#egg picking

Survival on the Prairie Outback

Survival on the Prairie Outback

I am a farm girl, born and raised, still am, always will be. Memories are good, growing up on the farm, we never had much, didn’t expect much. I learned about work; never loved it, still don’t, but never questioned it. From cleaning chicken coops, pigpens and rotten grain out of wooden bin corners to the every day egg-picking task. Lest I forget the old milk cow, or the olden days version of “mad cow” but no matter how many times the old hen jumped on my head or how many times the milk cow chased me up the fence, we learned to never give up! That lesson has served me well. ‘Farm livin’ is the place to be”..to learn all about the birds and the bees. It is no joking matter when farming parents joke about getting educated in the barnyard!

In all seriousness, I recall the struggles for survival back then, and I see them now. The struggles are different, the stressors are more mental and debt related, but it has always been about perseverance and survival! Farmers are one die-hard breed!

For the Centennial year, October has been chosen as Ag and Food month so I thought it was fitting to focus on farming. It is “..a chance to reflect with optimism, hope and pride on the tremendous impact this multi-faceted industry has had in the lives of everyone in this province over the last 100 years.”(as quoted by Ag minister Wartman) Optimism? Not so sure, but there must be hope and pride or there would be no farms and farmers left! What is it that keeps these guys going, and the question is, for how long? And who will stop the death of the family farm?

I was thinking about the uniqueness of each farm in the area. Every family runs their operation to their own specks and individuality. That is the freedom that they have all grown to love. There is no boss; everyone has their job, does their part, for the good of the farm. There is no human resource department, no pension plan, no health benefits, UI, Workers Comp, nor holiday pay. Retirement monies are being dwindled away, slowing the process down of passing the farm to the next generation. After all, that is what “farming” is; a passing on of a set of skills from one generation to another. We are the food producers; it is what we do and who we are.

It has been ‘next year country’ for the past 100 years or more. If they survived the dirty thirties, this should be no sweat right? That was a farm crisis, there was no rain, but the rain came, the land would be restored. Now the land is seeded, weeded, and depleted in an effort to produce more to survive. We are supposed to be the “Bread Basket” of the world, wheat was ‘king’ at one time, and Saskatchewan was the place to be!

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