The Rural Voice, 1980-02, Page 15Farm
wives
in
winter
Editor's Note: Back in October Rural
Voice carried a request for answers to the
question "What can farm wives do to make
their spare time productive in the long
winter months in this part of the country?"
Last issue we featured some women
doing various occupations and we want to
tell you about a few more. If you know of
women doing interesting things drop us a
line.
A responsible job.
Elizabeth Hendrick, R.R. 1, Dashwood is
responsible for trucking the beans and corn
on their 300 acre farm, so she is used to
driving large trucks.
Driving the school bus for 4 hours a day
is just an extension of the same thing.
Elizabeth buses students to the high
school in Exeter - she says it's "great as
long as the kids are on your side."
She has been driving the bus for nearly
three years now, but says the house does
suffer.
"You should see the house," she says,
"it looks more like a barn than a house."
But talking to Elizabeth, you realize that
she is a very active person and her time is
always filled.
Profitable and enjoyable
BY GISELLE IRELAND
Mary O'Malley of Teeswater has found
putting her spare time and energy into
horticulture both profitable and enjoyable.
This is the third season she is preparing for
the spring planting market in the Culross
Township area. A graduate of Niagara
College in Horticulture. she feels that the
two years she spent with the Sarnia Parks
and Recreation Commission gave her
valuable experience.
The cost for this project is not ex-
horbitant. A S500 outlay for the green-
house would be ample plus a small oil
burner for cold days. Even on the coldest
day, if it is sunny, no extra heat is needed.
Mary suggests you put your project
preferably on a south-east location with
Working for
the farm community
BY SHEILA GUNBY
Gerry says don't jump in with both feet --
but at least get your toe wet.
Gerry Fortune is the first vice-president
of the Huron Federation of Agriculture and
a very active person for the farming
community.
Gerry says that she gets a lot of
satisfaction out of doing something useful.
But she quickly adds, "Belonging to a
lobbying group can be very frustrating as
well as the results are somewhat intangible
But every once in awhile you achieve
something and you can see it."
Gerry and her husband Doug have a
dairy operation in Turnberry township in
Huron County. She works at the barn as
well as maintaining a home and caring for
their two young daughters.
So when Gerry's doctor told her she had
an ulcer, he also told her to get a job or find
a hobby - something to keep her even
busier!
"Even though I'm so busy that some-
times it drives me crazy, I seem to be
better off, otherwise 1 just get bored," she
says.
Gerry is also on the membership
committee at the provincial level of OFA.
She says her federation work averages out
to about two days a week in winter with
committee meetings, membership,
executive or directors meetings and OFA
meetings in Toronto, but it tapers off in the
summer. Sometimes she wonders how she
fits all her commitments into her schedule
but she says that if you feel it's important,
then you make the time. "Working for the
farm community in this county," she says,
"is a team effort and the more people
involved, the better."
Oh, and by the way, -- she doesn't have
her ulcer any more.
protection from coid north winds. This size
greenhouse would supply the average
family with enough vegetable and bedding
plants for the season with some left over
for friends and neighbours.
Mary starts her seedlings in flats in a
mixture of peat moss and vermiculite and
transplants at three weeks into six-packs in
a mixture of peat moss, soil and verm-
iculite„ Plants are treated with' a fungicide
for dampening and once a week given
20-20-20 soluble fertilizer.
At this time of the year you will be
starting geraniums, begonias, celeus,
impatiens and Calla lily bulbs. They will be
ready for summer flowering. At the
beginning of March start your vegetables
and bedding plants of petunias, marigolds
and alyssum. Just think of the glorious
splashes of colour you can create in the
summer with these plants started now.
Like everything else, there will be
successes and failures but Mary finds
horticulture a fascinating past time.
Mary finds that petunias, geraniums and
marigolds sell bestlwhich tells most of us
that this field is wide open for advice on
flowering shrubs and perennials which
would afford us colour in the flower beds
and gardens from spring until fall. Most of
us lack the zone growing knowledge and
plant requirement knowledge necessary to
make these shrubs a success.
May has found that Lord and Burnham
in St. Catharines offer a good selection of
greenhouse designs for any amount you
wish to spend and recommends Ball
Superior in Mississauga for beginner
supplies in seeds and equipment. Mary is
happy to offer any help and suggestions
regarding landscaping or additions you
may wish to make to your perennial border,
having qualified in this area. A visit to
Mary's greenhouse in Teeswater may be
the beginning of a rewarding way to spend
spare time and energy.
THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1900 PO. 13