Humor Cultural, Ethnic & Regional
Fun On The Farm
True Tales of Farm Life
- Publisher
- DriverWorks Ink
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2016
- Category
- Cultural, Ethnic & Regional, Anecdotes
- Recommended Reading age
- 13 to 18
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781927570302
- Publish Date
- Sep 2016
- List Price
- $17.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Overturned outhouses, slough-stomping to bring in milk cows, an accidental fire, and problems in the field during harvest are among the hilarious adventures captured in this collection of short stories and poems by Prairie writers. The pranks, plights, and pleasures of living and working on the farm come to the forefront through this delightful book immortalizing some of the unplanned yet comical events experienced on family farms across Western Canada and beyond.
Contributing writers are: Jean F. Fahlman, Peter Foster, Elisa Jackson, Gerry (Kewley) Procychyn, Jean (Smart) Tiefenbach, Keith Foster, Clara Puddell, Eleanor Sinclair, Mary Harelkin Bishop, Laurie Lynn Muirhead, Leo Moline, Allan Jackson, Dexter van Dyke, Carrie nn Schemenauer, Theodore Mikolayenko, Melvin Moline, Bryce Burnett, Marlene Hunter, Janice Howden, Marion Mutala, Ed Olfert, and Peter W. Colbeck.
About the authors
Contributor Notes
About the authors:
The 32 short stories and 16 poems in this anthology are written by 22 Saskatchewan writers and one Alberta writer – all of whom experienced fun or funny adventures on Prairie farms.
Editor Deana J. Driver grew up on a farm at Athabasca, Alberta and has a deep appreciation for rural life. For more than 25 years, Deana (dee-na) worked as a freelance journalist, chronicling the stories of fascinating Prairie people through 2,300 articles published in Canadian magazines. She has written five non-fiction books and has worked with more than 30 Prairie authors since 2008, when she founded her book publishing company, DriverWorks Ink.
Excerpt: Fun On The Farm: True Tales of Farm Life (contributions by Deana Driver, Laurie Lynn Muirhead, Keith Foster, Peter Foster, Mary Harelkin Bishop, Jean Fahlman & Bryce Burnett)
If a Tree Falls on the Farm
By Deana J. Driver
When my dad, Alex Pacholok, was 20 years old, he and his brother John, then age 16, were using a team of horses and a length of chain to clear some trees from their family’s farmland, near Athabasca, Alberta. My dad wanted to go to a dance in a nearby community hall that night. “He had a hot date,” my Uncle John recalls. This was before he met my mother.
However, their father told them that they could not go to the dance until they had pulled down all the trees in that area.
Their process was simple, but time-consuming. John grabbed the chain and shimmied up to the halfway point of each poplar or birch tree. Tying the chain around the tree, John quickly climbed back down. Alex urged the horses forward to pull the chain so that the tree toppled.
Alex and John then unhooked the chain and John carried it up the next tree.
It was getting dark and Alex thought the process was going too slowly. He had an idea.
John should wrap the chain around the next tree and then stay up there while the horses pulled the tree down.
This would save time and they could get to the dance sooner.
As my Uncle John tells the story, the tree smashed to the ground – BAM! John fell with it and was knocked out cold. He was bleeding and lying there unconscious.
Alex thought he was dead. “John! John! Are you dead?”
When John came to, he was madder than you can imagine.
However, they soon went back to their original – slower – plan of attack on the trees. They finished the job in time to get to the dance that night and have some fun – with John’s fat lip the topic of much conversation.
- By Deana J. Driver, Regina, Saskatchewan
Editorial Reviews
"Even if they’ve never lived on a farm, I’m going to take the bull by the horns and suggest that most readers will get a chuckle (and perhaps a nostalgic lump in the throat) from Fun on the Farm … True Tales of Farm Life!, a light-hearted anthology concerning the trials, tribulations, and tricks (including many practical jokes) inherent in farm living."
"I knew Fun on the Farm: True Tales of Farm Life was a winner when the opening story, Harvest Bonding, written from the perspective of a newlywed city girl who has married a farmer, had me giggling from the start. As Jean Fahlman wryly points out, “When soulmates enter the harvest field, the marriage may be entering the twilight zone, but newly married farmers and wives don’t realize that at first”. Harvest Bonding is the first story in this collection of humorous, true accounts of farm life in Saskatchewan, compiled and edited by Regina-based Deana Driver."
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