My 21 year old cat is dying here’s what she taught me about life.
Shortly after I came to Kamloops many years ago I got a cat from the SPCA. My daughter picked her out because she came to her seeking affection. Her name…
Hedgerows
I absolutely love hedgerows. It is one of the best land use practices of the UK and yet didn't seem to make it over here. Everything else did so I'm…
Truck Traffic
Here in Canada Trucks are regulated both federally but also on a Provincial basis. Which means as you travel across our large country the rules change slightly. I live in…
My Top 3 Favorite Travel Notes to Self
Study and look over a map and routes to planned destinations; it is an invaluable activity. Orienting to space is helpful to spend less time being mildly lost. Wear comfortable…
Taxes on Used Goods
Recently our Provincial government instituted a tax on used vehicles. The tax is automatic so that when you insure a vehicle with ICBC the tax is automatically applied according to…
Pricing the Priceless
How a 60-year-old treaty cripples the Kootenays The outdated terms and priorities of the Columbia River Treaty (CRT) have limited hydroelectric infrastructure projects in their ability to modernize according to…
Conservation and Climate Change
The conservation of keystone species throughout the world’s ecosystems could be a valuable, overlooked mechanism to engage communities on the ground action to both mitigate and adapt to the impacts…
Heaven on Earth
I believe in Heaven on Earth. Or rather that Earth is our Heaven. If we so choose to create it to be that way. I believe we have the ability…
Favorite Essential Oil Blends
I have been using essential oils in my home as a natural way to keep me and my family healthy and balanced since long before it was trendy. Before the days of DoTerra and Young Living there was a gorgeous store in my home town called Sage which sold essential oils, diffusers and a few select blends. That was decades ago.
Fast forward to today and the internet is filled with recipes, remedies and recommendations for oils to use in your home. Long ago Sage published an amazing little brochure that had everything you might ever want to know about essential oils on a legal size sheet of cardstock. That brochure was folded in my medicine cabinet for many many years before I spilled a carrier oil on it and the lettering slowly started to fade. I wrote the company asking if they perhaps still made the brochure and if I could buy one. I had referenced it so many times over the years I couldn’t really imagine my life without it. They informed me that alas due to legal restrictions on “medical” advice they were no longer allowed to publish the brochure. (more…)
Random Break the Mould Thoughts
If you could live as though money were no object how would you live? In a home, not too big, with a wood stove and a well. Large yards permaculture…
Urban Homestead
One of the many problems with living alone is that you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of. You can do whatever you want in an instant and the only flack you’ll get is from you. This can be good or it can be bad. Like when you decide to have 15 yards of gravel delivered maybe a second opinion is a good idea. Maybe 10 would be lots.
And those life choices that you make the plans for the future, the goals. They are more fun achieved with someone, or maybe it is just easier to stay on course when more than one of you is in it. You’ve had the discussion, you’ve made the decision. You’re doing it. (more…)
Best Idea Ever
My kids are getting older and while they aren’t exactly staying out all hours of the night or anything they can do a lot of things for themselves. One of the things my son in particular likes to do is play music. He frequently pops in a ‘Little People’ CD and cranks it. Which after one too many renditions of ‘Wheels on the Bus’ got me to thinking he needed some new material. Enter the cassette tape. (more…)