Butter-Fat

The internet is opening up the world of research and just recently the BC Dairy Historical Society  digitized and made available for viewing online the 674 editions of the Butter-Fat magazine published by the Fraser Valley Milk Producers' Association from 1923 to 1993. The Butter-Fat editions contain a detailed history of dairy and agriculture in BC including several historical editions with wonderful historic photographs. The editions are in PDF format and can be downloaded to your PC, iBooks or Kindle for reading and searching.

My family was very involved in the dairy industry as Jersey farmers, with 4H, and later working for the goverment in the agriculture department so I did search was rewarded with several results.

The 1924 February edition shows me that my grandfather had some very interesting names for his cows, Rosewood Model Kitty, Dorothy's Dimple Dot, Valentine's Bonny Maid, and Dora's Golden Lass. My dad has explained the naming convention is that first name is the name of the farm, the lineage, the name. In their case they didn't have a farm name so I can see that he named some of them for my grandma Dorothy.

Apparently Fauvic Baroness St. Mawes made the Jersey records in 1928 for milk production.

Look at this gem from the July 1927 edition. It includes this great group shot from a F.V.M.P.A. field day and picnic in Chilliwack.

I have much more to explore and I am looking foward to the journey.

Absolutely Literate at Fort Langley's Festival of the Book, July 1

I am looking forward to being part of the Celebrate Canada Day in Fort Langley July 1st party in Fort Langley.

Join me at the Fort Langley Festival of the Book between 11:00 and 2:30. The Festival is followed by the Bard in the Valley’s production of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost at 3:00.

I will be at the Fort Langley Community Hall along with other local writers. I will have copies of the newly redesigned British Columbia History magazine and Looking Back: Volume One, a collection of stories written by Sheila Nickols.

See you there.

Friday Tech Tip: How to get Microsoft Word to read to you

At my talk last night "Editors as Partners, not enemies" for Art of the Book I mentioned that you can get Microsoft Word to read out loud to you.

Here's how to add the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar and use the tool:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. From the top of your screen next to the Save, Undo, and Redo buttons, click Customize Quick Access Toolbar arrow.

The Word Options dialog box opens.

3. From the Choose commands from drop-down, select All Commands.

4. Scroll down to the Speak command, select it, and then click Add.

5. Click OK.

The Speak icon appears on your Quick Access Tool.

To use the Speak command

1. Select the text you want to hear or select your entire document Ctrl+A.
2. Click the Speak command.

Word will read to you. Admittedly, it reads to you in one of those computer voices and you might feel like you are on the Skytrain or have just been read to by Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Adjusting Voice Settings

If your computer’s sounds too computer generated or if it speaks too quickly you can easily adjust the settings.

1. From the lower left-hand corner, pressing the Start button.
2. In the search box, type narrator.
3. Click on Narrator.

4. Click Voice Settings.
5. Edit the speed, volume, and pitch.
6. Click OK when you are done.
7. Click Exit.