Creams and ointments are an ideal way to deliver medication to skin conditions.

Guide Health: A little dab will do you

A little can go a long way when it comes to topical medications

Reading Time: 3 minutes The saying “a little dab will do you” really is true when it comes to applying creams and ointments to your skin. These creams are termed topical agents because they are applied directly to your skin where they act. At any one time, it is estimated that 75 per cent of Canadians are using a […] Read more

Breaking the silence of racism

Breaking the silence of racism

When we give sexist and racist comments and stereotypes a free pass on our farms and in our daily lives, we’re guilty of perpetuating them

Reading Time: 6 minutes Too often we let racist, sexist or homophobic comments slide because it’s awkward or uncomfortable to call them out. But as human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Here’s how Bronwynne Wilton, a Fergus, Ont. […] Read more


The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business

The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business

Guide Books Review: In an agriculture where the new mantra is “work smarter, not harder,” Shanks offers an approach that, with discipline, can make success more achievable

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business By Julia Shanks New Society Publishers / 288 pages / $24.95 Launching, growing, pivoting and stabilizing your farm business all share one essential ingredient: a solid financial road map. Understanding what makes you money (and conversely, what does not) helps you […] Read more

Guide Health: Coping with dry skin

Guide Health: Coping with dry skin

Good skin care habits and a moisturizer will help, but keep these tips in mind

Reading Time: 3 minutes Dry skin, or xeroderma as it is medically known, is estimated to affect 70 per cent of Canadians in the winter months. Probably, the real number is even higher, especially when winters are as cold and dry as this winter has been in so much of Canada. Xeroderma is rough scaly skin that is flaky […] Read more


Creating a better place to work

Creating a better place to work

Use new findings in psychology to create spaces where you and your family will thrive

Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s a basic human need to have a space where you feel comfortable, safe and secure. Having a place to rest, refresh and revitalize can help us cope with the extraordinary challenges of farming and the pandemic. While we can’t control everything in our environments, if we pay attention to what we can control we […] Read more

“Pass up the thrills, bells and whistles,” Koch advises. “When something has become complex, simplify it.”

The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less

Guide Books Review: The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less, by Richard Koch

Reading Time: 3 minutes The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less By Richard Koch Crown Publishing / 336 pages / $21 If it feels like you spend an inordinate amount of time working for an unequal amount of reward or output, you’re not crazy. It’s the 80/20 Principle at play. Also known as the Pareto Law, […] Read more


Nausea, vomiting, pallor and perspiration can accompany vertigo.

Guide Health: Vertigo — a moving experience of dizziness

Nearly 1.5 million Canadians have been diagnosed with vertigo

Reading Time: 3 minutes Balance depends upon co-ordination between the nervous system and the senses. It’s a complex interaction. Eyesight provides input about the surroundings. Skin, muscles and joints tell us about the body’s position and our orientation in space, and the inner ear’s vestibular system tells us about equilibrium, spatial position and rotation or linear movement. When the […] Read more

Don’t retire — ‘rewire’

Don’t retire — ‘rewire’

Retirement can be rich and rewarding. Or it can be deadly dull. The difference may be whether you connect with new resources and advisors

Reading Time: 7 minutes Some people can’t wait to retire. They have plans to replace the daily grind with more volunteering, more travel, more golf, more time with the grandkids, more time at the cottage, or whatever it may be that they don’t have the time to do now. But for others the thought of retirement is terrifying because […] Read more


Defibrillator for your brain

Defibrillator for your brain

Guide Books Review: Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

Reading Time: 3 minutes Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen Dan Heath Simon & Schuster / 320 pages / $30 Most of us feel that the way we make decisions is the only natural way to do it. There isn’t a better way. If there was a better way, we’d already be doing it. Or would […] Read more

See Jan Scott's One-pot Baked Beefaroni recipe below.

One-pot cooking makes meal prep a snap

Award-winning cookbook author offers tips on cooking from scratch

Reading Time: 5 minutes Getting a healthy home-cooked dinner on the table night after night can be a challenge for busy farm families. Thanks to an award-winning cookbook from Stratford, Ontario’s Jan Scott, this task just got a little easier. Scott’s Oven to Table cookbook features more than a hundred “mess-free, stress-free” delicious one-pot recipes that can be made […] Read more