People seek self-sufficient, low-impact lifestyles

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- On this hot summer morning in suburban Collegeville, the Fraser children bounce out of bed and race downstairs. They're not running for the TV -- they don't have one. Instead, 10-year-old twins Eliza and Carolina and their brother, Perry, 6, head for the barn, wher ...

Fairground doubles as school

LYNDEN, Wash. -- Microphone in hand, future teacher Brooke VanderVeen welcomed visitors to the Northwest Washington Fair and started educating right away. First was a history lesson, to mark the regional fair's 100th year. "We decided that today we'd introduce you to 10 people who represen ...

People in agriculture for Aug. 27, 2010

More farmers are tweeting to respond to activists

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) -- Far from his southeast Kansas fields of ripening corn and soybeans, Fredonia farmer Bob Timmons is learning that tweeting isn't just something done by birds. Call him a farmer on the Web learning the ropes -- 140 characters at a time. In the past ye ...

Transitioning farm embraces beneficial bugs

The owners' plan at Riverbend Organic Farms to transition from conventional farming practices on their 500 acres of mostly blueberries to certified organic production has a few bugs in it, but not nearly enough. The farm, a few miles southeast of Jefferson, Ore., currently includes 212 acres of ...

People in agriculture for Aug. 20, 2010

Appointed * Debra Dunn has been named president of the Oregon Trucking Associations. She has been executive director of Automotive Service Association and Northwest Automotive Trades Association. She also owned and managed a trucking business in Eugene, Ore., from 1988 to 1995. Honored * Yo ...

Stan Christensen, a 'Legend in Conservation,' dies

Stan Christensen, a leading figure in Yamhill County, Ore., agriculture for nearly 60 years, has died. He was 84. Christensen was born in Yamhill County on March 28, 1926, to a large family of farmers. He died Aug. 9. He was the third generation of the Christensen family to farm in the cou ...

Ore. farmer still relies on horses to help harvest

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) -- If you ever wondered how much farming has changed since, say, the 1870s, just watch Marvin Brisk harvest a Baker County barley field. And listen. Instead of black smoke from a rumbling diesel-powered tractor there is the tawny dust of chaff and the rhythmic thu ...

2 Oregon granges close, tough recruiting new members

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Green and yellow, colors of love

Enterprise via Associated Press MIFFLINVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- The night Candy Duke surprised boyfriend Todd Nevel with a full-size John Deere tractor as a gift, he knew he wanted to marry her. The two said their vows recently standing next to the same machine and surrounded by seven more, wit ...

Antique tractors celebrated at Port Orchard show

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) -- It doesn't always start right away. But when Carl and Jean Neitzel's nearly 90-year-old Avery tractor finally cranks up, its insides put out a sound that "only its mother could love," Jean says. Most astounding, of course, is that a machine built ci ...

Juneau man inspired to grow organic community

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- The first thing you notice when you get to Rick Bellagh's place on Shelter Island is a large creepy weather-beaten stuffed Big Bird figure with a pipe in its beak. Next to it stands a sign that reads, "Welcome to Shelter Skelter Wilderness Farm," followed by ...

Trying to balance the hazards with the learning

I wouldn't call myself a thrill seeker who hunts for dangerous stunts to try. But somehow our family landed in the fifth most dangerous industry around. There're plenty of lists that look at labor statistics, accident rates and fatalities, but they usually run something like this on rating occu ...

Extreme Quiz Jam challenges fair exhibitors

PASO ROBLES, Calif. -- The animals had arrived. The displays and pens were set up. The Junior Livestock exhibitors at the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles were ready for a week of competition and hard work. But first, some fun was in order. Thanks to the San Luis Obispo-based agric ...

Balancing hazards with learning

I wouldn't call myself a thrill seeker who hunts for dangerous stunts to try. But somehow our family landed in the fifth most dangerous industry around. There're plenty of lists that look at labor statistics, accident rates and fatalities, but they usually run something like this on rating oc ...

People in agriculture for Aug. 13, 2010

Honored The National Association of Agriculture Educators has recognized Sue Poland of Cambridge, Idaho, as the western region Teacher Mentor of the Year for her work with new and upcoming agriculture education professionals in Idaho. Her award is for the 10 Western states. Obituary One ...

We pay more, enjoy it less as gas prices jump

In case you haven't noticed, with all the news about oil spills, gasoline prices have gone through the roof once again. I may be a skeptic, but I don't believe an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- as bad as that is -- or a leaky pipe in Michigan spilling 840,000 gallons of crude oil in the wate ...

School educates children of migrant workers

POLSON, Mont. (AP) -- On Monday, Tim Berg thought he might be running a school that would incur a near-100 percent dropout rate by the next day. But on Tuesday, 118 students showed up. Weekend thundershowers that threatened to wreak havoc with this year's Flathead Lake cherry crop did sign ...

Montana emu ranch makes beauty, health products

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- Tucked against a hill west of Kalispell is a picturesque farm dotted with red barns. Sheep once kept this property afloat, but the fuzzy animals have long been replaced by feathery emus. These prehistoric-looking creatures stalk across their pens on three-toed feet whe ...

Wyoming crop duster enjoys diving in the sky

POWELL, Wyo. (AP) -- Sounding like a diving World War II Grumman Hellcat determined to strafe an enemy position, the crop duster dives from the sky. In his Grumman Ag-Cat, Orville Moore is pursuing enemies, but those adversaries are invasive weeds and insects invading cultivated fields. M ...

Celebrate summer with cherries

There's a reason cherries have entered the English vernacular to mean the best of the best. The plump, juicy fruit is popping with sweet flavor. It's nature's candy. But eating them is not a guilty pleasure -- cherries have a valued place in our diet. They're loaded with nutrition, easy to ...

GPS doesn't always help in modern treasure hunts

I am a pathfinder when it comes to traveling by landmark, but don't give me directions that require going north, or south, or east or west. Left at this corner or right at the intersection is fine, but none of this compass business. In fact, while serving in the Marines I was made a squad lea ...

Cowboy boots spur Western art form

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Joseph Traugott stretches out his Tony Lama boots and peers around a New Mexico Museum of Art gallery filled with plastic-wrapped boots, paintings and photographs propped against walls and the sounds of an old-time cowboy singer crooning "Have I Told You Lately that I Love You. ...

People in agriculture for Aug. 6, 2010

Appointed * The University of Idaho has appointed Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, to serve an interim appointment as dean of the College of Graduate Studies. She takes up the new post on Aug. 15. Her duties will include facilitating th ...

Survey: Seed signs baffle many urbanites

VAIL, Colo. -- Signs that proclaim the source of seed for the crops growing in fields lead urban Americans to think the farm is owned by a seed corporation, an Illinois Farm Bureau survey of Chicagoans has found. That impression may be damaging the image of family farming, said Mary Kay Thatc ...