NPSAS 36th Winter Conference Feeding our neighbors by Nourishing our soils By Julia Petrovic Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society (NPSAS) that promotes sustainable food systems through education, research and advocacy, celebrated its 36th anniversary with the annual winter conference that took place in Aberdeen, SD, on January 22-24, 2015. The society has been growing and expanding over the years and this winter conference drew together 625 members and some invited

The idea was to build this chicken winter villa BEFORE winter! But... that how it goes on the farm. We make plans and do our best to achieve our goals and then when it doesn't happen we smile (or not!) and carry on. Being flexible with our plans is the first thing we learnt to do living on the farm. It took us about two months to finally complete the project. What we did was building a winter headquarters (or rather a VILLA) for our poultry folks. During the warm months the

To keep our spirits high in the middle of the winter we make sure that we all get fresh air daily and do some sort of physical activity. We do the chores twice a day and come to the barn in the morning and in the afternoon to feed our animals and get them fresh drinking water. And then there is another activity that we do weekly. We keep it as a family fun day! Everybody loves to cuddle with a blanket close to the woodburning stove with a good book and a homemade cookie while