Shack in the Middle

Monday Forest photo: January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

1:30 pm -5C cloudy

Still winter here. The sun has shown up the last couple of days, which makes it all more bearable. And the fact that sunset here is after 5 now is a lovely bonus.

I fear that some creature is helping himself to the contents of the hive in the big cedar. There are pieces of comb and dead bees lying at the base of the tree. Based on the size of the scat that was also there, I'm pretty sure that this is a creature that does not fit into the hole, so perhaps the damage will be limited to the extent of his reach.

Monday Forest photo: January 23, 2012

2012-01-26T21:34:00.002-05:00

12:00pm 1C cloudy

I admit it. I'm getting bored of winter, and it's still only January. Snow, freezing rain, ice pellets, cold, colder, less cold, more snow, blah, blah, blah. I even forgot to publish the Monday Forest photo until Thursday. Whatever.

Monday Forest photo: January 16, 2012

2012-01-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

1:30pm -6C cloudy

Another up and down week. It was really cold on the weekend, but we're back to above normal temperatures (which are starting to feel normal). Everything is crisp and clean in Monday Forest and perfectly wintery. I've had the experience a couple of times this week of standing quietly and hearing nothing but the wind in the trees and chickadees and the occasional snap of a branch in the cold. I think this had to do with the perfectly clear skies, cold temperatures and wind blowing from the north, where there are few roads for many kilometres. It's almost as if the absence of cars, or airplanes or chainsaws or snowmobiles has a sound. I can hardly get enough of it but it is a rare treat to experience that silence.

Luc finally broke down and borrowed my dad's snowblower to get the ice on the pond clear of snow before the temperatures warmed up last week. He discovered the amazing amount of work that can be accomplished with the help of a small amount of fossil fuels. And so the skating continues!

Monday Forest photo: January 9, 2012

2012-01-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

12:30pm 2C cloudy

The last couple of days have been glorious in Monday Forest: bright, reasonably mild and hard-surfaced. Our neighbour has been over the trails with his snowmobile, packing down the snow and providing almost a sidewalk to walk on. I can hardly recall enjoying my walks more and that's saying a lot. Mind you, my week was hijacked by a very nasty stomach virus which laid me low and kept me out of the woods until yesterday. It was a joy to get back out with Meg.

My little adventure in illness gave me a new appreciation for our town's amazing emergency room service. Within ten minutes of leaving home, I was triaged, examined and iv'd. I spent the night and left in the morning - nausea under control and rehydrated (I left out the grislier parts of the story). All at no cost, I might add (for the benefit of any of my American readers who doubt it's possible to receive quality, timely medical care in Canada).

I was also reminded that I am not nearly as sturdy as I think I am, and that my previous good health may have been as much luck as right living. So, humbled and recovering, I resumed my daily walks.

I had to include Meg in the photo this week, because today is her third birthday. If it's true that a tired dog is a happy dog (and I believe it is), then Meg had a great day.

Monday Forest photo: January 2, 2012

2012-01-02T12:38:00.002-05:00

12:00pm -1C light snow

We've had every kind of weather this week and we're back in a rapid change from warm to cold. It's hard to get bored by the weather. A few days ago we had heavy, wet snow followed by a drop in temperature which resulted in many trees being bent over, some right to the ground. I shook the heavy snow off all the trees which were impinging on the trail, and got much of it down the back of my collar. I alternated between being too warm from the exertion to keep my hood up, to freezing cold with a load of snow on my neck. You'll be relieved to know I survived and so did the trees.

New Year's Resolutions for a novice subversive

2011-12-31T21:59:00.000-05:00

Woodie Guthrie's New Years Rulin's for 1942

I'm not a big resolution maker - even less a resolution keeper, but I thought I would share some of my resolutions this year. While looking for an image for this post, I found this excerpt from Woodie Guthrie's notebook. It turns out that Woodie and I have a lot of overlap in our resolution lists except that I'm already pretty good at number 3 - "Wash teeth if any" so I left it off mine. Here are some others:

1. We've been using credit cards for practically every purchase for years, but this year I'd like to stop giving the credit card company a cut of every transaction. I'm pretty addicted to the convenience, but I'd rather not enrich a huge corporation while at the same time giving them all kinds of information about my spending.

2. On the same theme, this year I'm going to seek out places to do business where credit cards aren't even an option - the farmer's market, freecycle, the local classifieds, the local charity shop etc. I'll be looking for opportunities to support the underground economy through buying used and super-local. I admit, I've been a bit of a tax snob in the past: saying I didn't mind paying taxes because I appreciated the services we received, but now I'm so disgusted with how the government spends money that I will do my best to ensure they don't get any more of my pennies than strictly necessary.

3. I will work harder to grow, prepare and eat local food. This is really a no brainer and there's always room for improvement. I really want to increase the number of calories I produce. I'm planning to grow a lot more potatoes.

4. I'm going to use my bike a lot more this year. I take the car to run errands because it is easier than riding and it's hard to carry groceries on a bike - but that's a problem that others have solved so not a very good excuse.

I could sum up all of my resolutions in one: I'm going to think a lot more about who benefits and who gets hurt from my activities. And I'm going to be less likely to do something if the one who benefits is a shareholder of a corporation or the one who pays is someone in a sweatshop or someone drinking polluted water or someone vulnerable to extreme weather or someone not yet born. Or, as Woodie so eloquently put it: "Wake up and fight". This is the year of more undermining and less enabling the incredibly damaging industrial capitalist system we've been told is the only way.

Here's to a happy and rebellious 2012!

Monday Forest photo: December 26, 2011

2011-12-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

2:00pm 1C overcast

It's looking very festive here in Monday Forest. We got several centimetres of snow yesterday, which made for a very pretty Christmas Day, and warmed even my grinchy, several-sizes-too-small heart.

The forest was alive with the song of several dozen robins, along with some chickadees, nuthatches and a downy woodpecker. I don't recall seeing a robin at this time of year or this many robins congregated ever.

Longest night

2011-12-21T21:25:00.000-05:00

In three hours the northern hemisphere will tilt as far away from the sun as it will get for the year. What a relief. The days will start gradually, but inevitably, to get longer, and the sun will rise higher in the sky every day.

I think I prefer the traditional name midwinter, rather than referring to this as the first day of winter, as we do now. The solstice marks such a turning point and in a few weeks the sun will start behaving much more spring-like, even if the temperatures don't. Mind you, with the weather we've had recently, we've no business calling this midwinter - the freezing rain today is really the first serious weather of the season.

Monday Forest photo: December 19, 2011

2011-12-19T17:00:00.003-05:00

2:00pm 5C overcast

Still no snow here in Monday Forest. We had some pretty cold weather over the weekend and the pond froze hard enough for me to walk on it, but with temperatures well above freezing again, there will be no skating for a while.

Meg found something pretty interesting on our walk today, which you may not want to look at if you are squeamish. I think it is the remains of a mourning dove, though I stand to be corrected. It looks a little angelic.

DIY economic collapse: no computer hacking or explosive skills required

2011-12-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

Some guys living in a shack in the Don Valley in Toronto during the Great Depression. They look a lot better off than the modern homeless ravine dwellers. They have teacups and books.

In my last non-housekeeping or forest photo post, I talked about the brutal truth about climate change. That if we are to limit global warming to 4C (a most dangerous level, but the lowest practical increase from where we already are), we (the world) have to level off carbon emissions soon, then drop them quickly to zero (by about 2050 or sooner). Given the huge inequities in current carbon emissions and the fact that we cannot trust governments to do the right thing, we the people are just going to have to take matters into our own hands. The only thing that has ever resulted in significant year over year reductions in carbon emissions is the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, I propose that anyone who is genuinely concerned about the well-being of people in poorer countries in the short term, and their own children and grandchildren in the medium and long term, should be actively working to collapse the current financial system.

Which is, of course, the argument that conservatives have been using to avoid doing anything. It's just that they love money more than poor people or their grandchildren. And many of them are counting on being raptured before things get too warm anyway. And to supporters of any other political party - we're not going to have a prosperous, green economy, and I wish you'd stop pretending we can.

The current financial system looks ready to collapse under its own weight without any extra help from me, but I'm a pessimist by nature, and I'm not prepared to leave such things to chance. The first thing is to question some basic assumptions about how things ought to be. Like, annual economic growth of 1 - 3% is necessary and good. Actually, annual economic growth is incompatible with a liveable planet for our kids and grandkids. The conservatives are right - reducing carbon emissions will hurt the economy, but luckily, a collapsing economy will reduce emissions.

So, what to do. The greenest thing I ever did was quit my high paying job. Our family income dropped by more than half, and so did our spending. Canada's GDP went down accordingly. I could write a book on why I think most families should only have a maximum of one full time job each, but for the purposes of crashing the economy, the drop in family incomes and resultant spending would go a long ways. Why do I suggest quitting your job rather than just spending less? Well, for one thing, I know from experience that you are pretty much guaranteed to spend everything you make plus a little. Even if you save half your income, you have to put it somewhere, and unless it is under your mattress, it's going to be fuelling economic growth in some way. So from an anti-economic perspective it makes a lot more sense to not earn it in the first place. This also results in much lower income tax, which reduces government revenue that will eventually enter the economy.

Please don't have any more kids. I honestly don't think that if I'd known fifteen years ago what I know now, that I would be a mom today. That would be a terrible loss for me, but my kid, like yours if you're reading this blog, has a much higher carbon footprint than the global average. We don't have enough time to reduce the world's population enough to solve our climate problems, but we can certainly work at preventing the population problem from getting worse. Besides, what sort of world would you be bringing those kids into?

Pay down debt as fast as possible, or default on it entirely. Repaid or defaulted debt takes money out of circulation and frees you from wage slavery. Debt has been the foundation of most of the world's economic growth for the last few years, so whatever you do, don't take on more.

There are major benefits of choosing a low income lifestyle. A perk of voluntarily reducing income is that having less money automatically causes you to question all forms of consumption, and you quite naturally come to the conclusion that you don't need nearly what you thought you did when you had more. All those little decisions you might have had to make about whether or not to spend money on something or other are pretty much made for you, when you don't have much to spare. It's easier to take care of a smaller house and less stuff. Family life is very pleasant indeed when everyone is not always in a rush to get to work and childcare and endless activities. The main advantage to living on less now, though, is that it is pretty much inevitable, with the approaching crises of climate, finance and energy, that very few of us (save the usual suspects) will be more prosperous in the future than we are now. We might as well get used to living simply, so that our expectations lead rather than trail our circumstances.

Blog housekeeping note

2011-12-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I noticed that if you tried to access my blog with Chrome, you got a security message saying my site contained content from another site (that I didn't recognize) which is infected. Safari and Firefox did not raise any alarms.

I removed the blogroll, and I no longer receive the security message, so I'm assuming something in it was causing the problem. When I have some time, I'll try to find the specific link that was the problem, but in the meantime, no blogroll. Which is too bad, because I like linking to blog friends and other interesting sites.

I only recently started using Chrome because Madeleine said it was faster - which I haven't observed, but I may switch over to Chrome for it's security-mindedness.

Monday Forest photo: December 12, 2011

2011-12-12T17:36:00.002-05:00

11:45am 5C sunny

Today was a lovely, mild day. The tiny bit of snow that is still on the ground is melting, and the birds are singing and it doesn't seem like winter at all.

It was a lot wintrier last week but still not very snowy. This was the view off the back deck.

Oh, and I know I promised my tips for bringing down the economy - sorry. Next post.

In which I say stuff you won't like after finding out stuff you don't want to know

2011-12-10T15:42:00.001-05:00

The last few weeks have provided lots of food for thought on climate issues and I've arrived at a pretty horrifying conclusion.

First, there was my predictably disappointing meeting with Gordon O'Connor, my Member of Parliament. I knew he wouldn't say anything other than the official party line, because no Conservative MP does, but I had really hoped that by going, I might leave him with the impression that ordinary people want the government to do something to reduce Canada's disproportionately large carbon emissions. He kept telling me that the government just wasn't getting that kind of vibe from people. I had to point out to him that I am also a person, citizen and voter, even though we both knew I'd never vote for him. Not the right kind of people, apparently.

With that visit fresh in my consciousness, last week I hosted a meeting of several environmentally-minded folks from my community including a town councillor. All of us had expressed a strong concern about the lack of action nationally on climate change and a willingness to take action locally. There was talk of planning a county-wide environmental conference that would educate folks about climate issues while also developing a white paper that would be presented to local governments. A similar conference was held five or six years ago to great praise from the attendees and polite disinterest from the government recipients of the resulting paper.

I said that I thought that there was a high risk that we could go to a huge effort to basically preach to the converted, like a Billy Graham crusade, and it was pointed out to me that most of the residents of my municipality are either ambivalent or climate deniers and needed convincing. There were suggestions of an art contest for kids and skits and maybe a place for "green" retailers to showcase their recycled denim handbags and whatnot. I was not left with any sort of optimistic energy at the conclusion of the meeting - in fact I'm still reeling from it, because I truly believe the time for diddling around with songs and skits and talking about ways to use old milk bags is well behind us.

Then I read an article in Grist magazine called The Brutal Logic of Climate Change. I strongly encourage you to do the same, though it will stretch your powers of cognitive dissonance to read it and carry on with life as though the implications are not pants-shitting scary. The executive summary of the article is this: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. Keeping in mind that there is no hyperbole in the above sentence, the executive summary of that is: We're fucked.

The article is based on a report by Kevin Anderson, a professor of energy and climate change at the University of Manchester and Deputy Director of The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He produced a paper with his colleague, Alice Bows, called "Beyond 'dangerous' climate change: emission scenarios for a new world". Mr. Anderson gave a presentation of his paper, with slides, that is available here. He gives a surprisingly engaging talk at a citizen level of detail, which outlines the carbon budgets available for limiting global temperature increases to 2 and 4 degrees Celsius. It would be wonderful if everyone took an hour and listened to this talk, but hardly anyone will, and those of us that have are left with this terrible knowledge and nothing to do with it.

The gist of his talk is that there is a limited amount of carbon that can be dumped into the atmosphere to limit temperature increases. The amount of carbon that can be emitted that would have us stop at 2C is so small we have practically no chance of being able to reduce emissions quickly enough to stay within the budget. The carbon budget for a 4C degree increase is larger, but requires us to peak our emissions in 2020, then decrease by 3.5% per year until we reach zero. Zero, zip, nada, zilch (the good news is that the jet ski industry will disappear long before that). Just for comparison, the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in 5% reductions per year for a few years. In 2010, we increased emissions by 5.9%, so this could be hard. Oh, and by the way, a 4C degree increase in average global temperatures is, according to Anderson, "incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond 'adaptation', is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable." That might affect your retirement plans.

As I write this article, the world is negotiating yet another climate agreement in Durban, South Africa. Canada once again won the "Colossal Fossil" award for it's appalling behaviour and bad-faith negotiating. In response, Michelle Rempel, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment had this to say: "With regard to the fossil of the year award, the member opposite should know that the real award that counts is that our country sits on top of the G7 with regard to economic growth and job creation." And much cheering and clapping ensued from the Conservative benches. If there are terrorists in this country, they are currently sitting in the House of Commons, actively seeking to destroy the environment that is the foundation of life as we know it.

So if you've stuck with me this far, I wonder if you have arrived at the same horrifying conclusion I have? Since there isn't a global reset button and current governments and industry seem only interested in burning fossil fuels as fast as they can be extracted from the earth, the only way to prevent catastrophic warming is to have a complete and swift global financial collapse that consigns us to pre-industrial levels of energy consumption. Perhaps you haven't, in which case I'd like you to read the article and listen to the talk and then leave a comment with your conclusion.

Luckily, world events seem to be leading us in the direction of global collapse, but in my next post, I'll talk about ways that you and I can act to accelerate bringing down the economy. And it will take a bit more than changing our lightbulbs.

Monday Forest Photo: December 5, 2011

2011-12-05T14:50:00.001-05:00

2:00pm 6C light rain

Another surprisingly warm day today. Normally, if it gets this warm at this time of year, we can expect lots of rain to go along with it, but we've only had a little light rain - mostly just clouds. We have had enough rain in the last couple of weeks to recharge the swamp at the back of Monday Forest.

Meg figured it was warm enough to have a bit of a splash.

I thought this month would never end

2011-11-30T22:19:00.001-05:00

Whew. Thirty consecutive posts. I enjoyed the exercise, and I feel like I cracked the writer's block that was plaguing me. There were certainly posts I wouldn't have bothered with if I hadn't set myself the challenge of a post a day for this month, and there are topics I would have expanded on if I had more time to work them through. Well, I say that, but writing longer pieces is much harder and I have a tendency to completely disagree with myself by the next day, so perhaps that bit is fantasy.

I expect I'm not the only one who sets silly challenges for myself and then fails to follow through, so I'm kind of proud of myself for sticking with this. Gold star for me. Now if I can just think of something interesting to say on a reasonably regular schedule between now and next November when I will very likely do it again.

I ought to give a shout out to Canberra Canuck who was a pretty faithful commenter here or on facebook all month. Thanks.

A proud Canadian moment

2011-11-29T17:26:00.001-05:00

So the first day of negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change talks in Durban has gone and Canada has scored first and second place in the fossil awards. It got first for planning to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol (in December after the talks are finished - talk about bad faith bargaining) and second for this statement by our Environment Minister, Peter Kent: ‘Emerging and developing countries need to stop “wielding the historical guilty card” and asking for a free pass on emissions reductions just because in the past, industrialized countries had more emissions than the rest of the world’. Yeah, developing countries. Stop asking for free passes. Don't you know free passes are for North Americans?

Third place goes to the UK for making a deal with Canada to bring tar sands oil into the European Union by undermining the Fuel Quality Directive. Hey, I'm considering that a win for Canada, too.

While I was googling around on this topic, I came across some "conservatives" cackling about the awards with glee. So if you thought it was just our government that hates the environment, you're wrong. Some Canadians do too, and they walk among us. Or more likely, they idle their SUVs in the drive-through lane at Tim Horton's.

Monday Forest photo: November 28, 2011

2011-11-28T12:10:00.001-05:00

11:30am 5C light drizzle

A mere 5 days ago, it was a winter wonderland here in Monday Forest, but the temperatures have been well above freezing ever since and the snow is long gone. It's a cold enough climate here that we expect to see snow on the ground all winter, but it can take a few tries at the beginning before it sticks. In the meantime, depending on one's perspective, one waits with dread or anticipation for winter to finally arrive.

This little cluster of cedar cones caught my eye. It made me think of the preparations all the wild ones make for winter. Much more life and death than remembering to empty the rain barrels.

They thought there would be cake at the grand opening

2011-11-27T12:24:00.001-05:00

The girls got a first look at their new sunroom/rain shelter this morning. Yesterday I finally got the plastic on because rain was forecast for today, and I don't like to let the birds out to free range in the rain - they're just not very good at staying dry. Soggy chickens are pathetic little creatures.

The chickens have been sharing the winter coop now for a week, but they still keep to their own groups. The two white chickens and two red chickens nearest the ramp are the old ladies, and the rest are the teenagers. From what I can tell, though, everyone is getting access to the food and water and there isn't any violence.

Dax doesn't seem to fully appreciate that she is among the 1% of chickens. Hopefully, she'll enjoy the new space this winter.

See ya later, sunset!

2011-11-26T20:40:00.001-05:00

The view from my kitchen window one day last winter

At this time of year I start to get kind of squirrelly because of the very short days. Because my days are my own, and most mornings I don't have to get out of bed to be somewhere before it gets light, the primary day length issue for me is what time the sun sets.

I spent a little time perusing a sunrise/sunset calendar for my area and made a wonderful discovery. Today the sun set at 4:25 pm. In just over a week, on December 5, the sun will set five minutes earlier at 4:20 pm and that will be as early as it ever sets. Ever. Oh, the days will continue to get shorter, and sunrise will be later and later until January 5, but that critical sunset time bottoms out in 9 more days.

I may just make it this year, and I'll try to appreciate the the view.

News Flash: the government doesn't care what I think

2011-11-25T20:32:00.001-05:00

Brick Wall

I did a bit of citizen activism today. I dressed in my least no-good-sit-n-thinker clothes, brushed my hair and went to speak with my (Conservative) Member of Parliament about climate issues. I'm sure that if I had made an appointment to speak with a brick wall, I would feel much more satisfied than I do now. And if I had banged my head against that wall, at least I would feel relief when I stopped.

As cynical as I am, I actually came away from my conversation even more pessimistic that there will ever be any meaningful change. The thing that surprised me was that my MP and I pretty much agree that things are going to get warmer - much warmer. We spoke of the need to reduce consumption, and he advised me to tell my grandchildren to buy land along James Bay, because it will be a sunny resort area in the future.

The thing that startled me, given his acknowledgement of the problem (though he tried to lecture me on natural climate variation - I wouldn't hear it) was that he was absolutely certain that the government would never take any serious action because people didn't want it. When I reminded him that I had made an appointment to tell him I wanted to be carbon-taxed and that I was probably representing at least one or two other people in the riding, he merely shrugged. He said the government just wasn't getting that kind of vibe from people. I told him I hoped he got my vibe.

I suppose I wasted my time today. Apparently, there is nothing to be said against the status quo. I guess if the system won't change, we're going to have to change systems.

Where's Sergeant Pepper?

2011-11-24T14:57:00.001-05:00

You've no doubt seen lots of images of the pepper spraying cop photoshopped onto all manner of iconic and not so iconic images by now. If not, check here for lots more. I'm glad that this thing is going viral and that folks seem genuinely disturbed by the casual violence against peaceful protesters. Our new ~~overlords~~ majority Conservative government is taking a turn in a much more authoritarian and cruel direction and no doubt we'll see more of this.

I was a bit surprised when the various city governments in this part of the world were so tolerant of Occupy protestors at first. In Canada, occupations started on October 15, and mostly were sent packing this past week, though some were cleared out earlier. The protesters were moved out using provisions of city bylaws designed to prevent homeless people from camping in public parks. (I feel sorry for the homeless - it's practically illegal just to exist, let alone all their other problems) They got the parks all tidied up and now nice people can use them again.

There was an interesting article in the paper about how police infiltrated an anarchist group for a year before the G20 summit in Toronto last year. Two officers joined a group, but one was exposed because he wasn't a very good anarchist and he saved his receipts. That little nugget really struck my funny bone - I'm not sure why but I'm still chuckling about it. I have no idea what good came from this undercover operation - it didn't seem to prevent any violence and there weren't very many serious criminal convictions in the end.

Full disclosure: I'm married to a cop, so I'm not anti-police, but I hate to see them used as pawns when the full force of the state is brought to bear against those who would speak out against a system that is already rigged against them.

First snow

2011-11-23T17:20:00.001-05:00

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? - J.B. Priestly

When I no longer thrill to the first snow of the season, I'll know I'm growing old. - Lady Bird Johnson

A very big trip

2011-11-22T20:49:00.001-05:00

Source

There was a bit of a milestone in our household today. Madeleine wanted a ride, not only to the city, but across the city, to volunteer at her old school for the day. I wanted to drive in rush hour, twice, to drop her off and pick her up like I wanted to stick needles in my eye. So I agreed to drop her off and pick her up at the park and ride. She managed all four busses and hour plus each way trip and arrived back at the station in one piece at the end of the day. She had not gotten lost, molested or recruited into a cult. She had realized that a lot of things in the city were now accessible to her that otherwise might not be if they required full chauffeuring services from an unenthusiastic parent. Now if I could just talk her into hitchhiking the rest of the way home, she'd have all the independence a teenager could want and cut our carbon emissions, too.

Speaking of emissions, the picture above is of an electric city bus from the early twentieth century. I know, I know - there are still emissions, except they're belching out of a smokestack at the local coal-fired generating plant rather than the tailpipe, but it's interesting to ponder how things might have gone if electric vehicles had prevailed over internal combustion engines. Perhaps we'd all be driving slower, lighter vehicles and listening to birds and people rather than the traffic noise we've gotten so used to.

Monday Forest photo: November 21, 2011

2011-11-21T15:10:00.001-05:00

1:30pm -3C sunny

A beautiful crisp, cool day. A cold front blew through last night, bringing clear skies and chilly temperatures - just right for a walk with the dog.

There's not a lot of greenery left in Monday Forest, but this fern is still standing proud.

Chicken nuggets

2011-11-20T17:16:00.001-05:00

Today was the culmination of Project Flock Blend. This project started back in June when we got five new day old chicks who took up residence in the large winter coop while the original flock of four spent the summer and fall in the chicken tractor. I knew from the beginning that we'd have to move everyone into the winter coop before winter. The girls have been free ranging in their two separate flocks for months now, but don't mingle much, though the old ones do chase the young ones away from goodies.

The temperature is forecast to hit -10C tonight, which seems like winter to me, so Madeleine and I grabbed each of the four old chickens and put them into the big coop with the pullets. Everyone was a bit miffed at the disruption of their ordinary routines, and there was much complaining.

The old chickens captured the floor level and the young chickens retreated atop the straw bales which are stacked under the roosts. The old birds partook of the offerings of both feeders and the waterer while the young ones watched, annoyed. When we left, after half an hour or so, there was an uneasy truce, and it was starting to get dark.

I'm sure there will be some jostling for sleeping space tonight, but chickens do enter a kind of nightly torpor, which should prevent any conflict overnight, and hopefully they will wake up slightly confused but well-rested and genial (or at the very least refrain from maiming each other over breakfast).

In every flock, certain chickens stand out for some exceptional trait. Martha, our Plymouth Barred Rock, shown above at the far end, is notable for her lovely appearance and stupidity, even by chicken standards. Martha frequently finds herself lost and was voted most likely to be eaten by a coyote.

Uhura is the chicken who comes running towards me when she sees me approach. She seems to speak for the pullets and objected the loudest to having new roommates.

Photo credit for all the chicken portraits to Madeleine.

The coop is undergoing an expansion this year, with the addition of a sun room. It's still under construction, but I'm sure it will be appreciated this winter.

Northern Red-Bellied Snake

2011-11-19T20:28:00.001-05:00

I love the days when I see something I've never seen before. Today on our walk we saw this tiny snake on the trail. According to google, it's a Northern Red-Bellied Snake, a snake one doesn't often see because it is very shy and likely to be found under a log or rock. Also, it's the smallest snake in Ontario, so it's just plain tricky to see, especially in this dark grey colouration. This one actually appeared dead, though apparently they are known to play dead. It didn't move at all, even when we picked it up. Luc placed it under some leaves off to the side of the trail where hopefully it snickered quietly at its subterfuge and waited for us to leave before slithering off to wherever snakes go at night.

It seems kind of late in the season to be seeing snakes, but it has been a particularly mild fall and these snakes seem to be able to endure cold winters as their range extends up to Lake Superior.

While I was doing the research for this post, I discovered a project called the Ontario Nature Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, which seeks to "improve our knowledge of the distribution and status of Ontario’s reptiles and amphibians by collecting observation submissions from the public, carrying out field surveys and amalgamating existing databases." They accept observations from "citizen scientists", and I will definitely register to participate.

A depressing tour of White Tail Ridge

2011-11-18T19:21:00.001-05:00

Meg and I went over to White Tail Ridge for our walk this afternoon. White Tail Ridge is a controversial suburban-sprawl type development plunked down a couple of kilometres from town in a rural area. The advertising has been misleading to say the least. I saw one ad that proclaimed that WTR was "in the heart of vibrant and eclectic Almonte". Uh, no. There are road signs along the main road from Ottawa that show the distance to WTR, except that every single one understates the distance by several kilometres. There must be marketing science behind blatant lying about obvious facts, though the strategy is lost on me.

I like how the sign says "Imagine the Possibilities"and shows a picture of an olympic size backyard skating rink. Your imagination will get a workout here.

I stuck my camera in over the edge of a dumpster outside a house which is currently under construction mostly to see if there were any goodies in there. I was pleased to see some workmen had tossed their beer cans in the dumpster, as they mostly they seem to toss them into the ditches. It seems kind of European to be drinking at lunch, but I suspect these guys are not old world craftsmen.

Construction is proceeding (but not on this weekday afternoon) on three houses. Customers don't appear to be lining up to buy these homes, which are priced similarly to houses in the city, except they come with a bonus half hour longer commute.

I threw up a little when I saw this monstrosity. Luckily it will blow away when the first big wind comes up.

The forest here is gradually being blasted away to make room for roads and storm water drainage. Of course, as houses are built, the remaining trees will be cut down too. Sigh.

While I was poking around, I found a sign which reveals the site's previous use: Welcome to "Stan's Slaughtering Plant". It's hard to get too romantic about something like that, but I'd rather see a local food producer here than a bunch of oversized, vinyl and chipboard dream homes.

Stephen Harper and his corporate puppeteers don't speak for me

2011-11-17T14:52:00.001-05:00

I engaged in a bit of slacktivism this afternoon. The Council of Canadians has a campaign to let European Union decision makers know that the Canadian government is acting as a shill for Big Oil and does not speak for a majority of citizens. The Canadian and Alberta governments are lobbying against the EU's Fuel Quality Directive, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions from transport fuels by discouraging the use of high-carbon fuels such as tar sands bitumen. They say the FQD is "discriminatory" and "unscientific". Apparently you must remove your conscience before you crawl into the pocket of Big Oil so that you do not mind spewing complete bullcrap in public.

So Madeleine and I took each other's pictures holding this fancy sign and uploaded it to a Flickr group, called I'm Canadian and I Support the EU FQD. This is slightly more effort than signing an online petition, but not much, and I would encourage anyone who is concerned about reducing carbon emissions to go to the Council of Canadians website to get more information on this action and how to participate. Do it. Go now. Oh, and why not leave a comment here once you've done it?

Experiencing Mental Difficulties: Please Stand By

2011-11-16T21:24:00.001-05:00

I am completely at a loss for today's blog, so I am cheating and posting this picture of some stuff on a rock for your viewing pleasure. Regular programming resumes tomorrow.

Is there decent health care in debtor's prison?

2011-11-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

Source

There's a tumblr blog I go to quite frequently called We Are the 99 Percent which is simply photographs of people holding a sign that describes why they feel they are part of the Occupy movement's 99 percent. I have a hard time figuring out why I find this so compelling. The site has hundreds of these pictures of people who are in debt, un- or underemployed, insecure about food and housing, and often sick or disabled. So many of these accounts are of folks who are carrying debt from student loans, underwater homes or medical bills. This debt renders them indentured servants, but with no guarantee of employment.

Quite honestly, I can't really relate to most of these people. By far, most of them are American, and as much as Americans and Canadians may be indistinguishable to the rest of the world, there are some major differences that are particularly relevant here. The real estate bubble hasn't burst here, and in many parts of the country there is no real estate bubble. Most Canadians are not underwater on their mortgages and there hasn't been any spate of foreclosures. Most universities here are publicly funded and tuition fees average about $5000 a year for undergraduate programs. The biggest difference, though, is our publicly funded health insurance. Every Canadian has a provincial health card that provides all basic health services for free. Ok, it's not free. We pay for it through a reasonably progressive taxation system. Poor people pay less than rich people, but everyone receives the same care. Every emergency room visit, every hospital stay, every doctor's appointment (specialists too), diagnostic tests, surgery, childbirth - all free. No worries about pre-existing conditions, co-pays, HMOs (whatever they are), unaffordable premiums or bankruptcy due to medical bills. Oh, we complain about wait times. Sometimes people have to wait longer than they'd like for MRIs and elective surgeries. And for people under 65, drugs aren't covered unless you have supplemental insurance, usually from your employer. But, a catastrophic illness isn't automatically a financial catastrophe.

I don't know why Americans are so vehemently opposed to the kind of reasonably civilized health care enjoyed by most citizens of the developed world. From my outside perspective it seems that a significant number of people are being condemned to suffer for an obviously failed ideology.

Monday Forest photo: November 14, 2011

2011-11-14T19:46:00.001-05:00

11:30 am 17C cloudy

This weather is strange indeed. A southwest wind is blowing up warm air and we're having temperatures I thought we wouldn't see again until April or May. As lovely as it is, at this time of year there's a nagging feeling that it's not quite right to be this warm. All good Canadians used to say something along the lines of "we'll pay for this" when the weather was unseasonably nice, and now we worry that this particular instance of weather is yet another sign of climate change. Geez, why can't we just enjoy it?

There are a lot of snags in Monday Forest and some bear some striking mycodecorations.

Today's post brought to you by the artful lodger

2011-11-13T21:01:00.001-05:00

Rainy day in a small town

Robotic

Sky

After being silent for a while, our artful lodger is back at it, and this time with a vengeance. Madeleine is taking the semester off school, ostensibly to recover from a health issue, but evidently to do art. She's the kind of kid who completely throws herself into whatever is the current passion, and for now it is visual art. More of her work can be seen at her art blog.

Confessions of a crunchy granola shelter porn addict

2011-11-12T19:25:00.001-05:00

source

Well, I suppose I had better acknowledge the problem before it gets out of hand. I can't stop looking at pictures of people's rooms. This is a strange fixation for someone who rants on about the end of the world as we know it, and currently lives on painted plywood subfloors. When I open my browser, Apartment Therapy is there. I have no intention of moving - ever - yet I check real estate listings just about every day, and I can tell you how much and whether the kitchen is updated for most houses currently on the market in my town. I was thrilled, thrilled, to discover that we now live in an area where the IKEA catalogue is delivered in the mail.

Back in my early twenties I used to buy magazines and persisted in that habit until I couldn't afford them anymore. Then I found them and big coffee table decorating books at the library. Now I get my fix online. More shelter porn every day than I could ever have dreamed of back in the day. I don't know what this says about me. I don't have a fabulous house and no grand plans to create one. I don't have the time, actually, because I haven't seen all the pictures on the internet yet. And I can stop anytime I want. Really.

Kombucha don't know what this is

2011-11-11T20:01:00.001-05:00

I've often got something growing on my counter. No, not because I don't clean it occasionally, but because I have jars of kefir, yogourt, sourdough starter, ginger bugs, or fermenting veggies on the go. So it wasn't out of character for me to seek out a kombucha starter to join the menagerie.

Kombucha, in case you're not familiar with it, is a fermented sweet tea drink. You make a sweet tea, then add a kombucha scoby, which looks like a tentacle-less jellyfish. The word scoby is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. You leave it to ferment for a week or so, by which time the scoby will have spawned a baby jellyfish, which you can use to ferment more tea. You do all this because kombucha is reputed to be an amazing health tonic (the lights dim at the server farm when you google it) and is also a refreshing, lightly carbonated beverage.

So maybe you can't see why I was so keen to try this new fermenting adventure, and at this point I can't actually remember either. The first step was to find a kombucha culture. I don't actually know anyone in person with any scobys to spare, so I went bravely onto the internets. There are lists of folks who will send you a kombucha baby, along with its pedigree, for the postage. I sent a few emails, and didn't hear anything back, so I decided to purchase one from the one Canadian outfit selling them online. I won't mention the cost, but it turns out that the unit cost of drinkable kombucha has been embarrassingly high.

The starter arrived in the mail, packed inside 2 freezer bags and floating in some kombucha, which smelled suspiciously like apple cider vinegar. I'm pretty sure that's what it's supposed to smell like. I followed the instructions, and a week later I looked into the jar to find not much of anything. I left it a few days longer and harvested my first batch of kombucha, along with a baby scoby. I made two more batches and checked on them a week later, to find mold growing on the surface of both jars. The instructions had cautioned this could happen and offered advice about dealing with it. One batch looked bad, so I threw it out, but I rinsed off the other and started another batch -another batch of mold and some previously unknown lifeforms as it turns out.

I'm kind of surprised my kombucha adventure has turned out to be such a flop. The animals in my counter zoo usually die of boredom (and neglect) after a long life. They don't usually perish under my active guardianship.

Maman

2011-11-10T22:55:00.001-05:00

One of the benefits of living close to Ottawa is being able to visit the National Gallery of Canada. Madeleine and I went last week and had a fabulous day soaking up all kinds of art. Perhaps the largest piece in the gallery's collection is the giant bronze spider called "Maman" that inhabits the square in front of the gallery. Maman is huge: she's 9 metres tall (30 ft.) and weighs 6000 kg (13,000 lb). She has 26 marble eggs in her egg sac.

I love that Maman looks like she is about to devour the city.

The tao of Meg

2011-11-09T19:59:00.000-05:00

Meg is our two and a half year old border collie. She is pretty much in constant motion. When she is happy or excited she jumps and twirls and zooms in circles, practically all at the same time. Luckily, many things make Meg happy: the prospect of a walk, seeing someone after they've been out of sight for a moment, letting the chickens out in the morning, seeing the dog next door, fetching slippers, letting Madeleine know it's time to get up, being invited onto the bed, chasing a ball, rounding up the chickens, licking a cereal bowl, running on the trails or being brushed. Her big ears, which don't fold down like most border collies' (she might miss something), are constantly rotating like two furry transceivers. She jumps into the UPS truck to meet the driver, rather than wait for him to come out with a biscuit.

A few things aren't so popular with our Meg. The stove timer, vacuum cleaner or smoke alarm are pretty scary things. Meg sneaks downstairs to crawl under Madeleine's bed until the danger has passed. She stoically endures car rides by curling up on the seat and waiting until it's over.

Good or bad, Meg lives in the present. She doesn't stress about the future or harbour regrets. Her life is a moment by moment adventure and if things get a little slow, well, who's up for ball?

A Year in Monday Forest: The Movie

2011-11-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

Monday Forest is the brand new name of the woods where I spend quite a bit of time practically every day. I've been taking a picture there every Monday and posting them on my blog under the title "Monday forest photo". I've been describing this area behind my house as "the woods" or "the forest" since we moved here more than a year ago now, and I've always felt that such a specific place needed its own name. The name basically appeared to me as I was creating the title for the video and I am happy to finally know what this place is called.

I managed to climb far enough up the learning curve of iMovie to put this together last night. I had envisioned a quick time-lapse effect, but the pictures weren't nearly consistent enough, so I made it slower and hopefully easier to watch. The critical reviews have been lukewarm (ok, they're terrible, but what was I thinking showing my masterpiece to my teenager?) so far, but I hope you'll ignore the film snobs and watch it anyway.

The Monday Forest Project continues on Monday, and with any luck for a long time.

Monday forest photo: November 7, 2011

2011-11-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

9:45am 12C clear

It's a beautiful day. A day to be appreciated for all its worth, because it's November and it could so easily be a soggy, dreary mess.

This photo marks a full year of Monday forest photos since I started doing them last November. I wanted to document seasonal changes in the woods, and I was pretty faithful at doing it. I missed a couple of weeks, and I didn't get to it until Tuesday or Wednesday sometimes, but it's become a fun little habit. I realize that there were a few months over the past year when I posted nothing other than the Monday forest photos, and I apologize. I do understand that I may be the only person who is in any way interested in them.

Because I now have a full year's worth of pictures, I am going to make a slideshow or video to show the year passing in a minute or so. I haven't quite figured out how, but I'm kind of excited about this little project.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this world on a rotten stump. Now that the leaves have dropped, and most everything is brown, this little vignette attracted my attention.

Fall back

2011-11-06T18:42:00.000-05:00

I woke this morning to a brightening sky for the first time in a while. I truly appreciate this light in the morning, I really do. But this day marks the beginning of the dark season. For some reason an earlier sunset has a much greater effect on me than a later sunrise. I am fortunate not to be a 9to5er, so I have plenty of opportunity to get outside in the daylight, and I will be making a concerted effort to partake as much as possible.

In 2005, in order to keep synchronized with the US, which had passed the Energy Policy Act, Canada extended daylight saving time by 3 weeks in the spring and 1 week in the fall. It was the first and only positive feeling I ever had towards George Bush Jr.

I'll stop complaining now, as I live at the 45th parallel, far south of many of my Canadian, European and even some American neighbours, and I have lived at much higher latitudes myself, so I know my situation is in no way remarkable. You folks in the darker latitudes have my sincerest sympathies.

When I grow up I want to be Ruth Stout

2011-11-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

I have read "The Ruth Stout No-Work Gardening Book" probably dozens of times, and it has a permanent spot on my bedside table. I am always a sucker for anything promising reward without effort, so it is no surprise that this book would be one of my all-time favourites. Except it's not so much the content as her anti-authoritarian and very funny attitude. Ruth Stout was not intimidated by experts, and she seemed to have a reasonable suspicion that most experts were guilty of complicating things unnecessarily. This book is a collection of articles written for Organic Gardening and Farming magazine in the fifties and sixties, so maybe not her best book, but it is the only one I have. Whenever I see old books for sale, I always look for anything by her.

Ruth Stout was the mother of permanent deep-mulch gardening, and she was very adamant that it was the solution for practically everything in the garden. I don't mulch religiously, because sometimes I just find it easier to weed a bit, and I plant stuff so close together that mulching between plants is plain too hard. I don't dig very much, but I do sometimes because it's the easiest way to get out perennial weeds, which sorry to say, do still grow through deep mulches. And I compost, contrary to Ruth's opinion that it's easier to just bury everything under mulch. I don't think it's more work, and I have a winter's worth of chicken manure to deal with every spring. I plant potatoes her way, by just tossing them onto the ground and covering them with lots of straw (though she would use hay, and I can't bear the thought of adding that many weed seeds to the garden). So I'm certainly no faithful disciple of her methods, but I think the main thing I've learned from her is to pay attention to my garden and trust my observations.

A few weeks ago, over at The Duck Herder's blog I saw a documentary called "Ruth Stout's Garden" that is now on YouTube and I fell in love all over again. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when I grow up, I want to be Ruth Stout.

I think you should watch this movie, too.

It was a very mast year

2011-11-04T08:48:00.000-04:00

Last year the red oaks in our forest produced a bumper crop of acorns. The trails were littered with acorns and you would often get bonked on the head by one as you walked. Bluejays were plentiful and spent their days arguing and tapping acorns against tree branches. It made for an interesting soundtrack to the late summer and early fall. These years of abundance are called mast years and they are a pretty interesting phenomenon with a cascading effect on the ecosystem.

No one has yet been able to predict which years will be mast years for a given species. The theory is that normal years provide just enough food for a smallish population of animals to survive. In a mast year, such an overabundance of food is available that lots of acorns are left to germinate and grow up. Of course, the quantity of food available also results in larger populations of deer, squirrels, and mice, which have their own impacts. For example, all those extra mice are hard on ground nesting birds and also on gypsy moths, but good for owls and other predators. Life isn't easy, though, and the charitable oaks revert to their stingy ways the next year. No one seems quite sure what triggers all the trees to participate in the mast, as by doing so, they have to allot resources which would otherwise be used for growth.

One of the visible reminders of last year's amazing acorn production is the large number of red oak seedlings scattered throughout the woods. Now that everything is brown and bare, the bright red leaves of the tiny red oaks stand out like little beacons.

A great article on the subject was published in American Scientist magazine in 2005.

Occupy Your Life: How to be happier, have more money, and subvert the system

2011-11-03T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm always skeptical of folks who claim that they know the one source of all your problems, and conveniently the solution, which often involves you buying something. Well, I won't claim to solve all your problems, and you definitely don't need to buy anything. I can promise you that if you follow my advice, you will feel better, save money, and play a small role in undermining the modern industrial capitalist system.

There are five simple things that anyone can do. By doing them you will immediately have improved self-esteem, you will find you have most everything you need, and you will have a more peaceful life.

1. Look around your house until you find your tv. Now look some more to see if there are others. Especially look for televisions in rooms frequented by children and teenagers. Disconnect all the wires and remove the televisions from your home. Advertise them on freecycle or kijiji or find someone you don't much care for to gift them to. Now call the cable or satellite company and cancel your service. That will feel good, and will save you somewhere in the order of a thousand bucks a year (you're welcome) but the biggest benefit is that now you will not be exposed to television advertising. You will also not be tempted to watch Jersey Shore or Bounty Hunter or any other programming that makes you feel dirty for having watched it. You will be able to watch whatever you want on your computer (I know you have internet) and if you can't figure out how, hire a teenager for a couple of hours. We've been tv-free for more than 3 years, and cable-free for 3 years before that, and I can say with certainty I haven't missed it.

2. Go bravely into the interwebs and find yourself some ad blocking software that works with your browser. I've used both Adblock Plus for Firefox and Adblock for Safari. These are both extensions to your browser that block all banner ads and most other ads, even on facebook. This will change your web surfing experience dramatically. You will wonder how you ever managed to read a newspaper online before, and you will feel very smug indeed. You may wrestle with your conscience about whether you are stealing content by not watching advertising, but I will leave you to do that in private.

3. Spend a little time with the presets on your radios. Make sure they all point to public or advertising-free radio which in Canada means Radio 1 and Radio 2 (and maybe campus radio?). Don't let radio advertising get in your car or into your kitchen while you are cooking supper because nobody needs that noise. Also, you will find yourself exposed to all kinds of current affairs and music that you wouldn't hear on commercial radio. This you can do with a perfectly clear conscience, as you have already paid for these services.

4. Whatever you do, don't go to a mall. Just don't do it. Everything there is designed to exploit your insecurities so that you spend money on stuff you don't need. If you don't go there, you will never even realize how hopelessly outdated your wardrobe is, or that you don't have the latest version of whatever iGadget you have in your pocket.

5. Lastly, and for teen girls most importantly, do not read fashion or other women's magazines. They are designed for one thing only, which is to convince you that you are a vile and unworthy human because you actually have flesh on your bones, and to feel better, you should buy stuff.

By doing these things, you are kicking advertisers and their corporate overlords out of your life and you will be better for it. You will not find yourself humming stupid jingles or wondering if you should try some miraculous wrinkle cream, or new car, or no-medical life insurance. Instead, you can fill that empty space in your head with whatever you want. And that, in the 21st century, is revolutionary.

In which I demonstrate that I cannot be trusted with endangered species

2011-11-02T21:05:00.001-04:00

This little sapling is my contribution to saving Butternut trees from extinction. Butternut trees are an endangered species in Ontario because of butternut canker disease, which is affecting Butternuts across their range. Seed is being collected from apparently resistant Butternut individuals and grown out to seedlings for distribution to volunteer landowners. One rainy Saturday this spring I was given 10 little trees to plant by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority Butternut Recovery Program. Seven months later, six of them are still alive, and Tree 6 here is the healthiest of the bunch.

With the best of intentions, I made a huge mistake when I planted them. I thought the soil I was planting them into was likely rather lean, so to give them a little boost, I thought I would add some of my homemade organic fertilizer to the planting hole. If you have read Steve Solomon's Gardening When it Counts, you will know about the fertilizer formula. My version has soybean meal, bone meal and kelp meal in addition to the other ingredients and you may be able to see where this is going, but I didn't.

When I went for my walk the next day, I was surprised to see the first of my new plantings completely uprooted and lying some distance from where I'd left it, with a large hole in its place. I was horrified to find that 5 out of 10 of the trees had been similarly beset. I replanted the trees and held my breath for the next few days when I checked on them. I never found any clues as to the identity of the vandal, but I suspect he was a creature with a sensitive nose and a discerning palate.

I was blaming the early mistreatment of these seedlings for the high mortality rate, but now that I've actually done the math - 2 of the dug up trees and 2 of the unmolested trees died, it appears their survival was unaffected by their youthful adventure. So there is no moral to this story after all, except that it will be a lot easier on your nerves if you don't entice wild critters to dig for goodies underneath your newly planted endangered trees.

Warm and somewhat contrarian thoughts

2011-11-01T20:13:00.000-04:00

We've got a seventies vintage, Elmira woodstove. We use it to heat our house almost exclusively. I'm sure it isn't the most efficient or clean stove out there, but it's the one we have, and one doesn't change out a woodstove lightly. There is nothing I like better than to get up on a frosty morning and build a fire, then sit in front of it with a big mug of coffee.

You may be surprised to hear that being the doomer I am, I don't have cords of wood stacked up, ready for the next two winters. Neither do my husband or I go into the woods and cut our own firewood. Rather, we have a fellow who lives down the road who will deliver a cord at a time within a day or two of us calling. I stack the wood under the deck and we're good for another couple of months. We're not really set up to store much more than a full cord of wood, and it just isn't a priority, given how well our system is working for us. The fact is, if we wanted to save money on firewood, it would be at a cost of many hours of fairly hard labour at a very low hourly rate. Given how local a commodity firewood is, and the fact that I see my supplier's stocks of it every time I go to town, I don't stress a bit about going cold.

Monday forest photo: October 31, 2011

2011-10-31T16:53:00.000-04:00

11:30 8C cloudy

Last year at this time, I was moaning about the rain and mud that wouldn't end. Not this year. Meg is staying remarkably clean, and we are both happy not to have to do the twice daily laundry tub bath. The neighbours are saying they have never seen the water level in their pond so low, and they have lived here for 35 years. Our pond did manage to replenish itself after the little rain we have had this fall, and much to our surprise, it never was completely dry. There's no sign of the snowstorm that hit the east coast this week, and I am happy for it.

On a completely unrelated note, I have decided to do a daily blog for the month of November again this year. I have been struck quite dumb with writer's block these last few months, and I am putting myself out there with this commitment to hopefully get unstuck. I know there are bloggers who have done over 1000 consecutive daily posts, so my little 30 day challenge isn't any sort of accomplishment, except for me. So do feel free to mock or ridicule if I don't keep up - that's why I've gone public.

Monday forest photo: October 24, 2011

2011-10-25T20:28:00.000-04:00

3:30pm 10C cloudy

Only the oaks, beeches and the birches have any leaves left in the little woods. It makes for a nice sunny walk, but it's starting to look like it will look until next May. That's life in the north, I guess. Or my chilly corner of it, anyway. In the big city near here, they're forecasting the first frost in the next couple of nights, but my garden had frost weeks ago. It relieved me of having to care for my frost-tender plants for the last month, if that's any consolation (I guess it is).

Occupation art

2011-10-20T13:25:00.000-04:00

"Support Our Neighbors" by Madeleine P.

Madeleine and I went down to the Occupy Ottawa gathering on Saturday. There was a fabulous cross section of people there and quite a few dogs, too. One of the signs read: "The revolution will not be televised" - which may be true, but it will definitely be on facebook. It seemed that the main activity there was taking pictures and videos of everyone else. Madeleine posted this watercolour on the facebook event page, and within minutes the guy (Matt) and his dog (Bella) were identified and he even "liked" it himself.

It is a brave new world we live in, and I'm happy to see lots of people with their eyes open asking questions. I certainly admire the earnest facilitators using the people's mic, consensus decision-making, politically-correct speech and all that, but I wonder if all this good behaviour isn't precisely what the powers that be want to see. And if ever the young testosterone-laden lads get out of hand (and Bella, the golden doodle, too), well, the full force of the state will be brought down on the whole thing and everyone will be written off as hooligans and criminals. Interesting times, indeed.

Monday forest photo: October 17, 2011

2011-10-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

4:30pm 10C light rain

I'm always surprised, when I leave the old homestead, to find that the trees in town still have lots of leaves, and lots of them are still quite spectacular. Things are much more subdued here, but it hasn't dampened Meg's (or my) enthusiasm for our daily walks.

Monday forest photo: October 10, 2011

2011-10-11T21:49:00.000-04:00

3:30 pm 23C cloudy

Another glorious day. There won't be too many of these warm, dry days yet this year, so they are truly appreciated. On my walks these last few warm days, I've noticed that snakes, frogs, toads and insects are hanging out on the paths soaking up the sun. I managed to photograph a couple of insects, but the others skedaddled at my (very noisy) approach. All the dry leaves on the ground equal no sneaking up on anything in the woods.

Monday forest photo: October 3, 2011

2011-10-04T07:09:00.000-04:00

11:00am 10C overcast

Things are changing quickly in the woods. We've had a bit of rain the last couple of days, but that's forecast to end, followed by more sun. Last year at this time we were doing foundation repairs and it seemed the rain would never end. We still have ruts in the lawn from the heavy equipment sinking in the sodden soil. This year, we're having some drainage pipes installed to prevent the kind of yard flooding we experienced last spring and fall and the excavated soil is bone dry. We haven't been on this property long enough to know what normal is, but I suspect it's something between these extremes of wet and dry we've seen so far.

Last week, at the Tar Sands Action training session, we heard from native people who are directly affected by tar sands development in their traditional territories in the boreal forest of northern Alberta. It was incredibly moving to hear how the land, water, air, fish, and wildlife are all being poisoned by the bitumen extraction processes and how they are unable to carry on the traditional activities that had sustained them for thousands of years. I can't even imagine the connection these folks must feel to the land and the despair they must feel at the destruction of everything that underpins them. My own tenure here has been so short, and my connection to this land is merely recreational rather than essential for my survival, but I have a fresh appreciation for this tiny patch of forest and the life it supports.

A beautiful day for a protest

2011-09-27T20:41:00.000-04:00

Scenes from the Ottawa Tar Sands Action on September 26, 2011:

Monday Forest Photo: September 26, 2011

2011-09-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

This isn't from Monday at all, since I spent Monday doing other things, more on which later. I took this picture on Sunday afternoon, but if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't have known the difference. I'd love to be a skilled enough photographer to have captured the golden light that exists in the forest right now. It's almost impossible not to be cheerful when immersed in that glow.

Monday Forest Photo: September 19, 2011

2011-09-19T20:28:00.000-04:00

1:00pm 21C sunny

Another glorious sunny and dry day. We've had very little rain this summer, so the soil is cracking in places and even the wet spots are dry. The pond is down to almost nothing, and the grass is brown except over the septic field and the areas with clay soil that were squishy underfoot until practically May. The forecast calls for some showers tonight, but lately, mere showers haven't actually resulted in much water falling. And what does is quickly absorbed by the parched soil and you can't even tell it's rained. Living in an area blessed with plenty of precipitation, this single season of dryness has actually been quite welcome. I'm sure that if it was to continue, there would be worries about the trees, and wells and water levels in the river, but for now, I am enjoying the fine weather.

This week did mark our first frost, so I decided to harvest the winter squash along with the last of the cucumbers. I took my chances with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, because I could easily cover them, and I was able to keep them alive this time to hopefully ripen some more fruit before the next frost. The orange beauty in the centre (and the two smaller squash on either side) is a Potimarron squash grown from seed given to me by Ottawa Gardener this spring. It is said to taste of chestnuts. I think I will keep it somewhere where I can admire it for a while before eating.

Monday Forest Photo: September 12, 2011

2011-09-12T17:26:00.000-04:00

5:00pm 25C cloudy

It's warm and threatening thunderstorms this afternoon. Everything is extremely dry, so any rain will be most welcome. I really ought to have taken the picture this morning when it was sunny, because the light at this time of year is just golden. I've been spending lots of time in the woods lately, thanks to the light and also to the lack of blood-sucking insects.

Asters are blooming all over. I always get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see asters and fallen leaves. Can you tell I like this time of year?

Monday Forest Photo: September 5, 2011

2011-09-06T09:19:00.000-04:00

10:00am 15C overcast

Summer's over, right on schedule (equinox, shmequinox). Overnight it went from hot and humid to cool and breezy and some leaves have turned colour and a few have even fallen down. On our shallow soil, with lots of ash trees, and not so many big maples, the leaves drop early and without a big colourful show. It looks more fall-ish here than it does just down the road.

Any excuse for a picture of a couple of the "littles" as I call our 10 week old chicks. Martha, the Barred Plymouth Rock, is the prettiest of all the chickens - which makes up for her anxious and rather dopey disposition.

Monday forest photo: August 22, 2011

2011-08-22T20:21:00.000-04:00

11:30am 18C partly cloudy

It was a beautiful, crisp fall-ish day, today. Yep, high summer is behind us now. That's ok. I like that the house stays cool and we're sleeping under the down comforter again. I have noticed that our nighttime lows are a couple of degrees colder than the official forecast for the area, so I will have one eye on the weather and one on my tomatoes for the rest of the season.

Monday forest photo: August 15, 2011

2011-08-15T17:45:00.000-04:00

5:30pm 24C cloudy

It's a quickie today, but summer is definitely waning, even if it is still nice and warm. The days are a little shorter and there are acorns on the ground.

The chicks are almost 7 weeks old and starting to act all grown up.

Monday forest photo: August 8, 2011

2011-08-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

10:30am 22C mostly cloudy

I don't know if it shows in the picture, but there are starting to be some changes in the forest as we get into late summer. Some of the plants have turned brown after our very dry last few weeks and everything is just a little less lush. We did have lots of rain yesterday, but you'd barely know it this morning.

It was interesting to see bees "bearding" outside the entrance to their hive in the cedar tree. Apparently, this cools the hive by getting some bees outside and their fanning draws warm air out.

Monday forest photo: August 1, 2011

2011-08-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

1:15pm 30C scattered clouds

What a beautiful day for a walk in the woods. It's a statutory holiday here today, so there's no annoying noise from the ~~quarry~~ subdivision next door. The mosquitoes were mostly hiding from the sun and heat, so I walked in blissful peace.

There are quite a few toads that jump out of the way at the last second. You never see them until they move, and I do worry that one day one won't be quick enough. A friend tells a quite horrifying story about an incident where she was cleaning up a little boy with very dirty pants and stepped backwards (hard) onto a toad, in her own bathroom. The bathroom was just inside the back door, which maybe explains the toad, but the resultant mess was the kind that could make a grown woman cry.

The bitternut hickories are dropping some fruit. So far, the ones I've seen have all had a hole in them, so perhaps these are dropping first. I recall seeing them later in the season last year.

The bee tree is still going strong. It's hard to get a picture that shows all the comings and goings of the bees, but it's a great treat to see and hear them in action.

First contact

2011-07-22T09:38:00.003-04:00

This morning the baby ~~dinosaurs~~ chicks had their first look at the rest of the world. They've been living in a cardboard enclosure in a corner of the coop for the last three weeks but today their universe got a whole lot bigger. I opened the hatch which leads to an outdoor run and so far they've ventured as far as to stand in front of the opening to stare with one eye.

I built the run from parts of a greenhouse in a box kit, which was a complete flop as a greenhouse, but did allow me to build a neat little frame that I wrapped some leftover garden fencing around and topped with an old tarp. I've added some bungee cords to secure the tarp a bit better, and I've pinned the whole thing down with garden staples. If we have another wind like Sunday's, it will end up in the neighbours' yard.

This is the first step in Operation Flock Blend. I hope the big chickens will get used to the little ones so that I can eventually let everyone free range together and ultimately share the same coop for the winter.

Update: they're in!

Update 2: This post has been totally hacked (I'll let you guess which picture was added). It's kind of funny, though, so I'm leaving it.

Monday forest photo: July 18, 2011

2011-07-18T14:19:00.004-04:00

1:30pm 29C cloudy

A wicked wind storm blew through last night, but there wasn't much damage in the forest this time. I thought for sure there would be trees down, but I guess the trees are pruned of their weak branches by previous storms. It's warm and sticky today, but nothing like yesterday.

A beetle, a bee and an inchworm walk into a bar...

There are some naturalized brown-eyed susans around our property, which are apparently host to all sorts of creatures.

The chicks are alright

2011-07-10T16:51:00.002-04:00

These charming creatures are the latest additions to our tiny flock of chickens. They are 12 days old and just on the verge of dinosaur-ness. By next week, we'll have a bunch of pterodactyls in the coop, but for now they're still pretty darn cute. We ordered them from Frey's through the feed store again and they are a mix of hybrid dual-purpose brown egg layers plus one Barred Plymouth Rock.

They are living in a corner of the winter coop for now, while the big chickens spend the summer camping in their chicken tractor. The tractor isn't big enough for 9 chickens, so the plan is to turn the winter coop into full-time housing for the birds come winter. Which gives me 4 months or so to blend the flocks. The plan, so far, is once the little birds are a little bigger, to give them access to the outdoors in a pen while allowing the big birds to free range as usual. If all goes well, I will allow the little ones to free range once they are a bit bigger yet. My hope is that everyone will get along outdoors before they need to be confined together. I may be crazy or just plain dumb, especially after the chicken adventures I had this winter. I suppose I have a few options if things don't work out, one of which is finding a ~~freezer~~ retirement home for the older birds.

Madeleine has named the new chicks after some of her favourite Star Trek/ Dr. Who/ Big Bang Theory characters. I'm not quite sure who is who yet, but they are: Luxana, Uhura, Dax, Martha and Penny.

Monday forest photo: July 4, 2011

2011-07-04T08:39:00.000-04:00

7:30am 19C scattered clouds

I normally walk in the woods a little later in the day, to let the mosquitoes settle down a bit, but today promises to be very warm again, and I felt like taking advantage of the cooler morning. It turned out to be a brisk walk - I've found if you keep moving at a good pace the mosquitoes don't bother you as much. As much as if you stand still, that is. If you stand still you will quickly find yourself so anemic from blood loss that you will require a transfusion if you can make it out of the bush. A slight exaggeration, perhaps, but I didn't spend much time on the picture-taking part of the walk.

Monday forest photo: June 20, 2011

2011-06-20T16:09:00.001-04:00

2:30pm 25C clear

Well, not a bad way to see spring out. The weather is perfect. I wish I could capture smells with my camera, because the forest smells amazing. There is the intoxicating balsam fir, a lot of different florals, some medicinal herby smells and the earthy earth. It's such a treat to walk through the woods and it's a different experience every day.

There's a cedar tree with a hole in it, that we've been watching ever since we moved here, to see what kind of creature lives in it. A couple of days ago we found out.

A very busy hive of bees lives in the hole in the cedar tree and we've been fascinated by their comings and goings. The picture fails to capture the very large number of bees and the loud hum that accompanies their activity. If the mosquitoes and deer flies weren't so persistent, I could spend all afternoon watching them.

Ma and Pa are moving house, part 2

2011-06-19T18:02:00.000-04:00

Regular readers will remember this post where I talked about how my parents are moving into a garden suite on our property. They've been here now for several weeks, but their house arrived last Friday. It was quite a festive atmosphere as a dozen or so neighbours and family members watched the house get moved into position by a very skilled crew.

The house is a manufactured home with an addition on the back for the living room and an addition on the front which is a porch and front entrance hall. The two additions came on one truck and the living room was placed first. They pulled the truck out of the way so the main part of the house could be brought in.

The truck pulled the house forward and then backed it up onto the gravel pad. They were able to lift the entire house with hydraulics to clear the gravel.

This was the greatest parallel parking job I have ever seen. The main house was only a few inches from the living room when they were finished. They joined the two parts by pushing the living room forward with big jacks.

This is how the house looks now. The crew will be back to finish levelling the house, shingling and siding the joins, and connecting all the services. Inside, the drywall needs taping and mudding (it wasn't done in the factory because the house was subject to too much movement for drywall seams), the shower tiles, flooring and trim need to be installed. A skirting will be fitted around the entire house and the landscaping will be finished.

The house is situated on our property under a provision in the zoning which allows for a temporary (renewable 10 year permit) house for older or disabled family members. My parents can sell the house when they no longer need it and it will be moved to a new location. This house is extremely well insulated and very well built, so I'm sure it will serve my parents very well.

Monday forest photo: June 14, 2011

2011-06-15T21:41:00.000-04:00

6:55am 11C clear

This is another Tuesday picture, posted on Wednesday night and no excuse at all. This was an early(ish) morning walk while the sun was still mostly below the treetops and shining through all the leaves. I had the sensation of being immersed in green light. Lovely.

Monday forest photo: June 6, 2011

2011-06-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

9:30am 22C partly cloudy

Glorious summer! I don't suppose the forest photo will change very much from one week to the next for a while now, now that the leaves have filled in. I can't say that I'm bothered by the thought.

I came across a couple of spider webs owned by spiders who evidently are teenagers. I don't know if this is incidental wind damage, or whether it's deliberate, but I have to say, it looks messy. They probably sleep in late on weekends, too.

Monday forest photo: May 30, 2011

2011-05-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

3:30pm 27C sunny

Well, summer's here. After weeks of cool, rainy weather, we woke up today to sun and warmth and a forecast for lots more of both. It's quite a relief. In the woods, everything is GREEN and lush and smells like flowers. I'm kind of embarrassed that the only blogging I've done this month are the forest photos, and I will try to do better for June. Of course, now that the fine weather is here, I'm sure I'll find lots of other things to do. I am always amazed at just how much effect the weather has on my mood and energy level. I'm feeling quite revitalized today.

Monday forest photo: May 24, 2011

2011-05-24T11:23:00.000-04:00

9:00am 20C cloudy

No, I didn't get raptured or even hauled off by a swarm of mosquitoes. My camera was galivanting around Toronto yesterday, so not available for a Monday forest photo. I think this week looks like last week, except someone took a crayon and added more green.

There are lots of violets everywhere, even some yellow ones.

There's a patch of wild columbine with these beautiful ornate flowers.

I think this is what is called wild lily-of-the-valley. I was a lot more sure of that before I tried to identify the next one, which I think is star flowered Solomon's seal, also known as wild lily-of-the-valley. I guess this is the limitation of using common names.

Monday forest photo: May 16, 2011

2011-05-16T18:05:00.000-04:00

9:45am 5C rain

Someone flipped the green switch on the forest this week, but they turned the heat down and left the water running. Just when things were starting to dry out the rain has started again. I'm going to bed with the covers pulled over my head until the sun comes out.

Monday forest photo: May 9, 2011

2011-05-09T18:03:00.000-04:00

9:00am 12C sunny

After a cold, rainy week this sunny mild weather is most welcome. Everything is greening up, though no proper leaves on anything yet. Around here, this kind of spring weather is often quite brief as summer can arrive any time now.

There are lots of trilliums in bloom now, though we don't have carpets of them. We also don't have swarms of blackflies or mosquitoes yet.

Monday forest photo: May 2, 2011

2011-05-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

11:00am 12C rain

Another rainy day. The leaf buds on the trees are getting huge and I expect that next week's picture will be noticeably greener than this one. With the warmer temperatures, there's lots going on if you look closer up.

The sight of a trillium bud is enough to warm the heart of a native-born Ontarian, as it is the provincial flower and we spent our elementary school years being told how special and delicate this plant is. I wouldn't dare pick one for fear of wiping out the entire species. I guess the message got through.

The trout lily (Erythronium americanum) was in bloom this week. Some pollinating insects were taking advantage.

We saw a group of Yellow Rumped Warblers in the woods on the weekend. We had a great view of them since the leaves aren't out yet and they aren't at all shy.

I've seen quite a few snakes already this spring, Garter snakes and Eastern Smooth Green snakes. This was a tiny little green snake looking for a patch of sun with no humans in it.

Monday forest photo: April 25, 2011

2011-04-26T08:41:00.000-04:00

2:45pm 17C overcast

From this distance, things look much the same this week as last, but spring is definitely springing. We had some terrible icy weather since last Monday, but we've had some lovely mild and sunny days, too.

In the last couple of days, the Trout Lilies have started to emerge. I found this description at Andy's Northern Ontario Wildflowers (a wonderful resource!):

Forms a colony of 1-leaved sterile shoots with no flowers and a few 2-leaved fertile plants with flowers. The mottled leaves resemble the skin pattern of a brook trout. The Trout Lily is pollinated by ants, and after a seed is planted, it takes up to seven years for a mature plant to grow and flower. Trout Lily has a fascinating seed dispersal mechanism - its seeds are dispersed by ants through a process called myrmecochory (pronounced "mirme ko ko re"). Attached to the outside of the seeds is a fleshy structure called an elaiosome. The elaiosome is rich in oils and proteins. Ants carry the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae. The remaining seed is discarded in the ant's nutrient-rich waste pile. This symbiotic relationship benefits the ant, which gets a food source, and benefits the plant because the seed is dispersed, is protected from rodents, and is placed in a nutrient rich area in the ants nest where the seed has a greater likelihood of growing.

I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

2011-04-21T14:10:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of my 46th trip around the sun. When this picture was taken, I was 10 or 11, and it was around this time that I begged my mother to let me quit school. I figured that I knew enough reading, writing and arithmetic so that I could take it from there myself. I guess I was a natural born unschooler. My mother was not.

I've learned and unlearned and forgotten a lot of things since then. Every year I learn a bunch of new things and discover a bunch of other stuff I thought I knew, I didn't. My catalogue of uncertainties is growing all the time. Which is completely ok by me. I figure I've got a few more trips in me yet, and I wouldn't want to get bored.

Monday forest photo: April 19, 2011

2011-04-19T15:47:00.000-04:00

2:30 pm 7C clear

I completely forgot the forest photo yesterday. I was completely distracted by our company, but today was a nicer day for picture-taking anyway. Tomorrow's forecast is for freezing rain and ice pellets so winter is not quite done with us yet.

These little beauties are the first spring flowers I've seen in the forest this year. I noticed them beside the trail this afternoon and google tells me they are Round Leafed Hepatica (anemone americana). I looked for more blossoms but found no other flowers than this little bunch.

Wild for wild leeks

2011-04-15T17:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I noticed green sprouts peeking through the leaf litter all over the open forest. Today on my walk, they were much larger and I was very happy to discover that they are wild leeks. It's easy to tell because the leaves smell and taste like garlic scapes, except fresher and even more delicious. The entire plant is edible and the bulb is much like a garlic clove.

Some of the plants flower later in the summer and their seeds are a bright shiny black. The plants with flowers are best left to grow on, because, as with so many spring ephemerals, there aren't any flowers until the root is several years old. Wild leeks are considered threatened in Quebec because of excessive harvesting and there are strict limits on the amounts one can pick there. Ontario has no such restrictions that I know of and some of the over-picking has apparently spilled over the border into eastern Ontario. I will pick some wild leeks, but I know that I wil be the only picker on my property and I will follow sustainable picking practices. Unfortunately, even folks who pick a small percentage of wild leeks in a given area can still contribute to a problem if there are other pickers doing likewise.

I will be spending some time finding recipes for wild leeks in preparation for harvesting some in a few weeks. This is our first spring on this property and this is a very pleasant discovery!

I fell in love with some bees

2011-04-13T16:06:00.001-04:00

I'm all fired up about bees. I took an amazing workshop on Saturday, called The Art and Craft of Sustainable Beekeeping, put on by Gord and Greg at Seldom Fools Apiculture. It was a fabulous day and the weather was good enough that we were able to go and see some real life bees from a hive that had overwintered. Gord and Greg are proponents of natural, chemical-free beekeeping using top-bar hives instead of the traditional Langstroth hives. Here's what they say on their website:

Sustainable practices are at the heart of all we do. By using good husbandry principles, no chemicals to prop up weak genetics and hives, the benefits are healthy and thriving bee colonies with more bees to pollinate local plants, gardens and crops – which means we all win.

A couple of years ago, I took another intro to beekeeping course which convinced me that I was not interested in the expense, trouble or heartbreak of conventional beekeeping. I encourage anyone who may have been similarly discouraged to check out top bar hives or natural beekeeping online and try to find a copy of the book The Barefoot Beekeeper by Phil Chandler. And if you live anywhere within range of Kingston, Ontario, do try to take a course with Gord and Greg.

I've decided that instead of scrambling to find bees for this year, I will build (or more likely, have hubby build) a hive (or two), take whatever beekeeping workshops or courses I can find, and follow the Natural Beekeeping forums online. Of course, I hope to have the opportunity to get hands on with bees at some point during the year as well. I will get my bee order in good and early, and be ready to go next May or June when the bees are. Can't wait!

Monday forest photo: April 11, 2011

2011-04-11T16:47:00.000-04:00

12:15pm 21C cloudy

Glorious spring! The picture does not capture the warm humid air and the narcotic smell of the balsam fir. Farther along the trail in the cedar grove there is still some snow and the trail is icy, but that doesn't matter today. We saw a garter snake on our walk and heard the spring peepers in full song.

Monday forest photo: April 4, 2011

2011-04-04T16:36:00.000-04:00

12:10pm 2C light rain

I had hoped the snow would be all gone by now, but this is a pretty typical spring melt for around here. It's nice to see the ground again and smell the soil. Hopefully by next week the ground will have thawed in the garden enough to play around in.

A bit of a brag and a request for advice

2011-04-01T16:50:00.000-04:00

Reach For The Top is a Canadian quiz show for teams of high school students that has been around in one form or another since 1961 (And Alex Trebek was Quizmaster from 1969-1973!). The teams are composed of the best and brightest from participating schools. I'll admit that back in the day I was not one of the best or brightest from my school. My daughter Madeleine, on the other hand, is in grade 9 and is already competing with senior students on her school's Reach team. Not that I needed more evidence, but I take this as proof that she's a real smarty pants. I'm not a huge fan of the public education system, so Madeleine and I unschooled (a fancy word for not doing almost nothing that looks like school) for what would have been her middle school years, but she felt very strongly that she wanted to go to high school and so she did. Academically, she's thriving there, which is pretty good for a grade 6 dropout, but it makes me wonder what the other kids were doing while Madeleine was watching The Simpsons for two years. All this to say that I think, like most parents, that my kid is pretty special.

Quite often, Miss Smarty Pants and I will talk about life after high school and beyond. Miss Pants is interested in pursuing a PhD in some kind of science and that makes perfect sense given her interests and intelligence. As long as things remain sort of the same as they have been for the last couple of decades it seems like a good plan. The problem is, I don't really see the next decades playing out that way. Instead of increasing prosperity and consumption, I see society bumping up against hard limits of energy, climate and economics and a resulting overall decrease in wealth. I don't even know if it makes any difference, as people have sought higher education during all kinds of turmoil. I am concerned that being in school for many years will result in high levels of student debt that will sentence her to wage slavery for many more years afterward.

There's a bit of a theme in doomer circles to suggest that the only careers that have any future are organic farming and emergency medical technicians. I'm certain this isn't true, but there are jobs that don't make sense in a lower energy world. I wouldn't suggest commissioned SeaDoo sales, for example. Dmitry Orlov makes a good point in his blog today. He says that most of us are stuck thinking we will have financial security by having or keeping more money, when what we really ought to be doing is needing less. Voluntary poverty will be a lot easier than involuntary. Given that, probably the best advice I can come up with is to do whatever you would do for free, and keep your needs simple so you can do it even if there are hard times. Unfortunately, student debt is a great way to ensure that your income requirements remain high for a long time.

What would you tell Madeleine on the subject of preparing for life in an uncertain future? I'm interested to know what other peak aware folks tell their kids.

Monday forest photo: March 28, 2011

2011-03-28T13:59:00.000-04:00

8:45 am -3C cloudy

When will the freaking wind stop blowing? Not only is it unseasonably cold here of late, the wind is making any outdoor activity quite unpleasant. Especially since things look so pretty in the sunshine and everyone (well, me) is itching to get outside and into the dirt. The forecast is for above freezing temperatures starting tomorrow and I hope next week we'll be down to a few shady patches of snow and some unfrozen ground.

Seedy inspiration

2011-03-25T20:36:00.000-04:00

An awesome selection of seeds in amazing little folded packets

I received a really nice package in the mail today from Ottawa Gardener over at The Veggie Patch Re-imagined. In one of her blogs she mentioned that she had too many seeds and would send some to any local gardener who sent her their address. I was happy to help, but I am quite floored by her generosity. There are some very interesting and even rare seeds here (I spent a pleasant hour googling them). I haven't really saved seeds so far, but I am newly inspired to figure out how it's done so that I can share seeds too. Thanks OG!

Nothing to do with me

2011-03-24T09:14:00.000-04:00

Source

I don't know if I've ever felt so disconnected from the world at large as I do now. The news is filled with stories that highlight the limits we're starting to butt up against with increasing frequency. One thing that seems to have no limit is our ability to convince ourselves that it's ok to place entire ecosystems in peril so that every form of consumption, no matter how frivolous, can continue unquestioned and unimpeded. Witness deep water drilling, nuclear plants on fault lines (or anywhere else for that matter), tar sands development, gas fracking, and mountain top removal coal-mining. Meanwhile, I take my daily walk in the woods with my dog and plant seeds, secure in the knowledge that none of this has anything to do with me. Somehow, it doesn't even seem to have anything to do with me when I make yet another trip to the big box hardware store to pick up something else for a home improvement project. We seem to have finished all the absolutely-necessary-for-health-and-safety repairs at our new house, and have moved onto far more satisfying bathroom updating and painting and lighting improvements. All of which generate a surprising amount of waste and shopping.

I was able to have a serious discussion about emergency preparedness with my husband as a result of all the news this week, including a local story about a neighbourhood we once lived in where the residents were being advised to stay inside with all doors, windows and ventilation closed because of plumes of toxic smoke from a hardware store fire. Likely the city's tiniest hardware store, but crammed with paints and chemicals and a fresh delivery of self-lighting barbecue briquets (the fire has been deemed accidental). So we talked about what measures we should take to protect ourselves in case of some natural or other disaster. And we even talked a bit about living in a world with too many people, using too much stuff, with margins that are just too thin. Then we went to Home Depot.

Monday forest photo: March 21, 2011

2011-03-21T10:33:00.000-04:00

9:00 am -1C snow

Yay spring. I've enjoyed reading the blogs of all the pea-planters out there. The ones who plant peas on St. Patrick's Day or the vernal equinox while I poke at completely frozen dirt and weep. Actually, the past week was lovely, with much snow melting and chicken free-ranging, but late winter/early spring can be very cruel around here. As a matter of fact, it's rather comforting to just have normal weather, rather than the unusually warm springs we've had the past couple of years. Really.

Monday forest photo: March 14, 2011

2011-03-14T23:59:00.009-04:00

3:45 pm DST 1C severe clear

Spring is in the air! It was barely above freezing today, but the sun was spectacular and snow was melting. The forecast for the rest of the week is high temperatures above freezing every day. Perfect sugaring weather, and most welcome after the late winter misery we endured last week.

Doggie tale

2011-03-10T08:57:00.003-05:00

Meg's kind of camera shy, so it's hard for me to take a decent photo of her and I together. It doesn't change the fact that we've become pretty good buddies over the last couple of years. The two-year anniversary of her arrival was on Tuesday. To mark the anniversary, I rescued her from a tree. Yep, Meg, our intelligent little border collie, managed to get herself stuck in a tree.

We had just started out on our daily walk, me on the trail and Meg running everywhere, when I heard a horrible, pained yelping and coming from the trees. My first thought was that she had encountered a porcupine, but when she didn't come running to me (as I was running toward that awful sound) I worried she may have got into a coyote trap. Occasionally, we hear about traps being set and dogs getting into them, but the theory wasn't really computing in my little racing brain as there are no livestock near our property. When I found Meg, she was standing on her hind legs with her left front leg wedged between the two trunks of a large red oak. She was a little twisted as she had tried to free herself. I ran over and picked her up to relieve the weight on her leg and shoulder and tried to release her. Nothing moved. I was nervous that her leg was broken and shoulder dislocated, so I was a little ginger at first, but even with more effort on my part her leg didn't budge. Meg had calmed right down and was letting me fix the situation, but I was starting to get a bit worried that I didn't have a good solution. I was holding her up and I didn't want to set her down as I didn't want to put more stress on her shoulder, and I certainly didn't want to leave her there while I went for help, but I was feeling a bit out of options. I took a little while to catch my breath and figure out what to do then tried freeing her once more. It worked! I guess the trunk of the tree moved in the wind just slightly, and her leg just popped out.

I checked her leg and shoulder and set her down, and she took off running as though nothing had happened. I thought at least she'd be a bit sore, but if she was, she didn't let on. She didn't explain how she had arrived in her predicament, but I'd wager there was a squirrel involved. There's probably a lesson here, but sometimes things just happen. I am very happy I could help.

Monday forest photo: March 7, 2011

2011-03-07T23:09:00.000-05:00

9:45am -11C cloudy

This is one of the more wintery photos this winter. It's never safe around here to get too excited about spring when it's only March, but we've had a few years recently when spring came early. The weather guys have been torturing us with forecasts of above freezing temperatures then changing their minds.

Monday forest photo: February 28, 2011

2011-02-28T10:07:00.001-05:00

9:30am -3C freezing rain/ice pellets

Three more weeks til spring but no sign of it today. It was a rather quick walk this morning due to the inclement precipitation, but I'm looking outside now (half an hour later) and it has changed to plain old snow.

Monday forest photo: February 21, 2011

2011-02-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

11:00am -16C clear

After a very brief spring fling last week, winter has seriously returned to the great white north. Ah well, it's hard to complain about such perfectly sunny and bright weather.

Personal ad

2011-02-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

I'm sure your neighbourhood grocery store has one of these boards near the entrance. A place for folks to give away kittens, sell old furniture, offer their babysitting services or rent a room. A few months ago, I saw one of these "Seeks Lady friend" cards and I kicked myself for not taking a picture of it. Well, luckily for me, and maybe not so lucky for the lonely gentleman, he's trying again so I couldn't resist grabbing a shot.

Perhaps there's a lady out there who's looking for a man of a certain age who doesn't waste words. And she's far more likely to be at the grocery store than at a single's bar or online dating site, so our lonely-heart is wily, too. He may even be a romantic, given the proximity to Valentine's Day. I especially like how he optimistically placed two cards on the board - a potential lady friend might just want to take one rather than copy down the number.

I do hope any single ladies who might be interested are in the habit of checking the board. And yes, I did smudge the number on the image, but I could be persuaded to reveal it if someone asked nicely. I wouldn't want to stand in the way of a potential romance.

Monday forest photo: February 14, 2011

2011-02-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

9:00am 2C light rain

It's humid, rainy and just above freezing, but there's a flash freeze warning for this afternoon. I have the feeling that the worst of winter is behind us, but we have to get through a lot of weather yet before spring.

Monday forest photo: February 9, 2011

2011-02-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

1:30pm -5C cloudy

Well, this is very disorderly. I took the Monday forest photo on Wednesday afternoon and posted it on Thursday. All of this chaos is due to a major house painting project that is happening chez moi this week and keeping me out of the woods. Still winter here.

Coop coup

2011-02-05T09:32:00.000-05:00

Anything I've said about how much I enjoy keeping chickens does not apply to the last few weeks. Back in the fall, we watched our feathered friends go through their moult period, one skinny, ragged chicken at a time. They all recovered their feathers in time for winter, though I was watching underinsulated Patty with one eye on the calendar. Edna looked absolutely stunning in her shiny new feathers. She was so fluffy. All the birds adjusted to their indoor lives in the winter coop. The coop is brighter, warmer and better ventilated than the one they lived in last winter so I was feeling good about their living conditions. When I went to the coop on my twice or thrice daily visits, it seemed so quiet and peaceful.

It turns out that I was misinterpreting both fluffy and quiet. Birds aren't supposed to be fluffy. When Edna's feathers came back she looked so much better than when she was half-bald and I assumed the fluffiness was because of the new feathers. Now I don't think it was. Edna was always a loud bird. I assumed her quieter demeanour was a result of her contentedness. It wasn't. Edna got fluffier and quieter until one morning a couple of weeks ago I found her lying dead in the straw. Then all hell broke loose in the coop.

Edna's death left a void in the pecking order that needed to be resolved. The resolving appeared to take the form of Maggie, with her allies Patty and Selma watching, attacking Lisa at every opportunity. Poor Lisa, with her bloodied comb, was denied access to the food and water and especially to any supplemental food I brought in. She bolted for the door whenever I opened it, throwing herself out into the snow, which I know she hates. She spent her days on top of the egg box, or on the roost while the others scratched in the straw. My presence seemed to make everyone agitated. I considered isolating Maggie or Lisa until things settled down, but I was worried I'd never be able to house them together again. So I minimised my daylight visits to the coop and stopped bringing them treats. I brought their water out before sunrise and collected eggs and closed the vent after dark. Chickens pretty much go to standby mode in the dark and aren't easily disturbed.

Things seem to have improved over the last few days. Lisa's comb has healed, which no doubt helps curb Maggie's aggressiveness towards her. I've seen both birds at the feeder at the same time with no apparent conflict. Even egg production has resumed to pre-moult levels. I really hope that the 2011 Coop Crisis is over. And I miss Edna.

Monday forest photo: January 31, 2011

2011-01-31T19:41:00.000-05:00

10:30am -20C clear

Another clear, cold Monday morning. This is a perfect winter day.

Taming the wild yeast

2011-01-27T21:19:00.000-05:00

I've got a new creature in the kitchen that I'm caring for these days. It's a sourdough that I cultivated from the naturally occurring yeasts which are found on organic wheat berries. I've tried a few different starters over the years, but they either failed to start or I neglected them beyond all recovery. Not long ago, I found an article about starting a wild yeast sourdough using pineapple juice. It just so happened that in the fridge I had a jar of pineapple juice from a can of pineapple pieces I'd used for something else and of course, I always have fresh-ground organic hard wheat available (thanks to this). Apparently, the acidity of the juice causes the pH to be just right for the wild yeasts to grow without being overrun by bacteria. It works.

Since my sourdough is only a baby yet, I've been making bread with unbleached flour. My starter is 100% whole wheat so the loaves are 25% whole wheat/75% white. I use a recipe I found here, and it is wonderful. It is a no-knead/ dutch oven recipe and it has an interesting twist to the dutch oven technique. Instead of preheating the pot and then putting the proofed dough in, it suggests proofing the dough in the pot and placing it in a cold oven with no preheating. The next time I try that (when I recover from the clean-up of my first attempt) I will use shortening and cornmeal, rather than just some flour as I have always done. Meanwhile, until I acquire some Crisco (I never thought I'd ever say that) I will continue braving the hot oven and pot technique that has always worked so well.

When I work up the courage, I will try baking Desem bread, from the Laurel's Bread Book, which I attempted a long time ago and hadn't thought I'd try again, until I read this post. First though, I'm going to let my sourdough grow up.

Monday forest photo: January 24, 2011

2011-01-24T11:47:00.000-05:00

10:00am -25C cloudy

I waited to go out this morning until it had warmed up some - and it was lovely outside. There was no wind and the chickadees were singing their hearts out. Last night was the coldest I can remember in a long time. It got down to -34C here, which doesn't happen very often.

Documentary Review: The Economics of Happiness

2011-01-19T14:49:00.002-05:00

The Economics of Happiness is a new documentary by Helena Norberg-Hodge that offers a simple, though not easy, solution to our current environmental, economic and social malaise. It features the voices of many familiar names: Richard Heinberg, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibbon and Rob Hopkins to name a few. The film starts off by showing us Ladakh, a remote Himalayan region of India where the people have long experienced a high quality of life and wellbeing until the past several decades when the forces of globalization have resulted in a loss of connection to the land and community. We see the rural Ladakhis living in idyllic, harmonious environments, with huge smiles, while the urbanites suffer from unemployment, inequality and pollution.

The Economics of Happiness lays out a very clear case that globalization is a major cause of much environmental, economic and personal distress and a relocalization of our lives and economies is the solution. We've been brainwashed into believing that globalization is the cure for poverty in less developed countries and that economic growth is the cure for everything in developed countries. Of course, all of this globalizing and growing is just large corporations taking advantage of our insatiable appetites for more and better to strip us of our private and common wealth and concentrate it in fewer and fewer hands. Governments and corporations are in cahoots to keep us striving for more money, more stuff, and more security. As long as we're striving, we're spending and working. And we're willing to work more and in poorer conditions. Perhaps the higher-minded of us can comfort ourselves in the knowledge that at least some poor person in the global south has had their life improved by having our old job. Sadly, the working and living conditions forced on the new corporate employee hasn't made up for the loss of her land to unfair subsidies or outright theft by multinationals. Corporations have hijacked the business of governments so that trade agreements are drafted and regulations eliminated in order that the largest companies in the world can pursue their money making agendas unhindered.

One point that I found particularly interesting was how inefficient globalization actually is. We've been told that we've reached the pinnacle of efficiency by offshoring and outsourcing, but there is astonishing waste in a system that routinely transports goods thousands of miles, sometimes multiple times for the same item. Fish caught in Canada is shipped to China for processing and back to Canada for sale. Many food items that are routinely imported are also exported in similar quantities. It is a bit ironic that an apple that has traveled from South Africa to Canada can cost less than one grown within an hour's drive. All of this transportation represents vast resource consumption and pollution that could all be eliminated by producing goods for local markets.

The Economics of Happiness challenges the notion that globalization has benefitted the third world. Instead it demonstrates that globalization concentrates wealth in the hands of the rich at the expense of poorer people who are forced to resettle in urban slums with little job security, while being bombarded with the message that they are inadequate and their cultures are backward. Of course, these messages of inadequacy are ubiquitous in the developed world as well, causing many people to frantically pursue more and bigger and better.

Normally, I'm cynical about the hopeful ending of documentaries which so often feel like they've been tacked onto the end so the viewers don't kill themselves after watching the first three quarters. This film has a very clear message though: globalization is bad for everyone and everything except corporate profits and localization is good. Local food, local culture and local business all contribute to greater connections with nature and community which results in greater happiness. The “what you can do” part of the film doesn't seem like an add-on so much as the logical conclusion. Whether the message gets through to enough people to make any difference is another thing (and perhaps a more important one). Transition towns, eco-villages and peasant movements are all mentioned.

I agreed with almost everything said in the film, which made me suspicious that I enjoyed it as much as I did because of my own confirmation bias. I did feel that although the filmmakers are proposing a huge change in the way we live, they really haven't gone far enough. I completely agree that industrial globalization has accelerated the destruction of the planet as well as making a lot of the world pretty unhappy, and I completely agree that relocalizing our daily lives is necessary and inevitable, but I don't see how it will happen in any significant way before it is forced on us by peak oil and economic collapse. The status quo is being tenaciously defended by politicians, business people, educators and the mainstream media so meaningful change may not happen until some crisis or other reveals the horrible mistake we make by trusting our children's future to large corporations. As long as folks in the rich world refuse to relinquish their sense of entitlement to consume as much of the planet's resources as they can afford, I'd say the relocalization movement will stay on the fringe. We can only hope that those who have decided to go down that road now will be willing to guide the rest of us when the time comes.

I was lucky enough to see a review copy of the documentary, but you can check The Economics of Happiness website for information on screenings near you. Be warned - you'll be thinking about this movie for a long time and you'll never hear another political speech or trade agreement the same way again.

Monday forest photo: January 17, 2011

2011-01-17T08:45:00.000-05:00

8:00 am -30C clear

So there was a little bit of snow last week and it's pretty darned cold out, but so far this has been a really easy winter. All the storms and wild weather have completely missed us so far, but as a good Canadian I know we'll pay for this.

Monday forest photo: January 10, 2011

2011-01-10T12:48:00.003-05:00

11:00am -10C cloudy

Finally, some snow. Meg, as usual is with me in the forest. Our little puppy is growing up - she turned 2 yesterday.

Monday forest photo: January 3, 2011

2011-01-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

11:30am -2C cloudy

Still waiting for winter to settle in. We had a pretty dramatic late December thaw that didn't include the rain that usually accompanies winter warm spells around here. Most of the snow is toast, but the forest trails, which were heavily compacted, have refrozen and are icy.