Cabane a Sucre, Quebec

The land we have in the Laurentians of Quebec has many hidden treasures. One of them is the abandoned cabane a sucre a short hike from our barn. I had a friend visiting for the weekend that was not familiar with our forests, and so we trekked through our fields up the trails made by my father in the knee deep snow to the sugar cabin.

It has been years since I've done this hike. In the winter the forests are especially serene because the snow absorbs most of the sounds. As my friend and I sat in the snow beside the cabin all you could hear was the wind blowing between the trees. When you looked up, the trees rocked slowly back and forth. It was astoundingly peaceful and rejuvinating.

The cabin has been out of use as long as I can remember. I have hiked there many times with my Dad as a kid, yet it continues to be in relatively good condition. It would be a dream to one day use the cabin to refine maple sap into syrop.

Luckily one of our neighbours does still make his own maple syrup. We are able to trade our lamb for the cans of syrop which I think is a very fair trade.

Preparations: Vaccinations

I have never particularly liked vaccinations. When I was younger it was because of the needles and as I aged it was because of the rare but possible side effects. In my everyday life I don't like to take medications. Though I don't limit them fully, I do my best to use alternative remedies for my ailments.

That being said, for some reason whenever I travel I typically get all vaccinations that are recommended. Though the guide books say I am not politically required to have any vaccinations coming from Canada, I read a lot about yellow fever, malaria and dengue fever for which I may need protection. Also I figured, since, as usual, I am travelling in less-travelled areas, I figured I better find out the Canadian perspective on how I should medically protect myself from the places I will be travelling.

I guess the reason I am open to getting vaccinations for travel is that I would rather have a vaccination in Canada and risk the side effects while I am here, than contract a virus while I am travelling and be at the mercy of the medical systems wherever I am going. Also, the fact that vaccinations are a one 'shot' deal for the most part, so I am not faced with having to choose to take or not take a drug over and over again, is attractive in my mind.

Unfortunately the one shot deal doesn't apply to all vaccinations and this has been a problem particularly with malaria pills. Twice in the past I have been prescribed malaria pills and twice I have stopped taking them after a few days. The reasons are locals said there was no malarial risk where I was, I wasn't in the presence of a lot of mosquitoes and I didn't like taking the pills knowing the possible side effects. This time around, my doctor appreciated my honesty with my past experience with malaria pills and so decided the best course of action for me was to promote mosquito bite prevention rather than virus protection. I will wear long sleeve clothing, mosquito repellent and maybe even sleep with a mosquito net. The bonus it that this will protect me against dengue fever for which there is no vaccination as well.

Pets: Love them or....?

The past month of my life has been dedicated to pet sitting while my parents travel abroad. The pets I have been caring for are a 9-month-old Great Dane and a 10-year-old Meyer's Parrot. All animals have their own particularities and these ones definitely have some big personalities. Here are some of the idiosyncrasies of these pets.

Odin

Odin decided when my parents left that he no longer wanted to drink his water. Instead, he decided it was more fun to eat snow to get his daily water intake which means that in addition to whining when he wanted to go out to pee, he also started to whine to eat snow, and play, and eat sod. Well apparently eating snow and ice is not good for a puppy's stomach, and so Odin got really sick one night where I had to let him out every hour on the hour to go to the washroom. We were both very tired the next day.

Once Odin was finally on medication for his stomach and eating and drinking properly, I thought we were on the right track. I thought we were buddies again. Then he decided to eat a plastic bag! It's impressive to say the least at how quickly a dog can swallow something whole when they know that you don't want them to have what they have found.

I have felt some days that my only responsibility is to keep Odin alive and fed and that he is working as hard as he can to make this task challenging. I have had a number of headaches at his expense.

But, Odin is also fairly mild tempered. When I walk him enough and we play at least once a day he is very calm at night which gives me a break. He is good company, but at the same time I have found myself talking to him like a person since it is only he, I and the bird in the house. I wonder how much he understands or if I just look like a fool.

Puddles

Puddles is another story. Puddles earned his name because his feathers are grey like a puddle. His coloured feathers have developed as he has aged. Puddles and I have never really gotten along since I haven't lived at home for most of the time he has been a part of the family, but this time around being the only person here to feed him, cuddle him and let him out, we have become closer.

My biggest problem with Puddles is that I cannot do anything in the kitchen without him getting involved. If I put out a mixing bowl for any reason he is either going to be in it or try and tip it over. It is quite impressive but at the same time very annoying. So I have had to start setting up decoy bowls for him to play with or bathe in while I try and cook. If he still pesters me, then I have to take the risk of being bitten while I put him in his cage.

Puddles also likes hiding in nooks and under covers so that he can feel protected which is funny to watch.

The best part about Puddles is how brave he is for such a tiny bird. Puddles feels like he is master over Odin. This means that Puddles sometimes chooses to tempt Odin by walking right in front of his nose. The two of them do a little dance, Odin wagging his tale and Puddles lashing out with hisses and bites. They do this usually until Odin gets hurt. A few days ago Puddles started riding Odin like a horse. He jumps onto the dogs behind, digs his claws into his back and tries to hold on for dear life. The dog does not like this game.

One particularly stand-offish moment was when Puddles climbed into Odin's food bowl. Odin knows only a few things in this house are his, and the bird was in one of his favourite. That time I did decide to intervene for fear the dog would in a lapse of judgement try and nibble on the bird.

Pardon my French

Sometimes you just happen upon things in life that make you say 'What the....?' Whenever these moments happen to me they usually make me laugh at the obscurity of what I am seeing as well as at the thought that to someone this is normal.

So far I have two of these moments to share with you since arriving in Montreal. One happened while I was (again) lost on my way to meet a friend. I accidently turned left where I was supposed to turn right in a suburb area in St. Laurent and this is what I found....

I wish I could better describe the monstrosity of this house. Honestly without the 10 ft statue above the entrance way of a Greek god or something similar, the ornamentation would be bareable. Unfortunately, it's not. Not only is there the massive statue, but apparently there is a big round medallion carving on the garage door around the side. Seriously, who designs a house like this to live in in Montreal?!?!

The next moment happened when I was at the farm with my Dad. I was getting suited up to brave the cold and looking for a warmer pair of mitts in their coat closet and this is what I pulled out....

Four stuffed deer feet angled uniformly at 90 degrees.

A person, such as myself, might be hard pressed to understand what one would be doing with four stuffed deer feet in the hat/mitt shelf of a closet, but apparently they are there with purpose. (And no, my original thought that I missed the memo that deer feet are just as lucky as rabbit paws was not accurate.) The deer feet are going to be used to make a coat rack at the farm. In other words, they are currently the assembly pieces of one of my Dad's many projects that have not yet been able to come to fruition.

Can't wait to see what I find next.

This is Winter

It is -20 outside in Montreal. Even though the sun is shining, the distinctive crunch under your feet lets you know that it is really cold. Yesterday was a snow storm. In both cases there were few people to be found out and about.

Living in cold climates, people often retreat into the warmth of their homes once winter arrives. However, being an outdoor enthusiast, the idea of staying inside for months on end is never an attractive option. As I sit inside reading, I realize I have been sucked into a 'stay inside' lifestyle where I watch movies, exercise in gyms, cook elaborate meals, clean out old closets and observe the great outdoors from behind glass panes. In these moments I am glad that I don't have to be outside and pity the poor souls that have chosen to brave the extreme weather conditions.

Then it happened, a change in perspective. I realized that I want to be outside. That outdoors-oriented people around the world dream of having the chance to experience Montreal's winter and here I am taking it for granted. I am not snowshoeing, crosscountry skiing, ice fishing, tobogganing, alpine skiing, ice skating or even hiking in the woods. I had tried to convince myself that I wasn't partaking in any of these activities because I was low on cash, but aside from alpine skiing, none of these activities is particularly expensive (especially when you live in a place where most of your neighbours have the gear for you to borrow in a worst case scenario).

My only saving grace is that I have been taking my dog Odin on walks everyday. Once I realized the err in my ways, I started adventuring into the local wooded parks to revisit some of the places I used to adventure when I was a kid. Honestly just running around with Odin in the snow is gratifying. The snow is crisp and clean and seriously cool.

So here is to dreaming up some awesome wintertime adventures over the next two weeks and not sitting around on my behind letting this great opportunity to pass me by. Here is to learning that every landscape and every place being full of potential for fun and to being able to identify how to exploit them for the best.

I did it! My first published magazine article by FFCF

I feel very accomplished today.

Writing is something I enjoy very much; I find it to be a very nourishing activity for the brain. Writing allows me to get my ideas and thoughts on paper, which is often clarifying, and to share these ideas with others which is often knowledge building for the readers and I as the instigator of a subject. Though writing on a blog satisfies many of my writing needs, a blog is something that isn't edited by a third party,nor is there very much collaboration in the publishing of posts, at least in my case, which limits some of the power of the words.

I have always wanted to write for journals and magazines to share the great work in which I am involved with communities at large and to put my writing abilities to good use. So this summer I made it a point of trying to submit articles for publication and I was successful in sparking some interest!

The editor of Farm Folk City Folk's magazine agreed that its readers would be interested to hear about the devide between skilled young farm workers and farmers wanting of such labour and what is being done to bridge this gap. Please take a read of my submission on pages 20-21 of the Fall/Winter FFCF Magazine.

When did you realize your Grandparents were cool?

I realized that my grandmother (on my Mum's side), and by association the rest of my grandparents, was cool when I found these five photos of her in a shoebox in her room a few years ago.

The pictures were taken in 1938 while my grandmother was working at camp. She was 16 at the time. Despite her retro clothes, she too loved camping with her friends, swimming, being silly for the camera and having a drink. What most shocked me was how similar our faces were in the picture of her around the campfire - she is the blond on the left. It was weird to see some of my facial features in a person living over 70 years earlier.

That's when I decided that my grandparents, besides having a certain awesome factor as a result of their many stories from the wartime and growing up in foreign countries, were cool because they too were just individuals trying to find happiness in the world throughout their many stages of life. Just like I am doing.

Though all of my granparents are now deceased, I still think of them often and wish they could be here today. I wish I could know more about their lives and their dreams to be able to learn from their wisdom and experience.

Gordon Hull (top right) and Dot (Dorothy) Hull bottom.

Alex Thiel and Regina (Deschler) Thiel.

Adventure and Fear

At my friends house in Toronto, when I looked out of the bedroom window, the phrase "fear is ruining your life" was plastered on the wall facing me. I like these words because someone has clearly put them there, in big red letters, for passers-by to think about how fear is preventing them from doing what they truly want to do in their life. I too was faced with this struggle for many years, and am glad that I have conquered some of my fears. However, I also like these words because they are a reminder that I must constantly be challenging myself to deal with fears that are preventing me from 'being awesome', as one of my friends likes to say, on a daily basis.

Though I would consider myself adventurous, I am definitely someone that is constantly fighting to overcome my fear. To avoid emberrassment, I will not list all of the fears I have, but I would like to explore the idea of the necessity of fear in adventure.

Recently, a friend and I had a discussion about the 'fear requirement' for an activity to be defined as an adventure or not. He proclaimed, that unless a person had to overcome fear to achieve their goal, then the activity could not be considered an adventure. I, on the otherhand, believe that a person can adequately prepare themselves with enough knowledge and practical experience to be both mentally and physically prepared to undertake any adventure without needing to be afraid of what they are going to do.

My friend believes, that the planning and preparation I encourage prevents a person from truly experiencing 'adventure' because he considers this kind of preparation to make an activity to be completely prescribed. To counter, I think that an adventure happens when you are uncertain of the outcome or the elements you are going to be faced along any journey, yet you are fairly certain that no matter what comes your way, you will be able to handle it as a result of your preparation.

Ultimately, I think a person's definition of adventure comes down to their confidence, their life experience and their comfort level. Every person's tolerance for the unknown is very different. I like very much to be exposed to new experiences, new cultures, new lands and new physical challenges, which would make certain people consider me to be an adventurer. However, I also need a certain amount of predictability in the adventures I undertake, or else I may very well cower away.

Maybe this is why I enjoy planning so much - it is what has allowed me to participate in so many awesome activities because I considered myself prepared for whatever I am going to face. I am usually the one that is prepared on any excursion, and though I envy those that are able to just go with the flow and 'make it work', I doubt that I will ever be one of those people.

Nevertheless, I enjoy being pushed outside my comfort zone, though it does take patience, encouragement and trust. The best way to get me to do something outrageous is to let me know what I can expect, talk me through the process and then let me do it at my own pace. Once I am confident in whatever I have involved myself, I know I will be a rockstar.

So may the adventures of 2012 be filled with elements of fear for those who need it, and be predictable and jam packed with fun for those than need it.

Enjoy.

Felseck Farm

Orange sunset at Felseck Farm

Why do I want to farm? Why do I see myself working outdoors and specifically in food related industries? One of the most prominent reasons is my deep love of Felseck Farm, my late granfather's and now father's sheep farm located in the Laurentians of Quebec.

Growing up I spent countless weekends and summers at the farm. Without television or internet, it was here that I learned to explore outside to entertain myself. I'd fish, search for frogs in the brush, climb trees, stalk deer, go tobboganing with our pet cats, brush the horses and clean their hooves, bottle feed abandoned lambs, fly kites in the fields and nail together makeshift wood boats that my brother and I would race down the creek. One spring I even found a whole glob of frogs eggs in a quiet creek which I obviously had to bring home to show Mum, at which point she said I had to keep them so we loaded them into an old aquarium and took them to my grade 2 class to become a science experiment. We had a lot of frogs.

The farm is where I became close with my German grandparents. It is where my family spent many Christmases. It is where I learned to think practically, be skillful with my hands and to be adventurous. I had to learn to be agile to get across creeks dry, and I had to think more quickly than the animals I was working with to avoid being butted or kicked. It is also where I first had fun foraging for wild flavour-filled berries (blueberries, strawberries and raspberries), it is where my granmother taught me what mushrooms we could and couldn't eat and where to find them, and also where I learned to love home grown meat!

I had many other experiences growing up, but for me these are some of the most pleasing. And today, I am seeking to rediscover much of the adventure, the fun, the tactile work, the family and good food I grew up with on Felseck Farm.

Today whenever I return to Montreal, I try to spend as much of my time as possible on the farm. This year was no different. Right after Christmas Day my father and I drove up north to retreat to the farm - him to work on his new 'shed' and I for posterity's sake.

Here are some pictures so you can enjoy a bit of Felseck Farm as well.

Montreal and Toronto

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.