoon and smiled with pleasure as they enjoyed the flavors of a meal that is savored with tastebuds that had shed their ethnocentrism.