Agriculture in a Hutterite Classroom

During the last school year we, here at Brennan School were part of a program called, Agriculture in the Classroom. It's an excellent opportunity for students to learn about the various aspects of farming. Even though we live on a farm, and see things first hand, almost on a daily basis, our students found it interesting to visit other farms and learn from them. Some of our older students got to plant and take care of plants in our greenhouse.

My sister Elma Maendel, the principal at our school, wrote an article about our experiences with this amazing program, which was recently published in the Manitoba Cooperator. You can read it here.

Hutterites and/or their Writings Featured in Local Newspapers

Click on this link: A New Venture to read an interesting article featuring a friend of mine, Paul Wipf, the farm manager at Viking Colony in Alberta, Canada. The article appeared in the Country Guide, "Canada’s oldest farm publication, with roots back to 1886, Country Guide is about the business of farming, providing farmers with strategic business thinking."

The Manitoba Co-operator is a Manitoba based farm paper, "with roots going back to 1925, the Co-operator is an institution in Manitoba, received by most farmers in the province. Each weekly issue contains production, marketing and policy news selected for relevance to crops and livestock producers in Manitoba. The Co-operator also has Manitoba’s largest and most popular farm classified section. The Co-operator’s website www.manitobacooperator.ca provides daily agriculture news, event listings and a daily newsletter.
Manitoba Co-operator is published by Farm Business Communications with offices in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario."

From time-to-time the Manitoba Co-operator kindly publishes pieces written by Hutterites. Over the years, I've had a number of articles featured within their pages. I'm happy to say, the most recent one is in this April 16 edition: Earth Day Should Be Celebrated Every Day. Part of this article is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Hutterite Diaries, which will be available in book stores in about a month from today! You may also be able to read it on their online edition soon. I can't see it there yet...when looking for it just click on the above Manitoba Cooperator link, then go to the Crossroads section.

My sincere thanks to John Morriss, Editorial Director for taking an interest in Hutterite writings and publishing them in this long-standing and popular farm paper!

Oh Yes, I Live on a Farm

Hutterite colonies are big farms - most raise cows, pigs, turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens. I don't think I've ever posted anything on farm animal, except for dogs. It's safe to say that being in school all day, I almost forget that I live on a farm. (Yeah, more like a zoo around here some days.) Besides, I hardly ever go visit the animals. Having lived here all my life, well, it's just not on my list of things to do anymore.

However, today some of that changed - there was excitement in the air, and it was contagious. One of my students was happy to tell me, "There are twin calves in the cow barn where my dad works." Of course we had to go see these 'cute babies'. On our walk to the barn, my students informed me about the cats living in the barn. I'm thinking, 'Sorry kiddos, can't get too excited about those rub-against-your-leg-friends.' Cute on pictures and all...but no thanks, don't like the real life ones. No matter, the kids love them and could play with them all day. "But the dad cat is scared of us. He always runs away when we come visit." Hmmm, I'll be just fine with that cat.

So here then is a glimpse of our moo-moo, meow-meow life:

The Twins - a few days old

a closer look at the smaller of the two

And on that farm there was a cat...

The 'scared' father cat.

We can't leave without petting the new babies, with Mama Cat standing guard.

 

 

 

Bye-bye twins. We'll come back again.


I'm not sure I'll ever feature pig babies. (-: