Confrontational Awakening

Robert and I were taking our time waking up this morning, the radio playing, we lay, my head on his shoulder listening to today's weather report...ah, the romance of farm life...hahaha.... when I heard our favorite radio anchor announcing that the federal government had decided to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board.  Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked we lived in a democratic country where we all had the right to vote, and I distinctly remember voting in a farmer/user based plebiscite this fall as a member of the Canadian Wheat Board and a farmer that has sold grain through the Wheat Board, to KEEP, the Board in place.  

The issue is the big corporate farms, that grow crop on thousands of acres of land, don't like being restricted as to where they can sell their grain here in Canada, the Wheat Board originated out of necessity, to help small farmers be able to sell their crop competitively  during the depression in the 30's.  It still is the best way for a small farmer like ourselves to market our couple thousand bushels of grain every year.  But the big, big grain farmers want to sell their grain on the open market. They have dreams of loading a B train (truck with two grain trailers) and hopping across the border to take advantage of the higher U.S. grain prices. They are just not looking far enough ahead...the Americans are notorious for slapping tariffs and outright border closures on any Canadian product that might prove to be competition for their own producers.  ie: soft wood lumber, and more recently, BSE and the beef industry. The American group, R-calf , pressured the American government into closing the Canada-US border to all Canadian beef for four long years, basically cutting our industry off at the knees and prices were in the toilet for eight years because of it. While the U.S. continued to ship its beef into Canada to be fed in our feedlots. Driving the price even lower by over supply.  Free trade is suppose to ensure that while the U.S enjoys having it's neighbours to the north to ship it's products to, we, in turn should enjoy the same pleasure. But they slap tariffs and fines and outright border closures on our products and tie the cases up for years in the court system, we CANADIANS obey the free trade laws and do nothing in retaliation, allowing them to continue selling their products here with no tariffs, fines or God forbid we close the border.

Anyway, Harper and his minions have vetoed the farmers vote which by the way was I think (don't quote me on this) 67% in favour of keeping the Canadian Wheat Board in place.  Yup, he basically spat in the face of democracy and over rode our vote,  there is a few months to appeal, since the decision has to go in front of the senate before becoming legislation, but we all know that the senate is stuffed with Harper cronies...all slobbering and salivating to fulfill his wishes.

So, as a small family farm,  WE THANK YOU, STEVE.
For pulling the rug out from under us and proving yet again that the people who grow the very food your children eat mean nothing to you. We have once again handed over any power we might have had as to our own fate to the politicians, who abuse their power and have cut the small farmer off at the knees, yet again. Thanks.

I have been stewing over this next discovery for a while now and decided I was never going to come up with a NICE way to talk about it.

Just for the record, I am not angry, pissed or sad about it, just amused, and a bit aghast at the whole thing. It's silly really, and inconsequential in the whole scheme of things but still worth chatting about.  You might actually get a laugh  out of it...I know several people have...I am just resigned to it and after my initial surprise, wasn't at all surprised, if that makes sense to you.

Okay, you all probably know, from my whining about it a million times, that I grew up a bit of a needy kid....being the middle girl in the house I grew up in, meant that I was sometimes overlooked...being a Tom boy girl, didn't help and being shorter and bulkier than my twig thin sisters was a big problem.  Peg being the oldest got most of the new clothes, and she was a girls girl so there were ruffles, ribbons and embellishments galore.  When she out grew them they were suppose to pass to me, but much to my mothers chagrin, I was bustier and beefier than Peg and so the nice clothes bypassed me (much to my relief) and fit Pam instead.  But rather than just getting me some slightly bigger new clothing, I was subjected to the clothes shopping expeditions at the sally Ann (salvation army store). Oh, how I hated those days.  My first bra came from the sally Ann. I can still feel the mortifying heat in my cheeks as my mother held up a too large, yellowing cross your heart Playtex bra to my chest and said "turn around and look in the mirror" (yes they had a mirror in the thrift store, they must have got it from a CONKLIN SHOWS FUN HOUSE, it was the kind that made you look like a midget with no legs and a huge head...imagine my humiliation.  The ultimate shame came during grade four picture day at school, each class was called down to the gym for individual pictures and then group shots, and while in line for individual pictures I was sandwiched between two girls who were from the popular group with their skinny little legs in pantyhose and their flat chests covered in ruffles and lace. I was feeling some what good about myself because I was wearing what I thought was a pretty cool dress, multi-coloured with a mandarin collar and short sleeves, I had on knee socks and my sister Pegs heeled shoes, which I waited until she left for school before "BORROWING"  when one girl said to the other, something about a clowns dress and her sister had one just like it once before she joined weight watchers, the other girl giggled and then the first girl said my mom gave all her BIG clothes to our cousin except that one cause it had a stain on it, right there, and while she is saying this she points at my dress and what do you know, there was a stain there....both girls went dead quiet and I turned and left the line...when I looked back they were whispering to each other.  The teacher found me in the girls shower room...and drug me back to the end of the line...I have the group picture of that grade of school but I think I destroyed the individual one, because I knew where the stain was and I could see it even thought my mother swore you couldn't see it if you didn't know it was there.....

So I grew up with a very big issue about clothes from the thrift stores, and I know that now that is a big thing, people, even wealthy ones, shopping in thrift stores...but the stores have changed a lot since the sixties and early seventies...famous label clothing and bags are all the rage there...they weren't like that back then.  My moms favorite thing was the dollar bags...the store clerks would take a brown paper grocery bag, fill it with clothes for a certain gender  and age range and sell them for a dollar, so when you went in the door they were on a table to the right.... male/ adult    female/child   etc......
my mom would buy a few of these bags and we would have to wear the clothes all summer.  Once I was baby sitting a lot and saved my money I was buying a lot of my own clothes...jeans, T's and jackets.

But my issue with anything hand me down is still with me today and while I was recently at my nieces for a visit she and I looked through her mom's (pegs) photo albums and I saw some pictures I had never seen before or don't remember ever seeing.   There were some photo's of my first wedding in which peg was maid of honour and she and mother organised the dresses and flowers, I admit I wasn't a lot help in that department and I was only 18 and it was all happening so fast my head was still trying to catch up.....

A little further in the album I see for the first time pictures of Pegs first wedding. At first I just thought she looked lovely, and then I said hey, she had the same veil as me...so I flipped back to my picture and gasped....good god, I had a hand me down, second hand wedding.  While I was not wearing her actual dress, (which was store bought) my home made one was very similar in some ways...a high neck, nearly the same veil and her bridesmaids wore turquoise so did mine (peg and pam) her flowers were yellow and orange, so were the ones they chose for my wedding, plastic to boot. so whether it was deliberate or subconscious, I don't know but it is too freaky to be coincidence. take a look at the pictures..... she was married in 73/74 or there abouts and I was married in 77.

Enough said on that subject....curious thought, very curious.

I am back working outside on the corrals again. All  work halted while I was gone and I am now cracking the whip with a vengeance to have it done before we move the cows home from the field. Robt is having to chop holes in the ice of a ditch for them to find water and it is going to turn cold again so even that will be insufficient besides hard work. 

Our Christmas plans so far are to stay home and work. I will cook us a turkey dinner and freeze the left overs for calving time. But it will all be low key this year, no travelling I think and no pressure of being cheery for the neighbours so you don't ruin there Christmas. Maybe we will have a Wii tournament between Robt and I.  He is a competitive jerk sometimes but he cracks me up with his intensity.  hahahaha  Who knew quiet, mild mannered Robt would be so combative at bowling and table tennis. hahahaha

I'm Back

I'm back, I'm jacked, I'm better than ever....ahahaha Wow what a trip.  A great time was had by all, I believe, certainly by me. Jen and I reno'd A's bathroom, new floor tile painted the shower and pimped the whole place up with some kick ass accessories, even if I do say so myself. I mean who, as a teenager, ever had thier own  bathroom for christ's sake...give me a break. I had to share a bathroom with my parents, two sisters and brother, whom I swear went to school everyday with a dirty face because he always ran out of time before it was his turn. Poor Kelly.

Jen and I invited sister Leslie over for chinese take out one night and had a really nice visit with her, she is looking good and had some hilarious stories about her job at CIBC, and young drivers...hahahahah

I rented a car and we headed up island , stopping in Nanoose bay to visit friends of Jens, Guy and Donna. They are doing a stint at caretaking a heritage park, Moorecroft Park, it used to be a United Church bible camp but has recently been acquired by Nanaimo parks and rec. Guy took us on a short hike to the point and took some bird shots, he did a bit of bird whispering and we stood transfixed as dozens of little birds came fluttering down to the lower branches to investigate the source of the call. I asked him what call he was using and he said it was a combination of some small bird in distress along with an owl call, he said that the birds would come to get sight of the dangerous predator bird that is killing one of them. Like looky lou's at the scene of a bad accident.  hahahaha  We ate donna's awesome cinnamon buns and finished the drive up to Comox and caught the ferry across the strait to Powell River...

.I am not sure why I have such negative feelings about PR when I have never lived there, only ever just visited...but as an Albertan I feel hedged in and marooned, with only one way in or out and it is reliant on the weather to boot. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate and do, the beauty of the place...everywhere you look is a beautiful scene, but I wouldn't live there if you bought me a mansion. Too isolated for me, perhaps if I were healthy and independantly wealthy I would find it a better fit.




THE Rock on Klahanie Beach one of my favorite spots




klahanie beach, Powell River



We spent four event filled days there visiting Pam, Peg and the families. Pams grand babies are awesome, both so smart and talented. Maggie is a great hostess and she and Pam put on a magnificent spread for two nights in a row, with live entertainment in the form of the family playing Wii games...what a hoot. We played a board game as well one night and it was very revealing how alike our family thinks...the answers being all very similar. That was hilarious.
It was time to leave the mainland and we were a bit nervous about making the ferry since the winds were up and there were white caps on the water...we made it on, but it was a rocky ride and Jen got soaked when she stepped outside to take pictures...her hair was a sticky stiff mess of salt water afterwards. 

The only dark spot on the up island trip was the drive back...it tooks so long that the last leg of the trip was  in the dark and I don't drive so well in the dark with the road wet with rain and no lines due to construction....the lower Malahat highway was a test of nerves for me but we prevailed and I didn't realize how tense and stressed I was until we reached Jen and I had to let go of the steering wheel and get out of the car...my fingers were in a death grip on the wheel and when I crawled out of the low car my knees wanted to give out they were so shakey...hahahaha what a baby....

We kept the car another day and a half and the day after getting back from PR was the best day of my trip as far as I am concerned...Jen and I went shopping in the am. and then drove down to the ocean and walked along the cliffs,




Me on Dallas Rd on the cliffs




Mid day sun off the Pacific, Dallas Rd

 visited Ross Bay cemetery

This tree seemed lit up from within it was so brilliant



Jen made me climb this awesome pine tree, I won't show you the ones of me getting to this spot but I was about 10 ft off the ground here.



and then drove to esquimalt to visit Robt. sister,




Me in front of sister in laws house

 who provided us with a lovely tea and petit fours, amid her jumble of antique furniture and curios.  I could spend all day exploring her house, my interest was definitely peaked.

The temp that day was +12 with a clear sunny sky and light breeze, there was a kite flying competition on the point and I had a glorious time...I hated having to give up the car..Next time I am renting one for my whole trip.

Jen and I played competitive Wii and laughed ourselves silly, we painted her kitchen and set up some new shelves, the place looked awesome when I left.
I had a super great time with her and Ay. I love visiting them so much, it feels like home to me. But I missed Robt  terribly and talked to him every day and there were times when I got a bit homesick for him, okay it was all the time but I distracted myself with lots of activities. 

Jen and I saw a movie at UVic about the forgotten cave of dreams, it was awesome....a must see.   We attended a 40 th birthday party at a posh pub downtown, it was interesting...until some loser walked by the gift table, grabbed a bag and headed for the mens room....one of the guests raced after him and confronted him in the mens and demanded the bag back...we left while this was happening so I am not sure if they called the police or not but what balls would you have to have to pull something like that. This was a very posh, and hoity pub/restaurant (Bards & Bankers)

Any way I am back and will be posting more regularly so keep coming back.

Hey, Hey

Surprise, I'm still alive !!!!  Yay !!! 

I feel like I was run over by a whole contingent of Libian rebels in there sawed off toyota pickups with truck bed bazooka guns, but no matter how bad I feel, I bet Gadafi felt worse when they plucked him out of that drainage culvert. Man, what a nasty way to go, death at the hands of the very people you screwed over for forty years.... just reward I say.

Well the day is finally here, all the work ends today...not the stress, that I take with me, plus a bit more since I always worry about Robt. when I am gone. But nothing is more humbling than to worry and fret about things while you are gone, or someone, only to realize when you get back that they never missed a beat and unlike in your worst dreams the world did not fall to pieces while you were gone...huh, funny how that is.  Although the stressing I am doing prior to my trip feels like the well being of the entire world rests on my shoulders.    Yup, I am one of those control freaks...go figure.

So the work for me ends at the end of today and I get tomorrow morning to throw a few things in a suitcase and drive to the airport. Where am I going you ask, well not anywhere nearly exotic enough to suit me...unfortunately none of my family live anywhere exotic or touristy....and I have to go see family so the island is calling.   It will be great.  I always enjoy my visits to Jen.  It just seems anti-climactic after all the tension and pressure of the past month and a half.  But the crop is off and in the bins, the corrals are 90% rebuilt, the rest to be finished on my return. 

Gotta go outside now to nail a few planks on and put chain on some of the new gates. Robt wants to run a group of cattle through the new system this afternoon, so no rest for the wicked. Just go, go, go....see when I get back.