Dorothy Wright, one of the women featured in Farmwives in Profile, sits in her kitchen as she talks with Billi Miller. (Photo by Billi Miller)

The heart of the homestead is the focus of a new book delving into the stories of farm wives on the Prairies.

Billi Miller's Farmwives in Profile features stories of 17 women from the Lloydminster, AB area who share their experiences as traditional matriarchs on the farm. Miller asked the women candid questions about their lives as farm women, including photographs, recipes, and memories from their children.

"I just feel like the devotedness of these women is really remarkable, and I wanted them held up to that in their communities," Miller says. "I know these women aren't rare, in the sense that they're all over the Prairies and Canada, and I just felt it was really important to put the limelight on them and pay attention to the fact they're just really unbelievable in their communities. They hold up their communities, I feel."

Farmwives in Profile focuses on older generations of farm wives. Altogether, the women in this book represent over 700 years of marital history. Miller says part of her interviews included questions about keeping a marriage healthy and strong. Within those marriages, Miller says a lot of the women thought the hardest part of being married to a farmer was having to look after the homestead somewhat on their own because of the demanding farming lifestyle.

"A lot of the women in my book said the amount of hours dad spent working when the children were small was really a challenge for them," she says, "and I know, personally, that's a challenge for me, too. My husband's a fourth-generation farmer, and they farm grain and cattle, so you know calving hours, seeding, harvest -- all that kind of stuff -- dad's gone a lot... That was probably the hardest adjustment for me just being new parents, was the amount of hours you need to put into that by yourself."

Miller says she is in the process of creating a follow up book, this time focusing on younger farm wives on the Prairies.

"Many people in interviews ask me if I feel like lives on the farm are changing, and that is part of why I wanted just the traditional (farm women) in my first book because I do feel like some things are changing," Miller says, also noting she's interested to see how answers differ in terms of what younger farm women find to be the hardest part of farming.

More information on Farmwives in Profile is available online at farmwivesbook.com.