Sure Signs of Spring in Saskatchewan

The sight of a robin is always my first sign of Spring. 

Except this year.

On April 5th, my young granddaughters and I were looking out my front window when a large, solid black butterfly flew by us, flittering away just under the roof overhang at the top of the window.

We couldn't believe our eyes. A butterfly in April in Regina? I've never seen that, and I've lived here for almost 50 years.

I looked online for information about butterflies that live in Saskatchewan in winter and the closest butterfly I could find that resembles the large all-black butterfly we saw would be a Mourning Cloak. Although their black wings turn brown when they are older, Mourning Cloaks are one of only three varieties of butterflies that hibernate in Saskatchewan in winter and come out early in springtime. 

A Saskatoon Zoo Society page states: "Mourning Cloaks, anglewings, and tortoiseshells are the only Saskatchewan butterflies that hibernate as adults. (Other butterflies and moths usually survive the winter in the egg stage, although some will overwinter in the caterpillar or pupae/ chrysalis stages). The amazing part is they freeze completely solid in the winter and come back to life when they thaw out."

Another interesting paragraph about the Mourning Cloak butterfly is from a Canadian Entomology Cool Insects blog: "How long do butterflies live? For most, the answer is “not very long,” after what may have been many months as an egg, caterpillar, and chrysalis. For the Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), however, life as a butterfly can stretch over an entire year. Mourning Cloaks spend the winter in hibernation, under bark for example, and they are often the “first butterfly of spring,” along with their close relatives, the tortoiseshells and commas. Since Mourning Cloaks are widespread in North America and Eurasia, they are probably the most oft-encountered spring butterflies in the north temperate world. After feeding on various trees (elm, willow, and poplar are all acceptable fare) as caterpillars, Mourning Cloak butterflies emerge from their pupae in mid to late summer. They sometimes live as long as twelve months as adults. In springtime, they typically emerge from hibernation before the first flowers are in bloom, and they feed on everything from sap flows to dung to mud, in order to obtain the nutrients necessary for such a long life."

So there you go.  

I've never looked into the wintering habits of insects in Saskatchewan before, choosing to just appreciate and accept them with gratitude when they show up. The early butterfly in my yard this year does not quite match the photos of any of the creatures on this Butterfly Identification page, and entomologists are welcome to correct me, but I'm guessing my new friend is a young black Mourning Cloak.

Usually, a ladybug is the first insect I see outdoors in springtime, and we saw at least a dozen of those in my yard on the weekend too. But that large black butterfly this year sure showed up its friendly flying neighbours. It even flew in front of me today as I drove into my back alley. How wonderful!

A black butterfly is said to be a sign of faith, hope, and new life, and a symbol of positive change.

Welcome, Springtime! And a special welcome back to our flying friends!

This robin was in my front yard yesterday.

My granddaughter gently holding a ladybug

A butterfly in my backyard in August 2023.

 

Prairie Veterinarian Tells Entertaining Stories of his Work with Animals and Their Humans

In April 2021, I received an email from Dr. Gary Hoium, a veterinarian in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Gary had begun writing amusing, intriguing, and insightful stories about his decades of experiences as a mixed-animal veterinarian. He asked me about the possibility of publishing those stories.

We met a couple months later in my backyard in Regina. 

 

We immediately felt a connection. Aside from the fact that Prairie people are generally friendly folks who are community oriented and have great stories, people from the Weyburn area have occupied a special spot in my heart for decades.

The first book I ever wrote was Just a Bunch of Farmers: The Story of Weyburn Inland Terminal, 1976-2001. That book project was so much fun and the people I interviewed for that book so terrific that it encouraged me to seek out more Prairie stories that should be made into book form. Since then, I have jokingly blamed the Weyburn Inland Terminal folks for the more than 70 books I've since published (written by myself and other Prairie authors) which cover my work and living spaces.😄 

So, yes, Weyburn people and their stories will always be of particular interest to me.

But back to that day last June...

While in my backyard, Dr. Gary Hoium and I discussed his numerous stories and the ways we visualized his book taking shape. We went to work immediately and planned to have a book in our hands by that fall for pre-Christmas gift buying. The timeline was tight, but we did it.

With the help of a co-editor (Gary's niece Courtney Hinz), a cover designer, and several publisher colleagues and consultants, we released Don't They Kick When You Do That? Stories of a Prairie Veterinarian in October 2021. The book has already been so popular that we are considering reprinting this fall.

What's in the book and why is it so wonderful? Let's hear from the author himself.

This is what Dr. Gary Hoium wrote for a "Read My Book" piece in the Regina Leader-Post's QC Magazine:

“How long did it take you to write this book?” a young lady asked at a recent book signing.

Looking up, I smiled. “About 40 years,” I replied.

She laughed.

Ride along and accompany me on my journey as a mixed-animal, rural Saskatchewan veterinarian.

My book has been called “an enlightening, humorous, intriguing, educational compilation of true adventures, experiences, mishaps and rousing successes that are sure to captivate and entertain.”

If you love animals… this book is for you. If you ever owned a pet or owned, managed or cared for livestock of any kind… this book is for you. If you ever had any thoughts or wonderment as to what a life (possibly even your own life) might have been like as a rural Prairie veterinarian… this book is for you. Your farmer/rancher dad or husband doesn’t read books? Based on many testimonials, he will read this one, laugh a lot, and love it!

As veterinarians, we are tasked with serving all the medical, surgical and welfare needs of a very diverse animal kingdom. Our motto: “If you do no good… do no harm.”

Learn how one evening, a clump of four grey fox squirrels, entangled and stuck tightly together by their tails, taught me the importance of compassion. The story went viral across our nation in days.

Extracting porcupine quills from a German shepherd resulted in my painted portrait, me in my green scrub suit, being distributed in a book worldwide.

You can live in my boots through the most fearful, dangerous, and stressful noon hour of my career when an 1800-pound, wild-eyed, aggressive bull escaped my inner-city clinic and landed in a resident’s backyard. Flanked by an elementary school on one side and a comprehensive high school on another, students (targets) aplenty, this had the very real potential to turn out REAL BAD!

You will be introduced to a couple of compelling real-life characters. Terrible Terry … or was he? As an experienced “jailbird” fighting personal demons, he frequented our clinic and befriended me, and ultimately, me him despite many crazy encounters.

Cousin Jimmy will leave you laughing and craving more.

From cattle to hogs, cats to dogs, the creatures and the men and women who love them have wormed their way into my heart and my stories.

And do they kick when I do that? The surprising answer is .....?

Don’t They Kick When You Do That by Dr. Gary Hoium is available from www.driverworks.ca, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Chapters/ Indigo/ Coles, Handmade Saskatchewan gift shops, SaskBooks, Amazon, and other select stores.

Fun On The Farm 3 book the last in the series

 A couple years ago, I was selling my DriverWorks Ink-published books at a craft show in Swift Current when a man walked by and yelled at me: “When are you doing another Fun On The Farm book? I really enjoy those!”

Fast forward almost three years, in the midst of a global pandemic, and here it is. Bring on the laughter!

Fun On The Farm 3: True Tales of Farm Life adds another 32 short stories and six poems to those of the first two volumes of the series, with more amusing antics, accidents, surprises, and laughs about growing up, living, or working on Western Canadian farms. Twenty writers, including me, have contributed to this volume.

Author /editor/ publisher Deana J. Driver with Fun On The Farm 3

The stories include how I learned to drive a car in a grain field in Alberta at age 12, played in a culvert on our farm as a kid, and watched high school friends of my husband go a little goofy during our rural wedding a few decades ago. My sister Leanne Pacholok and brother Alan Pacholok talk about their adventures too, including Leanne’s Poohsticks games through that same culvert, and Alan’s numerous antics and accidents that ended with minimal damage to him, but not to our mom’s prized plate from Poland.

Shellbrook author Laurie Lynn Muirhead shares stories of how her brother showed off his “flying” skills and how she nurtured a runt piglet to its full size. Saskatoon writer Marilyn Frey contributed five stories to Fun On The Farm 3, telling of riding a pig, Sunday ball games, crop circles, and more. Brad Hauber of Lloydminster recalls picking rocks, winter sports, and the benefits of having younger brothers. The contributing writers include three authors whose work I’ve published: Mary Harelkin Bishop has stories of garden gumbo and a friend’s rocky awakening, Janice Howden explains her dad’s “crash” nickname, and Bryce Burnett’s poetry gives glimpses of farm life. Other contributors are Cheryl Crashley, Elias Entz, Jean Fahlman, Keith Foster, Becky Gamble, Ron Krenn, Theodore Mikolayenko, Karen Ollinger and Eldon McDougald, Rev. Dr. Joyce Sasse, and Jean Tiefenbach.

This is the final book in the Fun On The Farm series celebrating the sense of humour that Western Canadian farmers often utilize to get through the hard times and cherish the good times.

Fun on the Farm 3 books are available at www.driverworks.ca, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Indigo, Chapters, Coles, Handmade Saskatchewan gift shops in Regina and Saskatoon, SaskBooks, Amazon, and other select stores.

Signed copies of Fun On The Farm, Fun On The Farm Too, and Fun On The Farm 3 are available at a Book Bundle sale price from www.driverworks.ca/shop.html

The Good F-words

From my latest e-newsletter:

You know, there are some days – any day during a global pandemic, for example – when you just feel like muttering an “F-word” or two. Believe me, I’ve done it. And will likely do so again. And again.

But just for a change of pace, let me direct your attention to some “good F-words” –
Fun
Farm
Flight
Firefighting

Yes, these are the topics of new books I plan to publish in 2021. Okay, so the Fun and Farm words go together for one book and, yes, Flower, Feather, Fruit, Frosting, and French Fries are also good F-words, but you get my point.

Now let’s get back to today’s topic, shall we?

As mentioned in a previous e-newsletter, I wondered if any of you might have some interesting stories to share for successive volumes in the Fun On The Farm humour series and the Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation series of books previously published by my company, DriverWorks Ink. And I also inquired whether there is interest in a new book about the adventures of Volunteer Firefighters in Canada.

I’ve received enough positive feedback – and thank you to those who responded – to forge ahead and ask for submissions to these anthologies. Yep, I'm thinking positively and ignoring the huge constraints this global pandemic has placed on the business of creating and selling books. So please send me your short stories of Fun on the Farm, Flight, and Volunteer Firefighting as per the following guidelines.

Please write your story or invite someone you know to share their story/stories.

Fun On The Farm, Vol. 3: DriverWorks Ink is pleased to invite you to share more of your true short stories (or poems) about funny things that have happened on Prairie farms for Volume 3 of the Fun On the Farm series. Tell us about events, interactions, people, or pranks that have happened to you or someone you know related to life on a Prairie farm. We want to make readers giggle, shake their heads in wonder, or downright belly-laugh when reading this book, just as they did with Volumes 1 and 2. Note that I've said "Prairie" farms since most of the stories in the first two volumes happened on the Prairies, but I will entertain stories that occurred on other farms in other Canadian provinces and territories.

Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation, Vol. 3: If you or someone you know has a great story of Canadian aviation to contribute to the next volume of Flight, please send your submission by email or mail. Submissions must be true short stories (no poems please) about events that occurred to Canadian pilots or other aviation personnel. We want true stories of danger, heroism, helping, joy, adventure, silliness, misfortune, achievement, etc.

Fighting Fires Volunteer-style: Many smaller communities across Canada have a group of volunteers who are called on to help their community when a fire breaks out. Share your true stories of adventure, assistance, humour, struggle, success, and more. Confidentiality may be a concern in sharing these stories, but I will work with you - if your story is chosen for publication - to find a way to tell the story without divulging those identifying details.

Submission guidelines for all three books:

• They must be true stories.
• Stories should be 750 to 2,500 words.
• Please provide details including your name, address, phone number, and email address, as well as the names, dates, location, and other details of the people and places in your story. Be sure to get permission to share the stories of others.
• All submissions will be accepted, but not all will be published.
• Photos may be submitted upon acceptance of your story.
• Those whose stories are published will receive two complimentary copies for each story published in that volume of the book and can purchase more copies at a 40% discount to sell at venues not already supplied by DriverWorks Ink.

Please send your submission ideas before Dec. 31, 2020 to me at DriverWorks Ink. You don’t have to have your entire story or stories written, but I do need to know what will be coming in so I can plan for the new year.

Please contact me if you have a story to share but you do not wish to write it yourself. I will be happy to consider writing the story to share it in that way.

Thank you in advance. Happy "F-ing" writing!

Small World - Reconnecting With Folks This Summer

Here's an "It's A Small World" story from last week.

When I walked into a seniors' home in Morinville, Alberta last Thursday, where I was going to be speaking about our books, a man was standing inside the front doors. He was waiting for whoever was coming to pick him up to take him to a day program outside the facility. He opened the door for me and then for Al when Al brought in our cart of books. Since we were just standing there, I decided to make conversation. I asked the fellow if they'd had much rain there.

"No, not much," he said. "Just last night."

I told him that I was glad it had rained. "We're heading to a family reunion in Athabasca, just north of here. A few weeks ago, my brother said they were spraying for grasshoppers."

The man kind of smiled, then pointed his index finger at me and said, "I KNOW who you are."

I stopped and took another look at him and my jaw dropped. "YOU'RE ________  ________," I yelled, saying his name.

He smiled.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

I had been the recipient of that pointed finger a few times when we were kids, and I had now recognized the man from that gesture I had seen many times as a kid. His family lives about a mile from our farm and we went on the same school bus every day! My brother has visited and worked with this friend of ours for years, but he'd lost track of where our friend had moved in retirement.

So now we know. 

I grabbed our friend and asked Al to take a photo of the two of us. 

How cool is that?

At a Thursday afternoon speaking event in my hometown, I reconnected with at least five seniors who played a role in my childhood as well. Some had been friends with my parents and some were neighbours. (When I was growing up on the farm, anyone who lived within a 50-mile radius was considered a neighbour.) One of the seniors was a former high school Industrial Arts teacher, whom I did not take classes from but whom I had always considered to be a respected teacher. Later that evening, I visited with three of my cousins and also reconnected with a friend from high school whom I had not seen for more than 40 years! I love how life throws such fascinating, fun curves at you every now and then.

We spent the rest of the weekend reconnecting with relatives on my father's side of our family. We visited, ate great food, played cards and other games, and genuinely had a great time.

Then Al and I, my three sisters and one brother, with most of our family members, spent Sunday afternoon at the lake near my brother's farm. It was a beautiful day weather-wise  - hot and sunny with a slight breeze.

It was the perfect ending for a great weekend of visiting, reminding me of where I come from and who I am - a farm kid from Alberta who loves the Prairies and its people.

Send Us Your "Fun On The Farm" Stories

Your farmer brother has an unusual way of feeding the cattle and it makes you laugh every time you see it.

Your farmer cousin follows a specific, curious ritual when she drives the grain truck or takes lunch to the men in the field, and it cracks you up.

You yourself have had more than your share of funny mishaps and adventures on the farm where you grew up, and you're dying to tell someone about them! Well, this is your chance.

With the successful launch of our Cream Money book and the talk in the community that this book has already inspired among Prairie people who have heard about it, DriverWorks Ink is pleased to invite you to share more of your short stories (or poems) for the Fun ON the Farm non-fiction book we plan to publish in Spring 2016.

Fun ON the Farm is the working title for our planned book about funny things that have happened on Canadian farms. We invite you to tell us about TRUE events, interactions, people, or pranks that have happened to you or someone you know related to life on a farm in Canada. We want names, dates, and all the funny details.

We want to make readers giggle, shake their heads in wonder, or downright belly-laugh when reading this book.

Did you get the tractor stuck in a muddy field and spend an hour weighing the options of walking home to get help versus staying with the tractor to postpone the inevitable reprimand? Did you fall into a sewage-filled slough to retrieve your glasses while playing a game of tag with a younger sibling? (Both of these happened to me, by the way.)

Please write your own Fun ON the Farm story or invite someone you know to share their story with us. Stories should be from 500 words to 1,500 words. Photos may be submitted upon acceptance of your story. Please provide us with your name, address, phone number, and email address, as well as the names, dates, location and other details of the people and places in your story.

It would be best to ask the permission of the people you are naming in your story before you send us the story, but it is most important that the story be true and humorous - and not nasty or libellous. You can get around using real names by using phrases such as "a woman I'll call Betty" or "a neighbour of mine." I'll help you with that process once we accept your story for publication in our book.

Please send your submissions before May 27, 2016, by email to: ddriver@sasktel.net or by mail to: DriverWorks Ink, 110 McCarthy Blvd. N., Regina, SK S4R 6A4.

Please phone DriverWorks Ink at 306-545-5293 if you have a story to share but you do not wish to write it yourself. I will be happy to do the writing and help you share your story in that way.

Please note that all submissions will be accepted but not all submissions will be published. Those whose stories are published will receive two complimentary copies of the book and will be able to purchase more copies at a 40% discount.

We may decide to make a donation from the book proceeds to a worthwhile charity, but we have not yet discussed that concept for this project.

The family farm where I toiled as a child (Woe is me!) in Alberta.

Thank you in advance for your interest in this book. We look forward to receiving your stories. 

Have fun with it! 

Cream Money book launch among the best for DriverWorks Ink

We recently launched our newest non-fiction book, Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People - and it was the most fun book launch ever. At least that's what the people in attendance said, and who are we to argue with them? It definitely was a great time!

Thirteen of the 30 people who contributed stories to this fascinating book were at our launch. Some of them drove almost three hours to be there! It was the first time I had met a number of these folks in person - I'd only talked to them by phone or email when editing the stories they submitted - so I was thrilled to shake their hands and thank them in person for contributing to our book. 

The launch began with a happy, casual atmosphere that continued throughout the afternoon. But first I'll bring you up to speed on what the book is about and why we published it.

Cream money was an important source of income for farm families on Canada's Prairies in days gone by. Farm women in particular - including my mother - milked the cows, separated the cream from the milk, then sold that cream and/or milk to neighbours, friends, and townspeople to earn a little extra cash. The money earned was used to purchase groceries, fabric, farm supplies, and other items that could not be produced on the farm. 

DriverWorks Ink, our publishing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, produced this book to record some of this Prairie history and pay homage to this long-ago way of life. We're also making a donation to the Lung Association of Saskatchewan from some of the book's proceeds, by the way. I thought I'd add that detail before I forgot.

In the book's introduction, I wrote that my mother sold cream in pint and quart jars to families in town and in cream cans to the local creamery about once a week from the 1950s to the 1970s. With this money, she paid bills and purchased sugar, salt, fresh fruit, canning supplies and other grocery items that could not be grown or made on our farm. She bought fabric and sewing notions and, if we children happened to make a rare trip into town that week, we were sometimes allowed to spend 10 cents in any way we wished. As we grew older and farm finances allowed, we were sometimes each given a shiny quarter, which led to lengthy deliberations about whether we should spend it on bubble gum or chewy Mojo treats. Or should we spend our entire allowance on one bag of potato chips or one chocolate bar? Often we would make deals with each other and share our purchases after we returned to the farm with our bounty. (From Cream Money, "Introduction - My Family's Story" by Deana J. Driver)

The Cream Money book contains 29 short stories and two poems written by a variety of Prairie folks who talk about events on their farms during the 1920s right up to the mid-1980s. There are stories of hard work, fun, and adventure that honour family and community. You'll read humorous tales of children falling into full milk pails or mice falling into cream cans, and explanations of cream money well spent or other adventures during those years on the farm.

While I was compiling and editing the stories for the book, those who contributed their family's stories often expressed their gratefulness that these pieces of family history will be preserved through the book's publication. It has been a central piece to the work I do as a non-fiction writer and Prairie books publisher, so it was nice to hear that they understood the reasons that my husband Al and I published the book. Our contributors brought this grateful attitude and their excitement to our book launch and we were off to a great start when we saw two of the contributors at the launch venue, raring to go, as we were arriving to get set up!

We were fairly busy during the launch so we didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few to give you a flavour of that great afternoon:

We set our Cream Money cake and a few lemon tarts on a table in between two old, empty cream cans. Just looking at those cream cans brought back a lot of memories and began some storytelling for folks.

I welcomed everyone and shared a bit of my family's story and the reasons we published this book. Some of what I said was similar to what you'll hear in this CTV Regina interview I did leading up to the launch.

Eleanor Sinclair of Fort Qu'Appelle, SK, (author of Our Lamps Were Heavy) spoke about the dairy cooperative's strike in the 1970s, which led to their farm having to get rid of vast quantities of milk and cream in any way possible while the strike was on.

Bryce Burnett, a rancher and cowboy poet from Swift Current, SK (who published his award-winning book Homegrown and other poems with DriverWorks Ink), shared his poem "Cream Cans," outlining the many uses these cans have had throughout their long lives. (Later, one of our other contributors told us that he had heard Bryce speak before but was excited to meet him at our launch. We were happy this event enabled the two of them to have a visit.)

Next, Dexter van Dyke of Regina, SK, shared his story of being involved in the milking process and benefiting from cream sales proceeds when he was a child.

Above are some of the people at our Regina launch. Janice Howden, a contributor from Saskatoon, spoke about the book on Saskatoon's Global TV. Here's that interview for you to enjoy.

Among the connections that were made between the people at the launch were some priceless moments that occurred between these two contributors. Roy Tollefson of Moose Jaw, SK, born in 1926, met Clara Puddell of Moose Jaw, born in 1924, at our launch. Their daughters work together in Swift Current, but these two had not met before. They quickly discovered that Clara knew one of Roy's siblings. They enjoyed talking about mutual acquaintances and much more. Amazing.

When the speeches and readings were finished, we asked all the contributors who were present to please get together for a group photo. As family and friends stood in front of us and snapped photo after photo with their cellphone cameras, we proudly held our books and grinned like the happy authors we are!

Back row l to r: Dexter van Dyke, Truus de Gooijer, Irene Bingham, Jerry Holfeld, Glenn Swallow, Maurice Giroux, Marlene Hunter, Bryce Burnett.

Front l to r: Roy Tollefson, Deana Driver, Clara Puddell, Ruth Wildeman.

(The cream cans on the book's cover came from Allan and Elisa Jackson and the book's cover design is by Erika Folnovic of Regina, SK. We also thank Creative Saskatchewan for assistance in producing the book.)

At one point in the afternoon, my husband and publishing partner, Al Driver, asked 89-year-old Roy Tollefson, "What does it feel like to be a published author?"

Roy replied, "I never thought that would happen. I helped with a community history book and I wrote a little piece for that but that doesn't count. This is really special."

We couldn't agree more.

Thank you to Roy and all the other contributors to our Cream Money book.  We hope all of you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing our stories and getting the book published.

Don't forget, you can purchase a signed copy from us here.

Happy reading!

Homegrown and other poems book released

Ta da! Here's the latest book published by DriverWorks Ink!

Homegrown and other poems is written by Bryce Burnett (below), a rancher and well-known cowboy poet from Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

In Bryce's book, you'll read heartfelt poems about his family and community.

Bryce tells stories of the pioneers who settled in his region of the Prairies decades ago.

He also shares his love for the land, and his respect for the animals that help sustain his ranch and rural way of life.

There are 44 photos in the book - many of them were taken by Bryce Burnett - to go along with his 63 poems. Here are two excerpts from the book:

The poem below, Rubber Boots, is one of the many humorous poems in Bryce's book.

Ah, yes. The Homegrown poem continues on page 61 and The Rubber Boots poem/story doesn't end on the one page either. You'll have to buy the book to find out what happens next.

See more excerpts here.

Buy the book here.