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Feelings of gratitude don't easily crack the daily to-do list, which is why we should feel especially thankful for Thanksgiving: Somehow this antiquated harvest festival has managed to force its way into our future-facing lives and make us savour the good things that often slip by unacknowledged.

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Third-generation Alberta farmer Alan Zweifel combines his 3,400 acres of grain crops in central Alberta. Mr. Zweifel, who grows a mix of wheat, barley, and Canola will spend about 28 days working 16 hours a day during the fall harvest. His wife and five children all lend a hand.Chris Bolin

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The grapes from Quails Gate winery in Kelowna on Thursday Oct. 7, 2010.Jeff Bassett

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Isabel Talbot, part of the vineyard crew, works along the rows in the Quails Gate winery in Kelowna on Thursday Oct. 7, 2010.Jeff Bassett

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Some of the largest pumpkins in the crop, ranging in weight from 125 to nearly 200 pounds, were being harvested by employees of Howell Family Pumpkin Farm in Fonthill, Ontario on Oct. 7, 2010. Working with in the field are Andrew Farrell, right, who has been doing seasonal work for the Howell's for 11 years, Mike Marshall, middle, whose family owns a nearby farm, and Travis Gilpin, left.

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Some of the largest pumpkins in the crop, ranging in weight from 125 to nearly 200 pounds, were being harvested by employees of Howell Family Pumpkin Farm in Fonthill, Ontario on Oct. 7, 2010. Working with in the field are Andrew Farrell, right, who has been doing seasonal work for the Howell's for eleven years, Mike Marshall, middle, whose family owns a nearby farm, and Travis Gilpin, left.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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A worker uses a boom to move cranberries in a flooded bog during harvest at Columbia Cranberry Farm in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday Oct. 6, 2010. The city of Richmond accounts for approximately half of the cranberries grown in the province.DARRYL DYCK

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Workers use a boom to move cranberries in a flooded bog during harvest at Columbia Cranberry Farm in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday Oct. 6, 2010. The city of Richmond accounts for approximately half of the cranberries grown in the province.DARRYL DYCK

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Pe' van Oostrum picks red delicious apples on his nephew's farm in Canning, N.S., 6 Oct. , 2010. The 72-year.old has been picking apples since he was 14 years old.PAUL DARROW

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Glenis Pye pours a bag of picked red delicious apple into a crate on the Van Oostrum farm in Canning, N.S., 6 Oct., 2010. The retired school teacher from Newfoundland comes every fall to pick apples.PAUL DARROW

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