Reading Time: 4 minutes It was a great vacation, but it was definitely over. Jeff Hanson, his wife Elaine and their two small kids had spent 10 days at a sunny resort with perfect weather and soft sand beaches. Connor and Jenny spent every day paddling around in the ocean and the pool, building sandcastles and making friends with […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Winter gets hard, and spring harder
The Hansons hear the bad news even before they get home. It’s time to get back to work
Hanson Acres: Trucking north, into the snow
It began to feel like it was the first time Dale had ever clocked such lonesome miles
Reading Time: 5 minutes By mid-morning on Monday, Dale was taking full advantage of his first day in the house alone. While his wife Donna was off in Fernie for a week of skiing with a group of her women friends, Dale was sprawled out in the living room, snacking on taco chips, watching an “Ice Road Truckers” marathon […] Read more
Hanson Acres: What’s up with that darn cat?
On the farm, small problems have their own way of getting big
Reading Time: 5 minutes Some days it was hard to tell if Buddy, the Hanson’s collie, had amazing herding instincts, or if he was just a jerk. When he spotted Buddy nipping at a cat in the middle of the yard, Dale’s first instinct was to give the dog a cuff. “Cut that out, Buddy! You’re six times the […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Time to check that forecast
Will Trina make the eight-hour drive to the farm?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Trina Hanson was taking a break in her Calgary office, checking the weather on her phone. “Great,” she thought. “Minus 30 and drifting snow for Friday.” It was only Tuesday, but Trina was already dreading the eight-hour drive home to the farm for the weekend. She’d been making the trip from Alberta to southeast Saskatchewan […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Time to ask the big question
‘Women are different,’ Ed said. ‘Watch out.’
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dale figured he was off the hook when he told Donna to go ahead and hire a cleaning lady. She’d been defensive. “Norma’s got someone coming out to her place,” she’d explained. “So we can split the travel costs if I hire her too.” Dale had never been against the idea, but Donna worked hard […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Another generation, another lesson
In which Jeff discovers an unexpected cost of “local” food
Reading Time: 5 minutes This cake is delicious,” Elaine told her mother-in-law. “It always tastes better when someone else makes it,” Donna said, licking the last smear of icing off her plastic fork. “Open your present, Mommy!” Connor nagged for the third time. “OK, OK,” Elaine said. She set her plastic plate on the hood of her SUV and […] Read more
Hanson Acres: ‘It’s my crop too’
Elaine wonders, why are they all headed toward my SUV?
Reading Time: 5 minutes We’re 65 per cent done harvest tonight,” Jeff said as he came in the door at 10 o’clock, a trail of durum kernels falling out of the leg of his blue jeans and onto the porch floor. Elaine’s eyes widened. Sixty-five? She was feeling 100 per cent done these days. “That’s great,” she said. Jeff […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Just get in that combine and drive
The big milestones don’t always come with brass bands
Reading Time: 4 minutes What are you waiting for?” Jeff asked his father. “Get in the combine and let’s get going. These peas aren’t going to harvest themselves.” Dale stood with Jeff, looking up at the cab. “You go ahead. You can make the first round this year.” Jeff looked surprised. “But you always combine the first round […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Who ordered the parade?
“You OK?” Jeff asked his dad. “You look kind of pale.”
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dale parked the sprayer beside the dugout at the west end of the Hansons’ yard to fill. Before he got started, he walked to the house to refill his water bottle and hunt for a snack. With Donna away camping — for the second time already this summer, Dale grumbled to himself — he wasn’t […] Read more
Hanson Acres: The case of the barking dog in the night-time
Dale gets an answer to his question, “What do I have to pay to get a decent sleep around here?”
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dale was out in the shop alone early on Tuesday morning, bent over the collie as it slept in its cushioned bed. Dale was barking at the dog. Loudly. “Ruff! Ruff!” Jeff came in to pick up a wrench to tighten a dripping hose fitting on the air seeder before he took it to the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
