The Green Gazette - June /July /August 2016

8/ A Follow Up to Rail Tie Burning Concerns It‘s been a year now since Atlantic Power Corporation (APC) unveiled its plan to ask the Ministry of Environment for permission to burn millions of railway ties as feedstock for its Williams Lake biomass-fuelled energy plant. - by Sage Birchwater 9/ Land Use and Mountain Biking: Where do we ride?

Never has mounting biking (MTB) been under more duress than now. Industry, range, and other recreational users all vie for the same green space in and around our community. Throw in the realities of private property and urban sprawl, and mountain biking faces considerable hurdles when looking at the longevity of the sport.

- by Shawn D. Lewis 14/ Celebrating Freedom on Canada Day Living in Canada has been a true gift and a wonderful adventure for two local residents who look forward to celebrating Canada Day as grateful citizens. - by LeRae Haynes 19/ Intentional Communities: Living together in a new era of change To some, the idea of a group of people all sharing land and living together harmoniously in a community sounds absurd or downright awful. To others, it sounds fabulous and like it might be the only way our world can continue to survive. - by Terri Smith 21/ Green Business Feature - Esk’et Tiny House: A stunning example of sustainable housing It was only a little over a year ago when Robert and Bettina Johnson decided to sell their home in Victoria and move their young family to the community of Alkali Lake (called Esk‘et in the Shuswap language), 45 km southwest of Williams Lake. - by Casey Bennett 24/ A Balancing Act: Working and loving life on the range Fencing, calving, harrowing, haying, and fixing fences are only the part of the juggling act that is ranching—add in full-time off-ranch jobs, a commute, and looking after family and you have a true balancing act.

- by LeRae Haynes

Publisher / Editor-in-Chief Lisa Bland lisa@thegreengazette.ca Senior Editor Jessica Kirby Contributors David Suzuki, LeRae Haynes, Margaret-Anne Enders, Ciel Patenaude, Erin Hitchcock, Lisa Bland, Jasmin Schellenberg, Terri Smith, Oliver Berger, Jessica Kirby, Sage Birchwater, Brandon Hoffman, Bill Irwin, Angela Abrahao Christa Mustard, Devon Chappell, Thomas Schoen, Sara Goddard, Diane Dunaway, Brianna van De Wijngaard, Sharon Taylor, Shawn D. Lewis, Casey Bennett, Kristin Lehar Advertising Lisa Bland Creative Directors Lisa Bland / Casey Bennett Ad Design Jill Schick, Rebecca Patenaude, Leah Selk Published by Earthwild Consulting Printing Black Press Ltd. Cover Photo Kent Bernadet www.kentbernadet.com Index Photo Image ID:96250241 Copyright: gorillaimages

www.thegreengazette.ca info@thegreengazette.ca TheGreenGazette is published by Earthwild Consulting. To subscribe email info@thegreengazette.ca or visit our website at www.thegreengazette.ca © 2016 all rights reserved. Opinions and perspectives expressed in the magazine are those of authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the ownership or management. Reproduction in whole or part without the publisher‘s consent is strictly prohibited.

6/ Canadian Environment Week: Environmental sustainability is not optional Environment Week runs June 5 – 11 this year, and is a prime example of just how great days of awareness can be, because it does so many amazing things correctly: the festivities last an entire week, the majority of initiatives are municipally implemented, and the observance activities are fun, simple, and easily engage people. - by Jessica Kirby

05/ Publishers Note: Gone Birding - by Lisa Bland 05/ Conservation Society‘s Green Events Project - by Brianna van De Wijngaard 5/ Local Recycling Reps Visit Recycling Conference 7/ Strength in Superfoods: Kombucha - by Devon Chappell 11/ The Cariboo Mountain Bike Consortium - An Introduction - by Thomas Schoen 12/ Unsung Heroes: The ins and outs of the garbage bin - by Oliver Berger 13/ Revolution of Rest - by Margaret-Anne Enders 14/ Canada Mosaic Project 15/ Faith in the Follow Through - by Brandon Hoffman 15/ The Station House Gallery: Summer events and historical roots - by Brandon Hoffman 16/ Blooming in Poverty: Defeating food insecurity with vegetables - by Christa Mustard 16/ Letters: Challenges in First Nations Healthcare - by Sara Goddard 17/ CRDs Solid Waste Info Series: Composting 18/ Coming home to connection - by Ciel Patenaude 18/ Potato House Project: This Place Matters 22/ Green Business Feature - Blocks R‘ Us: Garden art from the scrap - by LeRae Haynes 23/ Science Matters - Divest from Damage and Invest in a Healthier Future - by David Suzuki

23/ Through the Looking Glass: A miniature world is abuzz at Scout Island Nature Centre - by Diane Dunaway 24/ Skywatch - by Bill Irwin 25/ Home Learning: Challenges and benefits for families - by LeRae Haynes 25/ 40th Annual Elders Gathering Celebrating BC First Nations in Williams Lake July 12-14 - by LeRae Haynes 26/ Confessions of a Farmer: Rebuilding a farm - by Terri Smith 27/ A New Story: Applied Sustainable Ranching - by Angela Abrahão 28/ Dandelion: Nature‘s nutritional powerhouse - by Kristin Lehar 28/ Raising Amadeus - by Terri Smith 29/ Local March for Food Justice Lends Voice to Millions - by Erin Hitchcock 30/ Taking Refuge - by Sharon Taylor 31/ Top 5 Drugs You Shouldn‘t Take Without Trying the Natural Alternative First - by Dr. Reuben Dinsmore 32/ What the Heck is Worm Composting? - by Jennifer Clark 33/ Calendar of Events: June/July/August 2016 35/ Nourishing our Children - by Jasmin Schellenberg

By Brianna van de Wijngaard

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Lisa Bland Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief

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ear Readers, Summer is here, and it's easy to keep running with all our daily tasks. This year in particular, I am feeling the relentless pace of our modern world, when I would rather take more time to be. It seems many others in my life feel the same.

Each summer for the past nine years I've had the opportunity to work outside doing bird survey research on the ocean.

These journeys into the wilderness of BC‘s coastal inlets and estuaries reset everything, not only filling my creative well, but healing body, mind, and spirit.

My wish is that each of us finds a way this summer to venture into wilderness, enjoying the natural inheritance around us.

It's only through our love and connection that we are touched deeply enough to become a voice for what matters to us. If we don't take the time for what we love, we become satisfied over time with its

P

A marbled murrelet, a red-listed seabird species that nests in old growth forests of BC. Photo: Lisa Bland substitute, which can come in many forms such as addiction to busyness, technology, or material objects.

Nature is our home, and it‘s talking to us every moment of every day, if we would take the time to listen.

Birding is a great way to experience the natural world. It‘s even somewhat addictive! For Cariboo residents, Scout Island is a wonderful place to learn about local birds. Happy birding.

arlier this year, the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society (aka CCCS) decided to revamp its Green Event hosting efforts.

We wanted to create more incentive for folks to make their events, meetings, and parties more sustainable, and that‘s because they‘re the perfect venue for ―lead by example‖ change-makers: people not only see how easy and beautiful it can truly be, but they also feel a sense of pride taking part in the initiative, just by being there. This is how wasteful behaviours can slowly be changed over time.

So we updated our Green Events guide, added some sweet promo materials for sign -ups, and secured some great discounts from Green Event sponsors like The Gecko Tree Café and Catering and Cleanway Supplies for items like compostable or recycled dishware. The idea was simple: we wanted to make greening an event as easy as possible, so that more people would jump on board. We knew hosts were busy enough planning a party or event, so we were happy to provide staff support in whatever way possible to limit the footprint, and any extra work.

resenting a collaborative by your local recycling representatives:

―Five local recycling representatives from our region recently attended the 42nd annual Recycling Council of British Columbia’s Annual Zero Waste Conference in Whistler. There were many presentations from other municipalities, suppliers, government officials, and non-governmental organizations to discuss all aspects of solid waste and the future needs of this ever expanding industry. There were many ideas exchanged over the three-day conference that can be used by all attendees in achieving their needs and goals in their respective organizations. This was a great venue to get people of like interests to share ideas and problems that they have overcome.‖ Joe Engelberts, (City of Williams Lake, Manager, Utilities & Fleet) ―RCBC is an opportunity for solid waste staff to learn about the waste reduction initiatives and programs other BC regional districts and municipalities are using, and to see what recycling technologies and systems are being used in Europe and other provinces. The conference also allows staff to keep up to speed on the regulations and guideline documents MOE (Ministry of Environment) has in development, with opportunities to comment. The MOE is also responsible for approving new and updated Stewardship Plans for the existing 22 recycling programs in BC, and RCBC is used as a venue for local government staff to provide feedback to MOE and the stewards on the existing plans. Regional district staff from all over the province also meet at RCBC to compare the delivery of recycling programs and discuss common challenges. This year

Fellow BC recyclers come together to share ideas at the Zero Waste Conference in Whistler, BC. Left to right, Tera Grady, Oliver Berger, Isaac Yuen, Juleah Gabriel, and Jesse Hohert.

Photo submitted by Oliver Berger

illegal dumping was one of the common issues discussed.‖ Tera Grady, (CRD, Supervisor of Solid Waste Management) ―One of the most inspiring presentations was from Williams Lake’s very own Mary Forbes and Oliver Berger highlighting the Potato House. An exciting aspect of their presentation was the composting portion. They have been creating some of the best compost at their site for few years now. With compostable material consisting of as much as 40 per cent of our solid waste stream there is a very strong need to divert that valuable product into a reusable avenue.‖ ―On the way home we stopped in at Sea to Sky Soils. They are a smaller scale processor of this type of waste stream working in the Sea to Sky Corridor. They collect compost from the local residents and tourist population while adding various products such as wood chips, sand, manure,

and a product to assist with drainage. We could not look at any of their actual sitemade dirt since they were sold out! The process involves pipes that blow air into the rows to accelerate the breakdown of the material. There are temperature sensors that upload data into a program and help the compost creating maestro work his magic. The optimal temperature appears to be around 65-70 degrees C. Getting the right mixture of carbon (leaves), nitrogen (green stuff like grass), and compost is a process that takes some time but the reward is a good growing medium that your plants and flowers will thrive in.

Composting creates.‖ Jesse Hohert, CRD, Solid Waste Management Technician ―As many industrial, produce, and service based conferences go, the presentations were informative but not entertaining. I was able to write and present two presentations for the event—one for the

Our first host was the annual TRU Gala in April. An awesome party planning team was willing to sign on as a Green Event host, and set up compost bins for all the buffet waste from a 150+ person event, as well as recycling for the bar and kitchen staff. All in all, we diverted 55.5 lbs of food waste from the trash bin to the compost bin.

We hope to do as many of these highprofile events as possible, and everything in between. If you have an event, party, or even a small meeting you‘re co-ordinating, and would like to sign on as a Green Event host, let us know. The discounts available to hosts are there to reward and support them for their efforts, so don‘t hesitate to give us a shout! We‘ll help you out as much as we can in moving towards zerowaste.

Brianna van de Wijngaard is the community liaison for the Water and Waste Wise programs at the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society in Williams Lake, BC. You can contact her about the Green Events Project at (250) 398-7929 or wastewise@ccconserv.org.

Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society Waste Wise Program and one for the Potato House Project in partnership with Oliver Berger. Both presentations included fully interpretive theatre components and costumes. When asking organizers about the feedback from the presentations, they said I should have presented on all three days as it was such a pick-me-up and breath of fresh air! During the balance of the conference, municipal representatives from around BC asked if was available to travel to their communities to train their staff, and I was invited to the Recycling Council of Alberta's waste conference in September as a keynote speaker and workshop host. Wow. Flattered. Overall a fantastic event, with so much networking and little sleep for the three days, I think we all needed to come home for a nap.‖ Mary Forbes, Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society/Potato House Project) ―Actually meeting the dedicated waste management industry individuals we correspond with mostly through telephone and emails was a thrill. Introducing myself to representatives from the Ministry of Environment, executives from major recycling and waste processing facilities, meeting the team from RCBC (who answers the public’s calls when you ring in for recycling questions) and, to top it off, getting a picture with Ross Rebagliati, was all super exciting! These face-to-face connections are priceless and will be most beneficial for all my future endeavours, whatever they may be. Perhaps it will involve building a backyard composter out of an old freezer... thanks Abby from the Sunshine Coast.‖ #bcrecycles Oliver Berger, Potato House Project

By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette

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anadian Environment Week runs June 5 – 11 this year, and is a prime example of just how great days of awareness can be, because it does so many amazing things correctly: the festivities last an entire week, the majority of initiatives are municipally implemented, and the observance activities are fun, simple, and easily engage people. Delivering the message is accessible and just about everyone can both understand and appreciate it—talk about bringing us closer to making the most important and meaningful change we can in terms of our long-term happiness and survival.

The federal government says the week comprises the Commuter Challenge, World Environment Day, Clean Air Day, World Oceans Day, and Rivers to Oceans Week, but really, it is about being mindful and conscious of the health and state of our one and only planet, and making choices in favour of that mindfulness 365 days each year. Each time we take a small step – riding a bike to the grocery store, picking litter near the ocean, spending quiet time near the river – we take on and reinforce the message that taking ownership of our environment is both possible and essential.

If we share these actions with friends and families we plant seeds of responsibility, and if we share them with children, well, watch out because that is where the real power lies.

Municipalities across Canada are hosting events to celebrate the various events that comprise Canadian Environment Week. According to Government Canada, Commuter Challenge is a nation-wide event promoting friendly competition among organizations and cities to see who can get the most employees into clean commuting like walking, cycling, carpooling, vanpooling, or teleworking. This event coincides with Clean Air Day, which also places focus on the importance of clean air and strategies – largely hinged upon transportation and greening our commutes – individuals can implement to help preserve and promote clean air for everyone. The friendly, competitive Commuter Challenge initiative is a great clean air strategy—it means works places are forming individual and team contests for collecting clean transportation miles, families are being conscious of how to run errands in more efficient ways, and schools are having bike week challenges. And that is only the beginning. The wonderful thing about Commuter Challenge is its potential— according to the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US, cars and trucks account for about 30 per cent of emissions in North America and put out about 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other GHGs per gallon of gas. If Commuter Challenge can convince even a few people that greening their commute is feasible, or if it helps many people make small steps in that direction,

the impact could be life-changing … and Earth-changing!

World Environment Day (WED) was established in 1972 by the United Nations to stimulate action on the environment and to inspire people around the world to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development. I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by this official description because ―sustainable and equitable development‖ is still development, and I have done enough work in the construction sector to know how environmentally friendly development strategies still mean habitat loss, loss of green spaces, and GHG chaos.

However, it appears WED has a whole rally of themes relating to global, hands-on action against these atrocities—this year‘s theme, for instance, is Go Wild for Life and is aimed at combatting illegal hunting and wildlife trade. Although more of a global theme, there is potential at the community level to make progress in this area.

The WED website has a number of fabulous, small-scale community engagement projects that can have a serious impact on the bigger picture. And besides, it is high time we support the message that ―our environment‖ isn‘t just the three square feet we occupy, or that cool camping place we take the kids every summer, but a complex, globe-spanning area that depends on our awareness and passion to survive.

World Oceans Day is a global initiative to raise awareness about the importance of oceans and their critical role in the world‘s survival. It was first proposed by Canada at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and has since been adopted by the UN as an official day of global observance. Interestingly, scientists know more about outer space than they do oceans, which is a testament to oceans‘ complexity and aweinspiring importance. Whether on the mainland or on the coast, oceans affect our existence and this day is a great opportunity to learn more about how and why.

This is an amazing day to share with children, as well. If you live near the ocean, a beach day checking for crabs and jellyfish is definitely in order, and if you don‘t there are about 300 million ocean-related games, crafts, and songs available online. Kids love this, too, because it is largely about animal and plant biodiversity and when you are six, every animal and plant is your friend. Who doesn‘t like celebrating their friends?

Government Canada says Rivers to Oceans Week is an opportunity to work together to create an understanding of Canada's watersheds, our connection to freshand salt-water environments, and ways everyone can protect watersheds and keep them healthy for people and wildlife. This year, it falls June 8 – 14, so there is some overlap with Canadian Environment Week, which means the celebrations can go on.

The most important issue rivers and oceans face today is plastic—it turns up by the truckload in every major waterway in the world. According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF), which oversees Rivers to Oceans Week projects and initiatives, plastic production rose to 299 million metric tons in 2013 and the majority ends up in landfills or in our rivers and oceans as trash. Most ocean litter gets there by from our roadways via wind and run-off, and of all the debris found in the ocean, an in-

Photo: Richard Allaway/Flickr.com

credible 60-80 per cent is petroleum-based plastic. The effects of plastic in oceans and rivers is profound, and has prompted a number of brilliant research projects including large scale ocean-cleaning nets and six pack rings that become fish food when they end up in the ocean. Please take a peek at what CWF offers communities in terms of awareness activities and vow to do just one—I guarantee, it is easier, more interesting, and less time-consuming than you think.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember during Canadian Environment Week (and all the time, really) is that envi-

ronmental sustainability is not an optional program in the game we call life. There is no maybe when it comes to whether we should, can afford to, or are obligated to help preserve the Earth‘s health. As I mentioned before, our environment is globally interconnected and also happens to be the only place we have to live. Just as it is our responsibility to raise our children, look after our bodies, and be kind in our communities, it is our obligation to actively work towards a greener, sustainable environment, in Canada and beyond. So, what are you waiting for?

By Devon Chappell

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trange, what is it!?

Kombucha! A rejuvenating health elixir many of you may have heard of before. If you‘ve tasted it you probably either loved it or found it wasn‘t for you. If you loved it you may now be brewing your own at home or maybe you‘ve even gone to the extreme and made clothes out of its ―scoby‖ as designer/biological conjurer Suzanne Lee has done.

Enthusiasts have been talking about it, grocery stores in North America have been holding it since the 90s, its origin remains unknown (maybe north eastern China or Russia), yet it has been being consumed for centuries.

This miraculous form of fermented sweetened tea is a symbiotic association of an acidic bacteria and a specific yeast. If you‘ve had the honour of experiencing this tea then you may also have wondered how it came to be so awesome. Well, like any other amazing creature, being, or plant, it takes a nurturing ―mother.‖ The slimy, pale pancake, mushroom-like creature floating on the top of a jar of fermenting kombucha tea is it‘s ―mother.‖ The kombucha mother is called a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and while many people refer to it as a mushroom, this is not technically correct. The scoby is a living organism, or rather, represents a symbiotic relationship that metabolizes the caffeine of green or black teas and sugar turning it into an impressive and mouth-watering beverage that contains astonishing benefits.

As long as the temperature is fine and there‘s enough tea, sugar, and room in the glass jar, your scoby will continue to grow and it will even produce babies. So fun!

Kombucha is a deliciously detoxifying and revitalizing refreshment that packs multiple health benefits into one tasty beverage. It is an excellent source of amino acids, enzymes, an abundance of probiotics, and friendly bacteria to aid digestion while fighting harmful yeasts, and it helps with detoxification of the liver and body.

Because of the glucosamine found in the scoby, kombucha can improve joint flexibility (especially in the knees). Some also claim kombucha can increase energy, improve moods, fight anxiety and depression, help with nutrient assimilation, prolong sexual appetite and performance, and may even improve vision. It may also help prevent bronchitis and asthma, diabetes, diarrhea, and kidney illnesses.

Making your own scoby, in the comfort of home: Ingredients Scoby 3 litres filtered, distilled, or spring water 1 cup organic sugar 8 bags black tea, green tea, or a mix (or 2 tablespoons loose tea) 2 cups starter tea from last batch of kombucha or store-bought kombucha (unpasteurized, neutral-flavored) Optional flavouring extras for bottling: 1 to 2 cups chopped fruit, 2 to 3 cups fruit juice, 1 to 2 tablespoons flavoured tea (like hibiscus or Earl Grey), 1/4 cup honey, 2 to 4 tablespoons fresh herbs or 2-4 tbsp freshly grated ginger Method You‘ll first have to adopt a scoby, either from a friend or if you‘re lucky I may be able to help. Once you've got your scoby, the process can happen.

Bring 3 litres of filtered, distilled, or spring water almost to a boil and pour into a very clean 4 litre glass jar. (Remember to heat up the jar under hot tap water to avoid blowing out the bottom and shattering the glass). Now it‘s time to add the tea. You may use any of the following teas to make your kombucha: black, oolong, green, white, or pu-erh. If possible, try to use organic and unsweetened teas. Teas like Earl Grey or herbal teas can be added at the bottling stage for flavour, but they won‘t work for the fermentation process. Add the cup of organic sugar and stir to dissolve.

Allow tea to steep until entirely cooled.

You can even make the tea at night and then use it in the morning.

Now that tea has cooled, remove tea bags and stir in 2 cups cup of kombucha from a previous batch, or the tea your scoby arrived in. If your scoby didn‘t have enough tea with it, you can purchase a bottle of kombucha tea found in most health food stores. Now place your scoby onto the top of the tea mixture. It is normal for a

scoby to either float on top, turn sideways, or even hang out at the bottom of the jar.

Cover jar with a clean cloth, towel, or an organic coffee filter secured with elastic band and store at room temperature in a dark place.

Let this interesting little mixture sit for 7-10 days to allow the fermentation process to have its wondrous way. When it‘s ready to drink, the mother scoby will have grown a white-ish/brown pancake on top and the tea will be slightly fizzy and a pleasing mix between sweet and tart (and you can decide based on personal preference). Now your kombucha is ready to bottle.

Wash your hands before handling the scoby. Set it aside on a large plate, and remembering to reserve 2 cups of the kombucha you have just made, pour your tasty new beverage into clean glass jars or bottles with tight-fitting lids. At this stage you may add other things to it. It's lovely as is to drink or you can spruce it up with fresh fruit, flavoured teas, grated ginger, mint leaves, or herbs to whatever your taste buds desire. Have fun, be creative, or just bottle it plain. Now put your scoby back into a fresh batch of sweet tea to start over again, and close up your bottles and put them away for another 3 days until you love how they taste!

BOOM! You‘ve just tasted your own homemade kombucha.

Storage It‘s okay if you can‘t make it every week.

Remove the scoby and place in a glass canning jar or container, along with a cup of the liquid and toss it in the fridge with an airtight lid until you‘re ready to make more kombucha.

Pour the remainder of your kombucha into a glass jar or pitcher with a tight fitting lid and have it join in the fridge as well.

If you continue to ferment your tea or have ―forgotten‖ about it, it‘s all good! The scoby will still produce one baby scoby after another and become quite thick, which speeds up the fermentation. Kombucha is very safe, as long as it tastes good; it is good. Over time, the scoby can die and turn black, and it is possible if it becomes contaminated that it could mould. Should your scoby turn black or have green and blue fuzzy mould on top, then I‘ll have to be thrown out or better yet, composted, unless of course you have a close connection and need to have a funeral.

Photo: Emma Christensen/ www.thekitchen.com

It may seem complicated and time consuming but I assure you, once you‘ve watched it grow and that sweet sparkling beverage hits your lips, you‘ll be slightly addicted to the process, which seems simpler over time, and completely addicted to the result.

Devon Chappell is something of an impressionist with therapeutic hands. He holds a focus on what is real when it comes to food. He has a personal interest in nutrition and art and when he is in his element, Devon brings nature to the kitchen.

By Sage Birchwater

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t‘s been a year now since Atlantic Power Corporation (APC) unveiled its plan to ask the Ministry of Environment for permission to burn millions of railway ties as feedstock for its Williams Lake biomass-fuelled energy plant.

Provincial environmental regulators haven‘t given their answer yet, but many people in Williams Lake are nervous.

To understand the implications, the company is asking permission to burn up to a 50/50 mix of creosote-laden rail ties and untreated sawmill waste known as hog fuel. The Williams Lake Power Plant (WLPP) burns 450,000 tonnes annually, so potentially it could burn 225,000 tonnes of toxic material per year.

Atlantic Power says it would burn less than half of that, like 112,500 tonnes or 1.6 million rail ties, but a growing number of people in Williams Lake feel that importing and burning that much toxic material in an environment subject to high winds and temperature inversions is setting the stage for something to go wrong. ―It‘s a recipe for disaster,‖ says retired forester Jim Hilton. ―And burning ties is completely unnecessary.‖ Hilton is part of an ad hoc group of two dozen Williams Lake residents who came together in the fall of 2015 to examine the rail tie burning proposal in more detail.

The group researched the issue extensively. ―It raises many questions we can‘t get answers to,‖ Hilton says.

Like peeling an onion, once one set of unknowns gets resolved, a whole new layer of questions is revealed.

Despite a smooth sales job by Atlantic Power Corporation assuring the public that their state-of-the-art facility would reduce most of the toxins in the rail ties to their base elements, the optics of Williams Lake becoming a destination for burning western Canada‘s surplus of old railway ties lingers like a bad taste in one‘s mouth.

In a perfect world, most of the poisons would be rendered inert by the 1,100degree-Celsius temperatures, but as one former Ministry of Environment employee points out, things do go wrong. Accidents happen because of human error, equipment wears out, shortcuts are implemented driven by shareholder pressure for higher profits, or the unexpected happens. Then who pays the cost? Like the Mount Polley mine breach of 2014, the citizens are left with a spoiled environment.

Williams Lake is already struggling with an image problem as the crime capital of British Columbia. How will becoming the rail tie-burning capital of Western Canada look on its resume?

Atlantic Power says burning rail ties is the answer for the projected wood fibre shortfall once the region‘s annual allowable timber harvest is cut in half in the next five to nine years.

Hilton points out that three BC Hydro reports confirm there is plenty of clean residual wood fibre left in the bush to support the power plant, but he suspects Atlantic Power‘s chief interest in burning rail ties is all about maximizing corporate profits. ―The energy plant was built to deal with wood waste produced by the forest industry,‖ Hilton says. ―It was never intended as a facility to burn contaminated wood products.‖ He notes that the ash from burning clean residual fibre has value as an ingredient for fertilizer or pavement. Ash from burning rail ties must be managed in perpetuity as a toxic substance.

A little history of Williams Lake Power Plant (WLPP) might help put the rail tie burning issue into perspective.

In 2008, when the global recession forced sawmills in Williams Lake to curtail their production, hog fuel wood waste to feed the energy plant was in short supply.

WLPP, then owned by Capital Power of Edmonton, was faced with shutting down.

That‘s when local logging contractors stepped forward and offered to grind up wood waste slated to be burned in the bush, and bring it to the energy plant.

They signed a contract with Capital Power and at its peak had eight to ten grinders producing 100 truckloads of residual logging debris (RLD) per day.

The WLPP stayed open, and the higher costs of burning the RLD feedstock was paid by BC Hydro.

In 2004, the energy plant got an environmental permit to burn five per cent of its feedstock as rail ties. Back in 2001 in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment, WLPP did a test burn of 100 per cent rail ties over a three-day period, and the results were measured. Then in 2008 CN

Truck dumping clean residual fibre at Williams Lake Power Plant. Photo: Sage Birchwater

Rail set up a rail tie grinding operation beside the Station House Gallery close to the Williams Lake downtown core, and between 2008 and 2010 the energy plant burned between three and four per cent of its feedstock as rail ties.

Due to safety, health and environmental concerns, the City of Williams Lake shut down the rail tie grinding operation. Since 2010 WLPP ceased burning rail ties completely.

Meanwhile contractors continued supplying the energy plant with RLD even after the sawmills ramped up production again. Between 2008 and 2011 more than 10,000 truckloads of RLD were delivered to the plant, and this generated an infusion of $20 million into the Williams Lake economy.

In the fall of 2011 Atlantic Power Corporation purchased the WLPP from Capital Power, and almost immediately the new owners terminated the agreement with the contractors supplying RLD to the energy plant. Atlantic Power says BC Hydro was no longer willing to pay for the higher cost of the residual wood fibre.

The ad hoc committee opposed to burning rail ties in Williams Lake hosted two

public meetings and led a delegation to City Hall asking the mayor and council to stand up for the city. ―We need to exercise the precautionary principle,‖ Hilton insists. ―There is too much unknown about burning railway ties, and too much that can go wrong.‖ He says it will take the will of government to reject the application to burn rail ties and the will of the company, BC Hydro, and the provincial government to make burning residual RLD wood fibre affordable. ―Burning rail ties will create three extra jobs at WLPP shredding ties. Supplying the power plant with clean residual fibre will create 50 to 60 jobs and protect our environment,‖ says Hilton.

Sage Birchwater moved to the CaribooChilcotin in 1973. He spends his time freelancing, authoring books, and with Caterina, hanging out with their dog and cat, gardening, and being part of the rich cultural life that is the Cariboo-Chilcotin Coast.

Continued on

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(L) Riding a spine at Farwell Canyon leading towards the Chilcotin River. (R) The end of trail AK 89, part of the Fox Mountain trail network. Which way? Mitch's? or Aflo? You decide.

Photos: Kent Bernadet www.kentbernadet.com

By Shawn D. Lewis

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ever has mounting biking (MTB) been under more duress than now. Industry, range, and other recreational users all vie for the same green space in and around our community. Throw in the realities of private property and urban sprawl, and mountain biking faces considerable hurdles when looking at the longevity of the sport.

Thankfully, the City of Williams Lake, the Cariboo Regional District and the Province of British Columbia recognize the social and economic value of mountain biking, its trails and the infrastructure that support it, and have become willing partners with the Williams Lake Cycling Club (WLCC).

An economic impact assessment done in 2013 for the Cariboo Regional Area estimates that the total contribution of mountain biking to the Cariboo region is $2.17 million annually. This includes regional infrastructure spending, event impacts, and direct MTB equipment spending.

The WLCC has been in existence since 2005, and Puddlebike, the original bike club, pre-dates that back to the 90s. The WLCC formed out of desperation and was one of eight pilot project communities to work towards the legalization of MTB trails.

From those early days to now, the WLCC was and is a leader in legal trail and network development. The WLCC is tasked with managing the resource of MTB trails in and around Williams Lake. With the strong partnerships of those listed above, new ones in the form of the Williams Lake Indian Band, other Native Bands and partners, plus the hard work of many volunteers, we have become known as the Shangri La of Mountain Biking and strive continually to retain that lofty standing. With four networks, over 150 trails, and more than 200 kilometers of single track, there is a trail and network for everyone. The ability to pedal from anywhere in town to three of these networks and access multiple trail-heads sets Williams Lake apart from most other cycling communities.

Many of our trails encounter private property. In 1996 the Occupiers Liability Act of BC (http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/ document/id/complete/statreg/96337_0) was

crafted and based on a similar act from the UK. Its purpose was to address liability and determine the level of care an occupier is required to show towards persons entering on the premises in respect to dangers to them or their property while on the premises.

Section 3 of the Act defines the occupier‘s duty of care and Section 3.3 specifically addresses rural premises that are vacant or undeveloped, and/or forested or wilderness premises. Why is this important?

This act states that a person who enters any of the categories of premises is deemed to have willingly assumed all risks and the occupier of these premises is only required not to create a danger with intent to harm or to act with reckless regard to the safety of the person. Essentially, a landowner is under no obligation nor has any liability if riders cross into his/her land.

So, one would think private property owners have no issues with mountain bikers.

But thanks to American-style court cases and fear mongering perpetuated by the court system, landowners are reluctant to allow any type of recreation to occur on their land despite legislation specifically designed to protect them and to promote the allowance of recreation.

Industry has shaped the landscape around us in many ways. The mining and forest industries have been two major players of employment in our area for decades, and hopefully will continue to be, well into the future. However, there needs to be alternatives to these sectors and more thought is needed when examining the impacts these two have on our land base. While there is no mining activity close to town, timber harvesting is getting closer and closer especially with the advent of the fir bark beetle.

One doesn‘t need to look too far to see the rapid rise of red trees in and around the hillsides of Williams Lake. Fox Mountain and the Westside are heavily infected and the problem is only going to worsen if no actions are taken. What does that mean, though? It means there will be harvesting of beetle attacked trees close to town and within view of our city. How does that affect recreation? Well, when one considers the proximity of infected trees and the fact our trail networks lie so close to town, there

is going to be contact. How does one measure the value of a trail over the value of forest health? Legally, the trails are protected and as a stakeholder the WLCC has input when it comes to how the land is used. Unfortunately, this can mean very little when industry makes a mistake and does not comply with the rules and regulations in place to protect recreational trails. The negative impact unsupervised logging activity has had on the Westside is undeniable and unrepair-

able. The riding experience has been forever changed and we need to find a way to make sure this cannot happen again.

Range is among the largest user groups of crown land. It is a multi-million dollar industry that has deep-seated roots in the province and especially in our area. Some of the oldest and most historic ranches can be found in the Cariboo and they are major players when it comes to land use. However, range holds no exclusivCont‘d on pg. 10

Cont‘d from pg. 9

ity when it comes to tenure on Crown land and they are a shared land user, similar to recreation. Perhaps because range has been a major part of settlement in Western Canada they feel a certain level of ownership and entitlement that differentiates them from other land users.

Compounding the issues of shared land use is the fact there are other recreational user groups competing for the same green space. The least intrusive are the hikers and walkers that find the MTB trails a wonderful means to get out and enjoy the fresh air and views our trails have to offer. The Williams Lake Wanderers Club has shown support for mountain biking and the trails because of the opportunities the networks give them.

Equestrian riders share some of the trails and conflict is rare with this user group as there is usually mutual consideration when encountering one another on the trail. The biggest downside of equines is the impact they have on the trails themselves. Damage caused by the small contact spot of a horse‘s hoof can include blown out side hill support and rutting. Deep depressions and divots are also formed when the trails are ridden while soft and wet. The biggest bane to the MTB trails is in the form of motorized users.

In the early days of trail building, builders purposely wove through and around trees leaving little more than a couple of feet between the trees. This was done to hinder motorcycle access as their handlebars were too wide to fit through the tight spaces. With the advent of wider handlebars on mountain bikes there is a different philosophy while building and motorcycles are less of a concern. Now, it is the quads and side by sides that are the more serious problem. The ability of these off road vehicles (ORV) to go almost anywhere and pack a chainsaw while

doing it is very problematic. The wider wheelbase can be damaging and if the trail is too narrow, many ORV users simply cut their way through the forest without a second thought to the damage they are causing.

Thankfully, the WLCC and the Williams Lake Off Road Motorcycle Association (WLORMA) have worked hard together to help combat the ORV issues. The Southsyde was recognized as being a prime motorized area and together the clubs created maps that showed trails allowing moto use, both single track and double track. More importantly, the maps showed trails that did not allow moto usage, thereby protecting the most vulnerable while still offering acceptable moto routes. These maps can be found in the network on the three trail kiosks that the WLORMA installed in 2015.

There is a need to deal with all of these land -use issues now.

The Williams Lake Cycling Club is a voice for the riding community and a chair at the table when it comes to land-use and user conflict. To date, the WLCC has received more than $170,000 in funding from its multiple partners. This has been used to create a signature trail, Snakes and Ladders, build and annually maintain the largest bike park north of Hope, install more than 300 signs and wands to direct traffic in the networks, help maintain the trail networks to industry standards, install and update several trail map kiosks throughout the area, and promote and foster the appreciation of mountain biking all while bringing tourists and tourism dollars to the area.

Without the WLCC, forest companies could run rampant in the woods with little or no regard for the trails or the technical features found on them. There would be no consideration of the trails when new range fences are being placed or when grassland

restoration projects are being planned. Hosting events would be very difficult as there would be no legal areas to ride in and on.

The lifestyle that mountain biking creates and evokes could not be marketed to attract and retain the much needed professionals in our community. First Nation partnerships that would help trail and area development would not be likely.

With the WLCC, logging plans are modified to accommodate existing trails and maintain the current riding experience.

Fence crossings are built to retain the natural flow of a trail. Restoration project boundaries are modified to preserve visual quality aspects of a trail corridor. Large scale events like Pedal by the Puddle, the MTB Symposium, and BC Enduro Series can be held. Our trails and networks can be marketed provincially, federally, and globally to attract doctors and other health care professionals to our region. Important trusts are built with First Nation communities that will allow for further trail development in the future.

The Williams Lake Cycling Club is an integral part of our community. It fosters a healthy, green lifestyle while creating economic diversity and promoting a fun, vigorous place to live, thrive, and grow.

This article is solely the view of the author, Williams Lake Cycling Club president, Shawn D Lewis. Shawn has been the Williams Lake Cycling Club president since 2009. He has been an avid rider since the dawn of mountain biking and a builder with over 20 years honing the craft and art of trail building, and still has a lot to learn about both. Shawn helped draft the Club's mission statement in 2004 and is proud to say they have been true to it to this day and will continue into the future. "Ride bikes, have fun."

Williams Lake Cycling Club Mission statement: “The purpose of the Williams Lake Cycling Club is to maintain, enhance and develop a sustainable mountain bike trail network that guarantees perpetuity and diversity, to promote fun for bike riders of all ages, abilities and interests.” 

Formed in 2005



Four trail networks with over 150 trails, 250 km of single track



Provincial financial assistance, CRD assistance, City support of annual bike park maintenance

Two Sister Mountain, Wells/Barkerville. Photo: Thomas Drasdauski

By Thomas Schoen, Chair of CMBC

A

s the chair of the Cariboo Mountain Bike Consortium (CMBC) I often get asked: ―What do you guys do and why do we need another bike club?‖ Well, the answer is very simple. The CMBC is not a local club and has no membership beyond the Board of Directors. We are a regional marketing organization, the second largest in the Interior, promoting mountain biking in the 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Wells/ Barkerville corridor. We have no individual members, as we do not wish to compete with local clubs and split up their membership base. Our directors are representing their respective communities and are all members of local clubs. Think of us as the Cariboo-Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association with a mandate to promote biking.

So, how do we fulfill our mandate? The promotional tasks are easy to grasp. We pay for advertising in local and regional publications, and we run ads on Pinkbike, the worlds‘ largest website for mountain bike enthusiasts. We attend tradeshows, visit events, and host our own website: www.ridethecariboo.ca.

What the public does not see is the work behind the scenes: grant writing, advocacy work, presentations to municipal and regional governments, and most important, our administrative support of local bike clubs. Clubs are volunteer run and often lack the capacity to keep up with ad-

ministrative tasks. We step in and help them write grants and other documents, provide some funding for trail maintenance and trail signage, and just help out with whatever we can. All CMBC Directors have a connection to the industry (I am the owner of a trail building company) and we all have business and consulting backgrounds.

The other question I often hear is: ―Why are you guys so successful?‖ Again, the answer is quite simple. We have a great track record and we do what we are mandated to do. We raise the number of visiting mountain bikers year after year and we have the numbers to prove it. A great example was the 2015 MTB Symposium. The event had a significant economic impact and the total spending was $95,800. As a direct result of this event we are now hosting the BC Enduro Series, with an estimated impact of $100,000+. We have built and maintained great partnerships including all four communities, the Northern Development Initiative Trust, the CaribooChilcotin Action Coalition, the Cariboo Regional District, a handful of First Nations partners and many, many local busi-

ness partnerships. Now keep in mind, we have no paid staff and are all volunteers.

What‘s new and what is the 2016 season bringing? A lot of new development.

From our brand new website (www.ridethecariboo.ca), with a winter page coming in the late fall featuring local/ regional winter sport venues and events, to new trails to the north and to the south of Williams Lake. Our biggest project, however, is the development of the Desous Mountain Trail network. This is a regional initiative and is the brainchild of our VP Mark ‗Shreddie‘ Savard. (Mark is the visionary in our group; I‘m the administrator

and pencil pusher.) While the network has been in existence for many years, it needs to be updated and further developed. The CMBC is the driving force and fully supported by the local club, the City of WL, the CRD and CCBCA, and NDIT. All organizations see a need for further development and Desous is our prime choice.

Thomas is a McLeese Lake resident since 1993, who runs a a trail planning and building company. In addition he works as the ED for the Central Interior Regional Arts Council and volunteers on a number of regional non-profit boards.

By Oliver Berger

W

ell, it has been a crazy few years. Lots of fun activities packed with endless adventures. I am mostly happy with my latest endeavours in the waste management field and all the wonderful opportunities that have come along with it. I have met so many dedicated people and learned a lot of what happens behind the scenes. It has been very rewarding as well as surprising to hear some of the crazy stuff that most people do not witness.

During one visit to a transfer station in the area, I got to talking with the attendant working that day. He told me a story about a lovely visitor dumping his garbage into the waste bins at the site. He noticed this visitor also had many cardboard boxes that were getting tossed into the bin. He suggested to the man that he should use the recycling station just across the yard for the cardboard, because that is where it goes.

The man paused, turned to the attendant, and told him to ―f*ck off.‖ Wow, eh? I didn‘t realize people could be so rude. Must be the blissful ignorance I inherited from my mother.

This is a glimpse into the reality of some of the treatment transfer station attendants can receive. For some reason a certain percentage of the public, not all I might add, deem it necessary to treat the attendants like some kind of lower class citizens. Do these public think dumping their physical garbage also means dumping their mental garbage? I mean, these attendants are only trying to help and educate about new regulations, following through with what has been asked of them for their job.

It takes dedication and a powerful mindset to keep your head up and moving forward if you are a worker in the garbage sector. Dealing with society‘s leftovers all day and physically sorting through it can be mentally challenging as well as dirty.

Also, for being such an important job in society (I mean, what if landfills or transfer stations didn‘t exist?) the pay rate is not really the most fantastic. All these reasons combined could be why some days when you approach these sites, you might not have the friendliest face greeting you. Perhaps the person before you turned that previous smile upside down.

A thumbs up to the people knee deep in trash and still smiling on the front lines of the battle with our waste. Photos: Oliver Berger. Collage: Josh Moffat

I have a friend who is one of the main clean up guys for our area, maintaining the unmanned landfills and dealing with illegal dumping in our back roads and forests. ―Positive thoughts, positive thoughts!‖ is a phrase he constantly repeats in his head. He can be track-deep in his excavator, in our smelly, maggot-filled waste, covering and compacting to manage air space, yet he is still smiling. Most of the time he has no idea what he is driving over or grabbing with his bucket, while he is in these pits. He has unwillingly crushed semi or full propane tanks, freezers loaded with rotting meat, ammunition, and even had an almost heart attack when he pulled out an inflated blow-up doll. One time, while covering a finished landfill pit with a bulldozer, his work partner at the time ran over some improperly dumped dynamite, actually lifting the bulldozer off the ground, along with the driver and sending a mushroom cloud of garbage into the air. That wasn‘t a fun surprise.

Every time he rolls up to a site he maintains, he basically is waiting to see what surprise society has left him since the last visit. More often than not, it is abuse of the wood waste collection sites that are the biggest clean ups. Riddled with random metals, plastic piping of all sorts, electrical

wiring, carcasses, broken boats, trashed trailers, appliances, and even one time a completely full septic tank. Does any of that sound like wood to you? I don‘t know how he continues smiling through all this repeated chaos some days; however, I‘m sure rocking out to Iron Maiden while doing so probably helps!

Now, I should say not all people who dump their waste are this challenging.

Most people are actually really good; it is

the few bad apples who make it frustrating.

However, when I listen to the stories from our unsung heroes, it brings a smile to my face when they tell me how happy it makes them when someone comes along and just says a simple ―thank you for what you do‖ or brings them a little treat, like a coffee or cookies. These small tokens of appreciation go a long way for these people... trust me! Make sure you give your garbage guy a big wave next time he cruises by. What if he didn‘t show up that morning... or month?

Without these dedicated soldiers out there controlling, assisting, and educating the public with their waste and recycling needs, we would not be having the success we are today. I am also really happy with the co-operation from the public dealing with all the waste management changes in our area; your patience and understanding is appreciated. We have reduced our garbage heading to our landfills and increased our recyclables heading out of town significantly. We should be proud of the path we are on. I say hats off to all of you workers and public. Thank you for your continued dedication. We are all becoming so much more aware! Let us continue this positive progress.

Oliver Berger has a 34-year degree in life, starting out in the Spokin Lake area, spending adolescence in Williams Lake, and then venturing throughout the world on a quest of always learning new things.

His priorities include dedication to and education about waste management.

By Margaret-Anne Enders

S

ometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. For a long time, the 60s loudly called my name.

Crazy clothes. Wild hair. Peaceful revolution. Freedom and love, man.

Last night I went to the Youth Fiddlers‘ evening of old-time music, dancing, and socializing. I was transported back into a different time and felt the pull of pioneer days where families joined together to celebrate with music, communal dances, and wholesome fun. A friend commented that the world would be a better place if we got together like this more often and danced. I tend to agree with him. Oh, for the good old days…

It‘s all too easy to romanticize bygone eras and pick out the good parts. Much of the 60s culture was in response to the horrors of the Vietnam War. And I don‘t know that I am tough enough to handle the pioneering lifestyle. I was mighty thankful at the end of the night that I didn‘t have to bundle up and ride for five miles in a frosty open sleigh and arrive home to a freezing bed. However, I can still learn how to bring some of the magic of those time periods into my present-day life.

One of the norms of pioneer days was that of working hard for six days a week and then resting on the seventh day. As it says in the Hebrew Bible, ―Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.‖Observant Jews still honour this tradition, but most Christian folks pretend it is not one of the 10 Commandments, higher up on the list

than even murder. However, Sabbathkeeping is making a comeback. People are realizing that we need to take time. I was reading an article on the practice the other day and the author, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada, stated most people feel they don‘t have time to take a day off. It is true—and it struck me as ridiculous. What is so important in my life that I cannot take a break? In the grand scheme of the universe, does it matter if I sit and rest for an afternoon?

How could we not have time? Time is just a construct. Yes, there are hours and minutes of invariable length, but why do some days fly by when others stretch lazily on forever? So much of our experience of time is perception.

Another reason for my perceived lack of time stems from my tendency to be a perfectionist. While I have made some headway in letting go of some of this perfectionist leaning, one of the remnants is a drive for accomplishment. I always have at least one to-do list on the go, and while I‘m okay with it if I don‘t scratch things off on any given day, the truth is I feel better on those days that my pen is able to strike a clean line through a monster of a task. It is not just that it is done and out of the way. It goes deeper than that: when I accomplish more, I have a sense of being a better person.

When I find myself caught in the trap of accomplishment = worthiness, I remember what my teacher Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi once said after a sitting meditation: ―Sometimes when I am in the midst

Photo: Ben Seidelman /Flikr (Cropped)

of a meditation, I feel so thankful that I can be a human being, not a human doing.‖ It is quite a tough shift in my mind, to see myself as worthwhile, just because I am.

I have been experimenting with Sabbath-keeping for a while now. I still haven‘t reached the level of setting aside a day every week, but when I do take the time, I find the days are rejuvenating and my chest is often free of the heavy weight of my never-ending to-do list. I am able to be more present with the kids. When I take the time and rid myself of ―the list,‖ the days do seem to stretch. I can enjoy what I am doing in the moment, or, if it is a difficult time, I can take the time to explore the struggle, to sit with it and see what arises.

In this experimental Sabbath, I make up some of my own rules, allowing myself to do tasks such as gardening that might be

seen as work, but that I want to do as enjoyment, not as accomplishment (although, if I am honest, I am still glad I am accomplishing along with the enjoying—old habits die hard…). I‘m not a farmer, so I don‘t need a break from gardening; digging in the dirt, nurturing, and cultivating provide the rejuvenation that I seek. Or I might spend time making a meal for friends.

Breaking bread with others is another rich aspect of community often lost in the hustle and bustle of our family‘s work, school, sports, and the general upkeep of the household.

In the end, it is this intentional way of being – in the present, building community with family and friends, in nature – that captures the essence of what I long for in those bygone days. By setting aside time and by honouring the experience of just being, it I enter into a time-less world. Perhaps if we all took up the practice, we‘d start a different kind of revolution—one good book, shared meal, or garden plot at a time.

In her work with the Multicultural Program at Cariboo Mental Health Association, as well as in her life as a parent, partner, faithful seeker, left-leaning Christian, paddler, and gardener, Margaret-Anne Enders is thrilled to catch glimpses of the Divine in both the ordinary and the extraordinary. To find out more about the Women’s Spirituality Circle, call her at (250) 305-4426 or visit www.womenspiritualitycircle.wordpress.com or on Facebook at Women’s Spirituality Circle in Williams Lake.

By LeRae Haynes

L

iving in Canada has been a true gift and a wonderful adventure for two local residents who look forward to celebrating Canada Day as grateful citizens. Lubna Khan and Carmen Mutschele each chose Canada as a destination and a home—a place to make their dreams come true.

Family was the pull for Khan, who moved from Pakistan to Chicago and then to BC. She‘s been in Williams Lake for nearly nine years. ―I was born in a family with five daughters and one son—it was hard in Pakistan for a family to have so many girls,‖ she said. ―I was extremely lucky my parents were so liberal, unlike many of my classmates. Most of them were quite restricted—had places they couldn‘t go and had to cover their heads.‖ She was also very fortunate that her parents believed in education for their daughters—she was able to get a university degree and a Masters in geography. ―One of my sisters married and moved to Chicago, and when she had children my mom moved there to look after them. My mom is the centre of the family and one by one the immigrations started and we all began moving to the US. ―I did not have any luck finding work in my profession in Chicago, and eventually decided to immigrate to Canada. Within two years I was approved and got a passport and was on my way. I decided on BC because I had heard all my life how beautiful it is and at that time it had a lower unemployment rate than the rest of Canada.‖ She said it was pretty tough when she got here. ―I didn‘t know a soul in Canada and had always stayed with my family. I stayed a week in a motel in Burnaby, got a temp job and an apartment, and within three months I found a job in my profession in Williams Lake.‖

(Left) Carmen Mutschele, who started a new life in Canada over 20 years ago, has been on a musical journey of sharing songs with friends and strangers alike. Photo: Rick Schiller (Right) Lubna Khan enjoys birding with Williams Lake Field Naturalists Club.

Photo: Betty Donahue

She said she initially had no idea where Williams Lake was. ―On my way up here I was convinced I just couldn‘t ever live here. Karachi, where I grew up, had 20 million people and Chicago is huge. It felt like there was no one here,‖ she explained. ―The job was only for one year and I decided to bite the bullet and stay.‖ Almost nine years later she‘s still here, and says it was one of the best decisions she ever made. ―I really liked the job and the people I work with have become my second family,‖ she said. ―In 2011 I became a Canadian citizen; on the day I was sworn in I told my boss I would be late, and the whole office showed up to help celebrate.‖ Khan has fallen in love with ice fishing and bird watching with the Scout Island Naturalists.―In Pakistan you drive five or six hours to find open places and here it‘s

10 minutes,‖ she said. ―I would never have had these experiences if I hadn‘t come here.‖ Moving from an urban area in Germany to Horsefly was a culture shock and a huge, wonderful adventure for Carmen Mutschele, who came to Canada for love and has been here more than 20 years. Her dream began in the Stuttgart region of Germany. ―I had a fascination from the time I was a child to go to a faraway English-speaking place,‖ she said. ―I read romance books about women moving to work in the bush and suddenly I was living it. ―While I missed having a variety of restaurants and cultural events to go to, after a while I didn‘t notice it all that much anymore, as I was busy building a new life.‖ Another surprise for Mutschele was seeing clear cuts in the forest. ―I was so

surprised,‖ she said ―I found the wilderness so beautiful and love the pristine lakes—so calming. I am always delighted to see deer, bear, and loons. ―There is a real freedom here and I was able to create something I could never have in Germany.‖ Kahn and Mutschele discussed Independence Day celebrations in their home countries of Pakistan and Germany. ―August 14 is Independence Day in Pakistan; in 1947 we became independent of India,‖ said Kahn. ―People dress up in green and white and carry flags. There are singing ceremonies, special dramas on TV, and presidential speeches at the capital.‖ ―The Day of German Unity was celebrated even when Germany was divided— hoping that would change and someday it would be united,‖ Mutschele explained. ―They don‘t really celebrate national pride, and coming here and seeing people having that was a really big difference. ―I once sang ‗O Canada‘ for the Stampede and really identified with the sense of living here,‖ she said. ―I feel very at home and love living in the Cariboo. I really appreciate the First Nations culture here. It teaches me so much about how to slow down, be more mindful, and look for wisdom in the quieter places. There‘s a wonderful richness to this country: Canada has so much to offer and I feel so blessed to get glimpses of this.‖ ―Canada Day signifies freedom to me,‖ said Kahn.―As a Pakistani woman, even today you can‘t do much. Taking a bus to university you get hassled. Over there as a woman you are always conscious of who‘s watching you and who‘s behind you. Here there is no fear: there is only freedom.‖ LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, song writer, community co-ordinator for Success by 6, member of Perfect Match dance band, and instigator of lots of music with kids.

O

n July 1, 2017, Canada will turn 150 years young! Canada‘s 150th birthday needs to be planned for soon rather than later and that‘s why since 2008 photographer and creator of the Canadian Mosaic Project, Tim Van Horn, has been busy capturing the essence of what makes Canada such a special place we call home. Whether it be a remote fishing village, a small prairie town, or a metropolitan centre, Tim Van Horn has been embedded in the field documenting everyday, hardworking Canadians.

In the past seven years, Tim has traversed the country five times and created an impressive 44,000 portraits from 1,045 communities in every province and territory in Canada. Upon completion of the mosaic in 2016, a total of 54,000 portraits or .15 per cent of the population, will have been taken and will weave together into an inspirational, nationwide touring, mobile, interactive pavilion on wheels.

Accompanying this vibrant, educational pavilion is a photography book entitled, To Canada with Love. Online, an interactive mosaic entitled, www.anewcanada.me is all about you, and will shine a light on our

(L ) Tim Van Horn, photographer and creator of the Canadian Mosaic Project. (R) A mosaic of many tiny portraits.

Images: Canadian Mosaic Project. Follow on Facebook or visit www.canadianmosaic.ca/

unique cultural identity. These 54,000 portraits will be the largest visual anthropological cultural study ever undertaken. The Canadian Mosaic Project is now looking for partnerships and collaborations for Canada‘s 150th birthday in 2017.

By Brandon Hoffman

E

ven though it just came out last month, writing about Marin Patenaude‘s self-titled debut record, Marin Patenaude and the Follow Through, already feels like old news. She has established a loyal local following as a musician, festival organizer, and contributor to the Potato House Community Sustainability Society. There are a lot of us who could sing along long before she even started recording the album. We had been waiting, mostly patiently, for a while.

When Marin released the album last month, it felt like a matter of minutes before it was on the collective CD player and iPod playlist of the Cariboo. The Station House‘s supply of CDs was cleaned out in a day or two, so we had to start a waiting list to keep the crowds happy. Meanwhile, bits and pieces of news started trickling in about Marin‘s career, further fuelling all

By Brandon Hoffman

J

ust heading south from Williams Lake there‘s a charming old farm house tucked into the landscape. There aren‘t a lot of buildings like this one around the Cariboo these days, so it might stand out a bit.

Almost as distinct as the folk-Victorian style of the house is the big red barn next to it. It is definitely picturesque, but this property also has a pretty darn interesting history to it. Allow me to do my best Sage Birchwater impression for a moment, and gush about the Cariboo‘s own Onward Ranch.

From his Suffolk England home in 2001, famed Canadian painter Joseph Plaskett wrote: ―I have known Sonia Cornwall since 1946. Her mother, Vivien Cowan, whom I met the year previously at the Banff School of Fine Arts, had invited me to the Onward Ranch. I fell in love with the Cariboo country and with all the Cowan family, and went back year after year to paint and pursue friendship. The Onward was a hive of artistic activity.‖ Charles and Vivien Cowan established the Onward Ranch in 1918. Very soon after, Vivien, an avid painter, had an attic space converted to an artist studio. Given the beautiful rolling landscape of the area, she was not at a loss for subject matter.

In the early 30s, with the ranch now operating smoothly, Vivien went to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts. It was there that she met AY Jackson. Jackson, now recognized as a founding member of the legendary Group of Seven painting cohort, was an instructor at the school. The two instantly hit it off. They maintained a lifelong friendship, and Jackson would regularly come to the Cariboo to paint and visit his old friends.

At a very early age, both of Vivien and Charles‘ daughters took interest in art.

Sonia was painting and sketching by the age of five, while Dru (later Hodgeson) mostly took to pottery. As young adults, the two went to the Provincial Institute of Technology in Calgary to study art. Sonia

the hype. It started small—she‘s coming to town to play a fundraiser for the Buddhist centre. Then we got word of her opening spot for Sarah Mclachlan as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival on June 26. Everybody likes a local-kid-donegood story, and this is one for the books.

But don‘t let all the hype speak for it-

dropped out before long, deciding to pursue her studies solo.

Sonia would regularly send pieces to family friend Jackson for his critique. ―Not so much paint – too much like Tom!‖ one reported, speaking apparently of influential Canadian artist Tom Thompson.

In 1948 Sonia married Hugh Cornwall, and together they took over operations of the Onward Ranch. Sonia and Hugh ran the ranch until 1965. All the while the family maintained a strong artistic presence in the Cariboo and Canada alike.

In 1946, with help from honourary president AY Jackson, Vivien co-founded the Cariboo Arts Society—an organization still going strong today.

Years later in 1981, Sonia helped to establish the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake, which recently celebrated its 35th year.

Although currently owned and operated by another family, the Onward Ranch legacy continues. Devereaux Hodgson, daughter of Dru, continues to capture beautiful paintings of the Cariboo landscape among other things.

For July and August, the Station House Gallery is extremely excited to host a group show dedicated to the legacy of the Onward Ranch. Onward and Upward features the work of Vivien Cowan, Sonia Cornwall, Joe Plaskett, Dru Hodgson, and Devereau Hodgeson.

We decided to sway from routine just a bit and hold the opening a week early, so we can proudly showcase this quintessential history of arts in the Cariboo to our visitors during stampede weekend. The two-floor exhibition will be on display at the Station House from July 1 to August 27.

In the meantime, if you happen to be in the neighborhood during the month of June, make sure to stop in and see exhibitions by Annerose Georgeson and Shirley Gibson-Bull.

Vanderhoof artist Annerose Georgeson‘s show Logging is a beautiful collection of mostly large-scale paintings, observing the change to BC‘s landscape, and our relationship with the forest.

self. If we did that we‘d be heralding the Justin Biebers of the world as great artists.

Marin has made something amazing. The Follow Through is a collection of nine songs, with only one clocking in under the four-minute mark. These songs have a way of sinking into your unconscious by making themselves look like simple, catchy little folk-blues numbers. Although certainly catchy at times, Marin‘s songwriting has a subtlety and depth that hits on a deep emotional level. You might not even notice Marin‘s jazz chops at work, but under those lofty melodies are velvety chords strung together in unpredictable progressions. It takes some remarkable skill to make something so complex sound this natural.

At risk of playing the hype card again, it took an all-star cast to build arrangements around these songs. Cole Schmidt of Juno-winning group Pugs and Crows cooks up some dark and brooding guitar tones, while Polaris Prize-winning violinist Jesse Zubot drops in some haunting violin solos. The one at the end of ―Carnegie Curves,‖ paired with Marin‘s unsettling

and never-resolving chords, dances you between bitter chills and heart wrenching pangs of nostalgia. When that last line comes – ―We took the time but too late‖ – the sweet resolve you have been hoping for finally comes, and it breaks your heart.

Pianist Tyson Naylor and percussionist Kenton Loewen are well known in the Vancouver scene, backing up the likes of Dan Mangan. Kenton lent his production to this record, and the chemistry between he and Marin made something that while not always comfortable, is consistently beautiful.

Peggy Lee‘s cello work and Scott Smith‘s pedal steel fill out the midrange and add loads of tension, while Darren Parris holds down the low end on bass.

Download Marin Patenaude and the Follow Through from her bandcamp page www.marinpatenaudeandthefollowthrough .bandcamp.com/releases, or pick up a copy at the Station House Gallery.

Huge congrats to Marin. I know her local fans will never lose faith in the follow through.

108 Mile painter Shirley Gibson-Bull‘s collection Art Next is a series of exploratory paintings made to an enchanting effect.

I might add one last note while reporting from my upstairs office at the Station House Gallery. For nearly two years I have held my post as exhibition co-ordinator at the gallery. The board and executive direc-

tor Diane welcomed me into the position with open arms and have been supportive and encouraging. It‘s with a heavy heart that I leave my position here for new adventures. I sincerely thank the gallery for bringing this wandering troubadour into their establishment, and wish them the best of luck as they continue to make history in the Cariboo.

By Christa Mustard

W

e‘ve all been affected by the increase in produce prices in British Columbia. From January 2015 to January 2016, the cost of fresh vegetables in BC rose 26 per cent, compared with only a 4.6 per cent increase for food in general, because most vegetables are imported from the US against a low Canadian dollar. When the most nutritious foods become prohibitively expensive, choosing natural and healthy options becomes impossible for those already struggling to provide food for their families.

More than 12 per cent of Canadians live in a state of food insecurity, lacking access to adequate amounts of safe and healthy food. It‘s misleading to picture emaciated children in developing countries; that‘s not what food insecurity looks like in North America. Here, where processed food products are cheap and abundant, the effect of our inability to afford nutritious food is not starvation, but obesity and diabetes. More than a third of Canadians are overweight and another quarter obese. It's not that we're not getting enough to eat; it's that not enough of what we're eating is food.

Follow me on this. The price of organic meat and produce reflect the ―true‖ cost of food production, because the cost of nonorganic foods is kept artificially low with the use of chemicals, pesticides, and practices that this article won‘t cover in detail.

Let's say, then, that the cost of organic food is the true cost of food, and that if you can't afford organic meat and produce every day, then you can't afford food.

Think about what that means.

I was furious to realize that as a hardworking, healthy adult in one of the

(Left) Author forages in McLeese Lake. Photo: LeRae Haynes (Right) Green onions, carrots, and radishes, "recycled" from kitchen scraps. Photo: Christa Mustard

world‘s richest countries, with a full-time job and no family to support, I couldn‘t afford food and probably never would.

Luckily, I‘m far too stubborn to sacrifice either cost or nutrition, so I‘d like to share four of the easiest ways I've found for peasants to eat like royalty.

1. Forage. Many wild plants contain more vitamins, minerals, and protein than commercial produce. I've lived on wild mustard, dock, and stinging nettles across Canada. Here in the Cariboo, I've gathered and eaten dandelion, lamb's quarters, pineapple weed, and peppergrass so far this spring. I would love to hear your success stories or share my recipes.

2. Recycle your food into more food.

You can regrow most vegetables by throwing the scrap ends that you‘re not going to eat anyway into a bucket of dirt on your windowsill. Unfortunately, you can‘t regrow a steak (I‘ve tried), but here‘s what I have successfully regrown: • Green onions, chives: Cut off the bot-

toms an inch from the root and plant rootdown. Once the tops start growing, you can start eating them and they‘ll just keep growing. I once ate the same bunch of green onions for almost six years.

• Potatoes: Cut off eyes and plant eye-up.

The eyes will shoot up into vines, and you‘ll get little tiny potatoes to dig up.

• Celery, bok choy, lettuce: Cut off the crown an inch from the base and plant base -down. New leaves will start growing from between the old ones as the old base shrivels up.

• Turnips, beets, radishes, carrots: Cut off the tops and plant green-up. The roots won‘t grow back into what you‘d recognize as a vegetable, but the nutritious greens will.

3. Get more value out of food by using all of the edible parts.

• Do you peel your carrots or apples?

Most of the nutrients are in the skin. If you absolutely must (to appease picky eaters, for example), you can save the carrot peels

states who I work for, I am met with questions and transferred racism as though I work for the ―enemy.‖ Not by everyone, but often enough that it is noticeable, especially after my band successfully turned down the Taseko Mine proposal.

Health care for a First Nations person is layered in ingrained generalizations, often subconscious, but glaringly obvious from the position of the patient and to me as the nurse advocating for them and with them.

At the same time, when decisions are made that don‘t meet the patient‘s request, racism is blamed even if it is not the case; it‘s the default explanation in a world where racism so often is the case. This just widens the racial divide.

And often patients who are used to being dismissed or turned down resort to negative behaviours, which results in more dismissal and more barriers to hurdle; it‘s a vicious cycle. Some patients come in just brimming with defensiveness verging on offensiveness. To those I am just another symbol of oppression, working within a rigid health care system that so often fails to meet the needs of those whose way of life does not always fit the strict scheduling of health care.

So how do I convince youth that they are valuable and strong and important and that their traditions are beautiful and powerful, knowing they will be told otherwise once they move to town where race is clearly delineated and we are defined by the colour of our skin? How do I convince youth that we are all simply human when they see inequities with their own eyes based on skin colour?

Right now, I just be me. A person who does not want to get caught up in the racial divide but who acknowledges that race is an issue and accepts the occasional wariness and defensiveness and even aggressiveness as a survival tactic for those who fight to be heard the only way they know how. I have the privilege of bearing witness to the stories and ways of life that are tied to the history of our country and to the current reality for so many. Landscape is key; it provides a visual map of stories that happened in this lifetime and stories that happened to our ancestors. Is it any wonder there is opposition to the destruction or ―development‖ of their land?

This topic has been on my mind lately.

I am frequently navigating the medical system and advocating for patients. Re-

for soup, or bake the apple peels with some cinnamon for a dessert.

• Broccoli, radishes, turnips, and others have very nutritious leaves that can be chopped finely into any dish for colour or added to your breakfast smoothie for protein.

• Squash “guts” may look unappetizing, but they‘re delicious and completely edible with a light, crispy texture once cooked.

Try baking them together with the seeds.

4. When you do shop, choose to invest in good food. We know the $15 it takes to satisfy our appetite tastes better than the $15 it takes to satisfy our daily nutritional requirements, but consider buying smaller amounts of whole foods rather than larger amounts of processed, chemically treated groceries. Dark leafy greens like kale, arugula, and bok choy are among the best sources of protein, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, fibre, and other nutrients. A bunch of local, organic spinach from a farmers' market contains more vitamins, minerals, and protein than most processed foods for the same price.

I know this way of life sounds a little strange and anachronistic, like your grandparents‘ Depression-era stories or the history of early Canadian settlers. However, the fact that you are here means it works.

And they survived hard times without causing an obesity epidemic.

Christa Mustard is a nomadic advocate for a subsistence-level peasant lifestyle. She's passionate about foraging, recycling, and the barter system, and will welcome any comments you'd like to send to christa.mustard@gmail.com.

Letters:

I

am the community health nurse working for the XeniGwet‘in Band in the Nemiah Valley. I moved to the Nemiah Valley in April, 2013 to be the sole nurse for a population of approximately 230 band members in a community three hours from the closest medical center. The XeniGwet‘in Band has been in the news recently for its successful win of title to the land on which they live. However, for all the strength and self-advocacy reflected in the news, there are battles fought on a daily basis; many of these battles never achieve victory. These stories are not represented in the media but I think the silent existence of these challenges prevents change from happening.

The most frustrating part of my job is battling the inequity we work so hard to deny. A child born on reserve to First Nations parents has many more hurdles to overcome that I have never had to face, simply because I happened to be born to a white, middle class family. Race, while something we hate to bring up, is an issue.

I find myself fighting racism and discrimination on behalf of my patients on a regular basis. When I run errands in Williams Lake with the nursing vehicle that clearly

cently, I have also been negotiating the social assistance world and have had no end of frustration. I have listened to automated voice recordings as I am placed on hold for, literally, hours as I‘ve tried to find anyone who can answer my questions.

How does this feel to someone who relies on this for survival? Those who choose social assistance don‘t really ―choose‖ it; rather, they have to accept it as the only means of sustenance in a world where there are few jobs on reserve yet life off reserve involves hidden costs that are frequently unmanageable.

This is not to say that all are painted with the same brush of challenges. Overcoming the barriers happens, but I‘m not sure people realize the strength it takes to continually come up against walls and still keep fighting. Our paths have different struggles and our journeys are not the same. For that I am continually struck by the sheer strength and resilience I see on a daily basis.

Sarah Goddard, Nemiah Valley

S

pring is the perfect time to start composting or ramp up production of nutrient rich soil in your existing compost pile. A healthy compost pile will be moist, and have a good balance of carbon to nitrogen and a regular supply of oxygen. If your compost isn‘t breaking down, it‘s because one or all of these things are missing. Compost piles should be layered with veggie/fruit waste and a carbon source like leaves. The material should be aerated regularly, every week ideally. This can be done with a shovel, but a soil turner is easier to use. If the compost seems too dry you can add some water to it on a weekly basis, as well.

Why should you compost? Because leaving your veggie and fruit waste in the garbage creates methane gas, increases landfill leachate production, takes up space in the landfill, costs money to transport, and wastes the nutrient content of the food.

In the oxygen deprived environment of the landfill, organics don‘t get a chance to break down into compost or soil; rather, they slowly decompose and release methane gas in the process, which is a greenhouse gas 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide when related to climate change.

All landfills create leachate, but leachate production can be limited by the amount of moisture present in the waste. Organics contain over 60 per cent moisture (by weight), which turns into leachate as the organics decompose. The leachate travels through the other waste in the landfill and collects contaminants. If the landfill doesn‘t have a leachate collection system these contaminants could move into the land; if the landfill does have a leachate collection system the contaminants must be managed or removed, which is a costly process.

The lifespan of a landfill is measured in volume by how many years of waste will fit into the existing landfill footprint. If we are able to reduce the amount of waste going into each of our landfills, it gives us more years of use—an excellent reason to divert as much as we can from our landfills.

Organic waste is heavy because of the moisture content, and waste disposed of at transfer stations is hauled to a regional landfill, which is paid for by the tonne. This is another good incentive to divert the heavy organics out of our garbage and into our yards.

The nutrients from food waste cannot be harnessed if they are mixed up in landfill leachate, but they can in your compost.

Even if you only turn your finished compost out onto your lawn or place it around the base of the trees or shrubs in your yard, the nutrients will be put to good use.

The CRD and its member municipalities want to help you change your food waste disposal habits and, if there is enough interest, will be offering subsidized backyard composters and counter top containers again in 2016. Email talktrash@cariboord.bc.ca to get the details or call the CRD at (250) 3923351 or toll free 1-800665-1636.

Waste wise education is delivered to students in the CRD, but the CRD would like to make waste education available to everyone, as we all have the ability to change our waste handling habits for the better. For more info on Waste Wise call (250) 398-7929 or find details on Waste Wise activities and events at www.ccconserv.org.

Please join us this year to become waste wise and make a difference. For direct access to our monthly topics ―Like‖ us on faceb o o k at w ww .fac eb o o k.co m/ caribooregion, check out www.cariboord.bc.ca, or look for our articles in your local paper.

By Ciel Patenaude

M

artin Prechtel, a New Mexican teacher, author, and healer, has frequently spoken on what he calls the ‗recovery of the indigenous soul,‘ a process he believes paramount to healing ourselves and our planet.

Speaking not only of those persons who would be specifically classified as ‗indigenous‘ – the approximate five per cent of the world‘s population with specific rights, traditions, and languages tied to a particular geographic area – Prechtel believes the loss of the indigenous soul in every human on Earth is the true source of the destruction and chaos we live in today.

He suggests it is because we feel we ‗don‘t belong‘ on the planet that we act with such mindless abandon towards ourselves, each other, and the rest of our world. Having replaced a traditional indigenous way of existing–one rooted in awareness of and in co-operative spirit with all of existence–with the classical Western ideals of competition, isolation, and consumption, we, the collective modern ‗Western‘ society, have placed ourselves at what we perceive as the apex of evolution, with everything else under us, and ours to use as we like. But it is precisely this separation, he says, that cuts us off from our family, our collective tribe: the animals, plants, rocks, and elements that both sustain and innervate us, and without which we cannot exist.

We have never been nor could we ever be separate from this world, but in thinking so we have greatly wounded ourselves and everything around us.

The Welsh word hiraeth and the Portuguese word saudadeare often used to attempt to describe the sadness and longing that exists within the minds and souls of modern humans, removed from a sense of belonging as we often are. Having no translation into English, these languages reflect on the emotional and spiritual kinship that is innate to human beings and the land they exist on, and that in separation from that land, community, and ecosystem there is an untreatable wound that develops. As a culture we are trying to buy or eat or medicate this wound away, but nothing except placing ourselves back into the

system of all things – becoming ‗indigenous‘– will ever soothe it fully.

And what does it mean to be indigenous to our place, our land, our community? How do we remember to belong here, after we have considered ourselves ‗cast out of the garden‘ for so many generations, and superior to all that exists around us?

Awareness first, perhaps. A recognition of the interdependency that defines our existence, leading to a sense of awe for the complexity and wonder of all that we are: the bacterial symbiosis that defines our bodies, the marvel of ecosystems both small and grand. And as an antidote to fear and abuse of nature: gratitude. An actively cultivated honouring of all creatures, earthly relations, and the land, a practice that once again imbues the entire world with spirit and meaning, ourselves included.

Traditional indigenous people have been systematically wiped out around the world because they and their beliefs erode the very basis of the Western consumer mindset. These peoples ask us all to think bigger, to perceive a wider frame of time and action, and to act as integrated and responsible community members on the entire Earth—something modern culture perceives as incompatible with our individualistic and short-sighted desires.

We have made ourselves very sick by the choice to feel separate – alien – on this Earth, and the only way to heal it is to actively choose the alternative, and awaken our indigenous roots as a whole. In pursuit of such reconnection, please take time to explore and honour the beauty and wisdom of indigenous peoples and cultures as well as to actively cultivate your own indigenous soul, reconnecting with the land, animals, and ecosystems around you and placing yourself back into the system of all things. It is only by thinking so that we have made ourselves separate, but such separation has never existed.

Ciel Patenaude is an integrative health & shamanic practitioner based in Williams Lake, BC. A highly trained and naturally gifted intuitive healer, Ciel holds a BSc in Biology, an MA in Integrative Healing, and is a certified yoga teacher & wellness coach.

T

he nostalgic Potato House is nestled the heart of downtown Williams Lake, past empty storefronts and bust-morethan-boom businesses these days. Tourists, travellers, historians, and eco-geeks alike travel past this beautiful British Columbian town by the RV load every day.

In every direction travelling into Williams Lake, there are billboards advertising services and shops, but no attractions. The Potato House Society proposes following The City of Victoria‘s lead with a charming billboard to encourage people towards our downtown with a destination stop at our historic Potato House.

The Potato House billboard will attract the traveller looking for a personal experience and a place to drop off their compost as well as learn a little about Williams Lake‘s colourful past while perhaps eating a picnic lunch under apple trees surrounded by the buzz of honey bees. Once travellers make the decision to stop, their interest will spread to other attractions, shops, and restaurants around the downtown core, benefiting not only the Potato House but our neighbours, too. We are all in this together.

We hear it all the time from locals: ―I love the Potato House!‖ Our little secret is getting big; however, it‘s time everyone travelling through was in the know.

In collaboration with ―This Place Matters,‖ who assisted us with a previous fundraising project, we are looking for supporters for our heritage destination billboard.

The main billboard will say ―Stretch your legs and your heart. Historic Art Deco Potato House 5 minutes ahead.‖ Smaller directional signs leading toward the site will say things like, ―Bring your camera and your compost,‖ ―This way to beautiful bees and historic apple trees,‖ ―Potato House is 5 minutes ahead with easy RV parking,‖ ―Scratch and Sniff Tours for Rover at Historic Potato House,‖ ― If you visit one historic site in the Cariboo visit Barkerville, if you visit two, stop at the Potato House,‖ and maybe even, ―Potato House smells like Gramma‘s Kitchen had a love child with Commercial Drive.‖ You can support The Potato House billboard proposal at www.thisplacematters.ca/project/potatohouse-project/ The Potato House is hopping with hope for our future with two of Williams Lake‘s strongest voices for waste reduction on

(Top) Let's have a picnic at the Potato House. (Bottom) Life's a garden, dig it. Mary Forbes in the Potato House Garden.

Photos: Oliver Berger

staff available for consultation or compost coaching—Mary Forbes and Oliver Berger. The Potato House has always been a pioneer in green technology, and is full of excellent examples of re-used materials from days gone by, such as shoes resoled with tire treads and old store signs built into the frame of the house. Instead of making great time on the road, we want to encourage travellers towards our zero waste, self-sufficient, solar powered, award winning heritage house.

We do it all at the Potato House—come learn from us how you can do it, too!

Taking time out from the move. I'm so happy to be here! Photo: Svenja Shultz

By Terri Smith

W

ith any luck I will never move again! I knew that moving a farm was a ridiculously large undertaking, but the reality of it took so much longer and was so much more difficult than I had even imagined.

I didn‘t even really go very far. In retrospect, it may have been cheaper and easier to rent a U-Haul rather than making the uncounted number of 210 km trips between Road‘s End and my new home. Mark, my best friend and partner, whose home I have moved to has a 12-foot trailer and with that, his truck, and mine we moved everything from my greenhouse and harvest shed to the random vehicles scattered over my property.

When packing began my helper Svenja and I were organized. When we began I was still working and Svenja did most of the packing. By the end I was throwing random things into random boxes and stuffing tools and articles of clothing into any nook and cranny left in my truck. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, well, welcome to the hell of unpacking. In spite of our good intentions, half the Rubbermaid bins in Mark‘s barn are labelled correctly, and half are not labelled at all. I just opened a box of work gloves and finally found my food processor. I‘m still looking for my long underwear, but it‘s almost summer now and not cold anymore so hopefully they‘ll turn up before fall. I‘m not sure how it is that the tub of fencing staples was hanging out with the sewing machine, and I really should either label or shelve the box of books whose top I‘ve opened at least 100 times while looking for irrigation supplies or garden tools or kitchen implements.

A farm, when it is running, is a spreadout sort of thing. It may be disorganized, but at least there is a reasonable amount of order and sense to it. One can be reasonably certain on a farm that the cookbooks will be in the house, somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen perhaps, and the garden tools will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of the garden. A farm, when it is packed in boxes and relocated, somehow becomes an absurd mixture of objects that make no sense together whatsoever. For instance: what is the teapot doing in this box of hose repair ends? What do garden trowels and tea towels have in common other than the fact that they rhyme and were both in the

same truckload and so somehow ended up cohabiting in the barn? It‘s beginning to feel like the nonsensical riddle from Alice in Wonderland around here. ―How is a raven like a writing desk?‖ I think I know the answer now: they were both packed in the same box when the Mad-Hatter moved!

When everything you own is reduced to boxes, you realize how little you truly need.

I‘ve unpacked some books just so I could get to the other boxes, my laptop, my irrigation supplies, garden tools, and seeds, and enough clothes to get me through a week of work without doing laundry. The thing that is oddly bothering me the most that I can‘t find is my duct tape. I‘m also missing the dogs at the moment, but they‘ve just taken themselves for a run. They were correctly packed and labeled and their being missing has nothing at all to do with the move.

We still took time out in the midst of packing and moving to do the things we love doing. We took Svenja hiking, my uncle took her flying, and we had a birthday picnic for Amadeus. We dress up in work clothes and work on the farm then dress up in nice clothes and go out. Life is about balance and I love this new life in which we work and play and work at playing and play at work.

The garden here is small this year. I love how small it is. The largest part of it is the 900 garlic plants we dug up and moved and replanted here. The first few days were a flurry of activity as we hurriedly finished the goat pen and shelter and tilled and made beds and got the garlic into the ground then set the drip line and mulched it all with lawn clippings. We finished all these things in the first few days then Mark had rehearsals and tech runs for the Burlesque Festival that happened the last weekend of April.

Svenja and I continued gardening by day then went into town to watch the show both nights. Life has certainly changed since the days when I would sometimes be weeks without seeing people. That weekend I saw more parts of more people than I usually see in a year! And I still managed to weed the garden.

Terri Smith is a non-certified organic vegetable farmer in the Cariboo. She is passionate about writing, art, goats, and feeding good food to good people. She believes in following your heart, living your dreams, and taking care of the planet.

By Casey Bennett

I

t's amazing how far a tiny idea can go.

It was only a little over a year ago when Robert and Bettina Johnson decided to sell their home in Victoria and move their young family to the community of Alkali Lake (called Esk‘et in the Shuswap language), 45 km southwest of Williams Lake. Robert spent his childhood in Alkali, and both he and Bettina had it in their hearts to one day make the move back there to be involved in their community.

Robert, a Red Seal journeyman carpenter, spent the last 10 years working diligently in Victoria's rising housing market, while gathering ideas for his own unique housing designs. They moved back, armed with their tiny house design, and starting working on it, documenting their progress on YouTube.

And then, it happened.

What was supposed to be a simple experiment has quickly gained the attention of tiny house builders and enthusiasts the world over. The Esk‘et Tiny House, built on a 20-foot trailer, with its uniquely shaped roof and flowing design, is a design that showcases exceptional craftsmanship, Aboriginal carving, and cold-weather features fit for a Canadian house, while featuring a fresh and modern interior. The first model, they‘ve named the ―Esk‘et Sqlelten‖ for ―salmon,‖ in honour of the cultural significance, and the salmon-shaped roofline, and carvings Sustainable and affordable housing is a big topic worldwide, and one that will not be going away any time soon. Building with repurposed materials, leaving a smaller carbon footprint, and living within your means are ideas many of us are connecting with.

Small spaces encourage less consumption by design.

Robert and Bettina knew it was part of their vision to help encourage sustainable and affordable housing for people of all ages and income. ―It's really important for us to see people have a house to call their own without succumbing to debt. We're interested in seeing people take on similar projects and build their own tiny homes and be inventive in the process,‖ says Bettina. Their series of videos, with fun how-to tips and practical advice about the tiny house building process, can be found on their YouTube channel. They also are getting ready to offer the Esk‘et Sqlelten Tiny House building plans for purchase to DIY tiny house builders. ―Since our Open House a few months back, there are still questions and unknowns

(Left) The Esk’et Tiny House is ready for bookings. (Right) The Tiny House builders and owners, Bettina and Robert Johnson.

(Bottom) Some of Robert’s masterful handcrafted woodwork. Photos: Casey Bennett/caseybennettphotography.tumblr.com

for some people when it comes to the Tiny House lifestyle,‖ says Robert. ―It's not surprising because it is a fairly new concept for many and so far we're the only tiny home builder in our region. The idea of opening the house as a bed & breakfast is an opportunity for people to live in the home and see for themselves what it's actually like.‖ Thus, the next chapter in their evergrowing tiny ideas.

The Esk'et Tiny House is officially open for business as a bed & breakfast and has even earned a spot on the Aboriginal BC Tourism website. Up to four guests will get to experience staying in the uniquely charming tiny home, nestled in the remote valley next to a creek. Inside are two spacious lofts for sleeping, a kitchen equipped with a stove, fridge, and sink, a three-piece bathroom, and a living area that is cozy and never feels cramped—the propane fuelled fireplace is a wonderful touch. There are also plenty of activities to be done in the area including hiking to explore the traditional territory, rivers, and canyons, Churn Creek, and Farwell Canyon, experiencing the local culture, and hearing the stories of the Esk‘etemc.

Since returning to Alkali Lake, both Robert and Bettina have been active community members and supporters of local businesses. Robert has recently been elected into Band Council and has been delving deeper and deeper into the cultural history and future of the place he calls home.

―Instead of simply being a bed & breakfast to sleep in, we are inviting people who stay here to experience the culture of the Esk‘etemc, and what it has to offer,‖ says Bettina. ―The people here have a rich history and an exciting future and we hope guests will get an opportunity to walk away having learned something about Alkali and the people who live here.‖ The Johnsons are also big supporters of local First Nation artists and have opened up their tiny home to showcase art work, which is available for purchase by guests during their stays or through an online shop. The artist receives 100 per cent of the commission sales.

Bettina has been active on social media to promote and meet like-minded people who have the same aspirations and lifestyle goals. The Esk'et Tiny Home Facebook page is nearing the 1,000 Likes mark and they are garnering accolades from magazines and bloggers all over the world, from Germany to Slovakia. She has worked effortlessly on the website, updating it often. There, guests can find booking information, pricing, an events calendar and visitor information. ―We‘re taking this tiny house venture one step at a time,‖ says Bettina. ―But we've had a lot of support along the way, and that's been very encouraging. This first Tiny House is just the beginning and we hope to continue to build in the community and develop strong, meaningful relationships, both locally and further-reaching.

The Johnson‘s are open to questions and comments—to arrange a site visit, email them at ―info@eskettinyhouse.com‖ Interested in booking a night or two?

Looking for tiny house inspiration? Please visit www.eskettinyhouse.com.

Casey Bennett currently residing in Williams Lake. He works as a graphic designer/ layout artist and is an internationally published photographer, still shooting with an old ancient medium called film. He listens to Soul, Motown, Hip-hop and Electronic music. He currently has work being exhibited at Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

By LeRae Haynes

T

ransforming a heap of rusty scrap metal and discarded engine parts into art for your garden is a great example of art meeting recycling face to face. Wayne Ball and Bridget Lusignan have launched Bridget‘s Rustic Garden, a unique garden shop in connection with Blocks R Us. Ball said it all started with a pile of flat rusty scrap metal and grew from there. ―Bridget started cutting hearts and stars and moons, and then we started in on things like old beds, mufflers, gears, a rototiller, old sinks and bathtubs and a fridge door,‖ he explained. ―Every piece got better and better.‖ Whimsical and creatively recycled garden items include a dog made from an old muffler with left and right tachometers for left and right eyes, a fuel cap for a nose, and truck wheel nuts for feet.

Lusignan, who has always enjoyed creating things, said she always wanted to learn how to weld and use a plasma cutter. ―Wayne said, ‗I‘ve got some metal for you: let‘s create something,‘ and it was creative, artistic, and fun,‖ she said. ―We ended up making planters and garden décor.‖ The project started last summer and quickly turned into a business when Fred Ball from Blocks R Us suggested they sell their items on the Blocks site. ―It turned out that the things we created and really liked, other people liked, too,‖ said Lusignan, ―and at Blocks R Us it was a natural fit.‖

There are planters, décor, and fountains made from old truck tailgates, iron bedsteads, claw foot tubs, barn wood, sinks, and a wringer washing machine. These beautiful pieces feature things like solarpowered vehicle lights and bottles, a halo ring gear for an automotive transmission, and Grandma‘s old scythe. ―We got great feedback from people who really liked that the pieces were all one-of-a-kind and were created from repurposed and recycled metal,‖ Lusignan continued, adding that sometimes pieces are sold as fast as they‘re made.

One central piece at Bridget‘s Rustic Garden is a custom potting bench with a distressed copper counter top, an antique window set in the barn wood backdrop, a base made from a 1950s Dodge fender and wheel, and a beautiful old sink with solar lights and running water. ―People really like that every single thing that goes into these projects has a story to tell,‖ Ball said. ―When they look at them it brings back so many memories.‖ Bridget‘s Rustic Garden also sells bedding plants, hanging baskets, shrubs, trees, perennials, and annuals. For more information about Blocks R Us and Bridget‘s Rustic Garden phone (250) 392-3646 or visit www.blocksrus.ca or Blocks R Us on Facebook.

LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, song writer, community co-ordinator for Success by 6, member of Perfect Match dance band, and instigator of lots of music with kids.

Fred Ball, Bridget Lusignan and Wayne Ball at Bridget's Rustic Garden at Block R Us, where planters, fountains and garden decor are created to embellish and delight.

Photos: LeRae Haynes

Science Matters:

By David Suzuki

Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Protest at Tufts University Photo: James Ennis/ Flickr.com/ JamesEnnis

I

f people keep rapidly extracting and burning fossil fuels, there‘s no hope of meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement climate change commitments. To ensure a healthy, hopeful future for humanity, governments must stick to their pledge to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. Many experts agree that to meet that goal, up to 80 per cent of oil, coal, and gas reserves must stay in the ground. That makes fossil fuels a bad investment—what analysts call ―stranded assets.‖ Putting money toward things that benefit humanity, whether investing in clean energy portfolios or implementing energy-saving measures in your home or business, is better for the planet and the bottom line than sinking it into outdated industries that endanger humanity.

Because we still live in a fossil-fuelled world, avoiding investments in dirty fuels and infrastructure is difficult. For individuals who use mutual funds, finding viable plans with no fossil fuel holdings is challenging, but not impossible, especially as demand increases. But while individual investment choices coupled with growing demand for fossil-fuel-free options make a difference, the real momentum is in institutional investments. Even there, public pressure and campaigns have a huge impact.

By Diane Dunaway

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ids of all ages love Scout Island Nature Centre‘s observation honey bee hive. It‘s a popular display that draws those who wish to see the lives of bees from behind the glass walls of this unique fixture. Volunteer carpenter and retired beekeeper Jürgen Hornburg crafted the five-frame hive from plans shared by the Kamloops BC Wildlife Park. Over the years he‘s maintained the double glass cabinet with feedback from the bees and me. In fact, he‘s made so many thoughtful alterations to better suit the inhabitants that it‘s not uncommon for us to leave the bees to overwinter inside this structure.

Unfortunately, last winter we lost our bees. The queen was somewhat of an overachiever. She didn‘t reduce her cluster of worker bees by slowing down egg laying in the fall, so by December the hive was bursting with active bees with nowhere to go and voracious appetites. Sadly, they starved.

This is a problem we run into with Apismelliferalinguistica, also known as the Italian subspecies of the European honey bee.

These bees thrive in moderate Mediterranean climates but unlike Apismelliferacarnica, the Eastern European Carniolan honey bee, the Italians aren‘t as well suited to Cariboo winters.

Recovering from this loss meant making a new nuc, a small starter colony. To ensure a good beginning, I monitored my home

Many banks and investment advisers are warning clients about the dangers of fossilfuel-related portfolios, noting that climate agreements, government regulations, reduced demand, and market volatility make them risky. Some, such as HSBC, suggest divestment as one route, but note some investors may just want to pull their money from the riskiest sectors, such as coal and oil, or keep investments so they can influence company decisions.

McGill University‘s board of governors touted the latter as one reason for rejecting a widespread call to withdraw about $70 million in fossil fuel money from its $1.3billion endowment fund. But the university appears blind to the problem. In a report to the board, the McGill Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility wrote, ―The Committee is persuaded that the beneficial impact of fossil fuel companies offsets or outweighs injurious impact at this time.‖ In response, many McGill alumni, including David Suzuki Foundation Quebec

colonies for Varroa destructor, commonly know as Varroa mites, the leading health threat to honey bees worldwide. At an under one per cent infestation level, it was safe to proceed. A nuc is composed of a heavy frame of honey with pollen, two frames of brood both open and capped, a couple of frames of drawn comb, a few shakes of young nurse bees, a scattering of drones, and the all-important local queen bee. This year‘s queen hails from an established queen breeder out of Armstrong.

Frames with black plastic foundation were selected so that the public can better see eggs, larvae, and what have you. The new queen is marked with non-toxic white paint on her thorax to indicate she‘s from 2016. Just as with other livestock data systems, there‘s an International Queen Marking colour code for just this purpose. Marking the queen also makes it far easier to find her in a crowd.

It‘s a fine balance to keep the colony size under control in such a small unit over the summer months. Time will tell when I‘ll first need to go back in and knock down the population by removing a couple of full frames and replacing them with foundation.

This proactive step in no way harms the colony, and it will prevent them from swarming.

Feel free to stop by and say hi to Scout Island's resident bee colony next time you‘re in the neighbourhood. You can witness newly born bees emerge from their brood cells. See the queen deposit a few of

and Atlantic Canada director-general Karel Mayrand, returned their degrees.

The inability of students, faculty, staff, and the public to convince boards at McGill, the University of British Columbia, Concordia University, Dalhousie University, and the University of Calgary to divest shows how entrenched the fossil fuel industry is when it comes to large investors. But it also shows that individuals play a major role in getting institutional money out of the industry. Although these campaigns haven‘t convinced those boards to divest – yet – they‘ve raised awareness about fossil fuel investments.

The divestment campaign has also won numerous successes. A growing number of universities, banks, pension funds, unions, churches, cities, insurance companies, individuals, and even the U.K.‘s Guardian newspaper have pulled funds—which makes fossil fuel investments even shakier. The David Suzuki Foundation works with Genus Capital to ensure none of its endowment

fund is invested in fossil fuel-related funds, and to develop strategies for ethical investing—which hasn‘t harmed returns. In fact, Genus reports, ―fossil fuel free investing is proving more profitable than conventional investing.‖ According to 350.org, the major force behind the divestment movement, ―more than 500 institutions representing over $3.4 trillion in assets have made some form of divestment commitment‖ as of late 2015.

Divesting is just the start. As 350.org notes, reinvesting in ―renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate mitigation and adaptation infrastructure‖ not only helps the world shift away from fossil fuels, but is also financially wise. One option besides stock portfolios is to reinvest in initiatives that help the climate and the bottom line, such as making buildings more energy efficient. According to the Guardian, ―One conservative report calculated that investing $400,000 on efficiency in a 100,000 squarefoot building would deliver $1.50 per square foot in reduced energy costs over a similar building without the efficiency‖—for an annual saving of $150,000!

Wastefully exploiting and burning fossil fuels is outdated. There‘s no reason to put money into industries that destroy the natural systems that make human life possible.

But there are many reasons to stop giving them money. It‘s time to invest in a healthier future.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

Summer students Patrick Newsome (L.) & Carly Magnuson (R.) carry the inner cabinet back into the Scout Island Nature House. Photo: Diane Dunaway

the thousand eggs she lays each day and watch foragers march through the clear tube that connects them from their glass hive to the outside wall. Often you‘ll spot the worker‘s corbicula, or pollen baskets, laden with brightly coloured flower and tree residues. The bees always do well here; it must be due to all of the love and attention they receive.

Diane’s kept bees for nearly 20 years. A provincial apiary inspector since 2015 and

master beekeeper since 2001, she runs about 50 colonies from her Bee Happy Honey farm in the Soda Creek valley of the Cariboo.

Diane produced and edited BeesCene, the BC Honey Producers Association (BCHPA) quarterly journal for five years. In 2013 she became a BCHPA certified instructor of introductory beekeeping. When she’s not chasing swarms around the countryside Diane can be found at home with Dave, her husband of 25 years, and their menagerie of rescue animals.

(Left) Life is a balancing act and an adventure for Charlotte Attrill, who enjoys a life-long connection with horses, competing in rodeos while holding down a full-time job and running the family ranch. Photo: Rona Macdonald Photography (Right) Charlotte and Charlie Attrill balance a passion for running the family ranch with full-time jobs and life in general, including competing in rodeos and caring for Charlotte's parents, the original owners of the SL Ranch. Photo submitted by Charlotte Attrill

By LeRae Haynes

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encing, calving, harrowing, haying, and fixing fences are only the part of the juggling act that is ranching—add in full-time off-ranch jobs, a commute, and looking after family and you have a true balancing act. According to Charlotte Attrill and her husband Charlie on the SL Ranch at Rose Lake, it‘s worth it all.

Charlotte‘s parents bought the cattle ranch 50 years ago, running about 200 head. Now the ranch runs 40 head of cattle and mom and dad, now in their 80s, still live on the ranch. ―We have four sons between us who all help on the ranch when they can,‖ Charlotte explained. ―We both work off-ranch. I work for BC Forests and Charlie works at the stockyards, and sometimes I work there, too.‖ She said some of the most labourintensive ranching work is calving—a 24hour job. ―Haying is crazy for us, too, as well as moving the cattle from pasture to pasture. ―Fixing fences is never ending: you can work on fences 365 days a year, not to mention harrowing the fields and spreading

O

n May 9, Jim Hilton and I set up solar scopes around Williams Lake to show people the transit of Mercury. On the surface of it, it was just a black dot crossing the face of the sun, something you'd rather not see in your milk.

I was set up beside the Cariboo Regional District Library for awhile and snagged people as they walked past. After comprehending what was being asked of them, they took a look and generally came away with a look of astonishment. These moments make all the rest of it worth it.

At the Bells Lake Observatory, where things are carefully set up, I am rewarded with the same look when somebody sees Jupiter with its Galilean moons or Saturn with its ring system. Deep sky objects may seem at first like faint smudges, but once

the manure,‖ she continued. ―Besides working and commuting, we often put in two to four hours on the ranch every day and sometimes we don‘t have dinner until 9:00 at night.‖ One of the best assets on the ranch is her husband, Charlie. ―He came to Canada 23 years ago to ride bulls; before we met he was a stunt man in the movies. Today, at 52 years of age, he‘s still riding bulls and he‘s totally wrapped up in the ranch,‖ she said. ―He has such incredible knowledge about ranching practices in New Zealand, which are all about being as natural as possible. He‘s taught us so much about things like rotational grazing, using your resources responsibly, and great fencing practices. Kiwis are the gods of creating fences—it‘s been awesome to have him on the SL Ranch.‖ Charlie is a bull rider, steer wrestler, and a pick-up man, and Charlotte is a barrel racer and breakaway roper. That‘s what they do on weekends.

Charlotte said she comes by it naturally. ―My mom was a jockey in horse racing, a barrel racer, and bareback rider, and she lived and breathed hunting. Both my parents worked at the stockyards,‖ she added.

She trains her own barrel racers and says horses are a huge part of her life.―I rode before I walked. I‘ve had some amazing horses in my life—they are my working partners, my competition partners, and my friends and I can‘t image not having horses in my life,‖ she noted. ―A connection with a horse is a huge thing: it teaches children responsibility and to be proud of something. It‘s something to be very proud of to train your own horse.

Being around horses teaches kids about a bad mood or a bad day. Horses feel your energy, and teach us the importance of our positive and negative energy.‖ Ranching is bred into you, according to Charlotte. ―I moved away for 15 years, including 12 with Fisheries, but ranching brought me back. ―I don‘t know what the secret is to finding a balance for everything. I only know what works for me. You come home, look around, and your house is upside down and I think, ‗I gotta deal with this.‘ ―And then you look out the window and see cows you need to move. You might not feel like doing it but you look at the big scheme of things and think, ‗My God, it‘s so beautiful here.‘ You just look around and see what you‘ve got; you sit and breathe it in,‖ she continued.

―One thing I‘ve learned is that I‘m not gonna be judged by how clean my house is. Just don‘t sweat the small stuff—it gets you nowhere. What gets you somewhere is remembering your dreams and where you want to be in 10 years.‖ Charlotte said her parents realize she and Charlie are working hard to keep the family ranch going and are thankful, grateful, and proud. ―Charlie made a promise to my dad when he asked me to marry him— that they would always have a place on the ranch,‖ she said. ―What keeps us going? Knowing we can hand this down to our kids and grandkids: keeping the family ranch together.‖

they are put into perspective, the realization of spatial dimension is no less amazing.

You are looking sometimes far out in space and well into the past. Gathering ancient photons onto your retina. The glow persists well into the next day. You would think I would be well on my way to sainthood by now, but then I watch the news.

Moving on to the summer months, you will see Jupiter sinking into the west during June/July. Mars will be at its closest late May/early June. Saturn will be a short distance to the east of it. You can't miss it, down south, low in Scorpius, with its distinctive red hue. When Mars is low, its light must traverse a much larger portion of the turbulent atmosphere, making telescopic views a challenge. I was able to see the polar caps, possibly cloud enshrouded,

and some of the dark markings on the surface, but you have to sit and wait for the air to momentarily settle. Otherwise, the disc shape is apparent and there is no mistaking the colour, but it looks like somebody is holding a match in front of it.

Optical quality is paramount in planetary observing. Even though my larger 12" reflector is theoretically capable of finer resolution due to its size, my smaller 5" refractor often outperforms it due to its superb optics and the fact that a smaller scope is less afflicted when the seeing is less than perfect. When it comes to deep sky objects, such as galaxies, which are faint, there is no doubt the larger scope wins the day.

Since it does not get completely around

LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, song writer, community co-ordinator for Success by 6, member of Perfect Match dance band, and instigator of lots of music with kids.

***

dark

solstice in June, observation of deep sky objects is curtailed somewhat, but there's always planets and the moon.

The prime time for sky viewing for most people is from August to September, when nights are darker but it is still warm. Feel free to contact me at the Bells Lake Observatory at irwin8sound@gmail.com or (250) 6200596.

By LeRae Haynes

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our moms who are homeschooling their children with the support of the Distance Education program through School District #27, said when it comes to their children‘s education, this is the best of both worlds.

They have home learning kids ranging from kindergarten to grade 7.

Kat Sheppard, Carrie Becotte, Treava Marklinger, and Abby Shoults from the Parents Advisory Council (PAC) for home learners said that one of the biggest challenges they face is being both mom and teacher 24 hours a day. ―It‘s always changing with new boundaries for everybody and a challenge to find a balance between the schoolwork and running the home,‖ explained Marklinger. ―I hadn‘t planned on homeschooling— it happened due to circumstances and I‘ve learned a lot.‖ ―Our family gets huge support from the District Distance Ed program,‖ said Shoults. ―They help us find the curriculum we like and what works best for each child, and they report to the government, which means I don‘t have to. There is funding through the District for resources and activities, which is a huge benefit.‖ The home learners meet once a week, with two classroom teachers and one teacher‘s assistant. ―Distance Ed teacher Martin Kruus has kids doing things like building benches for Gavin Lake, pottery, painting, swimming, skating, horseback riding, and camping and once they built a log cabin,‖ said Marklinger. ―Our teachers are golden.‖

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ore than 2,000 First Nations Elders from across the province are expected to arrive in the Cariboo mid-July to share and celebrate the heritage of BC First Nations.

Over the past 40 years the Annual BC Elders Gathering has become the top event for Elders to celebrate continued education in the histories, cultures, and ways of Aboriginal communities and in the experiences and contributions of community Elders.

This year it‘s taking place in Williams Lake, with the hosts Tl‘etinqox, one of six Tsilhqot‘in communities, along with their united support from the Tsilhqot‘in (Chilcotin), Secwepemc (Shuswap), Dene (Carrier), St‘at‘imc (Lillooet Nation), and Nuxalk (Bella Coola) on July 12-14 at Thompson Rivers University and Cariboo Memorial Complex. The gathering at the University and Memorial Complex are only open to Elder participants and VIP dignitaries, while the Cultural Tent City, Arts and Crafts, and Wild West Rodeo are free and open to the public.

The Purpose of the Elders Gathering is so the Elders can come together and take their rightful place as advisors, teachers, and leaders. Many Elders are involved and work at the community level throughout the year. They participate at meetings, workshops, and various events to support

Home learners with School District #27's Distance Ed program Bella Shoults, Maddie Salt, Sarah Shoults, Autumn Salt, Caydin Sheppard, Lena Sheppard, Finley Sheppard, Timu Kruus, CJ Salt, Cadence Salt, and Lauryn Marklinger with moms (back row left to right) Abby Shoults, Treava Marklinger, Carrie Becotte, and Kat Sheppard (with Jakob Sheppard) gathered to prepare lunch as hosts for a School District elementary school running event.

Photo: LeRae Haynes

―The kids learn life skills like cooking, baking, helping with farm animals, and gardening,‖ Sheppard added. ―They learn the balance of life all along instead of being sent out into the world after 12 years of school and told, ‗Now you figure it out.‘‖ Shoults said when it comes to schooling, home learning gives kids the opportunity to follow what they‘re passionate and curious about. ―They can explore and delve deeper and don‘t have to do what 30 other kids are doing,‖ she noted. ―You get to help the kids one to one when they‘re struggling. ―If I could tell people one thing about homeschooling I would say if you have the opportunity to homeschool, take it,‖ she said.―It‘s a chance to get know your kids and find out what they want to learn about. ―Not everyone can do this: sometimes both parents have to work. We certainly make sacrifices for this choice; we don‘t take holidays to Disneyland. We do a lot of camping trips.‖ This program is a strong prototype for other regions, according to these moms, who said school superintendent Mark Theissen is very supportive of this program. ―There is increasing interest in this direction of educating your children and he knows this group is already there,‖ they explained.

For more information about the Distance Ed program at School District #27 phone (250) 398-3800 or visit www.sd27.bc.ca.

One challenge faced by the homeschooling moms is not having a permanent location for their weekly meetings. ―We‘ve been at Marie Sharpe, Scout Island, a portable at WL Secondary School, and are now at Mountview,‖ said Marklinger. ―It all depends on the school‘s enrolment and what classrooms they need; we have been really pushing to have a solid home base for ourselves. Having a permanent space would mean the kids always know where we‘re going, they could have their artwork up, and the teachers could have their resources all in one place.‖ Sheppard said the benefits of the home learning program far outweigh the challenges. ―It‘s a huge benefit toraise your

own kids with your own morals and values and watch them change and grow. I love having my kids close every day,‖ she explained. ―My kids are best friends: they love hanging out and playing together. They love their younger siblings and they are the babies‘ heroes; they wouldn‘t have that as much if they were away in school all day.‖ Shoults agrees. ―You really get to know your kids on a deeper level; they‘re not gone for five or six hours a day. My biggest challenge is keeping my house clean because now there are five children here all day,‖ she said. ―You learn priorities and what‘s really important and the kids have chores to help at home.‖

the youth, education committees, and Band Council. The Gatherings are a time to socialize and celebrate their accomplishments as well as regenerate themselves for future work.

The Elders Gathering also serves to educate and provide guidance, support, and mentoring for Aboriginal youth through interactions with elders and other members of their community, which helps to promote the sharing of information, knowledge, and ideas, and enhance ties between Aboriginal communities.

To celebrate the Elders Gathering‘s 40th year in Williams Lake, the Wild Wild West Rodeo, co-ordinated by leader and educator Joan Gentles, daughter of Leonard Palmantier, and one of the original competitors and organizers of the Wild West Stampede, is free and open to everyone to attend on July 11. It begins with a Grand Entry at 5:00 p.m.

New this year and open to the public is the Cultural Tent City, showcasing the history and culture of the Tsilhqot‘in (Chilcotin), Secwepemc (Shuswap), Dene (Carrier), St‘at‘imc (Lillooet Nation), and Nuxalk (Bella Coola), and arts and crafts, at the Williams Lake Curling Club.

The Downtown Williams Lake Business Improvement Association (BIA) is taking a unique role in the event.

―We‘re co-ordinating the gift bag stuffing for the gathering—bringing together all the items that go in the bags given to the Elders,‖ explains Kate Lines, BIA office and event co-ordinator. ―We‘re also bringing together volunteers to gather at rink #2 at the Complex and stuffing 4,000 bags in one day.‖ She said the influence of First Nations Elders and communities is very important to the BIA. ―We made it a priority to partner with the First Nations communities: we The 40th Annual Elders Gathering hosts the King and Queen, want them to have a pow- James Lulua Sr. and Dinah (Solomon) from the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation, Nemiah Valley. See www.eldersgathering.ca/ erful voice in how we shape the downtown gatherings/40th-annual for more info. Photo: Marilyn Baptiste core,‖ she said. ―T ha t ‘s why we celebrate every opportunity that Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett and local comes our way to strengthen relationships First Nations leaders,‖ she said. and build great things together.‖ ―We would like this to be an opportuBuilding the gift bags for the gathering nity for our community leaders and memis a good example of that. ―When it came bers to have a discussion and to express to inviting volunteers to stuff the 4,000 their desire to build a new kind of commubags I started by inviting Cariboo Prince nity—one that celebrates and welcomes all George MP Todd Doherty and Cariboo- of us.‖

LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, song writer, community co-ordinator for Success by 6, member of Perfect Match dance band, and instigator of lots of music with kids.

By Terri Smith

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o some, the idea of a group of people all sharing land and living together harmoniously in a community sounds absurd or downright awful. To others, it sounds fabulous and like it might be the only way our world can continue to survive. Intentional communities are by no means a new thing, though it seems each generation that tries it feels like they have invented it. Some people love the idea, some people feel threatened by it, and some have never given it any thought at all.

So, just what is an intentional community? There are myriad examples of living arrangements that could go by this name.

They range from a group of college kids renting a house together to large groups of people designing and building a village. The reasons and ways in which people come together to share resources seem almost endless. What all of these types of communities do have in common, however, is that they are formed by a group of at least three people who are not related and who choose to share living space in some way, whether in the same house or on the same property.

There is always a common purpose to the group. Sometimes this purpose is as simple as affordable housing while attending college. Other times a group has shared religious beliefs and/or purposes, or is a cohousing arrangement to assist people living with disabilities or other unique circumstances. In the case of Eco-villages the purpose is stewardship of the land. The latter is the type of intentional community I am interested in and have spent many years investigating.

Eco-villages, as defined by Robert Gilman, the researcher and writer who first defined them and helped shape the Global Eco-Village Network, ―are human-scale, full -featured settlements in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.‖ And just what does that mean exactly?

In his article from 1991, Gilman breaks down his definition into its parts:  Human-scale: all people within the community know the rest of the community. This usually means under 500 people and some define it as less than 100.  Full-featured: most/all basic human functions can happen in the village, i.e.: food production, recreation, commerce, manufacturing, residence, etc. Obviously, the village is not going to have its own hospital or airport, but you get the idea.  Harmlessly integrated: this is the eco part of Eco-village. The idea that humans are a part of nature (the ecosystem) rather than above it, and that we can find our place within the natural, cyclical rhythms of the world. This is in contrast to consumer-driven, linear thinking where the idea is, says Gilman, ―dig it up, use it once, throw it away forever.‖  Healthy human development: for the village to function, its members must be physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy.

Successfully continued into the indefinite future: this sustainability principle is the long-term view, the big picture that our

shortsighted, consumer-based, industrial model is trying very hard to ignore. Our current model cannot continue indefinitely into the future as it is structured now. We will eventually simply run out: of resources, of food, of water, of air, of an inhabitable planet.

To many people who are waking up to the realities of the long-term effects of our industrial, consumer society, the idea of sustainable communities and eco-villages seems to be one of our best options if we want to continue to survive, let alone thrive, on our planet.

I both love the idea of communal living and eco-villages in particular and am often sceptical about it. In a way, since I began farming almost eight years ago I have lived in constantly changing communities of people and overall I have loved it. I have visited and talked with many people from diverse communities, some even right here in the Cariboo, and I have seen firsthand that some work and some don‘t.

I have often noticed there will be a bit of a smirk or a grimace when people talk about groups of people sharing living space. Often it is the fringe people who band together to form a community and one often hears the words, ―cult,‖ or ―hippy commune‖ when people speak of communities and there will often be a note of derision in their tone.

One of the biggest obstacles people seem to cite as a reason against this type of habitation is land ownership. If a group of people are all living on the same piece of land, who owns it? Our current system is not structured for this sort of land ownership. To some, the paradigm shift required to get from the idea of ―mine‖ to ―ours‖ is just too big of a leap. It can be a logistical leap as well, but thanks to the communities that already exist there are now ways around this hurdle.

O.U.R (One United Resource) Ecovillage in Shawnigan Lake, BC is an incredible resource for those who want more information about how to go about this sort of living. When I toured this community in 2008, one of the founding members laughed as she related the struggles they had to go through to be able to legally operate their community. She said, ―after approaching so many levels of government who all said we couldn‘t do what we wanted to do, we started realizing a 'no' is just an uneducated 'yes'.‖ Eventually they managed to turn all those nos into yeses.

O.U.R. Ecovillage officially began in 1999 and operates on a 25-acre property on Vancouver Island. While many groups find loopholes in the rules around land ownership, O.U.R. Ecovillage worked on changing the rules. They have done work on rezoning and creating a type of zoning that was unheard of before they began: the Rural Residential Comprehensive Development Zone. They even got Van City bank to develop a new type of mortgage/financing package. They are involved in a research project that will help other groups overcome the obstacles of starting land-share projects with multiple stakeholders involved with multiple activities.

But what about not owning your own land? If it‘s not yours you can‘t take out a mortgage on it. This is true. But it isn‘t everyone‘s highest priority. The baby boomer generation made a living wage. Buying a home, a car or two, having your 2.5 children… all these things were doable and they were expected. My generation and those coming after me are facing new realities. A

Many hands work together to create what is now the Zero Mile Meal Eatery at O.U.R Ecovillage, Shawnigan Lake. O.U.R. Ecovillage is a 25 acre sustainable living permaculture demonstration site, education center, and learning community. Photo: Our Ecovillage, www.ourecovillage.org

minimum wage that is impossible to live on, astronomical housing costs, rising food prices, not to mention climate change, and an increasingly alarming number of natural and human-made disasters worldwide are the scary new realities. I do want to be smart about my future, I do want a good quality of life, and I want to leave behind a legacy that I can be proud of rather than a wasteland for my friends‘ children (because I‘m too afraid for their future to have any of my own) will have to deal with.

Contrary to popular opinion, communal living is the opposite of a new thing. In fact, the idea of people living just in small family groups isolated from others is actually the new thing. Since people first appeared on this planet we have banded together for safety, for survival, and because we are social animals and we like to have other humans around us. Living in larger groups can allow for a better quality of life and ease financial burden as well. At this time in history we have a crisis of what to do with all our elderly relatives as the baby boomers reach an age where living alone is just not a great option anymore. Meanwhile, childcare costs are astronomical and parents often feel bad about how much time their children have to spend at daycare. In the past, particularly in agrarian settings, grandparents or other elderly folks would often care for the young, passing on their wisdom and stories, providing childcare, and allowing another option for the elderly to still have a useful role in society.

As the world changes, we must also change. For many of my generation, overeducated and underpaid, our options have narrowed. And if you want to live rurally the options have really narrowed. Sure we could always go work in the oil fields for a time until we made enough money to buy that house or property, but if you are someone who is concerned with our current model of resource management, then you may not be able to stomach it. As developers buy up good farmland, as the price of land rises, and as farming becomes less and less viable as a way to make a living, landsharing becomes a much more attractive option.

O.U.R. Ecovillage is permaculture-based and contains untouched natural areas, a working farm with food production, orchards, and livestock. There is a teaching space, a woodworking shop, a B&B, temporary and permanent housing, an art studio, and a few businesses including natural

building design and consulting, and a shiatsu therapist. As someone who has farmed for many years in an isolated setting, the idea of being able to share work, share resources, and see other people without driving for hours is incredibly appealing. It would also be nice to have others around to take care of the animals or water the garden when one wants to get away for a little while.

All that said, I have still found many intentional communities have such long and detailed rules or policies that I would not want to actually join one. It is good to have guidelines in place for dealing with conflict.

Most eco-villages are democratic in nature.

It is part of our Western sense of individualism that makes us balk at the idea of sharing land. But still, my own redneck-hippy nature definitely balks at the idea of sitting around in a circle trying to wait until everyone‘s feelings have been addressed and we can all reach a consensus. I like the idea of groups of people sharing land and resources. But I like to make my own decisions as well. And as much as I am incredibly social, I can also be incredibly introverted and private. I like to share, but I like my own things and my own space, too.

What I have found in seven years of hosting WWOOFers, Workawayers, and other strangers from around the world as well as from living communally since college is that everyone needs a space of one‘s own and everyone needs to know what is expected of them from the start. If each person has this everyone feels happier and more content.

There is still a long way to go before we figure out how to live well as a species and not destroy our planet at the same time. People often ask why, if intentional communities are such a good idea, we aren‘t already all living in them. I‘ll leave you with another quote from Robert Gilman: ―The answer, then… is fairly simple: these needs and opportunities are so new we have not had time as a society to adjust to them. We are at the very beginning of a new era, and we can expect much of the development of technique and awareness that will characterize this era to be still ahead of us.‖ Terri Smith is a non-certified organic vegetable farmer in the Cariboo. She is passionate about writing, art, goats, and feeding good food to good people. She believes in following your heart, living your dreams, and taking care of the planet.

By Angela Abrahão

H

e is quite the sight in the marsh, right at home with his hat and binoculars, 12 students dutifully following along looking for birds. My classmate whispers, ―I hope he does that bird call thing again!‖ Tom Dickinson has just irritated a male bird in the rushes by imitating another male bird of the species.

Competition! The bird sounds the alarm, puffs up, and flies overhead to another tree and back out into the marsh. It is spring; things are happening.

I take a breath of fresh air, sigh, happy to be outside learning. I have a confession.

I‘ve been geeking out about this ranching program. Yes, me: the girl least likely to have anything to do with the whole cow business. What a learning curve! Ranchers intimidated me. I think it had to do with Aunty Ruth and the bulls. Every spring we‘d go out to Uncle Rudy and Aunt Helen‘s ranch and Aunty Ruth would lift us up to see the bulls. Of course, I was scared. My sister was fearless. You had to be tough. I was not tough. I‘m still scared of chickens. My grandmother‘s chicken coop was a scary place for me, on account of the rooster and his love of attacking me.

If you had told me years ago that Williams Lake would have a program for Applied Sustainable Ranching I would have said ―No way!‖ But a new story has emerged here in Williams Lake and it‘s pretty great. I‘ve always had to go other places to learn and

find new stories that are emerging in the world. Now, I find a new story here in my backyard and it is a discovery that humbles me.

I used to think about Williams Lake in terms of resource extraction. I have to say it‘s pretty hard to defend resource extraction out in the world today. It creates an internal discord for me, knowing all the good hard working people at home that have to feed their families. It‘s hard in rural communities for people to access education that is outside the box.

That‘s why I am so excited. This is outside of the box. It‘s heartening to see education that helps us change, and that helps us move towards addressing our systems, our thinking about the environment, economic and social problems, and changing our community for the better.

The Applied Sustainable Ranching program germinated from a field series that was jointly hosted by Cariboo Cattlemen‘s Association and Thompson Rivers University in 2012. At the end of the speaker series the final report indicated a real interest from the local ranching community in building a Sustainable Ranching Program in Williams Lake. They formed an industry advisory board, and designed the program framework. This advisory board also assists the program director with helping to identify both local and world renowned instructors and speakers. TRU and the industry advisory board came together doing what they do best, showing us how to learn, how to capture the big blue Cariboo

Photo: Tom Dickinson from Thompson Rivers Applied Sustainable Ranching program is teaching students about the biodiversity of grass species on a field day at the 150 Mile Ranch.

Photo: Bella Johnson

sky, turn it into food, and sustainable community businesses. We all want a right to livelihood and a robust local economy and to do that in a way that is sustainable, as stewards of the land.

In January 2016 the first cohort started, and I feel so lucky to be part of the meeting of minds among some dynamic students. Some students are on ranches, some want to be on ranches, and some are embracing other agricultural enterprises. Everyone is doing something a little bit different. We‘ve got the whole mix up in here.

Little bit of ranching, little bit of agriculture, little bit of tourism, little bit of homesteading. We‘ve got students from the Yukon, Spence‘s Bridge, Kamloops, 100 Mile, and Williams Lake.

The Cariboo has some really great ranching operations, and some very diverse enterprises that go along with that. We started out with ranch tours during our first week, and it blew my mind, the amount of cool diverse businesses we‘ve got in close range. What great fortune being part of a group of people able to truly look at our collective strengths and try to act in a way that doesn‘t damage what we love about this place.

This is how we end up on a boardwalk at Scout Island on a Friday morning with the biologist looking for birds. The indicators. Totally geeking out on the environ-

ment. The measure. The mark. The signs.

Signaling that it‘s time.

Okay, don‘t worry everyone; I am still the girl least likely to have a cow operation. I‘m dreaming of vegetables, herbs, and sheep. I see the real life applications from the Applied Sustainable Ranching Program to my current business and the implications are huge. I like that the story emerging for me is learning how to learn to be environmentally sustainable as a business. Here we are Williams Lake, all growing up; I‘m so ready to embrace another story about this place. It‘s happening people, the indicators are there. Let‘s move this great program forward!

Angela Abrahao lives in Horsefly and frequents a farm in Brazil and a sugar cane co-op where they produce ethanol, sugar, and energy. Angela is a herbalist, writer, and permaculture designer for the love of it and is a founder and digital marketing analyst for a computer software incubator.

She is currently taking the Applied Sustainable Ranching program at TRU and you can follow along at www.ranching.school or like us on Facebook.

By Kristin Lehar

I

t seems like only yesterday the tree buds burst open with the first greens of the year, temperatures finally allowed for open windows during the nights, and weeds started popping up everywhere. The last jar of fermented vegetables from the previous year‘s harvest marked the end of a cycle and I began to feel the need to eat something new and fresh, which, if you think about it, coincides perfectly with the new beginning that is spring. Anyone eating a significant portion of his or her diet locally and seasonally inevitably feels the indwelling need for certain foods and nutrients that become available at the turning of seasons.

Now with spring in full swing and summer practically just around the corner, it's the season of greens. Bitter greens are especially important at this time of year as they support the cleansing of the body and are excellent for digestion—the bitterness hitting the tongue is a powerful stimulant for digestive enzymes. These bitters including mustard greens, kale, arugula, and endive, can all be sourced at your local farmers market, growers co-op, or in your own garden.

However, not all edible salad mix greens are limited to those growing within the confines of the greenhouse or garden.

And even better, anyone and everyone has unlimited access to harvesting potent wild bitter greens—dandelions. Spring marked the beginning of the growing plethora of dandelion greens thriving under the sun each and every day despite the cold frosts of the previous night. I had never gone out to harvest dandelions before but as I looked over the endless fields of this abundant

Kristin with freshly harvested wild dandelion greens. Photo credit: Vera Lehar

weed, it seemed very commonsensible to go out there and take what has been given to me and to us all. After harvesting several baby dandelion leaves and roots I enjoyed a beautiful dandelion green salad everyday for the rest of the week—I couldn‘t get enough! Not only was it super delicious, but it was hugely nutritious!

These slightly bitter greens have more than twice the amount of calcium contained in broccoli, are loaded with vitamin A – one cup of raw greens contains 112 per cent of the recommended daily value (DRV) – and thus are rich in antioxidants helping to protect body tissues from irritation from chemicals and free radicals. Just one cup will give you over 500 per cent of the DRV of vitamin K and is also rich in vitamin C, iron, manganese, as well as fiber. These numbers

Amadeus' Birthday Tea Party Picnic (left to right: Mark, Svenja, Kasha, Terri, and Amadeus) Photo: Mark Rupp

By Terri Smith

I

love goats, and I love hats, so really, what could be better than a goat in a hat?

For Amadeus‘ fourth birthday at the end of April we decided to throw him a Mad Hatter-esque Tea Party Picnic.

We wanted to do something fun before our wonderful farm helper, Svenja, went back to Germany. Setting up a farm is a lot of work so it‘s good to take time out for absurdity. Svenja, Mark, Amadeus, and I dressed up in fancy hats, packed some

treats and cold tea, and headed up the trail through the forest to the meadows above the house. At my old place, the other goats never blinked an eye when I would take Amadeus away from the herd. But they are a smaller herd now, as the couple that rented my old place kept half the goats, and in this new, unfamiliar territory they don‘t want to let him out of their sight. As we walked away the other two goats made such a fuss I decided that they were probably better off crashing our picnic than being left behind, so I opened their gate and

are all found on the National Nutrient Database collected by the USDA; however, it is important to consider that these numbers apply to crops being cultivated mainly through industrial agriculture whose practices result in significant decline in nutrient values of most foods year by year. So it is likely the wild dandelions growing in our own backyards, meadows, and forests will be much richer in nutrients than those cultivated by mass agriculture.

In addition to the leaves, the roots can be harvested and cooked, or dried to make tea and coffee substitutes. They are an exceptional blood cleanser and liver tonic, helping it to filter toxins out of the body.

Dandelion root is now gaining considerable recognition by the scientific community as well. Researchers at the University of Windsor have reported the effectiveness of dandelion root extract against ―various human cancer cell types‖ that include ―human T cell leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, pancreatic, and colon cancers, with no toxicity to non-cancer cells.‖ Their research, known as The Dandelion Root Project is ongoing and hopefully spreading the wisdom of the dandelion‘s power for the better.

The best time to harvest roots is in the spring and fall when the plant‘s energy and nutrients are stored in the root. As for the leaves, harvesting is best in the spring before the plant flowers when they are small and only mildly bitter. Even after they have flowered, however, and in the midst of summer, new baby leaves can still be found and the more bitter greens can be added in smaller portions in a mixed greens salad, added to pesto, steamed, or lightly sautéed with garlic and herbs. It also doesn‘t hurt to pick the beautiful yellow flowers—their

they happily followed us through the trees and out onto the meadow. We were an odd entourage: three humans and a goat in fancy hats, two dogs and two more goats bringing up the rear. It was a beautiful sunny day, and as we stepped out of the trees and onto the meadow, yellow with dandelions, I adjusted my pirate hat, reached down to pet Amadeus, and knew that I have truly found home.

We spread our picnic blankets on the grass and set them with silver goblets and mismatched porcelain teacups. The dogs sat lazily nearby while the two goats who had not been invited grazed on the hillside.

Amadeus had his own teacup filled with sunflower seeds and he quite happily stayed at our picnic in his sailor‘s cap. After awhile he lay down beside me and watched his goat family do goat things as he ate and drank with the humans. The sun moved slowly towards the horizon as we ate tiny cinnamon buns, talked and laughed, and took pictures of each other and the animals.

You know what is even better than a goat in a hat? The fact that I have come to a place where dressing up in fancy hats to take goats on a picnic is a perfectly normal activity for a Sunday afternoon.

Terri Smith is a non-certified organic vegetable farmer in the Cariboo. She is passionate about writing, art, goats, and feeding good food to good people. She believes in following your heart, living your dreams, and taking care of

the planet.

bitter-sweet taste and bright color decorate a salad beautifully. To soak up their benefits otherwise, add them to an herbal tea blend or as I recently did, incorporate them into your kombucha! It is important to seek out a clean place to forage—one that hasn‘t been treated with any chemicals or that is too close to roads, accumulating pollution.

Consuming dandelions is nothing new.

What is relatively new is the amount of weed killers and herbicides being used on them regardless of their resilience and constant return. They have been around and used medicinally for hundreds of years, so perhaps we should reconsider why they are seen as nothing more than a pesky weed.

I hope I can inspire you to go out and collect some greens this summer (and perhaps some roots this fall?) and make something absolutely delightful out of them. And doesn‘t it just feel so much better to take a walk into the field to collect your supper in a beautiful interaction with the earth than to wait in a line up for someone to scan the barcode off of your plastic box of spinach?

Kristin is a holistic nutritionist in training whose main goal is to live a simple and awesome life. She loves to inspire others to realize the power of the body and its amazing capabilities to restore and maintain flourishing health, to realize that nobody knows their body better than themselves, and to understand only they hold the power to bring it to wellbeing.

Having love for and being connected to the body and the language of the body is the first step on the path to a thriving life and thriving planet.

By Erin Hitchcock

A

couple dozen people marched through Williams Lake last month to raise awareness about pesticides and genetically modified food and how these products may harm our health, environment, and society.

While this local March for Food Justice was small, participants joined millions of people across the globe, marching in solidarity during the world-wide March Against Monsanto that took place in 388 cities, 49 countries, and six continents on May 21.

Taking place from Cariboo Growers and supported by the Williams Lake Food Policy Council and other community groups, this year‘s march was named March for Food Justice locally rather than March Against Monsanto. This was to better encompass the range of issues included in the cause; though Monsanto – the maker of Agent Orange and Roundup – is one of the largest chemical agriculture giants, there are others as well, including Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, and others. In fact, Bayer has made a buyout bid for Monsanto. The merger, if it takes place, would cause the two to become the largest agricultural supplier in the world.

Marchers sported placards demanding change, whether it be a call for mandatory GMO labelling or an outright ban, or simply to raise awareness about pesticides and GMOs. They said no to poison and corruption and stood up for our food supply, our health, local and organic farmers, and our future.

Participants gather in the Cariboo Growers parking lot May 21 before marching through the streets during the March for Food Justice, which was held in conjunction with the worldwide March Against Monsanto. More marchers joined in as the group headed down the streets. Photo: Erin Hitchcock

Despite the hard issues being faced globally, progress is being made when it comes to chemical-free food thanks to protests such as these and to consumers demanding organic food. Whole Foods, for example, plans to have all of its GMO products labelled by 2018.

Lead organizer and founder of March Against Monsanto Tami Canal said in this year‘s speech the march has seen incredible strides on a consumer level, with Chipotle being the first U.S. restaurant chain to an-

nounce moving to becoming GMO free.

Brands such as General Mills, Campbell‘s, Mars, and Hunt‘s have also announced their intent to voluntarily label all products containing GMOs. Corporations such as Target, Kroger, and Costco have also responded to consumer demands for more organic products. ―This is because of we, the people,‖ Canal said. ―The message we send every single time we spend a dollar is mighty and our efforts are working. We are being

heard. We hold the power, because simply, if we don‘t buy it, they can‘t sell it.‖ However, more and more GMOs and pesticides continue to be produced and sold.

According to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, a limited amount of GM alfalfa seed has recently been sold in Eastern Canada for spring planting. However, the release of GM alfalfa has been delayed in Canada for three years. To help stop the company Forage Genetics from selling another batch of seed later this year, visit CBAN‘s site at http://www.cban.ca/ Resources/Topics/GE-Crops-and-FoodsNot-on-the-Market/Alfalfa for more info and ways to take action.

Health Canada also recently approved the selling of GMO salmon – and no, it won‘t be labelled as being genetically modified. See my previous column in the 2015 September/October issue of the Green Gazette for more about this issue.

Those wishing to tell the federal government to label or ban GMOs can write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Health Canada. Their contact info can be found at www.pm.gc.ca/eng/contactpm and www.hc -sc.gc.ca/contact/index-eng.php, respectively.

Erin Hitchcock is a stay-at-home mom, journalist, anti-GMO advocate, and local organizer for March Against Monsanto/ March for Food Justice. If you have any comments, column suggestions, or questions for her email erinhitchcock.cariboo@gmail.com.

(L to R) Three executive members of the Williams Lake Refugee Sponsorship Group: Sharon Taylor (communications), Kirsten Konge (vicepresident), and Sherry Yonkman (treasurer) Photo: Rachel Taylor

By Sharon Taylor

Y

ou wake up in the morning, acrid smoke already making your throat hurt. You glance out the window as you get ready for work. Every time a plane flies over, you look up and calculate how near it is and what direction it is going in.

At work, everyone is talking nervously.

The computers are down—no Internet means no work. But lots of time to share news and not-quite-news: ―My brother heard…‖ and ―My boyfriend‘s boss says…‖ Then the daycare calls. ―Come pick up your baby. We are being evacuated.‖ But you don‘t have a car and you can‘t contact your partner. A co-worker drives you to the daycare, where you meet up with a friend and then it is all rush and run and get to this place only to be told to keep moving, keep moving…

And it is 3 o‘clock in the morning and you are sleeping in your car. Five hours to get 30 kilometres. It doesn‘t feel safe at the rest stop surrounded by dozens of others, but it feels safer than on your own on a lonely stretch of highway. Two women and a baby are not going to feel safe anywhere.

Hours more on the road, hours waiting at a gas station for a delivery to arrive and fill all the empty cars. People are trying to be good, to be helpful, but tempers are short and the stress makes it as hard to breathe as the smoke does. And when the gas tank is full, and you get back on the road, you still don‘t know where you are going…

You are a refugee.

And it all happened in hours.

As the settlement worker for Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society in Williams Lake, I have talked to people in Williams Lake, Tatla Lake, and 100 Mile House about the plight of refugees worldwide.

Canadians have watched in horror as overcrowded boats tip passengers in the unforgiving ocean and seen the masses of people carrying their children and everything they have left on their backs. We have praised the volunteers and questioned the politicians. We have raised money through soup dinners and school bottle drives; numerous groups have set up sponsorship programs to bring people from all over the world to Canada.

And we have done all that with a kind of careless grace: it‘s who we are. It‘s what we do. Canadians in general are generous and caring people who understand that no one survives through winter‘s cold, summer‘s drought, and spring‘s floods without their neighbours‘ help.

Sixty million people around the world displaced. Twenty million of those have left their home country. Most left with nothing.

They go to a nearby country offering help, or to a camp, where volunteers and workers from the UNHCR, Red Cross, Medicines sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), and hundreds of smaller or local organizations try to help with daily needs, with stress and trauma, with planning for the future.

In Kenya, one of the world‘s largest refugee camps houses over 500,000 people.

It has operated for over 25 years.

Last week, I was on my cell more than not – texting, talking, comforting, questioning – as my two daughters and grandson fled the forest fires in Fort McMurray. They are safe now, waiting to make the next plan. But as I talk to them, I hear this in my head, ―They are always moving. Even when they are sitting still in a camp, in a tent, and there is nowhere to go back to, they keep moving.‖ Patrice Gordon, a nurse-practitioner in Tatla Lake, has travelled all over the world with the International Red Cross, working

through medical crises such as the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. At a recent refugee sponsorship meeting in Tatla, she told us about Nepalese refugees whose village had been washed down a mountain. ―They would go back if they could, even if there is nothing left. All the refugees I have met would go back if they could. They are always moving…‖ The image was striking as we watched people evacuate Fort McMurray—88,000 people safely moved out of harm‘s way in only hours. Highways jammed with cars, moving achingly slowly, or abandoned when the gas tank ran empty; fire-fighters, first responders, and police going towards what everyone else fled from. As someone pointed out on social media, if you had to evacuate a city safely, one in which the majority of workers are trained in emergency procedures is a good place to start. And the damage, while enormous, is less than it could have been. Fort McMurray is already starting to re-build.

But not all places in the world are so lucky. Sometimes everyone has to run – no one can return to save what is left. Sometimes the road is filled not with helpful strangers, but with people without conscience or heart. Sometimes, instead of offering emotional support and practical assistance, the country turns on its own people and chases them further into the wilderness.

Sometimes the enemy at the gate drives people from bad to worse—from bombs dropping from the sky to guns pointed at vulnerable bodies.

In her stunning poem ―Home,‖ Kenyanborn Somali poet Warsan Shire says, i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home

unless home chased you to the shore unless home told you to quicken your legs leave your clothes behind crawl through the desert wade through the oceans drown save be hunger beg forget pride your survival is more important Canadians are good at opening their hearts and homes to their neighbours. But we need to re-think the term ‗neighbour.‘ The fact is that we are now dependent on other countries for our inexpensive clothing, our furniture, and in many cases, our food.

The people who supply us with things that make our lives easier and more pleasant are no longer on ―the other side of world‖— they are as close as our grocery stores, as our big box stores. When they are affected by extreme weather conditions, our supply lines are cut. When floods and fires and warmer oceans and nuclear incidents and civil wars occur in one place, the ripples are felt across the world.

Refugee support groups are forming in Quesnel and 100 Mile House. There are two groups in Williams Lake and one in Tatla Lake that are preparing for families to be resettled within the year. Our Cariboo winters may be cold, but our welcome is warm. We are all neighbours now. And if we do not take care of each other, the mouth of the shark is open and waiting.

For more information about getting involved in the Williams Lake Refugee Sponsorship Group, the Sacred Heart Refugee Sponsorship Group, or the Tatla Lake Initiative for Refugee Sponsorship group, contact S h a ro n at (7 7 8 ) 4 1 2 -2 9 9 9 o r sharont@imss.ca.

By Dr. Reuben Dinsmore BScH, ND

N

atural supplements, or nutraceuticals, have been given a bad rap lately, which, in some cases, has been absolutely warranted. But natural formulas that actually contain what they claim to contain, and that are formulated to have maximal efficacy can be equal to their pharmaceutical counterparts—but without the laundry list of side effects.

Caution: many natural supplements can interact with prescription medications in various ways. Some supplements can reduce the effectiveness of drugs, and some can actually increase the effectiveness of a medication. Although this might sound like a positive thing, your dose has been carefully selected by your doctor to maintain a certain therapeutic level in the body—a higher level can be harmful. If you are currently taking any prescribed medications, please speak to a health care practitioner who is well-trained in the safety and use of supplements and medications before starting any supplements.

1. Statins (the class of drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol) accounted for 3.8 per cent of all money spent on prescription drugs in Canada in 2013. High cholesterol is blamed for heart attacks and strokes via formation of arterial plaques. But the real culprit is inflammation, without which the plaques wouldn‘t form in the first place. Bottom line—you can lower cholesterol all you want, but as long as there is inflammation present, plaques can still form.

Some common side effects of statins: muscle pain, cognitive impairment, sexual dysfunction, and increased risk of cancer and diabetes.

Nutraceutricals: Omega-3 fatty acids (best are fish oils from wild-caught sources) and curcumin (the active component in turmeric) are two excellent supplements to lower inflammation. Garlic extracts have been proven to improve cholesterol levels. As well, red rice yeast extract is the natural compound statins were derived from, and works in a similar manner; however, it has been suggested that because of this, some of the same side effects may be seen.

2. Five million Canadians suffer from heartburn symptoms weekly. Prescriptions for the acid-blocking drugs PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) accounted for $24 million in BC alone in 2013. Risks of taking these

Pills. Photo: Marco Javorak/Flickr.com

mostly involve nutrient deficiencies from poor absorption due to low stomach acid (see the problem here?) such as bone fractures from poor calcium absorption or anemia from decreased levels of B12 or iron.

B12 deficiency can also cause dementia and neurological damage. There has also been a correlation shown between PPI use and C. difficile infection, which causes life -threatening diarrhea; recent research also indicates an increased risk of dementia from long-term PPI use.

Nutraceuticals: long story short, most people don‘t have too much stomach acid. The problem is the acid they have is getting into the wrong place (the lower esophagus) where it burns. This can be due to the muscle between the esophagus and the stomach not closing properly, either from poor tone or insufficient stomach acid (which signals the sphincter to close). Limonene – an extract from citrus peel – helps strengthen this muscle and at the same time promotes movement of food downward to the stomach and beyond.

DGL – an extract from licorice root – stimulates mucus production in the GI tract, which acts to coat and protect the sensitive lining of the esophagus. And apple cider vinegar is wonderful for increasing stomach acid to healthy levels.

3. SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) are the most common class of anti-depressant drugs. One in twelve Canadians will experience major depression in their lifetime, but it‘s still one of the most poorly understood conditions. Standard

treatment protocols typically target neurotransmitter activity (most commonly serotonin). However, new research indicates the underlying cause may actually be inflammation. Either way, natural medicine has you covered.

Nutraceuticals: 5-HTP is used to make serotonin, with the help of vitamin B6. The herb St. John‘s Wort has been studied extensively and appears to work in the same way as SSRIs. Both 5-HTP and St. John‘s Wort have shown similar efficacy to SSRIs when given for mild to moderate depression. And as I mentioned earlier, omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin decrease inflammation throughout the body, including the brain.

Side effects of SSRIs include sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and worsened/ chronic depression. However, St. John‘s Wort also has a side effect which should be considered– it affects liver function, which can result in either higher or lower blood medication levels, and for this reason should not be taken with certain pharmaceuticals.

4. Hypertension (aka high blood pressure) affects six million Canadians, and is responsible for approximately 13 per cent of all deaths.

Various classes of anti-hypertensives include diuretics, ACE inhibitors, and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs).

Diuretics increase urine output, which can negatively affect sodium and potassium levels, which can cause muscle cramps.

ACEIs and ARBs may both cause a chronic dry cough. All anti-hypertensives can cause dizziness, headache, and low blood pressure.

Nutraceuticals – CoQ10, magnesium, garlic extracts, omega-3 fatty acids, Larginine, and vitamin C have all been shown to lower high blood pressure by various means. Dandelion leaf is an effective diuretic that doesn‘t lower potassium levels.

5. Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs most often prescribed for anxiety disorders and insomnia. They work by binding to receptors for GABA, a neurotransmitter in the brain that calms activity

of the nervous system. Interestingly, this is the same mechanism by which alcohol acts in the brain. One obvious effect of benzos is sedation – great when the treatment target is insomnia. Not so great when you just want to decrease your anxiety but still function. Other side effects include dizziness, loss of balance, and even cognitive impairment at higher doses. They also have a significant risk of developing physical or psychological dependence, and rebound anxiety when discontinued.

Nutraceuticals – you can take GABA itself (but there‘s mixed evidence on whether or not it actually gets into the brain), or herbs such as passionflower (same mechanism of action as benzos), valerian, chamomile, kava—the list goes on. Niacinamide (the non-flushing form of vitamin B3) has been shown to have a similar effect as a benzodiazepine at higher doses.

So now you think you‘re ready to ditch all your pharmaceuticals and go natural?

Not so fast—the examples used above are by no means the only supplements that have been used effectively for these conditions, and equally as important are diet, exercise, sleep habits, relaxation techniques, and other lifestyle factors.

One final thing to remember: it often takes years for a health condition to reach the point where people finally decide to do something about it. If a condition is severe, or it has advanced to the point where it poses a serious risk of mortality, supplements and lifestyle changes should not be relied on alone. Certain pharmaceuticals can be used on a short-term basis along with the suggestions discussed above, with the understanding that they will be discontinued at the appropriate time and with your doctor‘s guidance. The next step: sit down with a naturopathic doctor and work together to develop a personalized approach that takes all your health concerns into consideration.

Dr. Reuben Dinsmore is a naturopathic doctor practicing in Yaletown Naturopathic Clinic, Vancouver, BC. He practises patient-focused functional medicine by incorporating the best of natural health and conventional medicine. His passion is helping patients with issues around stress, sleep, and mood disorders, helping them return to a state of balance and peace.

By Jennifer Clark

W

e‘ve probably all put a worm on a hook to catch a fish at some point in our lives—maybe, like me, it was when you were out fishing with your grandfather as a kid. What I never knew until I started to learn about urban gardening and sustainability was that those wiggly worms you can buy for fish bait can be so much more useful to you alive for composting food waste in your kitchen. Like my mother did at first, you might say, ―Ew, gross, worms in my kitchen?!‖ My answer to that is, ―Absolutely!‖ Worm composting systems are easy to set up, low maintenance, and interesting. If you have limited, or no outdoor space (for instance, if you live in a condo or apartment) or are concerned about possibly attracting animals with an outdoor compost, a worm compost bin could be the answer.

This method of composting is also a great companion to small-space gardening on balconies, or even having a traditional garden in your backyard.

Worm composting recycles organic matter like food scraps or animal waste into a nutrient rich substance called ―worm castings‖ which can be used as a soil additive to improve soil fertility, texture, and water retention. Unlike traditional composting that you might do outdoors in a compost pile, worm composting is always aerobic (takes place in the presence of oxygen), and low-temperature. Traditional composting relies in part on anaerobic (oxygen-free) fermentation, which increases the temperature in the composting waste—it ―cooks‖ the materials, helping them to break down. Worm composting, on the other hand, keeps the temperatures low and relies on the activity of the worms, which consume the food scraps or other materials and excrete castings, which are nutrient-rich and easy to use as a soil amendment. Worm composting can be done on a massive, industrial scale, or, in a small bin within your own kitchen.

Worm composting is generally more rapid than traditional composting, producing usable compost, or castings, within three months of starting your bin. (Insert image 1 here) It is also more compact and can be done indoors, which makes it great for people living in apartments or rentals with no yard access. It is generally odourless, and pretty trouble-free. (I have kept

(Top) Mature E. fetida earthworms breaking down an avocado pit. (Right) Homemade, plastic, worm compost bin, with worms and castings being sorted under cat supervision.

Photos: Jen Clark

two worm compost bins under my kitchen counter for more than six years now without any problems at all.)

Generally, there are two closely-related species of earthworms that are used in vermicomposting or worm composting: Enseiniafetida and Enseiniaandrei. E. andrei is currently considered the most productive of the two species, but either can do the job. These earthworms tend to be small, striped, red with yellow tails, and very active, hence their common name, ―Red Wigglers.‖ When disturbed, they tend to thrash around and wiggle a lot. At first you might feel a little squeamish about your new earthworm community, but once you get used to them, you‘ll realize that they are a great asset to your household, and that they are totally harmless for you to handle. Most kids love helping to take care of a worm compost bin, making it an excellent educational opportunity for kids to learn basic biology and sustainability principles.

Why start a worm compost bin?

• It’s easy and faster than traditional composting, taking up to just three months to produce usable compost.

• You can have a worm compost bin anywhere, even inside your apartment or house because it‘s compact, and generally odourless.

• The compost, or castings, your worms produce can be used in your garden or potted plants to grow bigger, more plentiful veggies, greener, healthier lawns, and lush, beautiful plants. They also restore beneficial microorganisms to your soil.

• Composting your food scraps helps the environment by keeping your food scraps out of the landfill and reduces the waste produced by your household.

• Keeping food scraps out of your garbage bin reduces odour and mess in your garbage, reducing the risk of attracting animals like bears, rodents, or raccoons.

• It’s fun and educational—a great way to teach your kids about composting.

If you‘d like to start a worm compost in your home, there are resources available to you right here in Williams Lake. A worm compost bin can be as fancy or as simple as you wish to make it. I started my compost in two, small, Rubbermaid tubs with holes cut into them for air circulation and drainage, and still use them—this is likely the least expensive option, but it is not necessarily as rapid as using a purposebuilt worm composting bin.

Red Wiggler worms and purpose-built worm composting bins can be purchased from the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, which can be contacted at (250) 398-7929. The Conservation Society is also considering offering worm composting workshops to help you get started. If this is something you‘d be interested in, please let the staff know. Information on basic worm composting is also plentiful on the Internet, including some of the sites listed below.

Jennifer Clark grew up as a part of the fourth generation on a family horse and cattle ranch in the East Kootenays, moving from the ranch to a small hobby farm at the age of 12. She has studied sustainability issues and urban planning at Selkirk College in Castlegar, BC and the Univer-

sity of British Columbia in Vancouver, before moving to the Cariboo. She was a wildland firefighter for eight years, is a fanatical gardener, and has worked and taught urban gardening at garden nurseries in Vancouver and for several non-profit organizations. Jennifer is also an experienced potter who is involved with the Cariboo Potters Guild, occasionally teaching beginners' classes at the guild studio. On a nice day, she can be found anywhere outside, gardening, hiking, or if she’s really lucky, kayaking in a borrowed kayak.

June – October 7: Williams Lake Farmers Market. Local fruits and veggies, fresh baking, arts and crafts, plants, eggs, local meat, and more. New vendors welcome. Call Lindae at (250) 398-0580. Monthly draws for $50 gift certificates. Every Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Boitanio Park, Williams Lake.

June 2: Williams Lake Garden Club meeting. Everyone welcome to monthly meeting on first Thursday of the month until October. 7–9 p.m. $2 drop-in fee or $10 yearly membership. Central Cariboo Arts Centre, Williams Lake.

June 4: Second annual Race for Kids fundraiser. Hosted by the Boys and Girls Club of William‘s Lake. Combination of Amazing Race and Minute-to-Win-it. All funds raised support club‘s afterschool programs. Teams of four can register anytime on club‘s website. Businesses can sponsor teams and help fundraising efforts. 9-10 a.m. Visit www.raceforkids.ca and http:// www.raceforkids.ca/williamslake or call (250) 392-5730 for more info.

June 11 & 12: Walking the Path of Concentration. Weekend seminar with visiting teacher Venerable Drimay. $150. No one turned away for lack of funds. Call (778) 412-7780. 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gendun Drubpa Buddhist Centre. Register at www.gendundrubpa.org.

June 14, July and August – Tuesday and Thursday. Playgroup in the Park. Kiwanis Water Park by the Shelter, Williams Lake.

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Contact Women‘s Contact Society (250) 392-4118

June 17 – 19: Weekend Permaculture Workshop. Hosted by Jane and Peter Murray. Includes intro, film, overview of permaculture and philosophy of caring for the land, and using the site as a resource.

Discussion on soils, earthworking, and climate design suitable for Cariboo. $50. Registration required. Limited space available.

Murrays‘ Farm and Permaculture Centre, Sheridan Lake Road, 100 Mile House. Call Pete Jarvis, (250) 791-7284 or Shelley Tegart, (250) 395-3364.

June 18: Texas Hold‘em Poker tournament fundraiser for Kidcare Daycare. Signal Point Gaming Event Room, Williams Lake 7 p.m.

Call Women‘s Contact Society (250) 3924118 for more info.

June 19: B.C.‘s Family Fishing Weekend, presented by Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. A day full of fishing events at Biff‘s Ponds. Geared to beginners, mobility impaired, and handicapped. Catch and keep fishery. Lunch. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 2710 Dog Creek Rd, Williams Lake.

June 21: National Aboriginal Day celebrations, co-ordinated by Northern Shuswap Tribal Council. Parade 10 a.m., Elks Hall to Boitanio Park. Activities 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in park. Fun and games for whole family – games, face painting, bouncy castle, bike demos, feather painting, lahal games, and vendor booths. Bannock cooking competition noon to 2 p.m. Williams Lake. To register parade entry or free vendor booth contact Marg Casey, (250) 392-7361 or m.casey@nstq.org.

July – August: Nature Fun at Scout Island.

Weekdays, ages 4-8, two-hour programs ($12/session). Ages 8-13, full day, Tuesdays ($25/day). Call Scout Island Nature Centre (250) 398-8532 for more info and to book.

July – August: Tales and Trails, led by Scout Island Nature Centre staff. Parents and kids participate in free, looselystructured program. Songs, rhymes, finger plays, poems, exploring while dawdling along the trails. Everyone welcome.

Wednesday mornings, 10:30 a.m. Scout Island Nature Centre, Williams Lake.

July 7 – August 25: Thursday Performances in the Park. Williams Lake Fiddlers with Red Monkey Black King, and Nathan Lamb-Yorski (July 7); Dirty Mountain with Flannel Roots (July 14); Samson‘s Delilah with Weathered Arrows (July 21); Barefoot Caravan with Warless (July 8); Perfect Match with Mohammed Assani (Aug. 4); Saenger and Thorne with Chicken Like Birds (Aug. 11); Lucier and Friends with Winona Wilde (Aug. 18); and Wayne‘s Buddy Rose with Run Home Jack (Aug. 25). 6 p.m. Gwen Ringwood Theatre, Boitanio Park, Williams Lake. Visit facebook.com/performancesinthepark for more info.

July 9: Williams Lake Gardens and Arts Tour. Self-guided tour sponsored by the Williams Lake Garden Club. Featuring eight unique gardens, works of local quilters, spinners, and weavers. Local music. Open for viewing 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Only 200 tickets sold. $10 available June 1 at The Open Book, Beaver Valley Feeds, and Blocks ‗R Us. Proceeds go to Boys & Girls Club of Williams Lake and District.

July 16: Texas Hold‘em Poker tournament fundraiser for Kidcare Daycare. Signal Point Gaming Event Room, Williams Lake 7 p.m.

Call Women‘s Contact Society (250) 3924118 for more info.

July 22 – 24: Hootstock Festival, Forest Grove, BC. Music, dance, spoken word.

Visit http://www.hootstock.com for tickets and more info.

July 29 – Aug 1: Island Mountain Arts presents ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art. Expect the unexpected! Over 100 musical performances on 12 stages – folk, hip-hop, electronic, world, pop, roots, jazz, country, funk. Also featuring workshops, kids‘ activities, independent films, artisans, and discounts to Barkerville Historic Town. Call 1-800-442-2787 or artswellsfestival@imarts.com, or visit www.artswells.com for more info.

August 12: Cariboo-Chilcotin Metis Association fourth annual Music Jamboree. $20 day passes, $30 weekend and camping.

Drug and alcohol free event, concession all day, pancake breakfast, Saturday night dinner $10. Further details TBA. August 12-14: The Robson Valley Music Festival. Musical entertainment, camping, workshops, kids‘ zone, visual art, vendor marketplace. Dunster, B.C. For show lineup, visit www.rvmf.ca.

August 18: Annual Street Party. Free. Carnival, games, bouncy castle, water fight with the RCMP, activity booths, hot dog BBQ,

everyone welcome. 5–8 p.m. Williams Lake Boys and Girls Club. Contact (250) 3925730 or operations@bgcwilliamslake.com for more info.

Aug 20: Texas Hold‘em Poker tournament fundraiser for Kidcare Daycare. Signal Point Gaming Event Room, Williams Lake 7 p.m.

Call Women‘s Contact Society (250) 3924118 for more info.

August 27 & 28: 17th Annual South Cariboo Garlic Festival. Family event for all ages. Cariboo artisanal creations, excellent garlic, entertainment. Breakfast served by Lac La Hache Historical Society. $5 adult admission fee Saturday covers Sunday too.

Free for children under 12. For more info and updates, visit http:// www.garlicfestival.ca/.

Williams Lake Wanderers June 2016 In June, some activities will be longer.

Expect to bring a lunch and be prepared to give a few dollars (probably $5 or less) to drivers if they are transporting you or your bike or kayak for any distance.

In June, we‘ll leave Sam Ketcham Complex at 9:00 am, so come around 8:45 to get organized. We begin our outings from there on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, so you can fill out a membership form and pay the $10 annual fee if you wish to join us. Once you‘re a member, you will receive emails with schedule and schedule changes. Schedules and updates are also on Facebook.

June Schedule Wednesday, June 1 – Onward Ranch & beyond bike ride (Mission Rd.) Thursday, June 2 – Farwell Canyon to the dunes hike with Quesnel Naturalists (Hwy. 20) extended day Tuesday, June 7 – West Fraser Road bike ride (across Rudy Johnson Bridge) Wednesday, June 8 – Dugan Lake kayak (off Horsefly Rd.) Thursday, June 9 – Chief William hike (longer hike, bring lunch, shuttle involved) Tuesday, June 14 – Anderson Road to lookout bike ride (Dog Creek Rd.) Wednesday, June 15 – Dear Trail walk (from Westridge area) Thursday, June 16 – Couldhard Road bike (over Rudy Johnson Bridge) Tuesday, June 21 – Old Highway 20 walk (some can start from bottom, others from top, key exchange) Wednesday, June 22 – Williams Lake kayak from Scout Island Thursday, June 23 – Springfield Ranch bike ride (Soda Creek Rd.) Tuesday, June 28 – Narcosli Creek hike – extended day (down West Fraser Road) Wednesday, June 29 – Friesen Road bike ride (Fox Mtn.) Thursday, June 30 – Valley Rim walk (River Valley)

Your Green Shopping Directory

Distribution Details

Green Locations TheGreenGazette can be found in print at the fine locations below, as well as online at www.thegreengazette.ca or by subscription .

“ Alternative Kids Clothing, 250 392-4445 65 1st Ave. South, Williams Lake Recycled (―pre-loved‖), up-cycled, locally made, fairly traded, and organic cotton products.

Clothing for 0-17 yrs., soaps, and accessories for all ages. Small maternity section. See Facebook: Alternative Kids Clothing and Accessories for hrs.

Bean Counter Bistro & Coffee Bar, 250 305-2326 180B 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake Organic Coffee, Fair Trade, Local Foods Big Bear Ranch, 250 620-3353 Steffi, Florian, and Rainer Krumsiek Grass fed & grass finished beef and lamb, pasture raised heritage pork. Animal Welfare Approved. www.bigbearranch.com Canadian Tire, 250 392-3303 1050 South Lakeside Dr., Williams Lake Recycling Initiatives, Renewable Energy Solutions, Organic Cleaning Products: Blue Planet, Green Works, Method, Nature Clean, Seventh Generation Cariboo Growers Coop, 778 412-2667 3rd & Oliver St., Williams Lake. 100% Natural & Organic Foods, Non-Profit Farmer’s Coop Cleanway Supply, 1-800-663-5181 275 South MacKenzie Ave., Williams Lake Organic Cleaning Products Dandelion Living, 778-412-9100 271 Oliver St., Williams Lake Local & Original, Reclaimed & Repurposed, Natural & Organic Products Day Spa Champagne, 250 305-1249 124A North Second Ave., Williams Lake Quiet, relaxing, personalized atmosphere. A Zen experience. Four Types Massage, Reflexology, Manicures/Pedicures & More.

Debbie Irvine B.Sc. (Agr.) RHN Registered Holistic Nutritionist 250-392-9418 or springhousedebbie@thelakebc.ca SPRINGHOUSE GARDENS - Organically grown market garden veggies; Grass fed/ finished beef - no hormones, no GMOs. Enquiries welcome. earthRight Solar, 1 877 925-2929 3rd & Borland, Williams Lake Renewable Energy Solutions, Eco-Friendly Products, Composting Toilets

.”

Flying Coyote Ranch, 250 296-4755 Ingrid Kallman and Troy Forcier Grass-fed Angus beef No shots, no hormones, organic fertilizer By the quarter or side, hamburger .

The Gecko Tree, 250 398-8983 54 N. MacKenzie Ave. Williams Lake Serving healthy, local foods Halls Organics, 250 398-2899 107 Falcon Rd. (North Lakeside), Williams Lake Indoor and Outdoor Organic Gardening Products, Alternative Traditional Products, Teas anHerbs, Hemp Body Products The Hobbit House, 250 392-7599 71 First Ave. South, Williams Lake Juice Bar, Natural Products, Essential Oils, Teas, Crystals, Gemstones, and more.

Potato House Sustainable Community Society 250 855-8443 or spuds@potatohouseproject.com In an age of apathy and a sense that change is all talk and no action, The Potato House Project is a friendly bastion of doing, sharing, learning and playing. Call us with your ideas and to find out ways to get involved.

Scout Island Nature Centre & Williams Lake Field Naturalists, 250 398-8532 www.scoutislandnaturecentre.ca www.williamslakefieldnaturalists.ca 1305A Borland Rd, Williams Lake Nature on the city’s doorstep. Bird sanctuary, arboretum, trails, Nature House, natural history programs for children and adults.

Smashin’ Smoothies, 778-412-2112 102-41, 7th Ave North, Williams Lake Juice, Smoothies & Expresso Bar Fresh, Organic, Whole Food.

Sta-Well Health Foods, 250 392-7022 79D 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake Organic Foods, Water Distillers, Natural Medicines, Emergency Freeze Dried Foods.

Williams Lake Food Policy Council, 250-302-5010 GROWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE! www.facebook.com/WLFPC foodpolicycouncil@hotmail.com. Building a strong local food economy and promoting a healthy and sustainable community Williams Lake Water Factory, 250 398-5201 Pure Bottled Water. Home & Office Delivery.

955 S. Mackenzie Ave, Williams Lake, BC. Come see us on Toonie Tuesday!

100 Mile House Donex Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza Chartreuse Moose Higher Ground Nat. Foods KFC Nuthatch Books Rise & Grind Coffe House Safeway Save-On-Foods A&W 108 Mile House 108 Mile Mall 108 Mile Supermarket 150 Mile House 150 Mile Mall Husky Station Marshall‘s 150 Mile Store Alexis Creek Alexis Creek General Store Anahim Lake Anahim Lake Trading Mclean Trading Bella Coola Coast Mountain Lodge Kopas Store Moore‘s Organic Market Valley Inn & Restaurant Big Lake Big Lake General Store Clinton Clinton Coffee House Dog Creek Mount View Handy Mart Red Dog Pub/Liquor Store Hanceville Lee‘s Corner Store Horsefly Clarke‘s General Store Post Office Horsefly Hardware Horsefly Service Station LacLaHache Race Trac Gas Lac La Hache Bakery Red Crow Cafe McLeese Lake Deep Creek Service Station The Oasis Motel Cafe Nimpo Lake Nimpo Lake General Store Prince George Ava Maria Gifts and Health Foods Books and Co. University of Northern BC College of New Caledonia Quesnel The Green Tree Barkerville Brewing Bliss Cafe Booster Juice Carryall Books Holistic Health Care Clinic Karin‘s European Deli Granville‘s Coffee Shop Quesnel Bakery Quiznos Safeway Save On Foods Tourism Info Center Redstone Kinikinik

Contact us today to list your Green Business - info@thegreengazette.ca or lisa@thegreengazette.ca

Williams Lake Adorn Naturally A&W All-ways Travel Amanda Enterprises Barking Spider Mtn. Bikes Bean Counter Bistro Beaver Valley Feeds Blocks R Us Body Connection by Joe CanWest Propane Cariboo Growers Coop Cariboo Ski Community Futures Concrete Fitness Conservation Society CJ‘s Restaurant CRD Library Creative Scissor Dairy Queen Dandelion Living Day Spa Champagne earthRight 4 Sure Bistro Greyhound Bus Stop Haines Office World Handi-Mart Joey‘s Grill KFC Halls Organics Integrated Elements Clinic The Hobbit House Husky Restaurant Karamia‘s Donairs Kornak & Hamm Pharmacy The Laughing Loon The Legion Manna Cafe Margetts Meats McDonalds New World Coffee Oliver‘s Bar & Grill Porky‘s Deli Quality Tax Solutions Red Shred‘s Bike & Board Shed Rona Home Centre Safeway Save-on-Foods SBL Liquor Store Scout Island Nature Center Senior Citizens ActivityCenter Shopper‘s Drug Mart Spa Bella Station House Gallery Sta-Well Health Foods Subway Taylor Made Cakes The Gecko Tree The Open Book Tim Hortons Tourism Info Center Trattoria Pasta Shoppe Thompson Rivers Univ.

Tsilhqot'in National Gov`t Walmart Williams Lake Physio WL Veterinary Hospital Williams Lake Water Factory *please note that we are in the process of revamping our distribution process to better serve our clients. If TheGreenGazette is not being displayed at any of the above locations please contact us so that we may rectify the situation.

By Jasmin Schellenberg HEALTHY SNACKS Breakfast Bars Ingredients 1 1/4 cup almond flour (soaked, dehydrated nuts, ground to a flour) 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup coconut oil 1/4 cup maple syrup (organic, grade B) 1/8 cup filtered water * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup shredded coconut 1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries 2 1/4 cups any combination of pumpkin seeds, chopped almonds or walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds, soaked and dehydrated Method In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, and baking soda. Add coconut oil, maple syrup, water, and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients into wet. Mix in shredded coconut, seeds, and dried fruit. Grease an 8×8 baking dish with coconut oil. Press the dough into the baking dish, wetting your hands with water to help pat the dough down evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Cool before cutting and serving; these bars are crumbly. Very tasty topped with a dollop of yogurt or crème fraîche. *For another variation of grain-free granola, leave out the water and prepare as usual. Once the bars have cooled, break into small pieces and place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Also great for snacks.

NUTRIENT DENSE BREAKFAST Muffins Makes about 1 dozen Ingredients 1 pound ground pastured pork or beef 12 pastured eggs, beaten salt and pepper to taste 1 cup cheese, shredded or crumbled 1 cup cottage cheese 1 cup chopped veggies of choice (onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, and green onions are all good) herbs and spices of choice (sage, thyme, r o s e m a r y, g a r l i c powder, onion powder, or chili powder)

Method Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups. Brown meat in skillet on medium heat and transfer to bowl. Use the leftover grease to sauté chopped veggies (adding extra fat if necessary; butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, or tallow). In a large bowl, beat eggs then add meat, cottage cheese, sautéed veggies, onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and other herbs or spices of your choosing. Spoon approximately 1/4 cup of egg/meat/veggie mixture into each muffin cup, sprinkle with cheese, and cook between 15 to 20 minutes, until egg has set.

MYTHS UNVEILED Making the most of breakfast Our mood and performance for the entire day is dependent on a good nourishing breakfast, as it sets the stage for balanced body chemistry and hormones. Children and adults who adequately fuel up in the morning have more energy, better emotional stability, and are better thinkers resulting in better performance. Breakfast-eaters tend to make better food choices during the day.

Breakfast-skippers tend to eat more calories throughout the day, possibly leading to unwanted weight gain.

A nourishing breakfast has nothing to do with colourful, sugary cereals which are highly processed (high temperature and pressure resulting in damaged proteins and nutrients) making them toxic and poor to digest.

The traditional practice of soaking and sprouting grains activates enzymes and makes minerals and vitamins absorbable.

Four breakfast rules that should be followed: 1. Fat and protein should be the featured nutrients.

They include egg, meat, fish, full-fat dairy foods such as yogurt, kefir, quark, and cheese, and nuts, seeds, coconut oil, lard, tallow, butter, and avocados. Fruits, vegetables, tubers, and whole grains make a wonderful side note.

2. Make at least a portion of breakfast food easily digestible with soaked grains, sour leavened flours for breads, cultured

dairy products, or fermented fruits and vegetables.

3. Don‘t rush! Get yourself in the habit of going to sleep early enough to allow time in the morning to relax through your morning meal.

4. Plan ahead. Know what you will have tomorrow; a weekly plan is a great help.

One reason protein and fat are so essential for breakfast is that they are critical for overall brain chemistry and metabolism balance. One of the best sources of protein and fat is the incredible, edible egg!

Keeping to a basic, old-fashioned breakfast menu is fine and dandy—eggs (prepared any way: scrambled, poached, boiled, fried, omelet) with a side of sausage or bacon from pastured animals; soaked porridge with butter, coconut oil, nuts, seeds and berries; or French toast (made with properly prepared sour dough or sprouted bread) served with sausage, butter, and a maple syrupsweetened fruit sauce with a side of berries and cream. However, there are days when it is fun to step outside the box, and when that day comes, consider these inspirational ideas: • Breakfast soup: For many cultures, soup is a breakfast food. The Japanese begin their day with a bowl of fish broth and rice.

French children traditionally consumed leftover soup before they started off to school • Meat and egg muffins (Meffins!): The variations for scrumptious morning breakfast muffins are endless with different meats, sausages, vegetables, and cheese.

Make a big batch and freeze your favourite.

• Scrapple or liverwurst (pâté-like foods made from organ meats): sliced and fried until the outside is crispy along with scrambled eggs or stuffed in a breakfast burrito.

• Fruit and cheese sundae: Cottage cheese or

ricotta with berries, nuts, and seeds piled high in a fun fluted glass.

• Homemade cold cereal or granola: There are properly prepared cereal and granola recipes in Eat Fat Lose Fat by Mary Enig, PhD. Serve with cream or cultured dairy products.

• Dinner leftovers: Salmon patties, roast with gravy and fixings, shrimp stir-fry, egg or chicken salad, simple beef patties with fixings.

• Yogurt pops: A simple mix of yogurt, frozen berries, vanilla or almond extract, and egg yolks blended and frozen in paper cups with wooden popsicle sticks.

• Smoothies in a thermos: Pour your favorite smoothie into a thermos to take along on your way to school, work, or play-date.

• Cheese and crispy nuts: What could be simpler? You can include a few dates for some natural sweetness.

• Hard boiled eggs: Have them on hand for grab and go.

A WALK THROUGH YOUR PANTRY: GET RID OF: Processed cereals, white sugar, artificial colours, and dyes.

REPLACE WITH: Whole grains, nuts, seeds, hard boiled eggs shelled and put in brine (2 parts bouillon, 1 part apple cider vinegar).

Brought to you by Jasmin Schellenberg Inspired by and resourced from www.westonaprice.org Spring Journal 2011 For ―Nourishing our Children‖ newsletters of the past visit: www.thegreengazette.ca