Book Bus

I also want to start a book bus. They have one in coquitlam...More on this later. Here's one that started in Tampa Bay Florida, Bess the Book Bus.

Bike School

At the moment I am house sitting for a couple who own a high performance bike shop called cycletherapy in Queen Charlotte City, Haida Gwaii. Part of this house sit means working at their store. I love bikes and have derived great distances, excercise and joy, especially from bikes that fit me and worked well. Being here in the store has made me think about the times when I have fixed me own bike and the satisfaction and empowerment that came from those experiences.

The people I am house sitting for will be moving off the island in the next year or so, leaving a hole where parts, repairs and skookum gear are concerned.

The other night at a party I started talking about this impending void with a group of teachers, there happened to be representatives from elementary, highschool and alternative school present. We discussed the possibilities of incorporating bike maintenace and bike riding into curricula. All were excited.

In highschool I took a class in car mechanics, learning how to change brake pads, oil etc. Only this year (10 years later) did I actually end up owning a car though (thanks dad!) and sadly most of that knowledge has been lost to the ether. I have, however owned many bicycles, which have needed many repairs. Thanks to Our Commuinity Bikes, and the Bike Kitchen in UBC I have been able to at least assist in many of these repairs. These places make bike repair approachable and practical by supplying you with all the parts, tools and assistance you need. Sadly, Here in small town Haida Gwaii there is simply not the volume to support something like this, however the idea of a bike club, which could evolve into a bike class seems totally feasible. It has been tried in Montreal as a way of keeping at risk kids from dropping out of school. I feel it would also be a great way of promoting physical education (the kind you don't need a team for, even better) and reduced carbon emmisions. Yet another tangent for me to send myself on.

I am just starting to read Zinn & the art of Road Bike Maintenance which was reccomended to me by one of the teachers at that party. We happened to have it at the bike store, It includes tons of illustrations and great instructions. Hopefully it can help me start a bike school. I have been in touch with the Haida Gwaii Semester Abroad program, which is run through UBC to see if any fot their spring students feel like taking this on as a student project. Time will tell.

Five Left

My friend Lincoln (yes he is American) is a pretty amazing guy. I met him while working with his wife Alison at Edie Hats. One Lincoln is so great is his talents with leather. Years ago my brother asked if he would make a bag like Lincoln's own, a rough, old-school, lunch box shaped wonder of brown leather. It was the manliest book bag imaginable. Lincoln made him one and after that, kept churning out more and more beautiful bags for men and women, and some wallets, and card holders, and bracelets, and myriad other wonders. He started a company called five left. Now my brother is the one working for Lincoln, usually at local craft fairs and a couple weeks back at the Eastside Culture Crawl. Check out his website , blog the article about him in the sun and on this fashion blog. Both Lincoln and Alison graduated from Emily Carr and I have been impressed and inspired with how they have both managed to make art a part of their lives (she is a part time high school art teacher and mother of 2).

Maybe I can get him to make bags out of Haida Gwaii deerskins?

Deer Hunters are "the ultimate localvores"

New article this week in the washington post about deer hunting and urbanites who like to hunt. Also, on CBC a story about an urbanite who goes on a hunting adventure, listen here.

LOHAS

Just found out about an interesting marketing demographic courtesy of a group of German marketing students who did some research for the Haida Gwaii Culinary Co-operative this week. LOHAS or Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability make up about 2/3 of the German market! I wonder how many Canadians would be considered LOHAS? How about that? Better than just calling them hippies right? I was just discussing the other day with someone how we needed to develop more words so that we aren't just constantly referring to the 70's. Thank you Germans!

The Living and Learning School

This week my friend moved up from Vancouver to work at the Living and Learning School! The most inexpensive alternative school in BC. I am so happy to have her here, as are the children, parents and fellow teacher and principal! This is an amazing school. The picture above is of a deer carcass that washed up on the beach in front of the school last week. The reaction to it was to cut off it's head and put it in a crab trap (courtesy of one of the dad's at the school) which would serve to strip the skull in a few days. One child in kindergarten wrote in her journal "my teacher is the best, she gets us deer bones". The kids also wrote about the deer bones on their blog.

I love this place.

Uncle John

My uncle John McBride who passed away on October 25th after battling pancreatic cancer. He and my Auntie Val are my golden tickets. They got me up to Haida Gwaii and some of the most rewarding times of my life. He has taught me a lot about living, even when dying.

Here is another post on the SFU center for sustainable Community Development where he completed his Masters.

Another one of his friends Geoff Meggs wrote this post on his blog and his friend and co-worker Ray Gerow put together a wonderful remembrance on the National Network of Urban Aboriginal Economic Development site.

Yet another remembrance is this article dedicated to Uncle John and his prowess with all types of games.

I miss you uncle John, your hearty laugh, your delicious food, your wise words, but I carry them all with me, you are an inspiration.

My Market

I have spent months telling people about how there is a market among urban foodies for venison, and for the adventure of catching them. This week I was validated by an article in the Globe and Mail, passed along to me by a friend which is written by one such foodie. Thanks Micheal!

Check out the article, and related ones here.

Wearable Art

jakalopes and wild things.

Wild Wear

Haida Gwaii Culinary Cooperative interview on CBC

Recently Kiku from the HGCC was interviewed on All Points West. click here to listen, or download the podcast.

Stoic Joy

I recently listened to a podcast from CBC ideas called "a guide to the good life - the ancient art of stoic joy" and greatly enjoyed it. Here is a link to the book of the same name by author William Irvine who is interviewed on the show. You can read it online.

Niall is a big deal

My Friend Niall is in the Canadian Art Foundations online art auction. Check his piece out here. Check out his blog here. I just mailed him a box of skulls and bones including a beaer skull with a broken tooth, his request. What a guy, who else gets excited about a package like that?

John Ralston Saul punched me in the chest

I am reading a wonderful book. It is giving me a new framework with which to think about canadian politics, and in particular, our "interculturalisme" or the circle of diversity which makes Canada, and our way of existing different from other places. Saul makes many thoughtful and persuasive arguments towards the adoption of his view of history, and a new way of conceptualizing ourselves.

I hold this author and in particular, his oinions in high regard which is why, last night as I read this passage, it felt like a punch in the chest.

"The desire of many in the established middle classes to withdraw their children from the public school system is deeply irresponsible. To do so is a failure of citizenship; an unwillingness to take the time to help right whatever is wrong in the system; a failure to consciously accept that Canada works because of the mixes created in those schools. If the elite desert them, they betray their country."

pg. 149
A Fair Country
by: John Ralston Saul

He then goes on to blame past governments for the debilitating cuts to education funding that have happened over the past decade, but even so, as a teacher I feel that Saul is throwing down a gauntlet for me.

I have been dubious about entering into the public school system again, and don't totally agree with this sweeping statement, as I feel that for many people close to me, even just a few years of homeschooling and/or attending alternative schools has resulted in a sea change for them. Fortunately I am no longer a student, and thus MAY be in a position to embetter this system, in some small way. I am reminded of the words of Mahatma Gandhi that I "must be the change I wish to see in the world". I will try John. For you, and your wise words, I will try.

Cultural Appropriation

Recently my friend held a talk at the Haida Heritage Center in Skidegate to discuss cultural appropriation.

This is a topic I have been interested in and thought a bout a lot, for years.

During my undergrad I wrote a paper relating to the use of the "imaginary Indian" and it's pervasiveness. The subject is intensely interesting to me and I hope to use this space to share some food for thought and hopefully for future discussion around the topic.
One person often linked to this controversy is Edward S. Curtis, the photographer responsible for the image above, in which Curtis payed Natives to simulate what he deemed to be traditional practices.

Some other food for thought is the new Canadian documentary movie "Reel Injun". You can watch it on the passionate eye here.

Gardeners Growing Community

I am visiting Vancouver for a week and this city is proving to me that they can be green, lush and full of the possibility of community, especially when it comes to gardening. I was told about an article on the cover of today's Vancouver Sun discussing the work of a block's worth of gardeners who have banded their back yards together in Vancouver east side to create a kind of co-operative mini farm including bees, group compost, chickens and lots and lots of food. Read it here. They have also created a 2 page manual for others who wish to start gardening in their back yards, or with their neighbours. It is linked to in the article.

There is also an article about the Dunbar Harvest festival!

All this really reminds me of something that I started learning about while working with SPEC, that is, the idea of the Transition Town Innitiative, as promoted by Village Vancouver and known more broadly though the transition network. To learn more check out this Ted talk with Rob Hopkins

What can I say, I'm hometown proud. But I'm still going back up North.

Battleslugs!

Last year when I came to Haida Gwaii and was on my kayaking tour we stayed a night at Windy Bay in Gwaii Hanas. We happened to be there at the same time as the kids from Mount Moresby Adventure camp. All day these kids kept talking about how they would play "battleslugs" that night. I had no idea what they were talking about, and assumed it was some kind of video game or something. I couldn't have been more wrong.

David Suzuki does it again.

Check out this summer's latest from David Suzuki. He and his family have become well acquainted with Haida Gwaii in the past few years and in this radio series "the bottom line" manages to sing the praises of Haida Gwaii while also covering the gamut of environmental issues. Take a listen, all 10 episodes are available as FOR FREE right here, but only until Sept 20th!

Haida Gwaii Culinary Cooperative

I have started working with the Haida Gwaii Culinary Co-operative here in Haida Gwaii. I am helping out with communications and for the past few days have been working on making some signs (like the one above). It is really exciting. The main focus of this co-op is to provide mushroom pickers and other wild harvesters with a fair price for the products they harvest. Central among these is the "rainforest chanterelle", a beautiful little fungus that is native to the islands. I have been picking some myself and they are scrumptious (above are a few tiny examples, though those are not my hands, they belong to my picking partner). The big brianwave of the co-op is to have developed a very high tech dehydration system which allows them to buy mushrooms at a fair price from the pickers (who ideally are members) and then if they can't sell all the fresh mushrooms, they can dry them and sell them all year round. More on this process later.

Don't Worry, We're Not a Threat

...at least according to George Carlin. Watch this video on youtube to temper your environmentalism, should it be filling you with fear.

Bread

I have always been sort of afraid of making bread. It has seemed to me akin to alchemy. Though I love baking, something about yeast and timing go against what I consider to be my skill set in the kitchen.

All that is starting to change thanks to a patient and dutiful teacher and a wonderful book called "The Laurel's kitchen Bread Book" specifically the loaf for learning. The writers of this book give beautiful and helpful descriptions and are so detail oriented I think anyone who gives themself enough time can't help but find success. I do reccommend a clip on timer though. Those things are life savers.

I have now made 4 loaves of bread, these two slashed one being the most recent. I am excited and empowered. If you have a day or even half a day at home try it, and eat it and then let's talk about how great bread can be.

Creativity

Yesterday I had a visit with one of the most creative people I will likely ever meet, my wonderful friend and pseudo auntie Edie. Together we listened to a song her son had written and recorded for her entitled "chasing trains with the car" about how Edie used to do just this, fuelling Nick's love of trains, and, perhaps, high speed chase?

I love their family and have learned a lot about creativity and the importance of nurturing it, from them. Here is a Ted talk by the author of the recent book "eat, pray love" which I have yet to read but which Edie recommended, and I recommend that if you have 18 minutes to kill you will come away inspired.

Return to the Land of Birds

In April I was asked to come and care-take for some people I met last year in Haida Gwaii. I was elated and though it meant postponing several other trips I had planned I hopped on a plane and arrived the 18th of May to start learning about the life I was preparing to lead.

The place I came to is an island, just outside of Queen Charlotte City, and my friends live off the grid relying on solar panels, micro hydro and a diesel generator for their minimal power needs. They run a greenhouse and supply the island with the most delicious tomatoes I have ever tasted. While they were gone my boyfriend and I took care of their place and feasted on all the wonders that surrounded us including clams, mussels, oysters, crab, sea asparagus, duck eggs, stinging nettle, tomatoes (Beefsteak and cherry), cucumbers, kale, arugula, nasturtiums, onions, parsley, oregano etc etc etc.

It was an amazing time. I have learned so much and fallen in love with this place and all its wonders.

Laskeek Bay

I just spent 2 weeks down in the park volunteering with Laskeek Bay Conservation Society doing research with some field biologists about birds. It was super interesting and has inspired me to look into doing a masters about the deer problem they have here. The deer are destroying the forest understory here which impacts the nesting sea birds as well as the other birds who have fewer berries and habitat as a result of all the munching. During our week on the water surveying for black oyster catchers we actually chased a couple of bucks off one small rocky island where it seemed they had been trampling on some oyster catcher and gull eggs.

I am thinking that the ideal long term solution would be to hunt the deer to get the population down to a number that is sustainable. According to what I've heard there are somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 deer in Haida Gwaii and to get their numbers to a level that would be sustainable for the pre-existing ecosystem would mean taking 10-15,000 out of the system per year. I figure there are so many people looking for "organic" meat, and you can't get much more organic than this. Hunting these deer for meat would lead to fewer and happier deer, which are starving now and seen often eating seaweed on the beach due to the lack of greenery left to eat, and of course lots of happy eaters, not to mention jobs up here which would be helpful given the decline of the fishing industry. The only problem is of course, the law, which does not allow the sale of wild game. So that's what I need to work on :) I am planning on enlisting my brother and his poli-sci degree, but he doesn't know that yet...

Wood Heat

Seems strange to be writing about heating when it seems like North America is engulfed in a Heat wave. Even here in Haida Gwaii it is smoking hot.

Still, we all know it won't last, and I have been thinking about the wonders of wood heat, both as heating in the forms of amazing cast iron ovens and also for baking. The people I am staying with just returned from France and are inspired to build a community wood fire oven for people to be able to come and bake bread in. I Think it's a great idea, like a community garden but for bread. As of right now there is no reliable source of good bread here in Queen Charlotte, so seems like it could work.

I also just heard a podcast from deconstructing dinner where they spoke with the folks from Speerville Flour Mill who have a portable Panyol wood fire oven which they use to demonstrate the amazing breads their flours can make. Apparently just about everything you cook in these things turns out great.

Duck Dance

We love the ducks. We especially love eating the huge hard shelled eggs they lay with the glowing orange yolks.

They are Peking ducks, like Aunt Jemima Puddle duck, though without the dashing cape and bonnet. They are very social and hang out in a little pack. At dinner time they come quacking, looking for someone to feed them and put them back in their pen. Here is a video that Dan shot of this routine, to the tune of a song called "Brain Enthusiast" by his band The Bad Fate. I think it's pretty swell. Hope you like it.

Wind Warning

Woke up today around 7 to the whips and snaps of trees being thrown around in the wind. Dan and I were planning on going into town today while Ryan came out to do some work in the greenhouse. Looks like nature has other plans for us. There is a wind warning with 60 to 70 km winds. The sea looks like it's laughing, rolling and shaking over some wind whispered joke.

When I told a friend of mine that I would be coming up here I remember her saying to me that it would be exciting to be in a place where nature still reigned supreme. Today I am feeling the power of that statement. So often we take things in the city for granted, the power, the water, our food. When George was first explaining to me about the amp hours in the batteries that hold the energy for the island, I felt like he was speaking Greek. I just had to watch him, and learn the steps to starting the generator, memorizing following. Now it's all staring to sink in, not just how things work, but the significance of self sufficience.

I jumped out of bed and started working through my to do list:

1) bathroom

2) Light the fire in the house stove

3) greenhouse, check temperature, assuage worst fears by checking for wind induced holes in plastic. The wind was whipping the plastic around and making those terrible sounds, like sails in the wind that ought to have been taken down, like the cracking of whips. For once I am grateful for the indestructibility of plastic.

4) turn on generator

5) Mix tomato food and put in water

6) Mix micronutrients and put in water

7) Turn on computer (an ancient and indestructible IBM)

8) Feed the ducks and Geese and collect the duck eggs

9) Call Ryan

10) Turn composting toilet

11) drink tea

12) eat breakfast

And here I am. Watching the confused humming birds hovering around the feeder, which has been torn apart by the wind.

Full Belly, ready to start the day. Ipod almost charged with days worth of audiobooks, podcasts and tunes to give my mind something to chew on while I commune with the plants.

Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit

I am embarrassed to admit that I have never before used dried beans.

Today, on fantasy island, Dan and I soaked a bunch of them after looking up the how-tos online.

Step one: rinse beans and take out broken ones and pieces of dirt.
Step two: put beans in a container and cover with water, enough so that when they expand they will still be covered.
Step three: put them in the fridge (or in our case, the back porch, which serves as a ridge)
Step four: leave them like that for 6-8 hours. Apparently soaking them for longer like this makes them less musical, bonus.

Alcohol can save the world

While visiting my friends in Grand Forks we watched a movie called "alcohol can be a gas" which is a talk by a permaculturist and ecologist who talks about how we can make alcohol on a small scale, and in doing so, support local small
scale agriculture, end our dependence on fossil fuels as well as the control exerted by large fossil fuel companies, and drive cars and produce power without having to feel guilty all the time! Check it out at alcoholcanbeagas.com

New Hair

The reactions to my new haircut have been very interesting. Lots of screaming and laughing and hands cupped over mouths. My favorites though have been from the kids. Here are some quotes:

"you're not Alicia anymore" (I heard this twice from two different kids but when I asked them who I was now they didn't seem to know, i suggested they could call me Ali, since that's short, like the hair)

"that's a boy haircut"

(from the same girl over the coarse of 2 days):
looking confused "I like your haircut"
then later "I liked your long hair"
then the next day "you look like a rockstar"

They seem now to have accepted that I am in fact the same person as before, though this person takes less time in the bathroom :)

ministry sustainability course content

sustainability course content here! http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/greenschools/sustcoursecontent.htm