Call of the Summer
Air Date: June 8, 2020
Episode Notes
#11 Call of the Summer
June 8, 2020
0:00 Interview with Cody Groat, PhD candidate, Laurier Brantford Alumni
10:00 Interview with Jenna Olender, Manager: Learning Skills and Development, and Karley Doucette, Writing and Learning Support Coordinator: Learning Skills and Development.
- Donald F. Morgenson Awards: Staff Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
- Learning Better at Laurier Brantford Blog
20:36 Interview with Jennifer Root, Associate Professor, Social Work.
Learn more about our host, Associate Professor Bruce Gillespie, program coordinator of Digital Media and Journalism.
Thank you to Melissa Weaver for One Market graphics and Nicole Morgan for campus promotion. Music by Scott Holmes.
Transcript
Bruce Gillespie 0:05
Welcome to One Market, keeping the Laurier Brantford community connected. I’m Bruce Gillespie. This is Episode 11. This week, we speak to a student who earned his BA in Brantford and is now back at Laurier working on his PhD. Then we talked to the folks who run Learning Skills and Development who just received the inaugural Staff Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. And finally, we speak to a Social Work professor about chickens. All that and more coming up on this episode of One Market.
Our first guest is Cody Groat. Cody earned his BA at Laurier Brantford, double majoring in History and Youth and Children’s Studies. After he earned a master’s degree in Birmingham, England, he came back to Laurier to complete a PhD in History. I started by asking him why he decided to return to Laurier.
Cody Groat 0:56
You know, I didn’t actually think about doing a PhD until near the end of my master’s degree. And I reached out to some people who have sort of been supporters along the way, including some Laurier Brantford professors such as Gary Warrick, who’s now my PhD committee and Tarah Brookfield has always been a supporter since my first semester at Laurier Brantford, and they sort of encouraged me to apply at Laurier. But, to be honest, by the time I applied, it was already past the application deadline. So, I tried my best to convince Laurier to accept my application. And I guess it worked out well, because here I am. And I have no regrets for choosing this program or for entering Laurier the way I did for my PhD.
Bruce Gillespie 1:44
Can you tell us a little bit about what your research topic is?
Cody Groat 1:47
Sure. So, I’m researching the relationship between the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and Indigenous Peoples since the founding of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1919. So, I’m taking very much a long approach, looking at their 100 year history until last year, and looking at how specifically in Ontario, Indigenous perspectives about history, culture, historic sites, heritage have been integrated into this national program. I’m looking at national historic sites of Canada, national historic events and national historic people, three distinct categories. But, I’m also looking importantly at the sites, people or events that were considered but not accepted as national historic sites, which happened a lot more often for Indigenous history and heritage.
That is fascinating, it wouldn’t have occurred to me that the records about what they had considered, but eventually said no to, were more accessible. So, that’s really interesting.
I’m really lucky because Parks Canada, who oversees the work of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board presently have been big supporters of my research in the way that they’re giving me access to all of the past minutes and records, but they’re also not providing any constraints. They are fully aware that I’m going to be as honest as I can possibly be. So, there are times that institutionally mistakes have been made, errors in judgment. I mean, there’s even instances, especially in the early years, of explicit racist attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples, but they’re aware of this, and they’re still willing to provide the records and allow me to do, sort of, this full exposé, if you will.
Bruce Gillespie 3:26
That’s fantastic. Because I think a lot of times, at least in terms of journalism research, you asked for records from the government, and they’re happy to send them to you eventually, but then most of them are redacted. So, it’s really not helpful at all.
Cody Groat 3:37
Yes, I can imagine, for sure.
Bruce Gillespie 3:39
How far along are you with your work?
Cody Groat 3:42
Um, I’m in the third, I’m ending the third year of the program now and it’s a four year program. I know with a lot of PhDs, including mine, the four year program length really does not reflect what’s actually happening. But, I’ve finished my first chapter, which sort of looks from the years 1919 to about 1935. I’ve gotten some great feedback from my supervisor, Dr. Susan Neylon, I’m going to be working on those edits throughout the summer to present my first chapter to my full committee. But, I’m now neck deep and research for chapter two, which takes me into the early 60s roughly. So, I would say I’m about halfway done.
Bruce Gillespie 4:26
That’s great to hear. So, does that mean that staying at home during the pandemic is actually useful for you? Because you’ve got, you just you need to stay home and write anyway and you’ve got documents to pour through? Or, are you wishing you could be on site someplace?
Cody Groat 4:39
I’ll be honest with you, professionally I have not seen much change as a result of the pandemic, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s also not necessarily a good thing.
Bruce Gillespie 4:48
Right.
Cody Groat 4:48
But, a lot of my records are online and digitalized. Which is sort of a very unique situation for a history PhD candidate. Historic Sites and Monuments Board and Parks Canada have uploaded a lot of their records. So, there was one archival collection I hoped to get to this summer that I’m not able to. But, besides that I’m pretty much continuing as I have been in regards to primary source research. I do like the occasional site visit, but a lot of the sites relating to my research in my immediate vicinity have been explored many times by me, and it’s probably a good thing that I’m not still at them bothering those who work there.
Bruce Gillespie 5:31
So, staying home is working in your favor, at least professionally.
Cody Groat 5:34
Yes. It’s no different for me. It’s working out quite well right now.
Bruce Gillespie 5:38
That’s good. I was wondering if you could tell us, I know you’ve got a side project on the go about Indigenous members in the Order of Canada. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
Cody Groat 5:48
Yes, I love side projects and sometimes I end up getting too involved inside projects to the detriment of the time associated with my PhD. But, I think I’m finding a good balance with this one. This new project started very surprisingly, even for me, and to be honest, I’ve never really discussed it yet. This is my first time discussing it. But, I went to NAISA this past summer, which is the international conference relating to Indigenous studies, and it was held in New Zealand, I guess, last summer. And I heard a panel by Jo-Ann Archibald, who is a great historian at the University of British Columbia, retired historian. And she is Indigenous and has the Order of Canada, and, sort of, spurred my interest because I was already interested in, sort of, honors systems before generically. But, you know, the motto of the Order of Canada is, “They desire a better country,” which is written on the medal that everyone receives when they receive the Order of Canada. And I realized that for Indigenous Peoples, that motto, “They desire a better country,” might mean something different to them. So, I thought it might be interesting to do an oral history on Indigenous recipients of the Order of Canada, and I’ve reached out to a few people so far, I’ve done four interviews in the past few weeks, I have a fifth lined up eventually. And besides that, we’ll see where it goes. There’s about 100 living recipients who are Indigenous and have the Order of Canada, and I’m hoping to get as many as I can.
Bruce Gillespie 7:24
That sounds like a really interesting project. And great to know that there’s so many Indigenous recipients out there, like, 100, that’s a whole lot of people you could be talking to.
Cody Groat 7:31
Yes, there’s a lot of big names that I’m really hoping to get eventually, I mean, Buffy Sainte-Marie would be great to speak with as the first Indigenous Oscar winner even, that’s an interesting aspect of her life besides the activism that she’s done. But, then there’s also been great people I’ve already had the chance to speak to. Maria Campbell, who’s Metis, who wrote the groundbreaking memoir “Halfbreed”.
Bruce Gillespie 7:55
And for folks who may not, who may be listening and don’t know. You are no stranger to talking to famous people because you actually published a book by the time you finished your undergraduate degree.
Cody Groat 8:05
Yeah, well at Laurier Brantford I started a project called Canadian stories. I started it in my first semester at Laurier Brantford. It also came about, sort of, innocently. And the project there was to just try to sit down and talk with people from Canada who had interesting stories, life stories, and just get to know them. I often did not go in with interview questions. I just emailed them and said, “I would love to just sit down, have a chat about whatever comes up.” And through that process in my second year, I think is when it really took off at Laurier Brantford, I had the chance to interview prime minister Paul Martin, prime minister Kim Campbell, Dan Aykroyd, in a lot of those experiences I always have a connection to Laurier Brantford. Dan Aykroyd, for example, I interviewed at Freshco just by Laurier Brantford, he called me while I was grocery shopping. Paul Martin, I don’t know if I could say this, but Paul Martin, that interview was when I was supposed to be having class with a certain Laurier Brantford professor who said I could skip class that day, go to the interview. And I took the bus to Montreal, and I was back the same day.
Bruce Gillespie 9:17
Wow.
Cody Groat 9:18
So, some great experiences with that as well. But, yes, it’s the Indigenous sequel, I would say, in some ways to Canadian stories. But, it’s great because I’m Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River just by Brantford, and, you know, there wasn’t many Indigenous people in Canadian Stories. And by many I mean, there was none. There was me involved in all the chapters, but I never sat down with any Indigenous figures. And that’s something I regret in many ways. This is sort of an interesting experience to try once again.
Bruce Gillespie 9:53
I love that it sounds like the perfect kind of companion piece.
Cody Groat 9:56
Yes, exactly.
Bruce Gillespie 9:58
Cody, it’s been great to catch up with you. Thanks so much. for joining us today.
Cody Groat 10:01
Yes, thank you.
Bruce Gillespie 10:04
Up next, we have two guests, Jenna Olender and Karly Doucette from Learning Skills and Development. Jenna and Karly are the winners of the inaugural Staff Award for Excellence in Teaching Learning in the team category, which was handed out earlier this spring. I started by asking them how it felt to win the award.
Jenna Olender 10:21
Well, it was, you know, great to get that news. We had worked, well we’ve been working very hard for a long time in the work that we do. And being nominated was an honor. And then, working on the package itself involves so much work that, you know, it’s one of those things to hear the news that you got it, it is exciting and it was also, I don’t know, very validating. And, I don’t know, a sense of relief that with all that hard work, you know, it paid off and people appreciate, you know, what we’re doing.
Bruce Gillespie 11:00
Karly, how about you? What was your reaction?
Karly Doucette 11:03
Yeah, I mean, I think we know that the work that we do is really meaningful, because we’re working with students every day. And students are, you know, telling us, they’re very appreciative of the work that we do, we get a lot of thank yous, which is really awesome. So, we see that, we see how our work is impacting students on a day to day basis. So, having an award like this, which recognizes our work kind of at a higher level is really, really cool. Like Jenna said, it, kind of, validates what we’re doing and it is really nice to have that sort of appreciation from a higher level at the institution.
Bruce Gillespie 11:42
I love that the university is now offering an award for teaching excellence at the staff level. Because I think when you’re only awarding these kinds of things to instructors or professors, that leaves out a whole chunk of people, because folks like you and staff positions, do a lot of teaching. I mean, for folks who don’t know, Learning Skills and Development, you’re working with students all the time on study skills, and writing skills, and study habits and a whole range of things. And a lot of what you’re doing is teaching actually, and it doesn’t take place in the classroom necessarily. So, I was really glad to see this award being presented. And really thrilled, knowing as I do with the amount of great work you do with students, that you two got it. So, congratulations again.
Jenna Olender 12:20
Thanks, Bruce. It’s a nice development, I think, in the teaching awards that Laurier offers, for sure. Because, I think, while the kind of work that we do and Learning Skills and Development, people, you know, easily recognize that dimension of teaching that’s in the the scope of our work that, you know, there is the one on one stuff that happens with students outside of the classroom. But, we also spend a lot of the time visiting classes and supporting learning that way. That what you’re saying is true though, about lots of other staff areas where that connection between the work they’re doing and the teaching they’re doing may not be as obvious. So, I’m excited to see in future years, the kinds of staff teaching that are being recognized in our institution.
Bruce Gillespie 13:17
Absolutely. So, you folks, like the rest of us have, since March 13th, been working remotely and working to support students remotely through exams, and now summer classes and looking forward to preparing for fall. Karly, can you tell us a little bit about what it’s been like to transition your services to an online format?
Karley Doucette 13:37
Sure. So I think for us, it wasn’t maybe as big of a deal or as big of a transition as maybe for some other folks, just because we already were offering a lot of our services in an online format. So, when we have students booking appointments for one on one, study skills, or writing or time management appointments, they’ve always had the option to have that appointment done online. And then, we had been rolling out some new programming to support students who were taking online courses. So, we had some new workshops being developed and new support programming that we were starting to roll out to support students taking online courses in a bigger way. So, this wasn’t a huge transition for us, I don’t think but I think there were definitely some components that we had to think a little bit more about, and how to rearrange them, and how to figure out what the best platform is for them online. What would be best for students and how to best support them in this remote environment. So, I think overall, the transition went pretty well for us and it’s given us the opportunity to actually look deeper into some of the other things that we can be doing to support students who are taking online courses. But also, thinking about how the online learning environment can be very different from the in person learning environment and how we can help them develop some skills and strategies for being successful.
Bruce Gillespie 15:15
That’s great. Jenna, what are you hearing from students who are studying remotely for the first time this summer?
Jenna Olender 15:20
I think the switch that happened at the end of winter term was much more stressful for many more students because it, you know, wasn’t what they were expecting. I think, you know, with the spring and summer terms students are aware from the get go that they are going to be taking online classes or remote learning classes, and are in that headspace where they’re expecting this experience. So, I think I’m actually hearing a lot more, to answer your question, about students feeling more prepared and comfortable to enter that online learning environment. So, you know, maybe still wanting some extra support, some extra guidance, suggestions, coaching on how to be effective learners in that environment. But certainly, right, there’s not that, that shock of the sudden change anymore.
Bruce Gillespie 16:26
What have you been hearing? What have you been learning so far that you think you can actually take forward and use to help your plans for a successful, mostly remote fall semester?
Jenna Olender 16:36
So, in some ways, it’s about how do we keep the consistency of, you know, that, kind of, community engagement that we have with each other and with students to make learning feel dynamic and interactive. But, recognizing that for that to happen most effectively it can involve some creative thinking about how we deliver content. So, moving away from some of the strategies that we might have used in the classroom, and thinking about how we can present content, right? In a very different way. So, you know, we have a, I remember reading some years ago about, you know, the tyranny of PowerPoint,
Bruce Gillespie 17:28
Yeah.
Jenna Olender 17:28
And how that changed, right? The dynamic of how we teach and learn. And I think that really, right? This is a moment where we can think about, if not PowerPoint, then what? Right? And there are so many more tools at our disposal that can help us engage learners in a really meaningful way.
Bruce Gillespie 17:52
I think that makes total sense. And certainly we’ve had the same sorts of conversation with students that it won’t be the same as what you would have gotten in a normal year. But, that doesn’t mean it’s less than right? Karly, what are some of the, what’s the advice you have for students who are not used to studying online and studying remotely going into the fall? Are there things they should, could be doing this summer maybe to get ready for an online fall?
Karley Doucette 18:17
Yeah, for sure. I think one of the biggest things for students who are starting with online courses or remote courses, is to make sure that they have some time management tools that they’re going to be using. So, time management, I find is one of the biggest skills that I’m working with, with students right now. Just because things are a lot different when you don’t have a specific time where you are going to lecture or you’re expected to be in a tutorial. And you might have friends who are saying, “Hey, why aren’t you here, right now?” When you’re taking online courses or taking these remote courses it’s a little bit different depending on how the courses are structured. So, students have to think about how they’re managing their time, they may have to think about, you know, scheduling in time to fake, kind of, when they have the classes. Because if there aren’t live lectures that they’re attending, they have to think through, you know, when are they going to be spending their time working through that course content and doing the assignments.
So, I think that students, if students can get familiarized with My Learning Space, the platform, all the tools there. One of our, our summer intern, just published a new blog post on our Learning Better at Laurier Brantford blog, all about My Learning Space tools. Because there are some really neat features within My Learning Space that I think can be really helpful for students when they are looking for specific content, or trying to figure out their due dates and things like that. So, I think the two big tips I would give to students is to familiarize themselves with My Learning Space, and all of the tools available to them there, and then, to think about a time management plan. And we have lots of resources available online, and as well as, you know, working with students, we have different tools and strategies that we can provide them that they can try out to see if they work, and then they can adjust from there.
Bruce Gillespie 20:26
That sounds like great advice. Thank you both for joining us today. It’s been great to talk to you.
Jenna Olender 20:31
Thanks very much for having us, Bruce.
Karley Doucette 20:34
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Bruce Gillespie 20:38
Our final guest is Jen Root, a professor in the Social Work program. Jen is a busy researcher and dedicated teacher, and we could have talked about her work for hours. But today, she indulged just by talking about her off campus life instead. I started by asking her that common question, “How’s your pandemic going?”
Jennifer Root 20:56
You might know how it is in, sort of, taking care of the the wrap up of the grading and making sure students were, you know, doing as well as they could be and, you know, finishing up their term. And I feel like once we sort of passed the submitting of grades and whatnot, I sort of settled back into looking at, you know, your own work and some research. So, I’m feeling really busy and reconnecting with community partners and stuff. So, that’s a nice feeling, but I also feel the call of the summer calling. I’m ready to, sort of, also settle into a different kind of break, I guess, in terms of, you know, just having a little bit of holiday around here. Settling in on our farm for a bit and trying to, you know, find the balance again, of doing, sort of, your summertime work and still enjoying some time away from work.
Bruce Gillespie 21:41
Yeah, so getting into that, sort of, the summer schedule, right?
Jennifer Root 21:44
Yeah.
Bruce Gillespie 21:44
most of us aren’t teaching, so we’re looking more, sort of, the research writing side of things we do.
Jennifer Root 21:49
That’s right. Yes, I’m looking forward to it.
Bruce Gillespie 21:53
So, you mentioned that you live on a farm, which we are dying to hear more about. So, because it’s just such a great story. I feel like I could listen to talk about your farm for hours. So, for those folks who don’t know, you live on an actual farm.
Jennifer Root 22:07
I do.
Bruce Gillespie 22:07
Like, tell us a little bit about what it looks like.
Jennifer Root 22:09
I love our farm, I have to say, I’m not very modest about it. It is, it’s beautiful. It’s just south of Brantford, we’re about 10 minutes just out of the city heading out towards Port Dover. And so, when I look at my front door, I have cornfields in front of me and the Grand River, and then our home proper, like, the home we live in is also surrounded by field. We have 33 acres of cornfield around us, which we rent out to a lovely farmer who takes care of our property and farms it for us every year, he plants corn, he plants soy, which is nice. And then, we live on about, maybe, four acres, like, the actual part of our property that’s not a field, per se. We have five barns, an animal barn, a vehicle barn, an old converted pig barn. And then, this big house we call the fun house, which is essentially a giant rec room, we have a pool table and a little home theater in there. And we found early on when we moved here, we’ve been here about five years now, that when you live in the county/country, you sometimes have to make your own fun because it can be a bit of a drive to go and do things like entertainment and go into the city and whatnot. So, we quickly turned this place into sort of a place you never really have to leave, so we always feel like,
Bruce Gillespie 23:32
How convenient.
Jennifer Root 23:34
It’s so nice between, you know, deciding to just either, you know, sit outside and enjoy the outdoors or we can go, you know, play pool or watch a movie or, or whatnot. It’s, um, we have a good time out here. Yeah, it was not a planned thing in life. But,
Bruce Gillespie 23:50
So, this is my question. Are you someone who grew up in a rural place or in a farm and this just felt natural to you? Or is this completely new?
Jennifer Root 23:57
No, it was completely, completely new. I don’t know what we thought we were doing. But, when I started at Laurier Brantford, we moved down here in 2014 from Toronto, so I think it was it was a two part thing. We were in a new place and just ready to try something new. We had been in Toronto for about 10 years, and I think we had that getting out of Toronto, living in such a tight, cramped city. With much respect to my big city dweller friends and family who loved the hustle and bustle of a big city. We just were really wanting, you know, space and to not have, you know, neighbors so close by. And I think we probably took that a little too far. And so, it was actually Bree Akesson, who’s also a professor at Laurier, who said to me, “Hey, we have a friend of ours who’s selling a farm, would you be interested?”
Bruce Gillespie 24:48
Ah.
Jennifer Root 24:48
And we were like, “Yes. Of course we’d be interested.” Never lived on a farm. Neither myself or my partner grew up on a farm. We just were kind of drawn into wanting space, and so, sure enough, we went out and looked at this place once and we said, “Yep, this is for us.” And we bought it.
Bruce Gillespie 25:08
Wow.
Jennifer Root 25:08
Yeah. So, it’s lovely. And we have, every year we try to do a little experiment, whether it be something we’re planting, or perhaps farm animals or new things to try out on the farm. So yeah, it keeps us busy.
Bruce Gillespie 25:25
So, what’s this year’s experiment?
Jennifer Root 25:27
Oh boy. So, this year, I’ve completely relocated our vegetables, and how we’re going to grow food this summer. I’ve always been a bit of a gardener, I’m not, I’m not, like, new to the idea of growing things. But, I really set up our first sort of vegetable patch and our pumpkin patch in a really not great location that didn’t get the best sun, full day sun. And so, once I discovered the ideal spot for the vegetable garden every year, I say we’re moving the vegetable garden next year. But, this is the year it’s happening. So, we’re completely relocating all of our raised beds, and all of the different parts of the garden to a new area on the property, which is quite an endeavor.
Bruce Gillespie 26:10
No doubt. And so, do you actually have animals that you raise as well?
Jennifer Root 26:14
Oh, yeah, we at the moment, we don’t we, we miss them. So, when we first moved here we started out with chickens and ducks. We thought that was a starter animal, again, never have raised or been around a barnyard.
Bruce Gillespie 26:31
I love your sense of adventure.
Jennifer Root 26:34
Our very first, sort of, we dipped our toe into getting chicks and baby ducks. We thought we could manage that. And you ordered them through the mail.
Bruce Gillespie 26:44
Yes.
Jennifer Root 26:44
So, we found that quite intriguing. So, we thought, “You know what, this is our first time we probably don’t know what we’re doing. Half of these little darlings probably aren’t going to make it, we’re going to do something wrong, they’re not going to survive.” So, we ordered 20 baby chicks, 10 baby ducks, and they arrived all healthy, well, we took care of them and didn’t they all survive. So, now we have 30 birds on the farm, which is great. That’s a lot for two people.
Bruce Gillespie 27:11
Yeah.
Jennifer Root 27:12
And they all started laying. So, now we have 20 hens laying an egg every day, they lay one egg a day.
Bruce Gillespie 27:21
Wow.
Jennifer Root 27:20
I know, so 20 eggs a day from the chickens. And then, apparently it’s very difficult when they’re a baby, chicks and ducks, to sex them, to determine if it’s going to be a hen, or if it’s going to be a drake with the ducks, or a rooster with the chicken. And so, we ended up with quite a few male ducks, and only four hens of the ducks, and they also started laying. So, now we have all these duck eggs, and we have all these chicken eggs. And so, we started to get bombarded with eggs. We were having, you know, dozens and dozens of eggs a day that we started to need to get rid of.
Bruce Gillespie 27:37
So, you were doing lots of research into egg recipes?
Jennifer Root 27:58
Oh my god, the amount of quiches and the deviled eggs, it was too much. We could just, yeah, it was enough with the eggs. And there was a time where we were bringing, you know, my partner and I almost like 10 dozen each to work, you know, “Please people take these eggs.” So, eventually, and the lay for a couple of years, you know, like, a good layer will lay, you know, for a few years. And then, they slowly gradually kind of taper off and at that point you either decide, like, you know, perhaps these are going to be freezer hens, you know, they go become, you know, your stewing chickens and whatnot. And so, we did do some of our own, you know, home processing, we did some of our ducks and prepared them for the freezer, which was an experience. Again, I’ve never collected a chicken or duck in my life. We did the whole thing from start to finish where you, you know, you pluck them, and get them ready and put them in the freezer. That was an experience. So, now we’re down to nothing, we now have no chickens, no ducks. And we’ve debated whether or not to get more, but raising them from chicks is such a 24 hour, six week process, you really need to be very careful and take care of them that we’re just weary of starting that process again. We would have, in hindsight, we should have kept a hen to take care of her own chickens to take care of the chicks.
Bruce Gillespie 28:10
Ah.
Jennifer Root 28:15
So, she could raise them up. But, then you need to get a rooster. We didn’t know about getting a rooster, waking us up at all hours.
Bruce Gillespie 29:31
Exactly. How much do you really want nature’s alarm clock, right?
Jennifer Root 29:34
That’s the thing, right? So, we’re at the point where we are kind of interested in maybe having a couple chickens, a reasonable amount, like, maybe two or three for two people is plenty. But, we don’t, we don’t need 30 birds on the property again.
Bruce Gillespie 29:48
Don’t need 30 eggs a day, right?
Jennifer Root 29:50
Yes, that was something. And we still have our stores of egg cartons, we used to tell any family, friends, “Please if you have eight cartons, we need them.” I probably have, you know, over 300 egg cartons still sitting around, so.
Bruce Gillespie 30:05
Well that sounds, like, a, you know, get some pipe cleaners. I’m sure it’s a craft project just waiting to happen.
Jennifer Root 30:10
I know. So, yeah, so it’s a little quiet on the farm. But, nonetheless it’s still always so busy. We just came out of maple syrup season.
Bruce Gillespie 30:18
Mmm.
Jennifer Root 30:18
Which was lovely, and made our maple syrup. And now, getting ready for canning season. I’m ready to do preserves, jam and pickles.
Bruce Gillespie 30:29
Well, that sounds like a lovely way to spend your summer and sort of balance off the work you’re doing.
Yes, thank goodness. I do really appreciate, especially now having a little bit of open space to just be in. To just, sort of, be out there and not feel like I’m breaking any, sort of, quarantine rules or, sort of, exposing people to anything. So, it is a, it’s a treat to be able to go out there.
Well, thank you so much for telling us about it today.
Yeah, of course. Anytime.
And that’s a wrap. Thanks for joining us. We hope it’s helped you feel a little more connected to the Laurier Brantford community. If you liked what you heard, tell your friends and colleagues. You can subscribe on Apple, Google, Stitcher or wherever you find your podcasts. Worried about missing an episode? Sign up for our newsletter. You can find the link on Twitter and Facebook @onemarketlb. We’ll be back with a new episode in about a week. One Market was created and produced by Bruce Gillespie and Tarah Brookfield. Music by Scott Holmes, graphics by Melissa Weaver. Thanks for listening. Keep in touch.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai