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