Life Update: Transitions

My life on the farm has come to an end. I am now living in Vancouver visiting friends and housesitting a very special cat, Taiya. I am thankful to be taking this time to reconnect with important friends, share my stories of life on the farm, share delicious organic foods that I have preserved, and plan the future.

So what is on my horizon in the coming months? Be warned it is busy.

First I will be moving to Revelstoke, British Columbia with on of the other apprentices from Klippers Organics as this is where she has leased a 3 acre property to start her own farming business. I will be there from November 26 - December 22 and in this time our goals will include getting product organized for her to retail at the winter farmer's market in Revestoke to get her face known by local consumers, get her business name and company registered, do home renovations including build a kitchen and of course, to ski as much as possible. My friend will be sharing her property with a couple friends who run a dog sledding business off of the same land, so I will be interested to learn more about their pack and dog training as well.

From Revelstoke I will be driving through the rockies to Calgary from where I will fly home to Montreal for the holidays. I so look forward to Christmas dinner where we will surely reflect on everything that has happened this past year. I remember last years dinner where 2011 was filled with the unknown and possibility of adventure. It was a time that was still anxiety filled but exciting. Similarly, 2012 seems to be filled with a lot of unknown as well.

I will start off the year in Montreal where I will be dog-sitting my parents new addition to the family, a now 5-month-old 85 pound great dane puppy while they are travelling abroad. (So for anyone that has ever wanted to come to Montreal in the heart of the winter, January 2012 is that time!)

It is amazing to think about that the last time that I have been in Montreal for a six-week period was in 2004, the year that I moved away from home. I am both eager and anxious about returning home for so long. It will be nice to call the place where my parents are home again, but at the same time I am worried about missing BC a lot. This province has a special place in my heart, and I know that I will miss the mountains and the life I have built here greatly.

After my parents return, my adventure begins. South America has been calling to me for many years now. I fell in love with the latin American culture while volunteering in Costa Rica in 2006. I will be starting my trip in February in Brazil. There I will be staying with friends and the extended family of close friends to appreciate some of what Brazil has to offer. I also will be going to Carnival in Rio!!

Then in March I will be moving to a town just outside of Asuncion, Paraguay, near Formosa, Argentina where I will be working on a large-scale cattle ranch. One of my goals with my trip to South America is to gain a better appreciation our global agricultural system and the agricultural practices in other climates and cultures. Argentina is the third largest exporter of beef in the world, and they are one of the largets consumers of beef in the world as well. For this reason, I was not able to turn down the opportunity to work and learn from Argentinian beef producers about their industry.

I will be working on the first property for a month. This property is 30,000 hectares in size and has approximately 12,000 head of cattle. I will be shadowing the manager of the ranch and his team as an assistant to see what is involved in terms of administration and operations.

I will then move south to a second ranch owned by the same family as the first in Ameghino, Argentina - a 2000 hectare farm where they do agriculture (soya, maize, sorghum) and have a large feed lot for 6000 head of cattle.

I will finish my second month of cattle ranching in Lincoln, Argentina on the largest operation of the three - it has 50,000 head of cattle.

I can't even imagine how this experience will change my perspective on agriculture and myself, but I am eager to find out. During an interview, I was asked if I would at all be interested in being involved in the 'mechanic' side of the operations on the ranch. This question immediately sparked an image of me pushing a big red button every ten seconds to slaughter another cow - I obviously said no.

May 1, 2012 is unknown. Dreams include backpacking and volunteering in Chile, Peru and Bolivia; undertaking adventurous and adventurous climbing trip; working for CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) on agricultural projects in South America; or maybe returning to Canada. I will have to wait and see who I have become at that point, where my finances stand, and how my life ambitions have matured through my experiences.

Wish me luck!