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Day Late and A Dollar Short

2012-01-26T10:35:00.004-07:00

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!

2012-01-12T22:45:00.004-07:00

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

2012-01-05T08:44:00.006-07:00

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

2011-12-30T18:10:00.002-07:00

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?

2011-11-22T22:01:00.004-07:00

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

2011-10-23T02:04:00.003-06:00

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.

Occupi

2011-10-16T09:59:00.003-06:00

One or two minds may wonder why I have been silent on the growing movement I will just refer to as Occupi. I've been quiet for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was the fact it takes me forever to write on these kinds of topics because there is SOOO much to consider. I mean, there are SO many issues facing our civilization that it seemed to me that protesting Wall Street alone might be a bit of a diversion. Yet there is no denying that our convoluted global financial ponzy sche...ahem...system is a large part of the problem. That many fat cats devoted only to accumulating further wealth and, more importantly, power...simply cannot be a good thing.

So,

I, for one, think it is phenomenal that this awakening has begun. I find hope in the dedication to non-violent protest and in attempting to reach decisions by consensus. I can look at fellow humans with pride as so many are acknowledging our responsibilities to one another, as at least partly evidenced by the efforts to keep these "occupied" areas clean.

I do worry about the often divided nature of mankind in general. How much consensus is possible with the extremes in ideologies among so many people? After all, just how many people see anyone who feels abortion is not a black and white issue as a literal demon? It might be a smaller number than I think, but I now know that it is a far larger number than I used to think possible. That so many cannot be convinced otherwise is, to me, a good (albeit extreme) example of just how far we might be from being ready for moving forward as a conscious, connected species and not just as a group of constantly competing individuals.

But my main worry is that this movement makes some progress, only to fizzle out under the sheer power of the system/machine and as people realize it is a life long process involving real work and focus, this systemic change. This is what eventually seemed to happen after the 60's, as so many radically driven youth slipped back into the materialistic mode that comes so very easy in our modern world...at least it did until we began to peak in energy available to us.

But for what it's worth, while I am not physically in one of those parks I am with you all, wholeheartedly. And I promise I'm trying to do my part, even though I am no longer here so often to report on just what I have been doing or thinking.

May we NEVER cease to strive for a more active consciousness, both individually AND collectively. In this balance would lie heaven, I feel.

Peace and comfort, sisters and brothers.

Will We Learn?

2011-09-16T19:49:00.001-06:00

More insanity:

What is there to say other than this has to be stopped.

Shiny, Wheeled Signs of the Times

2011-09-15T21:47:00.002-06:00

I've heard it said (and/or written) in many places, that one's driving shows a great deal of their personality. If this is so, and I believe I have written this before, Grande Prairie and the local area is home to one HELL of a lot of self centered, ignorant, impatient and outright dangerous people. At the very least, people seem to have forgotten they are operating a machine that can take lives in an instant.

Every day I am amazed that the news is not filled with stories of driving fatalities (yet bad driving takes multitudes of lives every year...do the research) but even the amount that I do hear makes me sick to the stomach at the thought of taking a life or lives by any sort of negligence behind the wheel. Yet so many others seem oblivious to this, even ripping through school zones or performing multiple tasks OTHER than focusing on the road all while hurtling along well beyond the speed limit.

But here a young family is snuffed while about to turn off to their rural home, there an old man snapped out of existence by one of countless youths obviously too immature for such responsibilities. Although, in fairness, many much older than he are no more mature, as is evidenced by the lack of ability to learn from the mistakes of others.

And it just seems to be getting worse. I feel ridiculous saying this but I remember a time when it seemed that when most people would make an honest mistake in driving, they would make some attempt to show the offended driver that they knew their mistake, felt bad, and would learn from the mistake. Just a couple of days ago I saved a young woman from getting t-boned by seeing a glimpse of her approaching and assuming she was going to blindly dart across in front of me in her little car. She did so and if I hadn't slowed enough, I'd have plowed right into her. She didn't even look at me, just peered straight ahead as if she'd done nothing stupid and dangerous at all.

And then, of course, there are the cell phones...

I think by now, most must be aware of the spike in road idiocy thanks to people talking, texting, surfing, gaming, reading and god knows what else on their phones while driving. So since people seem unable to use common sense in enough numbers so as to not be significantly dangerous to each other, governments are creating laws such as the distracted driving law here in Alberta. Now we can at least make some extra money off some of the idiots who get caught, as with speeding drunk driving laws. But what chance that a real impact in terms of safe driving will be made?

Not much, methinks.

*sigh*

Oh well. Please drive safe and be good to each other.

Award!

2011-09-04T21:56:00.005-06:00

I was delighted to learn that during my hiatus, the wonderful MoonRaven awarded this blog (and 2 others) with the Liebster Blog Award.

This award is meant for blogs with less than 300 followers and with the honor of winning goes the duty of awarding it forward, so to speak, to 3 other such blogs. I am not being facetious when I say that I could happily give this award to most of those bloggers linked in the sidebar. However, my choices are:

LindaM at Hello Its Me was one of the first to comment here and I have always appreciated both her readership and her blogging, as well as admiring the moves she and her family are making to move forward into the uncomfortable future while keeping sustainability, community and information sharing as high priorities.

Mark and Anna at The Walden Effect are into year 5 of homesteading and put a lot of work into sharing what they learn and fostering an online community of homestead or sustainability-minded folks and information. My mother's flower garden has many beautiful poppies still blossoming from seeds I received from Anna 3 winters ago. I have been meaning to thank her and share pictures for a long time. This is one at least.

The 3rd I would like to give to my friend Angie at What's She Doing In There? Angie writes about projects in her career as a theatrical artisan, as well as personal projects and her urban garden. Her blog is also a nice window for me, back into the Edmonton theatre scene, in which I worked for over 10 years and which I often miss greatly. People can gain a real insight into some of the magic of theatre by following this great artist and technician.

Thanks again MoonRaven.

Peace and comfort, all.

UPDATE:

All day long I have been thinking that I should have ignored the 3 blog aspect of forwarding this award because there was another blog that I really wanted to add. But then I get home and discover that one awardee was ineligible due to having developed too larger a readership (congrats to Anna and Mark!!!) so now I can award the blog I have been thinking about all day and still hold on to the 3 blog limit.

Teresa of Eden Hills seems a most remarkably compassionate person whom I notice makes every effort to reply to each person who comments, and this number seems to be deservedly increasing. I hope she will soon be ineligible for this award as well! I really should have ignored the guideline to begin with.

Bad Blogger, No Donut

2011-08-25T22:56:00.003-06:00

Holy Crap! Has it really been well over a month since I have bitched, moaned or offered some kind of farm/life update? I must have been soooo very busy or stressed out over the continually darkening future across much of the world, or maybe even celebrating with exuberant jubilation over the opportunities still available (?) in this same world.

Not really, sad to say.

Other than my normal thing, around 8 hours a day out at the farm, I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything important or interesting. Feels a bit like treading water, or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The rain stopped falling shortly after my last post, other than the odd short shower or brief thunderstorm. This has allowed us to bale up a very nice quantity of hay, all the rain in June and July made for fantastic hay crops in the area. It would have been nice to have a fresh crop of alfalfa, ours are all quite old and diminished to mostly brome grass, but we still ended up with around 200 very nice, round bales.

This picture gives an idea just what I mean by fantastic hay:

That is brome grass, if you are unaware. It typically grows around two and a half feet high. The stuff in the picture is around 8. Now I should say, this is an exceptional patch. Most was around 4 feet this year. But still...pretty damn impressive.

The summer pasture has grown in nicely as well, and 4 cows, 4 calves, a yearling bull, 3 yearling steers and a yearling heifer are getting fat and sassy on thick, tall grass. It would be nice to have about 30 more head over there to take advantage of the good forage but at the same time...just letting it die and decompose will help regenerate soil that has been sorely tested by drought the last few years.

I think that's as far as I'll go in updating tonight. Next time I'll talk about the mixed blessing that has been the garden this year.

Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters. I hope you have been, and continue to be, well and good.

Here Comes The Rain Again

2011-07-14T01:29:00.004-06:00

1:30 am and I am sitting here listening to the end of a big thunderstorm. This one was a doozy, louder and flashier than I've seen in years here. And it dumped at least another half inch of rain, or is dumping I should say. Maybe more like an inch. And it was finally starting to dry up a little today...

After several years of dryer than normal, this year has become just the opposite. This is now probably the wettest year I can remember. We've just finished about 4 days of rainfall warnings, with many areas on flood alert and at least one small town actually flooded. One creek that I drive by many days on my way to and from the farm, was flowing right at the edges of its banks.

Thankfully the farm is not in much flood danger. It would take a LOT of water to fill our lake to the point of overflowing, to the point of needing to build an ark if there has been that much rainfall. But it is still delaying grain crop growth and keeping us from getting off what is actually a fine growth of hay. A fine growth that will just go to waste if we cannot get it off.

This is the main dilemma in modern farming. At any scale you are still at the total mercy of nature. And if this is indeed the sign of things to come, are we ever in for some trouble. This is also the ongoing theme of what I have mainly been thinking about these days; just how hard is it going to get to survive even here in Canada?

With our short growing season a failed crop, or inability to harvest, would make for a very long and hungry winter if it was not for food shipped from great distances. This is especially so for people who are relatively remote. Being just north of the 55th parallel, we in the Grande Prairie area do not feel very remote in these days of relatively cheap and easy travel. But take away our cheap energy and we are most definitely in the boonies. It's a long and soggy walk to just about anywhere. We do have a good amount of oil and gas in the ground but its mostly headed out of the area as fast as possible. And all that oil and gas doesn't help anyone without a stable economic situation to extract, process and transport it.

My primary and personal concern is still the weather, however. If this excessive instability IS consistent in the long term, or gets worse, the horrible famine in Somalia is just an example of what is to come.

More on this line of thinking is on the way but its now 2 am and I best try to sleep.

Goodnight Mary Ellen.

Pasture 360 Degree View

2011-06-28T22:26:00.003-06:00

This is a 360 degree view from the south entrance to our home summer pasture. I say "our" but it belongs to the county now and our lease may end this year. With the potential sale of the home quarter, we've not yet discussed extending our lease. I've written about this before but the main impetuses to selling are rather obviously visible in this video.

Right now this isn't great pasture as the last few years have been very dry and it was only ever marginal, marshy land that couldn't be broken for crops. Even the surrounding fields contain a lot of clay and don't produce the best crops, but they have already been seeded back into hay and with a few years of intensive managed grazing, I think they could be turned into fantastic pasture.

Pardon the shakiness but I can only take video with my Fujifilm digital camera and I was being mobbed by ravenous mosquitos.

Grande Prairie Grass Fed Beef Update

2011-06-21T00:20:00.003-06:00

Well, for the first time since I have lived back up here, some 6 and a half years now, we have received a good hard rain. Around 3 days and probably 3 or 4 inches worth. Makes me wish he had a LOT more rainwater storage capability out at the farm. But mostly I'm just very, very grateful for the moisture and trying not to get greedy by hoping for a week or two of nice warm weather and then a few more showers.

I AM hoping that all this rain has been spread around to where it has been needed even more than where we are, places that have been afire or even just parched to the point of real worry about crops, pastures and woodlands.

Around 10 days ago though, we had just an amazingly beautiful day. Clear, calm, hot (especially considering our latitude), and not even too bad for mosquitoes. So lovely that I took my camera along for the walk to move the cattle over to their day pasture. I figured I would take some update pictures of the calves to share here.

These are the first two calves that were born this spring. Both are doing very well but clicking for the larger view should show just how muscular the lighter Blonde bull is getting. Impressive genetics indeed. The heifer is lovely as well, and looking like she will be a good herd addition.

The larger bull here is pretty special as well. A couple of weeks younger than the calves pictured above, this bull is pretty much the same size now. I'd just loooove to have about 20 versions of his mother at about 5 yrs old, or I guess a big pile of gold might be alright too.

Lickerish's bull, the little one of the group, is still lagging behind. He wasn't eating well for awhile but Dad nursed him along and now he is eating as voraciously as his siblings. I am betting that by summer's end he is just about as large as the rest, other than the Blonde who is likely to be massive by then. Click on the lower picture for another good look. That Blonde is one damn fine specimen.

2 of the next 4 beeves which will go to processing are looking good as well. The other two will dress out lean but probably quite light. They are twins whose mother had but one chamber of her udder working. She spent a few weeks trying to "lose" one of them, that one went on to steal from two other nursing cows and actually ended up the larger of the twins. In the wild, if she had managed to both survive and retain fertility she would likely have gone on to mother a line of very hardy animals. However it is highly unlikely that she will be fertile therefore she is likely to be processed. Kind of a shame but these things happen. As I said earlier, in the wild she would likely have been predator food within the first two weeks. With us she will have lived into maturity in the fresh air, on the side of the lake readers can see elsewhere on this blog.

Anyway, that's all for now I think. More to come on our grass fed beef and some ideas for the future.

What's She Doing In There?

2011-06-15T21:11:00.004-06:00

It was a really nice surprise to learn that a good friend and co-worker from my years in the Edmonton theatre scene has been operating a blog. Angie Sotiropoulos is an excellent artist and technician who shares some nifty projects both from her career and her home life. Since we have not been much in contact in a few years, it was great to learn that Angie is one of the increasing amount of people who are actively concerned about our planet and trying to live in balance.

For a bit of a peek behind the scenes in the Edmonton theatrical arts community, into backstage theatre itself, and into the mind and activities of a very cool person, I highly suggest that folks visit What's She Doing in There.

Thanks for sharing, Angie, and thanks for giving me a reminder of the community I miss often.

To George!

Saskatoon Boom

2011-06-05T23:27:00.004-06:00

Despite the flirtation with further drought, and devastating forest fires to the north and east, we have actually had quite a lovely spring here in our part of the Peace Country. The large amount of east winds over the last half of winter meant that much snow drifted up into the brush and then slowly melted, leading to the potential for a bumper crop in saskatoon berries this year. Fence and brush lines are white with saskatoon blossoms, more than I ever remember seeing before. My parents don't remember so many before either.

This is just one patch of berry bushes just beyond our property. I may upload a video I took while driving slowly, just to give a better idea of the saskatoon explosion happening this year.

A big difference this year from larger snowfall years in the past is probably the fact that we have had no frost this spring(a very rare situation) so provided we continue to get some precipitation here and there we should be able to harvest a huge amount. I have been checking fence over at the summer pasture half section in preparation for moving some of the herd over there, and it looks like there are a lot more berries on the way there.

For those who do not know of the Saskatoon berry, it is a delicious purple little berry kind of like a blueberry. Apparently it is full of anti-oxidants and it also happens to taste amazing. Picking sessions always result in a group of people with full bellies and purple lips and fingertips.

The nice and slow spring thaw, combined with warm sunny days and frost free nights have led to plenty of wild flowers as well. This meadow looks like it has been covered in hail but they are actually tiny white flowers, perhaps some kind of buttercup.

The haze that can be seen in the distance is smoke from the aforementioned forest fires. We have had some good moisture over the last couple of days so I am hoping this put at least a dent in all the burning. I have not written about it but some readers may be aware that a small city about 2 hours from here was 40% consumed by wildfire just about two weeks ago. I cannot begin to imagine what those folks have been through but it certainly does leave me thankful for what we have.

On The Flip Side

2011-05-26T13:44:00.004-06:00

As nice a day as Monday was, in one aspect it was also a fairly typical Monday (in the way that Mondays have a rep for being bad).

My aunt had come to visit for the weekend, and had brought a DVD along with her. On this DVD was some footage that I never knew existed. It turns out that back in the 60's my uncle (Dad and this aunt's brother) had bought a movie camera and brought it to the farm a few times over a 4 year period. So this DVD contained footage of the farm and family from various visits between 1961 to 1965.

It amazes me how different was the land back then. There were FAR fewer trees than now, which surprised me a great deal. We now have great stands of willows where water lies late into the year. Very little of these willows existed back then but the old scraggly (or even dead by now) poplars we see now were young and thriving then. The lake itself looked much more lush and green as it contained more water than now, for more of the year. There was enough water that there is one shot of my father and his little nephew in a flat bottom boat, about to head out to check muskrat traps.

I had no idea this footage existed and I think I enjoyed watching it even more than Dad did. For him, it was partly a reminder of some very very hard work with a much much lower quality of life than now. As an example, the house I grew up in was standing then, and lived in, but they had already had 2 other houses burn down. Then factor in the days of work from sun up to sundown, and beyond, and it is already a far harder life than I live now. But for me, it was a chance to see a bit more of the history of this piece of land that means so much to me.

But, back to the typical Monday story. Obviously I wanted a copy of this DVD, both for my parents but definitely for myself. Not the smallest reason for wanting a copy was the desire to share some of this footage here especially as some of it was footage of harvesting and threshing in operation. So I brought the DVD back here to copy but, as it was my first time doing such a thing, I learned it was a tad more complicated than copying a CD used to be.

The long of it is, I managed to erase the DVD...

My first reaction was a sickening feeling as I envisioned having just erased the only copy of this footage other than the original 8 or 16 mm or whatever kind of film stock it came from. This sense of dread eased a bit as I realized it was not likely that my extended family would put the footage at such risk. Turns out that it had been transferred to VHS and the digital copy taken from that VHS. They still have the VHS tape and the digitalized footage on hard drive so it can be reburned to DVD and all is well. In order to try to make up for the hassle, since I have contacts in the Alberta film community I would try to see if I could find someone local who can digitize from the film stock directly, giving us a much higher quality copy if the tape itself is in good shape...and if it even still exists.

I sure didn't get much sleep that night though, and I will be a lot happier when I have a copy of my own to watch and share.

What a Day!

2011-05-25T23:58:00.005-06:00

Monday was a pretty amazing day, though many people would have a hard time believing that. You see, it was NOT a hot, sunny day and it was a day I spent forking cow shit for around 6 hours.

Yet it was a perfect day for barn cleaning and one could not ask for a nicer setting. We got much needed showers off and on all day and I was working just a few feet from the edge of a large marsh lake that holds a nice amount of water considering it was almost totally dry last fall.

And such sights to behold!

I watched several groups of Canada geese that at one point arranged themselves into two which looked for all the world like armadas facing off. I have no idea how they ended up in that arrangement but it was pretty amazing.

There were a couple of actual aerial battles as well. One of these battles is typical on our lake as a little red winged blackbird attacked and drove off a large raven. You often see these brave little birds fighting off much larger birds of prey, either alone or in pairs.

Much more rare, however, was the scrap I witnessed between two sets of Trumpeter Swans. If you have never seen a Trumpeter swan, you are missing out. These birds are massive, majestic, and incredibly powerful. Anyway, I assume the males of the two pairs got into a fight on the water and then both took off in flight, taking the battle to the air. All four birds circled a couple of time, flying fast at each other and circling to come right over my head a couple of times before flying out over the lake and going their separate ways.

Come to think of it, I guess it could have been an older couple driving last year's offspring off a distance to make room for this year's batch. Either way, what a sight.

Of course there was also the smattering of various ducks and seagulls doing their thing but this is a daily blessing that we tend to take for granted. But there was one more rare-ish sight that day. In the morning as I headed out to do chores, I looked up to see a flock of pelicans circling directly overhead. 15 of the graceful birds had come to our lake to investigate. This is the second big flock we have seen this spring (although admittedly it could be the same group), when we normally only see one or two small flocks later on into summer.

What a day!

Heifers No More

2011-05-18T22:57:00.004-06:00

I promised that my next post would be of a lighter nature so, for today, I am putting off talking about the ongoing dry conditions and large amount of fire damage in much of northern Alberta. Instead, I have a little spring update that I meant to post 3 weeks ago.

Some time back I mentioned that 4 of our bred heifers were due to calve. Well, they were good enough to wait til my parents returned, and they were also good enough to have 4 perfect little calves. All were born without aid and were healthy and strong. Only one is a heifer though, so the other three will be beef after a year or so of grazing, playing and lounging.

Born most recently was this cute fellow. He is the smallest of the 4 but his mother has a lovely full udder so he is likely to grow quickly. Speaking of his mother, Lickerish (who was introduced in a post last year), comes from one of Dad's best cows. Dad figures Lickerish's mother is around 18 years old. That is VERY old for a cow, and she has had an excellent, quiet-natured calf for 17 of those 18 years. She gave a bull this year so Lickerish may be the last of her genetics on the farm when she goes later this year or next year. We always hate to see such fine animals finally leave.

If anything, Lickerish seems even more quiet now that she is a cow.

This cow had the second most recent calf, delivering about 2 or 3 days before Lickerish. She is another cow that Dad has kept for a very long time, almost as long as Lickerish's mother. She lost her calf last year so she is very, very watchful of her young bull this year. This will be her last year with us and it goes without saying that she will be missed. As this year's calf is a bull, we will have no genetics remaining from her.

These were the first two calves from this year's replacement heifers.

The ginger bull in the front is from one of the Blonde D'Aquitaine heifers that were bought last spring. He is growing incredibly quickly and it will be interesting to see how big he is at weaning. His mother had some udder swelling before he was born and it took a few days to abate. As such, she was a bit of a kicker when he would eat and is also something of an aloof mother. Hopefully she gets a little more attentive in the future but it is clear that she has excellent milk.

The white faced heifer in the rear was the first calf born to this year's replacement heifers. We thought her mother would be the last to deliver as she was the smallest in size and belly. If she grows well, she will be the only one of the four that is kept this year, as she is the only heifer.

So in terms of cattle at least, it has been an excellent spring. It is now around 3 weeks after those pictures were taken and all 4 calves are growing nicely. Its always uplifting to see them tearing around the pasture.

Now we just need some rain so the grass will keep growing so their mothers can keep giving them rich milk and stay healthy themselves.

Dirty Future

2011-05-06T10:40:00.003-06:00

Well, the messes are starting to hit closer to home...

The pipeline leak in northwest Alberta, that most North Americans have likely heard of by now, happened around 2 or 3 hours north of me. This 28,000 barrel mess brought immediately to mind the pipeline which runs through our summer pasture property...the lovely little lightly forested piece of wildlife filled wonder that it is. Plus there are 2 pumpjacks operating on the land as well. These land leases have actually been the farm's largest source of income for several years now. I know many farmers now rely on the income from oil and gas activity on their land, most able to close their mind to the myriad of potentially disastrous possibilities. I know Dad thought a great deal before agreeing to accept these leases, and I gave him a very hard time over it as well. But in the end, I agree with his reasoning. They were going through our area no matter what. If we had refused they would have simply put bends in the pipeline or put their pump jacks across the fence and we'd have the danger AND no revenue. So the money was accepted and put to as good use as possible.

But the much larger problem is that these disastrous possibilities are only going to increase in likelihood of occurring as infrastructure that was too rapidly built and installed begins to age and decay. And as peak oil becomes more and more of an issue, the shout for drilling in more and more sensitive areas WILL occur. Last year's Gulf of Mexico disaster was a perfect example, as should be obvious by how quickly that mess has faded from attention. If we cannot shift to demanding less consumption, we will ravage every last corner of this planet for its "resourcees".

Are people waking up quickly enough and in large enough numbers to stave off this ugly, dirty future? Or are we just waiting for another quick fix, happy to sit inside and consume until there is nothing left but to fight over the few remaining scraps?

I will keep working for the former (there is much more that I should do, than I actually do), as I know many will...but I can`t help but feel the latter is what will occur. May we prove this feeling wrong.

More to come on this, I`m sure, though the next post will be of a lighter nature. I promise.

Royal Pain In The ...

2011-04-29T00:16:00.002-06:00

As regular readers are likely to guess, I have had about enough of hearing about the impending "royal" wedding. The only thing I am really curious about is just how many people truly care about this bullshit and are able to feel anything but disgust for the waste that is about to occur. I know some people still buy into the fairy tale but I would really like to know if it is the vast majority that the amount of news coverage seems to suggest. Or are most people like me, wondering why the hell we're supposed to accept that these people are to be so venerated.

But I'm pretty sure that there are a LOT of people who are still caught up in the reality fairy tale. It is just another example of the ongoing and heavily funded cult of celebrity in this part of the world. I can say this though, I live in Canada but I recognize no monarch. I so wish my country would finally grow up and cut its ties to this sadly outdated, even if primarily only symbolic, branch of government.

But I suppose I do have to admit that the dark and/or cynical side of me does wonder if this princess will last longer than the previous one.

Real Wisdom

2011-04-19T17:36:00.004-06:00

These words about responsibility and real leadership ring so loud and true to me. They are the message I want to both share and live, expressed by one with many more winters and much more wisdom than I.

I pray with all I am that we take heed.

Mmmm Supermarket Meat

2011-04-17T10:08:00.003-06:00

Here is more good news for folks who think modern industrial agriculture provides the healthiest food possible.

Now, granted, I think the amount of samples taken on which to base this research is much too small...but the results are no less worrisome. I`m not sure just what it will take to convince North Americans that extra money spent on food raised or grown by decently paid small scale local farmers is well worth having a few less toys to show off to the neighbors.

Lifting The Veil

2011-04-17T00:48:00.002-06:00

Lifting The Veil (viewable on Vimeo by following the link) is a rousing documentary-style presentation that calls to task Obama`s "hope" and "change" rhetoric by summarizing hypocritical appointments to and actions by his administration. Most importantly, this excellent piece is yet another reminder that, and this is an especially important note for we Canadians as we head into yet another federal election, the act of voting is a very small (albeit greatly significant) aspect of being a part of a democratic society. We must wake up and live our lives actively and conscientiously.

There is an excellent segment about halfway through where one speaker makes a remarkably simple yet accurate summation of the current state of affairs; the tiny ownership class of the world population has managed to be able to stop paying laborers higher wages to match higher living expenses and have instead used the massive profits made from keeping labor costs as low as possible to lend the labor class back the shortfalls caused by low wages (WITH interest!), allowing the owner class to profit even more AND granting them greater power over the masses. Realizing this made me work very hard to avoid buying into the typical modern sport of competitive consumption and status hunting.

Also, Chris Hedges fans will enjoy the clip of an excellent speech at the end of the presentation. It alone is worth the watch...reminiscent of the Reverend Dr. King as far as I am concerned. I hope others will find it as share-worthy as I did.

Peace and comfort.

Spring! And Moving Forward?

2011-04-06T23:01:00.003-06:00

Well, it looks like spring has finally started to settle in here in north west Alberta Canada. We have had a good week of sunshine and mild temperatures so the snow is starting to melt nicely. The Canada geese and seagulls have started to return; I actually saw the first goose fly over a week ago. The poor thing must have been worried as there is no water anywhere, it would have been looking down at a whole lot of white.

Like I was saying, all this snow has really been melting and you can tell how much wind we had over the last half of winter as some patches are still feet deep and in other places the ground is already coming through. But you can also tell how very dry it has been as much water is seeping straight into the ground, very very quickly. Unless we have a damp spring, in a couple of months it could look like we had little runoff at all. It will take years of this much snowfall to restore local water levels, including our precious slough. We may find ourselves missing all the mud that we will spend the next couple of weeks slopping around in.

My parents made it back from their trip so the farm has been passed back into their hands. No more prime responsibility for me for now, and despite getting snowed in and wrenching my neck BADLY, there were no real reportable occurrences. No spring calves have yet appeared although 3 heifers and one old cow are looking quite close. Given how badly I strained a group of muscles in my neck, its a damn good thing nothing happened. That first day I was in more pain than I ever remember feeling before. Thank goodness my sister was able to help me with feeding the pigs and cattle that morning, as I don't see how I would have been able to do so all on my own. It was a real lesson in just how hard it would be, trying to run a farm by oneself.

In regards to my sporadic blogging, I suppose I should just say right out that it is unlikely that my posting will accelerate here anytime soon, if at all. I had originally meant for this blog to be a place for me to rant and share some of my passions in a relatively anonymous fashion, and to explore my ideas about balance. I still intend to do these things and sometimes will want to do so anonymously. But I am also feeling a need to be less anonymous for various reasons, not the least being my desire to advertise and write about happenings on the farm and that part of my journey. As such, I am trying to decide just how to move forward.

And its not that I have nothing about which to rant or try to foster conversation. Quite the opposite. There is soooo much shit going on out in the real world, so much to talk about, mourn, even to yell about. So much that I often don't know how to start talking about it here. And I think it might be time for me to stop being quite so much of a chicken shit, and say my piece a little more openly.

A Poem From My Granny

2011-03-21T22:42:00.003-06:00

Its funny how little we often know about people, even those very close to us. For example, I never knew that my Granny was fond of poetry; both reading it and writing it. I can't remember if I found it or if my aunt showed it to me, but I wanted to share this poem that Granny wrote. I do not know when she wrote it but I am guessing it was many years ago.

My home is on a farmstead extending to the shore
Of a shiny little lakesite and who could wish for more
Than the bounty and contentment that such a place affords
With scenery, peace, and freshness as added rewards.

I've been wakened in the morning by the rooster's early call
and been summoned to the barnyard by the calf's discontented bawl
With squealing from the pigsty and the tomcat's hungry meow;
I'm undoubtedly reminded there's lots of work to do.

There's excitement and happenings in a place such as this
From the cheeping of the young turks to the gander's defiant hiss
And George, the cocky rooster, makes you keep your eye askance;
He's eager for a round or two, you can tell that at a glance.

Here's the doleful sound of the seagull, but to harmonize just right
The red-winged blackbird does his part and sings with all his might.
The stately swans and cygnets - birds of every size and hue
Makes the lake seem alive with wildlife the whole night through.

The muskrat cruises through the reeds as her young around her play
And a somber coot with her red eyed pair can be seen any time of day.
The "hilldiver" scurries to and fro with victuals for her two
while the prolific mallard with her brood has even more to do.

There is sewing and reaping from sunrise until sundown
And occasionally things happen to make you wear a frown
But this is secondary to the satisfaction I acquire
When the hungry have been bedded down and I'm ready to retire.

I never knew that Granny felt so much like I do about this place. As long as I can remember, she pretty much only spoke of work that needed doing. I wish I had known this side of her while she was still alive but I'm glad I at least know it now.

Drifted In...Again

2011-03-20T13:48:00.004-06:00

Another March day, another blizzard. At least the temperature is not so low this time, but still should see a couple feet of snow from yesterday until tomorrow, plus enough wind to drift us in nicely. This time, however, I am stuck at the farm as opposed to away from it. With the folks gone for two weeks and a snowfall warning in effect, I decided I'd better stay at the farm last night.

Good thing too. Looks like we're stuck here until at least sometime tomorrow.

Damn La Nina. This needs to wind down soon and let spring come or we're going to have to source out some more bedding and maybe even some hay.

Ah well, such is life in the relatively far north.

Citizens

2011-03-19T23:24:00.002-06:00

This might be the best 10 minute presentation that I have seen to date:

Those who are already awake will find some more good material on the presenter's Youtube channel.

March Ponderings

2011-03-15T22:42:00.003-06:00

As I spend my days looking at the several feet of snow still piled high here in mid-March, and knowing there is likely more to come, it seems as though spring may never come. While I know it may be a cool and damp year, I know that spring will indeed return. And I am thankful to only have a long winter to contend with.

In truth, this long winter is a blessing in some ways. While feed and bedding for the cattle grow short, at least I know we have plenty of moisture for replenishing the horribly dried out marsh lake and for growing this year's crops...assuming we are able to get any in the ground.

I will take this winter, however, over the suffering that seems to be occurring in more and more places every day. Almost every day brings fresh news of some social/geopolitical upheaval or of some new catastrophe in the natural world. As I doubt there is much chance of social unrest in my specific part of the world until Peak Resources really sets in, I can't help but wonder when Mother Nature will direct her displeasure with humanity in this direction.

Maybe spring is not coming after all...

Another SoapBox Update

2011-02-27T23:49:00.004-07:00

I can't believe that this is my first post in February. The reasons vary, I think the greatest being the sheer number of big things to talk about. As usual in this part of the world at this time of the year, however, few of these things are happening here. Yet I feel that this is very much as it should be.

One of the aspects of farming in this part of the world (with our current levels of technology) that I really appreciate, is the downtime that comes with winter. If one desires to retain some simplicity in this increasingly complicated world, it is necessary to accept and enjoy this downtime and to use it appropriately. In the past, I have used this time to educate myself in some new areas and to develop outlets like this blog. But this winter I feel I have slipped back into something of an escapist mode.

I see so much rapid change in the world, from the obvious social reform being demanded (and hopefully won) in North Africa and the Middle East, to the increasing social unrest due to exploding inequality in North America, to increasing tension between various nations due to increasing resource scarcities and/or religious ideologies, to climate craziness thanks to a La Nina cycle that might just be strengthened by our industrial activities, to ecological catastrophes that are most definitely the result of our industrial activities and addiction to fossil fuels. I would certainly like to be part of discussions about all of these issues but I often just don't know where to start.

As such, I thought I would stick with the primarily escapist theme and offer a bit of a brief SoapBox update, albeit a picture-less one this time around.

I've been doing a slow vermicompost harvest over the past few weeks and it looks like I'm going to go into spring planting with about 4 10-litre pails of good, moist worm castings. It is a little more moist that I would prefer, but I'm not sure how to do much better in the rubbermaid tub environment. I really hope I can figure out a way to take the next step up in scale. Lord only knows we have the shit to feed a good amount of manure worms. On a side note here, I am now a great fan of the molded packing filler made from shredded cardboard. It makes fantastic bedding, whereas the polystyrine and other oil derived packing fillers are just chemical waste as far as I am concerned. I just tore these molded filler pieces up like I do drink trays and it works like a charm. I hope people understand what I'm referring to here as I have had no luck finding a picture or some kind of reference online, to show what I mean.

While the future of our cattle herd is somewhat uncertain, its age has decreased significantly. A period of melting last week allowed us to take advantage of strong prices and sell 3 old cows. These animals had been on the farm for nearly 20 years so it was somewhat sad to see them go, and it is my sincere hope that they came to as humane an end as possible. One of them was a bit of a knot-head that liked to boss the others around, but the other two were quite gentle and all delivered many many excellent calves. We are now just a few weeks from a nervous period, as 4 heifers will be calving for the first time and I may be the only one around to monitor the activities. It'd be my first time being of prime responsibility at such a time.

Actually, it should be 5 heifers but one of the Blonde D'Aquitaine's we bought last year is having a difficult time conceiving. I think she'd be solidly on the selling list now but for the fact that the bull we have now is young and small and seems like he might still be a bit hit and miss in the breeding department. She seems a bit immature in that area still, being quite skittish when he tries to mount, plus she is quite tall and has what I think is an odd angle of "entry". Her sister, however, is heavy in calf and has filled out beautifully. If she calves well, in a year or two she is likely to be our largest and best looking cow. There will be pictures of her here before too long, likely after she calves.

Our feeder hogs have done nicely too, and are starting to be ready for butchering. Its kind of a bad time as we still have quite a bit of snow and March can be kind of stormy. Thankfully we are not selling at market so we don't have to worry about being docked if they are a but over weight. We are also trying a new butcher that is almost an hour away as we are quite sure the big local butcher did not give us our own bacon last year. The bacon we got was fatty and substandard and there's just no way it came from the fit young animals we delivered. But with the price of fuel spiking again, this could prove to be a costly experiment. Any butchers want to start a small shop in northwest Alberta?

It's getting to be rather late here so I think I will leave the update here. I will see about sharing some pictures soon, I promise.

So for now, peace and comfort to all.

Magic Snow Balls

2011-01-25T23:37:00.006-07:00

Every so often, here in the frozen north, conditions are just right for a curious phenomenon (I suggest clicking on the pictures for a larger view).

Nope, we weren't attempting to create winter lawn bowling with snowballs. This phenomenon can sometimes occur when we get a deep snowfall in cool temperatures, followed by a rise in temperature to just above freezing, accompanied by a strong warm wind. As you might imagine, these conditions do not occur with much regularity. The last time I remember seeing this happen, I was probably around 13 or 14 and it happened at night. It was also much larger in scale. So we woke up the next day to fields of snow covered in snowballs ranging from around baseball size up to perhaps volleyball size, all with a long trail marking their creation. I wish I had a picture from back then, but these were taken just a couple of days ago.

Pretty cool, huh?

Snow Day 2

2011-01-17T00:35:00.002-07:00

Well, after a night of more snow and no grader work done on the farm road, it was a second day of not being at the farm. It snowed all day and is still coming down so its hard to say if I will even get there tomorrow. Looking out at the parking lot and my buried truck, I'm not sure I'll be able to get out. Just another sign that I should be living out there.

When I do get out there, I can tell I will be blowing a shitload of snow. Having said this, I suppose I have little room to complain as its nowhere near the amount of snow that has fallen out east. And the forecast is for above freezing temperatures later in the week so I will be able to use the tractor to clear a lot of snow away. I may wish I had put the chains on though.

Oh well, we'll see what it will be.

Peace and comfort, all.

Adult Snow Day

2011-01-15T16:23:00.003-07:00

So, the phone rings this morning, about 45 minutes before I would normally head to the farm for the day. Turns out there was enough snowfall over night, combined with drifting, that my little 2 wheel drive truck would likely not make it down the road from the highway. So I am having my first day "off" in a few months.

Now while this did make me smile, it was a very guilty smile and I do not really like the time off because it means most of what I normally do has to be done by my should-be-retired parents...plus using the snow-blower to open the paths and road up so that these chores can be done. Not only that, but its still pretty cold here at -27 C. But at least its not windy like yesterday where the windchill had the temperature down around -37 C (although I swear it felt colder at times).

Still, I must say that I feel an exhilaration being outside even in those conditions, an exhilaration that I do not recall in my youth. Back then it would have been hard to get me outside at all, never mind enjoying it so much. Now, I must point out that in a lot ways we are operating little more than a hobby farm at this point. We are tending to less than 20 head of cattle, 6 hogs, and around 130 chickens. This can still be a fair amount of work though, when real winter returns like this. For example, it will have taken at least 2 hours to clear the driving areas of snow today. This must be done whenever there is enough snowfall or drifting, such has been the case twice this week. I know this kind of thing is faced by farmers all over the north, and I am not complaining, merely pointing out that at this time of year the smaller amount of animals we have does not necessarily mean a lot less work.

From a certain perspective though, I still have things pretty easy. I'm generally only out there for 5 or 6 hours a day during the winter. I was doing just 2 or 3 as that was enough to do the lion's share of the work that needed doing, but when I realized that putting the calves and their mothers back in at night was taking dad around an hour...when it just takes me minutes...I decided to find ways to fill in the couple of hours until the early evening when they need to go back in. So now, to fill in that extra time, I have been building a fire in the wood stove in the old house that I grew up in. I then "cook" up some rolled barley for mom's chickens, giving them a warm meal for their gizzards once a day. This seems to be really helping them to lay more regularly during what is becoming a bit of a cold winter. We have our two male barn cats in the old house while a stray female is around, and they just love it when that fire gets stoked up. One of them sits on the oven door, basking in the direct heat from the oven. The fatter one sits on top of the stove until it gets too hot for his feet, then he gets up on the adjacent pantry, laying up there snoozing and absorbing the less intense heat. I must remember to take some pictures of these handsome, if nosy, young fellows, though I have been meaning to do so for months.

But back to my snow day, after a bit of a guilty nap, I figured I should take advantage of the time home to catch up on some cleaning in the kitchen and general tidying. Nowhere near all that should be done, but some of the blatant tasks. I also had the chance to have a look at my one operating worm bin here at the condo. The few worms I brought out from the farm seem to be doing quite well but I see I must bring some more. I also rooted through the one finished bin, loosening the wet castings up so that some of the moisture can evaporate, as well as fishing out 5 or 6 worms that still remained. It never ceases to amaze me how long worms can survive with very little attention, even in finished castings.

I'm quite excited about the amount of castings that I have for the next growing season. All together I must gave enough to fill one large Rubbermaid tub, although it is all quite wet so could be mashed into quite a dense little clump if that is what I wanted...which I do not. Suffice it to say, there is easily 3 times as much as we had last year, which yielded a very nice tomato patch. In addition, I found a naturally occurring deposit of worm castings in one of our old barns late this fall. These worms had been protected by a thick pile of plywood which had been forgotten and left laying flat over a thick layer of cow manure. So before the snow fell I was able to gather about 6 large sacks of dry fluffy worm castings...just perfect and ready for the garden come spring. This should mean one kick ass garden this year. I'm kind of excited.

Back to my day off. Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters.

A New Year Song

2011-01-07T21:21:00.005-07:00

I've had this Youtube video open on my browser since before Christmas, as I waited for the right way to share its meaning for me.

Listening to it again now, I realize that it suits this New Year time quite well. For me, the new year period is a time of reflecting on what has been and what may come. This song just rings with that message.

And then it is a special song to me for another reason as well.

You see, I first heard this song on the local country music radio station, somewhere in the early 90's. It was credited to a new duo on the Canadian music scene, Bourne and Macleod. At the time, the song struck me as quite beautiful and I found Bill Bourne's voice to be very original.

A couple of years later, I was at a nearby summer music festival known as the North Country Fair. I had never heard of this event until a good friend went and returned with many fun tales. The Fair is something very rare in Alberta, a very "hippy" sort of folk-ish little festival in rural Northern Alberta. It's local nickname is actually The Hippy Fair. Turns out that attending this festival was a sort of magical part of what was probably the most fun summer of my life, to date...kind of my summer of '69 I guess. I won't try to share how just amazing a weekend this was, but for now I'll just say that Bill Bourne was performing at this festival so I had a chance to see the top hat and funky glasses wearing musician live. As I recall, he was playing with Shannon Johnson. Anyway, I know I heard him play this song at the festival. I also got to learn that he was as enjoyable live as canned.

Fast forward a couple more years, to my first year working for the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. Back then the office and technical staff had plenty of socializing/fraternizing opportunities and I had developed a rather large crush on the cute volunteer coordinator. One Friday night we were hosting a fundraiser concert and I went, quite excited at the chance to chat her up a bit. Not only that but one of my favorite musicians of the time, Bill Bourne, was going to be playing. It was sure to be a good night.

Well I showed up to the event and, after chumming with some friends, went looking for the focus of my crush...only to be crushed myself when I found her at a table with some office staff...cuddled up to...you guessed it...Bill Bourne. Suddenly one of my favorite musicians feels like the enemy. I gotta say, that was a pretty uncomfortable moment. I was so put off that I didn't even go over to meet the man.

Anyway, I've never run into him since. Which is surprising in a way, since I have worked with so many other Canadian artists in one way or another. If I had taken the offered gig at the local college though, I'd have worked one of his performance last year.

Funny how these things go sometimes isn't it?

But yeah, it seems like a good song for this time of the year. My thanks to the person who shot and uploaded this video. If only I could find one of Bourne and Macleod themselves.

The Last Straw?

2010-12-15T18:13:00.004-07:00

It's probably about time to try to talk about what is likely the straw to break the back of Jackson's Corner Farm, before it even officially exists as such. I've wanted to write about this since this last spring, but I'm still not just sure how to start. I guess the only way is to just start typing and see what happens.

I had originally thought to present via images but it will likely soon become clear as to why I've decided to forgo this plan, for now at least.

You see the thread began in the spring of '09 in that as I was driving to the farm one morning I saw that the neighbor was using a massive new tractor. I stopped to snap some pictures as this neighbor exemplifies the modern industrial farming method. This family rents large parcels of farmland in the area, each massive field containing one crop such as barley, wheat, canola. They have a yard down the road that must contain at least $3 to $5 million in equipment and sheds. Then there are at least two massive granary complexes, one in the yard near us and another about 10 miles away. Now these are not as large as a regional shipping facility, but still very large complexes. I cannot begin to imagine what their credit tallies must look like.

Anyway, the point is that this picture is of a massive tracked tractor with cultivator and trailing fertilizer applicator working a specific corner of a field that is adjacent to our last field. Later that year, their field was surveyed and a large section along the train tracks was staked off. Obviously there was going to be some kind of development here but details were sketchy and I didn't personally investigate at all. So this last spring, on a similar trip to the farm, I noticed that work was beginning on the part of the staked area that was in the aforementioned picture. All summer long we watched work progress, and 2 massive steel tanks were eventually built. Everyone in the area wondered what was going on over there, the general consensus being that some kind of asphalt facility was being built. Whatever it was going to be, I doubted it was going to be terribly healthy to live near, never mind grow food beside.

Finally, some signage went up on the chain link fence and sure enough, this is phase one of a Colasphalt facility. Highways are great and all, but I wonder just how many toxic chemicals go into making them. So then we find out through a notice in the newspaper, that they have dug two wells on their property and so they plan to take all their water from less than a mile from us and not far from many neighbors who use water wells.

A small group of these people have come together with various concerns, the more astute of them realizing that there are some significant risks to air, water and soil. Unfortunately, some of the more vocal people in this group are arguing that we must choose between trying to defer the building of the final two phases of the facility, and having any influence over the situation at all. I can't help but find this position terribly frustrating for several reasons, one of the biggest being the fact that this is a huge corporation and I'm hard pressed to believe they will do anything other than cut every corner possible in the interest of maximizing profit.

This might be a bit shallow and perhaps even hypocritical but a large issue, as far as I am concerned at least, is the destruction of property values, particularly for my family as we will now be sandwiched between a landfill sited directly up wind and this asphalt facility. Even if a decision is made to sell, it is seems likely that it will bring but a fraction of what such well kept and formerly well located land should be worth.

All in all, I find it a rather depressing situation. I know it is a situation that is occurring all over the world but it blows my mind and pisses me off royally that so few seem concerned about the situation. I wonder, as I think I've commented before, if the concentration of apathy is not much higher here, being primarily a resource extraction economy. It's time to start thinking more realistically about where to go, what to do. Or maybe I'm wrong. It is possible that peak oil could significantly harm the viability of this facility and if things start to grind to a halt around 2015, perhaps all is not yet lost.

*deep breath*

Ah well, that's enough thinking on it for one day. Peace to all.

No More White Hats

2010-12-06T15:59:00.002-07:00

This is hardly a new analogy but when I was growing up, in the late 70's and 80's, it always seemed that WW2 had shown that the world is split into the good and the bad. The White Hats and the Black, if one is a fan of the American Western (as I most definitely must admit to being). The Black Hats were the Fascist and then the Communist countries while the White Hats were worn by the west. USA was The Lone Ranger (with a healthy mix of Jesus) and I guess Britain was Tonto. I think mine was pretty much the last generation to have this image of the US as the rotten parts (being involved in setting up "friendly" dictatorships, for example, no matter how brutal) were starting to become more and more known.

I began to see my own country, Canada, as one of the last White Hats, perhaps even a potential Marshall. But soon enough it became obvious that our proximity to the failing hero was leading to our own corruption. It could be argued that when manufacturing drove the western empire, Ontario was where US influence really took hold in Canada. NAFTA gained its foothold this way and now that natural resources and energy have taken over, Alberta seems to be the strongest connection.

So I look around now and don't see much white anywhere, other than snow...

China looks to be setting itself up as the dominant Superpower, with Brazil, India and Russia looking to show some competition, but can any of these countries be looked to as leaders in the fields of Freedom, Integrity, Wisdom, or Respect (especially for our environment)?

Things are so crazy that before too long we'll probably need to get someone's approval for (and pay the requisite fee/bribe) just to use the analogy of White or Black Hats. Sometimes its awful easy to see why those who remain "asleep" choose to do so.

Man Proves Naked Body Scans AND GropeDowns Are Unconstitutional

2010-11-24T01:27:00.003-07:00

Just in case this isn`t all over the news, I figured I would share this little ray of sunshine here.

A traveler with the time and patience seems to have used common sense and civil discussion in order to avoid being naked body scanned OR "intimately" patted down in order to return to the US. It seems that perhaps there is some tiny glimmer of hope in this increasingly insane world after all.

My Oh My

2010-11-06T22:32:00.002-06:00

What a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine and all that jazz.

Seriously, it was an absolutely gorgeous day here in our part of northwest Alberta. Actually, it was an even nicer day two days ago until a strong wind came up and made it kind of miserable. But no such wind today thankfully, just sunshine and a mild temperature.

It wasn't even marred by having my leg gnawed on for awhile by 2 young sows. Nor was it really disrupted by the nasty business that caused my leg to receive the gnawing. The managing factor of our little family farm is not to be discouraged from the necessity of castrating boar pigs meant for slaughter, in order to avoid "boar taint" in the meat, so today was the day to get started. Thank goodness we only have the two young boars.

For those who don't know what I mean, there is a long standing thought that male pig, or boar, meat is not really fit for consumption due to a strong and unpleasant flavor. As such, boars meant to be meat are generally castrated before they reach sexual maturity. But this is a rather barbaric and distasteful action, pretty much the least favorite job for any farmer. So over time, breeding has reduced the occurrence of "boar taint" to the point where many feel castration is unnecessary. There is an excellent post on the Sugar Mountain Farm blog which discusses this topic in more detail. I highly recommend both the post and the blog itself.

But, on our farm, the barbarism continues for now. And with this batch of pigs I think that might actually have been necessary as there is a good chance that these young swine contain wild boar genetics as recently as their father (either that or their grandfather). I know the the boar we operated on today smelled quite strong and it would certainly be bad to have the meat ruined. Luckily, all went as well as possible and the young fellow went right to eating and seems to be recovering well in his spacious and newly constructed pen. Tomorrow or the next day, his pen mate will be done as well and in a week they'll have forgotten the whole affair.

But back to the more pleasant topic, I'm hoping that we'll all have more of this lovely weather to enjoy as it is allowing us to catch up on a lot of little jobs. Usually we have a foot of snow by now and we'd be settling into the winter routine. But this can last until after Christmas as far as I am concerned!

As always, peace and comfort to all.

The Coca Cola Case

2010-10-10T18:37:00.004-06:00

Here is another documentary that should probably be spread far and wide:

I fear it shows what is simply the start of a dire struggle by multi-national corporations (and their millions of shareholders) to maintain the status quo of constant growth. Most disturbing to me is the ideology of the students who seemed so very sure that the murder of workers and union leaders is just a by-product of the invisible hand of the almighty "free" market. Its hard to find any other explanation for this acceptance except that they refuse to see that in our "free" market so many of these entities seem to have reached a point where they can basically do whatever they want...simply ignoring or changing laws which do not suit their desires at the moment. These supporters are apparently content that their acceptance of this situation will give them the opportunity to achieve more power and ability to consume more than enough other people that they feel they are winning. They have chosen to deny the fact that this type of competition holds us back as a species, that it does real damage to the life supporting potential of our world.

Must Be The Anthopper

2010-09-24T01:34:00.003-06:00

I have not written in much too long, other than to drop the odd video or something. I apologize for this, but the fact is that I have felt like little would come out but negativity. This is not to say, once again, that I see nothing positive or uplifting. Its just that those occurrences are so rare next to those when I feel almost overwhelming negativity both from close up and far away.

Thankfully, at this time none of this negativity is coming from the direction of family. I'm not sure why but even my father seems...well for lack of a better word, positive. Even after having our combine break down just as it seems as though the weather would let us get off what little crop we have this year thanks to what might be the only drought in Canada this year, followed up by enough regular rain to keep grain harvest at bay. I think that's because he has decided, to himself anyway, that no matter whether I take over or not, next year will be his last year farming. I think he is at peace with that and I can't say as I blame him...although I still think there is enough life left in my parents that they will be around to get a taste of the hardship that is coming. And I so would like to prevent them from suffering from it, if possible.

There is the ongoing negative pressure of trying to exist in an area that is oriented primarily around natural resource extraction, sited next to what is becoming a major regional landfill on one side and a big ass asphalt storage facility on another side. (This is a new development this year and I'm quite sure I will be writing in more detail on this subject soon).

Despite the local worries, my concerns are lately returned to being much more macro in scale. I am finding it difficult to continue to commit to some plan of action in regards to the future, when more and more often the signs show a very dark future looming. Sparks are once again flying pretty heavily between the East and the West and religious bigotry seems to be on a dramatic increase. Our failing global economy, seemingly guided purposefully by a few ultra rich in order to become ubermegaultra rich, is sure to lead to increasing tension and quite potentially both right and left wing despots.

The ever increasing class disparity coupled with and perhaps caused by the ascension of multi-national corporate entities to a place of power rivaling that of perhaps all individual nations, never mind individual humans, means it is arguable that we have created a neo-feudalism. These corporations employ emotional manipulators to advertise us into going to war in order to maintain the freedom to buy more and more "stuff" that is usually of significantly decreasing quality. Much of our very food and "medicine", created by these corporations, are actually proving to be deadly both to humans and our environment. How much chance does there seem to be, that our oceans will contain even a fraction of the life there even now, never mind 5000 years ago? It is our submission to this idea of constant economic growth and the glimmer of "hope" that we might drag ourselves out of the shit in order to reach the heights of the truly "successful" in the world. Those accumulators who now feel their accumulation makes them more finely evolved and thereby worthy of running the world, as if we could ever manage such a thing.

Its often hard to believe they will stop before they kill us all.

It is so tempting to return to seeking as much leisure and relaxation as possible, to just letting the bullshit play out and hoping the end comes fast and without too much misery and suffering for too many people. I try not to forget that this is the path to more misery and suffering eventually. I guess the answer is to try to make myself an anthopper, the best parts of both the ant and the grasshopper.

That cheesy enough for ya?

Ah well, onward and upward eh?

The Invasion of Sweet

2010-09-03T10:46:00.003-06:00

I apologize for foisting yet another video onto folks, but this presentation is pretty important. Most of us have heard that High Fructose Corn Syrup is "bad", but how many of us really understand why...beyond the high potential that it contains transgenic modifications? This presentation, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, offers up biochemical understanding of how vitally dangerous is the flood of Fructose and Sucrose into the North American (and more and more the global) diet. There is some good explanation as to why fiber is so important in our diet as well, especially when it is so near impossible to avoid fructose/sucrose nowadays.

The presentation is an hour and a half long but the time goes quite quickly thanks to the skills of a vibrant presenter and the information is vital. It is revitalizing my intention to bring my diet more fully back into proper balance.

Spread the wealth!

Another Gift From Mother Nature

2010-08-27T17:13:00.004-06:00

Earlier this summer, I saw a creature that I had never seen before. As I was standing next to our little greenhouse, watering some plants as I recall, this curious creature came flying toward me. At first I thought it was a hummingbird but not having seen one of those before, in person, I was not totally sure. Yet the critter hovered around me, there were two large planters of fresh blooming flowers on the table and it flitted from blossom to blossom, giving me a very good view of itself. I noticed that it was not feathered, which discouraged my thinking it was a hummingbird, yet it was of a size similar to my understanding of hummingbirds, and it flew in just the same way...beating its wings so fast as to make them seem just a blur. Instead of feathered, it seemed to have bristles like an insect and it also seemed to furl and unfurl a long proboscis (like a butterfly) instead of having a long beak.

So when I got home that evening I did some research and discovered that I had been graced by the presence of a hummingbird moth:

(Image courtesy of Ontariowildflower.com)

Interesting looking critter isn't it?

Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters

Some Lighter Notes

2010-08-24T23:59:00.003-06:00

As a stagehand and lighting technician I have worked a great number of concerts, from small to quite large. But for all these shows, I have not had the chance to work on a production by what might well be my favorite band of all...and I would never make such a statement lightly.

Anyone who is unaware of the Dave Mathews Band would do well to have a listen, I think. Not only are they fantastic musicians playing some extremely well written music and lyrics, but they are big supporters of Farm Aid. Gosh how I'd love to be able to see them in an agricultural awareness fundraiser on our farm!! I have some neat (although now distant) connections which makes me wonder if I might not have some slim chance to at least get a letter to them.

I think this might be one of the most beautiful, if also most sad, songs of all time. I just love it.

Farmstock 2012...has a neat ring to it huh?

Ahhhh ain't fantasizing fun?

By the way, thanks to those who uploaded the videos and I hope the Band forgives them and me for sharing. I will offer some excellent produce in exchange, if they are willing to pick up!

View From The Bottom Of The Slippery Slope

2010-08-14T21:23:00.002-06:00

If you can, please take 45 minutes of your time to watch this piece; Children of the Secret State.

I hope others will find it as important to spread around as I do. Beyond that, I will only comment in the comment section as I don't want to influence anyone's impression before they watch it.

Homo Toxicus

2010-07-29T23:46:00.004-06:00

Think the Gulf mess is all but over?

In thinking about a title for this post, I thought I had come up with a clever little idea...Homo Toxicus. Turns out its already been done.

The Story of Your Enslavement

2010-07-20T23:12:00.003-06:00

I couldn`t have said it better myself.

Garden 2010

2010-07-18T23:17:00.005-06:00

As promised, here is a quick look at our garden here in NW Alberta, Canada. We`re at about 55 degrees Latitude, for reference. Our soil is decent for the most part, though there is a lot of clay so we have had to add a lot of organic matter.

The pictures were taken in late June, I`m just really late posting them. I will put up some updates soon as there have certainly been changes.

This little patch has always been one of the productive parts of our garden. We could put a lot more into it, but my parents have developed a pattern of spacing wide enough between each row that the rototiller can pass through. I do make little exceptions here and there, like the patch of garlic in the top right corner. It is double rowed and each pair of rows is only spaced about 18" apart, just wide enough to move for weeding and hilling.

The productive qualities of this patch mean it usually gets seeded with things we want to start eating as early as possible and grow 2 or 3 crops. Down at the bottom you can see some weeds left in a row that had contained radishes. By the time this picture was taken we had already consumed two rows of spinach as well as some of the Romaine lettuce which can be seen.

Garlic is a new addition to our garden. I decided to try growing it this year after reading on the Sugar Mountain Farm blog that garlic is an effective de-worming agent for pigs. Plus I am fond of roasted garlic/bell pepper seasoning so I want to try to make my own over the next couple of years.

This view shows most of the rest of the garden, looking north. The picture is taken from the other side of a small cabin that my Granny used to live in. The cabin basically turns the garden into an upside down Y. It does extend further behind where this picture was taken but the ground was wet from the sprinkler so I didn`t go as far back as I could have. There is basically a large patch of tomato sets, some cabbage sets and a couple more rows of radish. Probably something else that I cannot remember as well.

Speaking of the sprinkler, here it is in action. Here you can see our one long row of beets. Up top and to the left are some broccoli and more cabbage. To the right are two long rows of bush beans.

Here are the beans again, then one row of peas (now producing finally!). You can see a couple of volunteer sunflowers as this is where mom had two rows of sun flowers last year. One the other side of the peas are two rows of potatoes, the first ones we planted. They have been hilled well and I wish I had the time to bring more dirt to them to have buried the plants one more time. The soil here is probably the healthiest in the garden right now so I think we could have got a LOT of potatoes out of those two rows. As it is they should still do pretty well. We ought to be eating from them soon actually.

Next are a couple of rows of mom`s begonia bulbs from last year, but they didn`t winter very well and so they are not coming along terribly well either. I think they don`t like such a clay based soil. The picture shows another couple of rows of cucumbers from seed, then a couple of rows of zucchini and pumpkin, both of which are exploding now.

This year`s sunflowers are doing fairly well too. As is the swiss chard next door to them. On the other side of the chard are three more double rows of peas. I still think we should have done a couple more double rows.

There is another patch of potatoes in there but they were quite small still so I didn`t take any pictures of it. Then comes my 2010 corn patch. Last year`s patch produced very well but mom felt that it didn`t freeze very well so we tried a different variety in the big patch this year. The center two rows contain runner beans as well as I had some seed remaining after seeding my Three Sisters mounds. They are out-growing the corn now!

This is the view from the north end of the garden, back towards the south. You can see the small cabin that I mentioned earlier, as well as the Three Sisters mounds down at the bottom of the picture. Down by my feet are about 3 more rows of leaf lettuce and yet a couple more rows of radish.

And that`s basically it. I`ll take some more pictures and update soon.

Peace and comfort.

A Positive Report

2010-07-13T16:08:00.002-06:00

It has been pointed out to me recently, including a response to one of my recent rants, that (and these are my words) I must find pause to remember the importance of balance. Even as the world goes crazy, on both micro and macro levels, we must not dwell totally on the negative. In my case, I must remember that it is not being unrealistic to look for and acknowledge the positive that is always present.

Now I don't mean to be too hard on myself. This blog is one of my outlets for negativity so there are just going to be times when the tone here is negative, especially as the world grows more dark. And one thing I will never do is sugar coat reality, that is not true positivity.

Yet I must remember to work towards balance, including here. There have certainly been positive occurrences in the time I have been writing here. In terms of the blog itself, I have met many very interesting and relatively like-minded people. This has been so very important when I live in an area where this is so very rare normally. And I am making progress in the last year with a few things that I felt needed changing.

My intention upon returning from Cuba last April was to quit smoking and really make an effort to start getting myself back into better physical condition. I was at a point where I knew I was at least 25 pounds heavier than I should be...perhaps closer to 40 pounds actually. While not what I'd consider obese, I knew I was going to start facing some health issues as I get closer and closer to 4o years old. Plus, I have several pairs of pants that I am determined to wear once more. I will be a 34 waist again dammit! I think returning to a 32 waist is probably just a bit too unrealistic at this point, though.

Luckily, the lifestyle change that was also coming has helped with this immensely.

I started being at the family farm on a full time basis, or more, and I just continued my already established habit of not smoking around my family. I had another aid or two, but this ended up being fairly easy. And I did come back from Cuba with a few cigars that got me through the reeeeally bad moments. Now it has been over a year and, barring just giving up on everything, I feel confidant that my time as a cigarette smoker has come and gone.

One of the reasons I knew I had to ditch the cigs was that I knew I had to get back into shape. As I said, I had gotten much too flabby for my own liking. But in the same time as quitting smoking, I have started to make good strides in reversing that trend as well. I have no idea what I weigh now but I know I am in much better shape. I think I am probably below 200 pounds now, but its hard to say as I have been building muscle as well as burning some fat. But this was the goal anyway. I am naturally a fairly stocky fellow and I suspect that even at 5'7", my ideal weight is around 200 lbs because I am able to carry a good deal of muscle. A body builder roommate I had in college for a year used to give me such a hard time because he had to work so hard to build muscle. I could work out for a couple of days (which did not happen very often!) and show muscle gain/definition.

Now, at 36 this certainly hasn't been as easy or as painless as it was at the time. My joints have not enjoyed the extra attention and for several months one upper body joint and then another would endure a bout of what felt like tendinitis, slowly migrating around my upper body. But this has lessened drastically over the last couple of months. Mind you, now that the manure clearing is mostly done (more on this in an upcoming post), I am not working my joints hard for 8 hours a day either. But be that as it may, I think it was just my body readjusting to the new expectations after several years of fairly sedentary living.

Next is the part I have NEVER liked...increasing my cardiovascular activity. I still have some fat that I need to burn off and I just want to increase my stamina overall. I stay on my feet a lot these days but I am trying to prepare myself to a point where, if I must, I can walk for 8-10 hours a day, at a good pace. And to where I can run for an hour. I'm not sure if I will ever achieve this last goal as I have suffered from extreme shin splints and bad lower legs ever since I was about 17. But the time may come when I must, and I want to be able to do so, if that time does come.

That`s all for now though, I think.

Saludos.

Three Sisters: 2010

2010-07-11T01:38:00.004-06:00

I'm taking another shot at the Three Sisters gardening method this year. I took a stab at it last year with little knowledge and had limited success. This year I tried to do it a bit more properly. I laid out a few beds, raking them into raised beds as Three Sisters should be planted in mounds. I seeded runner beans this year, instead of bush beans like last year, and I seeded them after the corn had started out of the ground. And instead of seeding squash, my folks picked up two kinds of sets, although I should have seeded as well, as some mounds got no cover plants at all. This isn't a big loss as two of these mounds didn't germinate anything very well.

But, despite some setback due to late frost again this year, I am quite happy with the progress on 4 or 5 of the mounds. 3 of them are looking quite lush and I'm hopeful of a decent harvest. I think the worm composting is helping as the mounds have gotten a few good dowsings of compost tea and 3 mounds got the remnants of compost that went into making the tea.

I took some pictures of the rest of the garden as well, so I'll try to get them up soon. We're quite happy with the way it is coming this year so I am looking forward to sharing the pictures.

Until then, peace and comfort to all.

An Important Article

2010-07-04T00:29:00.004-06:00

This article is an important read, as I think most will agree.

Stacy Herbert is just brilliant.

Unsettled Continued take 2

2010-07-02T12:03:00.006-06:00

*Thought of the Day: Why does it always seem surprising to people that I am so passionate about not just letting shit happen, especially control-oriented shit?*

...

I wanted to spend a little more time on this topic, since it's in my head so much lately. Something I didn't mention in the last post, and I think it probably factors heavily into my recent "unsettledness", is the fact that I feel rather unsure of my own immediate future. I cannot whine too much as my health is fine but I have to admit a certain amount of stress bears on me...as it bears on many I'm sure. I know it bears on my parents at a time in their lives when stress should be less and less of an issue.

In my case, it's that I find myself terribly unsure what direction to head in from here.

The options seem to be:

1) Go back to what I was doing 6 years ago. This would mean a move back to Edmonton and finding somewhere to crash for a few months while I either settled into freelancing or took whatever steady gig I could find. I suppose it could even mean trying to go back into cruise ship tech work or seeing if the Cirque opportunity was still available. The thing is, it would mean going back to looking out pretty much just for me, and having as much fun as I could before whatever end is coming gets here. If you are familiar with Aesop, I see this as my Grasshopper phase. As easy as it would be to return to that and as tempting as it is, I know it would be turning my back on wisdom and balance...again.

2) Accept as reality that we are fighting a losing battle here and make plans to find and relocate somewhere to make a fresh start. This is tempting as well, especially seeing how much ranch land can be purchased for good price in the Caribou region of BC. One could set up one's own operation or purchase a variety of different sorts of already established ones, albeit at higher price. The main drawback here is isolation. Admittedly this would be some benefit as well, I think, but it makes servicing a local food market pretty hard to achieve. It does present some interesting intentional community opportunities though...

3) Dig in here and build infrastructure towards a multi-generational commitment to sustainable food production in this area. I won't elaborate here now as I talk about it often.

...

Ugh, my writing of this post was interrupted by a call from the property manager for my condo, continuing the suite door re-keying fiasco. This Board of Directors/property manager bullshit is certainly not making matter easier. It seems that my pointing out of the fact that this action was reached without due process and is therefore of highly questionable legality is being ignored and the lock company will be changing my lock next week. Luckily I have learned that they are only changing the deadbolt so I will be able to re-key it myself afterward. I will be doing this but I am also pursuing the matter legally. I cannot see the logic in letting them get their legal foot in the door with this issue, even if it may seem a small issue.

By the way, don't expect to call and ask the police to come and arrest someone who says they have the legal right to break into your place and change the locks without legitimate proof that that is so. I think I just about got arrested calling ahead to ask and then wanting clarification for the reasoning. I wonder what would happen if I just stood between the locksmith and the lock though. I would think he'd pretty much have to assault me to change the lock.

...

There are probably more real choices but this interruption has been sufficiently distracting and frustrating to continue the line of thinking just now. But again, it certainly explains the feeling of "unsettledness".

And now my head hurts.

Saludos.

Unsettled

2010-06-28T16:07:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure that I know how to write what I am thinking about and feeling anymore. Whenever I sit down to write about anything that is not sharing about the farm or some neat thing that I have seen, which is most of the time, I mostly end up doing a whole lot of backspacing and rarely end up saving any material at all. Like I said, this isn't because I am not thinking or wanting to say things...FAR from it. It's because I just don't know what to say.

Everywhere I turn I see fake order or outright chaos.

Our leaders talk about democracy while protecting the very oligarchical interests which rise up again and again to enslave us. We thought inventing a middle class would solve the problem, allowing the lower class to work their way into the middle class and maaaaybe all the way to the upper class. But all we did was solidify a class structure that must continue to fight itself because it is inherently out of balance.

I feel pity for many of my fellow Canadians who have let themselves buy into this system in order to try to avoid being part of the abhorrent lower class. It is hard to turn the fury I feel, into pity. Fury at how much acceptance there is for the truly Fascist actions of police in Toronto at the G20 conference over the weekend. Fury at the betrayal of our leaders and the weakness in my fellow citizens, who do not recognize the cages slowly but surely being erected around us. Fury that in so many ways, our selfishness and closed mindedness makes us deserve those cages. But does fury get us anywhere? Will pity or forgiveness really get us further?

I guess it should be no surprise that I think both fury and pity must be used, in balance. I see little point in just laying down and giving up what I believe is so valuable...my life and my soul.

So I guess I am able to maintain focus on one line of thinking for a short period of time, but then something else pops up, like the outright chaos that is the havoc caused by our addiction to oil. This is highlighted lately by the mess in the Gulf of Mexico but addiction to oil has wreaked havoc all over the world, all the while remaining fundamentally necessary to maintaining the explosion in numbers of humans over the past 200 years. While I feel for the plight of those around the Gulf of Mexico, it is maddening to see the rage over this disaster, while there remains a near total ignorance of 50 years worth of similar environmental destruction in Nigeria where broken pipelines have been allowed to run for months without repair at times. How many Americans are aware of the damage and suffering that has been caused in and to this region, in order to supply 25% of US oil imports?

And how many Canadians are more than willing to accept similar destruction now, in our own country? The tarsands exploitation is spreading rapidly into Saskatchewan, where the economic benefits are readily accepted just as they were and are here in Alberta. Yet we all know that this is basically open pit mining on a scale larger than anything seen before now and the result is mile after mile of ponds full of toxic tailings and at least near total water depletion or contamination. We hem and we haw and we say the government should deal with it all the while we continue most all of the practices which REQUIRE the continuation of that exploitation. And this is so for most any issue.

It would be funny if it wasn't all so fucking frustrating...and so very dangerous.

So I guess I do still have some things to say but you can see why I don't get a lot of posts out these days. This bit of rambling took over an hour to get out.

Uh Oh, Illinois

2010-06-18T21:15:00.003-06:00

I can think of at least one person and her family, in Illinois, who will likely want to know about this article, if she doesn't already know:

It is likely to be of interest to most others as well, as it outlines how the Illinois Teacher's Retirement System has become involved in derivatives...even WRITING them. People don't believe me when I tell them not to be so sure about their pensions. Anyone who has money in a pension fund should be finding out how it is invested.

The Chicken Mafia Clamps Down on Traceability

2010-06-16T18:42:00.003-06:00

Sometimes it amazes me that the desperately fragile human race has managed to accumulate such numbers globally. After all, there is danger around every corner and, potentially, in every egg. That's right, that miracle of nature, the egg, seems like it must be wreaking so much devastation upon humans, that Canada has decided that every egg, pullet (adolescent hen) and every egg laying chicken must be traceable.

Now I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of safe food systems but I wish to add my voice to those few who are screaming for people to recognize that the ways to efficiently ensure the safety of one's or one's family's food is to grow it oneself or develop relationships with small scale farmers and food processors who will grow and process it for you. I just don't see how adding more and more bureaucracy and complexity to the system will make it safer. That logic just doesn't add up as far as I can see.

I know this likely means higher costing food. Small scale farmers don't have "volume" sales that industrial producers can rely upon, nor do they have access to subsidies that industrial scale producers do. As such, industrial farming makes its money from subsidies derived from taxes, not from fair market pricing reached through a relationship between producer and consumer.

There are so many things in our western society that need fixing, desperately. But I agree with the notion that the most important might be fixing our food systems. To do so would likely relieve a lot of other problems as well.

Grass Fed Grande Prairie Beef

2010-06-09T11:53:00.004-06:00

Any of my vegetarian friends and readers might want to skip this post. My apologies if it is offensive but I am more than willing to discuss my omnivorous tendencies and beliefs at a later time.

Well, we now have 4 freezers full of fresh grass and hay fed beef that we need to sell to make some room for the pork that is coming and the broilers that need doing soon. This beef is from a 3 year old bull and is extra lean and absolutely delicious. We have had some of the steak and ground beef and I`m not exaggerating at all when I say it is delicious. It is some of the best tasting beef that I have had. I am sure others will agree.

At the moment we have ground beef, sirloin, t-bone and minute steaks, and a few varieties of roast...all priced below local market prices. It was processed at the local H&M Meats butcher so it is inspected. The ground beef comes in approximately 2lb portions and the steaks are, as I recall, 2 sirloin or minute or 4 t-bone per package.

If anyone in the Grande Prairie area is interested, shoot me an email for more information and pricing:

litetechca (at) gmail (dot) com

As I mentioned above, there will be pork available soon. Two gilts went to the butcher shop on Monday and we are excited to see how they turn out. Apparently our girls were the leanest and healthiest looking pigs of the week`s lot. It`s been years since my family raised pork but most of what is available locally is industrially raised in total confinement. This means pale and fat and chalk full of hormones. Our pigs are penned but have fresh air and sunlight all day every day. They are hand fed grain and grass or hay. We give them treats like coal and various roots as well. These pigs are healthy, lean and have had the best life we could give them, outside of fully pasturing them (which as I have mentioned before, is the plan for the future if I keep at this).

We will also have some free run broilers available very soon. I have been meaning to post about them as well as we are quite happy with their growth. The broiler type is so genetically shallow now and they can be prone to heart problem and limb breakage. But ours get lots of chance to run about and they are brought fresh grass every day, along with their regular diet. This means stronger limbs and healthier birds. I will post some pictures and give them a full post soon.

That`s all for now I think.

Saludos.

Local Governance?!?

2010-05-29T22:11:00.005-06:00

I think it is clear that good government must begin locally and spread from there, but one of the biggest reasons that I worry that this may not be possible is how often I have seen local scale government work very poorly.

My first real experience with local government was during college when I was increasingly involved in student government over a 3 year period. By the third year I was student President and that year was focused almost entirely on the job and being involved with college governance as well as a good deal of provincial involvement. I was able to be involved with academic and financial planning within the college and also had the opportunity to be quite active within our provincial student body. I even managed to be a part of meetings with the Provincial Government department that dealt with colleges and universities, Advanced Education, but I was generally steered away from dealings with Advanced Ed, thanks to my outspoken nature (illustrated by my tendency to drop the F bomb when I hear someone spewing total BS and I know they should know better).

But I digress.

What I was getting as is that even at the very local level of college governance, I still saw absolutely ridiculous decisions made which would only hurt students at some point, all to satisfy greed or ego...or both. And now, a good few years later, I see the same thing going on, albeit at a smaller scale, in the condo that I live in (my brother owns our unit). People do not want the slight responsibilities of Board activity so it seems to be usually the case that those who show interest in Board activity are those who have come up with some way to use it to benefit themselves. Back in January through April the Board contracted a property manager to handle day to day management including condo fee collection and scheduling of maintenance like snow removal and repairs. It seemed to me at the time that this was being set up under some slightly suspicious circumstances but not being a Board member there was little I could do.

So now, as of a couple months ago, I receive a notice that the Board has approved a re-keying of all suites to a Master key. I should mention again, at this point, that this is a privately owned condominium unit, not an apartment. I wrote a letter to the Board stating that I was opposed to this action and did not feel that the Board had the power to take such action. The bylaw that is referenced by the Board (and the property manager who obviously asked for the Board action) states:

"An owner shall permit the Corporation and its agents, at all reasonable times, on notice (except in the case of emergency when no notice is required) to enter his Unit for the purpose of inspecting the Unit and maintaining, repairing or renewing pipes, wires cables, ducts, conduits, plumbing, sewers and other facilities for the furnishing of utilities for the time being existing in the unit or common property, or for the purpose of maintaining, repairing or renewing the common property, or for the purpose of ensuring that the Bylaws are being observed."

So now I get to argue that my interpretation of that Bylaw doesn't include my having to accept a Master key for our suite. If that doesn't work, I then have to go through the hassle of stalling the rekeying while I initiate a clarifying Notice of Motion to change the Bylaw to add definitions of "reasonable times" and "on notice". This probably needs to be done anyway, since the Bylaws are a disaster...in my opinion. They are full of these kinds of ambiguous, overly general wordings.

Grrrr, I knew I hated the idea of owning a condominium!!!!

But this hopefully does something to illustrate my concern that people nowadays will be able to form fair and common sense local governments. As much as I have seen or somehow experienced an increase in people who are conscious and interested in more than just themselves and material gains...it remains a very small fraction of the people I see in general. So very many still seem hopelessly lost in a world of text messaging while driving and doing one's hair, or in a world of celebrity worship, or in a world of worshiping the blessed economy (insert appropriate bells and whistles).

I know this doesn't mean that no local communities will have success in creating their own sustainable local governance. I'm just not sure that enough of them will form along complimentary enough lines to make positive "nationalism" or "globalism" possible. Unfortunately, this is a mindset that lends credence to the elitist view that mankind must be controlled and manipulated.

I wonder if this knowledge would be enough to wake people from their self-involved slumber and turn them from sub-consciously directed consuming robots, back into conscious stewards of themselves and the natural world.

Salvation, For Now

2010-05-24T21:58:00.002-06:00

We have finally received a bit of a reprieve from a severely dry spring. Two days of rain, followed by a good dump of snow over the third, and ending with more rain on the fourth day, has left us feeling a heck of a lot better about the rest of the coming year. We even narrowly avoided a frost and now everything is absolutely bursting from the ground.

This precipitation was desperately needed, as I have mentioned before. What we received over those 4 days might well assure that we have enough hay for our cattle this winter. The lake our farm sits beside was as low as I ever remember seeing it. Now the water comes to around where I remember it last spring. These are both a huge relief. I just hope that there was enough rain elsewhere to extinguish the fires that have been burning throughout the province.

Back in our garden, we had been watering from the well already but all this moisture followed by a nice, sunny day today has almost everything that we planted now breaking through the soil. The 7 mounds that I built for this year's Three Sister attempt were the first to dry and the corn is already growing there, even though it was planted a day later than the other corn patch. I should be able to seed climbing beans onto these mounds sometime next week, if the weather holds. Shortly thereafter I will be able to add the squash sets that my folks seeded in the greenhouse a couple weeks back.

Speaking of the greenhouse, I should take some pictures to post as I think the folks did a pretty good job of filling it full of sets this spring. If all goes well, there should be need to purchase very few sets this year. We need to start re-potting some things now, as they are not quite ready to move into the garden for a couple of weeks yet. And I need to get some peppers going, thought I worry that I might be too late already. Hopefully we will be able to upgrade to a significantly larger greenhouse soon. It would be so nice to be able to take advantage of all that sun that we seem to get in February and March now.

But back to the topic at hand. The reduced precipitation that we have received in recent years inspires me to look differently at these periods of intense precipitation that we used to receive regularly. Now I see how much rainfall could be saved for use during dry periods. If we stay in this area and shift to more of a market garden farming style, I feel that we must start planning for maintaining surface water in ponds, dugouts, and cisterns. Really though, this is no surprise to me as it is a basic aspect of adopting permacultural techniques.

Until later, brothers and sisters. Be well.

SoapBox Thoughts on Arizona

2010-05-23T15:39:00.003-06:00

I find it interesting that so many folks who are against police state tactics that claim to be fighting terrorism, also seem to support police state tactics that claim to be cracking down on illegal immigration. This seems a little hypocritical to me, and it makes me wonder if the powers-that-be haven't found a chink in Libertarian armor. If a drug war didn't work, maybe re-igniting race conflict will make the people welcome overt control by the state.

Now, this doesn't mean that I am against regulated immigration. I am certainly not, at least not as our world is currently arranged. Illegal immigration such as the US sees, just supports the exploitation of the illegal immigrant, but cracking down on these immigrants is about as effective as throwing a drug abuser in prison. I say let in those people who really need and deserve the opportunity (if there is such a thing in the US anymore), and crack down on those employers or criminals who exploit illegals as labor or sex slaves.

It also doesn't mean that Arizona isn't in a difficult spot. The drug war has spilled over into that state, in a big way, and many illegals crossing the borders are not doing so by choice. If the DEA in Washington would back off, Arizona could make drugs legal and solve a lot of the problem immediately. Granted, the drug cartels would likely mount a wave of violence in order to try to provoke re-prohibition but at least all the cards would be on the table and Arizona AND the US could go back to seeming like the good guys.

Obviously this is an oversimplified argument but I think the overall logic works. And I do soooooo despise checkpoints and "do you haf your papers please?", which seems to be the only alternative.

One of Those Days

2010-05-19T21:51:00.002-06:00

Today was one of those days that really shows how unpredictable it can be to work with animals, even though I spent most of the day clearing barns of manure and bedding that builds up over the winter. More on that "shitty" task another time though.

During one of my breaks, I decided to let our 4 yearling heifers out of their immediate corral so that they could graze some green grass in the temporary outer corral. I wanted to let them have a bit of a graze as well as to perhaps step into the shed in that corral. We are going to have to put them in that shed tomorrow and the 2 heifers that we purchased a few weeks back have never been in it. As such, I thought this would give them a chance to explore these new surroundings so as to be less frightened tomorrow.

Since this is just a temporary corral set up roughly, I stayed with the heifers while they grazed so that I could dissuade them from testing their boundaries too much. But all of a sudden there was a ruckus out of one of the heifers. She was kicking and jumping around, but not moving from the place she was in. Upon closer investigation, I could see that she had somehow gotten a hoof caught between two pieces of steel and in her fright, she was yanking back on her twisted ankle...in real danger of breaking a bone. Thankfully I have been spending plenty of time with these animals so they are used to my presence. I was able to calm her somewhat and when she finally tired and calmed down some, was able to push her forward and slip her hoof from the impromptu trap.

Talk about freaked out. I was quite scared that she would have a broken leg but she seems to have escaped with just a limp that will likely last a couple of days. A few minutes later I was back at forking manure. Whoo hoo!

So after supper I was going to fetch and put in the cow that we are milking due to a lost calf back in February, when I noticed that the whole herd seemed rather freaked and looking off in one direction. All of a sudden I noticed that the excitement was over a pig that was out and running along the lake bank towards me. Shit!!!!

Turns out all four of our gilts, which are just days away from slaughter, had escaped their pen once more. This is the second time they have busted loose in the last couple of weeks. Considering how much space was available to them to run off, including out onto the lake, we had a far easier time getting them back into their pen than might have been the case. About an hour later we had them back inside and their pen patched up.

This escape brings up a sore issue between my folks and I. After so many years of dealing with penned pigs, my folks (primarily my dad) have gotten into the habit of walling the pig pens with plywood. The reasoning is that they are less likely to try to escape their confinement if they cannot see out of their pen. It is more complex than that, however, since our pens are usually rather run down. This is exacerbated by the fact that we penned these gilts in a pen that I repaired last fall...a pen that had not been used in perhaps 10 years, and had not been cleaned out since it was used. As such, many of the lower planks have become rotted and I basically patched it up in order to scrape by until we sold the pigs.

This whole thing kind of annoys me because I know that if we just built the pens large enough that they could exercise their natural tendencies, these pigs would not be so drawn to trying to escape. I also know that if we designed our pens in such a way that they could be cleaned out between uses, we could retain a slat-walled pen that the pigs could see out of but not so easily work holes into the pen, by which they could escape (and which we could easily climb in and out of).

Anyway, the pigs are back in their now re-patched pen. They are still only days away from slaughter but here's hoping I can build something better by the time we get the next batch of young feeder piglets.

One funny aside though:

The second escaped pig that I saw is the one I would most like to keep as a breeder, one who lays down for me to run her back and neck, came running over to me as soon as she saw me. Her excitement was so great and her mannerisms such that I could almost imagine her excitedly grunting out a question of "Hey buddy! What are you doing out here too!"

The whole thing just reaffirms my desire to pasture our pigs, letting them wander within a fenced area and follow their natural habits. I think we'd still need to pen them in a more confined fashion over winter but I'd sure feel a lot better about keeping them that way. The pens we have now are much better than being in a crowded, hot, industrial hog facility but we could still do a lot better.

I think that's all for now.

Peace and comfort.

Chemical Submission

2010-05-15T21:13:00.003-06:00

"Underkastelsen", or in English, "Submission" is a new or upcoming documentary out of Sweden. It seems to have a look at the 100,000 man-made chemicals in the world, and the effects these chemicals are having on we humans and the world we inhabit. Sounds bloody horrifying and I doubt that I will be surprised by much in it but I will be looking to watch it anyway.

In other news, I was reading an article in a local agricultural paper today. The subject of this article is one that arose almost a month ago, regarding a Canada-EU trade deal which would force Canada into joining much of the rest of the world in bowing to large agribusiness. This would include prohibition against the saving and trading/selling of seed, as well as strengthening intellectual property rights of large multinational agribusinesses like Monsanto. All of these actions have happened in most other parts of the world, with highly dubious results.

I have to look into this more but I am surprised to see the EU attempting to force these changes onto Canada, considering much of Europe seems opposed to GMO seeds and other multinational agribusiness activities like those mentioned above. Canadians have to stand up against these changes or what remains of our small farm industry is quite seriously finished.

Transgenic GMO's Causing Bee Crisis?

2010-05-07T02:26:00.004-06:00

Most readers will already be aware of the Honeybee crisis in North America. For anyone who isn't aware, the really short version is that for the 4th year in a row, bee colonies in North America, and elsewhere, have experienced a mysterious loss of an approximate 1/3 of their numbers. This phenomena has been dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is "very very bad". A great deal of food production, both for we humans and for the rest of the living world, is reliant upon the activities of these little buzzers.

So needless to say, the search has been on the find the cause.

Some reasonable suggestions have been (and any or all may well factor in):
-cell tower interference in bee navigation
-pesticides
-general toxification of the environment
-some new disease
-various other ideas

Well it seems like transgenic GMO's (organisms which have had genetic information from another organism directly added to or replacing its own) might be able to add another horrible side effect to their list of faults. This research article seems to provide evidence that transgenic GMO's could easily be the cause of or contributing significantly to CCD.

Have a look and spread the info!

How Does Your Garbage Mountain Grow?

2010-04-28T16:12:00.007-06:00

Last year I did a post around this time of year, about the landfill next to our property and showing the amount of waste that blows off the trash heap and onto our farmland and the lake we both share. This is one of the pictures I took on April 22, 2009.

I thought I would go take some more pictures around the same time this year and try to get an idea of how fast the mountain is growing. So these pictures are from yesterday, about one week later than last year. They were taken from the same general area so you can see just how quickly willows and trash heaps grow.

Interestingly, the pictures look like they were taken on the same day but I promise, it was WAY colder last year. It actually snowed as I was walking back from taking the pictures. This year it was merely cool and trying to rain (luckily, we got some of that today).

At this rate, it is terrifying just how large this thing could get and I cannot believe that people don't seem to find it distressing. I guess it's just far enough out of sight of most to be out of mind as well.

This panorama shows the whole damn thing in all its glorious splendor.

Bicycle Day (Not Your Kid's Bike!!)

2010-04-19T13:08:00.003-06:00

To some people, April 19th is known as Bicycle Day. It was on this day in 1943 that Dr. Albert Hoffman performed the first self experiment with LSD, having discovered it years earlier and accidentally discovering some of its effects the day before. Under the supervision of his lab assistant, Dr. Hoffman ingested an amount of LSD after which he and his assistant bicycled to Hoffman's residence. Upon this "trip" home, Hoffman began to come under the full effects of the psychotropic and so this day holds significant relevance to LSD enthusiasts and all manner of psychedelic thinkers and activists.

A couple of years back, I stumbled across Hoffman's "LSD:My Problem Child", a chapter of which included entries about the accidental discovery of some of the psychotropic effects which he discovered rather accidentally, his intention to perform an experiment in order to delve further into these effects and then of the experiment itself.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Hoffman's journal entry for this experiment shows its commencement at precisely 4:20 pm. Reading the journal, I found this fact interesting because 420 has been a marijuana reference for some time now.

I did not actually recall that the experiment had taken place on April 19 until just today when I came across this NY Times article about Hoffman's death in 2008. The article shares Hoffman's determination that LSD had opened his mind to the importance of truly connecting with nature and our place as humans within nature, that this connection had begun when he was a child and been reinforced and developed through psychotropic-assisted spiritual work.

I find this so fascinating because my own life experience has been so very similar. I had strong connections with nature and an inkling of the importance of balance as a child, but after my first year or so of college I was very much in a space of giving up on humanity, of feeling that all was shot and I might as well have the best time I possibly could before it was too late. But as I have written before, what began as recreational use of psychotropics very much evolved into spiritual reflection and a real sense of the importance of expanding my consciousness. The earliest manifestations from this evolution were to remember that connection to nature, that sense of being part of a very large and very complex system of relationships and a sense of the importance of exploring these relationships and my own consciousness.

I have not read much of Dr. Hoffman's words, other than that chapter, but the NY Times article is filled with quotations that are so similar to my own thoughts and interests. I shall have to find more of his words to read and I think that Bicycle Day will heretofore be of immense importance to me.

Peace and comfort, all.

One Of Those Moments

2010-04-17T20:34:00.002-06:00

Wow, I just learned that Jack Herer, author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" and perhaps the Grandfather of the modern hemp and marijuana movement, passed away on Thursday, the same day as my granny. And my last post before yesterday was on that very topic, the first time I have written about it specifically.

Talk about coincidence.

RIP Hemperor

Friday Night Rambling

2010-04-16T23:18:00.003-06:00

As with so much of the world, we continue to get very odd weather here in NW Alberta. In our case, this odd weather is manifesting as well above normal temperatures. After a very warm and early spring, we had a short return to normal conditions (around +10C in the daytime, but with very cold winds, and then freezing pretty hard at night), but yesterday the weather shifted into June-type conditions. We nearly reached +20C and today we almost hit +25. I admit that it is absolutely beautiful but this is also rather disconcerting.

If we do not receive a fairly significant amount of moisture throughout the next 4-6 weeks, I fear there will be very little crop this year...if any. We could manage a year with no grain crops, although it would be a harsh blow, but I am not sure we could make it through the winter with no hay.

I am often told, or it is suggested, that I shouldn't be so pessimistic. I appreciate the sentiment and the concern for my mood, but I also know that I don't intend or even like to be pessimistic. My pessimism comes from active observation and assessment of what is being observed, and a desire to move forward from as rational and balanced mindset as possible. Having said that, I do realize and accept that I must find a way to channel as much of the resulting energy as positively as I can, and to release the remainder so that it does not build up and weigh me down.

This is not always easy.

Especially living here where most people just bask in the extra heat and do not realize where it is heading (especially as Peak Oil seems more and more imminent), where most people are concerned pretty much only in themselves and their immediate present. It amuses me that so many of these same people then flock to some church for a couple of hours on Sunday, looking to fill that empty part of themselves that they spend the rest of the week avoiding.

I do not mean the church comment to encompass all those who attend church though, or who belong to some faith or church or what have you. The passing of my dad's mother yesterday (turns out she wasn't made of steel after all), and the subsequent increase in interaction with the many Protestant Christian members of my family and its circle of acquaintances has provided plenty of reminders, both from the past and the present, of the real good and selflessness that I have also seen in the Church.

It has also been a good reminder to me of what I believe is the main, yet most often ignored/forgotten, tenet of Christianity...forgiveness. I think all "faiths" have something to offer, and this is Christianity's real message.

Perhaps that is enough rambling for tonight.

May you be at peace and in comfort now Granny, and may the rest of us find them both as well.

My Relationship With The Marijuana Plant

2010-04-05T17:12:00.005-06:00

I've had a relationship with the marijuana plant since I was basically 20 years old.

I always heard that pot was pushed on kids, especially since I had an aunt who was a teacher, but never once was it pushed on me. When I was about 15 years old, some friends on my hockey team offered to smoke a joint with me but when I wasn't interested they were content to smoke in the bathroom with a towel at the door. Now I know why but at the time I thought they were just being very respectful of my wish not to take part...and they never bugged me about not joining either. They were part of the rougher crowd, their parents partied, they partied, they listened to ACDC, Quiet Riot and that kind of thing...I don't think my parents would have wanted me hanging around with them outside of hockey but those were some good guys as far as I'm concerned.

In high school I was sort of an outsider, I was friendly with several cliques but not really a part of any of them. My only social activities were sports and school dances, for the most part. And I was pretty set in my mindset that pot was the same thing as magic mushrooms was the same thing as cocaine was the same thing as heroin, etc etc.

Once I moved into town in my second year of college, I finally had the freedom to spend as much time as I wanted with the group of friends I was developing. These friends came from different backgrounds, more or less well off, some professional parents, some more "working class", but most of these friends had been big partiers in high school and continued to do so in college. I hadn't been able to join in in high school, but I could in college. I learned that they had been smoking pot and sometimes eating magic mushrooms in high school, usually at the odd weekend party at someone's house. From what I had been told by those in "authority", I thought these people would all be junkies and skids by now but many of them were honors students who have now become doctors of this and that, or engineers or teachers or various other typically respected careers. I started to think that perhaps things weren't as black and white as I had been told.

So when I told a small group of good friends that I thought I might try mushrooms sometime, I didn't really know what to expect but they all suggested that I expect to laugh a lot. I won't share the whole story but it was a fantastically fun and laughter filled night that I suspect I will remember for the rest of my life. No damage was done, other than some mustard on the walls.

But when this night didn't leave me insane or drooling with madness in the need for my next fix or suddenly aching with the desire to step through the doorway to cocaine or heroin, I started to think that, at the very least, someone had not been telling me the entire truth. As such, when my roommates knocked on my door a few nights later to ask if I wanted to smoke a joint with them...well this time I was willing to give it a try.

I know, I know..."that's the doorway, you idiot" is what some people might say, so at this point just let me say that in all the 16 or 17 years since then, and for all the times that I have had all different sorts of illegal narcotics offered to me simply because of my looks and my profession, I have never been tempted to try any non-naturally occurring narcotic since then. No cocaine (although I cannot even count the times that I have been around it), no heroin, no crystal meth, etc etc.

I suppose nicotine from cigarettes should fit into that category and I did smoke them from around 19 until a year ago, so I should list that in the interests of honesty. And I should also add that I did try LSD twice in that first year. But I didn't like the fact that it was not naturally occurring or the fact that if someone made a mistake in the lab in making it...I and my friends could, realistically if not very likely, go insane.

I liked the fact that nature created these plants and this connection with humanity. Even though I was consuming them solely as "recreation" at the time (an odd term since it generally involved plenty of sitting), I could feel the deeper connection that they offered. I could feel a significant spiritual aspect to these plants. I could feel my mind opening, and not full of holes but really opening in terms of empathetic capacity and things like the ability to better grasp complexity. I was becoming more aware of systems and patterns rather than individuals and moments. Basically, I could feel my consciousness expanding. Granted, experience itself was a part of this...but these plants helped with how I was interacting with this experience, and how I was integrating it.

In retrospect, I am thankful that I was guided away from experiencing "psychedelic" plants until I was more developed as an adult. I still believe that imbibing these chemicals, even though they are natural, before a certain age and without the right kind of guidance, really can be very harmful. I think our personalities need to be more firmly established before we start fine-tuning, as I see psychedelic experience to be.

But my intention is not so much to write about psychedelics but about marijuana itself.

I wanted to know more about the effects of the plant so I took what chances I could find to read or otherwise learn about the plant and its effects. I learned about a whole intricate web of possibilities that the marijuana plant offers, outside of its psychedelic effects. I learned that it is perhaps the most resilient plant on the planet, capable of growing in a great variety of climates. I learned about its nutritive potential, that its seeds are far and away the most nutritious of the cereals. Anyone who spends some time looking into the nutritive qualities of the hemp or marijuana seed will likely soon find themselves thinking that they seem almost ideally designed for our dietary consumption. Then there is the fiber, which many people are starting to learn to be perhaps the strongest natural fiber on the planet. There are literally thousands of potential and significant uses for the marijuana plant, and its non-psychedelically active cousin hemp.

And we haven't really begun to explore the health potential of marijuana. It seems that the two main strains of marijuana, sativa and indica, each have various potentials so that crossbreeding to produce various mixtures can offer different qualities such as pain relief, appetite suppression OR stimulation, anti-depression, etc. In time, I hope to be able to do some research into these possibilities...or at least to see someone else have the chance to do this research.

I really do feel that marijuana offers an awful big part of our salvation, and perhaps that of the planet.

Here's a nice little video on this subject. I have been meaning to share it for quite awhile now. I re-watch it every couple of months.

I could likely blabber on about this for paragraph after paragraph but I think I'll stop here for now.

Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters. And grow more pot!!

Et Tu, Jon Stewart?

2010-04-03T16:58:00.002-06:00

Typically, I am a huge fan of The Daily Show and of Jon Stewart in particular. Over and over this program has cut through the preponderance of bullshit out of the US federal government and the mainstream media. Particularly enjoyable for me was the raking over the coals of Mad Money's Jim Cramer, especially in regards to this interview:

So it has been with great frustration that I have watched the program offer rather one sided support of the "health care bill" that was recently passed and signed. I realize that The Daily Show is not meant to be a real news program yet it has set itself up as, usually with good reason, a source of bullshit-less information...albeit rather limited. But even with the nonsensical arguments offered up by Republicans, fueling the fire of ignorance in so many brainwashed types on the "far right" and causing a good amount of discontent among many more level-headed types, which obviously needed to be ridiculed...I still cannot believe that the very real problems with the legislation were ignored by The Daily Show.

Here is an interview which explains these problems in a far more cognitive manner than this economic layman could:

I guess it was just too easy to pick on the nonsensical opposition, than to share the reality that this legislation is left wing cover for directing money and even more power from the people to the big insurance companies.

Still, it's disappointing on multiple levels. And if I missed where he or his program took the opportunity to share this information...well then, my bad, and my apologies. Otherwise, no Bill Hicks are you!

Three Swans and a Butterfly

2010-03-31T22:38:00.002-06:00

At the beginning of March I commented that due to the extremely "lamb"-like beginning to the month I was worried about a potential "saber tooth cat"-like month end. Well despite about a week's worth of the return of winter, spring continues its return earlier and warmer than normal. Many Canada geese have been back for a couple of weeks now, struggling in the still foot-deep snow (in many places), gathering in large numbers on the few fields that are mostly free of snow in order to scratch up a bit of left-over grain from last year`s harvest. Crows and seagulls have returned and the ravens are in aggressive mating mode. But today I saw two especially early returnees.

A familiar noise drew my gaze out over the lake where I saw, sure enough, at least 3 Trumpeter swans flying away. It was a lovely sight, the three large and long winged birds glinting in the sun and flying low over the white of the snow. Then a couple of hours later I was absolutely shocked as a black and red butterfly came fluttering from somewhere. I actually laughed out loud as most of the ground on our farm is still covered in snow, making this a rather absurd sight. Unfortunately, we are still getting temperatures well below freezing at night so I doubt this pretty thing will live longer than the day. I`m thankful that it flitted into my life during its own brief one.

Spring offers so many of these uplifting moments, the return of colors and new life, etc etc. The son is so bright and warm, the sky so blue, that it`s easy to forget that our world continues to grow more and more dark. If we are in balance, we can breathe in the fresh beauty...taking strength to face the growing dark, to prepare ourselves. Those many who seem so very far from balanced, who do not even seem to be awake, revel in these bright novelties. They are a more comfortable sand in which to bury one`s head to the harsher realities.

I am sometimes, ok often, infuriated by this fact. It is the very reason that the world grows more dark. Thankfully this fury is short-lived and then I shift back to a kind of pity. It is a real shame that these people may never truly enjoy the sheer joy of something like three swans and a butterfly on a bright early spring day.

Sometimes I Think I Need The Couch

2010-03-25T17:47:00.003-06:00

The hardest part of returning to the family farm is the reason I left in the first place. My dad and I have a very hard time working together. This is hardly a rare situation but that doesn't make it any easier to struggle through. The only real difference is now that I am well into adulthood, as opposed to the hormone driven 19 year old who walked away those years ago, and now I am at least a little better at not losing my temper. And dad is much older so our confrontations are no longer physical.

I'm not really interested in getting into the psychology of the matter, and there is a lot of it, for both of us...at least not today. In all honesty, the biggest reason I keep this blog semi-autonomous is so that I can speak as openly as I would like to, which I just don't think I could do if I knew that friends and family might wander through at any time. This is an issue upon which I have begun to write many times, but which I am still not quite ready to delve into just yet. But for the purposes of this post, suffice it to say that while I love my father...he is a very difficult man. Its not ALL his fault, I accept my share of our issues, but I feel a significant amount of the fault lies in his family...in his mother (my grandmother) and his siblings (both older). The result is that I have a 70 year old father who can be very juvenile and defensive in his interpersonal dealings, especially in regards to his wife and children.

Now I am not new to our family, I have been handling this situation for years. It was either that or not be around at all...and that's just not in me. But now that we are working so closely together and I am trying to guide us all into moving forward (rather than the "treading water" which has been occurring for at least a decade), well it is sometimes nearly impossible to handle.

Let me give an example or two before I move into the point of the post.

First of all, dad thought that mom and I were full of shit when we started talking about trying to sell the products of the farm as "direct to market" as possible. He didn't think we would be able to find enough customers for eggs or beef. Basically, he is almost totally pessimistic about ideas from anyone but himself or his mother/siblings (whose ideas I think he also resents, I should add) or the very small number of people whose opinion he deems as worthy of concern.

This could easily turn into a psychological discussion here but I will try to avoid that digression for now.

So another example is my search for a breed of pig on which to focus our pork production. This could be a much longer story but the short version is that when I informed him of my interest in Red Wattle hogs, he was against it because when we had two of them years and years ago, someone told dad that he was lucky to be rid of them when we were (0ne died of heart attack and the other was sold soon thereafter). Dad could not remember who had told him this OR what the specific reason was, but it was enough that he was adamant that Red Wattle hogs should not be considered. So I spent a few hours perusing the Web for information as to why this might be the case. Dad had said that he thought it was something to do with the pigmentation of the meat, but I could find literally nothing to suggest that there was some problem with this breed of pig. The only issue I could deduce was that they did not seem to do very well in captivity, especially in industrial conditions. So, based on the fact that we had our Red Wattles in the mid 80's when people were not concerned at all about buying locally or organically or what have you. So the industrial producers controlled the market almost totally. As such, this seemed to me to be the main reason why Red Wattle hogs went out of production, not that there was anything wrong with the meat. Quite the opposite, Red Wattle pork is quite highly rated among chefs, especially those concerned with local food and heritage breeds. But no matter how much research I did and then shared with dad...he was going with what SOME guy had told him all those years ago, the details of which he cannot even remember.

This is the kind of BS that I have been dealing with for years, only now it hits close to home because I have been putting so much energy into learning as much as I can, and sharing. But it is received with resentment and defensiveness. Not so much from my mother, but some. At least with her I can talk about it though, and hear her response. We can both eventually accept if we`ve been the "jerk". With dad that isn't possible...and I have tried and tried and tried. The best you can get from him is usually the odd admittance of being wrong about some trivial thing, in order to later claim to be able to admit when wrong.

So mostly I hope that I am able to start to show the results of my ideas soon, and perhaps avoid doing what I am so critical of in others....unreasonably hoping that the situation just irons itself out, mostly because I just don`t know what to do about it, and because I can`t just say "ok that`s it, I`m taking over". But then I get slapped with another sign of how likely it is that I will one day have to do just that.

Which brings me to the source of this whole jumbled thought process today. When I got out to the farm today, the house was awful quiet. Turns out that mom and dad were both outside, they returned just as I was going out to feed pigs. Dad was carrying a hack saw so I asked what he`d been cutting. They had been clipping chicken beaks since another hen had been cannibalized over night. I didn`t ask or say anything beyond asking how many they had done. The last time they trimmed two hen`s beaks I made it clear that I did not support that action, that I did not feel it was going to remedy the situation and that it was only tortuous punishment for following their nature. I even tried to explain how trimming their beaks this was was akin to our having a thumb, finger or even a whole hand cut off...and that it wouldn`t stop them the cannibalization. And sure enough, it didn`t. But somehow, doing 10 more of them this time is supposed to remedy the situation.

This time I didn`t say anything to either parent about it. They both know what I think and obviously that isn`t enough to sway their reasoning. They don`t see how the extension of their logic says that the only thing keeping us from individually caging each bird would seem to be the initial cost. They don`t seem to understand my reasoning that if we cannot afford to solve what is causing the aggressiveness then we should kill and eat the aggressive birds...not maim them this way in order to retain the egg revenue. I don`t think they even believe my explanation of why a chicken`s beak is akin to our thumb, fingers or entire hand due to its complex network of nerve tissue. Granted, the other two hens seem alright now and I don`t think they are aggressive anymore, but still...I struggle with it.

The same with the sick calf that died. I feel we should have tried to get it some veterinary attention but I know dad did the best that HE was able to do. But at the same time, I can`t help but wonder if it is cost that kept us from that option, or mistrust of unknown people.

And what bothers me the most is the fact that a reasonable solution is impossible. We can`t just talk it through. I`ve tried that route more than once before and I don`t think I can carry it myself. But at the same time, the only other option is to go on as we are now, which is much too similar to the path that he and his mother are on. Her mind finally slipped away to the point where she has to be in a longterm care facility and she never knew it was going on, or never accepted it. No one really tried to tell her and she was far too stubborn to accept it anyway. I don`t know how to tell dad that it is starting to happen with him too, albeit lightly, and he is far too stubborn to accept it...certainly from me.

THIS is the hard part of working towards a future for our farm. All the rest is easy in comparison.

The Down Side

2010-03-24T23:26:00.002-06:00

I was going to take Saturday off from the farm as I thought it was a light enough day that I wouldn't be missed too much. As it turned out, it was going to be better for my parents if I took Sunday off instead so I headed out for the typical routine. We got another blast of winter recently so the chores would take a bit longer than normal but I wouldn't be doing any extra tasks so it shouldn't have been a very long day anyway.

Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case.

Our very small herd of cattle has become rather spread out in terms of calving schedules but this is the period when most of them are due. Our newest calf had been born the day prior and although it was quite large it seemed very strong and energetic, even running about the barn a bit just a couple hours after being born. But when I checked in on her while doing chores on Saturday, she seemed very listless. When I let her mother back in she did not even get up to feed, but just laid there. I haven't been around the cattle again for very long but I knew this was odd. So I kept an eye on her and when she still had not got up to eat after another hour and a half, and by looking at her mom's udder I did not think she had eaten that morning either, I finally decided to call Dad. Initially he was not too concerned but as I described the situation he decided I should try to milk a bit from the mother and see if I could get the calf to eat, he and mom would head right home.

I didn't have much luck but when they got home, dad and I were able to milk the cow and got some into the calf. It seemed to regain some energy but dad was still concerned, especially as it didn't get any better over night. To make a bad story a bit shorter, when I got out there Monday morning I learned that the young thing had finally died the night before.

This is the downside of raising animals. Birthing is a traumatic process and, sadly, they do not all survive. This is always a blow, both emotionally and financially. Its an extra big blow this time since she was another heifer, so vital when one is trying to rebuild a herd.

As with most things, however, its not ALL bad. Now we have a bit of extra rich, raw milk as this cow is a particularly heavy milker. Too bad we don't have any feeder piglets now!

Licker-ish

2010-03-21T23:56:00.004-06:00

I have never been one to name pets or farm animals, favorite or otherwise. It actually runs in the family. My sister's cat's name is Cat, if anything, for example. The only animal that always gets a name is the dog, since our dogs have always been herd dogs.

But every so often some animal comes along and, for some reason, acquires a name. This has become the case once more just recently so I figured I would introduce her.

A pretty, all-red heifer was born to our only black cow (she has a white face) about 3 months ago. As I was letting her mother out every day and putting in fresh straw and a bit of hay, we had plenty of time for her to get used to me. I usually try to take a moment when I have time with these young animals, just to make sure they are well used to my close presence and my touch. This heifer was gentle enough that I have been able to continue this practice even now that she is outside most of the time. She has become so quiet and friendly that she will stand for petting and a scratch along her head and back. Not only that but she has taken up licking anyone who gets close enough. She'll lick my pants and boots as long as I will stand there for her. She will lick the other cows and the bull, which is normal but she does it a lot!

Anyway, I have decided that this has earned her the name Licker-ish. I suspect that she will be part of our herd for several years so I am not bothered at all by giving her a name, not that I would be anyway.

So without further blabbering...world, say hello to Licker-ish:

She also wanted to say hello back, a little more intimately:

Here she is, showing how she earned her name:

Soon she will join her half-sisters in the heifer weaning corral and hopefully she will have some Blonde D'Aquitaine friends to play with before too long as well. More on that another time.

Peace and comfort, all.

Philippe Sauvage

2010-03-14T22:06:00.003-06:00

"We are the Lymphocyte T4 of this planet...the Enlightened Guardians of this planet..."

This is a very interesting idea. I think I want to hear more of what this Philippe Sauvage has to say.

Accidental But Welcome Red Worm Propagation

2010-03-11T22:53:00.005-07:00

Back in late November, I potted a few plants into buckets. My soil was barnyard dirt, containing LOTS of well broken down cow manure, and vermicompost from my first condo worm bin. I had tried to harvest as many worms as possible out of the VC before using it as potting soil but I knew that there might be the odd baby worm or worm cocoon remaining. I figured that these would just perish in the dirt since they are not the deep burrowing type of earthworm.

Well I was wrong. Very wrong.

Some weeks back I was watering one of the plants with a spray bottle and I noticed that as I sprayed water on the soil...the soil was moving! This kind of freaked me out until I remembered that I had used VC so perhaps these were worms wiggling under the dirt. Sure enough, moving some of the dirt around revealed a fat adult red worm, thick and juicy, obviously well nourished. Then I found another, and another and another. That day I must have dug 30 fat adult red worms from the top couple inches of soil. Since then I would say I have dug out easily another 50 adult worms. Then, for certain reasons, today was the end of the plant`s life cycle and as I was removing it from the soil and breaking up the rooting in the soil (so that it can be used again as it remains rich) I discovered another 30 or 40 adult worms AND at least 40 cocoons. There were likely still a few worms and I know I didn't get all the cocoons.

So, bearing in mind that my initial worm purchase was around 150 worms, this bucket basically returned my investment in worms, all on its own. That`s pretty cool as far as I`m concerned.

I also wanted to share a picture that I captured awhile shortly after my last worm update post:

You can see a group of worms gathered around a chunk of cow manure. The picture is from about 30 seconds to a minute after I lifted the lid. Had I had the camera ready, this picture would show the whole mass of worms that was covering this chunk of cow shite. They moved pretty fast to get away from the sudden brightness of the overhead light to which they are so sensitive. I wanted to share the picture since it shows what I had been explaining about what great bedding and food manure makes.

So I`m not totally crazy for bringing shite into the house after all.

Peak Brown

2010-03-10T00:35:00.002-07:00

Does anyone know where to buy chicken toner? Some of our ladies seem to be running out already.

Black Spring

2010-03-07T19:15:00.005-07:00

The title of this post might easily lead one to believe that the subject matter is going to be dark or heavy but I don't think that is the case at all. Black Spring is simply what came to mind as I was thinking about two of my favorite things...nature and the theatre. I don't think that I have ever really written anything here about my career as a theatrical technician, other than referring to it in the profile tidbit. But then something clicked in my head today, which inspires me to write about the topic now.

One of the things that, for some reason, drew me to the theatre right from the start was the feeling I got from completing the run of a show and then restoring the stage to black in preparation for the transition into a new production. It dawned on me today, very much with the feeling of a light bulb flashing on over my head, that this transitional period is rather like spring in the natural world. The stage has been cleared and cleaned and is ready for the new production to sprout forth.

In honesty, the biggest reason that they seem so similar to me is probably the fact that they inspire very similar emotions in me. Springtime always fills me with an eager calmness and inspiration; a real sense of balance. The same is true for being alone (or sometimes in a small group) in a freshly restored-to-black theatre. I doubt I can really describe the feeling...I am not much of a poet. But suffice it to say, it has been an overwhelming feeling right from the very first time I experienced it. I also came into the theatre a bit later than many do, as I didn't get involved until my 3rd year of college. Most people seem to get involved in theatre in high school or even younger so I think a slightly higher maturity level allowed for a deeper connection, or at least a deeper appreciation of the connection.

But I think, at the end of the day, this is probably in the genes of most technician-types. We all tend to take a strong feeling of ownership for our "space" (slang tech term for theatre or venue), which is probably why so many of us make good managers. I know that as much as I love almost everything about my return to the land, I do still sometimes long for the stage and the cycle of the theatre season.

Anyway, now that spring seems to be upon us here in Northern Alberta, the return of these emotions reminds me once again of a freshly black stage. I suppose Spring will always be Black to me in many ways, but that is not a bad thing at all!

If March Comes In Like A Lamb...

2010-03-02T18:08:00.005-07:00

...it goes out like a lion.

So goes the old saying anyway.

After an atypically warm February, where I don't think I wore a winter coat all month, this first week in March is looking even more amazing. Environment Canada is telling me that Sunday could be +8 C...that's 46 degrees to some of you. Hopefully this will continue long enough for the frost to come out of the ground, that way we will not lose all the snow melt to run-off. But another week like this and I think that just might be the case.

But, if that old saying holds true...with March starting this pleasantly, I think we better be looking out come month end, not for a lion, but for a Sabre Tooth Tiger!

How Technology Almost Killed Mixed Farming

2010-02-24T18:00:00.004-07:00

Technology has a way of changing the very fabric of our society, usually without our even noticing. Some major changes to western agricultural technology occurred in the 60's and 70's thanks to the development of two machines. As with all technological shifts, these new machines were intended to increase farm productivity and profit potential, while reducing the amount of human labor required. The two machines were the combine and (later I think) the swathing machine.

Before then, but since the industrial revolution and the proliferation of machines, grain harvesting was accomplished by an involved process. I'm proud to say that I am one of VERY few in my generation in North America who can say I know and have taken part in it. The first step in the process was using a horse (and later tractor) driven machine called a binder. This machine cut the ripe lengths of grain and tied them into simple bundles or sheaves. These bundles were piled on a small one ended rack which could be lowered to the ground. Friction would then pull the pile of bundles off, leaving them on the ground and the rack would lift back up to receive the next pile of bundles. At some point, someone would come along and rearrange all those piles of bundles into "stooks", or upright tipi-like structures which allowed the grain stalks to finish drying.

Once the stooks had enough time to dry, carts were driven through the fields and each bundle was pitched (yep, with a pitch fork) into the cart. Then the cart would be brought to the threshing machine where each bundle would be tossed into the front, to then be separated into grain and straw. In a lot of ways, this was ideal for the mixed farmer. This is why you used to see wooden granaries in groups of two or three, with some space in between each group. The grain could be funneled into a granary and the straw blown next to the granary, into a large pile. This straw would then be used as bedding for the herd through the long Northern Winter.

* Thanks to the website from whom I borrowed this picture. There are several old pictures of this process out at the farm, but I have not yet gathered them for scanning.

By the time I was a part of the process we were already switched to using a tractor instead of horses and/or steam engine, so we basically did it all ourselves. We also used an actual grain truck instead of the tiny grain wagon you can see in the picture above. We still have one of those grain wagons on the farm still though, not totally dilapidated yet (gosh I need to get at saving it somehow). Before I was old enough to help (and I admit I was not made to work until I was fairly old, compared to my dad for example) dad would hire a fellow to help him, and mom did her significant share of course. I never saw the days of the wandering harvest workers but I know the days were long and brutal and the pay was not much. I also know that even though we used machines, the days were long and hard and exhausted both of my parents. I think a lot of the reason I look back at it was such fondness, is that I was allowed to watch or play, I didn't have to start working my ass off at 8 years old like my dad did. I can understand why it is hard for my dad to look back at those days with much fondness, where I find it kind of...magical I guess.

But back to my point...

The introduction of the combine meant that all separation could be done in the field and all that "waste" straw could be chopped finely and blown back onto the field. Priority could finally shift to maximizing either grain or livestock production, and the benefits and alternate efficiencies of mixed farming were soon forgotten. Now grain farmers had to buy manure from animal farmers and animal farmers had to buy food for their animals from grain farmers. This created a market for alternate options like synthetic fertilizers and chemical herbicides which were cheaper but of which we are also now seeing the results. This allowed for the proliferation of "middle-man" enterprises which were ripe for absorption by the new large-scale industrial corporate agricultural sector.

So, the result of not truly pondering the outcome of technological advancements, the result of ignoring wisdom and avoiding forethought, is what we see now; a global choke-hold on sustainable agriculture and a massive struggle in front of those of us who recognize the real necessity of local, sustainable agriculture.

The Return of Codex Alimentarius?

2010-02-20T10:59:00.002-07:00

When I became aware of the Codex Alimentarius concern, the biggest detail which made this seem a "conspiracy theory" to me was the very specific date of implementation offered by some of the loudest warning voices. Apparently on December 31, 2009 the full range of this global, UN-driven policy was supposed to come into effect, removing or almost totally restricting the ability for the general public to attain natural foods, dietary supplements (vitamins and minerals), and natural non-chemically derived medications. Then within the next year, and subsequent years, billions would die (I also find it hard to believe that these massive corporations would willingly and rapidly wipe out the vast majority of their customer base).

BUT, I have no difficulty at all in believing that these corporations would do whatever it takes to keep as many people as possible needing to buy their products. History has shown that morality rapidly disappears from societies of people beyond some general size in number. This doesn't mean that all individual members of the society see their morals vanish, but that of the society itself does seem to. This is especially the case in corporations, where the very basic purpose of the thing is to derive profit for the (and especially certain) members of the society.

So I went and tried to read Codex. I did read some of the documents and know that I should read more, but to focus on it too much would drive me mad. It is exceedingly long and detailed and indescribably boring. But some of it is pretty scary, such as the amount of attention paid to detailing what chemicals, toxins and otherwise, which were allowed in any specific product. Not getting rid of the toxins, but determining how much was considered safe to consume. And no discussion, that I saw, of the problems with overlapping various combinations of these "safe" amounts. From what I read, it did not seem so much a manual for wiping out huge swaths of humanity but for keeping them just going on in an increasingly toxic environment, internally and externally...and keeping them addicted to large-scale corporate goods.

It seemed to me that, as with all large scale control mechanisms, for one such as Codex Alimentarius to be implemented successfully it would mean doing so gradually, so as not to overly arouse the masses. One of the first specific concerns about Codex was the push for Bovine Growth Hormone to be used in ALL cows, thereby being introduced to all Beef and bovine dairy products. This has been, at least temporarily, avoided in most of the world.
Canada also has a bill in Parliament now, I cannot remember its "name", which speaks to this issue...apparently on the side of Codex. C-somethingorother has been talked about for a few years now. Personally, I thought it had disappeared as well. Silly human, losing focus...

But then, a week or so ago I heard about a National Post article which was supposedly about Canada banning the sale of all natural dietary and health products. I figured that I should have a look for this article, but kept getting distracted (very sore neck, Olympics, etc). Well today I found it and it looks like another quiet step towards restricting natural products.

The article is here (at least as this is being written).

What it actually says, and I find problems with both sides fo the debate, is that Canadian Pharmacy regulators are asking that Canadian Pharmacies do not sell natural remedies which have not been licensed by the Canadian government. I'm not sure exactly to what extent this means...is Vitamin C a natural health remedy? Can I not buy echinacea at Save-On anymore because it contains a pharmacy?

In some ways, I can see why such products might need to be regulated to a certain extent. It would be pretty easy to label any garbage as some kind of natural remedy or product without SOME regulation, especially as things are now when there is just no way one individual can properly investigate the origins of everything they consume. But at the same time, Big Pharma and other global corporations like to keep us needing more and more of their crap and to see their crap regulated less and less. I can't speak for everyone but I know on which side I stand. We don't get to demand to be taken care of, we have to take responsibility for ourselves or we lose our right to be....simple as that.

Anyway, I don't really have the time to go off onto a rant here, although it is tempting! I just wanted to point out that winning one battle doesn't mean we can let down our guard. Those who want control will always keep prodding to see what control can be taken. As much as I wish it were not so, some of us have to stand ready to oppose that control...and to be wary of becoming it ourselves.

Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters.

Red Worm Update

2010-02-18T01:01:00.002-07:00

Well my little Red Wiggler breeding experiment continues to move along successfully but, as with most such ventures, there have been stumbles as well. Primarily, the opportunities for learning have come in regards to temperature, moisture...and bugs.

I believe that the temperature and moisture issues have actually been working together. My first bin often needed water added once in awhile, but the 3 main ones that I have been running lately have all become quite soggy in the bottom, despite having drain holes. One of them was actually draining some water out, including some VC and even some worms. I had to retrieve the wanderers or they'd have eventually drowned. The other two bins merely got soggy in the bottom and I have had to do plenty of stirring and adding of absorbent bedding in order to avoid smelly anaerobic activity.

I suspect moisture issue had two causes. One is simply that I have been feeding the worms things that have had a higher moisture content, like cast-off pumpkins from our fall harvest. The other factor is temperature. The one main bin that I have had here in the condo has been by far the least soggy of the three, whereas the worst of the three seems to be the bin that has been sitting on the cool floor of the basement at my parent's house out at the farm. So I think the trick is going to be keeping them off the floor and, if I can, away from the cool walls. These cooler temperatures really seem to slow down the activity of the worms, both feeding and breeding. Now that I have eased off on the feeding of water-heavy things to the condo bin, I am starting to see some very nice and nearly finished VermiCompost that should be ready for use in the greenhouse within a couple of months. Hopefully the other two bins will catch up quickly.

The more frustrating issue has been bugs.

In the last update I wrote about the fruit fly infestation that I was fighting. Well no sooner had I won that battle than I had an infestation of small manure flies which came from some dry cow patties that I brought from the farm. These little bastards are tiny things that like to come to my computer desk and fly up my nose when I am working or watching something. I don't know of any way to get rid of them other than to remove all food sources and let them die off, which is hard to do when trying to actively breed bins of worms in my condo. However soon I will be able to move the bins from here back out to the farm where bugs are much less of an issue. Let this be a lesson, however. Don't bring manure into your house unless it has been properly composted already. Its a lesson I should have known already but I am a boy after all!

But if you're wondering why I brought the cow shit into the condo, well, it makes GREAT longer term food and serves as bedding. As bedding it can come in real handy for sopping up excess moisture if the manure is very dry. And of course, plenty of bedding over top of added food that might attract bugs is always a good way to not attract them in the first place.

The Name!

2010-02-10T16:50:00.005-07:00

One of the most important parts of doing business, be it industrial, commercial, agricultural or what-have-you, is having a good name. Even if the goal is building an intentional community, its usually important to have a good name. So one of the things in the back of my head when thinking about moving the family farmland forward, has been what name to call the thing. My own company has a relatively bland corporate name as it was never planned to be involved in marketing of any kind. But the farm project needed something good.

Well I think that mom gave it to me today.

I am not going to really get into it now, or tell the story of how SHE got the name, I just wanted to report this happy step forward. The story will be told, but I think I will save it for telling when I reveal the new Jackson's Corner website, which will happen before too very long.

Yep, it's looking like the home place (at least what we still own) will soon come to be known formally as Jackson's Corner or possibly Jackson's Corner Farm. Since my own personal goal is for it to become an intentional community (in time), and because I think adding "Farm" is kind of overdone and a bit redundant, I am tempted to leave it off. Feedback would be highly appreciated, however.

And yes, the farm website will have a blog section and that aspect of this blog will cease to be. I'm sure I will keep this blog around for its original purpose; ranting, news-sharing/discussing, and the search for balance and wisdom, but all the farm stuff will shift to the new site. Blog friends and regular readers will obviously be invited to the new site when it is up and running. But like I said, that could be a little while yet.

For now, back to more research and learning. Peace and comfort, all.

Farm Update

2010-02-06T02:41:00.004-07:00

Other than the Great Owl Massacre I have not reported much from the farm in awhile so I thought I would remedy that now, seeing as I am not sleeping anyway.

It has actually been a rather slow winter seeing as the cattle herd is small. If it were not for the hens and their shed needing to be cleaned every 10 days to two weeks I probably would not really be a lot of help this winter. The last two winters have required quite a bit of snow blowing but this year we have not yet had to break out the blower. It has even been warm enough to use the tractor on some days. Just yesterday I spent 4 hours in the tractor doing some chores and clearing some snow. This is the first snow that has been moved so far this winter. Rather disconcerting considering the extreme droughts over the last two summers. If we do not get at least half again what we have now OR some decent spring rains (which we haven't seen as long as I have been back, at least 5 years) it could be a very bad year. I have actually started looking at farmland for sale in Ontario. If precipitation does not pick up here in the next two years, it may be time to consider relocating. I will likely be writing about this subject more soon.

For now though, my focus has been on reacquainting myself with the important details of working with animals on a daily basis. I have kind of a weakness with maintaining attention to reoccurring details over the long-term so it is important that I find ways to deal with this now. On the path I am choosing, one cannot just decide at the drop of a hat that a few days away from work is needed.

Getting back to the Great Owl Massacre for a moment, I thought I'd share a couple more pictures. Don't worry, none of them will be of the pile of carcasses that I drove over to a stand of brush for the ravens, crows and coyotes to deal with.

This is the original screen. In all honesty, I kind of see this as my fault since the screen was not able to be properly mounted in the window so it was just kind of jammed in place at the top. I didn't think of the possibility of some bird of prey tearing through the screen but a weasel could have easily climbed through so I should have just made the end fix then...and saved the slaughter. Ah well, live and learn.

This is the gate that I closed after the horse was out, so to speak:

This window should now be predator-proof. As soon as we get above freezing for a couple of days, I have to re-work the rear exit holes as they are not so secure currently. Happily, the ladies started laying again the very next day. It was a bit of a trickle for a couple of days but, to some surprise, they were pretty much back to their same rate within a week. I think they are currently giving about 5 or 6 dozen a day. Not bad for what I think is 75-85 birds.

Back in October, we added these four female weaner pigs to our menagerie. I meant to introduce them back then when I took this picture, but I did not get around to it until now. This is the first time in over 10 years that pigs have run about on our farm, and they have been missed greatly. These girls are intended to be meat but I suspect we may keep one or two to be bred. They are also the first pigs that I ever remember being fed hay in the winter. In the past I only remember feeding them "slop", a mixture of water, milk, kitchen scraps, fish oil, and a dash of apple cider vinegar (my dad's utility supplement for animals and people, long story), all mixed with ground barley. Thanks to the learning I have done recently, however, both the pigs and hens are being treated like the grazers they are and having their winter diets supplemented with hay. Both are loving it. Here is what the girls looked like as of mid-January:

They are growing quite impressively I must say. They are confined in a pen but it is of decent size and there is a thick layer of straw and hay at the "living" end (where they do all but crap) that they have taken to rooting deeply into, revealing and assisting in the compost activity happening about a foot down. Come spring I am considering setting up a temporary pen over in a spot that I would like to remake into a market garden plot. Then, when pig-breeding time comes, this will hopefully be the spot that we will use for one year. This will let the sows and their piglets work the space up for us a bit as well as add some good fertilizer.

I was going to talk about the worm bins some as well, but I think I will leave that for another post of its own. Until then...

Peace and comfort to all.

The Haitian Response

2010-02-02T18:27:00.007-07:00

Just yesterday I made reference to peak oil, an issue which I have come to take seriously over the last couple of years, and my sense that it might soon come to affect our lives severely. Today I must say that I am no longer so sure of the immediacy of this problem. My reason for saying this is one that also helps to explain something that I have been wondering for the last couple of weeks.

It bothered me that this was the case, but I have been very curious what was inspiring the overwhelming response to the recent Haiti disaster. Now, this is not to say that I believed the human response to this disaster was unwarranted...far from it. But the truth is that this kind of thing happens fairly regularly with nothing like this kind of response. Of course people try to send money and food and such but rarely is there such a "high level" response. By "high level" I mean several thousand US troops and vocal involvement by names like Bill Clinton and George Bush. By "high level" I mean the Canadian government deciding to match all support fund-raising dollar for dollar. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was such response to all catastrophes?

So what makes this Haitian disaster particularly special?

This article by F. William Engdahl at globalresearch.ca lays out an answer that makes a great deal of sense, even though it is...well...maddening.

The Razor's Edge

2010-02-01T18:33:00.002-07:00

I doubt I am the only one who feels a strong sense of walking a razor's edge, both personally (in my case at least) and at a global level.

On a personal level, the edge is financial. Without going into too much detail, I will just say that my and my family's financial situation is somewhat precarious. Our resources have grown very thin and the opportunity for income is still restricted until some kind of short term operating funds can be arranged. Obviously this is a sticky situation since the vultures are eyeing good farmland all around the world. I hate to think that we might have to sell more land in order to continue with what is left...just doesn't seem wise in the long term. I will do just about anything to avoid that.

But on a global level, I cannot help but feel that all this personal stuff might be moot. This is where I feel the razor's edge analogy fits best. Anyone who is looking at the world through rational and truly honest eyes knows that the economic situation is highly unlikely to be on the path to a stable recovery. Quite the opposite, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop...that shoe which threatens to crash right through the floor when it finally falls, likely taking the whole house of cards down with it.

Then there is the increasing tension between the world's powers, this tension heightened by issues such as climate change, peak resources (most importantly peak cheap energy), and understandable concern about the aforementioned economic situation which is also fueled by the first two listed issues.

And all this happens as the world's greatest power seems to be marching right toward being the most recent failed Empire. We all know these empires do not go down easily so the increased police state style measures are hardly surprising, but still terrifying. Nor is it surprising to see this crumbling Empire engaged in significant foreign military activity. Only this time, a major global conflict is likely to be like nothing we have ever seen before. Yet still swords are rattled, threats made, intrigue plotted. I can't help but feel closer to this catastrophic conflict that at any time growing up in the 70's and 80's.

All told, its a little hard to get up and get going some days. Thank goodness I am not in a city, I think I might go mad.

Thoughts From Catching Up With An Old Friend

2010-01-26T22:25:00.004-07:00

I just got off the phone with a close friend of mine from the end of high school and the first few years of college. We haven't spoken in some time, he's been married and is now divorced with a young daughter, but his is one of those voices that I think will always make me smile and bring back fond memories. But speaking with him also reminded me of how far I have drifted from the "expected" path, from the fairly typical path taken by someone of my generation in my location in the world. And it reminded me of how crazy I think that "expected" path is making people.

The lyrics of the song "Suspicious Minds" keep coming to mind, voiced by Dwight Yoakam in my head, "Caught in a trap, Can't walk out...".

Nearly all of my closest friends have succumbed to the modern western trap. I guess it should not even be called western anymore, since our style of insider capitalism has spread throughout most of the world. But I digress.

It pains me to see so many of those who have been close to me, so deeply attached to an unnatural corporate/industrial existence. They are programmed by their televisions and the billboards that are nearly unavoidable. They are jaded parents, passing on their habits (usually concentrated) to their children, guiding them right into their own little cages (complete with exercise wheel!). They mean well for the most part, yet it is too easy to remain asleep, to ignore the fact that they are constantly driven to commodify every aspect of life, down to the very basic needs.

And then there is the fact that "the system" is set up to punish those who refuse to take the bait, who refuse to stay in their cage. Certainly anti-social behavior, especially that which is inherently harmful or destructive, should be dealt with but we have obviously reached the point of ridiculousness. Anyone following the tribulations of the Ontario farmer who makes raw milk available to those who want it must surely agree that this point has been reached.

And if we have reached that point, perhaps we have already begun the long slow swing back towards common sense and balance. People ARE returning the land, perhaps at a more sustainable pace than was seen during the 70's. It is my hope that this will continue and even increase; that we will explore ways to use permacultural type techniques in order to allow a higher density rural population all the while managing impact on nature.

I sure hope that some of these dear friends of mine are able to find the strength make some of these priority shifts. I wonder if that is overly selfish of me.

The Owl Massacre

2010-01-17T12:36:00.003-07:00

Now that the dust has settled, so to speak, and because visitors here have been surprised at the carnage caused by one owl, I thought I should write a bit further on what may come to be remembered as the Owl Massacre of '10.

This kind of situation is rather rare for a few reasons, one of the biggest reasons being the sheer amount of deaths. Owls don't usually get much opportunity for mass kills in one location at the same time unlike, say, a weasel which might often get to corner several mice. So let's look at the thing from a few steps back, both at what has been observed and from there to what likely happened.

Our farm is out in the open, the nearest tree stands being at least a half mile off, so owls have not usually been a problem. We see them fairly often but when they are around they tend to avoid the building cluster and hunt in the fields or down on the lake. Lately, however, a small flock of pigeons (cursed rats of the sky) has taken up residence in our barnyard, often hanging out in an old barn (that is no longer used other than storing some hay) or in our "chop" bin ( an old central building used for ground or rolled feed storage). A couple months back I found one dead pigeon in the chop bin, laid out in as a fine finished feast just inside the door. At the time I marked it up to a stray cat, but I have since changed my mind.

Yesterday I noticed that I could only see one pigeon nearby. So, I am thinking that all the coyote activity nearby is starting to knock down the local mouse population and this owl has been drawn closer to the buildings, to get at these fat, dumb pigeons. Then, having decimated their population, it took notice of the loud clucking sounds and the yummy chicken smells emanating from that small window glowing bright in the darkness of winter evening.

I had been told that the owl had pulled the screen off of the window in order to get into the building, which I found somewhat amazing even though it was a tad lightly secured. But when I got there yesterday I saw that the screen was torn from its frame up in one corner...the owl had torn its way through and just knocked the frame loose as it scrambled in.

Now when I was first told that 61 hens had been killed my first thought was back to years ago when a mink got into our coop one winter, and proceeded to slaughter most of them. I knew that owls tend to be a snatch and fly off sort of predator, poorly designed for multiple kills, but I still envisioned some kind of slaughter. Then dad mention the owl's wingspan and I got to wondering how many necks might have got snapped just in a couple of blows. Sure enough, when I got to the farm, I didn't see one bird that looked to have been killed with beak or talon...although I must admit that it was a big pile and I didn't see all of the birds. What likely killed most of them was actually being smothered. The sound of the owl tearing through the screen and then suddenly scrambling through will have sent the flock into a panic, which results in crowding into corners. As a matter of fact, when dad got there the first time, the owl was actually just sitting up on one of the roosts. He hit it with something, I can't remember what he said, and went to get a shovel to finish it off. When he came back in, it was back up on the roost. So apparently it was not in any kind of killing frenzy...it just didn't know how to get out or it would have grabbed a bird and been gone.

This was a real shame but it was not as devastating as it could have been or even as it first seemed. I wonder if we shouldn't have processed another 25-30 birds for meat, as the building was filled about to the maximum, if not slightly over. It is now no longer an issue at all, and, thankfully, most of the girls have already started laying again. At this point, Mom feels she should be able to continue to service her existing client base although any real cold spells might knock their production down...since their numbers are down and the room will be slightly colder. So I guess later this year we can learn how to add pullets to a mature flock without them all getting killed. I'll have to get on adding the straw bale addition to the north end, so there is more room inside next winter.

That's about all I guess.

The Final Straw?

2010-01-15T22:40:00.004-07:00

My family doesn't tend to fare well in the luck aspect of life. Considering the devastation in Haiti and other parts of the world we should not feel too bad for ourselves, but man oh man does that get hard sometimes.

I just got off the phone with a rather upset mother. It seems that an owl pried the precariously mounted screen off the window that I put on the chicken coop, and got in. By the time my dad went to shut them in for the night, the owl had killed 61 of our hens. Sadly, the bird lost its life instead of getting to enjoy the free buffet it thought it had found. It had to die though, or it would have been back over and over.

I'm sure as hell not looking forward to the trip out there tomorrow, and learning which of my favorite hens are gone...

So this sets the fresh egg business back by over 1/3, at least, until no sooner than next fall. It might actually put the operation back longer than that, since it is likely to mean the need for a new building and pen. Money is beginning to grow very tight, so this may not be possible. It might turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back too, if it puts my dad into a negative outlook as is very possible.

I guess we'll have to see...

First Offering of 2010

2010-01-14T21:17:00.005-07:00

Welly, welly, well, my little droogies. Here we are 14 days into a "new" year and barely a peep from your friendly neighborhood SoapBoxTech. I hope I will be forgiven for the stolen lines but part of the reason things have been so quiet here is a bit of a lack of inspiration to write. I do feel a bit of "groove" returning however, so we'll see how things go.

I recently finished reading a book that I received for Christmas from my excellent-gifting little sister, which presented some reality which can be a tad discouraging to some of us who are trying to return to an agrarian kind of life. "The War in the Country", by Canadian author and journalism professor Thomas Pawlick (writer of "The End of Food" as well) lays out some compelling evidence of government support for large-scale industrial agriculture operations, as opposed to smaller local operations, in Ontario and by extension, the world in general. I am not interested in trying to review this book, but I do suggest that people try to give it a read and pass it along to their perhaps less aware friends.

From my perspective, I think the situation might even be worse here in Alberta. With a significantly lower population there is less opportunity for local producers to build alternative local markets, and it seems to me that agricultural evolution here has led to the development of some massive and influential industrial grain and livestock operations here yet which remain family run and "local". This means that the strong rural vote here in Alberta still tends to side with what more and more people seem to finally be recognizing as very harmful practices; morally, ecologically, and nutritionally. In these cases, the "we're just trying to feed our family" defense is repeated ad nauseam. But as long as urban consumption and political power support this situation, intentionally or otherwise, it will remain the case.

On the upside, my mother's egg business is introducing us to more and more local people who are concerned about this stuff, and who are trying to make their own change. But then you meet the sort of fellow who suggested we get into the sheep business as he felt confidant that he could offer a market of 300 or 400 lambs per year...for sacrificial purposes. I try not to judge but I'm not even fond of eating such young flesh, never mind sacrificing it. It's hard to imagine a God demanding such waste in times like this, but what do I know.

Anyway, that's all for now I guess. Ciao for now, bellas.

PS: I meant to share this on New Years Day....well, Night I guess:

Who Ees Thees Cahl-vin?

2009-12-23T12:11:00.007-07:00

"The problem with people is that they're only human."

- Hobbes (a very wise tiger)

Somewhere around grade 8 or 9, I was introduced to something which has remained important to me ever since; the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes *. I devoured the few collections already published, and was lucky enough to have new releases bought for me. I still count myself lucky for that, although I doubt I recognized it at the time. At that age, something about the 6 year old reminded me of myself a few years earlier; rather imaginative and often in trouble because of it. Even at that age, I could recognize the simple wisdom in Bill Watterson's brilliant strip. And, like so many others, I was crushed when the strip was retired in '95.

When I stumbled across those old soft cover collections after I moved away from home, I would still thumb through them and giggle myself silly, once again easily pulled into the simple but enchanting world of Calvin and his best friend/tiger Hobbes, the spunky but rather lonely seeming Susie Derkins, Stupendous Man, Spaceman Spiff, various ferocious and ravenous aliens and dinosaurs and not to mention the poor, poor parents. It turns out that it's not such a big deal that the strip ended when it did. I am able to read them over and over and over again and they make me grin, laugh out loud, smile wistfully, and even tear up a little, just as with the first reading. Now I am very thankful that the author ended the strip when he did, so its real lovers (not like that, sheesh!) did not have to go through the horribly lengthy and torturous descent of so many other strips like Garfield, Charlie Brown and Archie.

A few years back, a hardcover and stunning new box set collection of the entire Calvin and Hobbes history was released. I noticed it in a mom-and-pop book store downtown and nearly dropped the $150 for it right then. Thankfully I decided not to, as I got the joyful surprise of receiving it as a Christmas present from my brother later that year. Evidently my love of the strip had not gone unnoticed. It remains one of the favorite gifts I have ever received.

Inspiring this post is the fact that I picked up the second volume of this collection recently, and am once again ensconced in wonder. I absolutely love how how much laughter and simple wisdom is contained on those pages. I really believe that they may have been a big part of developing my current consciousness, of becoming who and what I am.

I sincerely hope that parents are still sharing this strip with their children, and enjoying it themselves.

And thank you so very much, Mr. Watterson. I wish I could give you something as important in return.

*Having read through most of the wikipedia contents now, I would suggest that even those who are already fans of C and H go have a look at the link provided. I liked it anyway.

Baby, Its Cold Outside

2009-12-19T20:19:00.003-07:00

Much of the Canadian Prairies got a good blast of winter over the last week or so, with record low temperatures being set in various places. The -45C that we hit over night a few times was unseasonal for this area at this time of year, but certainly not unheard of. It seemed to make people forget that just prior to this cold snap, many places were posting some unseasonably high temperatures as well. But most interesting to me was the fact that this was the first time I have ever heard such a cold snap cause news stories which warned of strain to the electrical grid due to such a cold spell. I wonder what this means for January and February when we often get several weeks of such low temperatures. Although, I suppose it should be noted that the cold snaps do not usually cover such large areas.

Still, it seems to me that if certain parties had their way, much of Canada would be uninhabitable for 4-6 months of the year. The only thing that makes large portions of Canada inhabitable during a typically long winter, is the consumption of energy that is primarily available only from the burning of biomass or fossil fuel. Certainly there are ways to maximize use of wind or solar energy but this would require a MASSIVE redesigning and rebuilding of our homes, food production, business and infrastructure. I certainly feel that we should be moving toward this goal with all haste, but I do not think it makes much sense to blindly limit the potential for success in the endeavor by intensely limiting the resources which may be used.

I TOTALLY sympathize with frustration towards those unwilling to budge from the status quo but to those who are crying out for someone to come along who is strong enough to MAKE people do what is necessary, I ask you:

What will you do when you're told where to live, what to do with your time at all times, how many children you may or may not have, what you may wear, etc etc, in the name of preserving the future?

That is what is being asked for when one demands the right to inflict their will on another. At that point, the only hope is that the chosen dictator is able to do the seemingly inhuman...to remain totally benevolent.

So do I then support the absolute right of the individual over the society, or the whole?
Well, of course I do not, but surely we can find a way to balance the individual and the society. That is not to deny the fact that this is an intensely complex situation. We MUST figure it out though. We're at such an important crossroad, both for Mother Earth and for humankind. I can't help but feel that simple survival just isn't enough. I can't help but feel that we must live for something.

I live for peace and comfort, for myself and for all. Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas, if I am not back before then.

Worm Warning

2009-12-10T22:24:00.003-07:00

Well I have stumbled across one of the few pitfalls in keeping an indoor worm bin. Seeing as I go on about the benefits of keeping a vermicompost bin, I thought I should likely pass on a warning as well.

The organic waste that feeds composting worms so well, can also attract pests like gnats and fruit flies. In my case, I had gotten a bit lax with some non-bin garbage in the kitchen. This led to a minor fruit fly infestation. Now, I know how to build a fruit fly trap, and did so. But some of the flies made it into one worm bin, in which I had placed some old grapes that I neglected to properly cover in bedding for just one day. Since fruit flies propagate so quickly, the next time I opened the box I was greeted by a host of exiting flies. I immediately added cardboard and chopped straw but it was too late. Evidently many eggs were already laid and juvenile fruit flies have been crawling out from the straw like so many zombies erupting from fresh graves.

I have added another trap right inside the worm bin, and have placed some dark plastic over the lid. This should keep the young flies from being drawn to the light through the ventilation holes. All I can really do now is leave the bin this way until all the decomposing vegetable matter has been processed and the feeding/breeding cycle of the flies has been interrupted. We'll see how that goes.

As far as avoiding this situation in the future, the key is ensuring that added food is always covered in bedding. This is a good idea anyway, since it also cuts down on odors and provides a better Carbon to Nitrogen ration. But it DOES make it harder to watch the worms cluster to feed, which is a priority for many...especially before the novelty of keeping worms wears off.

Hopefully this warning doesn't turn people away from vermiculture.

Peace and comfort.

Nonsense

2009-12-02T15:08:00.003-07:00

Warning: This post may contain the odd "naughty" word. Sometimes its just necessary.

I am sure others are noticing as well, but it seems to be a good time for nonsense and bullshit again these days. I know this is always going on but it seems like its been particularly bad over the past few weeks.

Some examples:

A) Last week, good ol' Prince Chuck and Camille paid Eastern Canada a visit, landing in Newfoundland and touring all the way to Ottawa. This visit cost we Canadians more than $2.5 million! They live in a fucking palace (more than one actually) and WE have to pay for them to come visit us???

I, for one, am not proud of Canada's formation as a British colony, nor am I proud of the fact that we remain one, even if Her "Majesty" is kind enough to refrain from interfering in MOST of our lawmaking and governance. It infuriates me to hear people talk about the grand history that we "get to be part of", in reference to the British Monarchy. As far as I am concerned, "royalty" is nothing more than polished vulgarity and a WHOLE lot of waste.

B) This should, and may become, a post all of its own. Sometimes I am absolutely astounded at the ease with which people can LIE through their teeth nowadays. I know this was always the case to some extent as well, but it is so bad now that its almost impossible to know what the truth really is, on most any given subject. Last night, for example, New York Times journalist Tom Friedman was on The Daily Show and he became the most recent talking head to claim that the Taliban is partially funding their efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by growing opium in northern Afghanistan. Well, here is just one article from February of 2001 stating the the ultra-religious Taliban had banned opium poppy cultivation and heroin production. A small research effort will reveal many other such articles. So is it a different, less dogmatically rigid Taliban that is currently active, or is someone else growing all this opium in northern Afghanistan now? Of the countries actively struggling over that area right now, which is the most linked to the international narcotics trade over the past 50-odd years?

This is an admittedly debatable example but I am confidant that most readers know what I mean. So many of our politicians, media and business leaders...all feeding us lies and bullshit (sometimes by omission only, but still...) in order to get themselves ahead. And we do it to each other too. I would be lying even worse if I tried to claim that I do not let out the odd defensive lie. But I am also not exaggerating when I say that I very definitely came to realize just how personally damaging it is to do so. Even though this often puts me at a disadvantage socially or in business, I maintain that it is the best and healthiest personal policy over the long haul.

C) The constant shoving of a left-right paradigm onto the population of North America (if not most of the "democratic" world) continues to increase in intensity. And most of us seem stupid enough to buy it, to accept that every issue has a liberal answer or a conservative answer (or that its all the New World Order's fault). I do not understand why we have not rejected this corporate media and political structure which is so obviously detrimental to all but those striving to accumulate more and more wealth and/or power over others. Some would label this phenomena as Memetics and pronounce us to be as much to the mercy of these "memes" as we are to genes and genetics. I can accept the label but I cannot accept the argument that we are at their mercy. We CAN be at their mercy when we do not recognize them, but we can also deny their control when we DO recognize them. I do not deny that there are power-hungry "elites" or "powers that be", who have more access to mass control of memes...but we little regular folk can still deny them. Doing so might hurt a LOT sometimes, but it is possible.

D) I can`t help but wonder when the argument over anthropogenic climate change will get violent. It certainly seems headed that way. The new Climategate intrigue has only intensified the argument. This is another subject I have been meaning to post on for months now, but I find it hard to clearly state my thoughts. Kept simply and briefly, it is obvious to me that industrialization and expansion of the human population is causing significant damage to our planet in many, many areas...likely in many ways we do not even know yet. But I also find it very interesting that we so often lay the specific fault/solution on things we cannot easily see, and many people cannot easily understand. We are all in a frenzy over carbon dioxide and other gases as being the main fault in all the destruction and loss of diversity that is becoming more and more difficult to deny. Well it seems to me that proponents of both sides are overly stressing some facts and totally omitting others, both for rather personal seeming reasons.

For me, as I have said many times, it is obvious that we are causing significant damage to our planet, not the least of which is sucking, scraping, scooping or tunneling every last bit of natural resources out of it that we can manage. Much of this is done only to accumulate more crap that serves primarily to display as high a social standing as possible and/or to gain more control over others. But I also despair to see so much energy being put into a fault and solution that seems suspect on many levels, when we should probably be finding ways to discuss the real issues resulting from so many humans having so many different expectations of a finite world containing finite energy and resources. And I despair to see so many willing to accept living under authoritarianism, even to DEMAND it, in order to achieve what is somehow seen to be "social justice". But I also despair to see so very many individuals disdaining any social controls whatsoever, in the name of freedom.

Its all enough to give a guy a bad headache. Luckily I have a beautiful lake side farm to work at (eyesore of a landfill and all...), and those little bits of technology that help to broaden my mind while keeping it busy as I work away at mindless but necessary tasks. I think I would be a very very frustrated and cynical individual if I was still living in a large city. And I`d be a hell of a lot more worried about the day the store runs out of food.

That`s enough ranting for now I think. I will go back to being thankful for living somewhere that I have the time and full belly to consider such things, where simple survival is not yet a concern.

Peace and comfort, all.

Vermiculture Update

2009-11-15T23:30:00.002-07:00

Time for a worm update.

There has not been quite the population explosion that I was expecting. I am still just at 3 tubs but I am just about to start an additional tub or perhaps two. My local aunt likes the idea so I am setting up a bin for her to use. Her husband, my uncle, is an outdoorsman hunter/guide and he loves to fish so I suspect many of their worms will end up bait. I feel a bit odd at 36 years old, talking like this (seems like something a 12 year old might write about!), but I think that is just some silly residual social programming that I have not quite exorcised. I am more than happy to have this beneficial little hobby that is catching on with some family and friends.

Back to my bins.

As I stated before, I was running low on drink tray cardboard so I was trying to use straw as bedding material. This has been working quite well but quite a bit of chopping helps to speed up the process and this can be kind of a pain in the ass. Scaling up will definitely require a small tub grinder or chipper but this will allow the processing of old round straw and hay bales. I think it will be a good investment because it can also chop up the bedding straw from the livestock. This is always mixed with plenty of manure so after it is piled to heat awhile, it can be shredded once more and then fed to the worms. This will maximize the nutrients and microbiological organisms present in the worm castings.

One mentionable aspect to using the straw as bedding is that I believe it has slowed their reproduction from what I saw in the first bin. That drink tray cardboard seems to provide the ideal breeding environment for these things. So anyone wanting a slow population increase might do well to find some straw to use as bedding for their worms. However, I may also be wrong about this, there may have been a low amount of adults spread among the 3 bins. The bin with the most adults seems like it has had a significant population increase lately, although I will look more closely tomorrow. At the very least, the straw provides them with plenty of oxygen and they definitely seem more physically active in it.

I have also discovered that compost worms LOVE pumpkins. This may be true for all melons but they are simply devouring the unusable pumpkins that I have been feeding them. I suppose this is because the flesh is so soft and mushy but there are not even traces of rind remaining after just a few days. I guess I will be planting lots of melons in the garden next year.

Here is a little video to give an idea of what I mean:

In the background of the video, you can hear Dmitri Orlov of Club Orlov being interviewed by KMO on the C-Realm Podcast. If you've not yet had a listen at the C-Realm, I seriously suggest it. I enjoy it so much that I have gone back to listen from the beginning. I started back in June or July and I am up to episode 129 now. That is 128 hours of listening so far! And I have loved almost every episode. From psychedelia to peak oil to philosophy, this show feeds my head amazingly well. I am downloading most of them, since I know I will want to listen again later.

Before I go, I want to pass on a little suggestion, regarding vermicomposting. After putting raw potato skins in my first bin, and turnips in a recent bin, I really suggest avoiding dense root vegetables without chopping them up quite a lot. I am not joking at all when I say these things last a LONG time in your worm bin, if you do not do so. Potato skins bits may even sprout. I would watch the starch concentrations anyway.

That's all for now, I think.

Be good to each other.

Learning

2009-11-13T16:52:00.005-07:00

Brain....can't...take much...more...information.

I love this feeling, after a few hours spent following information thread after information thread, learning more and more...cramming more into my under-utilized brain. For example, in wanting to know why styrofoam recycling seems to be pretty much non-existent, I learned about RecycleTech, a company that designs and builds EPS recycling equipment AND which has built a market for the main product (the other by-product being air) of the recycling process. I suggest everyone lobby their local government to look into this company and removing EPS/styrofoam from our landfills. Their website led me to GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, another site that promises to jam more information into my poor brain...albeit important and required information. With all the building that I am considering, this might well be a very handy site. A worthy learning opportunity indeed!

I remember sitting in classrooms looking forward to the day when I didn't have to learn more boring crap. Windows in these classrooms are kind of like double edged swords. The natural light they allow is so important, but the view to outside can be soooo torturous. Some days I almost wanted to cry from feeling so...imprisoned.

I know now that this environment did nothing to show me the real joys of learning. I realize that there is a necessity to learn some form of structure and discipline, but I can assure anyone reading this that school did nothing to teach me discipline. I learned discipline first from fear and then from maturity...well, I kind of learned it anyway. I must admit it is a lesson I am still but barely passing (even these posts serve as distraction sometimes), but my point is in the source of what improvements there have been.

I look at a family like that of Sugar Mountain Farm, and I see how young learning CAN be...how I think it needs to be, for some. This doesn't mean that I lament my youth, at all. Quite the opposite, as I have said before I believe I grew up "better" than most of my age peers. But I maintain that such an environment as provided on the Sugar Mountain Farm, will result in happier, more balanced and more productive human beings, than 12 years of what I see as little more than learning cells within youth camps. And because of this, it always amazes me that there are not more, a lot more, ex-teachers who have lost their minds. My jab here is not intended at teachers, at all. The vast majority of them were taught how to teach in exactly the same kind of environment so, best of intentions or not, most of them are fighting a lost cause. I should also add that I feel it is very possible to create this sort of environment in an urban setting as well, even on the same grounds as education currently occurs.

My other issue with modern western schooling is the opportunity for potentially questionable social programming. Combine this with the overt AND under-toned push towards conformity and I think you have a recipe for serious trouble. It's no wonder we have a society so full of adults who despise learning, while being so intent on avoiding responsibility and seeking more and more mind-numbing entertainment...and looking more and more for someone to "take care" of everything else.

Along this line, there is another point that we should be thinking about. More and more of our information, our KNOWLEDGE, is being stored electronically. I love the internet and its opportunities, but it would seem highly prudent to be storing our knowledge physically as well, including all known languages. 10 or 20 modern Library of Alexandria's ought to keep a lot of people employed for a long time, hmm?

Learning has to be made important again, and that doesn't have to mean forced in camps.

Feed your heads, my brothers and sisters, feed your heads.

A Simple Comments Poll

2009-11-11T15:34:00.005-07:00

Yesterday the CBC website carried a news article about a senior official/whistle-blower at the International Energy Agency claiming that the IEA is covering up information which points to validation of looming Peak Oil theories. This will have caused a good deal of buzzing around the world and that was the case in the comments section for that article as well. People on both sides, myself included, were tossing their comments back and forth. As always, I was dumbfounded at the comments of some who seem to feel that stupidly stubborn liberal environmental types who deter exploitation in sensitive areas are the main cause of the apparent supply crunch in global oil supply.

Suddenly it occurred to me that this was a good opportunity to toss out a very simple (5th grade?) public opinion poll. This is what I came up with:

Perhaps a little CBC comments section poll.

Assuming there is no real geological limit to world oil reserves (for, say 500 years), just a liberal stubbornness which prevents necessary exploitation:

Should we ignore the suggested "invisible" costs (ecological, social, health, etc) and focus solely on meeting the demand for cheap energy, ie. oil and gas?

Yes = Agree
No = Disagree

Please, if you choose to respond, do so in seriousness.

I am thankful to be able to say that I found some hope in the responses!

When I checked last, at nearly 4pm today, only 17 had said Agree. 80 people said they disagreed. I did not cast a vote but I hope it is obvious that I would be the 81st. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this response even though it would have been nice to have a lot more responses overall.

Br`er Coyote

2009-11-10T22:43:00.005-07:00

The star of the last post was out with me again today. Upon another look, I think this is actually a male after all...hence the Br`er of the title. I enjoyed sharing the space with him but it definitely bothers me that this shy creature is forced to hunt in such close proximity to us.

Handsome bugger isn`t he? I managed to get a short video that I thought I would share as well. I missed the pounce but, well you can see what I did get.

WARNING: This clip was recorded from inside the cab of a tractor so please watch your volume. I suggest starting quite low and increasing to comfort.

I took one more video as well, a trip from the field and back with a bale, but it is over 20 minutes long so I will need to edit it before uploading to youtube.

Stay tuned.

Thoughts

2009-11-09T20:55:00.009-07:00

Winter is fairly set in here in NW Alberta, Canada, albeit fairly mild still. The temperature is getting above freezing most days, some days almost to +10C even, but a thick snow a couple of weeks back is keeping the feeling of winter around. Today the ground stayed frozen, as did the water which has been melting in the afternoons these past few days. I have been using the tractor to fetch the last of the straw bales from the field so the big tires were hastening melt and causing slush. Well all this was frozen today so there was quite a bit of sliding about even in the big heavy tractor (seen below). Next summer we HAVE to convert an old hay rack to carry these bales because I have spent waaaaay too many hours driving back and forth to the fields, bale at a time, this year. It is quite relaxing actually, but still a waste of time and fuel. Some steel, a welder and a few days work and voila, we'll have a cart that can carry 9 bales. This means 10 bales a trip, instead of 1.

As I have been fetching these bales, I have been given several reminders of what amazing things are often seen when one has no camera in hand. About a month back, a huge coyote was out in the field hunting for mice, as I was fetching hay bales and dad was raking straw for baling. This fellow (assuming it was male) was more bold than any other coyote I have seen (until today). Most would have darted off out of sight completely, whereas this one remained quite near us both for some time. At one point, it was right up on one row of large round bales. He hopped off as I drew near, and moved away.

Then yesterday, as I was coming in with a bale, I met a different (I think) coyote running along the road toward me. She (for some reason I think this one was female) seemed rather surprised to see me and the tractor but instead of running off completely, she just ran back the way she had come...looking back at me and keeping just a few feet in front of me, before finally scooting off the road to one side and curling back in the direction she had been headed. She ended up in the same field as I was, and would remain within feet of the tractor at times. She never did move away to a different field, and was again up on a row of the bales, this time laying down for a nice rest after hunting. She would hop down as I drove right by, but would just stretch and hop back up. As I moved away after the last pass, I looked back to see her still laying comfortable on her soft bed with a view.

I think I saw this one out hunting yesterday as well, in the same general area. The first time I saw her, she was in mid-freeze and I actually got to see her pounce and drive her feet and muzzle into the snow...and come back up with a FAT mouse. She played with the unfortunate morsel a bit before finally giving it a few serious chews, then flipping her head up and swallowing it down. Funnily, as she was frozen and waiting to pounce, she flipped 2 or 3 annoyed glances over at me and my loud tractor as if to say "will you and that racket please piss off and leave me to my meal-finding?".

I saw yet a 3rd coyote today, this one much smaller and with more yellow in its coat. I suspect it was a yearling. I think the population is so high in this immediate area as there is likely a den in the bush of the large pasture that we only use sparingly. I am considering moving 3 or 4 old straw bales out to this pasture to attract mice. This should provide plenty of food for the family of coyotes and keep them from being too interested in our chickens. Seems a good use of old straw to me. Many people would just go wipe the coyotes out but I like them. They are handsome and clever animals which keep down the rodent population. I think it would be better to provide incentive for them to avoid our livestock and to let them live and have some kind of wildness in their life. If they get to be too many, however, or should they start coming at our chickens anyway, it will be .22 target practice time...and perhaps skinning time.

All this monotonous bale fetching leaves plenty of time for thinking, and led me to wondering about trying to convince the County to set up the farmland they bought from us, as a County wildlife sanctuary. I would think such a thing would have nice carbon credit potential (though I despise the necessity for such necessary incentive). I was thinking that a non-profit agrarian organization could be set up to administrate this sanctuary, and wouldn't the family who has been stewarding the land until now be a good candidate for operating said non-profit organization?

This kind of thinking leads, of course, to thinking about all the various things which could then be done with the land. And it leads to thinking about the obstacles...

Obstacles like county bureaucrats with too much power and caught in non-sustainable development paradigms, or like County Councilors from competing districts who will not support anything that doesn't happen in their district. Obstacles like a growing landfill right next door, which generates profit for the County and whose harm to the County is not immediately visible. And obstacles like this being an area which is not yet willing to see peak resources as any kind of threat.

Oh well, I am glad to have the time for this, and the various other thinking that I am getting the chance to do. It certainly seems that a lot of it should be done as significant chaos looms larger and closer on the horizon. So often I find myself wondering how many of the people that I see scurrying about every day, give any thought to what lies beyond the next few days. They're just keeping on keeping on, I guess...but then that is exactly what got us where we are. What angers me, however, is the knowledge that a time is coming, very soon I think, where all these grasshoppers are going to need the fruits of the preparations we ants are making. Their selfish short-sightedness and complicity to brainwashing is going to mean greater suffering even for those who have tried to warn and prepare. I don't hate them for it, at all, but it definitely saddens me...and angers me.

Speaking of short-sighted...just last week I read an article that made this point so clearly. I read that the Canada Pension Plan had invested $11 billion in an Australian toll highway. I couldn't help but comment at the CBC webpage where I read the article, that this seemed a rather stupid gamble to me. This drew a few disparaging comments in return, which shows many Canadian financial types do not see peak oil as any kind of issue. Personally, even if peak oil wasn't an issue, I think privatized infrastructure (like highways) is a BAD thing that I do not want my part of our pension plan to be supporting, whether it will earn a strong immediate return or not. Luckily for anyone still reading, I will not make this post any more boring by explaining my reasoning for this just now! If anyone is interested, however, Max Keiser talks about this very issue in the last 10 minutes of his most recent Truth About Markets radio show. Max can get a little crazy but I really appreciate his ideas about BOTH the private and public sector being necessary, in appropriate balance and scale.

Thankfully, there are so many things in my life again now that are still able to alleviate sadness, heaviness, and/or anger in a moment, or a breath. Like late this afternoon, taking a few steps away from the idling tractor, standing on a low rise, looking off to the west toward the low sun glinting back at me and mixing stunning pinks into the blue of the clouds (all that CO2 certainly makes more stunning sunsets). The slow breeze had backed off and the mild, darkening afternoon forced a grin onto my face. I am glad for all my wandering, but this is most definitely right for me now. Its a looooong way from balanced, but I surely feel that I'm on the right path, even as the world goes to shit.

Peace and comfort to all.

Samhain and A Sort of Beginning

2009-11-01T23:42:00.005-07:00

I knew it was a good idea when a nearby tree offered up a near-perfect stick.

This might seem an odd way to start a post with Samhain in the title, but I think it will make sense eventually. Being of at least half, perhaps as much as 3/4, Scottish blood, I find myself easily drawn to pagan Celtic lore and ceremonies. This is especially true as I open to the importance of balance. As such, Halloween is coming to be more powerful to me as the eve before Samhain (pronounced sow-en) than the more recent christian derivation or even the modern dress-up and gorge on candy or booze fests.

I decided this year to make a special effort to celebrate this end-of-harvest and Celtic New Year day. I had originally intended to have a bonfire on the bank of the lake last night but, as it is wont to do up here, the weather intervened and it was a shitty windy evening. I came home already thinking to next year and perhaps inviting some family and friends if the weather was decent. But today was a calm and rather lovely, although still rather cold, day do the urge to do something this year returned.

I used some logs which were originally cut for the old house wood heater which is burned so very very rarely nowadays, to build a firepit on the very edge of the bank of the lake. I had to carry the logs quite a little distance so two trips, bearing 4 logs each time, was nice exercise and kind of rough on my niggling lower back. The last 7 logs went over in the back of Dad's truck. Just as darkness was set in, around 7 pm now that the clock has fallen back an hour, I had My little box of fire alight. I realized I would need a poker stick so I went to a nearby fallen dead tree where, lo and behold, I was able to snap off a thick but gnarled branch of the PERFECT height to lean on, which also had a spot at the top which fit my hand ideally. Obviously the spirits were pleased so I spent the next two and a half hours enjoying the flying sparks, fresh air, and a moon oh-so-near full, all the while pondering the year past and the one coming, the revitalizing winter before that which now seems begun, and souls close to me which are now passed from this world.

The evening was definitely chill, harvest is WELL done with now, but near the fire it was just a fantastic night. I could well imagine a larger fire, perhaps two or three or more, with family, friends and neighbors milling around and sharing the special night. I am hoping that within a few years, this day will mean inviting the community to share an evening on our farm, reversing the trend of isolation and stand-offishness towards "outsiders" which can be quite heavy in part of my family. I want our farm to be important to the community, from a leadership and spirit standpoint.

In truth, I was quite intent on this plan for another reason, so I think I would have had the fire tonite anyway, even had it been -15C. The reason for this is that I learned of a close family death yesterday. It seems that my brother and his new wife had been pregnant and there was a miscarriage...so they lost what was to be their first child (for which I know they have been hoping so much...) and I lost my first niece or nephew. As Samhain is a time of a blurring between life and death, I felt a strong impulse to use this powerful day to celebrate this and all such brief lives, and to grieve with my brother and sister-in-law...even over thousands of miles. I know God or Mother Nature or whichever, have their reasons for such things, and balance can be a grim business at times.

For this reason, and for others, this tradition will continue at our farm until (God forbid) it is no longer possible to do so. I hope that it will grow and grow.

Peace and comfort to all, especially to we Northern Hemisphere folk who are now entering the darker half of the year. And peace to you, little niece or nephew.

Yellow Puffs to Oval Boxes

2009-10-28T00:34:00.015-06:00

A very happy event occurred on the farm today, leading me to finally do this post.

I have mentioned the fresh, free-run egg business that is being added out on the farm briefly in the past, and I have been intending to post the process (and hopefully progress) here on the old blog. However, as things will be, I have not done so yet. But, as I said, something happened today which meant it was time to do some catching up. Good thing I have had my camera along most of the days I have been at the farm, so I have been documenting.

This was day one, back in early June.

We started the chicks in a small shed/coop which housed the last batch of hens that mom kept. It was quite a bit of work to prepare this approximately 10 yr old shed. The USB floor had given way in a few places (have I mentioned how much I hate USB?), so I replaced that with 3/4" plywood. Then I hosed down the inside of the shed and gave the walls a bit of a scrub. I likely should have used some sort of detergent but there'd been no illness or non-meal-oriented death in the previous hens so I made due with just a scrub. I used bubble wrap vent insulation to make a circle enclose for the first couple of weeks, to keep the chicks from clumping in the corners, which significantly decreases the chance of squashed/trampled chicks. Indeed, we didn't lose any birds this way, and only lost about 4 young chicks overall. 4 out of 200+ isn't a bad mortality rate at all. I should also mention that we used pine shavings as bedding. I would have preferred to use contractor's sand in order to reduce dust and the chance of starvation due to gorging on shavings, but it was not easy to locate. Next time we are using straw, since we always have it and it decomposes in a fraction of the time.

My folks did not remember how quickly chicks grow, and they hadn't been taking my wheedling seriously so it was something of a surprise to them after about 2 and a half weeks when the young birds had almost quadrupled in size. Crowding was beginning to be an issue and some of the chicks were being pecked badly. I had to retrieve about 6 of them and set up a separate "recovery" area. Then it was time to get those birds outside!

A day or so before letting them outside I had tried to distract the little buggers from their pecking by setting up their roosts. This allowed some chance to escape from pestering, and helped to maximize the space per bird ratio. I took this chance to thin some young poplar stands for this project, and again later when it was time to build roosts in the larger coop. It distracted the little buggers for a time, but only getting them out of doors would really work. And so it did.

I also built a "rockin' roost" outside which some of the birds came to really enjoy.

About a month earlier, I had transplanted some carrigana shrubs along the west fence, intending for them to grow into a sheltering hedge in a few years. The seeds are also a nice protein source for the birds, or even a main food source if necessary. Luckily they had just enough time to settle in before the chicks were unleashed on them, and then were moved to the larger run before they got too big, so the shrubs should survive nicely.

I guess my folks felt the southern run that was already there (built by myself, my dad and my uncle around 10 years ago, with much fighting of course...) was not enough, so they got to building a temporary run at the north end of the small coop, out the main door. It was quite hilarious to watch the whole flock suddenly take off running/flapping from one side, through the coop and all the way to the far end of the other run...only to do it all again a few minutes later. And Isa Browns are supposed to be calm birds. I think something went very wrong in the breeding of this batch.

The first big surprise to me, was just how much destruction such a flock of little critters could cause. These things literally devastated both the north and south runs, including killing a small willow. Soon enough, however, all the shite left behind will eventually result in a lush growing area, indeed some grass has already begun to grow in thick and green.

This devastation rather hastened my construction of the larger run attached to the larger new coop/shed which is to be home to these ladies for the rest of their lives. By early August I had moved the flock to their new home which they took to quite eagerly, although with some fear early on!

In September I built and installed the nesting boxes, since we were thinking that eggs would begin to appear around the end of October. Behind the nesting boxes, venting insulation was stapled to the wall, as this is the northern wall. I still need to cover the lower stuff with cardboard or plywood as the ladies predilection for pecking has them eating small bits of the mylar.

As the days are getting shorter and colder and the birds are spending more time inside, it became clear that ventilation was needed. We needed a window anyway, to provide some natural light during winter, so I went to the building supply recycle place which just happens to be within sight of where I sit as I write this post. I found something perfect for the planned location, a long and narrow window which could be mounted so as to allow opening at the top for ventilation. I think it was removed from an old school portable room or something like that. At 10$, I wish they'd have had 9 more or so!

Outside, it has been a little bit rainy over the last few days, and with the birds being mostly full grown now, and therefore wreaking havoc on the grass and ground in their run. As such, the run near the coop has become quite muddy and gross, so I broke up several old and wet hay or straw bales and spread them around. The ladies just love this, especially since much of it is wheat straw containing many stray seeds. You can also see the clump of willows in the background here. Many of the ladies spend all day trying to roost in the branches or huddled on the ground in the shade and/or out of the wind.

A little over a week ago, many of the hens began to display the bowing posture, as if to be mounted by a rooster, when someone would walk by. This shows that the birds have reached sexual maturity so we began the look-out for eggs. Up until today, one or two of the nests were being used, but so far nothing had been left but the odd shite.

But then, today...or I guess yesterday since its well after midnight now...I happened to have a look and, lo and behold, there in one corner lay two pristine brown, strong shelled pullet eggs. And only slightly smaller than full size! Really, it is surprising that the first eggs have well formed shells like this. Typically we'd have found a pile of soft shelled ones to start with. It must be that we started laying out oyster shells quite early on. Sadly, I must report that I retrieved the eggs to show them off to mom and dad, too quickly to think to take any pictures of them. But I promise they were there, right where the red mild crate is in this picture. Yes, I put a milk crate nest in each corner, since they obviously want to lay there. The buggers better use those stinking nests tho!!!

I'm sure they will start doing so, very soon. Looks like the water got put into the house just in time because there's going to be plenty of eggs to wash soon.

Happy event indeed!

By the way, how's this for an eyeballed fence line?

Next year we may build a twin setup beside this run and double the operation. I think I will suggest 150 hens per run, however, should we decide to expand. I really feel that we have about 50 too many birds in the run now. You never know though, some of the fatter ones might end up roasters.

So that's it for now, but there is more to come on the chicken topic for sure.

Be good to each other.

Don't Hide From Your Shit!

2009-10-22T12:45:00.006-06:00

Well, for the first time ever, the family farm has running water to the living quarters. The contractors are still working, but as of Tuesday evening the kitchen taps were functional. No more filling pails for indoor use, no more carrying them to the house from the old pump all through winter. Part of the 20th century, and it only took to the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

Soon, if it isn't done by now, the plumber will work on the toilet. I am happy about all but this.

Flushing toilets are perhaps the most bothersome aspect of modern civilization. Indeed, higher population concentrations have always had troubles dealing with their own bodily wastes. In an effort to inhibit pathogens from continuing to cause death (an obviously worthy endeavor) we have harnessed yet another limited resource, perhaps the most vital... naturally occurring fresh water.

As most of us now know, flushing our toilets is the largest use of fresh water in our homes. Such use commits this water to long periods of time in toxic conditions and introduces these toxins back into the water table before there has been time to remove them naturally. As well, in order to reduce the amount of water sitting in holding lagoons, this water is processed out of the lagoons, sterilized by harsh chemicals, and then sent back into the drinking water supply to be re-used.

Mmmmm chlorine water....

If we only had a balanced outlook on our own wastes, much of this situation could be fixed. Composting toilets DO require a bit more effort and care, but the reward is huge. We could re-engineer our water and sewage infrastructure in a far more sustainable and healthy manner, as well as properly reintroduce vital nutrients and healthy soil building matter to our environment. Humanure (a word coined by a dude whose name I cannot remember just now and which I don't have time to find again), once composted (preferably vermi-composted), is one of the finest fertilizers around. If there is a concern about remaining pathogens, it can be used for non-fruit or nut bearing trees, although properly composted humanure is toxin and pathogen free.

I can't believe we used to dig all those damn outhouse holes, when all we really needed was a bucket chamber and carbon material such as peat moss (which is all over the bottom of the lake/slough), chopped straw (which we always had plenty of), or wood shavings/sawdust (which we also had plenty of due to two wood stoves). In that case, ignorance WASN'T bliss, it was harder work, more dangerous.

So in closing,

Don't hide from your shit!!*

*Note: This is good advice for more than just bodily waste.

Solitudinous Communion

2009-10-20T21:20:00.003-06:00

I was standing on the lake bank today, looking out over the reeds and water, enjoying a beautiful fall day. I had been gathering some fine manure/soil to use as potting soil so I was wearing my headphones and mp3 player, listening to podcasts. Over the talking, however, I could hear some swans in the distance so I took the headphones off and just stood there for several minutes. I could see, off to my left and probably a half mile away, a group of white shapes whose size and sounds told me were Trumpeter Swans. Straight out in front of me I could hear what sounded to be quite a large flock of Whistler swans. The sounds of both were somewhat faint, uplifting yet calming. Also in front of me, and off to the right at a distance, I could hear Canada geese talking back and forth as well. My folks were in town, my sister at work and the contractors were gone so I had the whole farm to myself. It was a very peaceful and solitary (in terms of humans anyway) sort of feeling.

As I stood there, flock after flock of geese began to fly overheard, off to one side or the other and then right overhead as well. Some of these flocks were huge, some were just a small group, and some seemed to be even larger flocks broken into various smaller sizes. At the height of the mealtime migration, their passing was continuous. All together, easily a thousand geese flew over in a space of about 10 minutes.

It was one of those moments that can most definitely be shared, but just has a certain special quality when experienced alone. It is rare to find these moments in our world nowadays. It seems that most people expend a great deal of energy in order to spend as little time alone as possible. I do not think this is a good thing. We need time alone in order to ponder and to reflect. We need this in order to be truly comfortable with ourselves as individuals, and therefore in order to be truly comfortable in our world. Even Superman had a fortress of solitude, after all.

Granted, it is also to go the other way and spend TOO much time alone. I am likely guilty of this at times, being a life-long bachelor and all...and given my tendency to find most people to be selfish and shallow. Still, I think I prefer this than to be uncomfortable with solitude. I don't think I would give up moments like today for anything. It's where I find balance.