The purpose of this study was to explore what it means to be farming in Saskatchewan today. Naturalistic inquiry using open-ended interviews provided the framework for four farmers narratives. The goal was to gain insight into farmers lives, to expand the understanding of farmers experiences, and to explore potential stressors of farming life. The farmers interviews revealed the heart, soul, and spirit of farming today. Although they said they were losing hope in farming, they demonstrated characteristics of determination, perseverance and tenacity that keep them farming. The insights learned from this sample of Saskatchewan farmers are relevant not only to farm families but also to new entrants into farming, professionals who work with farmers in challenging times, and government policy makers. This study may help to provide information, develop understanding of farmers needs, and raise questions that contribute to knowledge and meaning about how it is to farm in Saskatchewan today. Implications for practise and research conclude the study.

The purpose of this study was to explore what it means to be farming in Saskatchewan today. Naturalistic inquiry using open-ended interviews provided the framework for four farmers narratives. The goal was to gain insight into farmers lives, to expand the understanding of farmers experiences, and to explore potential stressors of farming life. The farmers interviews revealed the heart, soul, and spirit of farming today. Although they said they were losing hope in farming, they demonstrated characteristics of determination, perseverance and tenacity that keep them farming. The insights learned from this sample of Saskatchewan farmers are relevant not only to farm families but also to new entrants into farming, professionals who work with farmers in challenging times, and government policy makers. This study may help to provide information, develop understanding of farmers needs, and raise questions that contribute to knowledge and meaning about how it is to farm in Saskatchewan today. Implications for practise and research conclude the study.

This study compares the morbidity and mortality of non-adults in urban and rural cemeteries between AD 850-1859. It was hypothesised that the development of urbanisation and industrialisation with subsequenot overcrowding and environmental pollution, would result in a decline in human health in the urban groups. This would be evident in lower mean ages at death, retarded growth and higher rates of childhood stress and chronic infection in the children living in the urbanised environments. Non-adult skeletons were examined from Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire (Anglo- Saxon), St. Helen-on-the-Walls in York (later medieval, urban), Wharrarn Percy in Yorkshire (later medieval, rural) and from the crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields, in London (AD 1729-1859). The results showed that it was industrialisation, rather than urbanisation that was most detrimental to child health. Weaning ages declined from two years in the Anglo-Saxon period to one year in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Industrialisation was characterised by a lower mean age at death, growth retardation and an increase in the prevalence of rickets and scurvy. Although higher rates of dental disease and matemal stress were apparent in the urbanised samples, respiratory diseases were more common in the rural areas. Growth profiles suggested that environmental factors were similar in the urban and rural communities in the later medieval period. However, there was evidence that employment had a detrimental effect on the health of later medieval apprentices. This study demonstrates the importance of non-adult remains in addressing issues of health and adaptation in the past and, the validity of using skeletal material to measure environmental stress.