Sunday, 20 November 2016

DIY

DIY

When we first came to our North of 54 farm it was not a farm and we were not farmers. The land had a small five acre field and an attached field we called the "L shaped field" (and still do though it's rectangular now). Fortunately, a relative of the family from whom we purchased our 1/4 section hayed those two fields during the many years the land was unoccupied. Otherwise the fields would have been reclaimed by the bush. Along with these small clearings, there was a little lake, a large beaver dam and the resulting watershed, and lots and lots of trees.

 

 

We, along with a friend who a year later decided to return to BC, came here in June of 1974 with a 6 week old baby, a dog and a cat, and our few worldly possessions including an old plain Jane Enterprise wood cook stove. We lived in a quickly erected poplar cabin with an outdoor kitchen until the snows were flying steadily in December and our 25 foot square log home was more or less ready to occupy (top logs weren't chinked yet).

Not being farmers or house builders we had rather a large learning curve to accomplish (still working on it). Though we sought advice whenever possible, we mainly learned by using reference books and by trial and error. My husband built the first half of our house with a chain saw, an axe, a 1 1/2 inch auger, a chalk line, some books (B. Allan Mackie, "Building With Logs" was one of them) and some advice from a few locals.

 

Books were survival manuals for us. I remember standing by our little goat barn, reading step-by-step instructions on how to milk a goat. We used shepherding manuals, again me reading aloud while my husband followed instructions on how to turn a lamb in a difficult birth. We have books on keeping rabbits, storing vegetables, building feeders and corrals, growing raspberries, training dogs, making simple clothing, and........... the list goes on. Bit by bit we learned. We built. We raised goats, sheep, horses, rabbits, chickens. We logged fence posts and trees; picked pine cones; trained a team of horses and used them for logging, field work, and cultivating the garden. Our main farm product turned out to be Border Collies. My husband learned how to use and train them starting with a book ("The Farmer's Dog" by John Holmes). These amazing dogs became our love, our joy, our job, and our income. From them my husband gained a fair amount of notoriety in the sheep dog world and yes, he did end up writing a wee booklet on how to train a Border Collie.

 

We remained fairly small. We added a couple of fields on the home quarter, obtained a grazing lease and fenced it carrying spools of barbed wire on a pole between us through bush and muskeg (no road there at that time). The Alberta government cleared about 40 acres on the lease. The remainder of the farm remains in forrest, lake and watershed. After 10 years we added a second half to the house and upgraded to indoor plumbing and solar electricity. We also built a log barn and a shop. It's been a lifetime project with more stuff left to do but we have a lot less ambition now.

We couldn't have done all this without our books! We are still using books to learn but these days we have an entire library at our fingertips - an iPad and the internet. We still have all our hard copy reference books though. I could never bring myself to get rid of them. A book is a solid object you can hold on to. The internet depends on the "system" remaining viable.

Out of curiosity I surfed the net today for "How to milk a goat". Wow! I got a beautiful pictorial step-by-step finely detailed description, as good or better than that old book we used so many years ago. I also looked up "How to hang clothes on a clothesline" and got numerous sites to look at. It seems like both these questions yielded answers that were overly detailed and a bit over-the-top on complicating the issue. But I have done these things for well over 40 years. Sometimes a person who is quite familiar with a task can oversimplify instructions and leave questions in the mind of the person asking for help.

I was wondering to myself the other day, What would happen if the world fell apart (a thought many have after the US election)? Grandmothers have not gotten around to teaching the youngsters (and the youngsters don't seem to want to learn) traditional skills like cooking from scratch, gardening, preserving, making wine (I use a book for my famous Honeyberry and Raspberry wines), sewing, washing dishes without a dish washer, hanging clothes on a line, etc. Grandfathers haven't taught youngsters how to put in and take off a crop, put up hay, cut down trees for buildings or for firewood, erect buildings, hunt wildlife for food, fix machinery, be a good shepherd, etc. Would everyone starve? Could they live without all of today's conveniences? Hell yes! They'd just have to download and print a bunch of DIY books before the grid died, or go buy some how-to books (if hard copies are available), read, try things out, succeed and fail, try another way, learn, share what they learn, and help one another.

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Responsible Journalism

        Responsible Journalism

Because we pass on news articles we see on social media, we have all, in a way, become published journalists - unfortunately often irresponsible, biased and downright harmful journalists rather than responsible and thoughtful journalists. We read the "news" published by a myriad of sources and streaming continuously on sites such as FaceBook and Twitter. Sometimes, because we are in a hurry or because the headline backs up our view of the world, we pass these articles and videos on to our friends or the general public without taking the time to read them. 
 

Headlines can be deceiving. Sometimes the article will be a satire, or make completely false claims,  or deliberately incite hatred or racism. Some articles have been altered by the addition of false or misleading information or quotes. Many photos are edited and/or deliberately altered to skew the facts in favour of a particular political position. Some posts are old and no longer relevant or accurate or have been attributed to the wrong person or country. Some have photos of one event while supporting a story about another. Sometimes the comments under a post are so scathing that forwarding a positive article can inadvertently promote an opposing view. 

I wrote a blog (see post: "FaceBook, Not FactBook", September 23, 2015) suggesting that people check the accuracy of posts on this rumour spreading media before passing any on. This is a time consuming enterprise and can be difficult to accomplish, but considering the damage some rumours can bring about, a responsible post passer should take the time to read and fact check (or at least make sure the source is reliable), before hitting "share". In today's media you can encounter written and video materials that support every viewpoint, from the wildly crazy to the seemingly logical. When you share a post you are publishing it to an audience that may very well believe it is true.

The sad thing about mainstream, on-line TV and newspaper reporting these days is the homogeneous nature of it. You can move from one to the next and see the same stories, the same video clips and photos, the same out-of-context edited quotes that skew what someone really said, the same rhetorical jargon. Some would assume that this sameness from one media source to another is because what is being said is true. Others might say it's because many of these media sources are owned and controlled by only a few corporations who are determined to promote the status quo.

We are seeing and hearing what media owners see as truth or as a suitable variation of the truth that has been vetted by someone, some organization or some government to provide what they deem as "need-to-know" information for the general public. Even though journalists may go to great lengths to obtain "the truth", their editors may slash and skew the text to tone it down or sensationalize it in hopes of gathering ratings or followers. News has become entertainment.  

It's also important to recognize that it is difficult to avoid bias in reporting the news. We casually accept, ignore or fail to notice this bias when the news source is within our own country or supports our own philosophical views. When news originates from other parts of the world however, such as China, Russia, South America or the Middle East, we often call this bias propaganda (defined as "ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause").

Are there any in depth investigative truthful news reports out there? Is it possible to ferret out a semblance of the truth from the barrage of information we are drowning in? I think we can come close if we make an effort to balance our perspective by reading or listening to a variety of news sources, both mainstream and alternative (see two examples below, Aljazeera* and RT**), and if we recognize that some "news" articles are not news at all, but are ads or opinion pieces.

From Wikipedia
*Aljazeera English. The network's stated objective is "to give voice to untold stories, promote debate, and challenge established perceptions. The station broadcasts news features and analysis, documentaries, live debates, current affairs, business, technology, and sports....The channel aims to provide both a regional voice and a global perspective for a potential world audience of over one billion English speakers who do not share the Anglo-American worldview. Instead of being run under one central command, news management rotates between broadcasting centers in Doha and London....Al Jazeera English is one of the few global media outlets to maintain an agency in Gaza, and in Harare.
**RT (RussiaToday) provides a Russian perspective on global events. Their Slogan: Question more. RT’s flagship, award-winning English-language channel airs 24/7 from the network’s Moscow offices and is available to more than 700 million viewers worldwide. It covers the most urgent domestic and international issues of our time for viewers wishing to question more and delivers stories often missed by the mainstream media to create news with an edge. RT provides an alternative perspective on major global events, and acquaints an international audience with the Russian viewpoint.

Sunday, 6 November 2016

Science Fiction - Science Fact

Science Fiction - Science Fact

 

Young folks are always hearing their grandparents tell stories about the way it was in the good old days when they were young. (And no, we don't say "back in the day". That's a current platitude.) 
We tell stories like these:
"We didn't have cell phones, not even hands free land lines! When I was a kid our phone was on a party line. There were 9 separate rings, 2 long and 1 short, 1 short and 1 long, and so on. Every time the phone rang you had to listen to see if it was your ring. And when you talked all 8 of the other folks on the line could listen in." 
"The first computer I saw filled a room as big as my house! One of my first jobs was researcher and keypunch operator. I got the data from books in the library, then I used a machine to punch holes in cards in order to enter the data into a computer."
"Speaking of libraries, that's where I got all my information from when I had to write a term paper in school." (Do they still write term papers?) "I had to go to a card catalogue, dig under authors or titles to find the books I needed, go find them using a location system known as the Dewey Decimal System. Then I had to type my paper on a manual typewriter, perfectly, using carbon paper to make a second copy, putting footnotes in just the right place on the bottom of the page, and the looks as well as the content comprised part of my grade."
You've seen the lists, the ones that say you're old if you remember this or recognize that.... Well, I'm old!
But, old or not, I try to keep up with modern technology as best as I can. I'm sure my granddaughters can spin circles around my level of knowledge, (they help me a lot) but I'm not one of those folks who throws up their hands and says it's all a bunch of hooey. Science has brought us so incredibly far from my youth that I often feel like I'm living in a science fiction novel. Talking on cell phones, wirelessly, using a massive system that beams signals from cables, towers and satellites; flying on jets that hold over 300 passengers; getting electrical power from the sun; driving a car with a dashboard that looks like the control center on the Starship Enterprise - what next? I used to say I'm waiting for driverless cars so I can code in my destination and take a nap or read a book and simply arrive safe and sound... Well, they're here!
One of my very favorite things in today's world is FaceTime (or Skype). My son and his family are a 5 1/2 hour drive from our North of 54 farm. My sister is 1500 miles away. My husband's sister is 800 miles away. We don't get to see one another in person any too often. Phoning is fine but there's something really special about being able to see people when you're talking to them. On top of that it costs nothing other than having to subscribe to an internet service. You can even FaceTime people in other countries! I can watch my granddaughters play piano, see their new hairstyles and latest dance moves. I can see how my daughter-on-law has decorated her house for Christmas or show my family a project I'm working on. I can also take pictures of people while I'm talking to them, then I can edit out the wee pic of myself on the corner, the one that shows me what they are seeing on their screen, and add the pic to my family album.
We live in a world where science fiction becomes fact. Seems like if we can dream it we can eventually do it. So let's make sure our dreams are positive. Hmm, let's see now - here's a science fiction dream...