December is for Shoveling
December 21, 2009
Most of last weekend was spent shoveling.
Manure.
Saturday was one of those magic “December on the Coast” kind of days.
It was sunny with the temperature around 12 degrees C.
Perfect for shoveling a big pile of manure, and converting some lawn into edible garden.
Details on my garden’s website – SunsetGardens.ca
Oh.
If you’re wondering why my garden has its own website…it was jealous of the sailboat’s website, so now it has its own.
Things You Figured Were True, Are.
October 14, 2009
Sometimes a news story just jumps out at you as being so obvious that it’s hard to believe someone’s actually doing a story about it.
Two today from CBC.CA.
First story. It’s only surprising it’s taken this long for someone to turn up evidence that big tobacco knew ages ago that cigs are bad for you…
Imperial Tobacco Canada destroyed up to 60 early studies that linked cigarettes to addiction and carcinogens, according to a review published Wednesday in the online Canadian Medical Association Journal. (full story here)
Perhaps not surprisingly, Imperial Tobacco makes no mention of this on their web site, but proudly proclaims this:
We’re an international tobacco company focused on creating value for our shareholders.
Imperial Tobacco products are available in over 160 countries worldwide. Our geographic diversity and versatile multi-product portfolio provides business resilience and a strong platform for future growth.
Future growth ! Shareholder value !
Well guess what ? All the future growth and shareholder value is based on a product that will kill you.
My sister, a 2 pack a day smoker, died of lung cancer in her early 40’s. I was with her when she died.
Not a lot of future growth there, fellas.
Second story.
It’s surprising someone gave university researchers a $150,000 car to do this study, proving that fast cars and testosterone are linked.
Well, duh.
Researchers at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal took 39 willing young men and let them take a cruise in a $150,000 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet.
The men were then asked to drive a 16-year-old Toyota Camry. (full story here)
According to the lead researcher, “just put a guy in a Porsche, and his testosterone levels shoot up”.
Well, duh again.
But hang on here.
Every time I get in our Toyota Yaris, I most definitely have a little testosterone thing going on. Fully loaded, the Yaris clocks in at under 20-grand and even used to get a gas-miser rebate from the feds.
Maybe the John Molson School of Business should come out here and do a little study on us West Coast Men.
Newlyweds and Dill Pickles
September 17, 2009
The Lower Mainland called in the big guns today – Sunshine.
After yesterday’s winter-like-but-not-yet-winter-rain-here-to-remind-you-what’s-coming rain, it was sensational to soak up the sun today.
I had wonderful session with my RMT at Complement in the West Van Rec centre. I’ve been seeing her for a couple of years now, and today was one of those magic sessions where I left feeling like a different person. Nice.
My newly-married-sister-in-law and her new husband are returning from leg 2 of their honeymoon in Quebec City, so thoughts of heading out on the boat to chase the sunshine for a couple of hours, had to be put on hold. They’re here overnight then head back to Portland Oregon, having now spent more of their married time in Canada than in their home country, the grand old USA. Ha!
With a small early afternoon window, I decided to do up some dill pickles. I’ve got a seemingly endless supply of fresh organic cucumbers in my garden. I love an old fashioned garlic dill pickle, and found what looks like a promising recipe/post called Dillicious! Homemade Dill Pickle Recipe the Mennonite Way.
The thing is, I’m trying this recipe with a bunch of lemon cucumbers, and a couple of Suyo Long variety – not exactly dill material, but what the heck.
I love the smell in the house – that’s awesome combination of vinegar and pickling spices that reminds me of when I was a kid, watching my aunt Simone in the kitchen. I spent most of my summers hanging out at her house with my cousins. She somehow always managed to do wonders in the kitchen while holding a cigarette in one hand and a Black Label beer in the other.
There always seemed to be an endless supply of chips and pop, which we’d get after helping her in the garden. We’d pull fresh corn and peas for dinner, then shell what seemed like bushels of peas (for freezing) while sitting in the living room watching daytime TV. I can’t eat fresh peas from the garden without being reminded of The Price is Right, The Dating Game and the Newlywed Game.
Hmm. That gives me an idea. Maybe tonight over dinner with my sister-in-law, I’ll have to give them a Newlywed Game quiz.
I know, when we open up one of these pretty little jars of dills later this winter, that the memory of my aunt Simone will be right there as well.
Bears With Me
September 15, 2009
All summer we’ve been planning a combined camping/sailing weekend with some friends of ours who are hard-core campers. They’d heard me talk about Plumper Cove Marine Park where I spent many a weekend this summer on Madsu.
Their family of five walked on the Langdale ferry at Horseshoe Bay, then took the water taxi to Keats Landing, then hiked in to the campground at Plumper Cove. While they were doing that, we sailed to Keats from Horseshoe Bay aboard Madsu.
One of the things our friends asked about were bears. I told them not to worry, no bears on Keats, so they left their bear proofing gear (mostly food cache ropes/bags) at home.
We had a fabulous Saturday afternoon playing in the water – the cove really warms up in the Sunshine and it’s a treat to be able to spend hours and hours swimming in the sea in September in BC.
Sunday morning as we shared a cup of coffee at our friend’s campsite, the parks people came over to inform us that, in fact, a bear swam over from the mainland and was at that moment cruising the beach behind the campsite.
Much excitement ensued, including packing up all the food and bringing it down to the boat.
We left around noon, knowing that our friends, now without a speck of food, would be safe from even the hungriest black bear. And we left Dane and the rest of the parks crew to deal with the interloper.
There was a decent inflow up Collingwood Channel, so we had a spirited broad reach in Howe Sound once we reached the channel, and it held up pretty much to all the way to Hood Point off Bowen Island.
Back on the dock at Horseshoe Bay, I was surprised to get quized about ‘the Keats bear’ by our friends on Sea Dragon.
Apparently there had been lots of VHF radio chatter about the bear, mostly warning boats anchored to keep a watch out if they were rowing to shore.
Through some bizarre alignment of planets, our friends arrived just as I was washing the boat down. They’d taken the water taxi from Keats back to Gibsons Landing, then taken a transit bus to the Landgale Ferry terminal, arriving at Horseshoe Bay just in time to catch up with us.
They fetched their car from the parkade and picked up their gear, and we all went to our respective homes to shower and tell tall tales about the bear we never even saw.
Once settled at home, I went out to dump some garbage in our big green bin, when I got a bit of a surprise. Since we’re in bear country here on the north shore, we keep our garbage bin inside a shed. While we were gone, a bear came by and did his/her best to try to rip the door right of the shed in hopes of getting at the bin.
The bear would have been successful too, had we not started using a piece of pipe, New York apartment style, to jam the door closed. We’ve had the odd bear claw marks on the shed door before, but never a concerted demolition attempt.
Time for me to do a little work shoring up the door. From the Bear Aware web site:
The rule of thumb is that if it can be dismantled using a crowbar then it is not bear proof.
All this just reminds me of how large our (by that I mean HUMAN) impact is on wildlife.
There is nothing at all unusual, at least for a bear, about a bear swimming over to Keats Island. It’s only an event because we’re there, totally unprepared.
Back at my place, the bear should be munching on the wild berries in the ravine behind the house, or even the apples and pears growing in my front yard. Instead, these natural foods are ignored, in favour of human garbage, a meal residents readily provide, because its too inconvenient for us NOT to.
Canning Is Sexy
August 28, 2009
I gotta say.
Taking fresh organic vegetables out of the garden in the morning, and by early afternoon seeing them transformed into beautiful jars of food we can eat months from now, is, well…
Super.Hot.
And knowing that they’ll taste ten times better than anything I’m going to find in the supermarket, is well…
Really.Really.Super.Hot.
All that’s involved is:
- a little simple chemistry with water, vinegar, sugar & salt.
- some spices and seeds (like mustard) for taste.
Way back, when I first tried making pickles and other canned goodies, I used to phone my grandma or my mom for advice.
Today, I just have to lean over the counter to the keyboard and Bing!, within seconds I’ve got dozens of detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make the very best [name your preserve] EVER!
It’s like having an entire old folks home full of grandmas at your disposal – even better since almost all come with reviews by people who’ve tried them.
The other thing is, this canning stuff doesn’t have to take over your life. You can easily put up just a few jars without turning your life (and your kitchen) into a cannery. Crank up the tunes, turn the burner up high, and go for it.
Today, for instance, I did 4 jars pickled beets, and 1 of picked jalapeno peppers.
Now that’s sexy.
Ok, maybe my excitement has a tiny bit to do with the fact that I’m still recovering from septicemia.
But still. I haven’t been this excited since EB showed me her…
Well, never mind.
(cross posted to VanGoGreen)
Hey Kids, Let’s Have Some Recession Fun
June 10, 2009
When I was growing up, about the same age as my kids are now, I can recall my parents talking about the great depression. ( I actually thought they meant it was, you know, Great ! )
They got through it, but never forgot it.
It coloured their approach to work, spending, savings, credit and risk taking.
Our family lived with 2 golden rules:
- Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have
- Don’t Buy It If You Can Make It (And 2.a, if it looks like you should be able to make it, learn how)
My father literally made my first 2 wheeler, welding pieces of derelict bikes together, then painting it up and presenting it to me for my birthday. I was the only kid in Grade 2 with a peddle bike that weighed more than I did, and that once underway, could go for blocks on its own momentum. My mom sewed a lot of our clothes, and taking a tip from her mother-in-law, wrapped my lunch sandwiches in the wax paper ‘bag’ from inside the cereal box.
Growing up in the sixties, I couldn’t understand their hesitancy to get the latest and greatest on offer all around us. Even when I finished high-school in 1974 and left home to take a job in another town, my parents still had a black & white TV. “It works – it’s paid for”. To this day, they don’t have voice mail. “Why pay 3 bucks a month ? If it’s so important, they’ll call back”.
It was easy to misconstrue all this as just being cheap. Surrounded by the relative wealth of your average Canadian town in the 60’s, I really couldn’t understand how they could be so stuck in the 30’s. The great! depression – get over it !
The events of the last 8 months have made it painfully clear to me why my parents understood ‘credit’ to really mean ‘debt’, and why they remained vigilant so as never to be caught out again by catostrophic economic events.
The thing is, as a family, we actually had a lot of fun with very little. While I was terribly envious of my pals at school who had summer cottages and power boats and seemingly endless supplies of pop and Old Dutch potato chips, I spent tons of time at the beach with my family.
We’d drive down to Clear Lake or Lake Dauphin for the day, and my mom would haul out her plastic bins filled with home made munchies and Kool-Aid. I can’t recall once eating in a restaurant or even at a concession stand. What I do recall are endless days of playing in the water or on the big lawn by the beach in Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park. My dad would haul out a rickety old badminton net and we’d play barefoot for hours.
We didn’t get to curl up in front of a fire at the cabin, but instead would pile back into the Chevy for the drive home. My dad would always find some bizarre back-roads route home to keep things interesting, and evenings were spent playing card games together at the kitchen table.
40 years later, I find myself out in the front yard, setting up a rickety badminton set. My kids, weaned on PSP’s, Gameboy and Wii, are dragging me out to play with them almost every night after dinner.
This evening, we played a new card game together called Word Frenzy that costs half what we’d have to pay to go to a movie, and it had us in stitches for hours. I’ve been told, in no uncertain terms, that we’re playing again tomorrow.
We’re finding that doing with less doesn’t mean DOING less.
In fact, I’m thinking this recession is turning out to be pretty good fun.
And I’m thinking my parents were right all along.
Now if I could only convince them to get voice mail I could call and tell them so.
Heritage In Your Backyard
March 10, 2009
We had a great time tonight at the Handsworth School Heritage Fair in North Vancouver.
Students showed off the displays they created to illustrate dozens of important events and people, all part of Canada’s heritage.
As you might expect, there were displays on historical events like Canada’s role in World War II & the underground railroad. Also, important Canadian personalities like Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas – and – Geddy Lee.
I was thrilled to see a few bits of local history get their due.
One student showcased North Shore boy Bryan Adams, and included a model stage complete with guitars and PA stacks.
Just around the corner was a display that would make Dangerous Dan proud, celebrating world-renowned North Shore trail riding (complete with the student’s own Banshee parked in front of the display).
It’s great to see teachers encouraging this kind of thing, recognizing that history makers don’t have to be ancient, and could just as well be walking up the street in Edgemont Village.
