As my regular readers are aware, I pretty much keep most political things off the blog. Clearly I have a strong leaning towards the way a 1st world “rural Canadian” leans, I believe that we should be able to own our own homes, land. I show that rural in regards to believing in owning livestock and having the right to home kills and butcher on my own land for my and my families use. I do believe in the right to own rifles, be it for hunting, be it for Humane Livestock life ending or Livestock protection from Wildlife.
I also am personally a pretty firm women’s rights, right to Grow our own food, right to keep our own seeds, right to make your own personal choices as long as they are not hurting others. I have lived and travelled enough to understand that my culture is just that.. mine, not that the only or the best..
it’s just how I was raised combined with my life experiences that make me who I am at this moment, and its changed in so many small and sometimes bigger ways over the years!
Never stop learning and always try to understand and respect where other people are coming from if you can.. better even if you can learn new ways of thinking or seeing something..
So this is a touchy subject, I am really hoping to not lose any of my regular readers over this.. I mean if I can lose 5 over a head cheese post.. as a blogger we just need to not take it personal.. but for those who write comments and feel like friends and those that have been long-term readers.. Know that I know its a touchy subject.
So It shook me a bit.. when hubby came home to inform me that he would be taking a “course” in regards to what to do in the work place if there was a shooting event. Now I am not going to go into details on what he learned or how it was taught or anything like that. I am glad that he took the course because he felt that it was done well and he was given information that made him think about things in a different way.
That’s all well and good but It still bothered me.. I think it’s because in some ways we DO live in a very safe country, but I have still been watching the news where there has been over 20 people who have been shot in the closest city to me since the New Year came in..
I know that the area my hubby works in and the building he works in could be a target and so I am glad they are at least talking about it, and offering information etc.
It got me talking to a friend who is a female that is home alone a lot like myself (or now that mom is here.. two women home alone) and we both looked at each other and had a short moment where we owned up that.. we lock our house when we work in our barns, and that we never go anywhere on the farms without our farm dogs, where we went you got a broom, hockey stick, or ??? by the door, something just placed so in each room..
I have a very pretty walking stick that comes out with me a lot on the farm when I am alone.. but its thick and its hard and hubby and I practise with it.. I hope and pray I will never need it.. but I am still smart enough to greet the stranger in my lane with it in my hand..
It’s a strange world we live in.. In some ways so advanced, in some ways so much safer than it’s ever been and yet in others, not so much.. I hope my hubby never has to use what he learned, I hope I never need to defend myself on the farm. I wish the same for all of you.. may your day, home and life be filled with peace, love and more..
but…. just in case.. be willing to keep an open mind in regards to learning about what you can do to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
Just another Day on the Farm 
I sometimes wonder how my friends in the US stay sane … in 2015 we spent 10 days in Michigan travelling to and from a music festival. (we were travelling in our RV)The whole time I was there I felt a sense of unease that I wasn’t particularly aware of until we drove back across the border into Canada and I felt like I could breathe again. It was the knowledge that anyone, at any time could haul out a weapon and start shooting.
I know, rationally, that the great majority of the people there aren’t like that, but the knowledge that guns, of all sorts, were everywhere, was a truly scary thing.
Perhaps you get used to it, perhaps if we’d stayed longer I might’ve too, but truth is, that gun culture is something I never want to get used to.
The thing is I was raising in a hunting and even pleasure (black powder) shooting family, I was in the children’s 22 gun club part of the shooting range my parents were part of (they felt that not only should myself and brothers learn from them but also from even more knowledgeable people) my mom was once the 2nd top women target black powder shooter in Alberta, I know that the stats say that we have, given our much lesser population number wise just as many rifles, and so forth in Canada.. However like you, I will admit that I feel more “safe” in my own country.. I don’t much like that feeling.. and it was stronger in some area’s of the states I traveled in and pretty much not even there in others.. I felt very safe in Maine but I didn’t feel the same way in Boston.. Not saying its right or wrong.. but there it is.
It’s how the “proper use” is perceived, I think? And I’ll just leave it there…
Don’t worry, the bad people will always be able to get guns no matter what country you are in.
As you say there’ll always be ‘bad people’, it’s the unthinking ‘sheeple’ that are a greater threat.
I live alone and never venture out on the farm or hiking in the woods without several forms of self-protection. Whether protection from wild animals or other humans, I believe it is wiser to be prepared and never need it, than to need it and wish you had it. Just common sense to me.
when I was in my twenties and lived in the moutains as a single gal, I never went hiking or even riding with the same..
sorry, without doing the same
Oh Boy, you know how much I identify with this piece… And how much I truly hate that there might be any need to think in such a defensive manner… ):):
yes to both..
I think north of the 49th we are just ‘quieter’ about our guns. I travelled extensively in the states many years ago – lived out of my car all the way to Mexico and back…..witnessed several gunfire incidents – including one where I got jammed up in an intersection in San Carlos while the police ran for a taxi, guns drawn, ripped open the back door and fired several times until the man was quite dead. To me, the gun culture down there seems not much different today. I do think however, that the general level of anxiety is more noticeable. Many cities in Canada are dangerous places to be at times – whether you’re there, or tromping around your farm, it pays to be situationally aware and look out for yourself first and foremost.
And how on earth can a post about head cheese make you lose followers 😄
I remember moving to Iqaluit and quietly being informed that it was the rape capital of Canada.. five years and careful choices and life style and I only had one issue. guy followed me in my truck out to where I was going to take hike, run dogs and then blocked me in, I finally got out of truck with crow bar in hand, one dog on leash, the rest with window down enough that they could come out and went… there are x more dogs in the truck.. he had opened the truck door and one leg out.. looked at me, at the crow bar and the dogs and put leg back in and closed the door and slowly drove away.. went as well as it could have considering what that blank blank had in mind.. there are places in Ottawa I do not want to be in..
Just wondering about the head cheese bit myself…
I swear I had 5 folks leave the blog within two hours of the post..
?? Wow, really? Qu’elle bizarre!
I understand people feeling nervous about some parts of the States , but to be honest I have never felt as nervous in the US as I have In several parts of Ottawa at night. I’m not little and it takes a lot to make the hairs on the back of my next stand up ,but I’ve had that feeling twice in Ottawa. I live in the country and have firearms for hunting and have no misconceptions that everyone should like or want firearms but just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have them?. A trend I’m seeing is firearms ownership is growing at an unbelievable rate, every firearms instructor says the same thing, never ever seen this many people wanting courses??
I agree steve, both in the fact that there have been a few times maybe three or so where my radar beeped at me in Ottawa.. when it does that I listen. and yes, when I needed to take a fire arm course, I signed up for alerts.. full classes sold out in mear minutes and so many of my friends have gotten the training and their permits over the past five years.