A Leisurely Country Stroll

A Leisurely Country Stroll

Oh my, you’re so lucky, country lady! Just step out the door and walk wherever you like, no traffic, no people, just the serenity of nature, ahhh, wonderful! 

But walking in the country can be more restrictive than urbanites think. On my farm there’s unmanageable gates, electric fences, a not-so-nice ram. Once these obstacles are avoided though, there are some nice bush trails and walking can be pretty special. But add piles of deep snow and that idyllic picture changes drastically. I’m not as steady on my feet as I once was. It almost seems like my main  spring has sprung. For me right now, walking a snow covered foot trodden trail, cross country skiing or snowshoeing are out of the question. I could walk the local roadways, but I always take 3 - 6 dogs and don’t want to worry about traffic or a confrontation with neighbouring dogs. So, due to the hitch in my get-along, in winter I can only walk our plowed 1/4 mile driveway.

Then there’s the ice! A wee melt, an overnight freeze, freezing rain - a good recipe  for a skating rink! Standing becomes challenging, walking isn’t a pleasure, it’s a tricky trek back and forth from one safe spot to another! 

And getting ready to go out for a walk - you need gear - hiking boots, work boots, mud boots, snow boots, or boots with ice cleats on the bottom, toques, mitts, jackets, trekking poles! Makes the recliner look pretty inviting! 

Town walking isn’t great either, parking lots are particularly treacherous. Maybe a treadmill? Move to a warmer climate? Wait for the  spring thaw? 

Suck it up and stop being a pansy? That’s it, I can/will do this. If I take my camera maybe I can remind myself of winter’s beauty. It is beautiful, yes, and so very serene.

mltipton.blogspot.com, 

https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, 

Feb. 28, 2020

Out Beyond the Memes

I need to make an admission. My first reaction to the blockades being held in support with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs (who unanimously opposed the Coastal Gas Link/Trans Canada pipeline and did not give consent for work to go forward on their land) was in favour of shutting them down, because of the harm  being done to the businesses, corporations, farmers and individuals who were being hurt by these blockades. I forwarded a post which claimed that the elected chiefs and the native people were largely in support of the pipeline. Because of this the pipeline should go forward. 

Quoted from the article - “But the protesters have aligned themselves with five Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposed to the pipeline, and not the 13,000 Indigenous British Columbians represented by all the band councils that support it....It’s an especially inconvenient fact for pipeline protesters who say they are blocking roads, bridges, highways, train tracks and public buildings in solidarity with Indigenous people. They sure aren’t representing the Indigenous people working on the pipeline. Of the 1,000 people currently employed by the project, about one-third are estimated to be First Nations.” (https://theprovince.com/news/bc-politics/mike-smyth-the-inconvenient-truth-for-pipeline-blockaders?). “

My comment - “It’s the hereditary chiefs that are against this pipeline, the elected are for it. Food for thought here, maybe the old men and women need to get out of the way and let the younger people move forward.” 

And besides that I have commented that lots of times protesters just jump on the bandwagon without really knowing the facts behind their actions. Running on emotions dredged up by memes.

I regret having said this. Why? Well, I read some more, I checked out the other side of the story. There always is another side, often several other sides. Like most people, I tend to instantly take the side that agrees with my thinking, to pass on the article or meme that corroborates my point of view. But I do at least read what I pass on. Reading articles, going beyond the memes that mimic our core beliefs, does not seem to be a common undertaking amongst Facebook users. Nor does fact checking. Fact checking is hard and often quite difficult to accomplish. This is a complex issue. To get our facts straight we would need to go into depth, into history, do massive amounts of reading and still may find ourselves unqualified to make a judgement.

So did I change my opinion on this controversial subject? Well, it’s certainly been altered. Politicians keep hammering on the illegality of the blockades, the harm they are causing, the “rule of law” that’s being stomped upon. Trudeau seems to be simply watching things unfold, no action to end the blockades and move the pipeline forward. Sheer is blustering, calling for a vote of confidence, making sure people remember that he is still the leader of the federal Conservative party.

But I am finding in my continued reading, that, once again, it seems Canada has failed to do its due diligence, has failed to negotiate with those who are actually in charge. Rule of Law - whose law? What have the courts said over the years about the rule of law in unceded territories? Is Canada’s law the law that needs to be upheld in this case? Read this article from the Tyee (https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/14/Wetsuweten-Crisis-Whose-Rule-Law/?utm_source=daily) and maybe you’ll begin to see why Canada should not, cannot, claim “rule of law” to justify immediately shutting down these protests and going forward with the pipeline, why they must now negotiate with the hereditary chiefs. 

Another point, what in blazes is the difference between hereditary chiefs and elected chiefs? Why do the hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction and not the elected chiefs? Read on.

A long article on this subject has been circulating on Facebook, original author’s name was withheld. I have pulled out a few paragraphs which provided information previously unknown to me. Is this source accurate? Is any? 

“Wet'suwet'en, Canadian, and international laws do in fact recognize the hereditary chiefs as the rightful decision-makers on their respective territories. These rights and titles have never been extinguished or surrendered. By all legal rights, they are sovereign people.

“Furthermore, in Canada, the duty to consult is a statutory, contractual, and common law obligation that must be fulfilled by the Crown prior to taking actions or making decisions that may have consequences for the rights of Indigenous peoples. This has been affirmed and clarified by various SCC rules including the Haida case in 2004, Beckham v. little Salmon/Carmacks case in 2010, and Tsilhqot'in Nation v. BC in 2014.

“So, when consultation happened, the hereditary chiefs of all five clans of Wet'suwet'en unanimously opposed the pipeline proposal and did not give consent for Coastal Gas Link/Trans Canada to work on their lands. The Wet’Suwet’en hereditary chiefs instead proposed an alternate route for the pipeline that wouldn’t go through sensitive cultural and ecological areas.

“On December 31, 2019, the Supreme Court of BC ruled that the permits of Coastal Gas Link trumped Wet'suwet'en law. Read that again. Industry permit somehow was chosen over law that has been in place since time immemorial. 

“... the Indian Act ...create(d) and forcibly implement(ed) a new governance system, the band council (aka "elected chiefs"), onto Indigenous nations. This governance system was specifically designed to mimic the Canadian system and ignore traditional First Nations governance. Essentially, the band council is an extension of the Canadian government and is designed to assimilate the nation into Canada to facilitate colonial settlement and resource extraction. When the media/elected officials start blasting, "but the band council says this," this is what you need to keep in mind. Do you think it's a coincidence that the Canadian government continue(s) to publicly proclaim the decisions of elected officials in a system the government themselves created? No, it's not a coincidence, it's strategy.

“... traditional forms of governance did not end in 1867 and they did not end with the Indian Act. They have never ended. Nations never surrendered their sovereignty over to the Canadian government and protocol has always been that the band council has jurisdiction over what happens on reserve, but hereditary chiefs have, and have always had, jurisdiction over traditional territory.

Sro, remember the 22,000 sq km I talked about before? That's what the hereditary chiefs have control over and what is in contention with Coastal Gas Link today.”

 I originally learned that the hereditary chiefs have proposed an alternate route that would be acceptable from news sources outside of Canada or the USA. We are getting a lot of international press on this issue. Controversy over Indigenous rights vs colonial rights is not exclusively a Canadian problem. The world is watching. How will this crisis be solved? Why has Canadian media been so quiet about this possible “alternative route”? How can we solve this controversy to the satisfaction of these hereditary chiefs and those in opposition to them? Surely we cannot allow these blockades to continue! Maybe we should agree to a moratorium, cease the blockades while negotiations between Canada and those who stand on the right side of the “rule of law” take place. Jurisdiction over indigenous lands needs to be honoured. We need to start doing consultations on such projects properly, instead of hoping we can quickly and quietly bulldoze our way to project completion unnoticed by those affected. We would save millions of dollars by doing it right in the first place.  

Soup for Breakfast

Many, many years ago I, with my parents and a friend, drove to Florida for the Orange Bowl game. I don’t remember the game but do remember Fort Lauderdale, lots of fun for a couple of young ladies. I also remember my friend ordering a cheeseburger for breakfast at a restaurant in Louisiana where I couldn’t understand a single word the waitress said. The sounds coming from her mouth made no sense to my mid-western ears. Her southern accent was so strong she may as well have been speaking a foreign language (funny, the things a person remembers). Anyhow, the waitress understood us and didn’t bat an eye over the order of a cheeseburger at 7:00am. I, however, thought it was pretty strange. Why would my friend order a cheeseburger for breakfast? She said she simply didn’t like breakfast foods.....well, okay, to each her own I guess. 

Now, here I am, nearly 60 years later, having a stuffed green pepper for breakfast. Have I gone crazy? I must admit that fried eggs have lost their allure in the last year or so, but a stuffed green pepper? For breakfast?!

My husband and I have started having two, rather than three, meals a day. If we’re hungry in the middle of the day we eat a banana, some nuts, some easy snack. For the most part we don’t miss having lunch and I love the freedom of not having to prepare that mid-day meal. Has this new habit taken a few pounds off? Nope. Maybe it’s because some of those healthy nuts are chocolate coated.... 

What has changed is my use of leftovers from supper. I try but can’t seem to cook the perfect amount for two. Inevitably small amounts of leftovers end up in the fridge. Being thrifty, almost to a fault, and determined not to waste food, the odd bit of this or that makes its way to the breakfast table or, in a changed form, to another night’s supper. Splitting one stuffed green pepper between the two of us, adding an egg and a slice of homemade bread - delicious for breakfast. Leftover potatoes are always good too, or a slice of pizza, or the rest of that piece of meat I just couldn’t find room for last night.

What’s in the fridge and near its useable end often dictates what we’ll have for our next meal. We have a propane fridge (uses no electricity), one of the little adjustments we made when choosing an off-grid lifestyle back in 1985, and by today’s standards it’s small. This to me is an advantage. I can actually see what’s in my fridge with very little shifting about, and since I have limited space I can’t keep piling more food in until I forget what’s in there, only to throw furry smelly stuff out when I discover it too late in a fridge mining expedition. We have compensated, to a degree, for the smallness of our fridge by having a dumb-waiter to the cellar. It keeps things like beer, pop, ketchup, eggs, etc. sufficiently cool and frees up fridge space for stuff that requires a colder environment. But I’m wandering off my topic, maybe not as far off as my husband does when telling one of his stories, but.... anyhow.... back to the fridge’s contents forming my meal plans. If I spot something that needs to be eaten, if at all possible it works it’s way into the next meal. Salad tonight? You bet, before that lettuce goes bad. Pudding for dessert? Of course, the milk in near the end of it’s useable life. Those two pieces of leftover chicken? Add onions, veggies, canned mushroom soup, a few pieces of potato and cook it up in a fry pan - slumgullion, one of my mother’s favourite meals. Tonight it’s broccoli, it’s flowers are starting to bloom. Tomorrow? The rest of that moose curry might be good over a bed of rice. 

 Traditional meals begone! Maybe tomorrow we’ll have soup for breakfast.

The Art of Mindful Neglect

People are stressed out, they say. So much to do, so little time, no time for themselves, no time for leisure, running here, running there, never catching up. We do what we must do and what we are taught to do, by our mothers, by our associates, by our society, our religion, our family traditions - there’s lots of influencing factors. But if we are truly so busy we barely have time to turn around, maybe we need to learn the art of mindful neglect.

Some people wash dishes before they put them in the dishwasher. Some choose to ferry their children to a myriad of extra curricular activities (and put in extra hours of work to pay for them). Some keep their floors so clean you could sit down on them and use them for a plate! Some work incessantly to keep up appearances.  I know women who think they need to iron sheets - really, no joke! I stopped ironing 48 years ago when my cat decided my basket of ironing was a good place to have her kittens.  Everything in that basket was ruined but that cat sure simplified my life!

This Christmas we had no Christmas tree, other than a 2 foot pre-decorated one. Our grandgirls did wonder, for a moment, why we didn’t put up our usual big tree, but the fact that it was missing was soon forgotten in a whirl of festivities and good food. Just this wee decision contributed, in a small way, to a more relaxed Christmas holiday for me, from the Solstice to the New Year. 

I am retired, sort of - anyhow I no longer work off farm and my husband does most of the outside chores, so I am in a good position to pick and choose what I do. But retired, unless you are lucky enough to do so prior to 65, could be redefined as tired again. Somehow it takes longer to accomplish the basics of domestic engineering than it once did. Younger people frequently have more to accomplish in a day than a retiree. Fortunately they have more energy, but there are limits! Pushing these limits too far, adding even one more responsibility when you are already overwhelmed, can tip you over the edge, effecting not only you but your family as well.

There’s many things we cannot avoid, many demands on our time, but there’s some things we could simply choose to ignore and our world won’t fall apart, it will just readjust itself to a new normal and continue on. This is the art of  mindful neglect. Look at what you’re doing. What does it accomplish, is it necessary or frivolous, would life be much better if you do it, or worse if you don’t? Are you doing it for yourself, for others, for another’s perception of you? Much of the time we complicate our own lives, little added activities/chores compound into one big time grab. Mindful neglect does not add up to careless disregard. It’s simply a way of decluttering what, on careful inspection, might be an overloaded to-do list.

Doc

 Rest In Peace, Doc

Grow Old with Dogs

When I am old....

I will wear soft grey sweatshirts,

and a bandanna over my silver hair,

and I will spend my social security checks on wine and my dogs.

I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair and listen to my dogs breathing.

I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night

and take my dogs for a run,

if my old bones will allow.

When people come to call......

I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs......

and talk of them and about them;

the ones so beloved of the past

and the ones so beloved today.

I will still work hard cleaning after them, mopping and feeding them 

and whispering their names in a soft loving way.

I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat, like a jewel

and I will be an embarrassment to all...especially my family....

who have not yet found the peace in being free to have dogs as your very best friends.

These friends who will always wait at any hour,

for your footfall....

and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep,

to greet you as if you are a God.

With warm eyes full of adoring love

and hope that you will always stay,

I'll hug their big strong necks.....

I'll kiss their dear sweet heads......

and whisper in their very special company.

I look in the Mirror...... ..And see I am getting old.

This is the kind of person I am and have always been.

Loving dogs is easy, they are part of me.

Please accept me for who I am.

My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives...

they love my presence in their lives.

When I am old, this will be important to me.

You will understand when you grow old......

if you have dogs to love too.

Thank you, Viv Billingham, for sharing this beautiful poem.

Don Cherry - What’s the Fuss?

Don Cherry - What’s the Fuss?

You people that come here … whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. At least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy.” He then began pointing his finger at the camera, “These guys paid for your way of life, the life you enjoy in Canada. These guys paid the biggest price.” 

The moment I heard this on the TV news my first thought was “This man should be fired!” I was not alone. So many people complained to the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council about Cherry, that it exceeded 'the CBSC’s technical processing capacities'. 

Don Cherry is thought of by many as a Canadian icon, but not all agree. Listening further to the news broadcast I was treated to many other misogynistic, racist, divisive, and heralded as perfectly acceptable statements of Cherry’s opinion aired on Hockey Night in Canada over the years. His views are supposedly harmless, just in fun, painting life as he sees it. But Canada is growing up and is, at least in the public eye, leaving people like Don Cherry behind.

Or are we? Does Don Cherry simply say out loud what many say and feel privately? There’s a swell of support out there, on Facebook, Twitter. Cherry, people are saying, is just an actor with an amusing commentary, almost a clown in his signature attire, shouldn’t be taken seriously. “What in the world is all the fuss about?” they say. “He’s harmless!” 

Is he?

In private conversations I have heard misogynistic, racist, and derogatory ethnic comments expressed by people I respect. If called to their attention they laugh, say “Lighten up, I was just joking!” But such conversation has the effect of reinforcing and perpetuating a culture of “us and them”. We might have a better chance of establishing amenable relations with people from different backgrounds if we are not armed with stereotypes in advance.

Immigrants come to this country for many reasons, to escape war, to better their economic position, to reunite with family already here. It takes time to adapt to a different way of looking at the world. We have very little understanding of how confusing and difficult it may be for an immigrant to question or alter his or her past learning, traditions, cultural and religious indoctrination, especially a first generation immigrant. Immigrants have good reasons to come to Canada, but it’s not necessarily an easy transition and they all leave a piece of themselves behind.  

The Canadian identity, which would be hard to define, is already quite diversified and it is changing. Twenty years ago not one word would have been said about Don Cherry’s “You people...” statement. Had it been said in private it wouldn’t have caused even a tiny ripple, especially coming from an old man. But Canada is made of slowly melding races, religions, and ethnicities, creating a rich tapestry. We differ in many respects, but we are all Canadians.

A friend commented on Facebook, “All old men say inappropriate things. It’s their right. It’s our right to ignore them.” True, we can roll our eyes and forgive grandpa, but maybe old men whose attitudes belong in the archives should no longer be given a public forum.

A Winter Wine Makers Dilemma

It has been decided in our household that my husband, since he is the bee keeper, should be the mead maker. He made one batch in the summer but it was too good, and it has been difficult to save even two bottles to see how the wine will improve with age. Finally, last week he started another batch. When I checked the specific gravity 5 days later it had not changed at all! It wasn’t working. Had we killed the yeast somehow? We decided, after popping a thermometer into the primary fermenter, that it was just too cold. So we brought it out to the kitchen and set it by the stove. After a couple of days it began to work and the SG is slowly going down. Hopefully it’ll ready for the carboy in a few days.

In the meantime it appears like my raspberry wine is doing okay in our usual wine room (ie our small first floor once upon a time bedroom that has become our catch all space for anything we can’t find a place for). It’s still working - slowly. We are in a quandary as to wether the mead will continue to work if we put it in a carboy in that same room. On the other hand putting a glass carboy next to the kitchen heater could be a bit concerning as it’s a busy high traffic area - not just people, 4 dogs too! 

I have enough raspberries to make 2 more batches of raspberry wine, enough honey to make one more batch of mead. But, should I wait till spring???? If I don’t wait, will I have to fill my kitchen with wine jugs?

We do not have central heating. We have a propane space heater in our living/dining room and a wood stove in the kitchen, so the spare room is always a few degrees cooler. We could, for about $150, get an electric carboy heater and thermostat, but it obviously uses power and we try to avoid buying stuff that increases our electrical use. And we would need more than one! In winter the sun shines less making solar power less efficient and necessitating more diesel generator battery charging. So I’d rather solve this chilly air problem some other way. So far I’ve given my wine a blanket. Does this keep heat in or insulate it from the heat? Maybe I should heat up bricks in the fire (or a bean bag in the microwave) and place them inside the blanket?

Hopefully we can solve this winter wine makers dilemma...