das loft

I wrote this a couple weeks ago in Nelson. Sorry for the delay in getting it posted...

I have been having SUCH a good time in Winlaw. Peggy's farm and Peggy and her WWOOFers, Mike and Janet, are so much fun. Peggy has a story for every conversation topic, and she always tells it in a way that makes you laugh. She spent six years in northern California (Humboldt county) learning about natural building. She bought this farm in Winlaw a few years ago. She's so laid back, in a way I find to be very balanced. She also takes on a lot of projects and knows her stuff about straw-bale, cob and light-clay construction. We helped her build part of her sauna, which she hopes to have finished by winter. We've been doing lots of plastering and some straw-bale construction. I scythed her garden perimeter and built her a cold frame for her one sweet potato plant. There's tons to do at her place, and it keeps me pretty stimulated. There are also constantly things going wrong, but it's never really a big deal to Peggy. She quickly makes light of almost any disaster. At least, this has been my experience while staying on her farm, and it's probably one of the reasons I'd have no qualms staying there for a lot longer.

I love it in Winlaw and Nelson. Well, I still don't know much about Nelson, save the 4 or so days I've spent here, but it seems like a pretty rocking town. There's definitely a large number of well-off, somewhat alternate-reality retired folks here, too, and unfortunately some completely differently-minded former Albertans and their townie skate-park kids. There is a Wal-Mart, too. But in general I think people are youthful and positive, artistic and thoughtful. There are also quite a few people obviously affected by hard drugs, but at least they're more interesting than most of the people you see in, say, Cobourg.

Winlaw is the place for me, though. At this point I could totally see myself becoming Peggy's long-term farm assistant, as Mike seems to have (he's been there since last fall). I felt so at home at Peggy's, and I think so did Janet (she's leaving the Kootenays at the same time as I am). Peggy's expecting Janet and me to come back before long. I'd really like to. Everyone here repeats how beautiful Winlaw is in the winter. They apparently turn the rails-to-trails path into a cross-country ski path during that time, so instead of biking to the health food store, you'd ski.

I have many more pictures posted now. Enjoy.

BC 2008

Labels: bike trip, drugs, farm, nelson, photos, winlaw

Here's an update I sent Jon not too long ago:

I met Peggy at the permaculture course, which finished 3 weeks ago. She has a farm in Winlaw, and she's super fun. 34, really experienced in natural building as well as gardening, super friendly, pretty frank, and you can ask her anything. I came to Peggy's and one of the first things I asked her was whether she had a scythe. (I was inspired by the tall, thick cooch grass that came right up the edge of her garlic, onion and potato beds.) At first she didn't think she did, then she remembered that someone had visited her once and left their home-made scythe here, but nobody's made use of it since. She wasn't sure if it was any good, but showed it to me and I fixed it up a bit. The "bar" of this scythe was carved wood, and the blade was attached by that copper stripping stuff (looked somewhat makeshift) and was getting a bit loose. I added another screw and it seemed to tighten it well. I sharpened the blade with a file and got it quite nice. It only had one handle on it - for the left hand - so with my right hand I had to hold it by the bar. I used it to scythe around the vegetable patch. It worked really well - very sharp, maybe sharper than Ricardo's scythe, even - but I found myself switching the way I held it with my right hand pretty often because it would get sore. So I think I need a proper right-hand handle which would allow me to turn my wrist exactly halfway between the two positions I keep switching it between (as I imagine most scythes have). I haven't had a chance to build one, but that's the next step. At the end of scything, I noticed the blade had come a bit loose again, probably from all the dirt and/or rocks I banged the blade against as I used it (which can't be good for the blade anyway). I'm sure I have to learn how to avoid banging the blade against anything, but it's a bit tricky when the grass is so tall and the land isn't flat and hasn't been fully rock-picked. That just seems to be how most of the land is around here.

Yeah, BC is awesome. You know it. I'm having trouble coming up with reasons to prefer Ontario over BC. Sure, the land isn't flat here, it's rocky, and it's expensive. People are worried about the private hydro-electric installations and say the rivers are at risk. I learned today that California has destroyed most of its rivers extracting gravel, and it now relies on imports from BC's gravel pits, thus destroying BC's rivers. The way clearcut logging and planting happens here is apparently the reason for the annual droughts and also the proliferation of the pine beetle. And it's common knowledge that the economy of the Kootenays is sustained by the drug trade. The mosquitoes are bad in Winlaw (not that it matters much). But the people are fantastic, the markets are wonderful, Nelson has the largest selection of bulk items in Canada at the Kootenay Co-op (bulk essential oils?!), the air is incomparably fresh and delicious, the summers are hot but not humid like in Ontario, the vegetables and fruit trees grow large, the creeks supply the cleanest water without filtration (for now), organic, raw milk is not difficult to obtain, the mountains are gorgeous... and I haven't even been camping or gone to the natural hot springs yet (I will be soon, though).

As you can tell, I'm pretty tempted to make this place my home...

More updates soon.

Labels: bc, drugs, farm, food, gardening, nelson, winlaw

It's 4am and I can't get to sleep. It's true I've been regularly staying up pretty late for the past while, but I felt pretty exhausted today, so I'm a little surprised I'm feeling so awake now. What the heck's keeping me awake then? Oh right, the cocaine...

Well, a paltry amount of it. I had coca tea for the first time today. Kate Mechan brought it back from South America. (Thank you Kate! Sorry you weren't here to partake.) Coca tea - it's nice stuff. Tastes a bit like green tea, but better. I didn't realize it would keep my mind so stimulated for hours afterwards. It actually feels quite a bit stronger than caffeine. Normally I can get to sleep if I drink coffee a few hours before I go to bed.

Is that thunder? Perfect.

I wonder now what cocaine must be like. I'm almost... curious. Though the method of taking it kind of disturbs me. And the effects is has on people disturb me even more. I think every sane person I know who's tried it isn't interested in trying it again. I should probably take a hint.

I've got to get some solid hours of sleep before I have to bike to the Everdale CSA dropoff tomorrow afternoon... I've already had a tall glass of warm milk, and that didn't work. I guess the only answer is to visually recite the alphabet again. I don't think I've ever actually made it past R whenever I've done that. (Thanks to Jon for the technique.)

Labels: cocaine, drugs, everdale, sleep