My Back to the Land Parents taught me young about shifting sands, on one hand I was allowed to flourish as a wild child, barefoot and bushy tailed, land, water, hounds at feet, wind running over me as I rode from a young age small and BIG horses, quads and moterbikes.. Honor the land, honor the animals that provided the meat, eggs and milk.. nurture the soil that crops our gardens and fills our pantry and yet the main source of income for my family.. pipelining.. my father worked the lines.
Part of the reason we moved so much was following the pipelines, and part of the reason we lived for many years on the edge of the towns, in the bush, in the cabin, in the holiday trailer, why over and over things were sold and we moved with so little only to start again an again as the “across the tracks/new kid”
We got to see the best in peaple and we got to see the worst, the peaple who would reach out and give a hand, who were kind.. and those that were not, taking labels off the cans at the small stores, and then selling them at a higher costs, you could get dog or cat food as likely as you would get peaple food.. peaple who would try and find a way to wring out that “oil” money from the workers in as many ways as they could think of.. there was a target on your back both ways, you were that “bad” pipeline but also you were.. they get paid lots of money, lets get our share of it.. Sigh..
It helped me grow up to fast, get jaded to soon and it also made me wildly flexable.. I can find a way.. this is a good trait to have, it makes me think outside the box, it makes me watch and quickly figure out how to fit in the box, learn how a group interacts and meld little things to fit in better..
It also made me see things in many MANY shade of grey, my world is NOT black and white.. but I still see good and bad in so many ways.. as I grew and aged, I make choices on what I will do in regards to my own personal life and how what I do effects the outside world..
One of the things I am big on is you can only vote for your local goverement or federal X times so many years but you can vote with your dollar every single time you open your wallet.. Voting with your dollar is FAR more powerful.. I still vote always.. I am aware of just how amazing it is that I was born to this country and this time as a female.
The past 20 months and I have a feeling the next coming years are really pushing my compass.. I mean I am pro-vaccine if you choose to get it while I am 100% against it being done by force and yes that includes financial distress.
I made the choice years ago that I would not support business that went cashless, this is a line for me.. I do not agree with a cashless Society as it supports some peaple while adding in to marginalization of others.. Even when I want to use the place of business, I make it clear that I not buy because I can’t use cash even if I was going to use my card..
I have made the same type of choices over and over in the past 20 months.. making choices to support small and local but also making choices to not support businesses that are splitting and marginalizing.. while its not their fault “they are following the rules” I am supporting those that are doing their best to treat everyone with respect, if you clearly do not care about those that choose not to get the vaccine or can not.. then I will vote with my dollar and you are not getting it.. I will find a business that does both and they will get my money..
More and more of these moral related subjects are coming up, my favorite clothing store contracted work to a company using peaple that are supporting N,K, Now I grow my own tomatos’ but I do normally buy tomato paste in the itty bitty cans.. have I bought and supported a company that is using what must be called modern slaves in the middle of a slow genocide..
The list like these goes on.. more and more we see just how fragile our “world supply chains are” and just how much they are laid on the back of the poor.. I have over the years supports so many fair trade, so many co-ops, so many small businesses and I am glad I have and I will..
But I find its getting so big, so intertwined that its becoming brutally hard to make some of the choices, so many companies that were at one time small and local and supported local farmers were bought out and kept the name and the small friendly face while being owned by the big boys..
I am used to watching other countries media spin hard on many things and do not get me wrong, I have seen our counties spin for many many years as well.. I mean if you asked my friends after pretty much any movie afterwards I will make a comment, well that was a in support of X or done to make us more open to x or y or z.. If you have not figured this out yet.. watch TV and movie’s to see what the think tanks see coming down the line.. often you can get a glimpse into what they see as the next issues
Also margaret atwood is crazy good at looking at small things and figure out lines of thought patterns on what could be..
However the past two years have put the Spin so high in our own country, I no longer need to look outside it to see so many of the issues that we saw in other countries,.. because they are right here, right now and in our face..
I for one, do not have the answers.. I do not even know what my own answer will be.. what it would have been tomorrow or what it will be today is not what it could be tomorrow..
So many peaple have become Ridgid, others are so loose on the moral end that they need to be given the eye, and marked in your head as “do not trust further then you can throw them”
At a time when we need to be as open to new information, open to new ideas, open to going backwards for answer, we are instead being driven to be guarded..
Stay flexable.. it will serve you well in the long run.. do not let go of your core morals.. but for the rest.. be willing to shed it and grow a new version of you..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Well said, well said. We didn’t move as much (my dad was equipment/dam builder/forestry/farmer) but I recall the budgetary constraints of life in the boom or bust of an oil province. Until we started farming, our diet was moose, partridge, duck, and them bloody pike. Milk was considered a treat. At no time did you open the fridge and help yourself.
I am nothing if not adaptable, even as a kid I understood it was not smart to rely on the system.
I’ve always been well prepared – these last two years, I have still felt like I’m in control. This last week? Not so much. Still prepared yes, but some even harder decisions will have to be made. The rolled oats/barley mix we supplement our dairy cow with – just went from 310 a tonne to 420 overnight. This year we did no pigs – barley is 565 a ton. Next spring we will not be getting meat birds – the price of wheat, makes each bird a 42.00 bird when in the freezer. To purchase bagged grower, almost double that.
I find it numbing, that we can live in Canada (the bread basket) and not afford to raise our own meat. I’m tired of watching our grain get exported to other countries by the ship load – if I want to buy wheat it’s a six hour drive one way.
Yes. I’m adaptable. In control? Not so much. If I didn’t have my back up before, I do now.
Yes to all of this, those price points are crazy, but keep in mind for the dairy cow, that all the costs of dairy will be going up min of 15% at the stores so you can still get a huge amount of product and value.. I expect you already know this, but I will ask anyway.. do you use milk clabber to help cut feed costs on the rapid growth meat birds? Clearly, its still cheaper if you can get a moose but it really can cut costs on the chicken raising
Oh yes, our cow feeds everything on the farm. I clabber milk for the chickens, all the whey from cheesemaking goes to the pigs….technically the cow pays for herself many times over. Aside from the milk, cheese and butter, we also get a calf off her every year or so. Win win – she will stay no matter what, regardless the cost because we get that back tenfold.
The trick is to have her milking at the same time we have birds/pigs on the farm. This coming year, she is due in February- so fingers crossed all goes well with the calving. When you don’t own a bull, or AI doesn’t take – sometimes her calving date isn’t ideal for that. Yes my mind is going a hundred miles an hour these days working out the logistics. I can maybe see a way to meat birds with some considerable advance prep. Pigs? Mmmm – probably not. We’ve nowhere to send them for slaughter any longer, and I don’t have a scalder, etc etc.
(Watch me send hubby out to build a scalder 🤨).
Yep. I’m down but definitely not out.
It will be interesting to see if we can even get broilers and layers this coming year what with the billions of chicks needed to replace the ones in the lower mainland that died in the flooding.
I never thought for a moment that you were out my friend 🙂 I expect we will all be making choices that will then be reflected in our freezers, jars and tables.. its going to be a interesting time..
I’m 100% with you on voting with your dollars – here in Western Canada it’s the only voting power we seem to have. We also do not support businesses that gleefully support vax mandates and will give all our $ to those who have found work arounds as we are 110% against mandates. Now and in the future. Fortunately, more and more people are seeing shades of grey when once they saw only black and white.
So far, The Man and I have been able to roll with the punches, we are both pretty good at adapting. It has been difficult in this unfamiliar environment of a small city in a two bedroom apartment without any land at all, but we are managing. New challenges mean new opportunities to discover – right?
Keep on keeping on.
Voting with our dollars is truly one of the most powerful daily choices we can make.. Glad you are adapting, we are all going to be very busy adapting that’s for sure.. thank you for the overview Crafty..
Crisis is usually an opportunity to rebuild differently. Sadly, I don’t see most people having the behavioural flexibility to do so. So many people have shown me just who they are, all it took was a bit of a stressor in the form of Covid. It’s good to know, but it’s also really sad that so many people wont do small things for the sake of others (like restrict pleasure travel for a while). If I had more dollars I would be voting harder. In the meantime, I vote where I can. It’s always a balance.
There is a huge point to be made in what you posted and that is the fact that years of friendships or work/life/hobby folks have shown some pretty interesting and intense reactions to stress.. I know that the level of hardship has been different for me, but no matter who, I really think everyone has felt added stress.. Better to learn it now, because at least we will have a better idea on who to count on as more things keep coming at us..