Based on hundreds of interviews with Manitoba farm men and women, Making Ends Meet reconstructs the common history shared by modern farm women as well as by their mothers and grandmothers. It explores women's changing roles on the farm, from the early days of the Red River settlement to the twentieth-century farm community. The women's own stories reveal their ingenuity and tenacity in "making ends meet" through economies, shared labour, and generation of new sources of income as varied as raising poultry and custom woodworking. These stories prove that the contributions of farm women have been vital in establishing and maintaining the family farm, and are critical to its continued survival.