A Late February Update

I guess it's far past time that I shared an update from my part of the north.

I have been away from home for the better part of a month as my brother and his family have now returned to Calgary. Their house, which was rented out while he was overseas, was in need of some renovations so I have been down helping to put in new flooring, painting most of the rooms, and installing baseboards. I've also been helping a bit with unpacking and setting things up, lifting the heavy things, etc. It's looking like I should be headed home in about a week. It will be nice to get home but also a bit difficult as I've come to settle in here a certain amount.

As for back at home, it has remained a fairly mild, though windy, winter. This has allowed mom and dad to not have to do TOO much work by themselves, as there has not been a lot of snow. Depending on how March goes, this may make for a difficult spring since we rely so much on snow melt to get crops and garden going. People joke about farmers complaining about the weather but the reality is that bad weather can be absolutely devastating to all farmers, but even more to the small farmer.

We've had four calves so far, three being heifers that may be kept in order to further expand the herd. There should be four more calves making their appearances starting in early march so we are hoping for similar good fortune with their births. We traded some excess hay and cash to a neighbor in exchange for the heifer that was born to their milk cow a year and a half ago. She has been bred but her calf is not due for several months. She is a flighty, skittish creature so I am hoping that she calms with age and giving birth as did the two new heifers we bought last spring. If not, milking her may prove to be a big chore if she does retain and manifest the milking genes from her mother.

I also bought five weaner gilts late last fall, but lost two of them to an excessive infestation of Round worms. I am carrying some guilt (no pun intended) over this loss as I was stubbornly trying to treat this infestation with garlic instead of an injection of de-wormer. I should have applied the de-wormer much earlier than I did, as it was clear that two of the gilts were in rough shape. It is easy to say live and learn, but not so much when lives have been lost. As my sister wisely pointed out, however, I did not pay for the two lost weaners and they were going to be killed for meat next summer anyway. Doesn't remove all of the guilt but it does make it lighter.

As for the farm itself, I reported awhile back that it was looking like the County would be purchasing the portion of our remaining land that sits on the lake edge. We have finally been informed that the price suggested by an independent consultant is too high for their liking, so it has been decided that we will investigate putting the land up for sale openly. This leaves us in a bit of a bind financially but at least we are being "granted" the sub-division that was applied for two years ago. This will allow us to try to sell the other parcel of land for higher value as industrial land. Not exactly a comfortable option but considering the expanded landfill to our west and the huge asphalt plant to our north east, it's probably the best option remaining to us. It's hard to market naturally produced food when sited next to such nasty developments, after all.

I think I will leave the update there for now, and go back to awaiting the garage door repair people and delivery of a dumpster so all the old carpet, underlay and other renovation trash can finally be removed from the garage. More words to come though, as the global economy struggles along, war remains a looming likelihood, resource constrictions continue to mount, and the climate upheaval continues to increase.

So with that I will wish all peace and comfort once again, in this crazy wonderful world.

Day Late and A Dollar Short

So here I am, a day late for Robbie Burns Day, and with kind of a crappily lit picture. But at least it is a picture I took, in downtown Aberdeen, of the late Scottish poet hero.


It was kind of hard to take the picture too, being as it was hidden behind (yet towering over) some tents at the International Market that was going on that weekend. These markets are foods and craft type items from various counties. It was fairly impressive actually, especially in terms of food. One vendor had a whole young pig roasting on a spit right there at the side of his booth. There was no Canadian vendor, sadly. Maybe I should go back and set up a bacon and hockey sticks booth.

Anyway, Happy belated Robbie Burns day!

I'm Blushing Here!

I am honored to have the chance to thank LindaM at hello its me for bestowing this blog with its 2nd award.



I don't feel terribly worthy of this award lately, but I am awful thankful that she thought to pass it my way. It is a lovely impetus to be more active in my writing again.

So, I am to pass this award on to 3 other bloggers and I will choose 3 that I think suit the award title in their content. In no particular order:

1) MoonRaven's Social Alchemy blog touches on a wide variety of topics that pertain to all aspects of health, community, spirituality, social justice and living better in an increasingly difficult world. I immediately thought to pass this award MoonRaven's way, before I even remembered that he awarded my own blog its last award.

2) The Well Run Dry is a peak oil blog that covers the vast range of topics that peak oil is already affecting and will increase to affect. The author is very involved in his local community, working with others to try to build knowledge and an adaptive group of neighbors who can work together to survive the coming difficulties.

3) Kevin Kossowan is an Edmonton blogger that promotes food awareness and local food producers, in a very big way. His blog is visually impressive and chalk full of inspiring food prep ideas, as well as much support for local healthy food producers. A real local inspiration for the Great White North.

Now, the harder part of this award is that I am supposed to offer 7 pieces of obscure information about myself...a task I am finding difficult. But here goes:

1) I love Theatre but I kind of hate musicals.
2) I'm a Calgary Flames fan living in Oil country.
3) I couldn't identify a Led Zeppelin song until I was in my mid 20s.
4) I fucking hate being a shorter than average male.
5) I am concerned that #4 might be a bigger deal subconsciously than consciously.
6) I still haven't seen Avatar.
7) Patience and persistence are probably my biggest flaws, as in not enough of either.

Thanks again Linda.

Peace and comfort to all.

An End is Nigh

This might be the best forecast for 2012, and beyond, that I have seen to date. Happy and shiny it is not, but rational and honest it very much seems to be.




At the very least, it certainly sums up the world I see as I look around, far more comprehensively than I could do. I especially enjoy Pollock's admiration for the theories and writings of Buckminster Fuller. It is a fresh outlook in a world of Keynesian or Austrian economics.

Out of the Old, Into the New

I was meaning to do a bit of a yearly wrap up back around the solstice but my lower gastrointestinal tract and I have been sorting out a couple month long disagreement. Truth be told I think it is a longer disagreement than that but hopefully it is being sorted out now. Actually, I find the coincidence of this uncomfortable disagreement timing out with the transition into the new year (2012 no less, if it is to be a significant year after all) to be kind of humorous.

It has been sort of an uncomfortable year for meany reasons. Even my trip overseas, while amazing, had an uncomfortable personal aspect (not counting the fact that it may have served to catalyze this GI disagreement). It has been the kind of year where we received enough rain to produce more hay than our farm likely ever has before, but the vast majority is of rather low quality of which the cattle must eat a great amount and a lot goes to waste. The same heavy rains followed by wind and heat that gave us that hay, gave us a weak garden where at least half of what was planted was drowned. One patch of peas did quite well, and the bush beans weren't too bad. The greenhouse did alright, small as it is, and we had copious cherry tomatoes. I dabbled with herb growing in there for the first time as well, ending up with some success. I am keen to explore this area and could happily fill the whole greenhouse with herbs I think.

Given the weather through our growing season this year, I am still very concerned that our area is on a drying trend, especially if the windiness continues. For someone interested in growing food for a living this is a disturbing trend. On the bright side, after a couple weeks of January-like weather, the last month has been relatively lovely weather. We've had some very windy days but have very little snow and are able to move the cattle over to the pasture every day where they can scratch on trees and wander a larger area. It is a good thing the temperatures have been so mild because if it was normal temperatures with those winds (as was looking like might be the case when I returned from overseas) this would have been a pretty miserable winter so far.

Speaking of the cattle, it has been a fairly successful year. All of last year's calves were sold at market and did quite well. I would have loved the chance to finish them off this winter and market the beef directly in the spring but the money was needed at the time and Dad is very resistant to try a pre-sell on deposit arrangement. I admit I wonder lately just how big the potential local market is here, or rather, how small. Are people in this area willing to pay enough for food grown in a conscientious fashion?

Now, as the yearly cycle begins anew, some aspects of my future that seemed very unclear are finally beginning to take shape. It is now looking very much as though our time on the side of the lake that I have shared a bit here will be coming to an end over the next two years. I don't really feel comfortable talking about details at this point but, emotional response aside, it is now time to make some decisions and do some real planning for the future. There can be no more plodding along as this year has gone.

The main decision seems to be whether to set up a farmstead on our half section of summer pasture land, or to try to find some land to purchase elsewhere. Returning to school to pick up some kind of technical expertise is a tempting option as part of me wonders if it would not be wise to retain the ability to be mobile over the next 10 or 20 years as the climatic/peak oil situations solidify. The biggest problem there might be trying to settle just what area of expertise to pursue. I've never been terribly good at those kinds of decisions.

But, I have some time on my hands for the rest of this winter so I will have to spend it getting myself a little more focused. I've made some good steps over the past couple of years but there are still some big things I need to work out in this quest for balance.

I want to thank those of you who have been commenting and so supportive. It has been uplifting and is sincerely appreciated. I wish you all a peaceful and comfortable remainder of the renewal season. There's so much that needs doing come spring.

Love to all.

A Month?

I can't believe its been pretty much a month since I wrote something here. Seems to be a bit of a theme lately. This time I feel a little bit guilty since it feels like most of it was a whirlwind two week and 3 night holiday/visiting/relaxation trip to Scotland, the last known place where most of my blood originates. And then three nights in the middle was a whole other getaway over to Amsterdam.

Hee hee.

Yep, Amsterdam. Mostly just within the inner main tourist hub but still, that's the best part, right? Well if its me, and it was, and its your first time in Amsterdam, and it was, the inner hub is really the only place you need to go. Non-stop picturesque scenery, canals, languages, people on bikes, food choices, sex options, history, new smells, intimacy, art, solitude (somehow even solitude), fashion (in shops and on people), and good lord the coffee shops (pot-friendly and otherwise). Very cool.

Interestingly, to me at least, we (my excellent personal guide, the sister of my brother's wife, and I) stumbled across an Occupi camp late on our last night there. At one point early on I had been wondering if there would be an Occupi-Amsterdam camp so it was a little disappointing to just stumble across it rather late when most protestors would have been in the few tents clustered there. I didn't even take any pictures as I found the idea felt a bit intrusive, seeing as people were sleeping. In another way, though, there was kind of a (I hate to say) false feel to the scene...kind of a theatrical feel. They weren't out in any of the bigger open square type of places so they just seemed like part of the "show". I was tempted to try to get back in the morning, if even for a few minutes, before the flight back to Scotland. No time though, and that was honestly no big deal to me.

The main reason for the trip was just to see my brother and sister in law, and my now year old niece for the first time. Plus, everyone else in the family had had a chance to visit the "old country", so my brother wanted to be sure I had the chance as well. I am very lucky to have such a generous younger brother, especially given some of my behavior as an older brother when we were young.

I didn't spend much time running about the countryside of Scotland, beyond two weekend excursions to cool old castles just outside of Aberdeen. A gazillion pictures were taken at both. Some may well make their way on here. The rest of the time was spent in sheer relaxation and time with family, hanging out at their home or seeing some great restaurants and cool areas in Aberdeen. It was fascinating to spend plenty time with my niece and I just have to say, she is one brilliant little girl that I think might just grow up to rule the world. Seeing as there is already one Queen Sophia, I think she has a good start just in her name.

So yeah, sorry I ran off with no warning. I hope you all can forgive me.

Four More Down

Four more lives lost to selfishness last night. This time it was the oldest son of 2 of my oldest friends, my first 2 roommates. Killed by a drunk driver.

So many bad things happen in this world, I will never understand why people have to cause more of them by being self-centered. Oh and yes, the guy that did it tried to ditch the responsibility and ran for it.

Not much else to say on the matter right now. My poor friends...



Rest in Peace, young Vincent.