Mbc140612

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From Senate to Cigi

JoAnne Buth comes home » Pg 3

DRINK YOUR CEREALS Barley beverages becoming vogue » Pg 9

june 12, 2014

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 72, No. 24

ALUS returning to Manitoba’s Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District The Manitoba-born conservation program has new funding

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Bringing skills home Students at Lundar School are building on a solid foundation of industrial arts education

By Allan Dawson co-operator staff

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LUS is coming home. Thanks to new government and private funding the Manitoba-born Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program is returning as a demonstration cons e r va t i o n p ro g ra m t o t h e Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District north of Brandon, which includes the RM of Blanchard where ALUS was first piloted from 2006 to 2008. ALUS, a community-developed, farmer-delivered initiative, is getting $100,000 over three years as part of $1 million in federal government grants designed to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering Lake Winnipeg. The announcement was made at the Fort Whyte Centre in Winnipeg May 23. Federal funds will be matched by money from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, Jim Fisher, director of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation said in an interview. Delta, which promotes conservation to protect and enhance duck habitat for hunters, is administering the funds and partnering with the Little Saskatchewan River

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See ALUS on page 6 »

Teacher Donald Nikkel and his students have built a ready-to-move house at Lundar School, which will be auctioned off on June 16.  Photo: Shannon VanRaes

By Shannon VanRaes co-operator staff Lundar, Man.

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h e c re w c o n s t r u c t i n g t h i s 1,026-sq.-ft. ready-to-move bungalow is just like any other, judging from the hardhat-covered heads ducking in and out, the careful measurements and high-quality workmanship. That is, until the buzzer rings signalling the end of class. “For an industrial arts program its pretty unique,” said Donald Nikkel, during a brief pause in the work. Nikkel — who teaches Grades 9 to 12 at Lundar School — has moved far beyond the usual shop class projects of bird feeders and bookshelves. Instead of building a bunch of little boxes, he put his students to work as a team building one big one. “The idea came from what carpenters do. Basically we build boxes... we build some small boxes like birdhouses, tool boxes, and we can build

some larger boxes as well,” he said. The decision to build an entire house followed the success of previous industrial arts projects at Lundar School, projects like sheds and a timber-frame outdoor classroom. “For the students — out here especially, where we have a lot of students who come from farms, or have parents who work in the trades. For them to get involved in a project like this, they see that it is going to be relevant to their lives. They say, ‘You know what, what I’m learning today, I’m going to be using tomorrow.’” It’s also exposing students like Cole Wickenden to possible career opportunities. “I’m keeping my options open, but plumbing looks pretty interesting,” said the 18-year-old Grade 12 student. And even if he doesn’t enter the trades, Wickenden believes the skills he’s learned will serve him well. “It will help me a lot. If I buy a house I can do things by myself without pay-

ing for someone to do it,” he said. “It’s been a great experience, you learn a lot of new things. I always thought that in industrial arts you’d be sitting inside a classroom, building a tool box or something like that, but we actually get to build a house. So it’s very good.” Princess Swan, 16, doesn’t know exactly how the skills she’s learning will fit into the rest of her life, but she is having a lot of fun learning them. “I just thought I’d try something new, so I took the class,” said the Grade 10 student. “But I like it, it’s really neat to work on the house and it’s my first time doing this kind of thing.” And it’s not just any house. “We thought, we don’t really want to just build a house to basic, minimum industry standards, we want to do something more than that,” said Nikkel, who built his own timber-frame home after returning to the community a few years ago. “So we’ve really See LUNDAR on page 6 »

CANOLA: JUMPSTARTING LATE-SEEDED CROPS » PAGE 20


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