At last I am home.
Montreal is the place where I grew up. It is a city filled with family, friends and many memories which is why I am happy to be back. But it is also an isolating place. I have been gone for so long that the houses on my street have all changed and the neighbourhood kids too are grown up and moved out. I am delighted to be able to reconnect with friends from the past, though I feel like a stranger trying to find her place in a world I once knew much better. It is nice to have the comforts of home (heat, couches and cupboards full of food), but I have realized that I have started to miss the peculiar and eccentric places that I have called home in the west.
To bring in the new year, I ventured to the big city of Toronto. It is where many of my good friends have gone to find work and develop ther careers. Toronto is a big city. I stayed in an appartment on Queen St W. One of those ones that sits atop the many shops that line the street. The room I shared with my friend was quaint and full of character. Her double-sized mattress filled her room width-wise, s0 when I went to sleep my head would touch one end of the room and my feet the other. The appartment being older and lived in by students and young people, was not insulated very effectively. When we sat in the kitchen and living room, the air chilled you to the bone and you needed almost as many layers on inside as you did outside.
New Years Eve, dressed in hiking boots and leg warmers and our backpacks filled with booze we walked the streets visiting other appartments as people got ready to go out for the night and we saved our money. The next days were filled with shopping, dinners and old friends. My favourite!
Now back in Montreal, I am alone. I am trying to keep my 8-month old puppy great dane from eating my aggressive meyers parrot, scolding them both for stealing my food as I cook in the kitchen and trying to enjoy the act of being still before I start to move again in 2012.
Being in the home of my childhood, I have a lot of possessions that have been sitting for years unattended to. I am enjoying taking the time to revisit and sort through the possessions I have abandoned for so long and remembering why I have kept them or giving them to the thrift store so that someone else can now enjoy them.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Meat Fest
Last night I participated in Meat Fest.
After dinner Eric, the new roomate Len and I went out into the garage to morsel up the meat that the local game butchers had donated to Eric for his dogs of Revelstoke Dogsled Adventures. We spent two hours in the cold listening to an old wedding tape over and over cutting and sawing apart deer and moose. The boys smoked and drank as we cut the remaining carcass, muscle and fat apart for our dogs. I really felt like I was living a country life.
I liked the work and understand how it could be a much more challenging job in the peak of hunting season when the weather is still 10 degrees instead of minus 3 degrees. The meat yesterday evening was not overly bloody nor were there flies anywhere to be seen.
The entire time Eric, the dog owner, exclaimed how meat fest means so much to him not because he is able to get out and be productive, not because he is saving some money in feed, not because of the tunes, drinks, smokes or even the company, but because he is able to feed his dogs such good meat. He knows that the fat, protein and bones he is preparing for them keep their primal instincts alive and makes them better sled dogs.
The chopping up of the meat may seem like a courtesy, back in the day Eric used to actually grind the meat for his dogs, but the hassle became too much given the dogs don't care how their meat is serve, but it is also a screening process to make sure we get any small bones or bullets our of the feed before it goes to the dogs. Unfortunately sometimes some pieces are missed, and a dog has been known to poop out a bullet before.
Once the meat is chopped we bag it into 4 lbs bags to freeze. Handling cold moist meat freezes your fingers quickly, but we ended up bagging about 50 bags of moose and deer, which is about 200 lbs! And then we had the bones on top of that. When I told the boys that I was going to put dog food bagger on my resume, they said I should put moose bagger, because some of the meat was were handling was definitely human food grade. Lucky dogs.
Today my wrist hurts. Apparently after two and a half hours of cutting meat and fat with a moderately-sharp knife in the cold has its repurcussions. (I may have also been trying to fill my bucket faster and fuller than Eric, so it was an intense cutting session.) Either way, I would gladly participate in another Meat Fest.
And that's how I spend my Friday nights :)
After dinner Eric, the new roomate Len and I went out into the garage to morsel up the meat that the local game butchers had donated to Eric for his dogs of Revelstoke Dogsled Adventures. We spent two hours in the cold listening to an old wedding tape over and over cutting and sawing apart deer and moose. The boys smoked and drank as we cut the remaining carcass, muscle and fat apart for our dogs. I really felt like I was living a country life.
I liked the work and understand how it could be a much more challenging job in the peak of hunting season when the weather is still 10 degrees instead of minus 3 degrees. The meat yesterday evening was not overly bloody nor were there flies anywhere to be seen.
The entire time Eric, the dog owner, exclaimed how meat fest means so much to him not because he is able to get out and be productive, not because he is saving some money in feed, not because of the tunes, drinks, smokes or even the company, but because he is able to feed his dogs such good meat. He knows that the fat, protein and bones he is preparing for them keep their primal instincts alive and makes them better sled dogs.
The chopping up of the meat may seem like a courtesy, back in the day Eric used to actually grind the meat for his dogs, but the hassle became too much given the dogs don't care how their meat is serve, but it is also a screening process to make sure we get any small bones or bullets our of the feed before it goes to the dogs. Unfortunately sometimes some pieces are missed, and a dog has been known to poop out a bullet before.
Once the meat is chopped we bag it into 4 lbs bags to freeze. Handling cold moist meat freezes your fingers quickly, but we ended up bagging about 50 bags of moose and deer, which is about 200 lbs! And then we had the bones on top of that. When I told the boys that I was going to put dog food bagger on my resume, they said I should put moose bagger, because some of the meat was were handling was definitely human food grade. Lucky dogs.
Today my wrist hurts. Apparently after two and a half hours of cutting meat and fat with a moderately-sharp knife in the cold has its repurcussions. (I may have also been trying to fill my bucket faster and fuller than Eric, so it was an intense cutting session.) Either way, I would gladly participate in another Meat Fest.
And that's how I spend my Friday nights :)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Life in Revelstoke: Puppies, Skiing, Dogsledding and Mountain Weather
Look at these puppies above. They look pretty cute right? Pepper, with the brown eyes, desperately wants you to play with her on the carpet since she is afraid to walk on the laminate floor. Bandit in the background just wants to wrestle.
My life seems to have been consumed by puppies. You need to have your eye on them at all times pretty much, they bark, they howl, the romp around and somehow I always end up on the ground with them playing or tenderly petting them.
But then there is the bad side of puppies - they destroy everything when NOT carefully monitored. Keep in mind that they pups will be working dogs and are not meant to be indoors. They are currently inside because of their recent surgery which has proven tiresome for us two-legged house tenants. See here how Pepper got loose while we were all out skiing and I was the lucky one to come back to a house destroyed by puppy mischieve.
Next skiing! I am currently undertaking a ski marathon where I am hoping to ski every day for 18 days. I am unsure if my legs and back will be able to take it, but I bought myself a season's pass to the mountain in an efforts to encourage me to take advantage of the awesome snow and beautiful ski conditions available to me. (Don't worry I only need to ski 9 days to have the pass pay for itself, so if I need to take a day off it won't be the worst thing.)Revelstoke is fairly new mountain. It consists of only two chairlifts, The Stoke and The Ripper, and one gondola. These were put in about 5 years ago, so the mountain is still known for a lot of backcountry touring. Here you can see on day 2 a group of ski enthusiasts were heading past the ski patroller at the roped off terrain into the backcountry. All are supposed to have avalanche training, proper safety equipment (such as shovel, beacon and a probe for avalanches), knowledge of the weather conditions and reliable partners to name a few. Learning to do this type of skiing, to find those perfect lines, is definitely something I look forward to learning more about.
I on the otherhand am currently learning the in-bounds side of Revelstoke. Day 1 was a full on powder day all day long! The snow was so soft and fluffy, and the depth was quite impressive for opening day. We are still not able to ski to the bottom, so we focused our play in the alpine.
At the end of the day, neither of us could complain :)
Before skiing began, I tried to stay homebound so as not to spend too much money. This again involved lots of dog-related activities. I was able to go out earlier in the week to help run the dogs to help get them into better shape for the rest of the season. Each dog will lose about 5 lbs during the season from all the running. They only weight about 45 lbs each so this will be a lot!
To get them to the logging roads where they run the tours, the dogs are loaded into their boxes on the back of the truck. You would think the dogs wouldn't like this, but they are so eager to please, that they are literally jumping up for you to lift them into their boxes. The dogs also are really excited to get to run.
There is one dog though that is claustrophobic, Chaos, and he gets to sit in the backseat of the truck with the passengers. Spoiled dog.
Running the dogs was really fun. They are really strong dogs and meant for speed. I even got to lead the sled for a while with Eric in the passenger seat. It's tough when they get speed to keep everything in line and I even was launched into the snow at one point, but a worthwhile experience for sure.
And even though there was snow in the mountains, it was nice and sunny most of the week on the farm.
So as you can see, life in a small town, especially a small ski town in the winter, is pretty much what you would imagine it to be.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Roger's Pass: Road Gleaning
The Trans-Canada Highway passes through Rogers Pass to connect Revelstoke to Golden . It is is located in Glacier National Park and is a popular destination I have learned for ski touring. However, the road is quite hazardous and the pass itself is home to the world's foremost avalanche control program for a transportation route. That being said, especially in the winter, there are many road closures due to slides and avalanches. On top of this, there are often accidents as a result of the poor road conditions. The most beneficial of such accidents are always when food trucks turn over. In these cases, any food that falls is no longer fit for consumption as a result of stirct company policies around food safety.Consequently road gleaners have emerged. Basically, any time a crash involves a food truck, there is sure to be food abandoned on the road, or available to be collected at the scene of the accident. Apparently in Revelstoke you will know when such a crash has happened, because all of a sudden the town will be flooded with a certain product. I have heard stories of oranges going around in 2010/2011, and just this week, a truck went down full of mushrooms. I know this because our household was lucky enough to be offered a flat of the discards and we are now eating lots of mushrooms! What would you want to road glean if you had the chance?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Revelstoke: Photos
This is Eric with Orange, a ten year old sled dog that is very shy and you can only pet when he stand at your eye level on his dog house. Eric has made identical dog houses for all his dogs.
This is Chaos giving me a big kiss. He's the most 'disney' looking of all the sled dogs.
Sled dogs are really mutts. They are part Husky so that they have large paws and thick fur for the winter conditions, and often part Greyhound or other fast dog in order to be as fast as they are. You can see Jasper here even has an eye that is half brown and half blue.
This is my new home until mid-late December. The two-story house is a typical country cabin with a wood stove in the basement to help keep us warm (and luckily it is right near my room too). In the fron you can see the truck that allthe dogs are transported in to go sledding.
Making tea. On the first day Connie was working on putting some Christmas gifts together for her family, so she and Nadja assembled a collection of herbs and flowers that Nadja has dried from the summer harvest to make some warming, natural and healing tea blends.
Revelstoke
I have arrived safely in Revelstoke. The weather was mild and the highways relatively clear on my drive up from Vanouver this past weekend, which put my mind at ease for not having any winter tires or chains in my possession should the alipine passes get a little hairy. However, when I pulled into Revelstoke, there was a man on the highway stopping everyone to inform us that the highway between Revelstoke and Golden was closed due to avalanche and slide hazards. Luckily I did not need to go further that day. However, when I leave Revelstoke to drive to Calgary, I will need to surmount Roger's Pass, which was apparently the last hurtle that had to be overcome to connect eastern and western Canada and is still considered one of the most dangerous parts of highway in Canada. Great. I'll deall with that obstacle when I get to it, but first, life in Revelstoke.
I have been here less than a day and already I feel home again. Home being a lifestyle, a way of living and a way of seeing your daily existence. I live in the basement (on a single foam mattress) of a cabin style home with my friend Nadja and her two roomates that are here right now, Eric and Connie. Nadja will be starting her organic farm here, and Eric and Connie run the dog sledding business.
The home is in the middle of the property. In the back are twenty or so dogs in a paddock that each have their own snoopy-style home that they live in. It was pooring rain yesterday (which hopefully means dumping snow in the alpine) so the dogs were all hiding in their little homes. Today when I got the farm tour, I got to meet the dogs. There are 22 in total. Most are rescued dogs from other operations and all come with their own emotional baggage and quircks. Five of the animals though were bred at the farm and are less spastic than the others. The dogs are: Emily, Chevy, Oreo, Hawk, Pam, Orange, Sapphire, Lily, Jasper, Jake, Chaos, Flip, Nibbs, Tiny, Penny, Keeno, Griz, Spock and the pups, Bandid, Pepper and Gary. I can recognize most of them, but mainly when they are sitting in order at their dog houses. That'll change soon.
Today I worked with Nadja raking leaves and fall debris to pile onto sheet mulch (namely cardboard) which we then sprinkled with lime and manure. She is hoping that this mix will decompose into great soil to grown food in the next five months, and I will be interested to see the success rate of the various permaculture methods she is employing. Though she has access to a lot of organic matter on the property, she still had to buy her manure and straw. For a dumptruck of manure it cost Nadja $200.00 - it came from one of the local horse stables. When raking, we also raked up a few bones as the dogs survive on donated meet and bones from the local game butchers.
I am really eager to be learning again, to be living with positive young people that are making their dreams come true. I have a feeling I am going to know a lot more about dogs, dog sledding, dog sled guiding, cutting dog food, permaculture, herbal tea blends, skiing, touring and Revelstoke! What fun :)
Pictures to come soon.
I have been here less than a day and already I feel home again. Home being a lifestyle, a way of living and a way of seeing your daily existence. I live in the basement (on a single foam mattress) of a cabin style home with my friend Nadja and her two roomates that are here right now, Eric and Connie. Nadja will be starting her organic farm here, and Eric and Connie run the dog sledding business.
The home is in the middle of the property. In the back are twenty or so dogs in a paddock that each have their own snoopy-style home that they live in. It was pooring rain yesterday (which hopefully means dumping snow in the alpine) so the dogs were all hiding in their little homes. Today when I got the farm tour, I got to meet the dogs. There are 22 in total. Most are rescued dogs from other operations and all come with their own emotional baggage and quircks. Five of the animals though were bred at the farm and are less spastic than the others. The dogs are: Emily, Chevy, Oreo, Hawk, Pam, Orange, Sapphire, Lily, Jasper, Jake, Chaos, Flip, Nibbs, Tiny, Penny, Keeno, Griz, Spock and the pups, Bandid, Pepper and Gary. I can recognize most of them, but mainly when they are sitting in order at their dog houses. That'll change soon.
Today I worked with Nadja raking leaves and fall debris to pile onto sheet mulch (namely cardboard) which we then sprinkled with lime and manure. She is hoping that this mix will decompose into great soil to grown food in the next five months, and I will be interested to see the success rate of the various permaculture methods she is employing. Though she has access to a lot of organic matter on the property, she still had to buy her manure and straw. For a dumptruck of manure it cost Nadja $200.00 - it came from one of the local horse stables. When raking, we also raked up a few bones as the dogs survive on donated meet and bones from the local game butchers.
I am really eager to be learning again, to be living with positive young people that are making their dreams come true. I have a feeling I am going to know a lot more about dogs, dog sledding, dog sled guiding, cutting dog food, permaculture, herbal tea blends, skiing, touring and Revelstoke! What fun :)
Pictures to come soon.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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!
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!
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