food grows as words flow

2012-02-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

Follow THIS LINK to a great 30 second video showing the dance of hot and cold across the globe over the last 131 years.

can you find ben in the alpine?

2012-02-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

always click for the full view

One week ago - CUT MY CBC ?? -

2012-02-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

Trash like this is appearing in our 'representative' house of 'commons'

January 30, 2012
Mr. Colin Carrie (Oshawa, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a petition from the residents of Canada who draw the attention of the House to the fact that the Government of Canada funds the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the sum of $1.1 billion per annum and that the vast amounts of Government of Canada funding gives the CBC an unfair advantage over its private sector competitors.

Therefore, the petitioners call upon Parliament to end public funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

For more info follow this link

The CBC helps inform a democratic citizenry.

2012-02-01T07:22:00.001-08:00

fun with math
Doodling in Math: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant [1 of 3]
follow the link for a tutorial about math in Pine Cones

ally and self - Responsibility

2012-01-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

Stand with the people who've lived here since the ice left
though admit
settle enough to realize that
- if you eat, drink, defecate, or breathe -
you are of this land too.

Live as an expression of your geography

even if your food comes from a storeyou are of this earth.

Earth doesn't need us, really.

We need those plants.
We need those animals.
We need those fungi.

It's ok to feel that humility
- now speak for life -
and live within the perpetual systems
that begin where the sun meets earth
and seeds memory

these aren't choices to stand up for the health of the planet,
this is your responsibility, for you are alive at this time.

Andrew Frank

2012-01-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Original Document

Prime Minister’s Office Tries to Silence Pipeline Critics; Labels Environmental Group “Enemy of the Government of Canada” and “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

A Whistleblower’s Open Letter to the Citizens of Canada

My name is Andrew Frank. I grew up in a small town in the Okanagan valley of British Columbia. My granddad taught me how to fish. My father was a well‐respected lawyer known for his unwavering integrity, and my mother was a favourite kindergarten teacher. Both have always impressed upon me the importance of telling the truth.

Today, I am taking the extraordinary step of risking my career, my reputation and my personal friendships, to act as a whistleblower and expose the undemocratic and potentially illegal pressure the Harper government has apparently applied to silence critics of the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil tanker/pipeline plan.

As I have detailed in a sworn affidavit, no less than three senior managers with Tides Canada and ForestEthics (a charitable project of Tides Canada), have informed me, as the Senior Communications Manager for ForestEthics, that Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan, was informed by the Prime Minister’s Office, that ForestEthics is considered an “Enemy of the Government of Canada,” and an “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

This language was apparently part of a threat by the Prime Minister’s Office to challenge the charitable status of Tides Canada if it did not agree to stop funding ForestEthics, specifically its work opposing oilsands expansion and construction of oilsands tanker/pipeline routes in Canada.

This is especially concerning because ForestEthics is a legally registered intervenor in the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel process, currently examining the Enbridge oil tanker/pipeline proposal. By attempting to silence a registered participant in the review, I fear the Harper government may have permanently damaged the integrity of this process.

After waiting more than two weeks for Tides Canada to go public with this story, it has become clear to me that the organization is too afraid of reprisals from the government to act. Tides is responsible for the employment of hundreds of Canadians and dozens of crucial environmental projects like the Great Bear Rainforest, and has been understandably paralyzed in challenging the Prime Minister’s Office on this matter. I on the other hand, am speaking out as a private citizen because I feel that the rights and civil liberties of my fellow Canadian citizens, including freedom of expression and freedom of speech, are at risk.

There was a look of fear and disbelief on my fellow staff members’ faces the day they were told our own government had labelled them enemies of the state. Our administration coordinator had tears in her eyes. In the days that followed, our employees couldn’t sleep well. They lost their appetites, and they began to fear for their own personal safety and civil liberties, and those of their families and loved ones. They began looking over their shoulder, out of fear and paranoia, because their own government might be watching them.

The language of anti‐terrorism, when applied to Canadian citizens who legitimately question the wisdom of an unsustainable oil tanker/pipeline plan, is an affront to the rights of all Canadians. It is the language of bullying. It is language that is violent and above the law, and harkens to previous examples of RCMP surveillance of Canadians for political rather than legal purposes, including Tommy Douglas. The casual use of such loaded language at the top of our government is immoral, unethical and probably illegal.

A strongly opposed oil tanker/pipeline plan is now the least of this government’s worries. In its heavy‐handed attempt to override public opposition, the government has breached the public’s trust.

I now invite Canadians, including the media and members of the House of Commons, to challenge the unacceptable behaviour described in this letter and sworn in my affidavit.

Approximately three weeks from now, Mr. Harper will visit China on an official state visit. In China, Amnesty International asserts that a half‐million “enemies of the government” are held in prisons without charge.

If the argument in favour of the Enbridge pipeline is that Canada stands to make billions selling oil to an oppressive Chinese government, then my answer is “no thank you.” That’s not “ethical oil,” especially when profiting from this oil wealth requires repressive tactics against critical citizens ‐ tactics we would normally associate with the Chinese state, not Canada.

The events of the last month have ensured that I will never take my rights as a Canadian citizen for granted again. That is both sad and encouraging. Sad that I ever had to question them, and encouraging because I have been reminded of another lesson taught to me by my parents: the best way to stop a bully is to stand up to him.

I invite you to join me in expressing your voice on what is perhaps the most pressing moral crisis facing our nation today. Together we can hold this government to account and prevent the dismantling of Canadian civil society and the further erosion of citizens’ rights.

Andrew Frank is a Canadian citizen, and the former Senior Communications Manager with ForestEthics Canada. He is also an instructor in the Environmental Protection Technology program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in Surrey, British Columbia.

Comment by ForestEthics

Comments by Huffington Post

"Development" and "jobs"

2012-01-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

Let's be clear.
A pipeline is about a pipeline. moving chemicals and bitumen over 1000 rivers.
Job rates.
Employment.
The ability of people to exchange their time for money to pay a mortgage and buy food IS ANOTHER THING that is full of structural problems.

Let's think about this as we continue to watch the debate about the northern gateway pipeline proposal.

where's the money coming from? where's it going to?
fishing. oil. forestry. leisure.

The most employment, if there is money for it, will be in CLEANUP!!

2012-01-18T08:54:00.001-08:00

I've got to say, gaia is alive ...

2012-01-13T19:28:00.001-08:00

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Vote, read, watch, ponder, then find somebody to go for a walk in a forest

2012-01-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

CBC is conducting an informal poll concerning your thoughts about a proposed pipeline from alberta to kitimat. Follow THIS LINK

Rafe Mair writes a great article outlining the public commitments made by Enbridge HERE

and a video of a man who lays it all out to the municipal government of Terrace (I think) HERE

socially local

2011-12-27T00:06:00.000-08:00

as an idea, 'local' is meaningless.

infact 'local' may be one of the most global ideas applied universally wherever one may be, whereas Prince George, Neklazli, Terrace, ... describe actual places.

But beyond geography, social meaning fills the idea of 'local' with meaning.

"We're eating one of Joe's lambs tonight."

"Laura planted these carrots in june..."

"My mom made these placemats for us last christmas..."

Meaning. Marx refers to this as historical materialism I believe.

Why is social locality significant? well I like to believe that when we know a person, or when we are known by others, we behave differently than in an anonymous system. When I am held socially accountable in a way that affects my decisions to include others, land, water, time, myself, ... in respectful ways, we all benefit.

In stark contrast to wal mart, an employer of 1 600 000 employees (in America) that sells 92% Made in China, there is little relationship between the stuff of our lives and the people involved in the production.

When we meet our needs in ways that are governed by the intuitive senses of our bodies we are more likely to make decisions that honour ourselves and others, including animals, minerals, water, ecosystems, and the land.

This does not mean that we do not take. As humans we are indebted to the unfathomable life that nurtures us. We need plants, plants don't necessarily need us. As we become involved intimately with the stuff of our lives the better positioned we are to live into meaningfilled human relations, in the largest sense.

slow down.

enjoy.

2011-12-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

New poem with film,
good fun.
for youtube go here

2011-12-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

as a neighbour to the Gitxsan,
as a new person to the L'hedli Tenneh territory
I am thankful for the Gitxsan's political will, foresight, and perseverance.
This is happening now (dec.5th)
watch what 'the news' only talks about,

A New Beginning from Ardea Films on Vimeo.

2011-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Political Will.

2011-12-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

Gitxsan Clans prioritize life
in the face of petty bribes for buy-in on a proposed pipeline, 130 First Nations, original people, continue to make decisions that include the land as part of human health.
Another article can be found here.

Enbridge??

who is Canada?

2011-12-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

There were some people who sent complaints regarding the raw milk situation to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who is conducting an investigation of Canada next May -- the first time that's happened to an industrialized nation.

Yikes, right? where do we live, Canada?!?

A country that is breaking Kyoto agreement,
A Canada that was denied a seat on UN Security Council after bribing with maple syrup (what?)
A Canada that continues to mistreat aboriginals,
A country suffering lack of right to food

what's our story??

2011-11-29T08:33:00.001-08:00

Click HERE for the website

Close to 80 % of Canadians now live in cities and suburbs.

2011-11-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

" Close to 80 % of Canadians now live in cities and suburbs. As a consequence, how we manage our growing urban footprint will largely determine whether we can effectively reduce the GHGs that cause global warming, protect critically important agricultural areas close to home, sustain and restore wildlife habitat, as well as ensure that our communities (especially young people) continue to have access to nature for recreational, health and spiritual benefit.

Unfortunately cash-strapped local governments carry much of the burden of managing their community’s natural capital –fields, forests, wetlands, and parks that not only provide homes and habitat for wildlife but also the critical ecological services that clean the air, provide clean drinking water and other benefits.

The David Suzuki Foundation is releasing a major report today that provides guidance on cost-effective ways that local governments can protect and restore natural capital in cities. Our report also offers various case studies of where these types of policies are working and identifies an abundance of promising tools and approaches that local governments can adopt.

You can obtain the report here : Natural Capital Policy Review

We also encourage you to watch an accompanying video documentary series, Making Policy Live, that presents a number of innovative local projects in the communities of Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, Squamish and Vancouver. The videos reveal how locally driven initiatives are bringing new life to derelict or underutilized sites and enhancing the ability of nature to provide essential services like filtering drinking water and flood control. "

meet the people

2011-11-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

Meet the people our state arrested, prosecuted, and now has charged, for....

FuLL Screen Here

Scott Harris, a tasteful mason

2011-11-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

talk to Scott Harris if you want to build a dry stack wall, or carve beauty into stone.

processing grain by hand

2011-11-19T22:10:00.000-08:00

here's the micro-micro grain processing procedure after planting 1/3 of a cup of purple barley this spring.

so rub the full seed heads between hands

and here you are, purple barley! now winnow it on a windy day, or with a fan. simply pour grain and chaff from a bucket into a bucket. the grain (heavier) will fall faster, the (lighter) chaff will blow off into the universe.

don't forget to look up and wonder how the sun is so giving

proper hide storage

2011-11-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

So if you're interested in storing a hide for the spring weather to warm before tanning your hide, I suggest skinning the animal properly first. ie. it should not look like this.

Below (white) is the hide. We want to get muscle/fat off so that it is a nice smooth white colour before we salt it.

So in reference to 'proper skinning'.
If you plan on using the hide to make fabric, think about your cuts that will maximize usable sections of fabric. below is an example of a bunch of wasted extraneous hide that I removed due to this.

*note about skinning
When skinning an animal, cut the edges (ie. back of hind, belly, chest, neck and then PUT DOWN YOUR KNIFE AND PULL OFF THE HIDE WITH YOUR HANDS leaving all muscle on the animal so that you eat it! Knifing a hide off is a waste of everybody's time. however coyote appreciates a hide to chew on now and then.

click any picture for larger view

Notice the heavy salting. salt is cheap. use it liberally.

Allow the salt to draw moisture from the hide for 12 - 24 hours. keep the hide on a slight incline to facilitate drain/run off. Once this is done apply more salt if you like, fold the edges in and roll. store in plastic bag, rubbermaid etc. the idea is that the salt binds all the moisture so rot can't set in. We also don't want the hide to dry out. bad news.

this will store long term, as far as I know, as long as animals don't get in...

I prefer to process a hide into rawhide that I then dry and store inside. it becomes smaller, more portable and much more stable (animals aside)

2011-11-18T18:02:00.001-08:00

"love is when the self expands"

full screen version HERE

how to 'make' horse radish

2011-11-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

Harvest the root after a couple of frosts.
carefully dig beside the root to maximize the amount of supple root that is deeper down. Very similar to harvesting burdock (i imagine)
I've learned that even the thin lateral roots clean up really easily, are super texture, and are significant volume.

click for larger view

Clean, chop, process.
Note, be extremely careful if blending, as the root can gasify. I have friends who literally lost their vision when processing inside their house after opening the blender. behave accordingly.

now you can mix with vinegar
OR
a honey water mix that will ferment and acidify on your counter over about 4 weeks. stir occassionally. this is often referred to as a ferment, or wild-ferment. refer to Sandor Katz for fermenting ideas/knowledge, especially a book entitled wild-fermentation.

both are delicious in my opinion.

L'hedli T'enneh

2011-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Snow arrived yesterday.
Today is the first day below -10c .
And I wondered how cold was it
100 years ago?
as those people moved those people
as those in Fort George
moved the L'hedli T'enneh
- people of the confluence -
upstream of the confluence
to a place we now call shelly

I was struck by the memory of
winter, cold ears, as I stood greeting
the sun, standing with trees that
were witness to
the memories I don't have,
knowledge I do

birds flying through still branches
heavy with snow and sunlight
...
The coming coldness
fallen snow, 100 years ago
putting gardens to sleep
smoking meat, pushed from
the name sake, 'people of
the confluence' relocated
up stream to inhabit either
side of the fraser, a new name
sake of a man who 'found' a
watershed home of 13 languages
and peoples who've lived here
for more than 10 000 years
and would have probably had
rich conversation with jesus,
had he been a sailor not a carpenter

100 years ago
the snow fell, and temperatures dropped
and those people moved those other
people to a new place, despite
their namesake, l'hedli t'enneh
and I type this in a prince george
house that I rent on the very place
where people have lived, in good
ways, far longer than the calendar
of jesus christ.
Nov.18 2011

swimmer, together

2011-11-16T23:38:00.000-08:00

Breath held herself tight as we

Jumped into the flow.

She is in love with the sky, though

She often finds herself yearning for the depths

And we dove right in.

dispite being divorced from her sky world
we find momentary peace as
I find a rock to hold on to as

She tugs this body upwards by his lungs.
herself fragmented in bubbles, racing

Towards the surface, following herself

She leaves. and

I chase her – eventually - falling back

Into the sky world with open mouth,

Nose. Breath is waiting, her patient warmth

At home in my lungs

Playing. Breath and breeze, flirting

Between shade and sunlight, romancing

With rain, love making as ocean’s spray

I’ve found her in all these places, resting

And running, swimming or sitting.

She takes care of me too, when I forget.

See, she’s not apart from me, she’s a part of me

Resting is when she comes into me so deeply as

Stars sing shadows on this face, eyes dancing

Back and forth in time with

Breath coming, leaving, coming, leaving

Flooding through me like spring rivers

Spilling home into ocean

Flooding through me like spring rivers

Spilling home into sky

Breath,

She holds herself tightly when we go

Swimming.

2011-11-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

It is with great concern that I write this letter.

The "New Prosperity Mine" proposal clearly intends to use nearby Little Fish Lake as a toxic dump site, and then drain down into Fish Lake eventually polluting that lake as well.
In a time of impending economic turmoil we can not further compromise our ability to meet our own needs. I'm talking about world class, delicious, rainbow trout! The proposed replacement lake would also result in a massive loss of fish habitat, and would require constant maintenance of spawning channels and ongoing stocking of the lake by governments. It would be a complete waste of taxpayers' money to spend another year studying this highly destructive project.
I support the Tsilhqot'in Nation who strongly opposes the "New Prosperity Mine" proposal.

Please reject the "New Prosperity Mine" proposal without further review.

Yours in human solidarity,

Benjamin Laurie

CLICK HERE to send your own letter

2011-11-13T20:27:00.000-08:00

There’s scientists who

Study rivers feeding forests.

Nitrogen travelling

in the Bodies of salmon from oceans belly

Carrying a special isotope, so

They can see the fish in the tree rings and leaf samples.

It’s simple,

Wolves eats salmon heads

(canines get sick off a gut parasite in the salmon and die)

So there’s headless fish fertilizing forests

While bear grabs a snack for the land,

Digesting that dorsal muscle and egg sack to

Fatten up, leaving a carcass that

Expands in biomass as

Diptera fly maggots become that N15 signature.
The unfathomable mass of a salmon spawn
growing through death, through life as

Hymenoptera (Parasitic wasp) and

Coleopters (Burying beetle),

Expand salmon's affluence

And the wren’s, singing salmon songs
catch that n15 nitrogen in flight, held in feather

…
This is

the forest herself, feasting

Making love with the ocean.

A potlatch, a great giving,

…

Salmon – ocean blowing kisses

To majestic wild forests –
Salmon - Subsidizing this terrestrial

Community of nitrogen hungry

False lilies
Salmon-berry-bushes,

Cedar.

- Now living
expressions of ocean’s love song -

…

And forest holds those fragile eggs in stream beds
giving delicious shade and clean water to those fish
for years before heading on their journey that will
always return,

And forest, a key determinant of salmon health
Which is human health.

Our habitat, the result of

This gift economy,

This giving ecology

May our living be Our dance, our praise of being caught

Between the love affair of Abundant ocean and forest.
And river,

Ever feeding ocean fresh water to sooth Her salty breath.

pulling connections

2011-11-12T17:29:00.001-08:00

jobs vs. ecology
a false dichotomy

I highly recommend listening to this well spoken leader speak for 10 minutes.
click here for a better view

2011-11-12T12:51:00.001-08:00

bodies inspiring blank spaces to dance
movement comes from that spark inside
that tells us to bring beauty
to life

Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

Amazing

2011-11-10T22:17:00.001-08:00

One Day on Earth - Participate Today! from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

allyship

2011-11-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

I am inspired by this man, emotionally educating, advocating, through the silences that surround women and their bodies with objectification and violence, silence, the normal differences in lived experience is described as oppression, yes, it is the normal things, the culturally permissible acts, ideas, intentions, and systems that enforce that we are challenging. that we are challenging.

what is one way that you created change today in your world?

full size view go HERE

repeal the indian act

2011-11-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Robert Animikii Horton writes a powerfilled piece on Rabble.ca contextualizing the contemporary 'police state', as identified by the G20 police brutality in Toronto to the Indian act (that began in 1876 and continues today)...

"Before chemical-mace and tear gas blinded countless in crowds at urban intersections, millions of tears fell from blurred eyes onto the lands upon which (under the Indian Act) we could not legally hold ceremony, could not argue land expropriation, as it was illegal for our communities to hire lawyers, ..."

find the whole article here.

2011-11-03T09:58:00.001-07:00

<a href="http://corbinmurdoch.bandcamp.com/track/august-100-mile-house">August: 100 Mile House by Corbin Murdoch & the Nautical Miles</a>

Canadian Farmer on Hunger Strike (one month already)

2011-11-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Honourable Dalton McGuinty

I am concerned by the centralization of our canadian, and ontarian, food production. With the closure of the last soft fruit packing plant, the aging farming population and ever intense ecosystem strain of intensive livestock operations I urge the government to think systemically about our food webs.

As we globally celebrate the 7 billionth human being born let us explore the idea of resiliency. Jane Jacobs, well respected urban planner and social critic, talks about planned redundancy as part of a resilient system. This means many smaller operations performing similar, if not the same, task for different populations. If one changes or fails, the system as a whole doesn't suffer, functions simply shift.

The continued plight of small producers against your government is counter intuitive if we are working towards a system that works for people. I appreciate a response to these thoughts,

In the utmost urgency

Ben Laurie

A pledge to sign can be found HERE

2011-11-01T17:00:00.001-07:00

Empathic Neurons

2011-10-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Wait a minute
wired to relate?
Jeremy Rifkin
studied primates with
brain MRI's hooked up
and understands the
'human condition'
isn't so competitive.

so nice to hear scientists speak to social phenomena, revealing societal power structures that aren't in fact based on how our brains actually work. He's a little fuzzy on pre civilization communication between hunter/gatherers, but hey, he's drawing some broad strokes to situate where we are right now.

for the first time in living memory

2011-10-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

imagine a creek that laughed through the winter moons behind, through, for, the winter village of your family, as long as both people and creek laughed winters through to the sea.
imagine a creek as a vein, ever flowing down, out, away, washing land, filling ocean.
imagine a creek as an artery, salmon returning home, feeding bear, wolf, eagle, human, cedar, forest.
imagine a thin green space through a nanaimo subdivision holding this gentle creek that spills into departure bay under a bridge for cars passing petrocan and macs, a public beach and a new carving acknowledging the ancient site of a peoples winter village

This year the salmon came back, no need to imagine, but witness.
at least 100 pink salmon, swimming, thriving, fertilizing, dying

this year the salmon came back, for the first time in living memory

Imagine

people sitting beside a river as unimaginable as the Skeena
telling stories of when the salmon used to run before the spill

that bitumen that leaked somewhere, for weeks, before the helicopters could land through the fog, letting little humans scramble through slick thickets of once were trees, two pipes, one with bitumen, the other pumping chemical, leaking, if not spewing. unimaginable.

Or Imagine (or experience!)

people this year harvesting salmon, 40 50 lb's a fish
or eulachen early spring, that fish that sustains us by the millions

from hartley bay through to smithers there's people who live with this river
100 000's of dollars are generated by tourism and even more through fishing

...

Tsimshian woman drying salmon 1920

story of occupy

2011-10-22T16:40:00.001-07:00

From the great people at 'the story of stuff'
click here for the full screen version

2011-10-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

A good friend from Trent days Ryan Katz Rosene writes

study by the Conference Board of Canada found that those in the top income bracket saw an income increase of over 16% between 1980 and 2005, while those in the middle income bracket saw no growth and those in the lowest income bracket witnessed a decrease of 20.6%!

let's talk about it!

tankers leaking??

2011-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

An article about a leaking tanker off NZ coast. Let's inform ourselves as we continue the work of a permanent moratorium on tanker traffic in the North West (where the queen of the north went down).

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/16/new-zealand-rena-oil-spill.html

Find more info and online petition at the dogwood initiative website.

2011-10-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

humans
wrapped in stories to
keep warm from vulnerable winds
blowing echoes of our uncertainty
huddled

what will this winter bring?

2011-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Lost in bookstores

They’re closing down the shops

Books burning holes in

Pockets, not pockets burning

Books, thankfully

I've bought too many rainy day

reads

Though isn’t there something

Lost

In the aisles of an old

Bookstore

Where feminist literature

Could become known to a

Fantasy novel or crime detective

Sleuths?

subtle passings of a

Poet, notices the historical

Wars section, becomes

Entranced by the thought of

Somebody spending a life time

of thought on 18 minutes of a

War.

Lost in the bookstore-histories

Spilling-unconsciousness.

Without calculated accuracy

shelves seem to

Present spines and titles to each

Person, unique.

I would not be here in this way today

If it weren’t for a number of titles

Spilling words into aisles

Or left strewn on haphazard milk crates,

Those rainy coffee stained days.

I could be lost

wall st / political rhetoric about north africa

2011-10-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to watch in full screen.

ICELAND!

2011-10-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

The full article is here

"
Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent."

2011-10-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

dig potatoes while following
OCCUPY WALL STREET COVERAGE
HERE

freak canadians out...

2011-10-07T08:26:00.001-07:00

masculine grief

2011-10-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

So there's a theme emerging
in life through these studies

Masculine grief, as a site of individual and cultural transformation.

thoughts?

Dogwood initiatives strikes Enbridge

2011-10-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

Click HERE
for the full copy version of a memorandum of Enbridge's assesment of spill response, decision making and the whole deal. This is the actual legal document, so if you want an inside into the work done by the people standing up to all this, eat your heart out!

Food Labelling Input requested

2011-10-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hi All

I have sent the following letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

I hope this is incentive to see how easy it is for YOU to weigh in :)
love ben

...

Hello and thank you!

I very much appreciate the work that you do as a government to regulate food labels. There is nothing more pertinent then to understand what we are eating and to be able to make informed choices. This is how the market best functions. In this way, I hope that genetically engineered and modified foods be mandatorily labeled in Canada so that people may continue to make informed choices.
Thanks for your time and attention.

Best,
Ben
click HERE to submit your thoughts

A stronger word for love...

2011-09-29T10:46:00.001-07:00

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://corbinmurdoch.bandcamp.com/track/november-stronger-word-for-love"&amp;amp;gt;November: Stronger Word for Love by Corbin Murdoch &amp;amp;amp;amp; the Nautical Miles&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

more free music from Cobin Murdoch HERE

tears of joy/grief for all of this

2011-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Or find it here to watch full screen.

If I were in ontario

2011-09-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

If I were in Ontario
and I knew this land 'out here'
and these waters that the salmon swim
and the coasts that continue to be wild
I would be in Ottawa
Sep.26 with the polaris institute
and thousands of others

There comes a time when you need to take a stand. When sending letters and signing petitions isn't enough. When together we must say, "enough is enough — not on our watch".

Join with

the Council of Canadians,
the Indigenous Environmental Network
and Greenpeace

In Person or by Signing a Pledge saying I would have been there!

ottawaaction.ca

except to try

2011-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

" There is no true failure when attempts to build a different world do not reach the lofty goals of those who plan them; there is only true failure if pursuit of those plans entails the abandonment of respect, or reliance upon control and domination, or an attempt to build harmful absolutes. Ultimately, to do nothing is itself failure; to risk oneself and become unsettled is a success in and of itself. There is no one way to be an ally, just as there is no one way to be colonial. There is not one single struggle against imperialism, and so there is no one single solution to these struggles. No one solution, that is, except to try."

Adam Barke, as published in Lynne Davis' Book Alliances Re/Envisioning Indigenous-non-Indigenous Relationships.

feminism isn't...

2011-09-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

a woman in class with me said

Feminism isn't about women
Feminism is a way to look at power through a gendered lens.

a way to look at power.

FBK

2011-09-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

The thing with F(ace)B(oo)K for me is that is accelerates communication, creating this frantic environment where I feel like I need to KEEP UP or be left behind.
Wait!
I have more to say, or I want to read more than the 150 words allowable, or there are 3 links I want to share but can't, or I don't 'like' something, or , or ,

David Orr writes quite wisely

mere information can be transmitted and used quickly, but new knowledge is something else. often it requires rearranging worldviews and paradigms, which we can only do slowly. instead of increasing the speed of our chatter, we need to learn to listen more attentively. instead of increasing the volume of our communication, we ought to improve its content.
[the nature of design]

So search foodgrows on the FBK thing, but for what it's worth I enjoy the relative slowness of this blog form, though with that said I much prefer working in the garden with you in order to prepare a meal to share. The most detrimental aspect of the adaptive technologies (ipods, fbk, cell phones, ....) is that they help make inhuman realities human. We're enabling ourselves to live in harsher and harsher places. Social deserts. Spiritual deserts. Don't forget to fill the world with meaningful experiences. (or is that the other way around?)

rainy days pushing oil

2011-09-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

it's raining today,
perfect morning for coffee and books

but all those trees i've ever planted, and any beautiful place i've taken a picture, mountain peak, stream, glacier, forest, tree, pond... is in the rain.
In a year, or two, so many of those places may be healing from the scar of a pipeline, silently sucking bitumen west through unimaginable wilds, maybe places humans haven't really ever been (?) Tankers sliding up channels that have crippled ferries a fraction their size, 225 times a year, and the oil still sits on the beaches of alaska even if we don't really remember when or how that spill happened.

The forests of these wild oceans are the fish. N17 (nitrogen) from the salmon are particular to the universe, and the forest is built from them. We know this, in the most scientific way.
Salmon forests, the ocean and land are dancing like our lungs with this atmosphere. The difficulty of seeing ourselves as part of these systems is the grief or pain of taking life for ourselves. It's ok (necessary!) to be sad when falling a tree, taking a life, an animal, a vegetable, a fruit, for in that grief is the gratitude and joy of being alive. the thanks. humility.

the forests and oceans of north western bc don't need us. We can run a pipe full of bitumen through them to tankers in tight waters until it all goes wrong, somehow (inevitable?) and that place of wolves and seals, urchins, cedar and salmon may begin to dysfunction and we will suffer as well.
We need the forest (in the largest sense) not the other way around.
All the forest/ocean/life needs is for us to know our place
through humility.

follow this link to youtube to watch in full screen HD or below in the foodgrows mini-screen...

http://friendsofwildsalmon.ca/

Participate in the Joint Review by Registering by the 6th of OCTOBER.

find out more here

or register here

or go HERE to register to make an Oral Statement (before OCT.6th)

* Note, email the people below AS WELL as filing the online form as per the Government request. This may be a make or break in one's application.

Kenneth MacDonald
VP, Law and Regulatory Affairs
Northern Gateway Pipelines Inc.
30^th Floor, 425 – 1^st Street SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3L8
Fax: 403-718-3525
kenneth.macdonald@enbridge.com

Abby Dorval
Manager, Regulatory Affairs
Northern Gateway Pipelines Inc.
30^th Floor, 425 – 1^st Street SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2P 3L8
Fax: 403-231-7380
abby.dorval@enbridge.com

Richard Neufeld, Q.C.
Barrister & Solicitor
Fraser Milner Casgrain
15^th Floor, 850 – 2^nd Street SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0R8
Fax: 403-268-3100
richard.neufeld@fmc-law.com

Another genuine McCord Mandolin

2011-09-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Built by Ryan McCord of Yellowknife fame. Word is that there may be some deer hide and goat banjo's coming out of the wood yard shop this winter.

Pope Mountain, Fort Saint James

2011-09-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

looking North

Click on panorama's for larger view.

looking South

" Faith is an elusive and questionable commodity in these days of a dying culture. Where do you find it? If you've lost a faith, can you invent one? .... But some of us find it hard, even obscene, to believe in an abiding providence in a world of such absurdity that, in the face of unimaginable suffering, most of our wealth and wits are devoted to preparing a final holocaust. And we don't need nuclear bombs for that holocaust, it is going on right now in the demolition of the great rain forests and the toxic contamination of our seas, soil, and air."
- Joanna Macy, P.104, World as Love World as Self

Tan your own Sheep Hide without Chemicals

2011-09-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

Here's How.

Peel the hide off of the animal using your hands. That's right, put your knife down after making your initial cuts along the length of the hind legs and pull. Cutting a thin hide off an animal is prone to cause tears later on in the tanning process.

I use an dull curved knife to clean any remaining fat/muscle from the hide.

Over the period of 3 days I rub a soap/oil (a little water) into the hide. Brains work best. This can all be done stretched in a frame (or not) allowing it to dry into the hide. Then, using a pumice stone I found in the bush, I work the hide on a sunny day, keeping the fibres moving while it dries. I focus on the edges first, and then the main body.

Dissimilar to a deer (etc.) hide, a more agressive tool tends to rip right through the hide. experiment! see what works for you, I suggest being firm, but not aggressive.

Cleaning the Wool side is up to you!

once the hide is dry and soft, fill it with smoke until it takes on colour. this leaves you with a machine washable rug for those cold days and nights that will inevitably come in this beautiful place.

click for larger version

for natural tanning how to and know how check out braintan.com and look for Matt's book and the online tanning forum.

Erg Mountain, Mount Erg

2011-09-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

view east from Erg...
click for larger image

Gundru & salt brine Kale stems

2011-08-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

In the season of plenty, lower yourself into your garden accepting the life that, in this case, the wonderful plant we call Kale, gives us.

harvest the lowest leaves, allowing the plant to continue growing up from the new leaves in the top middle.

Now this basket of leaves will crush down for me into a 1L jar to ferment for 3 - 4 weeks before drying.

here is the set up

So b/c I think it's a tasty idea, I'm packing jars with stems so tightly that they hold themselves in. Then a little salt, whole garlic (if you like), dill (if you like) whatever, and then some time, will turn these stems into a beautiful, enzyme alive! ferment great for snacks, appetizers, and impressing the inlaws.

fill em nice and full

Now for Gundru, a traditional nepalese ferment. Good friend Miles introduced me to this ferment and writes about it HERE on his GREAT BLOG.

So with an object (i'm using this water bottle full of water) crush the leaves so they get rich and juicy. this ferment requires ONLY crushed Kale leaves, no water, no salt... On this batch I used this knife to cut the leaves after the crushing stage. Our plan is to ferment and then blend the leaves with seeds etc and dehydrate into crackers.

Mash those pre mashed leaves into your container, preferably glass or earthen. The bubbly juice is OUTRAGEOUS!

so here is the beauty. you can see some stems in there (which work just great, you don't need to salt brine them separately, that's just what I did this time.) I cover this with a piece of plastic with a little hole in it or a loose lid. if the lid is tightened on you will need to 'burp it' as the active ferment process of gasses. this will slow down after a week or so in a warm-ish dark place and then it is best to keep the lid on tightly until you are ready to a) eat it b) dry it and eat it. When dried these little devils taste better than the best seaweed you've ever eaten.

August Garden

2011-08-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

The cool loving plants thrive, the heat loving barely survive. Such bounty, such little effort. ((click for larger image))

2011-08-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

as a star gazes cross galaxies
i seem to have found myself on the edge of that which I am a part
though space seems to be expansive, and as far apart,
light travels faster than thoughts

Brazeau Lake Loop

2011-08-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Brazeau Lake

freedom

2011-08-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

i bought a chainsaw and a jerry can from a 12 year old boy for 60$
Previously I had been driving through an albertan wind storm and was re routed driving out of camp by almost 140km as a group of poplars had fallen across the oil road I was driving on.
power is the ability to affect the direction one has in their life.
although it's not a big saw, I bought it for the power.
freedom, however, in our human context, can not be found in this world, see, we will all return to the earth.
as we release pride, ownership and control, we become increasingly able to enjoy the abundance of this experience (being alive) rather than the freedom to control this experience only to realize later on that from this life we die.

humble garden

2011-08-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

be humbled by your garden
this earth, these plants
your very connection to this earth.

now eat berries and greens from
roadsides, clearcuts and forests

see yourself as an expression
of the seasons

come fall, say farewell to all
these plants well gone to seed as if
they were the old people in your life

and in their passing so see
your life

2011-07-19T21:02:00.001-07:00

A great article concerning our premier, Christie Clark

2011-07-19T20:52:00.001-07:00

What do you think?

2011-07-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Good friend Dirk talks farming, decisions and why he continues to work despite legal municipal pressure in Lantzville B.C.

What will you say when your grandchildren ask,
what did you do when the world was unraveling,
what did you do when the earth started sighing,
what did you do, when you knew?

(paraphrase quote from drew dellinger)

2011-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

July's garden
begins all of our recipes
(click to get up close)

Real Life Albertan Cowboys

2011-07-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

2011-07-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

We are the cosmos
as the universe exists as an unfathomable organism
these bodies, this body, my body (?), is an unfathomable combination

to take apart life is to take apart one's self
which is to take apart it all

I am so familiar with this body I'm in, though
as it has become, it will also go

as this deer I prepare
Who am I?

chickens

2011-06-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well here are the ladies,
Frida (black) and Mable, Agnes, Betty (brown)
The coop cost
4$ for wood
7$ hinges
1.25$ handles
3$ chain link

everything else was salvaged.

15.25$ is not bad, though the chickens came to 10$ each, 25kg of feed for 12.50$ and two feed trays and horse bucket 2.75$ and the big ticket item that blew the budget (i can't believe this still) 11$ for cushy wood shavings for the ol nest box.

so a total of 81.50$ for compost, fun, eggs, and a little extra life around the place!

Murtle Lake

2011-06-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

easy life on Murtle Lake

paddling back into murtle from northern inflow

cold paddle home

Naturally, click for larger images

2011-06-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

change
requires breaking
patterns

2011-06-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

like drunk historians enamoured with life
artists are times story tellers bringing to life a present informed by a past as linear as a butterflies flight

2011-06-03T18:15:00.001-07:00

Follow THIS LINK to an APTN 2 minute clip concerning the 28 000 barrel OIL SPILL April 22 2011.

Haven't heard about it?? think twice about supporting the next pipe line projects running through northern b.c. If those pipes go in, then when they leak/burst/.... vancouver will know how much oil passes by into the ocean.

Goodbye Nuclear...

2011-05-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Let's Follow GERMANY Who are deactivating nuclear reactors, bringing their entire nuclear system to an end within 10 years. Just like us Canadians they will need to babysit radioactive waste for thousands of years, but they will stop the production of making more. Hooray! The peoples political will is so great, with memories of the radioactive winds from Chornobyl in 1986. And now again with winds blowing around the world still from Japan.... read the article by cbc... read Miles' thoughts from Courtney.

2011-05-28T20:40:00.001-07:00

notankers.ca

2011-05-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

He stares at the door for a while, hoping. It's his door. He cleans the years of sweat and spit and piss and crushed bugs out of its grain, twists the bolts from its flesh, tears out the locks. He returns the wood to the mill, un-saws it, heaves it back a great distance along plunging mud tracks, asks the elephants to drag it back up the steep hillsides. And then, among the profusion of thick grasses and liana and the calls of wild monkeys and birds, he sets the wood upright and it becomes a tree again, one of the trees in the last great golden teak forests on earth, the jungles of northern Burma.

p.22
The Lizard Cage
by Karen Connelly

2011-05-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

click for larger pictures of our emerging garden

peas and beans up the blue fence

tomatoes, lovage, carrots, beets, spinach fore front

4.5 million litres

2011-05-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

If they build those pipes through and over
those southern flowing waters
vancouver would have
4.5 million
litres

last month, april 29th 2011

but instead that oil spills north
flowing away

part of me hopes the pipes get built
through this remaining breadbasket
so that death will speak for itself
floating on the waters nearly dead
named after simon fraser, a man
who vandalized petroglyphs with his name
as if an uncreative graffiti artist

part of me hopes the pipes get built
as eventually that oil will flow those
1000 km's of that mighty water
pulled, shaping this landscape we call home

but what,
will people continue, eating avocados and mangos from the south where the people are hungry
but what,
will the people who live with the salmon and seals, deer and air be left to become toxic?
but what,

where is hope
if not in feeling the pain
of radioactive rain watering the garden

let our thinking, our reasoning, be for maintaining a healthy planet and experience of her.
she has laws, it's the way things work. let's not try to stop the rain, but from polluting this place so much that the rain turns toxic, so the rivers don't need to pull oil to the oceans,

i am scared to hope

truth fool

2011-05-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

have you ever felt any of these things in the grocery store?

check out more and varied artsy things at truthfool.tmblr.com

Alberta Oil Spill ...

2011-05-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

On April 29th, an estimated 4.5 million litres of crude oil was spilled into the wetlands from a leaking pipeline.

Elections and Representation

2011-05-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Fair vote Canada aptly comments

"If the seats were won in proportion to the votes that were cast, the numbers would look like this:

CON 122, NDP 95, LIB 59, BQ 19, GREEN 13

According to these results, the Conservatives have won 54.22% of the seats with only 39.62% of the votes, one of the least legitimate majorities in Canadian history."

Ryan Katz posted

5.83 million people voted for the Conservatives. That's only 17.3% of the Canadian population.
The Conservatives received 39.62% of the vote. A majority of 60.38% of the votes went to other parties.
Despite having a minority of the vote share, the first-past-the-post system grants the Conservatives 54.22% of the seats in parliament, which gives them the ability to make political and economic changes that will affect the entire population without concern for oppositional voices.
The Conservatives received 8.9% more of the popular vote than the NDP (which received 30.63% of the vote). And yet, thanks to our corrupt system, the Conservatives will receive 21.1% more seats in the house.
576, 221 people voted for the Green Party (that's 3.91% of the vote). Nevertheless, somehow the party only received 1 seat in parliament. That's 0.32% of the seats!
The Conservative Party's vote share increased by 1.96% since the last election of 2008. However, their seat share increased by 16.8%!

2011-05-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Packed and leaving peterborough

Karine Rogers...

2011-05-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

ryan mccord, ladies and gents...

2011-04-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ryan Mccord, down from Yellowknife NWT, brings the new banjo to life with a Carolina Chocolate Drops classic. thanks Ryan!

2011-04-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Follow this LINK to a great page full of little facts contextualizing Honorable Stephen Harper's stern hand on the helm of this fine country.
Found from an article on the tyee

2011-04-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

warrior
the work that comes through living so that there is no warring. Imagine a world full of warriors working to maintain a just reality. To challenge the cowardice of systems that dominate, that limit, dominate and coerce people in making decisions that lacks belief.
would the farmers really work that hard, work that land so hard, cut that much hay to keep that many animals, if the decision was theirs?
Maybe, but the point remains, how many decisions do we make that we may not believe, or may promote that vibrant life that can flare forth from the places our soul resides...how many decisions will we need to make before we accept these realities, nuclear plants creating waste for 100 generations on the beaches of a rising sea.
when will we become warriors? for there is much work in untying, untangling and disintegrating this every growing mess that holds us to decide to live in ways that are killing us in moments and futures.

2011-04-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about languages.
Imagine being told this blessing each morning

"...may the words that spill from you mouth today ride as gently as rose petals on flowing water delivering beauty to our mother ocean..."

Maybe that's just a word or two in another language.
Maybe there's languages where it's actually difficult not to speak in reverence and passion.

What is this english best at?

latest instrument project

2011-04-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Deer hide and second hand wooden salad bowl.

the pieces.


together, though the neck is straight in real life.

The name of this banjo is yet to be determined, tuned gdae, as per a violin or mandolin, so that I can play fiddle tunes while in the market for my first fiddle.
(First tanned sheep hide underneath)

2011-04-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

He said
freedom isn't the ability to decide
freedom is being able to create choices

follow this link, or send an email question@electiondebate2011.ca to CTV if you want to exercise your freedom (?) by helping decide what is discussed in the televised debate.

2011-03-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

follow this link to a cbc article and poll as to Elizabeth May's legitimate involvement in the televised Federal Debate.

What is the democratic role of a television consortium?

2011-03-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

awake each day as if
it's your birthday, and
treat yourself with the
reverance you deserve
as an expression of life

2011-03-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

redundancy is important
for example, a conversation.
although what is said is important
the way we communicate can fill our words with meaning.

thoughts on where I'm moving

2011-03-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

These places, like scattered paper, the diminishing success of the forest economy.
Scattered over landscapes, cut through forests that sustain
when will we begin to ask why? and how?
What is our (collective) 500 year plan? 1000 year plan?
the one that we live out year after year in the systems that we know repeat,
year after year...

2011-03-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

This morning the Peterborough paper had a small opinion article that highlighted 30 years of safe nuclear energy in Ontario. 30 years of safe radioactive waste production is what I thought to myself. Anybody, as my friend Jeremy tells me, who has been employed long term with the maintainance of these facilities knows somebody who has died prematurely. Safe?

It's fine to do what we're doing safely, as this video shows, but why not push this moment in time to account for the safety of the whole process, the vast strip mining and ecological catastrophe to acquire Uranium in the first place (click here to read about a contested mining proposal near peterborough in Sharbot Lake) and then the residual radioactive waste that will be here for as short as 2 000 years and as long as 17 000 000 years!?

honestly, we can't sit this one out.

As copied from Wikipedia
Of particular concern in nuclear waste management are two long-lived fission products, Tc-99 (half-life 220,000 years) and I-129 (half-life 17 million years), which dominate spent fuel radioactivity after a few thousand years. The most troublesome transuranic elements in spent fuel are Np-237 (half-life two million years) and Pu-239 (half life 24,000 years).^[20] Nuclear waste requires sophisticated treatment and management to successfully isolate it from interacting with the biosphere. This usually necessitates treatment, followed by a long-term management strategy involving storage, disposal or transformation of the waste into a non-toxic form.^[21] Governments around the world are considering a range of waste management and disposal options, though there has been limited progress toward long-term waste management solutions.^[22]

^{Watch the CBC clip here}

^{Lastly, Joanna Macy writes well about this immediate situation from her involvement in nuclear education over the last number of decades.}

2011-03-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

my intention is that these words, these ways I choose to live, these ways that I communicate from my place in the universe (or wherever it is that I am!) may be the flowering reflection that is the opportunity for pollination, conversation. This in turn is the unfathomable creation of seeds that will lay dormant in us all, patiently waiting germination, to sprout, grow strong and flower into culture once more.

A man named Jaime from the Andes, present day Peru, suggested last night that we empty ourselves so as to hear him, as if sitting down to a meal full, we would only eat a little, so he suggested we empty our minds so that we could eat his words and then take time to digest, to see what passes through unnoticed, and to be nourished by those seeds that find soil.

So I see this work of communication as two parts, to flower and pollinate and to be patient and observant of the seeds that find substance and germinate. May these all be for the continuation of diverse, plentiful, reproductive life!