This picture speaks a thousand words about modern war-making.
I recently took a course led by a grizzled old Korean War and Suez peacekeeping force veteran named Robbie. On a lunch break I sat outside eating while he smoked and lamented the state of the modern Canadian military to other students.
He said that while he served he earned something ridiculous like 6 cents a day. Soldiers these days he said, expected big money and creature comforts like cell phones, video games and Tim Horton's coffee while killing on our behalf. I don't quite know if he was resentful or jealous that he had put in so much for so little. But it does speak to the changing nature of the military and how much comfort the modern solider demands. I bet the military can't wait until their have soldier-bots fighting for them.
But it is strange isn't it? These two fellows have somehow hauled portable heaters out to the middle of a hill in the presumably frigid Afghan countryside. I wonder if they brought along their Nintendo DS and text their wives and girlfriends regularly: LOL sitting on hill 4 6 daze str8.
It’s pretty clear that Julian Assange is going to end up in an American jail probably for the rest of his life. After his recent extraordinary legal treatment he’s likely to suffer from a rendition on the way to Sweden. He’s lucky that he’s white or he might end up hanging.
I wanted to share a premise from Derrick Jensen which rings true in this case (and so many others): The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control—in everyday language, to make money—by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.
This intense focus on Julian Assange though, once again betrays a major weakness of the state. I remember numerous marches against globalization and the police attempting to focus on people who they viewed as ‘leaders’. So they will pressure those assigned leaders, snatch them off the street, arrest them, torture them, deprive them of basic things, hold them in solitary confinement. Essentially make an example of them. The case of Alex Hundert is also exemplary in this regard.
But it’s not going to work. There are no leaders. As King Abdullah, the rotting royal of Saudi Arabia impotently demanded in a leaked cable: “cut off the head of the snake”. There is no head, my dear king. But once yours and the one’s of so many other dear leaders hit the floor then we just might be getting somewhere.
Wikileaks will go on. It is not one man. It is the truth. It is shining a bright light at the shadowy powerful. It is essential. It cannot be stopped, as much as the small-minded might hope.
So Julian Assange will be sacrificed but the struggle continues.
Love miles. I had never considered them before. My friend Chris wrote a great opinion piece about the damaging impacts of flying this week. Flying is bad, we all know it. Actually we don't all know it. And certainly the elites don't care.
But then there are the love miles involved. We all have families scattered around the world. This is the result of Colonialism and its clever rebranding, the Global Economy. So to show our love (and apparent hate of the planet) to our families we travel to Australia, India, US, Canada, Antarctica and anywhere we're holding a family gathering. My family, hundreds of people easily wants to meet every year or so. They even have a clever acronym for it: GOM.
I won't be attending.
There are also our friends who decide to get married in Cuba or the Dominican Republic. How could you not go? Don't you love them? So our relationships and the pressures involved in them are even feeding the destruction of the planet at our tiny hands.
I can't tell them that it's precisely because I love them that I won't be going. I just say I won't be going. We all have choices after all. You don't tell others how to live.
How many of our parents, extremely privileged in their old age, have their to do lists before they die? I know many. The Galapagos Islands, China, Easter Island, New Zealand, South Africa. The list grows every day as does the death toll from climate change.
How do you talk to people about this? Tied to love, death is the other half of the coin of flying, of these international lives. How can we recognize this?
Are humans just assuming the role of the balancing force of life? Death must come with life after all. Is our job to destroy the planet? To turn it back into merely a rock in the cold universe. Or more likely to die trying. Would another species have taken this on if we had chosen to just be.
These thoughts keep me up at night. But I won't be flying anymore. So don't bother to invite me to your wedding in Bermuda please.
I just read a reasonable article about Julian Assange's rape charges in Sweden. My initial thinking on this was that this was a way to get him into custody so that he could be taken off to Guantanamo Bay to disappear for the rest of his life.
The circumstances were just so problematic: he is charged then the charges are dropped. And the charges seem a bit flimsy: not using a condom during sex? First off I don't know who on earth wouldn't use a condom with a stranger (clearly I don't know many people). But secondly why wouldn't the lady in question (who is obviously sensible) just check to make sure there was some rubber between her and Assange. Passion is passion but you usually can notice when someone is putting on a condom. It does take a little time to tear the package and pinch and roll as I was taught in health class. So it all feels a bit dodgy since people want kill this guy for what he has done.
The lesson, clearly, for anyone who would challenge the might of the state (let alone civilization) is to take every step cautiously and to avoid temptation. They will find every speck of dirt on you. They will bend people that knew you to speak against you. They will destroy you in the public mind. If Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, Swiss banks, Paypal, the Democratic and Republican parties, the EU, Canada, academics, etc, etc, etc (essentially the full state and all of civilization--apart from a few civilized hackers) are against you what hope could you have?
Temptation is a powerful stimulus. Assange has a lot of power. He's a hero and rebel. That's sexy. He obviously has let it go to his heads, both of them. This doesn't take away from his message which resonates strongly and is a challenge to the powerful and their secrets and lies. But by giving them an inch, a few it seems, they are going to rake him over the coals. Right now various intelligence agencies are combing the world for other Assange victims. What a monster! A sex fiend! You shouldn't listen to such a sinful man. Listen to sinless politicians, those paragons of virtue who have devoted themselves to the public good, who call for his death(?).
Makes you want to puke doesn't it?
Eventually the cables will be forgotten and so will Assange. This will pass into oblivion like all memory. But not after he has been discredited and savaged and broken for daring to challenge the powerful.
Just a short note to share an interesting resource. I was interested in learning about the rural-urban split in Canada and by province. Things have certainly changed since the first censuses in 1851. In some provinces it went from a urban-rural split of 0-100 in 1851 to 85-15 in 2006! It's quite shocking to actually see the numbers and how far people have moved from a connection to the land.
Of note is that the Maritime provinces have experienced less of a shift overall. They hover around 55-45 urban rural split. It's caused by the smaller population generally but I wonder if this may mean that the Maritimes will be better able to weather the coming changes. Of course many of these rural people are retired seniors so I wonder if they have any projections of what will change after the baby boom passes on.
With all the corporations buying up Africa perhaps one day all the people will just be in cities and the corporations will own all the countryside. But of course that assumes a steady and growing energy base which we always have to remind ourselves won't be with us for much longer.
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks has two choices: death or indefinite imprisonment. He's likely to be rounded up soon. And since the kids don't like that he ratted them out to their parents, he's got nowhere to hide. Interpol has issued a warrant for his arrest. Ecuador has apparently offered him sanctuary against the vengeful kiddies. I'm impressed he's lasted this long.
One of Harper's top advisors joked that he should be assassinated. You have to wonder about these people. If you don't like someone you just kill him? Okay I'll remember that lesson. But hmm, I don't like you very much. You can watch the video below.
The person though, who inspired me to write this morning is Mike Huckabee, the folksy Republican presidential contender. The former preacher is calling for whoever leaked these documents to be executed for treason. Maybe this is the letter of the law but I just can't picture a man who loves Jesus so much pulling the trigger. He's a preacher. A man who talks about love and Jesus in one breath and killing in another. What a wonderful thing.
I just want to say how proud I am of WikiLeaks. The best part is that some idiot in the US suggested that they be added to the list of terrorist groups. That itself should tell you a lot about how important this leak is.
And putting lives at risk? Um, the only lives at risk are those of people who are engaged in the most reprehensible actions imaginable. What you choose to do for a living matters. If you live by the sword you are very likely to die by the sword.
I want to make this clear: from my perspective any action that challenges the powerful and exposes their secrets and lies is justifiable. The last thing these powerful institutions want you to know is all the dodgy, deceitful and violent things they do in the world. Anything that exposes the truth is so important.
And the fact that the people behind Wikileaks are still alive and able to avoid the full might of the CIA and probably every other state intelligent agency is incredible. They are very special people to be able to avoid all the might of each state pursuing them and to hide the files all this time? I know that the founder is supposedly a rapist or something and true as that might be (and one wonders about the motivation behind the charges), it doesn't take away the fact that this once he and his team are heroes to the truth.
It's funny that all the states are lining up to support the US and one another after this leak. Iran is dismissing them? China has banned all reporting of the story? Surely these governments of all would make hay from secret US files? All these states are in it together. All they want is control and if one state and its secrets are shamed then they all are shamed because they each do the same thing. Pretty pathetic to watch the rats scrambling over one another.
This Korean business is quite a problem for all involved. I was surprised and slightly worried to hear that South Korea and the US had fired into North Korea at which point North Korea went and bombed an island killing four. And let's not forget that a few months ago a South Korean naval vessel was sunk probably by the North. These things can escalate pretty quickly.
This image is from BBC and shows how provocative the South Koreans were when their ship was sunk. Seems pretty clear to me that it was violating North Korea's waters and one wonders what they were up to. Maybe that's why it went away in the media quickly. The image also shows the location of the island for some context.
Ultimately this story is going nowhere. South Korea and the US, for all their bellicose behaviour and needling the north can't do a thing to get back at North Korea. If they attack in any forceful way there just might be a nuclear missile heading for downtown Seoul. The risk just isn't worth it, no matter how much the pundits emasculate you.
And so that's it. More insane behaviour on both sides. A lot of bravado and no solutions, no moving forward. And the North Korean people eat grass while South Koreans tuck into McDonald's and the whole nightmare continues.
This is the crazy thing about nuclear weapons. Once you have them, no one, not even the world's greatest superpower or whatever it calls itself, can dare to push you around.
This situation also reigns in Israel where a formidable nuclear arsenal precludes any threats from its neighbours and the only groups that stand up to it are non-state actors, who aren't troubled by holes where cities once stood. In fact it would be good for recruiting and you might just get a few X-Men thanks to the fallout. Even the mighty US has to beg Israel to stop settlement construction.
So what lesson then, do these two examples teach to Iran? Get nuclear weapons and you're relatively untouchable. A few sanctions perhaps but as long as you ensure their pain is felt by the poor alone you'll be fine.
But one day, someone will finally decide that a city has to go. And then all hell will break loose. So we had better start disarming. But the Republicans are back and this is the recession that will never end so there's little chance of that.
I've been meaning to write this post for a while though now it's a bit outdated. Some friends visited from Hamilton at the end of October and we had a really nice time just before I moved down to the city. I wanted to share some photos of some of the things we got up to this fall: cider making, melon picking, pumpkin gathering and of course kraut making.
I'm going to do my best not to show anyone's face because some of my visitors were adamant that they don't want to be tracked by the authorities. Fair enough. I remember when I didn't want my details online. But pretty much everyone knows that this is my blog so what can you do? But at least I'm not on facebook.
This last one is all of us pushing a round bale up the driveway to the house where we could use it as mulch. Hard work but not if you have four friends!
I love it! Sound and fury signifying nothing. Welcome to the future. You don't have to say anything real, just make people feel good while they starve or get thrown out of their homes. And I love the bear growling. I know he would vote Republican!
So I'm in the city. Fortunately for me, I've managed to find a job and I'm feeling pretty blessed right now. I'm starting tomorrow and looking forward to earning a little before going back to the farm. I guess I'm really a farmer now that I travel to earn real money. I'm just lucky for a degree which makes getting a job a little easier. Not all farmers (and others besides) are so lucky or privileged.
But since I've been in the city I've noticed a few things. Once Dan and I came to the city and shortly after we arrived our stomachs were both grumbling and upset. Dan figured that it might be the crazy energy of the city, all those people, few other animals, cell phone towers, wireless routers. It was something to experience. I suppose that we could have eaten something funny but that's doubtful.
So what have I noticed since being here. For one, my stomach has been really bloated. I am cutting wheat out of my diet. Perhaps my colon is crying out for wheat in vain. But I'm just bloated and haven't figured out what's causing it since I mostly always eat beans and rice, and I'm trying to eat fruit in between. It's quite a journey to understand your digestive system without just taking a pill.
More importantly and shockingly for me, I find myself looking through junk mail and other ads, looking for deals for home. I want to get my mother a printer since I've wrecked the last two freecycle finds and I'm sick and tired of dodgy used printers. I found a really good deal on a new model but it still vexes me that I'm such a shopper, especially of this new thing.
Now that we have internet at home I waste hours looking for (albeit useful) stuff for our home. Sewing machines that could handle a lot. Crocks for fermenting. External DVD players for my base-model laptop. At least I'm not after a cell phone. Perhaps I should chill out and maybe buying a few things that would actually be useful is not the end of the world. Still I don't want to be a shopaholic!
I first heard of Alex Hundert on the Sunday Edition. Normally focused on pompous middle class issues and politics, Michael Enright devoted his weekly essay to Mr. Hundert and his Kafkaesque situation. This was an unlikely start of a journey into the ongoing erosion of civil liberties in Canada.
Alex Hundert along with hundreds of other 'activists' was arrested in advance of the G8/G20 summits in Toronto in June. Thinking that 'activists' have dear leaders like themselves, the cops assumed that if they dragged away some of the more vocal 'activists' that the protests might fall apart. No such luck there. But the world had a great view of the new Canada: fake lakes, security fences and mass arrests.
But back to Mr. Hundert. He is facing three conspiracy charges. He was released on $100,000 bail and subjected to house arrest with some conditions around non-association with other arrested 'activists' and a ban on participating in political demonstrations.
Given his experience he was invited to take part in a panel discussion on the police response to the G8/G20 protests in September. A panel discussion apparently is a political demonstration. So he was rearrested and subsequently released with new bail conditions which according to the Toronto Star: "They include a clarification of the no-demonstration rule, to include a restriction on planning, participating in, or attending any public event that expresses views on a political issue".
That last point deserves to be written a second time: "any public event that expresses views on a political issue". This is typically Canadian, being nebulous in statements that could be read quite radically. Arguably eating is a political act. And what's a public event?
This is quite shocking behaviour and many different organizations and individuals, many of whom may never have given a damn about Mr. Hundert are now taking notice. What if this could happen to you? Imagine being forced to be apolitical?
I just had a thought, perhaps his conditions could have forced him to spend 8 or more hours a day at a mall windowshopping? Or maybe they could have forced him to watch Entertainment Tonight with a quiz that if he failed he would have to return to jail.
What surprises me the most is that they are not getting on with his trial and the trials of numerous other 'activists'. Obviously this man and his compadres are evil and should be jailed along with other evildoers. Why allow them to continue to be free to read Chomsky and plot the downfall of the state? Get them into jail and destroy their spirits. The case against them must be rock solid to allow for such stringent bail conditions.
They tried and convicted Colonel Russell Williams pretty quickly and he was one of our prescribed heroes. So when are these trials going to happen? Or can we just assume that Mr. Hundert and his fellows will merely be on permnent house arrest since they are such a nuissance to the state?
I'm looking for a winter job. One place that I check, reluctantly of course, is the government's job bank. Today on my visit I looked at the features section in the lower right hand side. Now presumably the Government of Canada doesn't charge for people to post jobs on this site. However the jobs listed in the features section speak volumes about the state's priorities.
RCMP recruiting, Canadian Forces--both military and civilian jobs, and of course workers for the 'oil sands'. Kind of speaks volumes doesn't it? Especially that last one, which is clearly out of place given that the 'oil sands' arguably have no connection to the federal government. The feds actually own pieces of GM and Chrysler but you don't see ads for those jobs.
Let's come up with a new slogan for the job bank: "Cooking the planet while happily quashing dissent at home and abroad".
I just got what I thought was my credit card statement in the mail. Happily I rarely use it but I'm glad to have it in my back pocket. So I was ready to make my usual payment of a hundred dollars, usually the purchase of some gasoline to travel to Halifax or something like that. But when I opened the letter it seems that they are offering to raise my credit limit once again.
I had to laugh out loud. I can't remember exactly but about 6-8 months ago I was offered another raise of about $2,000. The funny thing is that I don't have a regular income to speak of but I guess I'm a reliable customer because I always pay my bills immediately. But I guess they're hoping that I'll start spending like a madman, and maybe I'll pay them some interest and get into debt. They don't know me very well.
(Incidentally I just got a call from a company hoping to restructure my mortgage. Good luck.)
Desperation abounds it seems. Lacking imagination these companies keep trying their old tricks, but it's over. The chickens, I hope and pray, are coming home to roost.
We must all avoid debt at all costs. I can't shake the feeling that soon, as the economy collapses due to a lack of abundant, cheap energy, debt will logically become the basis of the reincarnation of the pre-oil economy: the slave economy. So if you have debt obligations from the six cars you own, or the three houses or the new 3D television you bought on a payment plan, then you and your family will be sold into slavery. Ideally for the powerful, debt will be transferred to the next generation and interest accrued so that a long-term slave supply is assured. Instead of tractors and pesticides, you'll have slaves and hand weeding (and if you've ever hand weeded carrots get ready for purgatory).
Incidentally check out news that debtors prisons are growing in the US. Is this the start of the future? Debtors prisons are supposed to be illegal but not in this climate. The silly thing is that it costs so much to incarcerate someone so how do these prisons break even? Well I guess that's why we have private prisons to manage the slave, uh I mean prison population.
Things are happening so fast it's certainly hard to keep up and it just makes me incredulous. And still there is no revolution?
But for now I'll take the offer. Or maybe I should do something unexpected and decline it? Nah, maybe I'll buy an ivory backscratcher someday. On credit of course.
I'm feeling a bit left out. I think that I'm losing touch with people, even people who don't live that far away, because of facebook. Or more accurately my decision not to join the website and share all my information online.
My friend chastised me yesterday for not being on facebook. He was partly joking but partly serious. He lives not too far away but I hadn't been able to reach him by phone for weeks. Finally we met up yesterday. But I had missed
And then there's a good friend who I haven't heard from in probably more than a year. I write emails to him probably every month or two but get no reply. I hear second hand about his life from friends. The funny thing is that we have a lot in common and are theoretically following parallel paths in life, albeit on the other sides of the world to each other. I assume of course that he is upset with me but won't communicate anything to me. So I'm in a void. And I fear that it's all because of facebook.
There's this subtle push to join facebook, spread by each and every user. Even those people who hate facebook but still remain members. The funny thing is that I don't think I've ever been congratulated for holding out. But if I was online, think of all the news I would be privy too. But how hard is it to write an email, or letter for that matter, or to pick up the phone?
Pretty hard obviously.
As I write this I'm reminded of an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. Bear with me. I used to watch this show as an impressionable teenager. In the episode in question, an officer returns from a vacation to the ship and proceeds to spread a game that he was introduced to. The game it turns out gives extreme pleasure and brainwashes the crew to the whims of an alien species. It was totally Invasion of the Body Snatchers in space. At the time, and obviously I'm still thinking of it, it really left an impression on me. So naturally I'm not going to give in.
I have this feeling that I wrote a similar blog entry once upon a time. Well it remains a feature of all our lives.
Just learned about an interesting new initiative coming out of Europe. It's called Degrowth. It advocates something I've long dreamed of: a movement away from economic growth as the means of judging our success on this planet. And since ultimately the end result of endless growth is death (see cancer), we really should jump on the degrowth train.
Mostly I'm happy that someone, somewhere is willing to have a frank and realistic discussion about these issues. Of course they also include voluntary population reduction as an important cornerstone of their movement. To not include it would be insane.
Here is the declaration from their last conference held in Barcelona:
In the midst of an international crisis more than four hundred researchers, practitioners and civil society members from forty countries gathered in Barcelona in March 2010 for the Second International Conference on Degrowth. The Declaration of the First International Conference in Paris in 2008 noted the looming multidimensional crisis, which was not just financial, but also economic, social, cultural, energetic, political and ecological. The crisis is a result of the failure of an economic model based on growth.
An international elite and a “global middle class” are causing havoc to the environment through conspicuous consumption and the excessive appropriation of human and natural resources. Their consumption patterns lead to further environmental and social damage when imitated by the rest of society in a vicious circle of status-seeking through the accumulation of material possessions. While irresponsible financial institutions, multi-national corporations and governments are rightly at the forefront of public criticism, this crisis has deeper structural causes.
So-called anti-crisis measures that seek to boost economic growth will worsen inequalities and environmental conditions in the long-run. The illusion of a "debt-fuelled growth", i.e. Forcing the economy to grow in order to pay debt, will end in social disaster, passing on economic and ecological debts to future generations and to the poor. A process of degrowth of the world economy is inevitable and will ultimately benefit the environment, but the challenge is how to manage the process so that it is socially equitable at national and global scales. This is the challenge of the Degrowth movement, originating in rich countries in Europe and elsewhere, where the change must start from.
Academics, activists and practitioners met in Barcelona to structure proposals toward an alternative, ecologically sustainable and socially equitable degrowth society. The conference was conducted in an inclusive and participatory way. In addition to standard scientific presentations, some 29 working groups discussed hands-on policies for degrowth and defined research questions, bringing together economic,social and environmental concerns. New ideas and issues absent from mainstream dialogue on sustainable development were put on the table: currencies and financial institutions, social security and working hours, population and resource consumption, restrictions to advertising, moratoria on infrastructure and resource sanctuaries, and many others. A wealth of new proposals evolved, including: facilitation of local currencies; gradual elimination of fiat money and reforms of interest; promotion of small scale, self-managed not-for-profit companies; defense and expansion of local commons and establishment of new jurisdictions for global commons; establishment of integrated policies of reduced working hours (work-sharing) and introduction of a basic income; institutionalization of an income ceiling based on maximum-minimum ratios; discouragement of overconsumption of non-durable goods and under-use of durables by regulation, taxation or bottom-up approaches; abandonment of large-scale infrastructure such as nuclear plants, dams, incinerators, high-speed transportation; conversion of car-based infrastructure to walking, biking and open common spaces; taxation of excessive advertising and its prohibition from public spaces; support for environmental justice movements of the South that struggle against resource extraction; introduction of global extractive moratoria in areas with high biodiversity and cultural value, and compensation for leaving resources in the ground; denouncement of top-down population control measures and support of women’s reproductive rights, conscious procreation and the right to free migration while welcoming a decrease in world birth rates; and de-commercialization of politics and enhancement of direct participation in decision-making.
We assert that these proposals are not utopian: new redistributive taxes will address income inequality and finance social investments and discourage consumption and environmental damage, while reduced working hours with a reinforced social security system will manage unemployment.
As the economy of wealthy parts of the world quietly contracts and our damage to the environment through new infrastructures and extraction activities is constrained, well-being will increase through public investments in low-cost social and relational goods.
Every new proposal generates several new objections and questions. We do not claim to have a recipe for the future, but we can no longer pretend that we can keep growing as if nothing has happened. The folly of growth has come to an end. The challenge now is how to transform, and the debate has just begun.
There is a lot to learn about introspection, critical thinking and being conscious in this interview with Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist. In general, he says all the things I think about the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's worth a read though he (much like myself) laments the disappearance of the truth when the whole world is full of sheep.
* I realize that this isn't quite a Museum Fremen entry but truth must be part of any future so we'll allow it.
Across North America, nationalism, peak oil, climate change and the fearful mood in the air are combining to build a new insta-industry. This industry drills for oil and gas in an unconventional way called hydraulic fracturing. It's also known more colloquially as fracking.
I read about this a few years ago when I read an article about western governors visiting the tar sands in order to learn lessons about their own hard to reach energy resource: shale oil. At the time, I just laughed off their plans since it seemed to involve destroying the Rocky Mountains to get at oil and gas trapped in the rock below. Surely this was unthinkable even in the United States and Canada?
It turns out I was wrong and that the plan is indeed moving ahead. But they won't be destroying the Rockies in the end. Though they will be drilling into the earth and pumping in fresh water, sand and a cocktail of carcinogenic chemicals. Under intense pressure these chemicals crack the shale rock below and the gas or oil bubble up to the surface where it is captured and burned for fuel. Unfortunately many wells pollute groundwater and wells and much of this fracking fluid is left underground.
And it's not limited to the west. A big seam of shale gas sits under New York and Pennsylvania. Others are in Quebec. There's probably one under your feet right now. I know there is under mine.
That's right: Cape Breton is open for business. And it's breaking my heart.
I guess that humans aren't going to be forced to stop after all, whether by choice or by natural limits. We are going to do anything to keep this dysfunction going. There are no alternatives as much as I would love to offer one. This has to proceed to the end I guess. It means wells everywhere, seeking out every last drop and square metre of gas.
Seeking refuge in the sports pages, I came across the new name of the Pittsburgh Penguins' arena: the Consol Energy Centre. The instant I read it I knew that this was a fracking company. I decided to visit their website. I was met with a slowly flapping American flag looking like it was carved out of coal. Welcome to "America's On Switch". Rugged miners held up an American flag urged me to consider a career with Consol. This propaganda image was very impressive. Good ol' photoshop.
Here are a couple of quotes from the main and careers page (I couldn't view the flash at my speed):
"If everyone up there (presumably on the surface of the earth) is willing to learn how to read in the dark, then maybe this profession will become obsolete. Fact is, everything we do requires energy. And that fact is a growing one. Just take a look at what your home entertainment system is made of now versus 10 years ago."
"When America runs out of oil, it won’t run out of energy thanks to our vast reserves of coal and natural gas."
Some pictures to share. Frances took some lovely shots this past download. Thought I should share them with you. I can't write much as we are taking Nikita and Joe to the Brook Village Dance, the last one of the year.
The summer squash and cucumbers have been very prolific this year. Perhaps I'm leaning a thing or two about growing them.
So much so that Joe and I made dill pickles in a brine so they are naturally fermented. They taste pretty amazing. I made up another 4 gallon crock about a week ago and I guess I can do another pretty soon.
We've also been dehydrating a lot of zucchini and summer squash for the long winter to come.
The strawberries that we planted last year have been giving en mass. Each week we sell out at the markets. They are not everbearing as much as I remember (hard to keep track of everything). But they had one big production in July and now are giving again. Must have been a pretty great summer for strawbs.
Sarah came out to visit from Hamilton and was a great help with her cycling partner Patrick. They biked all over Nova Scotia, ultimately ending up at Wild Roots with us.
So naturally we've been eating pretty well with lots of fresh veggies and fruit. This must be the best I've eaten my whole life.
I feel like I've been neglecting this blog. It's been a terribly long time since I've written anything.
I live in a bubble here. When I leave I am bombarded by the subtle messages of our culture and the sights and sounds of my fellow inmates. It seems that as time passes the stronger my reactions to the prison become. And more and more my desire to retreat to Wild Roots becomes.
I left this place in August for 10 days in Newfoundland. It was a great trip spent in great company seeing a part of the country that I pledged to visit. We drove up the west coast of the rugged province camping and snacking and reading, learning and hiking and it was lovely. However we both experienced very strong reactions to the people and behaviours we encountered along the way. More and more it seems we have less and less in common with people tapping away at their cell phones or purchasing hollowed out buns injected with factory farmed mystery meat. So I just want to get away, get back to sanctuary. But maybe I have more in common with them than I think. Maybe by being here I don't have to face that I'm no different, no matter how I try to stand aside. I know there is no escape and that I am as much a prisoner as anyone else on this earth.
On the trip there were moments of temptation when I almost ate the seared muscles of tortured animals in bright, happy, plastic restaurants. But I passed the test and remained me. "Just fries please." The temptation was so strong. Why not, just this once? What's the harm?
One thing that Dan left me with was a loathing of people. And there is no doubt that he has good cause to feel that way. Just look around at all the obese, inane, abusive people. People make bad choices, we all do. The only thing we can do is remain aware and conscious and we'll see those bad choices decline. How do you support people to embrace this view? How do you help them to open their eyes?
I'm so happy to be home. I feel safe here: books, quiet, gardens, healthy food.
A friend recently wrote and told me off for running away from Hamilton. But this is where I am. I can't face the world anymore. But please don't think I've given up. Ask all the people who have passed my door this summer. I think they would say that they learned a few things from Wild Roots. Most of all they have been happy. My approach is changing. Just live the right way and people will find their way to you and go back again. Perhaps.
There's this line echoing in my head from Thee Silver Mount Zion Tralalala Band or whatever they are calling themselves these days. It's from a song called There's a River in the Valley of Melting Snow. Maybe this will make sense:
"I have grown tired of the struggle And I've grown tired of making plans I think I'll quit to the valley Regain my strength And start again Where once we were some clumsy army Now we are just lazy hens I think I'll quit to the valley Until the light moves me again..."
I learned something tonight. Earlier I was talking with my friend Laurel about Cape Breton and Hamilton and the distance between places and people. She asked if I felt welcome here. I answered that I do feel welcome for the most part. For some people I will always be from away but those people aren't likely to make the best friends so I think I'll stick with all the people who have welcomed me home.
But there is still something of the tourist in me. Like I'm just passing through when in reality I'm going to live the rest of my life here. So I have to really accept this reality and embrace it.
One way that I feel like a tourist is that when I go out (rarely for a miser like me) I go to the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou. This is a spot for tourists. The license plates out front read Vermont, Massachusetts, British Columbia and they are sported by the most fabulous antique cars and Harley Davidson motorcycles. The food isn't very good given what you pay and it doesn't have to be. Locals sometimes attend but mostly tourists drop their large wads on the tables and move on.
In Mabou there's another restaurant called the Mull. The Mull is open all year to the Red Shoe's seasonality. To be honest that's all I know about it. I only passed through the door once, to put up a poster (in typical Ontario fashion). It felt dark and small at the time, nothing compared with the bright and cheery Red Shoe. But it's the real spot. It's made a commitment. Real people go there not the playboys and playgirls from New England.
Wow. I just read a convincing article from Mike Ruppert about buying gold as a stopgap between this shitty economic paradigm and the steady state/no-growth one to come (really there's no other choice because if we keep choosing infinite growth then we are dead and sadly most of life on earth along with us). It's a good article and I encourage you to check it out.
I feel a bit like the potato guy in the story who thinks potatoes are valuable, certainly more than gold and cash (or bullshit numbers in a computer somewhere). Though Ruppert makes the case that potatoes will be valuable in 10-50 years, they are not valuable now nor will they be valuable in the transition period. So I'm a bit ahead of myself perhaps (certainly lots of potatoes in the ground).
I just had a quick look at the Royal Canadian Mint and it looks like some of their stock is running out. So obviously someone is taking his advice (and the advice of other sages). They are sold out of 1 oz gold wafers--pure gold! The funniest thing is that they have special coins for what we value as a society (an RCMP coin, an oil and gas coin, an Olympics coin and a Navy coin). But they are not pure gold or silver (is that ironic?) and are therefore of lesser value than a pure gold or silver wafer.
So what do you think? Should I buy some gold and silver? If I can that is.
I found this opinion piece through Mike Ruppert's new online home CollapseNet. Now I know that many of my friends have or are planning to have children and I'm almost there myself so this article might be a bit shocking. But it's worth thinking about given the clear and present danger of climate change.
It's something I wrestle with but I think given my family's current situation, moderate level of adaptability and inclination to grow that any child would be somewhat provided for and happy. Maybe the debate started by the article above would merely be passed down to another generation like I was buying myself and my family some time but letting the kids make the tough decisions. In some ways this is what our culture does, passes the buck.
Go biodiversity! Perhaps I'm just more perceptive these days but I'm seeing all kinds of different creatures in our gardens that I didn't see last year. From field mice to dragonflies to snakes and toads. And the birds seem to be following us around and talking to us whenever we are out and digging. I expect they are just thanking us for revealing so many yummy worms.
--
I recently took the Firearms Safety Course with the long-term goal of learning to hunt. It was an interesting experience to say the least. If you weren't confident and didn't know anything about firearms then you were cast adrift. It was very male-centred despite a bunch of women on the course. I didn't know anything about guns but I got up at the breaks and learned how to cock and half cock a number of rifles and how to safely load and unload.
Of the men in attendance there was a distinct difference in attitude between the older and younger generations. I sat next to a nice old man who was forced to take the course after having hunt for years but had just purchased a new rifle and it fell under the new regulations. All the old men seemed level headed and mature.
Contrast that with the men between 15-40 (yes you can take the course when you are 12 even I think). It was all "I want to get an assault rifle" and "Canada is way to strict when it comes to guns" and "Wish I lived in the states". I overheard one fellow who had come back home from Alberta telling a story about how his friend and he had been drinking and his friend pulled out all his guns and lay them on his bed (yes they covered the whole bed). Then they called "the whores" and when they got them in to the bedroom they ran away screaming having seen all the weapons arrayed there. It was bizarre and creepy and says a lot about our culture.
I trust that these young men will grow up one day but I'm not betting on it. Violence is the middle name of civilization after all.
--
Back to some good news: the strawberries that we planted last year have arrived. We have a bowl of fresh strawberries with each meal it seems. And if you get hungry in the garden you can wander down and pick a few too give you a little boost. It's pretty nice I must admit.
And we have lots of garlic scapes and things are growing nicely. Though the summer squash have been decimated by cucumber beetles and slugs despite my best efforts to kill them all (don't worry, you never can, and I know they are part of a diverse garden, grumble, grumble).
I haven't written in ages. We've been pretty full on here at Wild Roots since mid-June. Thought I should share some pictures and some news.
We have two great wwoofers helping out and we've been making beds and pulling weeds pretty much exclusively. It's a lot of hard work but they have been happy to do it. Can't really ask for more. We still have more seedlings than we have bed space but we're working on it. Thanks to Maggie and Piramila.
Jane and Minou have arrived. They are both having a great time. Minou caught her first mouse yesterday and we had to drag her back to the house or she would have stayed outside all day and night. Jane and I were both worried that Buddy would attack and wound her for invading his space but as usual he has surprised me. This is the cat by the way who attacked two dogs when they entered our house. Maybe her smaller stature made him feel comfortable. All she got were two hisses and now they are friends. They even eat together and Minou pushes him out of the way to get to his food. Good old Buddysatva.
I've started to get up at 6am every day. It's a nice time to be up. The weather is cool and the bugs are slow (fracking cucumber beetles). I do all my watering between 6-7 and then come in for breakfast. Frances was the one who wanted to get up early but she always sleeps in to about 8am. No problem but 6am makes for some beautiful starts to the day. I just have to have a nap around lunch or I'm beat around 8pm.
So blogging is kind of taking a back seat to all this activity. But I'll try my best to at least put up some photos.
Since moving out east I've had the pleasure of reading several books by Farley Mowat. He's a good writer and deserving of his place in the Canadian Walk of Fame. Though I don't expect he'll attend the twisted ceremony, but perhaps I'm wrong.
Right now I'm finishing The New Founde Land, Mowat's tribute to Newfoundland and its people, and it turns out its ghosts. When Europeans first "discovered" Newfoundland and Labrador they might have thought they had discovered the Garden of Eden, well in a manner of speaking. Sure it lacked milk and honey but Newfoundland had possibly the most abundant wildlife in the world, surely rivaling the plains of Africa and North America.
You could literally stick your hand in the water and pull out cod. Reports from sailors stated that the sheer abundance of cod slowed their boats from passing through the water. They are almost gone today.
There were polar bears everywhere. Last night I read a dismal account from a 18th century insane European who repeatedly shot polar bears through the head for the mere sport of it. Now if a polar bear has the ill fortune of straying south in winter it is shot immediately, for public safety, as if humans matter more than polar bears.
There were millions of birds on isolated offshore islands. The great auk was the most prized, providing meat, eggs and feathers. Now they are extinct, wiped off the map by civilization.
Seals populated the winter ice around Newfoundland and Labrador in far greater numbers than we see today. At least they are still with us.
Pilot whales are estimated to have numbered some 60,000 even into the twentieth century before they became the food of mink farmers in Newfoundland. Some good news is that they are still with us, a smaller and sadder population for having met civilized humans.
I could go on.
All I can think, in this world of oil spills and climate change, that had I be born in Newfoundland before Europeans I would have looked on this abundance and thanked the earth for her generosity. And surely the First Nations of Newfoundland and Labrador did. They did not let their populations grow too high and took only what they needed and gave themselves back when their lives ended. They probably couldn't have ever foreseen an end to this Garden of Eden. These people, like the great auks, are gone now too.
There's just us civilized people left and a few species hanging on. And we'll destroy them in the end. That's what we do. All for a "higher standard of living". Not really worth it if you ask me.
People out here often ask if I miss Hamilton. Usually I reply that I miss my friends and that's certainly true. I've known lots of great people in Hamilton. People that try to make the world a better place against all odds. So I miss them always.
The other day I realized that there's another thing I miss from southern Ontario. I miss thunderstorms. I miss the energy and power of those moments. There don't seem to be many thunderstorms out east, whereas in Ontario all the hot, humid weather always seems to be ready to burst.
But tonight I was blessed with a lovely thunderstorm. Not a really loud one but I spent a bunch of time at the door just being in the moment. Good times.
That's how many we planted. I can't believe it. Let's see if I can remember all the varieties. Random peach (good luck, I know), Sandra Rose cherry, Kristin cherry, Ulster cherry (again sweet cherry, good luck I know), Bartlett pear, Golden Russet Bosc, Beurre D'Anjou, Satsuma plum, Fortune plum, Grimes Golden apple, Lady apple (actually pink lady apple is a cross between these two varieties), Liberty apple and Nova Spy apple.
Then there were the nuts: black walnut, hazelnut, heartnut and bur oak (for the moist valley bottom where they will perhaps thrive). Thanks for some friends for sending along a gift certificate for nut trees which helped greatly. You know who you are.
We had a funny last tree planting ceremony. Frances marked the last stake, though I'm sure sure how much the efforts of men will stand against the beaming, purging sun. Thanks to Jane, Frances and Amber who supported my back in this endeavour.
Here are some images from our spring garden. The orchard continues to grow with the efforts of Frances, Thom and Jane. It's difficult to get a picture of trees that are still dormant and are just now budding and waking up for the season. Thanks to Jane for coming down this weekend and just planting trees (plus bringing me chocolate and tahini). Frances is also working really hard helping plant and tie the trees to the stakes. And yes, it is still chilly here; I see lots of pictures of people in Ontario walking around in t-shirts but that's still a ways away.
Lots of things have overwintered in our garden: kale, spinach, chard, leeks, turnips and radish. So it means that we're not just eating dandelions and beans this spring. Frances and I pulled the radish and turnip and made them into kraut a few days ago. I decided to try something new and made kimchi out of the turnip tops and leeks. It's fermenting away in the kitchen. Might be an interesting taste, what do you think?
Oh and last but not least I planted 18 asparagus crowns. Two have come up already and it'll be three years before we harvest asparagus regularly but then we have 20+ years of asparagus. Can't complain about that. Go perennials!
Last night on the National, there were images of protests in Greece. One image stuck out: a line of stone throwers and in the lead a tan dog barking at the police. Then today I saw this photo essay about the dog named Kanellos. Keep up the good work Greeks!
I just experienced a lovely moment in the garden. I have been digging holes for the almost 100 fruit trees that are due to arrive (after a long and arduous journey) tomorrow. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with planting and then watering all these trees over the summer. And there have been no signs of wwoofers on their ways which means it's on me. I have been harbouring the thought that Dan and I went overboard buying all these trees.
Then walking back from the hole digging, I noticed a bald eagle slowly gliding over the field. I crouched down in the grass to observe his or her passage. Directly over the vegetable garden a dozen swallows (I'm not sure what species they are but they beat fast and then cruise and look like they are chasing bugs) were flying and playing. One had approached our smiling scarecrow and pecked him right in the face. It was comical.
Then the eagle passed over, happily not noticing Buddy who was with me but some distance away. As I went to stand up, a marsh hawk took off from the grass at the top of the hill and glided over the garden. It rapidly dove into the grass but alighted again and departed over the forest.
It was a lovely moment, that has temporarily driven away any blues and stress that I was feeling. I'm going to hold onto its memory as I continue to dig away all this afternoon.
So last fall we decided that we needed to invest in some trees here at Wild Roots. Trees are the ultimate perennial, bringing up nutrition from deep down in the earth and providing an edible crop. We made a large order of fruit trees and received a few trees from friends in the area. Best of all, some lovely friends back home pooled together some money and gave me a gift certificate for the Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara-On-The-Lake.
Then Dan moved back to Hamilton and now I'm the tree planter. I love planting trees, don't get me wrong. I think it's a very important thing that we should all be doing (since our ancestors cut down all the trees and we just keep the old train rolling along). But it can get tedious crumbling soil into a hole all day. Honestly I think the thing that bothers me is that based on my planting, this tree may live or die. Maybe I should just stick to carrots. Then again, most factors are out of my control.
Hmm, I also think that planting trees AND taking care of them, meaning regular watering for at least the first year, challenges an unrealistic yet central attitude inside me. The idea that you can do something once and then forget about it, take it for granted. Similarly if I built something then it was built and I could move on and do the next thing. But really you need to keep an eye on it and make repairs. I think we have this attitude in our culture. The "no maintenance" attitude. Maybe it's got something to do with our consumer culture. Because we usually buy something and then forget about it and then it breaks because it was cheap or we didn't take care of it and we buy another. But that gets expensive.
Back to the trees, I would really just love some company planting. Someone to just be next to when I'm digging and crumbling and encouraging the young tree. We wouldn't even need to talk. I think I never appreciated Dan's presence enough. But I know some special people are going to find their ways here soon enough. So I'm holding on.
So I had a go making miso tonight. It's actually quite a simple process. Cook beans, mash them, add a brine with a little live miso mixed in and something called koji. I'm still not sure if I got the koji process right. Basically koji is rice infused with a beneficial fungus. I just threw it in because my recipe didn't call for me to do anything else. Though I have this feeling that I should have mixed it with some warm cooked, fresh rice.
But if it doesn't work out then I won't sweat it. Though I'm going to have to wait a year to try this miso. Yup, that's how long it takes to mature, maybe even longer. It's in the cool basement starting its long journey right now.
So everyone is saying that we might be headed for a dry summer. These are people who have lived here for a long time and haven't seen a winter and spring like we've been experiencing before. This could be bad news for our plans to plant well over a hundred fruit and nut trees in the coming weeks. Bad news because it means I'm going to be hauling water from the brook to water trees all over the land. Ugh.
We have implemented a new low-tech grey water system in response to the potential drought. If there's no drought then we can go back to business as usual and if there is a drought then we'll look quite wise. Our grey water system just means that we save all our grey water and take it out and pour it in a 45 gallon barrel outside the mudroom door. Pretty simple but again another easy way to be water conscious in a changing climate.
I took a shower this evening (after a hair cut, the cut hair then being stuffed into old stockings to hang on our new fence and deter curious deer; they don't like the smell of old hair apparently). I left the plug in and the water filled up the tub and I filled a bucket and took it downstairs and out to the barrel. My shower used 3 gallons of water. Frances' baths use 6 gallons of water. So that's 9 gallons plus maybe 2 gallons of dish water. That saves me a couple hundred feet walking up hill carrying two buckets with 6 gallons in each.
Not that you probably care about all this. But if reducing the expenditure of energy is what life is all about (I know strange coming from a pig North American) then developing these new systems saves on caloric and fossil fuel energy (ultimately most of our calories come from fossil fuels anyway).
I just checked the weather and what was a sunny week ahead has suddenly turned into a week of rain. Wild weather, changes all the time. Time to get some seeds sowed.
Our friends Paul and Anne gave us some little rose shoots which we are trusting will grow into a fragrant wind break near the house. They also dug us up three white ash trees which we trust will take, though they are coming from really nice sandy soil up near Inverness to our more clay soil down here. We spent the morning moving some shaded raspberries to the top of the hill where they will get full sun and ideally produce lots of yummy berries. Go perennials!
Frances moved some rhubarb plants up the hill too. The top of the garden from west to east is raspberries, jerusalem artichokes and then rhubarb. The rhubarb is thriving in its new home, though how much freaking rhubarb can one family eat?
Dan's gift to the farm has been garlic. So much garlic is up (already). And there are two other beds. Thanks so much for everything Dano.
Last but not least, here's some evidence of the crazy weather we had over Easter Weekend. It was actually 26 degrees. And this thermometre is in the shade on the north side of the house.
Posts
