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 is the evening before Soulstice, the biggest annual celebration of the Slocan Valley. I can hear drummers practicing a distance up the hill. Soulstice just happens to be hosted by Ricardo, my dear WWOOFing host. Danielle, a longtime Winlover ("Winlove" being this village's nickname) I recently met, pointed out to me how fortunate I am to have gotten the opportunity to WWOOF for the man she dubbed the "Wonderful Wizard of Winlaw". I'm probably getting the best possible first experience of Winlaw that this village has to offer.

Ricardo and I wandered through Nelson yesterday to do a few errands. It seemed as if almost every other person we passed knew Ricardo, offering anything from a friendly greeting to an ecstatic gabfest. From the various people he met, Ricardo gathered that Soulstice is the talk of the town. He didn't even advertise this event. I guess he is a wizard.

In preparation for the visiting masses, I've been helping Ricardo get the garden looking its most fab. One thing that I've been doing is scything his cooch grass, bracken ferns and thimbleberries surrounding the fruit trees, and I daresay I like the work. I think it does my body much good. Ricardo has quite the experience using a scythe. He used to have a job bushwhacking paths through the forest using a scythe. I found a file to sharpen the blade yesterday, which probably doubled my productivity. I will have a scythe on my farm.

I posted more photos...

BC 2008

Labels: farm, people, photos, solstice, winlaw

Hey friends,

I'm having a pretty great time in Winlaw. It's a magical place. Here are some things I've written to others about my last couple weeks. Enjoy.

Well, the permaculture course rocks. And it's only been two days. Today we hiked through the mountains and listened to Shanoon, an expert in medicinal herbs and wild edibles, describe how virtually everything we came across not only had a use to humans but was in fact much more nutritious than almost any garden variety crop, explaining why they're much better absorbed by the body than conventional medicines. It really made me rethink the concept of "weeds", and what it means to put a plot of land to "use". Most people begin with the assumption that land must first be cleared before you can make it useful. What I learned today showed me how absurd of a notion that is.

The people taking the course come from all kinds of backgrounds and levels of experience. Yet we're all so in-line with our philosophies; when Gregoire (the teacher) says something that in my mind begs the question "but how do you do it without fossil fuels?" or "but don't tires leach chemicals into the soil?" it seems there's always someone in the group who beats me to it. It's sooo refreshing to be among a group of people - indeed, living in a whole village - where everyone is generally on the same page! Nobody in this valley asks you to explain what permaculture is; they were brought up knowing the answer. Few question why you don't drive; they assume you don't and know why. :)

~

I would say that the soil is very rocky, at least at Ricardo's, but it produces green abundance like crazy. And Gregoire's land is totally easy-breezy to till, as it's lower in the valley flatlands than Ricardo's and probably has been farmed for longer. Everything that grows here is giant-size - the trees, the ferns, the dandelions. Even the people are. I feel like a dwarf sometimes, to be honest. It's like being in Giant World in Super Mario 3. Most of Ricardo's friends are pretty tall. Ricardo himself is 6'6.

Serene and magical. We've been eating a huge salad of wild lettuce and sorrel from the garden every day, Ricardo and I. The organic eggs in the only Winlaw food store are produced in Winlaw, a village of 400 people. Ricardo's hosting a solstice party on his highest clearing where there's a stage and an old school bus. One year 500 people came.

Today we visited an old farmer and his wife. Frank is pretty concerned about peak oil and is basically running his whole farm by hand. He's a metalworker and inventor, but he's pretty anti-technology; he thinks it's mostly to blame for our current predicament. So they're sowing buckwheat and rye and barley and peas and corn and sunflowers all by hand. Growing corn for enough chickens by hand. And their chickens are beautifully healthy looking - 13 eggs per day. They even have mothers incubate their chicks naturally. Pretty good considering all the other food growing and construction projects they've got on the go. They're building lots of cob stuff, and also concrete. He showed us his beautiful concrete root cellar with potatoes and preserves in it. And then we all just hung out at his house for an hour eating home-grown oatcakes and drinking tea. At the end he talked about how he wishes there were more young farmers out here leasing the land of older folk who don't have time to do anything with their land. It reminded me that renting/leasing might be a really good idea for the short term.. maybe even long term. I'm going to be looking into it.

The children I've met are so beautiful. I've met a couple gypsy mothers with the most well adjusted kids. Lots of young couples here with young kids and babies feeding them organic food. There are people with glowing auras and old souls. I'm going to visit a herbalist next week, an older woman named Shemaha with a face worn and weathered. She can be a bit blunt to you at first, but she has the warmest smile, and much wisdom to share.

Not to mention that it's sooo beautiful here and abundant with vegetation and wildlife. It smells incredible - nothing like the prairies or Ontario. It's so in-your-face sweet! I feel so spoiled to be here, eating wild and garden greens for dinner every day, drinking directly from springs and creeks. I've been learning a lot about medicinal plants and wildcrafting. It's amazing how many of the plants in the forest have medicinal or nutritional value. I now look at the forest floor in a completely different way. I see food everywhere!

The general sense I get from the people in Winlaw is bursting positivity. Everyone pretty much knows all about the unfolding world crises; people are just preparing for them by gardening. It seems like everyone has a garden. Almost every friend of Ricardo's that he introduces me to ends up in conversation with Ricardo about something relating to plants or animals. There are so many people who have come to Winlaw for the same reasons you and Chris talk about, too. Many people came here because they simply didn't believe in having "careers".

I haven't even really seen Nelson yet. I got there the first day and Ricardo took me to a cafe and the farmers market. I was already impressed by how interesting the people looked and how beautiful and charming the town was. But then he drove me to Winlaw and I haven't had to visit Nelson since. There are three buses that go between Nelson and Winlaw every day, for $2.75 I think.

Labels: bc, bike trip, eye-opening, farm, gardening, peak oil, winlaw

Okay, okay, fine... I'll post to my blog.

:-D

I'm an uncle. My nephew, Quanah Willow Kristoff Shotwell, was born April 20th. He's as cute as can be, and I love him very much.

In other news, I'm heading out to BC in less than a month. I'm taking a permaculture design course (or "PDC", as they're apparently known) in Winlaw, a village not far from Nelson. Then I'm going to stay out there, hopefully until I've nabbed me a serious piece of real estate. Gonna grow most of my own food, yo. It's exciting.

Until then, I'm going to be crazily busy trying to get all my projects done and moving out of my apartment in Toronto. Should also be exciting... :P

Love to y'all.

Labels: baby, bc, farm, land, permaculture, Quanah

Well, I don't really know what to say. Lots of things have been happening. I'm working for George Brown. I'm making candles. I'm going to screenings of What a Way to Go. I'm knitting socks. Painting kitchens. Thinking about the future. Reconsidering whether I want to travel. Whether I feel safe travelling. Whether I feel safe with the idea of not having decided by next year where my long-term home base is going to be. Whether I'm ready to stake my picket-pin and prepare to weather the coming storms.

I feel a sense of urgency to settle down and start growing my own food. Should I go travelling first? Is that wise? My gut right now is saying no, find your land! Maybe right now my gut's just in a weird spot emotionally.

But if I don't go travelling first, will I ever? There is so much of the world I have yet to experience. Dare I be selfish and splurge on some peak oil to check out the farther reaches of the globe while I still have the chance? The Seven Wonders of the World? Hawaii and Japan and India and New Zealand? What will the Americas be like in 5 years if I wanted to bike down to Peru? Something tells me it's not going to be any easier in 5 years. I may not be able to leave what might have turned into Canamerica in 5 years. New Zealand is starting to sound appealing...

Labels: bike trip, civilization collapse, climate change, farm, peak oil

I'm back from my week-long farm holiday – and what a holiday it was. I loved every bit of it, and I was sad to have to leave. I'm so in love with farming! I'm actually starting to reconsider whether I still want to do this bike trip down south, or just drop everything I'm doing and commit my life to farming. The latter option is now more tempting than ever.

See the latest pics:

Farm holiday, summer 2007

I spent about a week at Everdale, and I had a great time. I loved all the interns, volunterns, and volunteers – particularly Braham, a 62-year-old volunteer of east Indian background. He spent a week at the farm, and seemed as impressed by the interns and other farm volunteers as we were by him. He wants to buy some farmland in the near future, and I expect he'll keep us in mind for the future.

2006 Everdale interns Jo and Jen visited for the weekend, and it was splendid. I got to witness the beginnings of the trebuchet project. Garrett constructed a 1/3-scale model one evening and launched rotten apples and bags of gravel to get a sense for what adjustments to the trebuchet affected distance and trajectory. The interns plan to have a trebuchet party when the full-size version is complete.

After my stay at Everdale I biked to Whole Circle farm, where Maggie greeted me with a glass of cold kombucha tea. This year Jeff, Leslie and Ali (all former Everdale interns) operate a CSA at Whole Circle independent of Maggie and Johann's meat, dairy, potato, grain, and dry legume operation. Their interns are Jon (whom you all know), Jared, and Amanda. I started off by helping roll in row cover from the squash plants, which looked incredible – not a trace of cucumber beetle, and they looked healthy and lush. It gets me thinking that Everdale should seriously consider making better use of row cover (which means they'll have to construct a decent spool dispenser/collector, because it's hell otherwise).

Dinner was fantastic, because it consisted mostly of Whole Circle pork that was more tender than any I'd ever tried to cook myself. I always find the cooking at Whole Circle to be incredibly, almost mystically good. (Must have something to do with the farm being biodynamic.)

I got up at 3am the next day to bike the long stretch back to Toronto. I left at 3:50am and got home at 8:45am, so it took about 5 hours. Whole Circle is closer than Guelph, and it's also downhill the way back, so that seems reasonable.

Now I'm back in smog-saturated Toronto (yes, smog! SMOG SMOG SMOG), and I wish I didn't have to be here. In fact, I don't, really. I have the option to walk away and start afresh if I really want to, and I think I just might. Soon.

Labels: bike trip, everdale, farm, smog, whole circle

Pictures from my week-long farm holiday thus far...

Farm holiday, summer 2007

I biked for about 7.5 hours Monday to get from Toronto to Guelph (including breaks). You should try it. It sounds daunting, but evidently it's not impossible. I'm sure you'll agree that it's very rewarding, and you'll feel great for doing it. I took the bike trailer (thank you again, auntie Ann) to carry all my gear.

First stop: Tarrah and Nathan's little farm at Ignatius, where Jon is also living. It's a very cozy place. Tarrah's raising Berkshire pigs, turkeys, and chickens, and they all look remarkably healthy and happy. She also did some double-digging in the spring and has some really healthy-looking vegetables growing biointensively.

Second stop: Everdale. It took me about two hours to bike from Guelph to Everdale. I was welcomed there by Angie, one of the interns this year. Stacey is here as an intern this year (she was a volunteer last year), and Carl is back for his summer "voluntern" position. Over the course of the first day I met the other interns: Joe, Cam, Garrett, Harris, and "voluntern" Joscelyn. It's definitely an older and male-heavy crowd this year - quite the opposite from last year.

Last night we had a steambath. Holy moly. That was really intense. Last weekend the interns built a steam sauna beside the strawbale cabins, including cold shower with a rock patio (Team Ambitious!). The steambath was a great experience. But I almost thought I was going to die. :)

This weekend the plan is to build a trebuchet (like a catapult). It will probably be used to launch rotten pumpkins down the hill, put hopefully other things as well. They were inspired by McCully Farm's trebuchet (McCully's is a popular Everdale field trip destination).

Labels: bike trailer, bike trip, everdale, farm