The Russians Did It!

What in the heck is happening? It seems like the losers of the election to the south are simply not willing to accept the fact that they chose the wrong candidate; that they were outmaneuvered by a man who played on the sentiments of Joe Public, his friends, co-workers, relatives, and the guy who cuts their grass - a man of questionable ethics who said what people wanted to hear - a tweeter for heaven's sake! The Democrats didn't really lose - The RUSSIANS DID IT!

Democrats have been screaming "Russia hacked our election" from the rooftops for a ridiculous amount of time, first not offering any proof, then offering insufficient proof. Mainstream bought and paid for biased media outlets have been hammering this message home - long enough it seems that it has become an indisputable "fact".

Apparently 7 pages of the finally released de-classified "proof" were devoted to vilifying the news channel RT (Russia Today, a 24/7 English-language news channel which brings the Russian view on global news) for unfairly influencing the American public. But I watched RT throughout the election and after. As far as I can see their "guilt" is comprised of having the audacity to present more than one side of actual issues, not just personalities and mudslinging hype. They were guilty of interviewing candidates other than Trump and Clinton. They are in general guilty of good quality investigative Journalism, at least of what I thought Journalism was supposed to be all about. Don't blindly accept the US's description of this news channel. Get on the net and watch it for a few days. You'll be surprised.

 

What is it with the Americans? Why are they so terrified of Russia? It's like they are bound and determined to bring back the McCarthy era, when Communism was the frightening evil that had to be eradicated from the planet.  Are they re-creating fear of an old enemy to divert attention from real issues? They're laying this "watch out for Putin" rhetoric on pretty thick. Isn't ISIS, the war in Syria and throughout the Middle East, the refugee crisis, tensions between Israel and Palestine, etc enough for the US war machine to chew on? I think it may be important to ask - Why, why now, what's up?

And mainstream media Canada, what's with you? You are accepting all this anti-Russian propaganda. How? By reporting it, by repeating it over and over, by keeping this election hacking BS on the news. Sure, you are saying this is what's being said in the US. You're not saying it's true or false, but continual repetition of anything has a way of making it appear endorsed, making it seem true. Most Canadians are now quite willing to accept the idea that Russia somehow interfered in the US election. I had higher hopes for Canadian media. I am, to say the least, disappointed.

I'm not all that comfortable with a President Donald Trump. I would not have been comfortable with a President Hillary Clinton either. Personally I don't think the Americans had a choice - they were struck between a rock and a hard place. But the election is over. It's time to accept it and go on from there. The Russians didn't do it. The Americans did.

 

Raspberry Wine

The Christmas season got in the way of my wine making, or I should say my wine bottling, so for the first time it stayed in the carboys for 3 whole months. This time I tried something different. Just before bottling I added some wine conditioner (sweetener). It just gave the wine a wee touch of sweetness, and the conditioner will not re-start the fermentation process.

 

Making 2 carboys of wine at a time is a lot of heavy work. Without my husband's help I could not lift the racked wine from the floor to the counter for siphoning - but thankfully I do have his help. Like the Honeyberry (Haskap) wine I made earlier, this batch of raspberry wine made 55 bottles. Seems like a lot doesn't it? But 100 bottles of wine in a year is really not that outrageous, especially when several bottles disappear when friends are over.

I do have to admit that I'm a bit proud of myself for completing this project, but people who suggest that I should start up a micro-winery for a little side business will be disappointed. Just not enough energy to do this, especially on the berry picking side (it takes 15 pounds of berries per carboy). We have, however, decided to raise a hive of bees (even though I'm allergic - this will be my husband's domaine), and have purchased one of those HoneyFlow hives from Australia. My husband is deep in study and research mode. Will let you know how all this turns out, and then, with luck, Honey-Honeyberry and Honey-Raspberry wines and juices will become the specialty of our house.

 

Re-Resolutions

 It's that time again, the beginning of a new year, the time to make those resolutions once again. Myself, I tend to make re-resolutions, same ones over and over, which would be a good thing if I didn't break them before January slips by. Maybe other folks don't do that, make the same resolutions every year, but that seems to be one of my life patterns. I know what's good for me, I know what I'm not doing that I should be doing. I know that the older I get the harder it will be to make changes in my behaviour. Think about it, 70+ years to establish and entrench bad habits - and I'm gonna break them, improve, follow the yellow brick road to achieve good sense?

Ahh, but it's not hopeless. I was a smoker and I quit! Did that (40 some years ago) and that's a tough one. And I've probably lost 100's of pounds in my adult life - but breaking the habits that put those extra pounds on has proven to be more difficult. Watch out you young things with a few extra pounds! When you are an elder it seems like you need about 1/4 of the food you are accustomed to eating. 

When I was young I worked in movie theatres, from age 16 to about 23. Paid my high school tuition, my college fees, got free movies for myself and passes for my friends, a wonderful job with one downside. I acquired the worst eating habits possible. Think what's available to eat at the cinema - popcorn, candy, pop, hot dogs. That was my diet; that formed my habits. Gleep. No excuse though, just a mitigating factor. I have no resolution to lose weight. I know better. But I hope to address what I eat and when, then add water.

I have found an exercise DVD, Scott Cole's "Discover Tai Chi for Balance and Mobility" (available on Amazon). One half hour of movements you'd think are so simple they wouldn't accomplish a thing. But, when your minutes away from 74 years old you'd be amazed at how many simple movements have become not so simple, how tight your body has coiled over the years, and how much these slow exercises can accomplish over time - if you do them! Speaking of doing them, I shall be back in a half hour...

---------------------------------------------------

As often happens, a half an hour became the rest of the day. I want to mention another Scott Cole video. "Tai Chi for Beginners". It's a wee bit more challenging, a graceful, slow series of easily memorized movements that will make your body happy. There's a nice idea, making your body happy. What makes a body happy? Not too hard to figure out - good food as needed, physical movement to keep it supple, sufficient sleep, lack of stress. Hard work, almost idolized by some, can be good too; it can also act like a wrecking ball. I live on a small farm. From reading previous blogs you know we built slowly, when we could, and hard work is no stranger at my door. It's a necessity but over time it can take a toll. There's smart ways to work, and stupid ways. Far too often, because we are in a hurry, because the situation is close to an emergency, because we don't think or simply don't know better, we end up working the stupid way, slowly breaking our bodies down until every movement hurts. If you're young, think about working smart.

My 2017 resolution packet also contains taking time to improve my mandolin playing. There are so many benefits to participation in music - feel good happy times. When I play with a group and it all "comes together" it's an indescribable high and a unique type of connection that only those who make music can understand.

So my 2017 resolutions - be good to my body and my mind. Sounds like a good plan, and a worthy re-resolution.

Happy 2017 to you all!

Orphan Train

I am not a family history buff. I haven't checked out my ancestry to see if I'm descended from royalty. I haven't sent my DNA off to find out if my ancestors hail from a different portion of the globe than I've been led to believe. It's that age old nature versus nurture argument. Although I do believe genetics accounts for much of our make-up, both our physical appearance and our intelligence, I'm more inclined to put a greater emphasis on nurture, that is the effect our environment has upon both of these things. So, who my ancestors were and what they did has never really sparked my interest. Other members of my family, though, have done some research. Because of them I have a copy of my husband's family tree and, on my side of the family, some relatives wrote a little booklet about my Dad's family going back to the time they immigrated to the U.S.A.

 

I do love a historical novel though, and the one I just read, "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline, struck a family history chord for me. It was one of those books I couldn't put down until I was finished. 

Here's a short synopsis of the novel - In the late 1800's and early 1900's orphans were put on a train heading west from New York, then paraded at stops along the rail line in front of prospective "parents", some of whom were just shopping for free labor. Sometimes these  children experienced horrible circumstances in their "adoptive" homes. This work of fiction drew some subtle comparisons between the orphans of that time and the foster children of today. 

The connection to my family? My fraternal grandmother rode that orphan train. Thanks to my aunt, my sister and two cousins, this is what I know about my grandmother Christina's early life. Her birth parents immigrated from Germany in the 1870's and on arrival found deplorable conditions - disease and crime; dirty, noisy, unsafe buildings; very little work to be had with wages too low to support a family. My great grandmother and one of her children contracted Typhoid Fever and died. The other children including Christina were very young and my great grandfather was unable to take care of them.

The children were taken to the New York Foundling Hospital which was run by the Sisters of Charity. In the book "Orphan Train", Niamh, the heroin of the story, was in the care of the Children's Aid Society. Unlike the Children's Aid Society which simply sent children along with no sure prospect of being adopted, the Sisters of Charity sent children by train to pre-approved homes. Christina was sent from New York to Cleveland. The first home she went to turned out to be a disaster. When the agent in charge discovered this he found another home for her. Finally she felt like she belonged to a family. She was now the youngest of 8 children in a happy home. Later, when her adoptive parents died she went to live with her older sister and her brother-in-law. When she was a teen she apprenticed at a dressmaker's shop. There she met her future husband, a mechanic who worked on the Pullman cars on the railroad. She had 11 children, one girl died at birth, another girl died at age four. The remainder lived on to become my two aunts, six uncles, and my Dad.

When asked about her birth family, Christina thought she may have had a brother who went on to Missouri. Records were poor, a fire caused the loss of many, but the National Orphan Train Complex of Kansas named her parents and suggested that she had two sisters, Marie Elizabeth, who went to St. Louis, and Pauline about whom nothing is known. It is not known if this is accurate. Her family history remains a mystery.

Many thanks to my cousin for compiling this information for our family. She goes on to tell stories of our grandmother when she was a young mother which gives me a window into my Dad's early days.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I downloaded "Orphan Train" from an on-line book club called BookBub.com. Membership is free. You receive a daily e-mail with a listing of Limited Time-Free E-Books & Bargain Ebooks -  Mystery, Romance, Fantasy, How-to, Science Fiction, Biographies, History and more. When you sign-up you are asked to tick off the types of books you like so that suggestions they send will be in line with your reading interests. They can be downloaded onto your device via Apple iBook, Amazon, Kobo or Google. Books that are not free are rarely over $3. Some of the books I've read were not all that great, some were a casual light read, and some, like "Orphan Train" were special.

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.

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.

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...