plastic

 I try not to bring any new plastic in the house.

My grandma Sientje, one thing i remember is that she washed all her plastic baggies and hung them out to dry outside the kitchen door, this was 1970-ish. A thing that was not done then. But ha! somehow i probably always was the reuser. And going through an era of recycling, which i fully embraced, but was always odd for me, i kept reusing what i could. 

I do think many of us have now re-entered the concept of reusing, which includes making things out of things that otherwise end up in the dump.

So yesterday when a friend posted something about single use plastic, the post looked like such plastic was a good thing, but as it turned out she only meant that buying a brand new grocery bag might not be the better solution. To which i can  fully agree .

If people buy a new bags every few years, probably nothing is gained.

So i wonder how long do you use your grocery bags?

I suppose my oldest bag is at least  20 years old,  I made it from second hand fabric (double for sturdiness). So  in essence  it is older still.

I can honestly say i never bought a  grocery bag, and always had lots, things come to me:) but i have to say my husband got a bunch of woven plastic ones  for free with the opening of a grocery store. So i call that cheating. But hey what does end up in my house, gets used as long as it lasts.

dangerously cold weather

 I wish everybody a warm safe home.

 But am wondering what your approach is to it all. Do you go out no matter what, knowing you are safe no matter what. Relying on your own resources, or putting your safety in other hands. I am sure there is a bit of both always. But for me no i did not  rely on roads and all to be safe. and stayed away from travel in a vehicle, till yesterday when it warmed up considerably and not much snow here.

Also for the house it self, it baffles me that  even people in the Yukon here  there are  people  that have no back up plan for heat when there is a power outage. And i am not talking about marginal people, I am talking about people with secure incomes.

I am very blessed to live in the country were there is a lot  of safety provided by the government. But let's not forget that that always can only go so far. And  shouldn't we always have some sense of self reliability were we can.

We did have a most lovely X-mas celebration yesterday, it felt odd to do it after Christmas, but as soon as we all arrived we were totally in the groove.

Thankful for good friends.

Happy Solstice to you All

 A super special one this year,  as we came through the longest night of the year with a whooping 7 degrees Celsius warmer then the night before. It was a dark one though, as there was no moon.

 Back to light!

minus 47 Celsius

 Right now  at sunrise, it is the lowest temperature this week at my house. Away from the house that is.

So we did go for our first walk already. This temperature makes for busy days. The power was out a few days ago, that slows it down a bit,  because there is much less one can do without power. I do love it.

 So let me describe a bit, our lovely bright sunny days in the deep freeze.

I wake up all snug as bug in my bed, and my first joy, as always when i realize i am alive right here and now.  I learned that from Pema Chodron, to give myself a compliment that i am aware of the moment here and now, and that always makes for a smile on my face, when i do remember.

Don (husband) has been stoking the wood stove all night (i think he gets up twice) very grateful i am.

 I meditate  the first half hour.

I did not do my exercise this morning as i am too eager to get up, to see the thermometer. -45C

when we are having power (electricity)

We listen to the radio , Buckshot Betty came on this morning, i think she had -57 C at her house in Beaver Creek YT. Local  temperatures always seem lower then the ones recorded. 

Yesterday we believed the weather man, he always says something like the cold will only be short lived, we kind of doubt him, because we have lived here a while.... he was wrong :) sorry.

I make coffee,  I could use the woodstove, but my cooking stove is propane without an electric starter. A few days ago we wrapped up the propane bottle in a few sleeping bags.

I let the water run hot ( collecting the water always we haul our own so waste none) so the pipes warm up.

Before the cold snap we hauled both drinking water and water for the holding tank system. When it did get cold, i made sure all the pipes were exposed, not hidden behind cupboards and all. as they will draw in the cold. through well insulated walls.

Don keeps hauling in wood. stoking the fire.

I use the outhouse in the morning , a ritual, as we do have  plumbing, but i like the adventure of it, many glories always. But these days i do dress for it, a minimum of two layers.

I make breakfast.

I check my email and all, i have been busy with inaturalist lately, it seems with the cold everybody is reviewing stuff.

 i make a phone call.

 And finally we get dressed for our morning walk, hurray!

In the house i wear pants , long johns, a wool undershirt a t-shirt, a top and a sweater, wool socks.

For outside i added today two pairs of snow pants, haha i like to be warm, a  big down coat, a double layered toque, a scarve, gloves, liners and bison mitts.

ok it is lunch time, thanks for reading this far,  but i gotta go now  make lunch.

protected land

 I have said before that i do have radio rage. Not so much rage really but exasperation for sure. 

On the Yukon news these days, it says 25 % of the Yukon will be protected, going as far as 30 %. Which to me is kind of a joke. I calculated recently that very roughly 90% of the Yukon is still wild. ( to me that means if we protect 30% we can still trash the remaining 30?) It is an  honorable  idea of course to protect, in a certain way. But to me  it is not.

I living 70 km from a store, have  an incredible amount of highway just build for me, i am not proud of that.  I am sharing it with others but i would love to see a calculation how many meters per person that uses that road. I do even live  kind of at the end of the road in my neighbourhood, which means  that truly the government maintains  half a kilometer just for me and my husband, so we can walk by the neighbour's dog i suppose.

And yes i do not believe tourism is the answer, to me that is super stupid. So now we have parks  so rich people from the other side of the globe can  come to us and enjoy our protected land? you do know , these tourist they are not walking over, you know what i am saying. And also with all our protected land, all our excess must come from very far, being flown or trucked in. 

But all is well intended and the answer comes in many forms, and this might be one of them

To me one answer lays in self-sufficiency. For Christmas gifts i am making handkerchiefs from a cotton blouse, that nobody was planning to wear. And  i bought stuff at The Yukon Refillery, it is a surprise. But things to eliminate the use of plastic, some of it Yukon made.

And for  a christmas supper we are going to, i will bring a wild pie, made of  90%  gathered ingredients.

That is the little bit  i can do, and i am always trying for more. More JOY i call it.

 And if i was the president, haha, i know... lets not go there, but if you ask, i will tell you .

more dogs

 It seems that even people with dogs  on occasion have problems with the neighbour's dogs. The problem is always the neighbour's dog.  Oh dear, in me talking to people  telling my story, their own dogs are ALWAYS good dogs . And i somewhat agree!  the majority of them do have good dogs.   

It is a dog world out here.

Is it really? i ask my self, feeling spoiled now,  today i did not walk past the neighbour, it is a choice i have. 

Also all my walks, are 99% nature. ( no cars, no people, no noises other then the birds) Really how spoiled can one be?

 But i will give you an update  on my comings and goings on previous days, passing the dog, because i say i have a choice, but there is only one road, and that road goes past the neighbour, so most days  i do go by.

 I practiced meditation.  On friday, walking by, meditating on a awareness; no dog, but my mind! i realized there is a bit of wanting the dog to be there, so i can say, "ah bad dog, see i was right." I will work with those thoughts.

On saturday, i drove by,  practiced awareness again: now i felt disappointment that there was a dog, not the mean one though, but his buddy, yeah he has a buddy, this buddy imitates the bad dog. This dog is not so intimidating BUT he jumps out like a rocket, and chases cars. I beeb the horn loudly.

This morning sunday, we did hear the dog, barking his head off for other reasons then me walking by,  because we weren't walking by, we were not going that way anyway. Our neighbours are far enough away that we do not hear the dog bark when we are inside the house, well at night i do, but it is so distant. it does not bother me.

For a week i will practice meditation....

we'll see, i will let you know.

Hey and we all know, right? That pets in general add to our global footprint big time, dogs bigger then hamsters i suppose.

Why do people need dogs anyway!? is part of my attitude, i realize that, so this is a rhetorical question.

another not so good moment

 First, just now, i found two wonderful blogs. And they actually let me comment something and easy enough to add them to my reading list. All this not always so easy somehow.

What i do want to write about here, something i find truely  difficult. Something quite different and more real maybe?

A few days ago i watched the movie Sand Storm, a movie about women not being respected. It is too easy to give solutions; to say  for example, our government has to do more, or  we have to educate these men  teach them to  see women as their equals. Probably a solution has to come from every angle, little steps at the time.

I tried to think of what is difficult in my life, and were a solution seems easy, but is not.  I could not think of anything, other then that a solution always starts with me.

So last night i was presented with a problem. And slept a fitful night.

Blessed! I always have to say, blessed to have such problem, because it means i am able bodied and capable, free to do walk in the dark etc many blessing in order to have such problem.

It is about the neighbour's dog. 

The dog is getting more and more agressive.  The dog is not always charging out when I walk by, but last night it did again, and verociously so. 

I have talked to my neighbour, the owner of the dog, before. Is it time for a more definitieve talk i wonder? I do not want to do that, because i do not want to spoil our good neighbourly ways.

Is there still something i can do? many people have given all sort of advice; no, i do not want to use bear spray on the dog. A loud whistle did not help ( it aggravated the dog more, maybe i did not have the right whistle?)  Another suggestion, befriend the dog. No, i do not want to be friends with the dog (he would come to me more frequent and wanting to be with me)..... ah! maybe that is the answer after all.

 I will let the neighbour know,  that i will bring dog bisicuits and if it turns out, that the dog is now following me, i fear, even coming to my home, that is a consequence the neighbour will have to deal with. I feel a sliver of hope again. Last night i was thinking, is my neighbourhood ruled by this dog ( read, dog owner) and is it weird that i walk  (or bike) and am i forced to drive when going past the neighbour.

I have to say my neighbourhood is a dog lovers neighbourhood, but most people do take care of their dogs admirably. Is it the one bad apple i am dealing with here? 

Lived here 25 plus years, first time event.

I think of these women, the comparison..... I don't know

perfectly bored

I woke up feeling strange this morning. and still do, kind of. Physically i have one cold foot, and sit here with a hot water bottle, which always feels perfectly lovely. It is one of those rubber bladders and i fill it with hot water from the wood stove. 

It is my brother's birthday today, i phoned him already. It is still dark out, so we won't go for a walk just yet, yesterday we actually did leave around this time, we were both eager to go, each for our own reason.  This morning not so eager, we  did also already played a game of cards. Our christmas holiday jig-saw,  is already completed.

It is boredom, i feel boredom. I used to feel boredom quite a bit, even when i had tons to do. For me boredom is more a state of mind, where i just do not feel like doing anything, not dependent on busy lives.

I do find that since I meditate daily, i hardly have that kind of boredom.   

So yes i did not have a good medittion this morning, but i do not think that is it, it is deeper then that.

What i can say; yesterday i did go out with a friend.  And compared to her my life is super relaxed. I think compared to most my life is super relaxed, and i do love that, but being out with her, seeing how she has all those connections....yes, not so much that she always has a lot to do. But she has lots of connections/ friends. I envy that.

I am very grateful for having a few very good friends. But when i feel like this, it does not help if you say; "oh you might not have many friends, but they are all very good friends." bs, I am sure hers and other people's friendships run as deep as mine, possibly deeper.

It is like when  i was told as a child, "everyone has a talent jozientje, you too." That is so much bs. Yes sure i have talents, can't think of any right now,  but sure. I personally believe that talents are very  unevenly distributed.

Which, i love this writing (or for that matter meditating or talking to a close friend) because it brings me around. Yes it brings me too the feeling; i will always choose the life i have. I love the life i have.

I have lived this truth for ever, I am sure i have written about it before, We all live exactly the life we want best, we would never trade it with the person we occasionally envy. OMG  never!

Right?  or would you say;  I would  honestly love to trade with so and so? let me know!

Time for our walk!  Hoping to meet some of my good friends; the fox, the deer, the elk, the grey jays, the ravens , the chickadees and who knows.

Balance

 A few years ago i realized that i found it difficult to stand on one leg. Since, i have, off and on, worked on my balance; by strengthening my ankles, and practicing standing on one leg at the time.

The last 10 days i have actually kept record of it, because somone, with good intentions, pointed at  vitamin B 12. Now i do not take any vitamins, am against it for my self. I am of the believe that everything i need is availble through my way of life.

You might know, which foods have B12, i never quite know such things. Anyway it turned out, these are the foods, i am not wanting to eat too much of. For example, i maybe eat a little bit  of seafood once a month, I feel our waterways are over fished as it is,  etc etc.

Where am i going with this?  First, the balance thing. I laugh when a yoga or fitness kind of teacher tries to explain how to balance better; plant your feet this way or that. For me (teachers out there!) it only works for me when i pay the least attention to what i am doing and actually focus my attention outward (often that point, of attention outward, is mentioned).

 So to really see if my vit. B12 has an effect, already becomes complicated. 

So for the record,  the last ten days i recorded: B12 intake, Are my feet tingling in the morning, How is my balance, Energy level and How long do i sleep. When i started i had been eating red meat ( B12), then i wound it down for 5 days to a minimum, (i  do take milk in my coffee) Now i am back to the red meat ( still i have to say, little bit of meat, say,  less then half a cup per day)

Anyway i am super stable these days, quite balanced.  So as it turned out in these 10 particulair days super stable too. No fluctuation according to my intake of vit B12. I sleep 9 to 10 hours every night, feel good energy all day, my toes  do tingle  everyday when i first get up. Only my balance is improving a bit,even after the 5 days of hardly any B 12 intake that i know of. I feel the improvement is  because i can do the not paying attention better.

I am sure something would show up if i continue this experiment for a long period.

Where i really wanted to go with this, We cannot know it all.   I do not expect it from myself and try not to expect it from others. If you find an error on my blog (logic, or facts, etc.), i am sorry, do point it out, if you wish. 

As i study Botany daily. I had an aha moment yesterday.  As i am studying Asters at the moment, meaning; i read what the experts have to say about which is which Aster. Something like that, i can't even explain properly what or why i am studying.  Let's not go there. 

Anyway the aha moment.   The experts doing all sort of good work, but they too just try to figure it out, the best as they can with the knowledge they have. Like I am sure all flowers in the Aster family have something in common in their DNA , for the same reason  that i can sometimes recognize a flower in the Aster family when i see one. but after that it  all  gets rather complicated. And how i see it now, for us amateurs to know the name of a flower ( and maybe for the experts too) they have to make a decision somewhere as in where to put that flower, like  in which species.

And so we do argue :)

But we will!: (come together eventually)

Symphyotrichum; all our hairy heads coming  together  ( in Greek)

Symphyotrichum is the  kind of Aster i am studiing at the moment, and if you are still interested, wikipedia describes my aha moment quite well.

Brouillet, et al. wrote:

Taxonomy of Symphyotrichum is difficult. Species are usually heterophyllous, some strongly so. Individuals in the spring, with basal rosettes, often have leaf shapes quite different from those with cauline leaves seen later in the season. Phyllary shape on first- and later-formed heads may differ. Individuals may vary considerably in plant size and array development depending upon growing conditions. The genetic diversity within each species also appears considerable.^[2]

For all species in the genus, the ray florets are white, pink, blue, or purple. Disc florets are yellow to white, becoming pinkish, reddish purple, or brown when mature. There are 5 lobes on the disc florets of all species in the genus.^[2]

Taxonomy[edit]

German botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck established this genus in 1833 because he thought that a plant he examined, now believed to be a cultivated variety of New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), which he called Symphyotrichum unctuosum, was sufficiently distinct from the rest of the genus Aster to warrant its own genus. Nees emphasized the uniqueness of this plant in having its pappus hairs arranged in a coherent, basal ring.^[4] This structure is the basis for the scientific name of this genus, which derives from Ancient Greek σύμφυσις (sýmphysis) "growing together" and θρίξ (thríks; stem τριχ- trich-) "hair". However, this characteristic ring is not generally shared by most New York aster pappi, nor is it characteristic of any other plants included in the modern concept of Symphyotrichum. Regardless, according to the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), the timing of the genus' establishment gives it precedence over other names. The genus was resurrected in 1994 by American botanist Guy L. Nesom to group together species formerly included in the genus Aster in order to make modern genera monophyletic.^[5]

Keeping our own responsibility

 Yes, yes, it is probably a good thing when our governments protect us. 

For sure i am very gratefull to live in such safety.

But like i have said before, maybe we  have gone overboard. More regulations. Were we already have laws.

A friend of mine, who has her own business, send me just such new regulation and asked me what i think.

There is nothing wrong with the new rule. As a matter of fact in all those 30 years she has her business, the event that the regulation is about has fortunuatly never yet occured. 

And when it would, which it could, i know her well enough she would take the right action.

And you might know  me by now, i do  also think of the negative consequence of every regulation, one more tree  has to be cut down for the paper work. even when on the computer. I do not think it is one tree  even. But for sure it is added to everyone's work load, and maybe just an hour . 

To me another hour wasted.

This regulation is about harrasment in the workplace. I am trying to think.

Do we not already know that harrasment is not accebtable!?

And is it not our responsibility if we find ourselve being involved as  bystander, victim or perpetrator , we need to act upon it?

 

Lost

 Nature always provides great methaphors, for life in general, for me. Like the hiking might be hard, long whatever, but the rewards, even in that moment of exhaustion, always incredible. And so when i find myself in a rough spot in life, i just stand still for a moment and... smell the roses so to speak. An idiom like this, reminds me, that thing about nature; being a good methaphor, was/is always known.

So the other day, I was not so much lost, but had completely turned around, and ended up  south-west of the house instead of  south-east.

Right outside of my house is  an aproxx. 300 acres of forest, bordered by the neigbourhood (east), highway (south), firesmart (west) and powerline (north). So all these borders give it quite a bit of security to not ever get lost for long.

So when coming out on the firesmart corridor, we laughed heartily.  And looped back over a beautiful ridge along the highway to come out were we intended to go. We did run into Elk several times, they like that ridge above the highway.

Yesterday, i went in there with the compass again. And came upon our own tracks,  one set of Lynx tracks, and lots of Elk tracks towards the end close to the ridge.

 After 25 years, how blessed I am to still have a forest close-by to get lost in.

And how does that translate into real life?

Keeper of wild places

I am sure i have photographed these willows before, they are always very photogenic with hoar frost.

They are on the beach trail (ancient lake champagne beach).

I walked up here a few days ago, it takes me half an hour to walk to this spot, no people had been there since it snowed,  in those 25+ years i live here, not many  human neighbours do go there, it is a bit out of the way, just beyond the more travelled trails.

gently

  My father was a gambler (stock market) and my mother was a spender.  Of course they were both beautiful people with many more attributes. Also  we  as a family never experienced a lack of any material kind. Yes i hated hand me downs, but didn't we all? And somehow  now all six kids seem to be good with finances. Meaning we know our incomes and know what we can spend. Maybe that is what our parents taught us by example, to not spend more then you can afford. For sure there is also a bit of luck and  a lot of good fortune.

What i am getting at is, that  to be financially ok, a big part is you have to live within your means. yes?

please do tell if you disagree. All good.

But gently, i am trying to get my other point clear. Hoping you will be with me on that one too. Not that is an answer to all the worlds trouble, but maybe a helpful insight.

The one about the shortage of labor some of us are experiences.

 As a society if we agree that a 40 hour work week  is what we find acceptable. ( I personally would say less) but like with an income, i think we all can agree, if your income is $20.000  a  year you have to  live accordingly, if your rent is suddenly  is $2000 a month, that is not going to work. Something has to change.

Back to the 40 hours of work a week. Take a 2000 people, of which 1000 can work. 40.000 hours of work per week.   That is all the hours we have! So by saying we need more nurses, more teachers, more houses, what ever more, when collectively we just do not have the work force to fill  all those positions.

That is what i am trying to say these days.  We have to come up with different solutions when it comes to a shortage of workers.

Do you get what i am saying? I still do not know if i make it clear.

The joy of eating healthy

 it is hard! Of course there are direct and indirect joys; the taste, the preparing, etc and indirect; mother nature's joy and my health. etc 

But i still find it hard.  I do think the Internet does do a good job of pointing out what is proven to be healthy. 

What i like to follow is the  1/2 vegies/fruit, 1/4 grains, 1/4 protein rich foods. the poster we see everywhere. Also the 20/80 rule sounds good to me, like 2 cups of coffee, 8 cups of water.  I consider coffee not healthy and water healthy.

Also i eat a minimum of store bought meats, processed foods and no added sugar in general. oh and a minimum of alcoholic beverages. which all  for me would fall in the 20%. Opposed to healthy foods in the 80%

And as you know i love eating wild foods, daily. They go into the 80% even if not proven ..anything, like many mushrooms that i pick.

I have come a long way, and the joy of it is that i do not miss  sugar for example.

But this morning i tried to make breakfast according to the poster  which for me does not contain  protein rich foods, which to me is ok, because i will catch up later that day. I snack a lot on nuts.

Yesterday we cut down on the grains a lot, after i realized my breakfast often is half grains.  as the grain and protein part is easily filled, i added a big glass of orange juice. and halved the amount of oats.

hmmm ten minutes later i was eating a  slice of bread, whole wheat  and all yes, but still i need those oats, or so it seems. I saw my husband take a big chunk of cheese shortly after. So that did not work.

Is there people out there who do manage to  eat half of the food consumed per day being fruit and vegetables? Maybe you who live in southern climates and have banana trees growing wild in the yard? ( Do banana trees grow wild i wonder now, or is it a typical manmade food like corn.)

So that does make me wonder about living in the north, which  is an point often made here, that we need our wild meat.

Blessed, we did receive some from a neighbour recently. Thank you!

How many people are working for you?

 That is another thing, which would be clearly seen, if we had a tool to calculate it.

But i realize  now i do not even want such tool. It  really is a bit of common sense to imagine that with my lifestyle , a lot of people are working for me.

This idea first came to my attention reading Helena Norberg's work, many years ago.

Now i see it this way; in a perfect society we all share the load, or rather we would all love what we do, and somehow everybody is taken care of. (a self sufficient community, I know they exist)) When we think of a simple society, someone would harvest, someone would cook, built, etc. It would  maybe come out that for a community of say 80 all the work would be shared by say 40 ( kids and elders etc excluded).

I think in our currant society, that is totally out of whack, we have way more people working for us then we actually have, hence the need for foreign workers, coming from countries where they do not even have the amenities, that they will be now employed for for us.

When looking at it, i always find it horrible, worse then slavery, we do not even  care if the person who is the cashier at superstore has housing. Well i think we care, or at least  i do care, but did i ask? would i give him my couch? Housing a problem here in our very wealthy city of Whitehorse.

But the number, lets think about the number.  It is  impossible to sustain if the number of people working for me 40 hours a week extend 1 . One already to many. You know what i mean right? So the cashier works for me, let say 2 minutes, the week before 5 minutes! If we add up all those minutes... inclusive the miner, who had to mine the basic minerals and all to get a product in the store.

And of course this hooks into the land we use for our benefit, i might live on 20 acres, but my parcel is far greater then that, I have to include the ground that has to be mined for my benefit, roads, farms, factories, offices. on and on and on.

Not to make you too pessimistic, i love to hear what you do to minimize your slave driving? Everything counts. I mean it. I think all the little bits help, it is to me where we have to start. The only place we can start.

I will turn this thing off, right now, that is my start (the contradiction of it all).

wildside lake

 The new header; photo taken November17 2022. Takhini river, along the Kusawa road.

In the sunlight you see the hill Jane and I walked over, behind it is Wildside lake, see post October 21 2022

When you see my header, is the photo too big for your screen? I can maybe try to change it if it is bothersome for the viewer.

The Yukon Refillery

 It had only been 9 days. Nice that my blog keeps track of me, If there is one thing i like a bout being on the Internet, it tracks me :). I like to say that  I go to town once every ten days, not true. I even did drive in with a friend just a few days ago to go to the hot springs.

But i can try.

This time the main reason to go town was picking up some chairs, probably 50 year old chairs, no idea, but they are sturdy. A friend is moving away, and we bought her chairs. I have been  on the look out for chairs many years.  I was almost going to design the sunroom to be chairless. instead of having to warn people before they sit down, to be very gentle on the wobbly chair.

I picked up my new glasses, all paid for by Pharmacare. (We are spoiled here in the Yukon)

My husband and I did have a bowl of wonton soup; the business owner saying 2020 was a super hard year, but it is better now. There were no other customers. I am not much for tips, but we left a good tip. What do you do?

We did groceries, and yes I am  happy to say (if you read  my 9 days ago post) that we were able to check out with the same cashier. He was happy that this time all our reused bags had no old barcodes.

And! for our last stop, I carried glass jars in my purse. As i have no cellphone, and at home i had forgotten to look up the address. I figured the new Yukon Refillery would be in the Horwoods Mall,  I went in from the doors on first ave. And yes there it was! Lovely lovely, I was able to get unscented liquid laundry soap, unscented dish soap, a new bamboo toothbrush, that has tops that can be replaced. And thank  you Sabine ( blogger) I asked about toothpaste; and was able to fill one of my jars with ...pills. I use half a pill at the time, last night 1 whole one felt too much.

Also due to what Sabine wrote on her blog, i informed them that for me it is important if when they find a good product if they can stick with the same brand if  possible.

The flowers were fragrant

-The flowers were fragrant, tender and inviting. He ate them.-

This is a sentence out of Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

This morning  I am writing with the Cramped Hand Writing Group, this is our prompt.

ha, of course right up my alley.   On this blog today, I was wanting to write about, how we got were we are  now on planet earth,

How we got into this mess one could say, but also How did we got to this incredible easy life, this abundance, all basic  material needs met.

 Here now: My husband here now says: "there is fog right down to the ground." He stepped outside for a bit and is inside again. We are planning to go to town after my writing session, but as our life is endlessly comfortable, we do not have too. We can wait for the weather to improve.

And such was the life for the cave dweller of days long gone, i am sure. Lots of waiting for the weather to improve, time unlimited.  And when the weather and the seasons were right, A person  could/would come upon a wildflower, and decide to eat it or not.  Nowadays,  most things I eat (even for me) most foods have taken quite the journey. Very little i eat was growing right in front of my feet.

I do think about how it all came to be? That inherit  in the human being is that we want it easier. And maybe not knowing how easy we have it, was always a thing? Nowadays I do not want to have to wait till  I come upon a flower that I can eat. I can get it straight out of the fridge. 

And how i was thinking this morning  about it all started off living in a cave , the fog today  would have been creeping into the cave, everything soggy wet  inside my cover and frozen ice the outside of my cover. (The temperature today around freezing)

So yes I got were I am now, nice warm house, hot breakfast, coffee. I am very thankful to all that came before me,  Everybody all my ancestors that made it so that all my basic needs and more are met as i speak.  

My big thing is, that i feel we have come  to the pinnacle of making sure that we have all we need. We have come to that point long time ago. I think the problem is, As a society in general we did not know how to turn off the always bettering ourselves. Which to me is long past due. It seems, society, or many of us are still reaching to make it better.

I do not live in a cave anymore, i want to shout out, look at me I have everything I need.

When do I start smelling the flowers!?

8 billion people

I don't know if anyone made all the calculations. On like what our footprint is, and  what it would have to be, if life on earth is sustainable in the long run, with all 8 billion having the same opportunities in life. (I do know i am a dreamer.)

Yesterday checking if  i was hypersensitive, a good test was readily available on the Internet, and it confirmed what i already know.  But it is always good to do a reality check once in a while.

A few weeks ago when i looked for a test that measures my footprint. I could not find much.

Why not i wonder?

Shouldn't it be easy to make such test?

I am going to try here a bit making such test, maybe i come upon obvious difficulties with such test. Because i do already it is not easy, Like i always wonder; I living the way i do,  would it be sustainable if all people live like that. With two people I live on 20 acres. In a small community (100 people?)  The closest bigger community, 70 km away.  (which to me is the most troublesome aspect of my personal footprint)

The calculation for 10 acres per person for 8 billion should be easy. But then again is that relevant? Like here in Canada most (adults) have the choice to live that remote, most choose not to. (I guess because it does come with certain conditions, one has to be willing to submit to). So i would love to see a calculation, that says: yes, Jozien you are doing fine, just make sure you do not drive to town more then once a month.

Anyway let me try starting  making a test:

How much money do you spend every month? 

How much of that is for your basic survival?

And how much is extra?

And there you go; money! I think when i score hypersensitive, someone is behind that test to help me, and to make money of that.

When i lower my footprint by spending less money,  no one is making more.

How do we  figure that one out?

Finding my own voice

 Hopefully never too old for that.

This morning i first checked my inaturalist account. One could say that for years now that is really my main focus, identifying life, and as keeper of wild places,  life in the wild.

I am very excited about a new face on inaturalist yesterday and he was there today again. Someone who is obviously somewhat of an expert on Locoweed.  The fact that i am not on inaturalist right now, is partly because my task to figure out what he says about locoweed, yes we are all a little crazy out there, is huge.

And this morning in bed i did want to talk about, ones own voice, to speak out against all odds.

Like my new 'friend" on inaturalist, he is probably ruffling a few feathers, with his new information.

Yesterday i was in a social setting, meaning with people, doing a social thing. in a somewhat  of an indoor setting, where there is lots of room for talk. I am trying to figure out if that has anything to do with me being somewhat ignorant yesterday.

So yesterday i do realize I was only marginal aware.  As always for me in social settings, i find it hard to keep my awareness as i feel it now, to keep that when i am with others. I had a strong urge to speak my own mind, which i worry about, because it often contradicts what others say. Oh dear. Why can't i just experience things with out calling it  right or wrong, good or bad or anything, why do i have to name it.

Well i do know the answer to that, i find people in general do not have much critical thinking, and to me critical thinking is important. Do not ask me why  because people who go with the flow are probably much happier. And a big question, who am i to say that they do not have critical, actually the two friends i was with, i regard their wisdom highly! I do.

and so i go on and on getting myself into a knot.

I did have lucid dreams last night. Which i like a lot, and does not happen often.

hmmm i love to think these two lovely ladies i was with yesterday elevated my consciousness.

You now i think they did, they were hopefully not offended at all by my behavior, but realized how i struggle in social settings.

I am not making excuses!

I will figure it out, as i  also will honor all locoweeds by addressing them with their proper name.

New routes

 I fell in love again, with exploring  the wilderness close to home, stepping out of the door, and exploring a new part of the forest.  It happened over the last 3 days. Sunday: realizing again how easy bushwhacking is this time of year. ( frozen ground and no leaves on the trees) Monday: not liking a shaded route i took to visit a neighbour. Tuesday: finding a new route, a piece forest i actually never in those 30 years i live here, explored much.

I know i am very very blessed to live this way.

But it was a choice, yes?

That is always the trick question; do we have free choice, even when i am aware? or not ? I believe it is both, somehow not fit for my rational mind to understand.

Yesterday i spoke to someone, who  strongly believes that the body he was born with, is just that, that is why he has health problems now, ignoring all kind of healthy choices. When it come to other things he is quite smug that he made the right choices. What i need to learn in such instance is just  to listen; like ok, that is your reality....

To my husband when he complains i will say; that is wonderful.

Which is kind of cynical, i know that.

Any suggestions to be  a better listener  are welcome, it is my big struggle, if i have one. 

The beautiful moon out now, makes everything quite easy.

When i ste

On the radio, talking about research that people who get the flu shot every year ( i never did) have less rik of a stroke and hart disease, considerably so.  Now i am always keen to learn how to live healthier, so i listen. I find the end result, according to the speaker, NOT so subtle. The speaker does not even talk about this subtlety. It just goes on how the difference is not really the shot, but it is weather you get flus or not.

So the result of the study it sounds like could as easy have been, if you regularly get the flu your risks are greater.

I have had  the flu twice in my life. And now after the covid scare, i have been so diligent i haven't really gotten a good cold in the last years. 

smugness runs in the family i guess...oops when did i make that choice to be that way?

what irks me most

 Is this push for electricity,  with total disregard that we could be getting by with less.

And i always an advocate of;  to do get by with less will give us more quality of life. 

What got me going this morning is the 315 million dollars needed  for Atlin's power project. I am not getting into this project, but as i know it is highly controversial as it is.

haha this morning they said, our power rate could go up by 50 %.  

And i know...

oh dear

right now right here in my low electricity household, i look around and switch of 3 lights that do not need to be on.

The computer  is on...

Maybe we can all scream together, how hard it is to use less.

Here now i will open my mind, maybe there are other ways? maybe the way the media seems to suggest is ok too?  I so stuck on less is better and  on the media they seem to say,  change to better things.

Any ideas?

hmmm still using less can't be bad. Yesterday, the choice to walk to a neighbour 3km or 4km away, instead of  taking the car. That choice at first seems hard,  somehow the wanting to be there instantly.  Now here ( Yukon) to take the car is an event, in 30C below zero weather, you have to prepare. So to me it is easier in the end to walk, even if it will take longer. 

Sunday i still used my bicycle on a similar distance, but the going on snow in minus 20 C was so slow, i rather walk.

The walking, when i can let go of the distance to cover, always exhilarating! as the route was mostly in the shade, which i do not like, it was wonderful to see the sunshiny hills and mountains to the north

Sunday thtat is what i biked towards, doing a walk with other neighbours to one of those sunny hill sides.

Hey last night! i saw the lunar eclipse, did you? Here somewhat hazy , a small red disk in the darkness.

A grocery store experience

 Yes i do still go to the grocery store.  I love to hear if some people have no need for it anymore.

Many people in Whitehorse must use grocery stores, because we have many.

My husband and i  mostly only use   the superstore, which is not very well liked in general. We go to Save on Foods, only for bulk organic oats. and we go to Super A for Yukon  milk and manna bread.

We like the superstore best :) whatever there is to like.

A few weeks ago i had the loveliest cashier, he, personally acknowledged all his clients, waved them goodbye even.  last week i forgot to look for him, but saw him from a few isles over, doing his thing, the people around him smiling.

My husband and i ended up with a new guy.  quite lovely too, but my husband noticed he was taking the plastic bags of the vegetables turning them inside out and looking for the barcode.

What is going on you think, I should have told you and him, that we reuse bread bags.  i turn them inside out so the barcode of the bread is hidden. Not good enough ofcourse... 

It takes him a while to understand me, he keeps wanting to apologize for the strange bag.

So as we are giving all our vegetables back, which were scanned as bread. 

in the end i clearly say: I did it! it is me who put them in these bags, i reused old bags.

he says: why  (on earth) would you do that? he did not say on earth, but i am stressing his surprise.

I hope for most these days it is obvious why we would reuse plastic bags.

In Whitehorse at the check out, plastic grocery bags are banned, and so will be paper bags January 2023. People are using their own grocery bags. And it is wonderful to see that the great majority of people now do come in with their own grocery bags.

Now lets work on the rest of plastic, i do have a few cloth bags already, which will out live any plastic bag.

Which plastic are you eliminating from your life.

spruce cambium pancakes

  How much time is spend trying things out? I think people with computer skills they must be masters at it. I try a bit  most days, to figure out blogging again. I am slowly getting there.  I do feel i am forever trying things out, learning, but part of the reason is that i am very forgetful, sometimes i happened to read my own writing, and wonder; did i know that? that is awesome. Sometimes i will remember that i did figure something out in the past, but sometimes not

So often when i write, i have to check it out first, as in not to tell you any lies.

I have been collecting spruce cambium for a few years now.

This morning i made Spruce Cambium pancakes. I thought it was a thing, but now here researching it, I cannot find much  on the Internet that i can find, neither in my wild food books.

But this was my recipe, kind of, this morning

for two people

2 eggs, old milk,  1 part flour, 1 part cambium flour,  wild berries.

the pancakes did not hold together very good, the taste a bit strong, but with wild blackcurrant jam. it tasted very good.

When i say wild, i mean i gathered it here in the wild, not a bag of wild blueberries from the grocery store.

Happiness is

 getting two comments on yesterday's post.

glee.

hmmm so what to write about today? For me at the moment that question means, which one idea out of many ideas i choose for today, and try to stay on topic, not to put them all together in these few paragraphs per day.

I choose to go with Holly's comment.

Holly, and many others before you, I do have to contradict to you here about our short days in the Yukon. I believe i have written publicly about this before, but that for sure is years ago, as i have not been writing really for years.

So here one more time, and hopefully with a different twist. The twist, as to have some continuation in my writing these days as a whole,  how we can change happily.

yes, this morning i cannot see my 'new' view (3 trees gone) till somewhere around 9 am. In the evening it gets dark somewhere around 7 pm ( yes i know, the way they set time in the Yukon is absurd, we are two hours of  from midday at noon, i think our midday is at two pm) but i am happy to not have a time change anymore. 

I see that Wyoming is indeed far south from me here, but it is populated quite similar as the Yukon. So i assume many people do live rural as i do. And i assume that there are many neighbourhoods like mine that are sparsely lighted, or maybe not at all.

On wednesday evening  i go to yoga, in the neighbourhood! which is amazing in it's own. I bike or walk over, which is about 7 months out of the year in the dark. But i tell you it is not that dark, most of the time.

Last wednesday the moon was out. (And there is a bit of, be careful to do as i do, my choices not always safe for everybody.) As it is a half hour bike ride up hill going home, i was past by two cars, which i feel due to the bright moonlight i did not notice right away, and had to make a dash for the ditch.  Having grown up in Holland, bike riding comes natural. and for me there is no problem making a dash like that.

I do wear some reflective material, but no light. And nothing to do with  light, i also do not have fat tires! In town i would say a light is essential, but fat tires NO! that to me is a fad, sorry) But here i feel i see more when having no light.

Even when there is no moon, the snow is super reflective, Biking, i easily see the sides of the road when riding, as dark lines. 

 And to read a lovelier account of being in the so called dark, which is not dark at all, is the book 'the outermost house' the writer speaks most wonderful about being out at night.

Anyway when waking up this morning in the dark, i was meditating the joy of the sun. the gift everyday of light.

So i do get it when people fear our lack of sunlight in winter. But like two comments give me  happiness , maybe you all  have to get  at least 3 to  feel you did an okay job. ( glee again, the loveliness of it all, how it is not really in the numbers or the amounts)

I am happy with white snow, when the sun is not up. And very happy when in December it will be up for a mere 3 hours, the joy of it!

 :

little changes

 And those changes sometimes become good habits.

And this is really why i am blogging again. For me  to solidify and keep working on new habits. And to encourage others i guess.

To me, if  i keep living the way i do,  something will have to go. If that is nature, carbon, suffering, etc.

These are all topics i could write about in more detail. But i trust that you all know what i mean,  on why it is a good thing to change some of our ways.

And from experience i love  how certain little changes are not even surrounded in awareness anymore, like most of us i hope just do turn of the tap, will switch of the light after going to the bathroom. hah these are the easy ones. i wish i would learn to not react to my husband complaining, I still need a lot of awareness to make that happen, and even in awareness there is a strong urge to react in a negative way.

I do believe we all do our very best. 

 And i realize here that i maybe haven't applied, what i was going to say next.

I think to change, one  has to change it  into something. Most preferable something that one really desires. 

And not only looking at the end results. Like obviously i often do know why i want to change something. 

Lets take eat less meat. I am of the believe, like many out there i think, that to eat greens is better for  me and for the planet.

But for me to eat less meat, i try to make interesting meals, meals that are actually more delicious, colorful, filling.  So that i look forward/enjoy this vegetarian meal.

Now i do spend a lot of time with wild foods, i tell you it is a lot of work, at the moment  In my  sunroom is a dish of unsorted spruce nuts. The sorting spruce nuts is timely.

But even  then that i focus on the fun of this task, i enjoy to sit quietly in the sun. I like doing it!

Hey a habit of mine is; using the outhouse in the early morning, the first visit so to speak. I love it i love it. It always brings joy to my heart. And this morning as i looked up to a tree that needs to go (to close to the house) saying goodbye to it,  Maybe this an example of somethings are not easy, but must.

Anyway i looked up and saw the biggest brightest falling star ever.  an explosion of light, just a short streak, but the streak flaring in a broad line.

I wish you a falling star in your night sky!

trespassing on skates

 Now over a week ago, winter descended on us, with frost and snow. Which means the first ice on small lakes and ponds is not the best. Snow falls while the water freezes. Monday i was able to walk on what i call Kip's pond. The mud was  not quite frozen, and the ice underneath  10cm of snow, was smooth but had a film of water on it, I assume the snow insolates the ice from the cold, which is not that cold yet, somewhere around -10 C. But yesterday i took my skates, and  at first feeling unsteady, i had a wonderful skate.

But as Kip is no more, bless his heart, the pond has new owners and they did put up a no trespassing sign.  They do not live there and do not visit very often, but i have talked to them  a few times over the years. I informed them that we sometimes cross their property on our walks, if that is ok. As long as we do not hunt was the response. 

Trespassing is a bit of a thing here, Do you or don't you? Depending on the situation i sometimes do, yes even when there is a sign,  I do tend to ask  eventually when i know the people. ha! or not, like other neighbours who put a sign on the cutline.  I do not go on their property but will walk on their cutline.I have never asked if a cutline is public space or not. 

Here in the Yukon, there is no law at crossing someone's property.  So i find it is a bit of a respect thing. And when the people live on the property i will rarely trespass. 

But when they do not live there, i tell myself, wink wink, that it is a good thing i sometimes cross there property, btw, always only on foot. It i a good thing, because i will contact the owner if something is a miss.

And i will clean up garbage. I do not care if it has owners or not, Mother nature deserves to be kept clean of garbage. 

and with garbage i do not mean, one person's garbage is another one's treasure. With garbage i mean, cans, plastic bag blowing around, cigarette buds etc.

How does blogging work?

 This morning i spend some time reading blogs, and trying to follow the ones i liked. First it was quite difficult to find active blogs. But once i started finding them,  one i liked i could not even comment, others i could not find  how to follow them. And what i have not looked at is how i get notification on my email when someone leaves a comment on my blog. That is possible right?

Updates on  my recent whinings;

 That what i want to get out of my system is a lot of whining. How funny, the joke as often being on me.

The deer are have been daily visitors, they have not eaten the raspberries yet, but they seem to enjoy the abundant roses, other berry bushes and a lot of dried fireweed.

I have not been bothered with more ghost commenters, hurray!

Still writing mostly for my self, somewhere on a blog i read a beautiful phrase about that. It comforts me that there are more writers like me; sitting there in the dark typing away  sending it out into the world.....

romantic relationships

 A confession here, i still find i do get mad at my husband too much. Every single day at least once. Just now it was about how he responds. I like to whine here a bit. Tell you how it is all his fault, while i am always trying my best.  I am thinking here now, when i really express my frustration, maybe i can figure it out. me doing here ( luckily mostly to myself , i have no idea if anyone reads my blog. I have been exploring other blogs, leaving comments, but i realize i have to either follow them or sign up for email notification, to actually see if what i comment creates  further communication. To me that is still my aim for blogging again. Back in the days, 2008 was it? A blog community appeared miraculously it never having been my intention. It was this morning that i got an email from an old friend and i realized it was her back in the day who said, Jozien it is ok if you just wander around in the woods for the rest of your life instead of going back to work , but  maybe you can share your adventures through writing, as it was in a time when blogging was hot, a blog turn out perfect for me.

Anyway back to the husband, one thing that bugs me about him, is that he always complains. Like me here now. ( i do  see the joke in this) But honest to God the way he complains, i think he is the champion.

So le me tell you about earlier this morning, right now he is outside, getting set up to shovel snow. Which is for him getting harder and harder. Even getting dressed in all his winter gear i have to help him, because he lost the use of one arm to arthritis. Anyway while he is still here in the house.

Wow this very moment, sitting up straight without crossed legs, I get up to look out of the window that faces the yard. He is shoveling snow with ATV, what a guy! I am very blessed to have him, the hard worker in him.

But back to earlier, he is complaining about shovelling snow, and has done so for a few months now, because well we know winter will be coming. I have always seen this is how he is, he starts complaining about something the minute after he accomplished it. Like he is happy now for two days ( if with the arthritis he can do it) shovelling snow. the 3 day imagine he be all done and all is beautiful to me, no he will start complaining about the next time. He used to work seasonally, when working he would complain about what needed to be done at home, when at home ( he would have 6 months off, being a seasonal worker, the whole six months he would complain about having to go back to work.

So he starts complaining about the ATV being in the back of the shop.

Whaoo! i make the back mistake of saying, maybe we could... He does not let me finish my sentence. You probably know already, i the problem solver, and he just wanting to be heard, like me here.

But i tell you i have tried i have tried on  many occasion for 30 years, to just let him talk, I tell you! it does not work for him. He will dig himself in deeper and deeper, because or so it seems i am not getting it, it is way worse then that and he will keep going  making it worse. When i started timing him in this, it would take him at least an hour before he stopped talking, with the only result that the next day it would be the same, snow will still fall kind of thing. no matter how hard we complain, every winter it does so, and moving to Hawaii is not option, that would be a two hour story of why not. one that i even believe. I do not want to move to Hawaii.

Maybe tomorrow i can tell you a bit of how i do sometimes deal  with it (or not deal with it) in ways that are more harmonious for me.  Not for him I swear he just flipping loves complaining!

But i did not finish this mornings argument. So he interrupted me by saying; No that is not possible ( remember i had not said what my solution was. But then i get snotty. Because now he is talking about all the possibilities  that are not possible, he wants to explain why not. And here i won't let him, i start raising my voice, stop stop, if you do not want a solution please lett's not talk about.

etc etc you get the drift at the end i walk away to fold laundry and he call me to help him get dressed.

All is well in the world of romantic relationships.

I hope yours too!

I know harmony is possible for many, i do see examples of it in family and friends.

 

Two deer in the yard

 At the onset of dusk, my husband spotted a deer right in front of the window, we turned of the light and watched them. We can always see how they respond to any movement or sound from us, so we move slowly and quietly. But by the lifting their head with ears up, we know they are  already aware of us. They seemed to be eating the big rosehips from the white rose, and from the saskatoon berry and gooseberry bushes. They move very slow every move predictable. And in the dim light when they do not move you hardly see them. I predict they will go to the raspberry bushes which have lots of  big dried leaves. In previous years we have seen them there many times. Not today, maybe they leave that for another day.

As i am from an era of positive thinking, affirmations etc. I  often, when aware of discomfort (the weird comments here)  If i catch it in the moment, the feeling of it, I start off with acknowledging  my feelings, of discomfort this time. I do now   think the deer knew this :), as they arrive in perfect time, because after this acknowledgement, i will shift my focus to something i am grateful for. For me that is often the blue sky or birdsong or the way the light falls on some thing. At night i do love the soft embrace of  the dark.  But today as on que the deer appear.

For me living this close to nature, using the outhouse in the morning, our morning walks, our afternoon adventures. Always always instantly engulfs me with joy.

How bad is it?

 Ah  early this morning i was a bit rattled by the ghost commenter. ( is there a word for that?)

And so really the topic i had in mind for today, arises with more urgency. So thank you anonymous.

How bad is it? This could apply to lots of things, but i here am thinking in the lines of personal suffering. Do i suffer because of this lengthy comment from an anonymous writer? Not really, just rattled a bit. and i choose to use it as an opportunity. Till i guess it becomes a problem for me, and then i know there are ways to avoid such comments.

This an easy one, grateful to  be here

 But I am sure there are people suffering deeply, due to situations that really matter. and always i think that is were our focus should be, when trying to eliminate suffering.

And not  for example giving everybody a rebate, incl. me who does not need it. Because i live in a wealthy country were it is obviously possible to give everybody a rebate, instead of helping the people who need it. ( more on this rebate later) How odd to think that we help the people that are suffering, by giving the same help to everybody.

Anyway yesterday i happened to meet a lovely person from a minority group who comes from a country in which according to the media, that does not like this minority group. 

I asked how that was living it, The first response was yes it is all true. Second i asked  but how is it for you what is your experience? Oh no all fine! No bad experiences at all.

I get that response  most of the time when i ask in similar ways.

Mostly everybody is always fine it is others that suffer, no no i am not suffering but what about the others?

About the rebate i receive due to rising energy price, here in the Yukon we get a 50 dollar rebate on our monthly electricity bill.  Now my bill is only 40 dollars on average, so i am being paid ten dollars a month. Yes i admit i am not complaining to the giver, and receive gratefully.

In the rebate case, i have been thinking how as a society can we help the people who really need it.

not that simple.

speaking my truth

 I guess that is what i am trying to do here.

It does not have to be your truth, but surely it might not be the truth of the masses, in my case.

Recently i was reading about mass formation. Back in the days of Harry Potter, i was kind of astonished how it seemed to me that we all loved Harry Potter. I found that exciting, but also kind of odd. I had been enjoying dancing in a big group when a teenager, but besides that i always feel i am not much interested in mass events. But there i was lining up for the first Harry Potter movie.

One person that talks about this mass formation is Mattias Desmet. He suggest that it is important in these 'odd' ( my word) times we all speak our truth. I have been feeling to do this for a years, ha! i am finally here. And he does suggest that the voice that is not inline with the mass, will get stronger due to the masses. I love it, because for a few months now i am meditating every day on compassion. In my case on the fact that we/everything all give and receive. We All exist that way, the impossibility of standing on our own, the paradox, that recognizing this for me, is that we/everything is unique in it's own way.

It is kind of cool to think of it that i am finally blogging again, because i feel that i was for a few years at odds with the covid-19 thing. As that is kind of subsiding, people do not discriminate me anymore for my choices. Now the topic seems to be climate change.

Tomorrow i will write about how i am at odds with this climate change hype. It is not that i deny climate change, it is quite different, Same as in the beginning of covid-19 I was put on a heap with  deniers of covid,  and later with anti-vaccers. I found it quite humorous that i was supposed to be just needing to be convinced of the Truth, that my stand was somehow ignorant, and I needed to be educated.  All signs of this mass formation i suppose.

When dancing with a big group of people, hmm what about the one that stands still? or too drunk, come to mind.

health care

 On CBC Yukon, this morning they talked about the nurses shortage and the teacher shortage in the Territory. 

The only solution they talk about is how to recruit more.

To me, really? is that a solution? For all i know we have more nurses and more teachers per capita then in most places of the world.

What always comes to my mind is, are we still living in an era of slave drivers?

We need more nurses, f! the rest of Canada or world, we have more money so we can buy more...

My solution  is, let us live healthier, needing less care.

And have a lifestyle that promotes healing.

 And  live less long. In the Whitehorse Star  yesterday they wrote about going into a dementia boom.  I hope to die before dementia sets in. So i hope that at one point i can say with my family, let me go, do not put me on medication. What does common opinion say? blood thinners, prevent stroke which means you have more quality of life,  I always think how do they figure that? So yes one can still walk without aid, but now one will eventually get dementia.

The live less long is difficult i think, but  living healthier. Should be possible.

 a lifestyle that promotes healing, .

I am very blessed that that is possible to me,

My back is almost all good again. So i am off for our morning walk

Snow and quite cold, brrr so it is a bit of a.. thing, having to push ourselves a little harder, but as it is our routine for many years, the body/mind does help me, the body/mind wanting to go out . And it is actually Don this time who is putting his boots on first.

I find this habit thing always quite interesting, how we are so stuck in/ or helped by our habits.

 Shadhala! 'sunny mountain', hoping for a glimpse for you too.

Lower back pain

 Dear oh dear why am i beating up on myself these days? Going from one little thing to the next.

And having a hiking day again that  i do not want to cancel. 

I always preach, take care of your body, give it rest. But it is hard to do that. I won't take medication that is for sure. We do not have pills of any kind in the house for many many years. I found a little bottle of advil years ago, but as it was outdated in 2014 or something, i disposed of it.

While canoeing upstreaming i tried a new move to relieve my shoulders a bit and work more from the core, oops, not good, i felt it go.  Not doing that twist again i was good all day, but felt it in the morning. And now it is still sore3 days later.

Not bad though, sure i can hike,  but what is it telling me? loving my lower back left side I will now here ask; 'dear dear what are you telling me', thanking it ( as my yoga teacher taught me). The left so 'they' say my feminine side, the back  being support. What comes to me; "it is safe to stand straight up, my environment will support me when i choose to stand tall. But i can do it on my own, no worries."

Loving me. Looking after my back with loving care, keeping it warm , supporting it and not forcing it. I will let you know how i do today:)

 I will finish the writing of the  hike that day, on the previous post.

But one more thing, I wonder how that is for other people. I did not tell my partner about the slight sprain, i told her two days after. i did stop the move, but i did not  ask  if we could beach the canoe for a bit, and give it a rest right then and there.

I am learning to listen.

Wildside lake, with continuation no 1

 Yesterday i finally did a big outing again.  An adventure of kind, pioneering a route to a no name lake. We called  it Wildside Lake, we got there following Sunset  ridge, and climbing over Happy hill. Ahh we forgot to name the lovely creek.

I left the house at 8.30 am, at daybreak.  My friend had the canoe already packed, and i am sure by 9 o'clock we were in the water. Takhini river. from Mendenhall landing we paddled upstream. The river high, but hugging the western shore we made good progress, a few kilometers in we ferried across and  pulled the canoe on shore. My friend had explored this route before, but had not made it as far as the lake.

The dark spruce forest , mossy floor is open enough to hike through,  we come out by the creek on the south side, and see there is a big high clay bank typical of the landscape here, on the northwest side of the creek.  It doesn't look like it is very long. But  we do decide to climb up it, to walk on top of ridge is always easier then navigating close to a wild creek. It was a good choice  and on the way back we named it sunset hill, as we made it back on it  just in time for sunset, probably around 6 pm.

to be continued

 Sunset ridge slowly  turns into forest floor. In this spruce forest we had started seeing some pine trees, Pinus latifolia, and  later some giant aspen (Populus tremuloides) . we follow the animal trail that came from the ridge. Suddenly we start seeing a lot of fallen trees we have to climb over, mostly poplars (the aspen) Big trees, and as we come closer to the creek, we will see they have been fallen by beaver, a little beaver dam  but these beaver certainly use big trees for their winter food supply.

We follow the beaver ponds in the creek, but as we have to cross the creek  again eventually, we use an opportunity when one presents it self, where the creek is nice and deep but not very wide.

( Are beaver ponds 'in' a creek, it does not seem the right preposition. ??)

reading and listening

 and then  being able to say, i was wrong.

Do i do that?

That is on my mind this morning, everyday this week i listen to the news about a sexual abuse case at a local school. When the pope was here i listened to that.

I do not know Scott Shephard, but on the radio this morning he spoke clearly and kept saying: we made mistakes, we made mistakes on all levels, we all feel, etc I do not have the memory to recall his eexact words, but it was certainly 'we" and 'mistakes'.

Back when the pope was in Canada i listened for something like it, when our minister of education was on i listened for that.

For me it is very important to hear that.

I believe in awareness

Why is it so hard to say:. I did wrong. Are the people who do not, are not aware? I don't know

I do search my own self. Because ever so often i do have a wake up call. Like just yesterday  while cutting wood in our most beautiful forest, bucking up trees that have been blown over in the past few years, spruce still somewhat green, and old poplars, having been standing dead before they fell.

 In my husband it annoys me how he when i ask him a question  say yes when he does not know the answer. As my wood cutter ( a dear long-time lady friend) and i talk while sitting on a log servicing the saw. I realized I did the bloody same thing. I did not get what she was saying, and not to stop the conversation i said yes, only later realizing my mistake. How annoying!

And here now, haha I was wrong! i did not understand her fully but knew somewhere that the answer was no, yet i said yes.

health

Me with my over indulgence on sleep, i realized how can i actually even say that i am quite healthy?

Yet i am happy to say that i do walk at least 300 minutes per week. A friend of mine who is a doctor in South America, said that is the first thing she tells her patients. No pills are given before that. And she also first works on making small changes to their diet.  Such are her prescriptions initially.

I wonder how doctors are here?

 But i also realized how does say 300 min so easily, lots of steps, and the diet in  few small steps. She maybe said it that way, because she and i walk a lot and feel a half an hour a day is possible for every one. Where as to change your diet is harder. 

For me that is certainly true. Yet i haven't been on a big hike for too long a time, at least several weeks.

 It just happens that way. 

So many things to take note of, that is my complaint being in my sixties. 50 ish was celebration, now in my 60ish I find myself very busy with staying healthy. today already a busy day ahead

And looking out, lots of snow on the mountains, but none here in the woods, so a good day for cutting wood. My partner in crime will be here at eleven and before that i still have to do an hours walk with my husband.

Hasta la Vista!

different opinions

 Still dark out, wet, snow gone again.

I had a good sleep after the disturbed sleep of the night before, so now i slept from 8 pm till 6.30 am woke up one around 2.30 to go to the bathroom, but fell asleep again instantly, had lots of beautiful dreams anyway.

So yes my sleep habit, i do not like it.

But i do like my opinions, but more and more i am aware of how outlandish my opinions are. Or of course i really think other peoples opinions are the ones outlandish. 

And that is also why i write again, about my opinions this time, because i find in every conversation i have, there is some discord, some really black and white, good and bad. 

I am not ready to give examples, i do not want to put my friends on the spot. haha it is probably me on the spot.

So here in this little writings every morning, i will just give my view of things, and i do hope you will either agree or oppose. both are equally welcome. Or best of course, in my opinion, when we can be totally open and acceptive of eachother.....

ha! i do not even know

(sit up straight! that is still very hard to remember)

but what i was trying to say, i do not even know if someone is even reading my blog, maybe i have to built up a network again.

maybe that is what i do after breakfast ( porridge; organic oats, a variety of wild berries, yarrow, spruce nuts, orange peel flour) chaga and coffee.

See you there!

Healthy Living 2

 I do believe in getting a good sleep. 

I am over doing it a bit in that department. It is the one thing i have tried to overcome, my need for too much sleep. If you have a suggestion how to get by with less, i am game.

What is too much sleep to me? Well these days i probably sleep 10 hours a night.

 A bit much right? 

But when i listen to people getting sick, i do wonder if i am spared lots because i do sleep it off every single night.

Like i did not have a flu or cold in the last 3 years. I would at the first sign of a sniffle, drink lots of water and sleep extra sleep. Yes more then my 10 hours. And always in one day  the sniffle or cough or headache or whatever symptom would pass within a day.

Getting older i do find i do sleep lighter, but as i do not have to go to work in the morning, nobody to look after. If i  had  a unusual lucid night, I will just sleep in a bit.

 Oops sitting up straight, i forgot, but at least i did not cross my legs

Yesterday i did see an Elk, i followed it's track in the snow. The lake was still half open water and there were 4 ducks! 3 Barrow's Golden-eyes and 1 Buffle-head

healthy living

What works for me.

 As i am typing this, i try to remain upright,  shoulders back, chin in, and sitting straight up on the front of my chair. 

Legs not crossed.

I nibble on a Yukon grown carrot.

I was already outside this morning, clearing the cars of snow and hauling firewood for half an hour.

The wild place aspect, the drive way and road close by where covered in elk tracks, nibbling on the vegetation along the road,  they ate my snap dragons, and seemed to like the Lepidium ( a weed, that i harvest for it's seeds)

ha, my posture! i was sloughing again.  I, 62 years old! Finally figured out that i breath easier when i have correct posture. I always believed that i had some sort of default which made me breath through my mouth. Not so, it is posture.

Same for my varicose veins,  weak ankles, balance i am finally working on those things.

This topic is so huge, maybe i should have started out with the fact that i am considered fit, and do not take medication.

 Maybe i will write a bit on the topic for the next few weeks. 

I want to keep it short, because i do not think computer time is very healthy.

 I am going to help my husband, who is changing tires, and depending on the help he does or does not need, i will go for a walk to the lake, to see if there are any ducks,

There were no ducks  in the last few weeks, i did  here swans overhead  lately,  migrating south.

Hope to see you here!

 

nest time

 I have been thinking of writing on my blog again forever, but as the weather remains very warm here, it will have to wait, because i rather spend outdoors, and choosing to have only a PC, outdoor typing is not an option. 

Today we woke up to plus 12 Celsius or so, with no wind and sun, i suspect we will set a record for Oct 8.

spring log 2022

 April 26  and again 28  a flock of juncos and american tree sparrows in the yard.

April 22 first crocus at Aishihik, just one

April 25 Takhini river at mendenhall landing is wide open. ( not the mendenhall river)

(april 13 we were still skiing on it.)

April 25 first rain shower on the highway

April 27 ,  a kind of rain shower in the yard, hailly. which brought the snow a foot down.

April 28 snow depth 37 cm in the yard

...May 21 first green Aspen leaves on the hill rocky south facing slope

 to be continued

The beauty of it all

Always in the end, my ponderings lead me to the realization that all is well.

Everybody has a place in this universe and all is connected.

And what you do,  what she/he does, is as good as what i do.  As it just is and makes us tick.

So i can only talk about what i do and experience, and  as i try to be aware what i do. There is always this darn typing here. I am thinking of just writing on paper totally just for myself, where as  even those scribbles do still ripple out in that universe, yes?

Joy joy, i really have nothing to add

 And thereI was going to point out where our ways seem erroneous. As in solar power in general, what a farce. To me yes solar power has a purpose, imagine you live of the grid, and now a few times a year you can grind your wheat by electrical means, or watch a movie one evening. How glorious is that? But here for us, more electricity, really? Or as in agriculture, to eat oranges from Calefornia, while i live in a forest full of vitamin C.

As i look up , the sun is just now hitting yo-yo peak. There is my vitamin D, i do not need it to be added to milk.

whoa we have 12 hours + of sun a day again!

Pine Creek Delta Atlin BC

 I  say a  loud and clear NO to the plans to sell power to Whitehorse!

I do not want to go in detail here about why to protect the Pine Creek Delta from such onslaught. But i  write this to ask you and find out; how do we succesfully protest?

Here in my little neighbourhood of mendenhall subdivision, i did lead two protests over my 25 years i lived here.  One was succesful one was not.

I actually do not know why one was not succesful and the other one was. Maybe when written down it becomes clear, or maybe you say well that is obvious.

So these are the two stories. One was for a water treatment plant, that i did not want. It is here now, a very expensive contraption which takes a lot of maintainance.

The other was for mosquito control. Our mosquitoes will be alive for many years to come, due to my protest.

hmmm with the treatment plant, we were well informed by the government, they even send us a radiation specialist who worked for a nuclair power company to show us that all was well in the world to have uranium stored in our community. (which was a consequence o the plan)

I and a 2 other neighbours  said, ho ho ho we do not want an uranium storage. I wrote a list of all the cons that i saw to do with this project. and i emailed it to all the neighbours...nobody seemed to care. Just us 3.I wrote down possibilities to meet everyones needs for healthy clean  water. 

The 4 million dollar plant did come (for some 100 people, people who choose to live here, mainly white middle class people that buy property here, like myself). 

The mosquito control program, suddenly we got  an email that it was to be executed here. I stood up in the AGM and asked; how can that be? we were never asked. Well it had not been done yet so go ahead and find out if the community actually wants it. I wrote an email to all the neighbours, asking who wanted to sign my petition against mosquito control.

In no time i had 20 signatures. which was 10 more then the people having asked for the control, which was enough to show the government that the community was divided on the issue.

So is the difference i see here now is that i actually never tried to change peoples minds in the mosquito case, i just asked what they wanted?

Is it that easy?

Looking forward to mosquitoes :) always!

And my husband and i drink water from Stony Creek, the best water in the world!

Shadhala

 Shadhala

'little sunny mountain' and the Southern Tutchone name for  Champagne, Yukon.

Another sunny day,  I can almost  see the sunny mountains. The morning sun is  just about to light them up. I assume that Sadhala is Middle Mountain. I can't see her from my window view, but I do see the larger mountans to east of it, as i live east of Champagne.

I imagine Middle Mountain in full morning sun before the town itself is in sunlight.

Not enough people

Oops i should say; too many people.

 What i am looking for is a genius mathematician.  But they probably are all busy crunching mumbers.

 So we have more people on the planet then ever, but  what i am hearing  these days  that there is a shortage of workers.

What i wonder is can we put a formula to see where the problem is.  Is it  people in their sixties like my self that suddenly  retired early? maybe. Is it that young people do not want to work anymore and stay in school longer? maybe. 

 Or is it mostly that we have created a society, where we have more needs then  that we have people that can fullfill those needs?

And one such need is  the buraucracy, i  am off a generation that always complained about buraucracy, but as i can see we only have more now.

And with buraucracy i kind of mean,  let say we have a nurse, we think of nurses to care for our sick, but nowadays a nurse, spends a lot of time on other things like writing reports. And lets take the hospital, it needs a whole army of other employers besides nurses. Only little amount of time is actually used on physically caring for the patient.

So there is that, but then there is also that when i get sick i expect this army to stand up for me. How would i feel  if...haha you can think of your own horrible example of lack when you end up in the hospital.

When i go to the groccery store i expect ...

when i..  etc etc

I think when a genius mathematician can crunch these numbers, it will turn out that i cannot have  all that i have now, it is physically just not possible, we do not have enough people.

How to end slavery?  Is still, maybe now more then ever, the question.

I love to hear your thoughts, corrections!

 or adding where you see that it just doesn't add up.

sixties

 Where my fifties  had seemed to be about celebration of life, joy, freedom, exploring, the best years ever.

My sixties more subdued,  more about health.

 Just this week, trough some wondering wanderings, i realized i had have weak ankles forever. It was just something i excepted as a fact. My heavy duty hiking boots, with the best ankle support  possible have been my most prized possesion for some 25 years.

Two years ago i was made aware that i can do excercises to strenghten my ankles.

 It took two years to actually start doing those excercises in earnest.

I will let you know the results.

But i have good hopes it will positive.

 It is not that such thing has never happened to me before. At age 47, due to extensive ginginvities, and frugality ( i was not going to pay, thousand of dollars for gum transplants). I learned to clean my teeth properly. I have maybe had one cavity since and i lost a tooth recently. Before 47; I was convinced i had bad teeth, that was just that. born with it. Bad genes.  Not so, my teeth maybe not the most gorgeous smile, but the dentist says i actually have more teeth then most my age and my gum health is excellent.

And i have  more examples like this. Where i finally realized i have ... what would you call it? more freedom as i ever thought.

I love you to share your experience like that.

Wondering if it just me.  Or

My son calls it accountability. Our society less and less encourages acountability. Is it something like that?

ints'i nits'i

 pronounciation: int,see nit,see

ints'i nits'i, it is windy

It doesn't quite feel like the blustering wind that is happening here right now, i have to  look/ask around for a better phrase.

When?

 When is enough enough?

Or maybe rather, when do i just accept what is?

 Today i experienced a bit of vertigo again, i did the Eply Manouver, it seems to work.

This summer, i stood underneath a falling boulder, I stepped aside and it brushed past me.

For a while now  what i have been thinking about; is there virtue in prolonging life for the elderly.

It is a very scarry topic, i for sure cannot talk about others.

But may I , here, can i, talk about myself. myself on the verge of what i call elderly.

I am 61, when i google it, decline has already set in. Which does not mean anything really.

I could still have 30 years of  a meaningful life, and  even when not meaningful. What is wrong with just celebrating being alive?

Let me cut to the chase; for me i like to wrap my head around the fact to not go through extreme measures.

 Maybe i am just talking about my lifestyle. which has not included much medical intervention. I sprained a few ankles and such. And  now i appearantly am prone to having vertigo. 

I take no medication, and in my life i probably had a handful of antibiotica cures, as a kid my mom gave us pills for worms, but that is it. I am proud of that. If i have something i try to work it with looking at the emotional causes,  at lifestyle causes.  I do meditation, i take herbs that i pick myself, and did take ginger to battle the nausea that came with my vertigo. As i got very sick when i first tried the Epley manouver, i took 1 gravol pill when i tried it myself next time.

So sure  I can keep going that route. I hope i can that is

When climbing and that boulder above me let loose, i felt a great sense of wanting to be alive.

When i was sick with vertigo, really i did not get how people live through that, i wanted to die ( not in a suicidal way) but more like i needed all that i could muster to breath through it. and i did.

So taking one gravol pill, am i destined for that path, just one more pill, one more procedure. I hope not 

I do find it scary to say it here, i am totally blessed with family and friends, many loved ones that are still here.

So yes that is a thing for me too, i pray daily that Don will stay with me for a long time to come. That moment i do not want it to ever appear.

How strange, how strange, this thing called alive. And when dead has taken one in, there is no turning back. I have always seen that. When there is life, there is always a choice.

So yes i choose for now to just stay on my path,  take that one gravol, when things are tough, step aside when  something comes thundering towards me.

But please help to not go down a route of more and more crutches.

Writing this, i am writing this, just wanting to know if there is people who think the same, i think many of us, my age and older, will think no let me not become like my mom... But how do we do that?

I s there some support group for me, that says, he when the day comes  that i am too dependent for others or pills then my liking, can i softly breath in and out one more time.

Is that possible to plan to go peacefully when that day comes?

Does that day ever come?

Can I grow in awareness?

I am anxious to hear your thoughts? don't be shy, as a friend said to me recently. Thank you for that friend !