Been away a while, thought I'd give a recap as to what has been going on with me.

Greetings fellow permies.  It’s been a while since I ventured onto the site.  I sort of dropped off the map, and I want to apologise for that, but mostly for not saying anything as to what had happened or why.  

Last winter I found out that the place that I was renting with my parents (right beside my undeveloped property), was due to be occupied by my landlord’s mother in a few months.  

We franticly looked for another rental in my little hamlet for a place for my parents, and then started looking in the nearby towns.  Rentals are in short supply, but the property manager who we were discussing the rentals with put me onto the idea of buying a house instead.  I spent a good deal of time and energy in finding a house I was willing to buy, and then more time than expected (I’ve never been less of a credit risk in my life) dealing with a bank to get a mortgage.  

Right when that was all transpiring, an uncle of mine passed away.  He was not a blood relative, but was married to my father’s sister.  I was, however, somehow in his stoic way, the one he felt closest to.  He left nothing to his relatives, and wished to leave me most of his possesions.  This included all his shop tools, and the implements from his small acreage farm, his truck, boat, quad, 5th wheel camper...

When we had last conversed, he had been diagnosed with liver cancer.  He’d been misdiagnosed in September with an inflamed gall bladder.  He didn’t live long after we spoke, but I was sure glad to hear his voice and talk with him.  

We had always been close.  He was a double engineer, a man of fixed opinions and hard facts, but he always took the time to give a small bit of affection to me, building a working plane of balsa wood, or some other gadget.  I would sit on his knee in his engineering office as he finished it, and admire the model of the suspension bridge on his wall that he had handcrafted out of wood, string, and tiny nails.  The presents that he and my aunt sent to us at Christmas were always much anticipated and cherished.  For me, it was always science related, a chemistry set, an electrical kit, a microscope with slides.  It was later in life, when I sought land that our conversations veered toward such things as homesteading.  He was full of advice, and ideas, some of which I grasped onto and have incorporated into my plans.

At any rate, while he was still alive, my parents went to help my aunt look after him, and this left me to do some serious renovations to the house.  I was living in my schoolbus on my land.  I did all this while working more than full time, and driving an hour after work to the new (to me) house and then back to my school bus so that I would have less of a drive upon waking.  The electrical was a nightmare of dead or ungrounded circuits, but by some great grace, I was awarded a wonderful friend who quite by coincidence I bumped into at the small grocery store.  He had been a volunteer carpenter at the music festival that I help to run in the summer.  I told him about the project and he said he’d come by to help.  He was the brains and I was the labour.  I tore out several walls and installed new wiring, and we rewired and properly labeled the circuit box.  

Then there was the time spent moving and settling my parents into the house.  Then I had this idea that, in my super abundant (ha ha) spare time, I’d gather cedar logs out of slash piles set up to be burned in the local clear cuts, with the hope of milling it.

After traveling to the memorial in Alberta, I had to figure out how to gather all of the stuff, but first there was the deal of the will and estage and helping my aunt and coming to terms with the fact that she couldn’t give me everything that my uncle intended.  So I purchased the truck and 5th wheel from the estate, while being the beneficiary most of the rest.  The money from the purchase was then sent to my sister, which was great.

I have made two trips to Alberta with a flat deck trailer pulled behind my new (to me) truck to get farm tools and implements.

I spent a lot of after-work time building the festival site just before the festival in August.

I milled most of four heaping pick up truck loads of logs in the fall, but I did not have time to build the structure that I was intending before the frost and snow got the better of the land.  My intention was to build an 8X12 foot cedar posted and board-
and-battoned shed heated by a woodstove (to be replaced by an RMH in time).  This would have a small removable causeway that would connect it to the door of the 5th wheel camper (which I had moved into from the bus once I had it on the property). Without the addition, it was prohibitively expensive to heat the 5th wheel for the winter with propane so I moved into the house in town (which adds to my already long commute, further eating my spare time and my sleep).

So suffice it to say that I have not had a whole lot of extra spare time to be on Permies.  In fact, I’ve hardly been online at all.  

So this is my way of saying sorry, and explaining my complete disappearance from the site.  I probably wont be on the site much this year, either, at least in a role as staff, as I have much yet to do.  This year my aunt has already put the acreage up for sale, and I still need to finish getting the last of my inheritance.

On my last trip, I ran the tractor out of deisel in the middle of the yard where I had backed it up to an implement to be loaded on the flat deck.  I have a daisy chain of crappy extension cords going out to it, but I need to bring better ones out there (longer and thicker with less line loss), or I’ll never be able to start it, even if I properly deal with the fuel issue.  When I visit next, I will need to bleed the injectors, and probably change the fuel filter, and prime the fuel line, and say some magic words and pray with a bottle of ether.  There isn’t much left out there, but it will probably be two loads as the tractor takes up too much space on the trailer that I have at my disposal.  Or if the land sells too quick, and the new owners want the stuff expedited off the land, and I can only make one trip, then it will be the tractor with one implement.  

This year I have to get that addition built so I can be assured of a warm place for next winter, and then I have to build a shop.  Right now all the shop tools are stored in my semi truck trailer with all my other accumulated possessions.  Once the shop is walled up, the tools installed and benches built, I can start to fabricate the other structures on my land a lot easier, partially prefabbed inside the shop.

It has been a huge year for me.  A windfall, for sure.  But man am I ever tired.  I can’t seem to get enough sleep, but I’m working at it!

Wishing you all a happy new years and best wishes the year progress.  

~Pokachinni          

What a busy time!
Sadness about your uncle.

Very glad for the update.  I was just thinking about you this morning and wondering where you had got to.

I was just thinking about you this morning and wondering where you had got to.

 Aw shucks. I'm surprised and humbled.  There was a new apple in the firestorm bc thread... was that you?

There is more.  It's hard to know where to start with the rest.   But my mental health has not been optimum.  I have done a lot of self-help and taking time for me, despite the extreme busy-ness. I have finished flagging my backyard trail up the mountain to the Alpine (the lower 1/3rd of the trail is an actually built trail now).  I have spent some time climbing my fir trees to meditate/gain perspective.  I took a day off to canoe down part of the upper Fraser with some friends.  I've been doing a lot of writing, and a lot of reading.  I made some biochar, and grew my garlic (albeit a smaller crop).  Sadly I did not grow much of a garden besides that.  It was a strange thing for me, but I had to let it go.  I would have been driven crazy to try to keep up a garden on this rainy year.  But I'll take the rain over the fire threat the last couple of years.  The weed situation was insane when I went to try to prep beds for replanting garlic this fall.  

Upcoming this year, I have to also renovate the kitchen in the house in town, and restabilize part of the foundation!  No shortage of fun!  

Oh, and I've been on the verge of quitting my (railway welding) job for a while.  Nearly did it in December, but the job I thought I had lined up for January (doing pine beetle managment) didn't pan out.  Probably be leaving the job in the spring.  Got some carpentry and stone masonry work lined up helping a contractor friend, and that will get me in the swing for building stuff at my place.  I've yet to put my name in with the other contractors I know.  

I've, strangely enough, considered going to work at a gold mine!  A friend of mine has been there a few months.  The extreme bonus, besides the half-decent pay, is that it's two weeks on and two weeks off (so I could actually get stuff done at home), plus two week vacation (which makes a six week break).  The mine is managed a lot better than where I am working, and the benefits package is excellent.  Before anybody cringes about the toxicity and whatnot of the gold process, this mine has modernized it's production.  The gold separation is all done with centrifugal technology and agitation in water suspension, rather than using toxic gick.  The other thing about gold is that it's just such a weird thing to me.  like money.  It's tangible in a way that money isn't but it still is a baffling thing to me that it is so important on the planet.  living soil should be much more important.  holding water in the landscape should be more important.  Ecosystems should be more important.  But somehow it has gained a level of importance that defies the logic of my little brain.  

...But it is a potential way to earn money in order to get things done on my property.  

Still so much to do on a raw piece of land!  My head spins just thinking of it.  

 

Roberto,

I’m on and off as well. There’s something to be said for getting done what you need to get done and talk about it later. I’m sorry to hear about your uncle, my best friend is also an uncle and sometimes it’s a good break from direct family- not as much inevitable friction from years of close contact.

I work week on week off for most of the year and it is professionally less satisfying because there’s always stuff you have missed and the paperwork never has time off. But- it is great for projects that take planning and detailed implementation with modifications. I would get much less done. I think you are restless and this seems awesome. I wish I had your welding skills about now.

No apologies necessary, just appreciate your wisdom and openness buddy.

Hi Roberto;
Thanks for updating us. Sorry about your loss.
I would like to share a trick with you about starting your tractor.
You still will need to bleed the injectors but...  instead of using ether (horrible stuff) to help start it try this.

You will need an assistant to crank the motor, or a remote start switch.
Remove the air cleaner to gain direct access to the intake system.
Soak a good size rag with gasoline ! Yup gas... squeeze out the excess and tightly hold the rag over the intake pipe (DO NOT let go) crank the motor... the suction will draw in the gas fumes.
As there is no liquid gas it will ignite safely in your diesel engine.  
Much much more reliable and safer than ether.  Works every time and a lot cheaper than those cans of ether!  Just don't let the rag get sucked up!  

Thanks for the kind words and apples and pies and such!  feels real nice to be with my online community. :)

I think you are restless and this seems awesome.

 I'm certainly restless! If it wasn't for the need to get so much infrastructure accomplished, I'd have quit my job and wouldn't be looking for any kind of industrial pay out job.  But how does one start a farm from scratch at 50 years old?  I just want to get some stuff done while I have the bigger youthful energy still in me to get it done.  Problem is, I am extremely hard on myself and set way too many goals, and sort of set myself up to under-accomplishment (only because I set out to do so many things!)

 I want to settle back down and relax with certain things in place.  I'm restless for the time when that is the reality.  It doesn't really feel awesome, most of the time, to be honest.  Part of that, is the current unfulfilling job, and part of that is that the job eats way to much of my spare time and has eroded my mental health in too many ways to describe.  That's why I'm going to leave it.  It has been an alright means to an end, but... not really.

The job has taken it's toll, and the dream permie project is something that has been building in my mind for decades, but the restlessness that I feel extends way beyond that.  For many years I was a vegabond, free spirit, traveler type of guy.  In that regard, I'm paying the price for 'retiring' in my early adulthood.  But also, it's part of me, that wanderlust, that need to experience new things, and meet new people, and exchange ideas.  That's one of the many things I love about Permies, and the idea of building community in my hamlet and valley.      

Thanks Thomas.  I'll give that a try! There is already a can of ether at the farm... but I'll grab a jerry can and get some gas to try that too.  I hope the farm doesn't' sell anytime soon, as the weather in central Alberta is getting downright frigid, and starting that thing is not going to be easy, but I need to get that tractor.  Hopefully the new owners, if the farm does get sold soon, will let me have the tractor there until spring. It will be far easier to start it when it's above freezing. Yesterday it was minus -22C with fortunately no wind where I was working (near Jasper).  This weekend or early next week it's supposed to be in the -30's here and there.  It's going to make for some real crappy work days... as I'll be sitting, welding, outside. yay <-super duper sarcasm.  ;)

I suspect that you know this but.  Propane weed burner inside a chunk of stove pipe underneath and a blanket /tarp over top.  Really helps.  If you have power , a magnetic oil pan heater will thin up the oil.
Can you tell I work outdoors on heavy eqip ?

yeah, Thomas, I can tell.  and I'm grateful for any advice.  Another 'uncle' (this time actually a third cousin, but closer in age to my parents), is going to come to the farm from another part of Alberta when I go there next to get stuff.  I might borrow a tiger torch (from work) and bring a chunk of stove pipe to do just as you suggested.  I don't have a weed burner, nor do I know of anyone who does.   Thanks for the reminder, though.  There is a Canadian company that puts out a special unit that does this sort of thing, it's called Herman Nelson.  This is the ghetto-rigged version of that. I get it. It's pretty common practice around here to do that.  Usually the actual Herman Nelson heaters are blasting heat into an enclosed area, like under a tarp, parachute, or Quonset hut, or... you name it.  So yeah, the tarp is a necessity to keep the heat there doing it's thing.    

Welcome back Roberto!

 In that regard, I'm paying the price for 'retiring' in my early adulthood.  But also, it's part of me, that wanderlust, that need to experience new things, and meet new people, and exchange ideas.

My kids were watching the Homestead Rescue show, and it made my mind swim that people think they can just go out and live in nature without a pushback because they have a dream. It really made me sad. You have seen a lot of failures and you will make fewer of them- and pass that knowledge on freely. This is sooo important because there is a lot of failure leading to disenchantment leading to "safety living" which is anything but. Your uncle was that guy for you, and you can be that for others. It is a value to have taken a less direct path, don't we always say life exists on the edges?

Thanks Joylynn, I really appreciate the welcome.   I can't say that I'll be around much, but I will be sure to stop by now and then.  It's one of my New Year's resolutions, to connect here and to give a piece of myself to the outer world.

It has been a blessing though-not the time away from permies, but to simply be offline so much.  Even at work, when I occasion into cell service range (most of my work is in remote mountain areas), when I would normally have checked my email or looked something up, I mostly just check my texts from friends, or I don't look at the phone at all; it's much more often turned off.  People text me sometimes, asking me if I'm alright, because I haven't responded to an email or facebook message for months.  Others think I'm a Luddite, and perhaps I am; I certainly have felt strongly the pull towards a far simpler existence, free of the burdens of technology.  

Spending much less time on the computer or the internet on my phone, diving down rabbitholes that lead to an endless catacomb-this I believe has allowed more time for the mental processes that I've needed to at least begin to figure out and partially recover from some serious stuff psychologically.  Though some of those rabbitholes have led me to wonderous places, hidden treasures of knowledge and magical pools of wisdom, I can not imagine the time that I had wasted online looking at drivel, advertising, or something equally repulsive to my Spirit.  (and what of the collective time that has been spent by humanity on similar paths?   But isn't that life?  Ha ha!  At least it seems to be, in the wealthy part of the world at this time -But has there always been that, somehow?  Is it necessary that the culture encroach so deeply, so pervasively, with so much omnipotence into our most sacred places, our minds, our time... imprinting on our lives so deeply?  Maybe it's my empathic nature, and my rebellious nature, combining to thwart me from joining the modern rat race to spin the caged wheel of this culture, for some strange technological fullfillment...  

...I just see it as a bit of an addiction... my sister's whole family looking at their phones at Christmas for hours.  I ended up picking up a memoir, instead of visiting.  Thankfully there were breaks where we engaged, making the visit very worth while, but it was an strange thing to behold, from the outside, as an observer that is not partaking.  It reminded me of a time that I visited the same sister with my partner at the time, and we played some new game (not a computer game, it involved cards that had questions on them) that my sister and her first husband had.  It involved knowledge of recent pop culture, and I failed miserably at it because I had spent the past few years living totally off grid in a tiny cabin.  After it was over, I declared myself the winner, explaining that my head was free of all of those trivial facts of the lifestyles of the rich and temporarily famous.  We all got a good laugh at that, but, there is a sad truth to all of it.  What are we being robbed of?  How are our neuroplastic minds being shaped by our behavior?  I just feel invaded by culture, and I still haven't found exactly where I fit in it, or if I really want to.  

But I have vowed to continue to connect, to not sever or dissociate from the culture completely.  There must be a way, but it will take more discipline than that which I have displayed in the past.  When I have gone online, I have been much more exact about searching something, not allowing myself to be distracted or tangetialized gaping into other windows, and being invited by endless invitations.  This efficiency has been a blessing.  I think it may have brought a certain clarity to other processes in my life.

Sorry to ramble, or philosophize or whatever I've been doing this morning.

Maybe its that I just hope that those reading this can gain a bit of wisdom from hearing about me pulling the reins and, if not stopping, at least attempting to slow the horse that has been pulling me to quickly without proper guidance.  The internet, and this site, are tools, tools to connect me to the things that I hope will help me progress as a person connected to the deeper intricate networks that sustain the Earth, to the communities that are holistic units of interaction, as well as connecting me deeper with myself, my spirit and my purpose and place on this planet at this very important time in history.        

You have seen a lot of failures and you will make fewer of them- and pass that knowledge on freely. This is sooo important because there is a lot of failure leading to disenchantment leading to "safety living" which is anything but. Your uncle was that guy for you, and you can be that for others. It is a value to have taken a less direct path, don't we always say life exists on the edges?

 Yes, it's true TJ.  I'm hoping that people can learn from my mistakes and from my successes equally.  I seldom share my failures, so that part of the knowledge has not been passed on quite so freely.  

The edges are indeed the most productive places.  I have danced in the dragons jaws though, and I have sensed the extreme danger of trying to live in two micro climates at once; it takes a constant vigilance, for the free market and the culture that embraces it has no reins unless we demand it.  The industrial world where I choose to work, and the natural world that my spirit craves, are polar opposites, and combative at their very essences, where one is sustaining and regenerating, and the other toxic and oppressing.  I try to justify my place in it, and find myself lacking the necessary arguments to win the case, and at the same time, it's very challenging to extricate myself from the cart with the dangling carrot just out of reach. I want the carrot, and I want my freedom, and damn the cart.  So I have to figure out this space, this very strange dichotomous edge where I can be in the technological world AND be a productive healing force on this planet.  I haven't found that particular edge, that single unit of chaos and calm, my personal zietgiest, yet.  But I'm trying.  And I hope that I can inspire that in others as well.

Roberto: What an awesome legacy from your uncle to work into yournew life! You are really getting quite a jump start on it all, coming up with the stuff I need keeps being an issue for me.

Roberto Pokachinni wrote: But how does one start a farm from scratch at 50 years old?  I just want to get some stuff done while I have the bigger youthful energy still in me to get it done.

Hahah, oh sir, I ENVY you that, I'll be 57 in a month, I'm a small female, and I've been disabled by multiple factors since 1996. And I'm doing it, with only my 81 year old mom to help and damn near no money. You have strength, energy, and a heavy jump start on tools and skills, and money coming in from your job. You CAN do this, you have a LOT going for you, and a lot of life experiences to know what can be done with it all. I have faith in you, and look forward to seeing progress updates every so often.
 
And I totally agree, you won that game, knowing that stuff just occupies valuable real estate space in your head!

Keep up the good work, and update us every so often, I look forward to seeing what you do! Because I KNOW it will be neat :D

Thanks for your encouraging words, Pearl.  I really do love this community.  It's... somewhat strange to have such a close feeling in an online forum.  I know bits and pieces of you people, and I am very fascinated by people, and I am very fascinated about the possibilities of permaculture.  I like how everybody has their place that they want to make work, and I love being able to help make that happen.  I want it for myself too.  The biggest hurdle for me is that I want it all done, now.  I have this high level of frustration at how little I have done in regards to how much I want to do.  I've put such a big push to get where I'm at right now, and I just want to take a big sabbatical or something, but I know that I need to push on for a while longer.  I've barely scratched the surface of what I want to do.  The problem is kinda, that I finally seem to know some of what I want to do when I grow up!--And there is this intense feeling... this eminence, that is pushing me forward.   ...but I'm pretty exhausted.  Really exhausted.  And the job is... relentless in its demands on my time.   The land is paid for, and I did it in 7 years.  Phew!  That was huge. Massive. The biggest debt I've ever had: $125,000 plus all the interest (I never bothered to calculated it!).  Then I go and buy a house in Town!  $80,000.  Dirt cheap by urban standards, or even the level of property in the other town, but... it's 80FreakingGrand!  What the F@$k was I thinking!  ...But my parents are paying rent equal to the minimum mortgage payment, so there's that.

Hahah, oh sir, I ENVY you that, I'll be 57 in a month, I'm a small female, and I've been disabled by multiple factors since 1996.  

 You seem to have a great attitude.  I have much to learn about that.  Ha ha.  For me, I chose to do this work in a thankless corporation... my place in it is so small and I just try to do the best I can in it.  If I'm not the smallest person in the company, I'm really close I'm sure.  I'm pretty tiny, 5'5'' and 125lbs. ...and I've been missing a foot since I was 3, so my body definitely has it's... disadvantages in a heavy labour situation.  But I'm pretty O.K. swinging a sledge hammer with the big boys most days when I have to bust it out as a labourer.  But then I got into the welding dept.  Which is Ok, except when it isn't, which is... almost all the time, because I work in a two man 'team' with my foreman who does 20% of the work... And that's probably the best thing that I can say about him.  ...And, even though the position is locked in for 4 years, that was somehow not mentioned in the job posting.  And... the company has this strange policy that if you bid up in wage, you can not bid down in wage, and since the welding department is one of the highest paid, even if I keep at it for 4 years, there are almost no positions that I can bid into! And I'm being sent to third year school at the end of the month, which is in Winnipeg, the coldest city in Canada.  The great thing about that is that I have really good friends there that I go and visit when I get sent there, so... there's that!  I am, after all, an optimist.  I might not come across that way sometimes, but I am.  I have great hope that we can change this planet, that we can do this thing on the grand scale, and that we will.  So you might here in the near future, like April, that I quit, got paid out for my pension contributions, and just decided to float for a year and build some stuff.  We shall see.

Roberto,

I know Paul is interested in people teaching ATC stuff, and while I struggle to think welding would fit the formal definition, in the real world metal work is a tremendous skill. I wish wish wish I had been exposed to welding and metal work (brazing and torch) much earlier. Metal has become cheap and almost disposable but it has a massive carbon footprint and we should be rehabilitating equipment rather than scrapping it. Have you considered a permaculture targeted YouTube or teaching role given your expertise? I mean I am really learning how to find scrap, identify metals to figure out proper alloys, decide metal requirements for applications etc. it’s all out there but not really targeted to my audience at all. More for people unboxing and selling equipment rather than showing rehab projects.

I don’t think I know enough to do a decent job with it, but I see so many errors by the usual YouTube suspects that even as a grasshopper I cringe!

Your “dead end job” is very valuable to a lot of people.

Welcome back! I always enjoy seeing what you post, although honestly reading your current adventures/plans I feel like I need to go get a cup of tea and go lay down with a washcloth on my forehead, it's exhausting just to think about!!!

<<I declared myself the winner, explaining that my head was free of all of those trivial facts of the lifestyles of the rich and temporarily famous.  We all got a good laugh at that, but, there is a sad truth to all of it.  What are we being robbed of?>>
I so often feel exactly the same. Sometimes I feel a bit sad for my siblings or for other people but in the end I can only be responsible for my own spirit, my own heart, my own soul and the relationships in which they're involved. I'm glad there are other people out there who understand that I value my relationship with my dirt, with my mulberry tree, my yard rabbit much more than I value my relationship with current pop culture.  

Have fun and I hope you can find some time for sleep at some point.

TJ Jefferson wrote:

Have you considered a permaculture targeted YouTube or teaching role given your expertise?

 Yes, but not in welding.  Lol.  I have learned welding, to a degree, but I'm positive there are people on this site who are vastly more skilled in the art of welding than I am.  Travis Johnson, for instance, is vastly more skilled than I am.   There are certainly many others.

The company I work for trains people only so far as they need them, meaning that my training is somewhat limited, and my experience is even more so.  My ticket is not transferable or part of the Red Seal program, but I could challenge the Red Seal exams and practical if I thought that I could pass, but I know that I would not pass.  My training is alright, but it is not applicable to most welding that you might be thinking of.  My foreman does most of the interesting welding.  I do mainly one type, which is more toxic, boring, and not readily transferable.  

That all said, one of the tools that I gained from my uncle is a small welding unit which I will learn to use.  If I feel that I have some proficiency in it, I just might post a video showing it.  The difficulting with displaying welding is that it is blindingly bright, and so it has to be done through welding lenses.  I do have my welding manual, and in it there is a lot of great information.  With it, and some practice, I'm sure that I can show people what I know.  But like I wrote, there are many who are much more skilled than I on this site.  
Tereza Okava wrote:

I so often feel exactly the same. Sometimes I feel a bit sad for my siblings or for other people but in the end I can only be responsible for my own spirit, my own heart, my own soul and the relationships in which they're involved. I'm glad there are other people out there who understand that I value my relationship with my dirt, with my mulberry tree, my yard rabbit much more than I value my relationship with current pop culture.  

 That's all we can do.  Our responsibility can only extend into that which we have sway over, and others have to live their own dreams or illusions, or whatever it is they are doing.  We can try to influence them, but our actions and our happiness and our relationships to everyone and everything speak far louder than any attempt to change the habits of others directly.  We wage a war against dominance and destruction, by waging peace for a living... but all that feels even strange or hypocritical for me to say at this time, considering my current job.  It's not exactly my dream.  It's toxic and promoting globalized trade, and... I could just go on and on.  It's just a means to an end.  And the end is in sight, thankfully.  

Have fun and I hope you can find some time for sleep at some point.

 I'm actually reading an excellent book about sleep.  I do have trouble with it .  One of the many recommendations in the book is to not be on the computer in the evening... and here I am!  Lol.

Thank you Roberto Pokachinni, We are sorry for your loss of a loved one, and truly inspired by your resilience following all of the chaos that comes when those we love are seemingly no longer with us. My families prayers are with you. May you continue to be well and in good health. May your labors bear fruit for you and those around you. May you continue to have peace of mind to weather any storm. May you always find hope in the coming of the new day and discover purpose of those blessings bestowed upon you that will continue to improve quality of life for you and the world. May you be full of Spirit Always. Amen.

Thanks for your kind words, blessings, and prayers, Larry.  

My aunt sold the acreage and I need to get the rest of my stuff by March 15th.  I am on day one of a two week vacation from work to get the last of my stuff.  It will take two trips.

I have a man of able body and mind to help me, and the trailer is already dug out of the snow and at his place.  ln order to get the tractor moving again, I have shovels, a tarp, a kerosene heater, an extra long and thick industrial extension cord, a long contractor extension cord  

As the saying goes, The ducks are lining up.

I'll be leaving to do that on Tuesday, as my time is in demand for the first part of this time off.

Tomorrow, I will go to 'Seedy Saturday' a day of seed exchanges and gardening talks in my local community.  

On Sunday I am going to a keyline design course with a great instructor, Javan Bernakevitch who I'm familiar with from a Permablitz at the Darfield Earthship.

On Monday evening I have an Annual general meeting for our music festival where I stand on the board of directors/coordinators.  

I continue to be employed by the railway at more than full time hours, but am planning to quit at or near the end of April.

I've been off-permies for most of the last month because I've been super active in spreading truth about some heavy political /environmental / social justice stuff going on in my province and country right now.

I've been reading my copy of Jon Sitka's book that I won at permies, The Soil Owner's Manual.  I've read it three times and will be creating a thread based on my thoughts about it.  I'm hoping to involve Jon in the thread.  

Peace to all.

This thread I started today touches on some of the stuff that I've been doing this month based on the Wet'suwet'en protests that have stalled the Canadian economy for the past few weeks.  Understanding Wet'suwet'en

I've started a discussion thread about utilizing the techniques/methodology of Jon Sitka's book: The Soil Owner's Manual