The Green Gazette - November /December 2017 - January 2018 Issue

8/ Environmentalism is a way of being, not a discipline Environmentalism isn‘t a discipline or specialty like law, medicine, plumbing, music, or art. It‘s a way of seeing our place in the world and recognizing that our survival, health, and happiness are inextricably dependent on nature. - by David Suzuki 11/ Plastic Pollution as a Positive Influence on Social Change The oceans are plagued with a whole host of problems today but for me, the one that resonates, that has fundamentally changed how I tread on this planet, is the issue of plastic pollution. - by Ryan Elizabeth Cope 14/ Celebrating Children at Free Family Festivals November 16 and January 28 With both National Child Day and National Family Literacy Day on the horizon, the Early Years community in Williams Lake is kicking into action to help families celebrate with two upcoming free festivals. - by LeRae Haynes 16/ Back in the Day: The Cure for Cabin Fever Cabin fever, that‘s all it is. The longer you stay indoors, the harder it is to get out the door. This country, the Chilcotin Plateau, has only one lousy dirt road the whole length of it from Williams Lake to Bella Coola on the coast, our cabin one hundred sixty miles from either end. - by Kate McDonough 21/ Green Business Feature: Wildrose Lathers— Creating a soap that nourishes In a tiny woodland cabin in a pristine and beautiful wilderness, JoAnne Kimmel creates her beautiful, unique, skin-nourishing natural soaps. - by LeRae Haynes 30/ Let It Snow - Bring on the cross-country ski season Cross-country skiing in the Cariboo is like skiing in a Christmas card: sparkling snow, snow-white forest, friendly faces, goodwill among skiers, the great outdoors. - by Sandra L. Klassen

Publisher / Editor-in-Chief Lisa Bland Senior Editor Jessica Kirby Contributors David Suzuki, LeRae Haynes, Margaret-Anne Enders, Jasmin Schellenberg, Terri Smith, Jessica Kirby, Guy Dauncey, Bill Irwin, Lisa Bland, Oliver Berger, Tera Grady, Al-Lisa McKay, Angela Gutzer, Kristin Lehar, Kristi Iverson, Angela Abrahao, Beth Veenkamp, Mary Forbes, Vanessa Moberg, Ryan Elizabeth CopeCathryn Wellner, Olga Sheean, Sandra L. Klassen, Kate McDonough Advertising Lisa Bland Creative Directors Lisa Bland / Casey Bennett Ad Design Jill Schick, Leah Selk, Rebecca Patenaude, Published by Earthwild Consulting Printing Black Press Ltd. Cover Image: Copyright: Jesaja Class http://jesajaclass.wixsite.com/photography Index Photo: Copyright :www.123rf.com/profile_wavebreakmediamicro /123RF Stock Photo

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 © 2017 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.

7/ Christmas Gift Exchange: Gifts from the heart There are two ways to deliver on the ancient ritual of Christmas gift exchange without the superficial, consumption-focused panic: give the gift of time or give a gift of the heart. - by Jessica Kirby

4/ Publisher‘s Letter: Silence is Golden - by Lisa Bland 4/ Era of Megafires - by Kristi Iverson 7/ Green Business Feature: Fair Trade and Sustainable Gifts Options at ECO-tique - by LeRae Haynes 8/ TRU Sustainable Ranching - Third Cohort to Start January 22nd - by Angela Abrahão 9/ Come One, Come All to the Williams Lake Medieval Market November 25 and 26 12/ Shop Local Movement More Important Than Ever by Beth Veenkamp 13/ Young Innovators in Waste Reduction - by Mary Forbes 13/ The Land on Which We Live Book Release 15/ Curbside Recycling: Pass or Fail? - by Tera Grady 17/ No Time Left to Waste: Stop Sucking - by Oliver Berger 18/ Confessions of a Farmer: Arcadian Rhythms - by Terri Smith 18/ The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval 19/ Conservation Conversation: Volunteers make the world go ‗round - by Vanessa Moberg

22/ Muse Flash: Storytelling - the Dreamer and the Dreamed - by Al-Lisa Tresierra McKay 23/ And a Mindful New Year to All - by Jessica Kirby 23/ Letters: Watch this Space 24/ Death Kit: A Starter Pack on Dying - by Angela Gutzer 24/ Book Review: A Not So Quiet Roar of Defiance Against an Implacable Disease - by Cathryn Wellner 26/ The Many Wonders of Bone Broth - by Kristin Lehar 26/ Raising Amadeus - by Terri Smith 27/ Sitting in the Fire - by Margaret-Ann Enders 27/ Skywatch with Bill Irwin 28/ Operation Christmas Child - by LeRae Haynes 29/ Green Business Feature: Integrated Elements Working together for better health - by LeRae Haynes 31/ Heads in the Sand, Pies in the Sky: Governments deny the facts of life - by Olga Sheean 31/ Spirit Calling: New show at the Gecko Tree Cafe by Horsefly artist Christina Mary 32/ How Can We Tackle the Ominous, Smoke-Filled Climate Crisis? - by Guy Dauncey 33/ Nov-Dec-Jan Calendar of Events 2017/18 35/ Nourishing our Children - by Jasmin Schellenberg

By Lisa Bland Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief

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ear Readers, Winter forces us inside on many levels—cushioned inside layers of wool and down clothing to brave the elements; inside our warm homes with creative projects, soups, and teas brewing; or into a natural connection with the silence of our inner being. This season can be a time of withdrawal from the pace of busier times. With less to reflect upon externally, our attention can be drawn inside, into silence.

And what of silence? ―Silence is golden,‖ it is said, translated by poet Thomas Carlyle, in 1831 in Sartor Resartus.

The Swiss inscription actually says: Sprecfien ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden (Speech is silvern, Silence is golden).

Our world is increasingly noisy. Our collective spaces are filled with sound— endless traffic, construction, and industrial noise punctuated by sirens and the busy sounds of progress. Public spaces are buzzing with noise, ambient music, or blaring TVs. Our homes are filled with sounds of music, TV, radio, and podcasts, often to drown out external noises in urban settings, or maybe because we are uncomfortable with or unaccustomed to silence.

And what is the consequence of all this noise? It turns out it has measurable and serious effects on our well being.

By Kristi Iverson

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he South Cariboo Sustainability Society and Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society are hosting two Era of Megafires events (November 29 in 100 Mile House and November 30 in Williams Lake) to help us understand the causes of the fires of 2017 and what we can do to prevent future fires from causing catastrophic damage.

The event features a video presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg created by North 40 Productions. Dr. Hessburg has spent decades researching large wildfires and trying to understand the conditions that cause them. His film presents the ecological and social causes of what has caused megafires and how individuals, leaders, voters, and different levels of government can work to prevent future catastrophic forest fires.

Much of the forested area in the Cariboo Region has undergone decades of forest management including fire suppression.

Three things govern fire behaviour: fuels, topography, and weather. Of these three, the only one we can influence, and have influenced, is fuels. Fuels include dead trees in our forests and, more importantly, the live trees: their density and arrangement is a big driver of fire behaviour.

Pixabay image According to the World Health Organization (WHO), levels of traffic noise in urban environments have serious consequences for health and sleep quality. A 2011 WHO report presents overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population. Studies show noise pollution can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and increased cortisol levels.

Attending to constant noise interruptions and stimuli in our environments has been shown to stress the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving. WHO also reports that noise affects learning, reading, problem solving, and motivation. Social and emotional development in children and their cognitive abilities are diminished in noisy homes, or when living or going to schools near noisy highways or airports.

Alternatively, research has shown that silence can release tension in the brain and body. A 2006 study in the journal Heart found that silence was more relaxing than listening to ―relaxing‖ music, with measurable positive effects on blood pressure and circulation in the brain.

The exclusion of fire from our forests and grasslands and other forestry practices have caused most forests to become drastically thicker than they were prior to European settlement. Our Douglas-fir forests were largely open, widely spaced forests with grasses, shrubs, and scattered young trees in the understory. Frequent fires were mostly low severity, largely burning through the understory, and killing most small trees to keep the forest in an open state. Last summer we saw how there can be severe fire effects when wildfire strikes these dense, altered forests. We will never eliminate fire in our forests, but we can reduce its severity, particularly around our communities.

We hope this film will begin to bring an understanding of what caused us to experience such an extreme fire year and help us begin to think about the steps we need to take to prevent this in the future.

Kristi is a professional biologist specializing in plant ecology. She lives in Lac la Hache. She specializes in dry forest, grassland, and wetland ecosystems in the southern interior of British Columbia. Kristi worked with other professionals to complete a fire history study in the dry Douglas fir forests of the Cariboo Plateau.

Silence may also help our brains regenerate. A 2013 study on mice titled, ―Is silence golden? Effects of auditory stimuli and their absence on adult hippocampal neurogenesis,‖ compared the effects of ambient noise, white noise, and silence on the brains of mice and discovered that daily silence led to the development of new cells in the hippocampus, associated with learning and memory.

In his book, Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, George Prochnik explores the meaning of noise and silence in our modern world, suggesting that even though we can‘t escape it, practising inner silence and developing public spaces where silence is promoted can lead to positive outcomes for our society and individual health. See more at http:// www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/ excerpt-in-pursuit-of-silence.html.

Attention restoration theory (ART) proposes that people can concentrate better from being quiet in nature or even looking at nature scenes. Perhaps the saying should be changed to, ―Human silence is golden.‖ Bryan Pijanowski, an ecologist and director of Purdue‘s Center for Global Soundscapes (PCGS) in Indiana, believes the sounds of our planet are important to its survival, and are a valuable part of our connection to place. As the hum of motors in our urban realities overtakes the natural sounds of wind, water, and birdsong, humans lose their acoustic link to the natural world.

Pijanowski proposes that the health of landscapes can be measured by an acoustic reflection of their patterns and processes.

The Vanishing Soundscapes Project at PCGS is collecting natural soundscape recordings in as many of the planet‘s biomes

as possible.

See https:// centerforglobalsoundscapes.org/vanishingsoundscapes/. The project aims to create an archive of natural soundscape recordings as an acoustic fossil record of the varied sounds occurring in Earth‘s diverse biomes.

It charts changes in these regions in correlation with mapping and population data, and produces visual tools alongside the soundscapes to enhance understanding and awareness of their value.

I‘ve been lucky enough to live rurally or be close to quiet areas, and have developed an appetite for silence. Working outside doing birdsong research has attuned my ears to the symphony of natural sounds. Being quiet and listening brings a depth of connection with other life forms and the sounds of natural elements. It can feel like a melody of sorts, where the natural world brings the song with all its players and our own being is the instrument through which the sounds play.

When we rest in silence we find restoration. Whether listening to our own breath and returning to the inner rhythms of our biological, internal being; or merging into the stillness where the natural world comes alive and meets us; or finding protection and a place to hide when neither the energy is available nor clarity of action has fully formed, silence may be our greatest resource in a world flooded by noise.

In the Cariboo, we still live in and can access wilderness where silence dwells.

Whether you become enthralled in the beauty of the snow-covered landscape, enjoy the silence of carving through deep powder, or nestle indoors reading a book or absorbed in a creative project, I wish you glimpses of golden silence in the long, cold winter.

By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette Change can be hard, and if yours is a family unwilling to break the chains of buying this Christmas, give these eco-friendly ideas a try:

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hristmas time is on the way and despite individual feelings about it, green thinkers, earth lovers, planet healers, and community champions all feel the pressure this time of year. We love bringing people together, enjoying beautiful food, getting outside in the wintry landscape, and enjoying the quiet darkness—at the same time, another kind of darkness is waving at us from the corners of every shopping mall and billboard from here to Tuktoyaktuk: consumerism.

Gift exchanging is part of the holiday, and has been since St. Nick first appeared in early European folklore. It feels fantastic to find something special for someone, something you know they will cherish or that they‘ve had their eye on. But this is different from rushing about searching out gift items out of a sense of obligation. The experience of coming across something perfect for a loved one, and stashing it away to give to them at Christmas is dramatically different from braving crowded shopping centers and kamikaze parking lots to meet a cultural expectation.

There are two ways to deliver on the ancient ritual of Christmas gift exchange without the superficial, consumptionfocused panic: give the gift of time or give a gift of the heart.

The gift of time is really magical because it brings with it a lifetime of memories and experiences. Most people don‘t spend enough time doing what they really love—bringing them that experience and sharing it is a personal, loving gift that shows your support of others‘ interests. In our family, we have gifted tennis lessons, theatre tickets, horseback riding, bowling, yoga passes, night skiing, coffee and dessert at the board game coffeeshop, concert tickets, and even a trip to Williams Lake from Vancouver Island to go mountain biking.

Last year, I went to the local beer brewer and asked to prepay for 12 growlers so my husband could try a new seasonal

Photo: Christmas homemade gingerbread cookies on wooden table.

Copyright: https://www.123rf.com/profile_haveseen /123RF Stock Photo

beer each month for a year. We have received an overnight in one of our favourite biking locales, dinner at my favourite restaurant, and a couples‘ spa treatment.

Someone once arranged for a friend to receive a tiny bouquet of flowers every week for a year to brighten up her preschool. I know a hiking family that exchanges exactly one needed hiking item for each person and then they plan a five-day excursion to some place new as the main gift. The possibilities are only limited by the interests your loved ones are passionate about.

The other option is gifts from the heart.

These are things to make or give that cost nothing or very little, but carry a deep sense of love and connection. One of my favourites is anything food related: cookies and sweets, dinner at my house every month for a year, homemade Irish cream, breakfast in bed every Sunday from Christmas to Easter, wine or beer and cheese party in the recipient‘s honour. There are some beautiful flavoured oil recipes that are easy to make, as are preserves like pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, jams and jellies, and even cheese, bread, or fudge, if time allows.

Speaking of making things, homemade candles, decorations, centerpieces, photography projects, knitting, hand sewing, woodworking crafts, and metal work are all gifts people close to me have brought to

Christmas in years gone by and I still have every single one of them. Are there talents you have you can share with others? Help with a website, Sunday dinner delivered, two hours a week of housecleaning (especially thoughtful for new parents!), child-minding, yard work, help with a home project—the list goes on. There are so many ways to give from the heart, it is almost overwhelming to decide.

A big issue in our extended family is how to make these ideas stick for everyone. Maybe I want to give child-minding and Cousin Sally thinks it is silly and would rather have a blender. The way to get around this is in the delivery: ―I have a great idea that I know will save everyone time and money this Christmas …‖ is one good way to start. Another is the rally the family members you know will buy in and tell the rest, ―Sally, Sue, Bobby, Bill, and I think we should try this for Christmas …‖This will help others unsure of the concept to see the rest of the family is willing to try.

The world is a big place, but it is shrinking at an alarming rate as we pack every last corner with more ―stuff,‖ yearround but especially at Christmas. I encourage you to think outside those corners and bring love, thoughtfulness, and time spent making memories to the forefront of your holiday season.

Your community has so many options for locally created crafts, household items, art, music, and textiles, there is bound to be s o m e t h i n g f o r everyone.

Plan International Canada and Because I am a Girl are two excellent examples of charities you can support in a loved one’s name and create real change in another person’s life.

Me to We offers beautiful jewellery and textiles created oversees in sustainable development projects. Earth Easy offers a range of gifts that are both sustainably made and used to make the world a better place. Tree Hugger has an awesome gift guide of upcycled, sustainability-focused, and time-spent gifts to choose from.

Check it out at: www.treehugger.com/giftguide

By LeRae Haynes

Penny Hutchinson and Maureen LeBourdais bring beautiful, global, sustainable art to ECO-tique.

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ift giving takes on a whole new meaning when one-of-a-kind beauty is layered with a piece of culture that means something deep and beautiful. Open for a limited time, November 14 to December 23, at the ECO-tique Pop Up Store in Williams Lake you can find home furnishings and décor, clothing, and accessories from places around the globe, featuring fair trade and sustainability and helping to preserve culture and build economies.

ECO-tique features collections from three local businesses: Satya Yoga Studio, MamaQuilla Textiles, and Worth Every Penny. It was a big success last year, meeting the needs of the community and delighting shoppers with beautiful, thoughtful gift options, and has returned this season to enhance the downtown shopping experience.

When you give a gift from this shop, you give a piece of culture being preserved and loved. Every piece represents a living wage and good working conditions, values that are increasingly important to shoppers.

In 2010, MamaQuilla Textiles owner Maureen LeBourdais did a tour on the Silk Road throughout Asia and Europe. ―Textiles was a big part of that tour, and while traveling in Central Asia I met some families and some artists—artisans working to restore their traditional hand crafts,‖ she explained. ―Most of them were from U.S.S.R. countries, places where all traditional ethnic directions, language, arts, and music were outlawed and discouraged. Now they‘re trying to restore local economies.‖

Photo: LeRae Haynes

LeBourdais met families working toward this restoration, including a woman named Miriam Danniarova, who was in her 70s, in Kyrgyzstan. She and her family were making beautiful Shyrdak felt rugs, some of which are featured at ECO-tique. ―Felt has always been part of their culture,‖ said LeBourdais. ―A nomadic people, their homes were traditionally yurts; people of the new generation are trying to pass on the culture before it disappears.‖ ―What struck me about Miriam was her commitment to her culture and its preservation, working at the same time to restore the economy. ―They‘re very pragmatic. It‘s a business, and if they can employ a couple of people in the village as they get more orders, that‘s economic development.‖ When you buy one of these rugs, you‘re taking home a one-of-a-kind work of art.

―It‘s an old skill and an old culture,‖ said LeBourdais. ―The colours are bright, true, and lovely—passed down through generations. The motifs and designs all have meaning.‖ Miriam speaks no English. ―Her youngest son, who went to Moscow and got a degree in tourism, speaks English. Since I met them, they now have some internet.

The son and I email back and forth, and they can also send FedEx now,‖ she said. ―When I met them in 2010, they were really happy that we were interested, and completely honoured and delighted that the western world was interested in, not only in the rugs themselves, but in the stories behind them.‖ Penny Hutchinson, from Worth Every Penny, fell in love with Flores Huichol art in a small shop in Puerto Vallarta. That‘s

where she met artist Jose Carrillo, who told her the stories behind every piece of art.

Also a great lover of Cariboo-Chilcotin beading, Hutchinson said her heart stopped when she came face to face with the detailed and exquisite Huichol art. This art includes beaded masks, framed pieces, jewellery, ceremonial bags, and beaded bowls made from gourds.

She said, every bit as beautiful as the beaded pieces, are the incredible stories behind them. ―The stories behind the art tell about their ancient culture and beliefs,‖ she said, adding that she also buys thing like beadwork and drums from local bands throughout the northern Shuswap and the Chilcotin. ―What speaks to me are the commonalities of their pieces, their love of culture, and their desire to share the love of the natural world around them,‖ LeBourdais added. ―We‘re more the same than different.‖ For more information about ECO-tique, located in Delainey‘s Mall at 271 Oliver Street in Williams Lake, find the company on Facebook at The ECO-tique Pop Up Store or phone (250) 305-4422. To find out more about the individual businesses, find Worth Every Penny, Satya Yoga Studio, and MamaQuilla Textiles on Facebook, and visit www.mamaquillatextiles.com and www.satyayogastudio.ca.

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.

Science Matters:

By David Suzuki

I

’m often introduced as an environmentalist. I prefer to be called a father, grandfather, scientist, or author, as these terms provide insight into my motivation. Environmentalism isn’t a discipline or specialty like law, medicine, plumbing, music, or art.

It’s a way of seeing our place in the world and recognizing that our survival, health, and happiness are inextricably dependent on nature. To confront today’s environmental crises, everyone – garage mechanics, construction workers, dentists, politicians, and judges – has to see the world through an environmental lens.

I recently attended an event with a panel of outstanding athletes and artists who had become activists on various environmental issues. The moderator asked what role awe had played in their commitment. Their answers revealed how inspiring it is to experience that sense of awe in the face of nature‘s beauty.

I couldn‘t help thinking that two more words should have been added to the discussion: humility and gratitude. As the panel grappled with the issue of ecological degradation, the idea emerged that all we need is to be more aware so we can use science and technology to solve the crises.

We‘re clever animals—so smart that we think we‘re in command. We forget that our inventions have created many crises. Atomic bombs represented an incredible scientific and technological achievement, releasing the power within atoms. But when the US dropped them on Japan in 1945, scientists didn‘t know about radioactive fallout, electromagnetic pulses, or the potential for nuclear winter. Those were discovered after we used the weapons.

Swiss chemist Paul Mueller won a Nobel Prize in 1948 for his discovery that DDT was a potent insecticide. Many years after the compound was put into widespread use, biologists discovered a previously unknown phenomenon: biomagnification up the food chain.

Whe n peo p le st ar t ed us ing chlorofluorocarbons, no one knew they would persist in the environment and float into the upper atmosphere where the sun‘s ultraviolet rays would cleave away chlo-

Cohort 2 Fencing at Rafter 25, Cornelius Tygat, Natalie Ballan, Sam Ballan, Majeed Nashiru, Vickie Recknagle, Jade Rogers, Jamie Demers, Carlos Dramirez, and Freya Kellet.

By Angela Abrahão

I

n January, the Ranching program welcomes the third cohort of students and the ranching community has stepped up with some generous donations for student awards. Applications for the entrance awards are open now and close on December 20. These major awards are The Bill Freding Memorial Award for $6,000 ($1,000 of this from Doug Haughton in memory of Bill) and the Cariboo GMC 4-H Award for $5,200 that is open to 4-H members or 4-H Alumni.

TRU Grit also offers awards for students enrolled on the Williams Lake campus. Recognizing how important education was to the community, Brian Garland originally championed TRU Grit and was chair of the TRU Grit committee from inception until last year when Mark Nairn took over. The committee was established and supported by a group of like-minded people who were interested in promoting and supporting the Williams Lake Campus.

Over the years TRU Grit has raised funds to provide bursaries to students and input and support to curriculum development.

Other generous student award donations for this program given throughout the year have come from the TRU General Awards, BC Farm Women‘s Network, and the Cariboo Woodlot Education Society.

In addition to the entrance award, the Freding Family has donated an addi-

rine-free radicals. As a geneticist, I only learned about the protective ozone layer when other scientists reported that chlorine from CFCs was breaking it down.

Our knowledge of the biological, chemical, and physical components of the biosphere and their interconnections and interactions is too limited to enable us to anticipate the consequences of our inventions and intrusions. Nevertheless, we look to our creativity to lead us to a b e t t e r w o r ld w it h nanotechnology, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, geoengineering, and space travel.

What we need is humility. Clever as we are, nature is far more creative.

Over 3.8 billion years, every species has had to evolve ways to find food, water, and energy, and to dispose of wastes, find mates, reproduce, avoid predators, and fend off parasites and infections. Nature offers myriad solutions that we have yet to discover. If we had the humility to learn from nature, using an approach called ―biomimicry,‖ we would find far more and better solutions.

The Canadian Cancer Society recently reported that half our population will develop cancer. This isn‘t normal, but it shouldn‘t surprise us. After all, we have synthesized hundreds of thousands of new

Photo: Jill Watt

tional $5,000 each year for The Bill Freding First Year Student Award, to be awarded to a student showing resilience and innovation in his/her first year of studies. This award will be announced November 18, 2017 at the TRU Ranching Beef and Beer Meat-Up and Grad Celebration.

Last year‘s winner of the award (trophy only at that time) was Vicky Granberg.

There are many financial opportunities for students in the Cariboo to attend the Ranching program. Eighty-five per cent of attending students in the first cohort received financial awards towards their tuition. Many thanks to the student award sponsors.

First Cohort to Graduate November 18, 2017 The first cohort of students will graduate in November from the program with a

fully tailored business, operations, and land use management plan for their ranch. The second cohort is ramping up for its second year to learn about beef production with local instructor and long-time rancher Grant Hoffman, followed by sheep and forage production, soft adventure, and agritourism.

The second cohort includes international students from Ghana, Switzerland, Belgium, and Mexico. Students are taking advantage of the opportunity the program offers by working and learning on host.

The host ranch opportunity allows students to work on local operations around the Cariboo-Chilcotin and gain hands-on experience with ranching operations. Those local students who come from ranches can also choose to work and study from home, some on third generation ranches.

molecules that have never existed on Earth.

Most have never been tested for their biological effects and tens of thousands are now used in products and enter our waste stream.

When we dump this vast assortment of new molecules into air, water, and soil, we can‘t anticipate how they might interact within living organisms or what their longterm consequences might be. Throwing more money into cancer treatment and research will not alone stem the disease.

To arrest the cancer crisis (and it is a crisis), we must stop using the biosphere as a garbage can or sewer for these new molecules.

Along with humility, we should be grateful for nature‘s generosity, something I‘ve learned from Indigenous peoples.

They acknowledge the source of their wellbeing, clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean energy—all things created, cleansed, or replenished by the web of life around us. In the urbanized industrial world we inhabit, we tend to think the economy is the source of all that matters to us, and so we have little regard for what we‘re doing to the natural systems that sustain us. It‘s time to see with new eyes.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

There are many exciting job opportunities related to agriculture for students. One student graduate has recently moved into the third year of the Olds Agribusiness degree program. Many students will become part of a farm or ranch management team, while others will focus on marketing in the agriculture sector or work in economic or community development. Students have been actively engaged in addressing food security and climate change issues and are interested in carrying on the management practices they have learned.

They have shown continuing interest in having resilient operations that will help guide them through times of change.

Students enrolled in the program can apply for BC and Canada student loans as the program is accredited. The program looks forward to welcoming students into the third cohort. For more information about awards and to find applications, visit http://ranching.sit es.tru.ca/available awards/.

To register, contact program director, Gillian Watt at (250) 319-2367.

Angela Abrahão lives in Williams Lake and with her husband frequents their Brazilian farm and sugar cane co-op which produces ethanol, sugar, and energy. Angela is an herbalist, writer, and permaculture designer and is a consultant for digital marketing with a focus on agriculture. She is a graduate of the Applied Sustainable Ranching program at TRU. You can follow along on Facebook at / AppliedSustainableRanching

By Melinda Mckinnon

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he voice of the Town Crier carries over the assembled crowd, who shuffle their feet trying to dispel the seasonal chill from their bones. As the Crier unfurls his scroll, his voice can be heard announcing, ―Hear ye, hear ye… come one, come all… to the now open Medieval Market.‖ The townsfolk who have gathered shift in anticipation. Some are at the market to find the perfect Christmas gift for a special someone. Others are looking for a special something for themselves, the ultimate self-indulgence. Still others are at the market simply because it is tradition and a time to meet with friends and family. Some townsfolk simply attend the market to browse the wares and to experience the atmosphere of wandering minstrels and period appropriate clothing.

This year’s market includes music on two stages during both market days and along with other local talent features: Carmen and Dena, Big Lake Symphony Orchestra, Troy Forcier, Brandon and Dena, Quintet Plus, and the Lake Secondary Bands. Still more townsfolk come to support the school and the numerous school groups and students who benefit from the market. As in past years, all the proceeds are reinvested into School District #27 students, clubs, and projects.

Although ―buying local‖ is touted all year, this adage has never been as impor-

(Top left) Handmade jewellery beautifully displayed at the 2015 Medieval Market. Photo: Kylie Forseille (www.stillreality.com) (Bottom left and right) Craft and vendor booth displays at the 2016 Medieval Market. Photos: Jay Roberts

tant as it is this year. During the unprecedented wildfire season of 2017, the ties that bind the people of the Cariboo became abundantly clear. It was a season of neighbour helping neighbour, employees helping employers, and more importantly, community helping community. The Medieval Market of 2017 provides the unique opportunity to allow these bonds to continue by supporting the hardworking and local artisans of the Cariboo, thereby further supporting the idea of Cariboo Strong.

From clothing to cedar boughs, decorations and delicacies, edibles and eclectics, and tables and toques, there is truly something for everyone at the Medieval Market. N o t only is there a huge array of available items, but the items are the true definitions of craftsmanship and artistic expression.

Most vendors that are present at the market originate from the Cariboo and are offering a selection and quality of goods that is unparalleled—especially since an estimated 90 vendors are expected to attend this year‘s market.

Among the crowd favourites and returning artisans, this year‘s Medieval Market boasts an amazing assortment of new vendors and wares including: Kelly Alphenaar – beaded diffuser bracelets; Laura Ejack – designer handbags, capes, and scarves; Sandra Fardal – steampunk and Victorian style jewelry; Carlos and Nicolas Gonzalez – Aji Pasta sauce and relishes; Heather Inglis/Darlene Quesnel – recycled furniture items, chalk pant, and baskets; Nick Lewis – Foundry Metalwork and Design; Shelia Munro – Dropping Form Designs; Daniel Pfister – Pfister Art; Lisa Pugh – Hotel from Hell: the 108 Murders

novel; Rayla Reid/Doreen Rondquist – Recycling Grannies; Grace Reimer – homespun chiengora hats, scarves, and dog jackets; Barbara Robin – I Should have Married a Cowboy novel; Eric Seemann – ES Wildlife Photo Images; Corina Holzapfel – affirmation bracelets and malas; Kayla Starkenburg – Sweet Dreams Décor; Christine Turcotte – Willow Tree Pottery.

Market dates are November 25 and 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday admission is $5 while Sunday admission is $3. Children under 12 are free. The admission ticket will not only enable you to have unlimited access to the market, but will also enter your name into a draw for over 80 doorprizes provided by the vendors.

New this year, will be a courtesy coat and baggage check in the library so that you can have your hands free to shop more efficiently.

As the Town Crier states, ―come one come all‖ and immerse yourself in a truly Cariboo experience that has benefits both immediate and long-lasting and that this year especially, supports our homegrown talent.

(Left ) The Robert C. Seamans, our two-masted brigantine research and sailing vessel for the journey across the Gyre. (Above) Recovered stomach contents from a deceased Laysan Albatross found at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. As can be clearly seen, the majority of its ―diet‖ was plastic (a small handful of natural food items can be found in the lower right-hand corner of the tray). (Right) Unaltered image of a deceased Laysan Albatross, full of plastic, discovered on Midway Atoll National Wildlife. Photos: Ryan Elizabeth Cope

By Ryan Elizabeth Cope

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onsidering the oceans in our day-to-day lives is easiest done when you live right next to the ocean, the source, that big blue body of water spanning as far as the eye can see. When a problem is right in front of you, it’s hard to ignore and you usually address that problem fairly quickly. Issues arise, however, in the unseen: as you travel away from the ocean, tracing the water’s path from the shore, upstream to the tiniest stream trickle, you might almost forget that that water is still connected to the great expanses of open ocean. It is for this reason, then, that we should all consider the oceans, even if we live in the middle of nowhere, hours from the nearest shoreline.

As it happens, I presently find myself in that exact situation: residing in western Canada, 250 miles away from the Pacific.

And yet, it is precisely because of my experiences with the ocean and coming into full contact with ―the big blue,‖ on two distinct occasions, that I am able to maintain my passion for ocean conservation while living along a giant lake in the middle of British Columbia. The oceans are plagued with a whole host of problems today but for me, the one that resonates,

that has fundamentally changed how I tread on this planet, is the issue of plastic pollution.

Plastic pollution: such loaded words.

Specific images are immediately conjured up when your eyes pass over those two words, and to me, that is part of what is so powerful about this topic. It is visceral: it makes us feel something, and once we see it (because so often this problem goes unseen), we cannot unsee it and we‘re forced to consider our habits.

There is something wholly unsettling about sailing through a vast expanse of ocean, hundreds of miles from any shoreline, and being repeatedly presented with evidence of human influence. This was my experience while sailing through the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (aka ―The Garbage Patch‖) nine years ago. Day after day, we pulled in hundreds of tiny plastic fragments: blue, white, yellow. None of them resemble the plastic forks, bottles, and containers that we use without a second thought today, because they‘ve been in the ocean for so long, slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. It never really goes ―away‖ and is a big piece of why I will never be able to look at plastic the same way again.

But this plastic had to come from somewhere, right? It all started out as something recognizable, something that

had a purpose. As it turns out, most of it originates on land. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a few months on Midway Atoll, home to the world‘s largest colony of Laysan Albatross. There are two things you should know about Midway: it is very remote, and it has a huge plastic problem. But the plastic isn‘t necessarily all coming in with the next big wave. No, this plastic is being brought in by the very birds that live there. Mistaking the plastic for food, they bring it back to feed their young and while most of them manage to survive to adulthood, many will die of starvation, their bellies full of fake food—fake food that came from somewhere else, from some other shoreline, blown out of someone‘s recycling bin years ago.

Which brings me back to my original point that all water flows downhill and as such, this is a land-based problem. The point? It doesn‘t matter if you live on an island in the middle of the ocean, or in a hut at the top of a mountain. Plastic is everywhere, and it starts where we stand.

After reading this, you might be feeling down in the dumps about it all… and that is another problem. Plastic pollution tends to paralyze us, make us feel as if there is no hope, and what good will mitigating our use of the stuff do? To me, this sense of apathy, of overwhelm, is the real crux of the matter, and why I dedicate my time

rooting for the positive stories, and preaching the benefit of taking little steps towards big change. Because in the world of plastic pollution, literally every piece counts.

From the individual person who starts a trash jar to track their waste accumulation every month, to the small-town coffee shop that decided to eliminate plastic straws and incentivize their customers to bring their own mug...and even to the corporations doing real, honest work to change their business practices. It all matters. These are the stories that matter, that need to be shared. These stories remind us that even in our mountain towns and inland communities, the ocean is not that far away and by doing our part, we are putting ourselves in control of this situation, and slowly helping to turn the plastic tap off.

Ryan Elizabeth Cope is an advocate for plastic-less, healthful living, based in Kelowna, BC. She has lived and worked in several places on the coasts of both the Atlantic and the Pacific, from Hawaii to Maine. She blogs at Seven in the Ocean (https://sevenintheocean.com/) where she marries her love of food with her disdain for plastic-wrapped garbage. When not ranting ad nauseum about plastic, she can be found playing with her chickens, or concocting fresh juices in her kitchen.

By Beth Veenkamp, Economic Development Officer, City of Williams Lake

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n indicator of economic prosperity in cities is a healthy and vibrant downtown core. This is accomplished when there is good pedestrian traffic that frequents local businesses, which are often independently owned and operated. Usually unique, and often eclectic, downtowns that offer a variety of choices and have a pleasant and bustling vibe are one of the key elements that strengthen the health of a community.

Williams Lake small shop owners are working hard every day to keep themselves afloat in a competitive market place where shopping online is becoming king. We are seeing giant retailers like Sears fold under the pressure to stay afloat in a marketplace where choices are everywhere and brand loyalty has been eclipsed by the selection offered on pop-up screens from the comfort of your couch.

The Love Northern BC Initiative, developed by Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT), is a program that seeks to support small shops that are the heart of their communities. It is a movement connecting locally owned businesses with unique marketing campaigns, with the aim to strengthen their competitiveness and keep more dollars in the local economy. It is an initiative focused on supporting economic diversity in Williams Lake, and it operates out of the City of Williams Lake‘s Economic Development office.

The Love Williams Lake program aims to leverage marketing dollars available to small business owners so that they can gain a competitive advantage to attract and

build business. With a one-time registration fee of $100, it is a great marketing tool that comes with a full website listing, professional write-up, professional photo shoot, and connection to the local marketing initiatives that take place throughout the year.

The Love Williams Lake program will also be promoting a Plaid Friday campaign, which aims to shift shopping habits and support small shops on Black Friday, November 24.

As you start making your holiday shopping lists, remember a little bit of love goes a long way. Are you making a commitment to keep some of your dollars in our small shops? The Love Williams Lake website is a great place to start your browsing for ideas because when you stop to look, there is something for everyone on your list.

This year our local businesses need your support more than ever. Deciding to commit to spending at least 50 per cent of your dollars locally is a great way to support recovery efforts.

Keeping your dollars in Williams Lake does make a difference. Remember that where you choose to shop counts to our local retailers. If you want to live in a city that has choices, activities, and a vibrant atmosphere, your choices of who you support do matter.

To find out who our local, unique, and independent Love Williams Lake merchants are, or to register for the program, v i s i t t h e w e b s i t e www.lovewilliamslake.com.You can also contact Beth Veenkamp at City Hall with any questions that you may have.―Like‖ the Love Williams Lake Facebook page to stay up to date with promotions and news from our local retailers and services.

By Mary Forbes

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liver Berger and I just returned from the Recycling Council of Alberta conference at the Chateau Lake Louise. I love my job but some days the perks just blow my mind. We were invited to attend and present on the amazing and inspiring Waste Wise projects and activities of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society and The Potato House, all local programs that happen right here in Williams Lake.

Our presentation was on the first day and was warmly received, although everyone there had to be repeatedly reminded that Oliver and I are not married—I am married with two kids; he is single. We just work together a lot and get along great.

On the final evening of the conference we attended the gala costume contest dressed as spawning salmon and gave ―salmon hugs‖ to everyone. If you have never been hugged on both sides by two gigantic, enthusiastic, plush, full bodied salmon, you are missing out. The conference was fun and inspiring with my key take away being the incredible innovations of young millennials in the waste reduction sector.

The motto was: ―Experiment-Fail-LearnTry Again-Fail Harder-Learn More-Do Better-Learn-Keep Going.‖ Here are some highlights: Waste Problem/Opportunity: Microbrewery spent grains are too wet for agricultural applications; they freeze in the winter and mould in summer. Breweries produce thousands of tonnes of microbrewery spent grains each year.

Solution – Ceres Solutions: Ceres Solutions is an innovative and environmentally focused company that up-cycles waste products from the beer brewing process into gourmet mushrooms and livestock

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he romantic backwoods landscape known as the North Bonaparte, stretches east from 70 Mile House to Bridge Lake and is full of small remote ranches, hidden abandoned homesteads, and rutted roads leading to graves in forgotten meadows. High on the Cariboo Plateau, the land was once the domain of the Secwepemc people who hunted and fished throughout the region.

Most of the settlers were dreamers and romantics looking for an ideal life. Many had moved from place to place in search of this dream. From the Americans in the earliest decades who‘d moved from state to state before they came, to the veterans of World War II who had their heads filled with ideas of independence and a free, unregulated life, the new occupants were willing to take a chance, although few knew what they were getting into.

They were adventurers and risk-takers, whether they were old hands like Andy Whitley of the North Bonaparte, who‘d tried all kinds of farming and ranching before he came in 1909, or like Arnold

Who knew Lake Louise had salmon? Photo: Sion Lanini

feed. They take brewery mash, stuff in it a cheese cloth sack, and grow oyster mushrooms. In the wild, these mushrooms take two years to mature; in brewery mash, they mature in 13 days. The mycelium of the mushrooms increases the protein content of the waste grain product by 20–35 per cent.

They then dry and sell the secondary improved spent grain product as agricultural feed stock. ―You are what you eat, eats.‖ Waste Problem/Opportunity: Four million coffee cups go to the landfill every day in Canada.

Inspired by this experience, Ozzy used his incredible storytelling skills to create enjoyment and engagement for employees of major corporations, encouraging their own story-making experiences. He created a ―Mr. Miyagi effect‖—engagement activities that make a difference towards how people feel, resulting in being more connected to the community. The increased employee happiness creates a systematic change of life learning and encourages sharing life changing experiences with others. ―It‘s one thing to preach it, and another to teach it.‖

Solution –Green Cup: Ozzy Langa, selfproclaimed ―professional hippy‖ and Green Cup‘s creator, printed advertising directly on compostable coffee cups and marketed them to colleges and schools for free. All production costs were paid for by advertising. Ozzy then watched people throw the cups into the garbage, instead of composting them. He noticed he did not create a solution and had to rethink his strategy. He noted, ―Sometimes your baby is just not beautiful.‖

Waste Problem/Opportunity: Slimy, dirty compost buckets are a turn-off for first-time composters (and long-time ones, too, honestly)

Cornish in Bridge Lake in the 1940s, who‘d lived in the city all his life and dreamed of riding a horse over his own me a do ws a nd f ie ld s.

The area from 70 Mile to Bridge Lake was attractive to many who had these dreams but not much money to back them up. Because the area was not top-quality for farming or ranching, there was little competition for parcels of land. Later, when homestead land had all been taken up and property had to be purchased, prices were more affordable than in areas such as the Okanagan. Many of these properties also bordered a lake. If they could make a success of it, titleholders were monarchs of their own personal domains. For some, this would be the only time in their lives that they owned a large chunk of land.

From the first people, the Tsq‘escenemc, to the hopeful settlers who arrived from 1871 to 1959, the Cariboo Plateau was a place that shaped and formed those who lived there. Ortega y Gasset‘s observation that the land on which you live speaks of who you are was never truer than it was in the Cariboo.

This is the story of those people: colourful, hard-working, hard-playing individualists. Tales of well-known pioneers such as Bill and Mary Boyd and the Saul brothers of the 70 Mile House, the McDonald family of The Rainbow Chasers, and Jack Dubois, the famous rustler and horse breeder of Outlaws of Western Canada are among those included in the book. Barbara MacPherson‘s The Land on Which We Live fully captures a life that depended on tenacity, skillfulness, and on the kindness and help of neighbours and friends. ―A treasure trove of early photographs, painstaking research, and most of all, marvelous accounts of feckless wanderers and resolute settlers, roadhouse operators, and ranchers in the South Cariboo–tough cookies, bad apples and flashy dudes included,‖ said Caroline Woodward, author of Light Years: Memoir of a Modern Lighthouse Keeper.―This well-written book shows how luck, land, and the climate, good but often bad, solid homesteading skills or a complete lack of them, and the kindness and generosity among neighbours

Solution –Green Lid Enviro Sciences: With Green Lid Enviro Services, a compostable kitchen catcher made from end-of -life cardboard pulp replaces plastic kitchen catchers. This business is a success story from Dragon‘s Den. You may have

seen the starter packs being sold here in Williams Lake at Canadian Tire. It comes with a recyclable green plastic lid you reuse. The program is called ―Training Wheels for New Composters.‖ You can also reuse the bucket many times if you aren‘t averse to the yuck factor. The bucket won't break down until it is exposed to composting bacteria. Did your brain just go, ―wait a second … how did they waterproof the cardboard? Is it just infused with plastic?‖ Nope. Morgan, from Green Lid, has a PhD in chemistry. It‘s a patented complex fatty acid combination. Morgan and his brother Jackson are the brains behind this amazing product and are building bigger bins for schools right now. They even have an education module for K-3 where kids can colour on the bin and take it home and ―feed it‖ (they draw sharks, animals, or monster mouth pictures directly on the buckets). They are also in the final stages of patent approval for a biodegradable mosquito trap I could rave about for days. ―People buy your product as much for the product as for what you do with it.‖ There is a fine line where a conference becomes a vacation, especially when it is held at, arguably, the most beautiful place on earth. It is hard to justify to funders the benefits of conferences, but I can say I come back flying on ideas, inspiration, and connections to which the internet just doesn‘t do justice. I am endlessly indebted to the Recycling Council of Alberta for inviting Oliver and myself to present and we are thrilled that first prize for dressing like a salmon and hugging half the delegates is a free conference pass for next year. I am already counting the days.

Mary Forbes is an archaeologist turned waste educator for the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society and naturalist for Scout Island Nature Centre.

shaped all who lived here, for just a few years or for generations.‖ For more information please visit http://caitlin-press.com/our-books/the-land -on-which-we-live/.

By LeRae Haynes

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ith both National Child Day and National Family Literacy Day on the horizon, the Early Years community in Williams Lake is kicking into action to help families celebrate with two upcoming free festivals.

Baby Fest is first, held on November 16 from 3–6 p.m. The event, an information fair, welcomes every baby born here in 2017, providing gifts, prizes, and information on all organizations and businesses with something to enrich and enhance the lives of young families. Put on by Success by 6 and the City of Williams Lake with the help of the Early Childhood Development Network and the business community, the event will feature a special baby welcoming ceremony and live music to entertain and get some tiny toes tapping. ―Baby Fest is a chance for new parents to connect with every agency, every organization, and every business with something to offer a family with a new baby,‖ explained Lil Mack with Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy (CCPL), retired librarian, and tireless supporter of children. ―Events, playgroups, health services, safety equipment, toys, books, and more— it‘s a one-stop event for everything you need.‖ Family Fest, which has been running about 25 years, will take place on January 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A celebration of family literacy, it‘s put on by Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy.

Blayke Limpright and her mom Kayla Jensen enjoy face to face time together.

Photo: Candice Victoria Photography

―This is a great opportunity for people to come and enjoy a free event with free food—a chance for the kids to have fun with their parents and caregivers, on a Sunday when more parents can be home to participate,‖ said Mack. ―People can get together in an informal, fun setting where parents can seek out resources in our community focused on children‘s learning, health, and well-being.‖

She added that there will be things like poetry, story telling, live music, and puppet shows. ―It‘s literacy based and promotes reading in the family,‖ said Mack. ―We have a book walk, a book swap table, and we give out free books.‖ She said face-to-face time with babies is so important, and it is something celebrated at both festivals. ―Babies need to hear their caregivers‘ voices—it creates a bond when you cuddle a baby, talk to a baby, read to a baby. It creates at t a c h m e nt , whether you‘re reading the newspaper out loud, or a grocery list.

You present them with expression and stimulation and emotion, and that helps them recognize all these as important,‖ she explained. ―It doesn‘t matter whether you have TV, radio, or internet: they can‘t replace human touch, hearing, and smelling—that remains with you as a memory that is never forgotten.‖ She said singing to your pre-born baby, or listening to music can have a lovely impact. Depending on the music, your baby becomes calmer or more active. ―Sing to your babies,‖ she said.―You don‘t even have to know all the words, or the tune, or even be in tune. Babies don‘t

care. They just know that you love them. ―It‘s never too early to start reading to your child, and that includes story telling.‖ Both Baby Fest and Family Fest are held in the Gibraltar Room, which is central and accessible for families. ―When I look around the room at these festivals, I love to see the diversity, see young parents, new parents, and older kids wanting to come and help at the event,‖ Mack continued. ―Wit hout t hese services, without things for families to do, how will you attract young families to move here, live here, and work here? If you can‘t provide your young families with enjoyable, affordable things to do, you won‘t attract. ―We‘re trying to rebuild our community, and need to pay attention to what families need,‖ she said.―These festivals help families feel welcome and valued.‖ For more information about all early years events, programs, and services, including the two other free festivals, 3-Year -Old Roundup and the Children‘s Festival, visit http://www.wlchild.ca.

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 Tera Grady

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f you live in a community that receives curbside recycling collection, you likely participate in the program. The question is, though: if someone inspected your recycling tote this week, would it receive a passing grade?

Considering the District of 100 Mile House, the Cariboo Regional District, and the City of Williams Lake are nowhere close to achieving the acceptable contamination levels set by Recycle BC, there is a pretty good chance you might have some contamination in your recycling bin.

For example, the 108 Mile Ranch community had nearly 20 per cent contamination by weight in 2016. Currently, acceptable levels are less than 3 per cent by weight.

To identify the common problems causing the excessive contamination levels, the CRD audited curbside recycling totes in the 108 Mile Ranch last spring. The CRD inspected recycling totes at the curb and tagged them with notes listing the contaminating items.

Here are some of the common contamination problems found during the audit in the 108 Mile Ranch. Are any of these offenders in your recycling tote this week?

1. Plastic film and plastic bags Examples: Plastic film (soft plastics/ plastic wrap) from frozen pizzas, flats of pop, bottled water, cans of soup or packages of paper towels, diapers, etc. All types of plastic bags ranging from grocery, water softener, fresh fruit, bread bags, frozen vegetables, and zipper lock bags.

Most people think plastic bags are recyclable at the curb, but this is not the case.

Many types of plastic bags and film are recyclable, but only at a recycling depot, not curbside. You may think, ―That is ridiculous!‖ and you may be correct, but those are the rules we must follow. Plastic bags or film cannot go in curbside collection because they wreak havoc in the sorting facilities. They wrap around the gears and rollers in the conveyor belt system; they blow around, acting like paper and contaminate the paper stream; and, they entangle many other recyclables preventing them from being separated and recycled.

2. Reusable items and recyclable ―products‖ Examples: Clothing and footwear; wood; scrap metal; toys; batteries; kitchen utensils and cookware; children‘s car seats; etc.

Recycle BC is a non-profit organization responsible for residential packaging and printed paper recycling throughout BC. The program is funded by the producers of residential packaging and printed paper, including businesses like Save On Foods,

Safeway, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Starbucks, to name a few. These producers are only responsible to cover the cost of the residential packaging and printed paper they produceand therefore the Recycle BC program does not accept products. Please take other recyclables and reusable items to the appropriate drop off spots and second-hand stores. If you don‘t know where to take an item call the Recycling Hotline of BC at 1-800-6674321 or check online at rcbc.ca.

3. Polystyrene foam (aka Styrofoam) Examples: Foam meat trays, foam egg cartons, and packaging foam used to protect breakables and electronics.

Items like this are recyclable at a depot but do not belong in curbside collection. The foam breaks apart and clings to other recyclable items, which degrades them and makes them harder to market.

4. ―Unsortable‖ items When recyclables are stuffed inside of each other, they become impossible to separate at the sorting facility. If you jam a tin can inside a plastic container and then stuff them into a cardboard box, none of the items can be separated at the sorting facility, especially after they have been compacted in the collection truck, and then bailed at a processing facility. Please place your recyclables loose in the curbside totes.

5. Glass Because it is heavy, glass accounts for a lot of the contamination by weight. Glass can be recycled at a depot, but never in your curbside totes. Glass breaks apart and the shards imbed in the other types of recyclables, which degrades their quality and, therefore, their value. Glass is also dangerous for workers at the processing and sorting facilities.

The good news is, after a month of auditing and educating, the CRD re-checked totes in 108 Mile and found the frequency of contaminated totes dropped by 30 per cent.

Take a moment to audit your own curbside recycling tote to see if it passes inspection. Awareness and small changes can make a big difference. If you are interested to see the detailed recycling guide customized for 108 Mile, email talktrash@cariboord.cato request one.

Join the Cariboo Regional District in 2017 by resolving to become waste wise and make a difference.

Learn more by following us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/caribooregion, visiting us online at www.cariboord.bc.ca, or looking for our waste wise articles in your local paper. For more information on the Waste Wise Program, call (250) 3987929. You can also find more details on Waste Wise activities and events at www.ccconserv.org

By Kate McDonough

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his winter has been exceptional, four feet of snow on the frozen ground. Our one-room log cabin down in the Kleena Kleene River Valley is truly isolated, the track was never plowed, and never will be.

We have two horses, but they can't plough their way through the formidable snow.

Mike can manage on snowshoes, though.

Checking his trapline and weekly hikes to get the mail and supplies, five miles away, keep him fit. And not feeling isolated. He is too exhausted to have a conversation after dinner, but he’s been happily outdoors in the wilderness, where he belongs.

I chop and carry kindling, feed the fires, ferry buckets of water from the river, wash clothes and diapers in a huge oval wash boiler on the wood stove, bake bread or bannock, sweep the floor, pick up the messes, and mother my two toddlers. When all three of them are asleep, I read books ordered by mail from the Library in Victoria.

Now February, I haven‘t seen another soul since last October. I suffer on most days, thinking I am bored, incompetent, or crazy, especially when the sun doesn‘t shine. We dug a big square hole in the snow in front of our porch, a playhouse for the children, snow-steps down into it. It could be called cozy on a nice day, if there were any nice days. A week ago a warm Chinook wind melted and evaporated some of the snow, bringing hope. Three days later it snowed again. Life continues. I cry sometimes, when I‘m alone, usually in the outhouse, the only place I find true solitude.

I‘m probably not a very good mother, although I try.

Often too cold to stay outside more than a few minutes at a time, your nostrils stick together with the frost, your forehead burns, you‘re scared you‘ll freeze your lungs with every breath, frostbite your fingers or toes.

Forty below zero is right cold. We have to stay housebound. They say you should never go out in that weather alone; it takes an observer to tell you if your nose or perhaps an exposed earlobe or a spot on your rosy cheek is turning white. The long-time ranchers here tell horror stories about losing legs, blackened toes and premature deaths.

People do, of course, go outdoors alone. We all must fill our water buckets, chop wood, visit the outhouse, etcetera.

I‘ve been here for almost four years, since 1969. How could that be? Right now, I‘d give anything to get out of here for a

Reflections of winter transform the landscape at Nemiah Valley with newly fallen snow.

Photo: Jesaja Class http://jesajaclass.wixsite.com/photography

while. Yet I chose this life, this isolated place, above all others, for reasons which I remember and usually still believe. I love nature, feel very grounded and comfortable here. We have enough to eat, plenty of firewood and clean water, my dream life. It can be gloriously beautiful here in the winter, with hoar frost on every branch, snow sparkling if there is sunshine even though the days are short. The snow-covered mountains stand majestic all around me. But for some reason I still believe I must get ―out‖ to make it true, make it good again.

Cabin fever, that‘s all it is. The longer you stay indoors, the harder it is to get out the door. This country, the Chilcotin Plateau, has only one lousy dirt road the whole length of it from Williams Lake to Bella Coola on the coast, our cabin one hundred sixty miles from either end. Neighbours seldom closer than five miles away, it feels like a fever of the spirit eventually, of the mind, of the heart. I lose my perspective perhaps, in the face of this isolation and remoteness.

Change and variety somehow seem necessary, especially when you look out the kitchen window a hundred times a day and see exactly the same thing, the same view, never any change for months on end. Well, there might be a crow or a whiskey jack pass through the picture if you‘re lucky. I am slow, tired, turning my mouth down, and very irritable. It‘s hardest in the winter, of course, which is never gentle here, although I‘ve had the cabin fever before, just

not so long. Depends on the person, I guess.

Some of us have really gone crazy, you know. Maybe telling stories would help prevent that... ―One day, near the end of my rope of misery, Mike suggests I just go for a snowshoe walk by myself. He says he‘ll stay with the children. So I do. Luckily, Mike‘s well beaten snowshoe trail leads up the track, past the waterfall on the KlinaKlini River, around numerous boulders and pot holes, though the poplar flats, and climbs the ridge to the splendid view of all the Coast Mountains, to the post office/store at Kleena Kleene, so I follow it without thinking. At least I don‘t have to slog through several feet of snow to break one. The sound of my snowshoes shushing and crunching like a metronome is calming.

There are no other sounds. I am so at home here, Douglas Fir and Jack pine trees as friends to chat with, as though they are animated like those in The Hobbit, with different personalities and countenances. Some are lively characters, some wise elders, others sleeping or ill. I look for other signs of life, knowing that my stellar imagination may have the ability to anthropomorphize trees, but staying in the present physical moment calms my thoughts and hints of happiness. I crunch and shush along; my singing rhythm invites me forward. My eyes glued on the trail in front of my feet, lest I fall, I don‘t exactly notice much else unless I stop. Just before the waterfall I shuffle along beside the poplar flat, still

staring down. The trail suddenly gets a little rough, icy bumps and holes here and there, and I wonder why. Must have been an animal, taking advantage of this snow-packed path, I think, perhaps a moose. I stop, bend down to study the tracks of the intruder.

Yes, it was a moose, I decide.

Standing up again, I raise my head and realize that the shussing and crunching is no longer coming from me and my snowshoes.

A very large cow moose, at least eight feet high, head down, looking closely at the trail as I was doing, is stomping her way towards me, five feet away from a head-on collision.

She smells like Labrador Tea and Red-Osier Dogwood bushes, a vaguely sweet but pungent woodsy aroma. She stops, jerks her head up, her giant ears flap like wings, her nostrils flare. Her wattle wagging like a bell on a collar, her dark eyes staring into mine in what I hope is surprise, she snorts and gasps, and then in a flash whirls around and dives over the bank down into the forest below, where she trots out of sight, picking up her feet like a graceful Tennessee Walking horse, grunting loud displeasure with every step.

Yes, my heart is racing, but I am laughing. Laughing at her grunts, this ridiculous situation, and the petty toxic thoughts that drove me here. Where else could I have found this experience? And survive? I look around at the trail, our tracks in the snow, at my friends the trees, and I see peaceful softness. I see something new and different. I hear my new friend the moose breaking branches, huffing now instead of grunting.

Then comes complete silence. I feel like singing. Reversing my direction, not an easy maneuver, I resume my holiday trip. I can hardly wait to return to my beloved home and tell my story. * Please note that this story will appear in Lived Experience 16, available at The Open Book and Station House Gallery in Williams Lake.

Now residents of Williams Lake, Kate and her husband moved to the CaribooChilcotin in 1968. Starting in Anahim Lake working on a ranch, they gradually moved into the Kleena Kleene Valley, where they lived with their two children for 18 years.

Kate has been writing since childhood, and her work has been published in several magazines in years gone by: Interior Woman, North of Fifty, Mother Earth News, and the recent anthology Voices from the Valleys, as well as in local newspapers.

―Do you suck?" Photo: Oliver Berger

By Oliver Berger

W

ell, it is confession time again.

I sucked. I sucked for many years of my life. I would go out for meals, start drinking and could suck late, late into the night. I mean, we all did it, my friends, my family, work colleagues, my boss—they all sucked, too.

It wasn‘t until a few years ago when I learned a few things about sucking, I reconsidered.

I hope you realize by now that I am talking about using straws.

In the US alone, 500 million straws are used every single day. They say in Canada we use 57 million straws per day. That is a lot of people sucking. Because of the popularity of straws, they are also one of the top 10 items gathered during litter pick-ups and ocean clean-ups all over the world.

Straws are wreaking havoc on our oceans and wildlife.

Straws are not recyclable items. They are made from a mix of unknown plastics and therefore are an unworthy feedstock for most recycling programs. Really, your next cocktail drink is served to you with a piece of garbage in it. Gross!

Not only that. Using a straw has also been known to create wrinkles around your lips, kind of like smoking a cigarette does.

With every sip you take, you are also inhaling extra air which in turn can make you gassier. That is no bonus for anyone.

I understand there might be reasons where straws are necessary, for example patients or elderly who cannot physically drink from a cup. Fortunately, substitutes are available.

Previous to the plastics revolution, natural drinking straws were used for thousands of years, and were made from rye. In 1888 a man named Martin Stone patented the spiral winding system for producing paper straws. The straws were coated with a layer of paraffin to prevent sogginess.

These paper straws caught on in popularity, and were the forerunner of today's single-use plastic drinking straws.

Paper straws are returning. Greenmunch© and Aardvark® are two of a few companies that have come up with many variations of biodegradable straws: cock-

tail sizes, bendy and spiral types, and even jumbo ones for smoothies. They use starch based resins, corn, or bamboo to help with the waterproofing. After the straw is used, it can be thrown into your compost bucket with no quarrels.

Stainless steel and glass straws have also become a more sustainable option.

The bonus here is they can be reused over and over again after a simple wash.

These are all great alternatives for those people who are determined to continue sucking.

Refuse Tofino went strawless for Earth Day in 2016; 41 businesses jumped on board and continue to do so now. Ucluelet is waving in and launched its Straws SUCK campaign October 18 of this year. Sea-Tac airport landed in and was strawless for the entire month of September. London‘s Soho neighbourhood created Straw Wars, which has an interactive map online showing any business in the world committed to going strawless. Sign your business up today at www.strawwars.org.

Adrian Grenier with Lonely Whale Foundation has created a Strawless Ocean campaign and it is creating some ripples with its clever videos. Check this one out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9123B8yCg You can join that campaign by creating a challenge URL. I did and here is my challenge to you: Hey @williamslake, @100milehouse, @quesnel, @caribooregionaldistrict, I did #stopsucking now it‘s your turn! Click here to join: https://stopsucking.strawlessocean.org/ i/9lvge2y.

I am happy to say that now, I no longer suck!

When are you going to have the last straw?

Oliver has a 36-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 Terri Smith

O

ff-grid living isn’t always easy.

That may be an understatement; let me rephrase it: Offgrid living often isn’t easy.

Too cumbersome? How about: Off-grid living is hard. Yes. I think that about sums it up.

Don‘t get me wrong; given the choice, I wouldn‘t trade this lifestyle for a place in town with cell reception, unlimited internet, and central heating. Though central heating does sound wonderful right now.

As we move into winter, I find myself reflecting, as I often do this time of the year, on how much more interactive life is out here than in town. Our house is ridiculously interactive. The funny thing is I‘m still thrilled with the rather modest updates in modern conveniences that have occurred in off-grid living since I was a child.

For instance, we have running water!

Isn‘t that amazing? It smells like a swamp, turns the bathtub a lovely rust colour, and tastes terrible, but it comes out of the tap either hot or cold, and we both have great immune systems. We also have lights that turn on most of the time without having to start the generator. Should the lights not turn on, though, all we do is start the generator. Starting the generator is both easier and safer than lighting the white gas lanterns we used when I was a child. Mom would take these lanterns onto the balcony to light because they were incredibly temperamental and if one of them was having a bad day (the lantern or Mom), the result might be spontaneous combustion (of the lantern, not of Mom).

By Jessica Kirby

E

ver wonder what vegetarians eat for Christmas dinner?

Here is one rich and delicious option that makes an incredible main dish for an all-veggie crowd, or a perfect side dish for a room full of omnivores. One loaf comfortably feeds my crowds of 8-14 as a side dish; if it were the main, it would feed 8-10.

Special equipment: food processor Ingredients For the Loaf: ½ cup butter, melted 2 medium onions, chopped 3 cups cashews 2-3 slices (1-1/2 to 2 cups) bread, cubed 3 cloves garlic, chopped ½ cup vegetable stock 1 teaspoon nutmeg 2 Ta ble spo o ns lemon juice Salt and pepper to taste For the Stuffing: 1-3 slices (1-2 cups) bread, cubed

"Wishing I could just turn up the thermostat when I get chilly, but at least splitting wood warms a person up!" Photo: Mark Rupp

While our only option for rural internet is really rather terrible, at least we do have some internet out here some of the time, and in the last few months we have actually started to have internet more often than we do not have internet. This is a big improvement. I‘m very proud of this company for finally managing to provide the service they offer. At the moment, they are even managing to provide this service more than 50 per cent of the time!

I began thinking about how off-grid living is more work today because I needed to use my printer this morning. Not that everyone has a printer anyway, but if you live in town you can usually get to a copy shop relatively easily. That‘s a 45-minute drive from our house. I do have a printer (a

½ cup celery, diced ½ cup apple, diced ¼ cup onion or shallot, diced ½ cup butter, melted ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped *optional ¼ cup pumpkin seeds, crushed *optional Sa lt and pepper to taste Method For the Stuffing: Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well.

For the Loaf: Preheat over to 400 degrees C, and line a greased, 1 lb loaf pan with non-stick paper. Melt the butter in a pan, add the onions, and sauté until soft.

Remove from heat. In a food processor, grind cashews, bread, and garlic. Combine the cashew mixture with onion mixture in a large bowl. Add veggie stock, lemon juice, salt and pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice.

Season to taste.

Transfer half the cashew mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Top with the stuffing. Add the rest of the cashew loaf on top of the stuffing and pat gently to make a firm, consistent loaf. Dot the top of the loaf with butter and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until firm and lightly brown. Enjoy!

really nice one, actually), so it should be easy to just print something. However, inverters don‘t like printers, for some reason. This house contains the third inverter I have lived with, and every one of them lists printers in the instruction manual as ―problem appliances.‖ So, in an example of how off-grid living is more interactive, here is what it took to print one piece of paper: I go downstairs and pull on my winter boots and jacket and head out to the generator shed. The generator needs fuel so I hunt around till I find the gas jug and fill it up. My fingers are freezing now since I forgot my gloves as I was only coming out here for a moment. Now I pull out the choke and pull the start cord. And I pull it again. And again... and for the sake of simplicity, let‘s just say it starts now. I turn off the choke and flip on the switches that send the power to the house. I head back to the house, remove my winter clothes, and go upstairs to my office where I dig the printer out from under the pile of papers that invariably end up covering it since it‘s too complicated to bother using very often.

I plug it in and go make a pot of tea while I wait for it to turn on (it‘s very slow). Once it‘s finally on, I find paper, plug it into my laptop, and voila! Thirty minutes later, I have now printed a single sheet of paper!

Now I must go back downstairs, put all my winter clothes back on, and go back out to the generator shed to turn off the generator. Of course, I might as well bring in a load of wood on my way back. It‘s unseasonably cold for this time of year...

But wait; why do I specifically reflect on the interactivity of off-grid living this time of year? Mostly because winter in the Cariboo is long and cold and dark, and our house is powered by the sun and heated with wood. So, we must be very careful with our power consumption for the next

six months, and we need to get firewood.

Lots of it. And this house is old and drafty so we need to plastic all the windows and hang blankets over the doors, and I‘m still going to need wool socks, wool undergarments, a sweater, a toque, and a scarf just to check my email each morning.

So why do I live like this? Because, oddly enough, I like it. I actually prefer having more time to having more money.

Living out here takes time, but it does take less money. ―Mindfulness‖ has become a very trendy word lately, something we should aspire to in our daily lives so we can be happier and more fulfilled. Living out here, being mindful isn‘t trendy; it‘s necessary. I have to think about where my lights come from, where my heat comes from, where my food comes from, and what my entertainment is. I have to be aware of what I need to do each day. I can‘t turn up the thermostat when I‘m cold, I have to go and chop the wood and light the fire, and while sometimes I just wish I could be warm without so much input on my part, I appreciate the connection between what I do in a day and how I meet my basic needs. Either you go to work every day to acquire money that you then give to different companies to provide you with heat, water, and electricity, or you work at getting those things yourself. I‘ve mostly cut out the middle man (which, I guess, makes me a bad citizen). I do parttime, seasonal work away from home but mostly I work at growing food, keeping the house going, writing, and making art. It‘s a pretty good life.

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.

N

ational and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other increasingly complex problems by building resilience at the community level. The Community Resilience Reader combines a fresh look at the challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working with community issues on the ground. It shows that resilience is a process, not a goal; that resilience requires learning to adapt but also preparing to transform; and that resilience starts and ends with the people living in a community.

From the producers of the awardwinning The Post Carbon Reader (2010), The Community Resilience Reader is a valuable resource for students, community leaders, and concerned citizens.

Contributing authors: Leena Iyengar, Richard Heinberg, Josh Farley, Chuck Collins & Sarah Byrnes, Bill Rees, How-

ard Silverman, Margaret Robertson, Brian Walker & David Salt, Stephanie Mills, Denise Fairchild & Al Weinrub, Rebecca Wodder, Scott Sawyer, Bill Throop, Rosemary Cooper, Mike Lydon, Daniel Lerch, and Asher Miller.

For more information or to order your copy p lease visit http:// w w w . po st c ar bo n. o r g/ p u bl i c a t io ns / community-resilience-reader/.

By Vanessa Moberg, Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society

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olunteers are important.

Really important.

Renowned author and political scientist Robert Putnam has suggested that social capital – defined as civic engagement, cooperation, trust amongst citizens, and working towards the common good – is critical to our democracies, economies, and societal health and well-being.

It is also argued that not-for-profits – and the volunteers that run them – are the backbone of social capital, which is essentially saying that volunteers are critical to societal stability. That‘s a really big deal.

I‘ve been lucky enough throughout my career to work for many different not-forprofits in the sectors of literacy, nursing, computer refurbishing, tourism marketing, and conservation. In every case, I encountered the kindest, most dedicated volunteers.

Take for example one board chair who, whenever I called him, was always doing something selfless. ―What are you doing today, Boyd?‖ I‘d ask. ―I‘m at the hospital giving out pillows to heart patients. But I have a moment. What do you need?‖ The next time I‘d call him and say, ―Boyd, I can hardly hear you. Where are you? ‖ ―Oh, I‘m on the side of the highway picking up litter.‖ When Boyd was diagnosed with stage four cancer, he continued volunteering for years afterwards, right up until about a week before he died.

Then there was the chair of the board at Cruise Newfoundland and Labrador, who also happened to be the Mayor of St. John‘s, Dennis O‘Keefe. He was understandably a very busy man, but never once turned me away from his door, and instead, welcomed me in every time. He was so good to me, in fact, that I started calling him Dad 2.

There was also my real dad who just happened to serve on one of my boards. He attended meetings, provided advice and support, partnered with us on several pro-

Conservation Society volunteers Teresa Donck and Rita Giesbrecht with staffer Mary Forbes after picking up litter in downtown Williams Lake on Earth Day 2017.

Photo: Vanessa Moberg

jects. I learned a lot about him being privy to his professional life. (Happy retirement, Dad! T minus two months!)

Volunteers come in many forms. Some are retired and have time to spare, but may not have a lot of money to give. Others may be paid by their own employers to hold a board position, but they must tear themselves away from what is already an impossibly busy schedule to do so. Time is always their gift. And time is a precious commodity.

There are also many people I‘ve encountered over the years who I would call quasi-volunteers; those who‘ve chosen a career based on passion, not the paycheque. Educated up the ying-yang and able to make six figures if they wanted to, they find more satisfaction in taking a sizable pay cut to work for a cause that means something to them. While not exactly volunteering, it‘s meeting volunteerism halfway. They choose ―just getting by‖ over ―Fiji was divine.‖ Within just the past year at the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, I‘ve witnessed our volunteers picking up litter, writing letters, organizing guest speakers, repairing bikes, attending meetings, picking veggies, teaching children to make crafts from recycled materials, turning compost, hosting ―quiz shows‖ for middleschoolers, gathering boughs and pine cones

for our holiday event… I could go on and on.

One of our unpaid board members hosted our paid staff to a pizza party at his house. How‘s that fair? Sure, as a board member he gets to tell me what to do, but he also has to listen to me drone on about the balance sheet. Even I don‘t like to listen to me talking about the finances.

So why do these people do it? They might get an honorarium once in a while, a

new bullet point on the resume, or a freshly baked cookie at a meeting. I think I‘m a good baker, but not that good.

I think they are driven by an innate desire to put something or someone else before themselves. To spend an hour with a lonely senior citizen. To make the world cleaner one bag of trash at a time. To foster one homeless dog. Tutor one child. Clean out one birdhouse. Serve one bowl of soup.

Volunteers know that the cumulative effect of these tiny acts of selflessness have the power to change lives and – according to Ivy League experts like Putnam – make our society as a whole a better place to live.

So, to all the volunteers out there, as we approach International Volunteer Day on Dec 5, thank you for your dedication.

Thank you for caring. We see what you do and we are humbled.

For more information on Water Wise or Waste Wise and any of our school and community programs, contact the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society at sustain@ccconserv.org or visit the website at www.cconserv.org.

Vanessa was living and working in Newfoundland & Labrador until a Cariboo man, local filmmaker Robert E. Moberg, stole her heart in 2014.Interested and involved in environmental causes all her life, she was tickled to be offered the position of Co-ordinator with the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society in late 2016.

Upper L: JoAnne's home at Chilko Lake built by neighbour and very old friend, Chendi. Photo: JoAnne Kimmel Upper R: Chilko Lake viewscape. Photo: JoAnne Kimmel Bottom L: JoAnne trimming the soap when it is fully cured. Photo submitted by JoAnne Kimmel.

Bottom Mid: Wild Rose Lathers business card made by Jesaja Class Bottom R: JoAnne pouring the soap inside her cabin. Photo: Aster Hermans

By LeRae Haynes

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n a tiny woodland cabin in a pristine and beautiful wilderness, JoAnne Kimmel creates her beautiful, unique, skin-nourishing natural soaps. Owner and creator of Wildrose Lathers, named after the many wild roses in the Nemiah Valley where she lives, Kimmel makes soaps that are lovely to use, and good for your skin. ―Making something good for your skin is really important to me,‖ she explained. ―I use things like shea butter and avocado oil, and add herbs and oils that are purely for the benefit of your skin. ―I don‘t shirk the quality for the price. I try to keep my prices reasonable, and at the same time, add things to the soaps to make them the best they can be.‖ Her soap-making began when she was living outside Lillooet. ―I got inspired when I went to visit my son, who was going to school in California,‖ she said. ―I stopped at a market and bought a bar of soap from a woman, as a gift. I tried it out myself—it was beautiful,‖ she said. ―It seemed to nourish my skin—and felt really nice. It was the quality that convinced me it was something I could get into.

―I thought, ‗if this was soap, I‘d use more!‘ A friend I was staying with suggested that I tell the soap maker I wanted to start a business in Canada, and ask her if she‘d show me how she made her soaps.

She was happy to do so, and turned me onto the books she thought were the best resource, and told me I could call her anytime, which I did over the years. ―She was so encouraging and supportive.‖ Kimmel said a friend went in on the business with her, and they made soap for three years, before she went out on her own. ―It was a very intense process, and would take all day to make the soap. Today, on a good day, I can do it in four hours,‖ she said, adding that your mind has to be awake and clear.

Kimmel has been making soap in the Cariboo now for approximately 14 years, from the spring to fall season. The soap takes half a day to make and at least two weeks to cure, and is usually made every three days.

She travels from her wilderness cabin six to eight times during the soap-making season to deliver approximately 2,000 bars of soap to town. She makes the journey by

boat followed by four hours of driving, three of which are on a dirt road. During the winter she rarely goes to town at all.

She said soap-making is a chemical process. ―It‘s like science. You‘re working with different aromas, ingredients, and colours. Anybody who makes soap makes unique soap,‖ she noted. ―You make decisions like what kind of oils you‘re going to use.‖ Her signature soap is Cottonwood Buds. ―I collect the buds in the spring. I love the smell—it‘s the only addition to the basics in the soap. It‘s a beautiful bar,‖ she said. ―Cottonwood bud was an old remedy.

People have used it for centuries as a salve; it used to be called the Balm of Gilead.‖ The aromas Kimmel uses are true— there is nothing synthetic. ―I use all-natural ingredients,‖ she explained. ―My goal in each bar is to make the scent as true as possible, such as the most beautiful rose you could ever find. I make the scents strong so it holds and stays in the bar. ―It can be a challenge. It took years of practice to get the rose so I liked it; now I‘m truly happy with it. I also worked and worked on the sage, and now it‘s really good. A lot of the scents are like that: some of them are easier than others.‖

She said it‘s like making bread. ―You never really know what you‘ll come out with. Each batch is unique in a certain way, and it‘s the same with soap, which is far more complex,‖ she added. ―I‘ve made soap in a shed, in an abandoned cabin, and in an empty sweat lodge.

Now I make it here, in my own home and cure it for two or three weeks in a shed.‖ Her soap is sold at Hobbit House, Gecko Tree, and Sta-Well Health in Williams Lake, at Higher Ground Health in 100 Mile House, and at Cariboo Honey and KC Health in Lillooet.

She said it makes her feel wonderful when someone buys a bar of her soap. ―It feels good that people like it—it‘s very satisfying,‖ she said.―People with skin conditions have said, ‗yours is the only soap I would use.‘‖ For more information about Wildrose Lathers, visit www.wildroselathers.com, phone (778) 784–2300 or email wildroselathers@gmail.com or follow her 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.

By Al-Lisa Tresierra McKay

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creaking, much like a tired bow dragging across a worn violin shifts back and forth, singing a familiar equable lull-

aby.

As noisy as it is, the old rocking chair is a welcome sound on any given night.

The children scurry to find their places on the grey and tattered knit rug, eyes bright with anticipation, bodies quiet and still. While outside the snowflakes continue to fall, also seemingly to each choose a destination. Grandpa is shifting his gaze from the patterns on the frosted window pane and deep into the fire. One long deep breath and a slow exhale, his deep gravelly voice breaks the silence and softly, thoughtfully he begins … ―Gather round, children. I have a tale to tell….‖ Every story serves a purpose.

Perhaps history is nothing but a series of stories that, when told correctly, can teach us lessons, give us insights into a variety of concepts, relay a message, or wildly entertain us.

Storytelling is what connects us to our humanity. It is what links us to our past, and provides a glimpse into our future and possibilities. Since humans first walked the earth, they have told stories, before even the written word or oral language.

I believe great storytellers are dreamers. Their storytelling plays a role similar to that of dreams—anything can happen: the truth, a fantasy, deep emotion, the future, or the past. Storytelling is actionoriented—a force for turning ‗dreams‘ into goals and then into results.

A storyteller is an alchemist, someone who can teleport us into the past, the future, a simultaneous present, or into pure fiction.

Every sound we make, every motion that happens, every breath exhaled, every star that falls is a story that has not yet been written. Life is but a dream and every dream is a script. Let that dream be spoken by a true storyteller, steeped in the craft, and you have a keyhole to another realm that will materialize all around you and maybe even become you.

For over 27,000 years, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.

Aesop lived in the 500s B.C., but his stories were remembered for hundreds of

(Left) ―A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.‖ - Maurice Sendak Photo: Cate Storymoon www.flickr.com (Right) Gals chatting. Felted dolls created by Al-Lisa Mckay. Photo: Al-Lisa Mckay

years without a single shred of paper or other printed material.

The first printed story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was created and began to spread from Mesopotamia to other parts of Europe and Asia. When the story was finally carved on stone pillars it found its foothold in time.

We naturally desire to be drawn into the labyrinth of storytelling and we are inspired when a story builds up to a thrilling climax, followed by a satisfying conclusion.

Storytelling is how we tangibly extract meaning out of the human experience. It provides our eyes with shapes that we can recognize … letters performing like symbolic talismans granting our moments a beginning, a middle, and an end.

There are so many ways in which a story can be told beyond words.

The fine arts encompass many forms of storytelling such as drawings, paintings, sculptures, dancing, singing, composing, and writing.

For a dancer, every step could be a word, every eight counts a sentence, and every transition a paragraph. Through body and facial antics so much can be conveyed and mimed, even an atmosphere can be transposed in this way, with just a single,

silent body in motion and stillness.

For a musician, storytelling is often done by the changes in dynamics and tempo, with use of the rise and fall in melodic lines, the tension and release of the harmonies, and even with the use of rests.

A good soloist will develop the phrase in a melodic line. A creative symphonic composer will describe an expressive idea by choosing an instrument or group of instruments that will appropriately work together to get a particular mood across.

Painters, sculptors, carvers, and artists of the like, use colour, line, gesture, composit ion, and symbolism to tell a story. They also can present narrative in many ways—by using a series of images representing moments in a story, or by selecting a central moment to stand for the whole story.

Dreams are storytellers and storytellers are much like Dreamers sharing dreams: visionaries, alchemists who pull imagination and cognitive concepts into tangible form.

As the cooler months set in, our days grow shorter while our nights extend. For a lot of people, this means a quieter existence and perhaps more time for cozy indoor gatherings. With a myriad of ways to connect through stories, may your winter

be vast with inspiration, warm with laughter and movement, uplifting with the muse of music, and thought-provoking from the time well spent.

Life is but a dream and every dream is a script. What if every dreamer attempted to be a scribe with and beyond words?

As the great storyteller, Louis Armstrong, once sang… ―Oh, What a wonderful world.‖ Al-Lisa McKay operates Miss White Spider Arts in Williams Lake, BC—a fine arts business offering workshops, travelling theater, paintings, portraits, puppets, dolls, music, dance, sculpture, installation art, murals, and other fine arts. Find her on Facebook or on her website at www.misswhitespider.com.

By Jessica Kirby

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ith the New Year comes myriad promises to turn over a new leaf, make important changes in our lives, and better ourselves in some way.

You may vow to hit the gym, clean up your food choices, quit something unhealthy, or run 5 km a day—and I hope you do. But there is one, simple thing to which you can commit that will change your life and make these other tasks come easier: mindfulness. The art of mindfulness means staying in the moment, interrupting impulsivity with a deep breath and a moment’s pause, noticing distraction and choosing focus, and being deeply aware of the big picture. It means patience and thoughtfulness, and being brave enough to not respond immediately.

With a wider lens, it means seeing the light in others, assuming the best, and living in the solution when disaster strikes.

Some people carve time out of the day for meditation, the way others make time to run, clean, or read quietly. Others take classes – yoga, meditation, chanting, the study of mindfulness – or seek inner peace in a church, synagogue, or temple. We can also conjure the muscle memory to practice mindfulness by first learning the physical habits of staying in the moment, and then teaching our hearts to eventually assume these habits as normal reactions.

For instance, if we remember taking a big breath is a more suitable reaction to another person‘s negative comment than screaming at them, we will eventually take that reaction on as natural. In the beginning, we may take a breath and then react poorly, but eventually we can teach ourselves to take that breath, and stay focused

Image: Microsoft word clip art

on that breath for long enough to feel calmer. Soon, there will be only breathing, no screaming, followed by rational action.

The science behind the effectiveness of conjuring mindfulness is growing. Researchers have become more interested in the neurology behind self-propagating inner peace as tangible evidence of its benefits become more obvious.

The most recent research on the topic explores the ways the brain responds to mindful practice, measurable improvements in physical and mental health as a result of mindful practice, and cultural shifts such as changes in relationships and job satisfaction.

Scientists have identified lasting changes to the structure and neural patterns present in the brains of people who practise mindfulness. According to Greg Flaxman and Lisa Flook, Ph.D. of UCLA‘s Mindful Awareness Research Centre, a 2005 study published in NeuroReport indicates ―thicker cortical regions related to attention and sensory processing in long-term meditation practitioners compared to non-

Letters:

T

here’s been much consternation over the loss of Williams Lake’s mural on the Kondola building on 3rd Avenue. Its creator, Dwayne Davis, was understandably ―a little emotional‖ and many others were miffed at the loss of a well-liked landmark. According to The Tribune, the mural was covered to upgrade the building’s appearance, but I can’t help wondering how such a neutral, flat colour could be an upgrade.

Perhaps covering the mural does the city a big favour. Perhaps a neutral, flat colour makes a bigger artistic statement than the comfortable, familiar scene it obliterated.

Maybe it‘s a call to action, an opportunity to re-evaluate and generate some fresh energy and dialogue around public art in the city.

Williams Lake boasts its title, the Mural Capital of the Cariboo. As a recentlyarrived resident of the area, I wonder what this statement means, and what‘s behind it.

What qualified the city for the designation of ―capital‖? Quality, quantity, inspiration, or the pen of a PR agency?

Photo: Lewis Evans

When I walk around the city, I see murals that are historical and/or decorative illustrations. The design consultancy that developed the new downtown brand described them as ―…interesting, but [they] seem random in placement and subject matter,‖ and asks if there is a story to be told through them. I wonder how the consultancy squares that confusion and lack of enthusiasm with the assertive tag line ―colourful Cariboo culture‖ they developed based on what they found.

A brand is not a badge you can wear with some vague hope everything will live up to it. A successful city brand is the outward expression of a lived reality. Art and culture are two crucial factors in making the new brand real, but they must be powerfully applied.

Williams Lake is at a crossroads, both literally and figuratively. The industries that

meditators. These findings also suggest that meditation practice may offset cortical thinning brought on by aging.‖ In another recent study, individuals participated in compassion mediation while researchers looked at how the brain reacted in terms of emotional regulation in response to various stimuli. The results showed the more experienced the meditator, the more activation in those areas of the brain, indicating greater empathic awareness and ability to detect emotional cues.

Another study, discussed by Flaxman and Flook, focused on individuals who took part in an eight-week mindfulness course on meditation. The results indicated ―increased activation in a region of the brain correlated with positive affect, as well as evidence that the immune system would react more robustly in antibody production after meditation training.‖ Other research conducted in the past 10 years demonstrates being mindful can allow better stress regulation thanks to faster decrease of the stress hormone cortisol, made it successful in the past can no longer provide that promise for the future. And there is an emptiness at its core that indicates a lack of direction, pride, and identity.

The world is changing, and I believe the city needs to find a new vibrancy—an identity that will foster a successful future. If the city continues to express itself through murals that hark back to seemingly better times or merely appeal to sentimentality, that is the real brand that is projected to residents and visitors. It is the brand of a city locked in an image of the past and going nowhere.

And ―colourful Cariboo culture‖ becomes a misnomer.

The issue of brand goes far beyond murals, of course. The murals could be a powerful expression of an exciting new identity that could also draw on the rich history, the diverse cultures, and the community, but within a forward-thinking context that does not necessarily depend on those things.

That context could also influence (or be influenced by) a fresh approach to art that is inquiring, inspiring and, yes, challenging. It is, after all, only by challenging deeply held beliefs and ideas, inviting new thinking, and facing challenges that a vibrant society is built.

If we treat art like wearing a pair of comfortable old slippers in a retirement home, we may be loved by our family, but we will be ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world. There is a huge amount of

and lower levels of anxiety, depression, and anger in people who received relaxation training.

Relationship meditation has led to improved closeness, acceptance of one another, autonomy, and general relationship satisfaction in study participants, and loving kindness meditation is known to improve relationships between family members, and improved parents‘ selfconfidence and general positive feelings toward their parenting experience.

Even children of parents who meditate benefit—these children are far less likely to participate in aggressive behaviour and non-compliant behaviour, and adolescents with externalizing disorders that involved their parents showed greater self-control and progress in their treatment after using a mindfulness therapy approach.

Chronic pain, sleeplessness, stress disorders, ADHA, uncontrollable anger—all of these and more are tackled, at least in part, during mediation and mindfulness.

So, where to begin?

Read everything: There are many strategies for achieving mindfulness—too many to list here. Find a quiet place and start to read everything you can find on how to stay mindful. Eventually, a plan that works for you will become clear.

Take a class: There are online and in person classes on mediation available in most locales. If not meditation, then yoga, which is all about deep breathing, body awareness, and being present while you set intentions for a brighter, calmer life.

Learn from others: Who do you know who is mindful and calm, and stays solid in the face of adversity? Ask that person out for coffee and find out what makes he or she tick. You never know how another person‘s insight can inspire you. excitement in art around the world and, if we make ourselves aware of it and draw on it, it will inspire the immediate community and attract new energy to the city.

There are always risks. Art is often controversial. If it is not, it is merely decoration. There‘s nothing wrong with that, in some respects. However, art can and often does play much bigger roles, including inspiring new thinking, causing people to see things in new ways, and as an agent of social change and development. If we ignore these roles, particularly in public art, the resulting images may please planning committees and those who don‘t understand the potential of art to bolster the local economy, but they will get ignored as they blend in with the environment.

So, has covering the Kondola building‘s mural – by accident or design –made a bold statement about art in the city, its direction, and identity? Has this act unwittingly stimulated a new and exciting conversation about public art? Will the opportunity be taken to create something interesting, challenging – even shocking –to fill the space and shake us out of neutrality? And where are the graffiti artists who, in so many other towns, emerge to express their frustration and creativity on such a rich canvas?

Watch this space.

Lewis Evans, Horsefly, BC

By Angela Gutzer

site, Dying with Dignity Canada (dyingwithdignity.ca).

So, let‘s say you have completed your Advance Care Plan. You have designated your personal directive (the person who represents you if you are not able to in a medical situation), you know what treatment categories you fall into and under what circumstances, and you know where you want to be for care. Now what? Is this all you need to think about before the situation arises?

I would like you to further your death homework to include specificities:

I

t is inevitable. We all will die. It part of the beautiful cycle of life.

Although we can not change the fact that we will die, we can make decisions that may alter how we die.

"WHY CLING" Why cling to one life till it is soiled and ragged?

The sun dies and dies squandering a hundred lived every instant God has decreed life for you and He will give another and another and another



(translated by Daniel Liebert) Mathnawi V. 411-414 (translated by Kabir Helminski) The Rumi Collection, edited by Kabir Helminski

A recent study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry identified 11 core themes associated with dying well: 

Having control over the specific dying process  Pain free status  Engagement with religion or spirituality  Experiencing emotional well-being  Having a sense of life completion or legacy  Having a choice in treatment preferences  Experiencing dignity in the dying process  Having family present and saying goodbye  Quality of life during the dying process  A good relationship with heath care providers  Other: cultural specifics, pets, costs of care In this article, I hope to address death preparedness to help increase your chances

By Cathryn Wellner

H

eidi Redl had me at the first paragraph, when she and her husband are making the long drive from their ranch to learn what is behind her increasingly uneven gait. Her pronouncement is one I could relate to, as she tells her husband she would prefer death to being a vegetable.

The diagnosis is devastating. Multiple sclerosis is a stealthy thief, robbing the rancher, wife, and mother a little at a time.

Ranch life is physically demanding, and little by little Heidi loses the capacity to carry her part of the load. The losses fall heavily on an intelligent woman with a strong spirit, who is quite willing to give help but less inclined to accept it.

In her memoir, Heidi goes back to her childhood and early years with husband Tom to paint the picture of a thriving, independent woman faced with an incurable

Who would you like to be with you?

Who do you not want to be with you?  Who could support you spiritually? (i.e.; a priest/pastor, medicine woman/man)  What healing modalities may be of use? (massage, reiki, healing touch, etc.)  What scents make you feel at ease?  What articles of clothes or personal belongings bring you peace?  What music will comfort you?  What food would you enjoy?  What would your legacy be?  What would you like to say in your obituary?  How can your legacy live on (voice recording, photo album, collection of favourite recipes, etc.)

Now you feel prepared. But there could be more to do to make you and your loved ones‘ lives easier. As you gaze around your home ask yourself: Is there anything I can give to family members before I die?

Can I downsize my belongings so my family doesn‘t need to bear the burden? In the book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, author Margareta Magnusson guides you through the process of sorting through your ―stuff‖ to lessen the load for your loved ones.

As much as I would love to delve into each category of your personal death kit, I offer my experience to further guide you.

My mother died March 18, 2017. She did not have an Advance Care Plan. She did not have wishes for what would happen 

Doris Gutzer, January 7, 1954 - March 18, 2017 Photo: Herbert Gutzer

of having your voice heard and honoured at your time of death.

An Advance Care Plan gives one a voice in decisions about your health care.

This becomes especially important if you are incapable of expressing your wishes due to an illness or unexpected injury.

Many of us have life insurance or disability insurance in case of death or an accident. I argue that an Advance Care Plan should be of equal value.

An Advance Care Plan should answer these questions: 

Who do you want to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make those decisions?  What health care treatments do you agree to or refuse?  Would you accept life support and lifeprolonging treatments?  What are your preferences as to where you would like to be cared for?

Each province has its own Advanced Care Plan that can be downloaded from the

disease. As her body becomes uncooperative, she finds increasing pleasure in her writing and a newfound love of painting, but neither can rescue her from the debilitating symptoms and the depression they bring on.

Without glossing over the physical and emotional toll of living with multiple sclerosis, Heidi comes across as a woman with incredible backbone. She focuses on doing everything possible to deal with the disease, including trying the controversial liberation therapy.

Though neither old nor at the end of her life, Heidi Redl is a good example of what Dylan Thomas counsels in his mostfamous poem, ―Do not go gentle into that good night.‖ She has been dealt a blow.

She is straightforward about the toll MS takes and about her sassy determination to wrest every ounce of goodness from her life. Her honesty will help others to ―burn and rave,‖ as the poet says is the way we should all live, right to the end.

Heidi Redl lives and writes with multiple sclerosis in Williams Lake, BC. Her columns and stories have appeared in Canadian Cowboy Country magazine, in the MS Kamloops Chapter newsletter, in Canadian Geographic, and in Maclean's magazines. She continues to write, to teach writing, and to struggle against the effects of MS in her life with the help of her husband, Tom, and her family.

A BC Bestseller, A Quiet Roar: Living with Multiple Sclerosis is available locally at the Open Book bookstore, Save-On Foods, and the Visitor Information Centre in Williams Lake; at Books & Co in Quesnel and Prince George; at Nuthatch Books in 100 Mile House; and, it can be ordered through any bookstore in Canada. It is also available online at Amazon.com. Paperback price: $22.95.

Visit Heidi online at HeidiRedlAuthor.com and on Facebook at Heidi Redl Author for more information.

with her remains (this will be the focus of the next article).

The setting: palliative care She was unable to speak at this point.

Her body was ravaged from the cancer and ongoing chemotherapy. My father kept feeding her until swallowing was not a possibility. My mother kept her illness a secret. Friends and family were saying their goodbyes with short notice. In the meantime, our family struggled with both the pain of saying goodbye, and the task of figuring out what she wanted for her precious body.

We had an essential oil diffuser going constantly with lavender, frankincense, orange, and Palo Santo. We brought a CD player and had all her favourite Christian music playing: Vineyard Worship songs.

We ate together, shared stories, touched her, massaged her, and said our goodbyes daily as we didn‘t know when she would leave us.

Each of us sent our own messages of love and each released her as we knew we had to let go.

I often imagine the death painted with a brush with my mother being the painter.

Would she have wanted something different? Would she have specificities about how she was dressed and who could attend to her? What were her final wishes? We could only imagine and talk with her as if we knew.

Overall, I feel she died in a good way.

A way I will always remember as sacred.

Please give some thought to this article.

It doesn‘t matter if you are young or old.

We all need to have these discussions for both ourselves and our loved ones.

With peace and love, Angela Angela is a veterinarian currently working as a locum. Creating her own schedule has allowed her the space and time to invest in the contemplative end of life (death doula) course in which she is currently enrolled.

By Kristin Lehar

B

one broth is one of those foods that has been around since before civilization and has been a staple food for many cultures around the planet. Like many traditional foods, it got lost somewhere in history when it was booted out by refined and imitation versions. Thus, it has long been a greatly undervalued and unappealing food. But bone broth is slowly but surely making a come back and rightly so because unlike its imitation counter part, true bone broth is loaded with minerals and amino acids that people pay a lot of money for in supplement form and along with them, incredible healing potential.

The richest sources of nutrients and what makes bone broth so healing is the minerals we get from the bones, cartilage, tendons, and marrow that is usually discarded with modern meat processing techniques. Bone broth is made simply by simmering these components in water on low heat for several hours with a bit of acid such as vinegar, which helps to extract minerals from the bones into the broth.

There are so many reasons you should start drinking and cooking with bone broth, most simply to gain status of an excellent cook because it is the secret to legendary gravies, soups, stews, and sauces— delicious and nutritious. Properly cooked bone broth will contain gelatin, which results from the slow cooking of collagen.

Collagen makes up our connective tissue, so consuming it in an easily absorbed form provides the body with the necessary building blocks to keep our skin, hair, and nails strong and beautiful and slow the aging process and degeneration of these tissues just as the pricey collagen supplements claim. Collagen is vital to the maintenance of strong bones and preventing

By Terri Smith

O

ne of the most difficult things about being Amadeus’ surrogate mother is discerning which of his troubles are actually problems and which are just the problem of Amadeus: the goat who was never supposed to be here at all.

The next step – figuring out how I can help him – can be even more challenging.

His most recent trouble is mites. Goats are often itchy, and everything I have read about goats seems to confirm this. Part of it is all that hair they have; it gets itchy when it‘s time to shed and they rub on everything they can to try to get rid of it. I thought for quite a while this year that perhaps this was why he was rubbing on fences so much, but about a month ago I realized the actual problem seems to be mites (we dealt with lice a year ago; similar story, but he no longer has lice).

Once I established the problem, I needed to find a solution. And here is where I fall. In this age of information, you would think finding a natural solution, or any solution, to goat mites or to any goat problem would be relatively simple. Espe-

Bone broth soup.

Photo: www.12 3rf.com/ profile_photosiber'

bone diseases in addition to the calcium and magnesium (and other trace minerals) bone broth provides. It also enhances the hormone responsible for depositing calcium from our diet into our bones as opposed to into our soft tissue where we do not want it to build up. What makes bone broth as a source of calcium and other minerals unique is the bioavailability of the nutrients—that is, how easily they are absorbed and assimilated into the proper bodily tissues. Bone broth‘s plentiful nutrients are in a form that is easily absorbed by the body, which is not the case for many calcium supplements where one may only absorb a fraction of the calcium they intake.

Drink it to reduce joint pain and inflammation; chondroitin sulphates, glucosamine, and proteoglycans are among the many compounds that are drawn from the boiled down cartilage and contribute to proper joint lubrication and cartilage formation, and prevent connective tissue break down by certain enzymes. Bone broth does wonders for our gastrointestinal tract. It is a hydrophilic colloid, which

cially since, as I read on one site, there are apparently something like 400 million goats in the world. But the reality is, there are so many goats because they are generally hardy creatures and they usually do well with little human intervention. And if they don‘t, it seems no one much cares if they die. There is surprisingly little research on goats. For the most part, any studies that have been done on goats are simply incidental since a goat is like a cheaper version of a cow and so are sometimes used for studies instead.

I learned mites are usually a sign of a weak immune system. No surprise there: everything about Amadeus is a little bit weak. There are many supplements available to help, but here‘s the catch: he doesn‘t want to eat any of them.

As for addressing the mites directly, the ―easy‖ way is Ivermectin, but here‘s where the next problem arises. While effective, Ivermectin is hard on an animal‘s liver. As well, goats are ―off-label‖ and so dosage requires guesswork. Apparently sometimes goats die when dosed, though no one I‘ve spoken to or read about online has reported actually seeing this. But, it‘s Amadeus we‘re talking about and I don‘t want to risk it.

means it attracts liquids. In the case of digestion this is very powerful as it is attracted to our digestive enzymes and juices, which is part of the reason so much nutrition can be extracted from the broth. It has been used to heal a compromised gut, which can lead to all sorts of conditions and diseases that extend beyond the intestinal tract. As if that weren‘t enough, bone broth is a great infection inhibitor and is excellent for speeding the healing process during and after a cold or flu.

This liquid is nothing short of a miracle and best of all, it is so incredibly inexpensive and easy to make, all it requires is a tad bit of planning. Below I share with you the basic procedure for making a bone broth: First you will have to seek out a source of good quality meats—beef should always be grass fed as the nutritional content of a grain-fed cow is significantly poorer.

Chickens are ideally free range and organic. We are lucky to be surrounded by many excellent sources of these meats.

Fish may also be used—all parts. Be sure to obtain as much of the good stuff as pos-

sible, that is an entire carcass of a bird, and joints of the larger animals. Broth made from chicken feet is an excellent source of gelatin and is therefore more potent, although if you are just starting out, I‘d skip the chicken feet as it can understandably be somewhat off-putting. For a single chicken carcass, I find a five-quart pot to be perfect. If you have more than one chicken carcass or several beef bones, a bigger pot will be needed. Now put your bones into your pot, add water, salt, and a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to the lowest, cover, and let it work its magic.

Chicken broth requires less time than beef as do smaller batches. The longer you leave it to simmer, the more minerals you can extract. When I make beef broth in an 11-quart pot I leave it to simmer for a minimum of 24 hours. Store in the freezer in small and large batches and use it for all recipes that call for broth.

To help stay clear of the flu this winter: Take a thermos full of hot broth with you to work as often as you can. Grate a fresh clove of garlic and put it into your thermos along with ground black pepper and a teaspoon of turmeric. Warm your broth, add it into the thermos, and voila! The garlic that was raw will slowly warm in the hot soup and will eventually cook so don‘t worry about eating raw garlic, though that certainly wouldn‘t hurt.

Kristin is a holistic nutritionist 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 health, and to realize we each have the power to bring our bodies back into well-being. Having love for and being connected to the language of the body is the first step on the path to a thriving life and planet.

Happy, bumbling, ridiculous (and surprisingly healthy) Amadeus. Photo: Terri Smith

For the moment, I am trying to go the natural route. Since he won‘t eat the various supplements I‘ve tried, I‘m feeding him rosehips and sunflower seeds and giving him a wide range of forage to choose from—I can sneak a pinch of mineral supplements each day into his seeds and still have him eat it. I covered the worst of his mangy spots with pine tar, and tried olive oil on the surrounding areas. He is less itchy and his missing hair has grown back, but now he‘s both sticky and greasy. I‘ve stopped with these treatments now as with winter coming on he needs his coat to be fluffy, not oily.

I prefer finding natural solutions to help Amadeus, but sometimes they don‘t work and I get so stressed that I run down my own immune system worrying about his. I will keep researching, but for the time being Amadeus is his usual, happy, bumbling, ridiculous self. And with pet goats becoming the newest trend online, surely there will be more research available soon.

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 Margaret-Anne Enders

A

pparently there is a name for it.

A phrase that encompasses the gut-churning, oxygen-sucking, confidence-shaking, griefprovoking physical and emotional onslaught that greets those who step onto the path of working for racial justice and equality, who dare choose to stand beside and actively walk with those who are marginalized in our society. It is so real a phenomena that it has its own name. It’s called ―sitting in the fire‖.

I am well-acquainted with the virtue of being able to sit in discomfort, to observe the thoughts and feelings that arise, to feel the sensations in the body, to regard them without judgment, and to just be present as the thoughts, feelings, and sensations change and often dissipate. I try and observe this as part of a regular practice and sometimes even feel like I do pretty well with it. Until the next time I get overcome and do whatever I can to quickly get rid of that uncomfortable feeling. But let‘s just say I know how to do it, even though I sometimes am not able to. But this – sitting in the fire – that takes the practice to a whole new level.

What is it that makes this practice so different? I think it is because doing work aimed at addressing inequalities forces contact with those inequalities on not just a personal level, with looking at my own thoughts, feelings, and reactions, but it also necessitates looking closely and critically at how I move in the world, my relationships with others, and how my actions affect those relationships. Additionally, it requires a level of observation and analysis about the social structures amidst which we live and then using that structural information to see how my own interactions mimic what is happening on a structural level. It is dizzying and complicated and sometimes feels just too hard.

I

stargaze, therefore I am.

With the holiday season coming, some of you might be considering purchasing a telescope or binoculars. Most equipment designed for nature watching can be used for stargazing, but the converse isn‘t always true.

Field of view and magnification are the prime specs for binos and telescopes. In astronomy, many objects are faint and quite small, so light gathering and resolving power are major considerations.

The bigger the lens or mirror, the more light it picks up and the more detail it can theoretically present. Star images, being pinpoint, are one of the most stringent tests of optical quality, so a less than perfect optical figure shows image defects clearly.

Seeing detail on Jupiter or Saturn demands good optics since the magnifications needed will be high. Astronomical telescopes, unlike spotting scopes or binoculars, do not give an erect image. This isn‘t a big problem in practice In astronomy, the mount for the telescope is very important. You can't make out fine details if the scope jitters every

It is hard. It‘s hard on an emotional level. The more my eyes are opened to injustice, the more I can see it everywhere.

On the police show Blue Bloods, when an officer kills an unarmed woman and there is no analysis of race, but an immediate defence of the white officer. In the reporting of events in Edmonton and Las Vegas, how the one man who acted alone, but had brown skin and Arabic name is deemed a terrorist because he‘s Muslim, but the other man who also acted alone, yet killed and injured so many more is not identified by colour, race, ethnicity, or religion, but is said to be a grandfather, a detail whose insertion automatically elicits a certain degree of empathy. When a Chilcotin chief calls for a moratorium on hunting except for indigenous people in this fireaffected ,devastated area, and the Facebook comments are so hateful and racist, it makes my stomach go sour. There is so much hatred, so much injustice. It is hard to keep noticing, to keep witnessing, and even harder to see the beauty and joy that still is in this world. This fire is hot.

It is hard on a relational level, this work of standing with others. Those of us who, because of race, gender, socio-economic status, have more power and who want to use this power to help others and level the playing field, we can be hard to tolerate.

We make a lot of mistakes and have a hard time acknowledging them. We can be selfrighteous and quick to point fingers. We tend to expect gratitude, even when what we have given might not be what is needed.

We are often slow learners. We can get stuck in our own stories and forget to listen to and indeed privilege those stories of the people we have pledged to stand with. And we often want things to take the easiest road possible. We want marginalized people to agree, to speak with one voice, to have just one opinion about how to fix these messes that we folks with power have often created. But of course, that desire for

one voice in itself diminishes the power and voices of those we want to stand with.

So we must stay grounded somehow in the midst of many opinions, always trying to be respectful, but sometimes getting stuck not knowing how to act, or acting in a way that is unacceptable to some of our partners. We have to stand strong still, to bear the anger and the pain of those who yet again feel diminished. This fire is hot.

On a structural level, change is frustratingly slow. There is a lot of push-back against those who want to change structures. There is resistance and fear, and people who have more power in these structures often don‘t feel like they do have much power and they fear the changes, fear losing hold of what little they feel they have. All the stops come out in misinformation, accusations, and aggression. This fire is hot.

As a part of the dominant white class, it would be all too easy to step back into a more comfortable space. But that in itself is a sure sign of privilege. Despite the heat, I must keep travelling the path. Even though I do and will make countless mistakes, I

seek the courage to continue. I want a world where everyone feels safe and valued and where we all celebrate the richness that diversity brings. One of my guides on this path, Camille Dumond, the same guide who taught me about sitting in the fire urges, ―In the midst of the fire, hold on.

Stick with it: this is warrior training. Remember that your intentions mean something, your vision for the world is important.‖ I take a deep breath, sit in the fire, feel its burn, and resolve once again to take my place on the road to justice in this world.

time you touch it and you do have to touch it to focus.

There‘s a really bewildering amount of equipment out there but the good news is a lot of it is quite good and some of it is incredible, but you do have to pay for the good stuff.

Equipment made in China is now very competitive, optically. The quality control can be spotty. A lot of it is resold by rebranders who have QC standards of their own, which helps.

The best stuff is still made in Japan or Russia in any volume. The manufacturers in the US and Europe make top quality stuff but they are usually smaller outfits, sometimes at the mercy of what they can get for optical materials, but nonetheless still at the very best quality levels.

The mechanical quality of the focuser is very important to your overall ease of use. It is one of the main mechanical interfaces between you and your scope and there is something to the feel of it like the old stereo amps with big, heavy, smoothfeeling volume controls.

If you plan to take pictures through your equipment, you can multiply all the

above requirements considerably. Any shake or optical smear or colour error will be obvious with a camera.

I can‘t really cover all the available types of telescopes in the space of this column, but if you PM me I can get more brand specific and talk about where I get my stuff.

Don‘t forget, people still build their own scopes from cardboard sonotubes and pipe parts and even old ship porthole glass.

There are some nice choices in the smaller refractor types that would make excellent gifts as well as a good set of binoculars.

Oh yeah, the stars: what are they up to this winter? The Leonid meteor shower peaks on November 17 under moonless skies. It can be a spectacular display. The same applies to the Geminids on December 13/14.

We are going to lose Venus as the morning star this December but it will reemerge in the evening sky as spring rolls around. But Mars is growing in the dawn sky as it heads for a close opposition next July. It‘s always a thrill to get a good view of it as it is one of the only planets that presents a solid surface. It is also a very challenging observation for you and your equipment because it is so small and the air has to be very steady to get much detail.

Jupiter and Saturn will sneak around the sun and become visible in the morning sky in the new year. Old friends r e turning to an observing stool near you.

In the meantime, while you‘re debating what telescope to get, please get out and look at Orion rising in the east earlier and earlier.

What a magnificent constellation! Red Betelgeuse and brilliant Rigel at the head and feet. Two of the biggest and most powerful stars in the sky and the three stars in the belt and the sword hanging down under the belt. That middle star in the belt is not a star; it's M42, the Orion nebula. Just about any binoculars will show it. A stellar birthplace excited to glowing by four young hot stars. The real Saturday Night Live. Don‘t forget, too, that Orion is constantly doing battle with Taurus the Bull to his right.

Bullfights from outer space!

As usual, you can come right down to the arena here at the Bells Lake Observatory. Contact me at (250) 620-0596 or irwin8sound@gmail.com.

Image Copyright: www.123rf.com/profile_fjvsoares' / 123RF Stock Photo

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 (250) 305-4426 or visit www.womenspiritualitycircle.wordpress.co m or on Facebook at Women’s Spirituality Circle in Williams Lake.

By LeRae Haynes

F

or more than 10 years the community has rallied to support a truly faith-driven program through Cariboo Bethel Church in Williams Lake. Every year, between 3,000–5,000 shoeboxes containing gifts for children are sent to places around the world through Operation Christmas Child. ―I‘ve stepped into some really big shoes,‖ explained Cariboo Bethel Church office administrator Jasmine Alexander, who helps run Operation Christmas Child.

She explained that Operation Christmas Child, which is evangelism and gospelfocused, is run as an extension of Samaritan‘s Purse, which was in Williams Lake offering relief during the wildfire season. ―This year the shoeboxes are going to places in Central America, Africa, and Europe,‖ she said.

Operation Christmas Child was started in 1990; it grew and was adopted by Samaritan‘s Purse, a Christian organization run by Franklin Graham, in 1993. To date, Operation Christmas Child has collected and distributed over 135 million shoebox gifts worldwide. In 2016, Canadians donated 664,525 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes for hurting children around the world.

Each shoebox is filled by Canadians with hygiene items, school supplies, and toys, and is given to children regardless of gender, race, or religion. When culturally

Jasmine Alexander helps with Operation Christmas Child at Cariboo Bethel Church.

Photo: LeRae Haynes

appropriate, copies of a book entitled The Greatest Gift, which has been translated into 130 different languages, are offered to children after the shoeboxes have already been distributed.

You donate $10 for every shoebox you prepare—donations that help cover project costs, including shipping.

―Williams Lake has been very enthusiastic about the shoeboxes‖ she continued. ―Every year we order between 3,000 and 5,000 boxes, and they all get filled and sent.‖ ―This has its own momentum; it carries itself. All I did was let people know the boxes are here, and they started streaming in to pick them up.‖

Samaritan‘s Purse has been around a while as a Christian relief and development organization. ―I did Operation Christmas Child boxes as a child. It was really different to meet Samaritan‘s Purse after our wildfires,‖ she said. ―They all took off from summer time with their families to be here.‖ Samaritan‘s Purse Canada has been doing essential relief and development work in Jesus‘ Name all around the world since 1973. The organization‘s emergency disaster relief programs provide urgently needed assistance including food, water, and temporary shelter, and they meet critical needs and give people a chance to rebuild their lives here in Canada and around the world.

Cariboo Bethel Church is a collection centre for Operation Christmas Child. ―The deadline to bring your full shoebox to the church is November 17,‖ said Alexander. ―On collection day, volunteers pick up the boxes and put them on Greyhound for shipping.‖ For more information about Operation Christmas Child, visit www.samaritanspurse.ca/what -we-do/ operation-christmas-child/ and for more local information, phone Cariboo Bethel Church at (250) 398-6731 or find the church 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.

By LeRae Haynes

A

team of dedicated medical professionals has formed in both Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, offering a range of integrated treatments that focus on patients and work together for their well-being.

In Williams Lake, the Integrative Elements Wellness Clinic team offers chiropractic services, massage therapy, and naturopathic medicine. At the 100 Mile House Office, they offer chiropractic and naturopathic medicine, as well as acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine.

Dr. Christie Kronyk and a few others were already practising in Williams Lake, and wanted to create an environment that was aligned with how they wanted to practise—all of them together.

There are a lot of inter-disciplinary clinics out there, according to Kronyk. ―There‘s a big trend in that. But we wanted to do it our own way, to stay in touch with each other about patients, what‘s going on with them and how we can better work together for their wellbeing,‖ she explained. ―Chiropractic medicine and massage therapy together can really benefit a client,‖ she adds. ―The massage therapist focuses on the soft tissue, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. I do a little bit of that, but we focus more on the joint range of motion. The muscles and joints function as one unit. Recovery and relief happen that much easier when you address the whole

Dr. Katie DeGroot, ND at Integrated Elements Wellness Clinic.

Photo: Monique Reiswig

much easier when you address the whole picture.‖ She added that acupuncture takes an even broader scope—it goes beyond soft tissue and looks at Chinese medicine, focusing on energy flowing through the body. ―They try to open those energy channels, and have an impact on the soft tissues, which also helps with the chiropractic focus,‖ she continued. ―We‘re all looking at the whole patient. We want people to leave here more relaxed. We have so much going on in our lives. Our nervous systems and our hormones are on high alert all the time. We are all really focused on normalizing patients‘ bodies, and helping people manage their lives a bit easier, without the

effects of stress being stored in the body quite so readily.‖ Dr. Katie DeGroot, ND said, as a naturopathic doctor, she integrates both natural and conventional medical options, to bring the two worlds together. ―It‘s great in this office, how there are so many different natural therapies and options all in one place,‖ she said.

DeGroot said naturopathic medicine is complement ary t o these other areas, adding that she took her training in the US, with an emphasis on primary care and diagnostics.

She is focused on the medical side of things—figuring out what‘s going on and then making treatment recommendations or referring patients to other professionals in the clinic. ―As a naturopathic doctor, I look at things differently,‖ she said. ―I can make recommendations on things like diet, exercise, supplements, and minerals. And if someone needs massage therapy, or has a joint issue that can benefit from chiropractic treatments, we can do whatever is needed. That‘s what I‘m excited about: being part of the integrated team. I know what I can do and can offer, so it‘s great that here are all these people who offer what I don‘t,‖ she explained.

―I like that the Integrated Elements Wellness Clinic is a positive, happy place,‖ said DeGroot. ―My goal is to be someone people can talk to. When you go to your GP, you might have seven to ten minutes—20 if you‘re lucky. I‘m booking 30and 60-minute appointments. That‘s enough time to talk things out. ―Even if they‘re just coming for some advice about what their GP has told them, having that much time with me helps them figure out what‘s going on so they can go out the door understanding their health better,‖ she said. ―My goal is not so much telling people what to do; that‘s the easy part. I want to help them understand what‘s going on.‖ In Williams Lake, Integrated Wellness is located at 29 D South 3rd Avenue and you can reach the office at (778) 412-1441.

In 100 Mile House, the office is at 116475 South Birch Avenue and can be reached at (778) 482-1441. For more information, you can visit their website at www.integratedelements.ca.

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.

a few cross-country ski locales in our REGION Quesnel: Cariboo Ski Touring Club at Hallis Lake Trails

Photo: will_cyclist / flickr.com

By Sandra K. Klassen

Turn off Highway 97 south of Quesnel, near Shell Station

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his year’s snowfall will bring welcome relief to those in the Cariboo who want to know the wildfires are out for sure. And a snowfall will have many locals dusting off their cross-country skis and readying them for this winter’s cross-country ski season, usually from November to April.

Cross-country skiing in the Cariboo is like skiing in a Christmas card: sparkling snow, snow-white forest, friendly faces, goodwill among skiers, the great outdoors.

Many are aware of the healthful spin-offs (think gifts) from this growing sport in Canada: a sport that improves cardiovascular fitness, is pleasing to the joints, can be social or solitary, and perks up your well-being. The form-fitting ski pants are optional!

Thanks to ardent volunteers, ski trails in the Cariboo are very well-groomed and maintained. There is often a ski cabin or hut to hunker down in for a break or to sit on an outside bench and feel the sun on your face.

One amiable visitor at Bull Mountain remarked that the Bull Mountain trails are the best-groomed trails he had skied on in BC. Now that is a compliment.

The cost associated with cross-country skiing is far less than you might expect.

Cariboo area ski clubs charge a very reasonable drop-in fee (around $10), or have a steal of a deal season pass.

Equipment is available from local businesses in Williams Lake such as Red Shred‘s, Cariboo Source for Sports, and Barking Spider. These businesses offer competitive pricing and savvy staff mem-

Wells: Cornish Mountain and Backcountry Trails About 80 km east of Quesnel on Highway 26 

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75 km groomed trails 3.5 km lit trails K-9 trails, please pick up after your dog Daylodge, heated washrooms, rental shop Trail user fee, visitors welcome Four backcountry cabins info@caribooski.ca

bers who can fit you with boots, skis, and poles. Other Cariboo businesses in Quesnel and 100 Mile House also provide equipment and know-how. So why slink around an indoor ice-rink all winter? Between games, get out skiing. Release your inner Viking!

I think, with the co-operation of Mother Nature‘s snow machine, and in honour of our country‘s 150th birthday, I will challenge myself to 150 km of cross-country skiing before Christmas 2017. If there‘s not enough snow to allow for this before Santa comes to town, hopefully I can accomplish this by Valentine‘s Day 2018.

Please join me!

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Note: This past summer‘s wildfires may have affected parts of the ski trails in our area. Some trails may be closed for safety reasons. Obey the signs, stay safe out there.

• 45 km groomed trails • 4 km lit trails  Daylodge, heated washrooms, rental shop  wax facilities • Trail user fee, visitors welcome • www.100milenordics.com  two warming cabins on trail system

Sandra, a Laker, wishes she was a lot smarter, better looking, and that she had become a private investigator. She has many interests and loves to write about them. Overall, she is high on life in the Cariboo and credits that to the great locals and the beautiful landscape that surrounds us.

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100 Mile House: Nordic Ski Society, 99 Mile Ski Trails

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Tatla Lake Highway 20 2.5-hour drive west of Williams Lake 

About 25 km north of Williams Lake, Highway 97 • 28 km groomed trails

• K-9 trails, please pick up after your dog • 3.5 km lit trails • Warming cabins • Trail user fee, visitors welcome  info@bullmountain.ca  www.bullmountain.ca

30 km of groomed and signed trails

Tweedsmuir Provincial Park: Tweedsmuir Ski Club

A few minutes drive south of 100 Mile House

Williams Lake: CC Ski Club, Bull Mountain Cross Country Ski Trails

Backcountry trails, ungroomed 25 km groomed trails (approx.) at Cornish Mountain

At the top of the Bella Coola Hill, 4 km west of Anahim Lake, Highway 20, four-hour drive west from Williams Lake  

30 km groomed trails Parking at top of “the Hill”

* Note: if you miss it and go down “the Hill” to Bella Coola there will be very few of the locals there. Many of them will be on the ski trails at the top of “the Hill,” where there is snow and sunshine.

You can also hit the ski trails at various guest ranches in the 100 Mile House area such as The Hills Health Ranch at 108 Mile Ranch (150 km trail network), Spring Lake Ranch, and Siwash Lake Ranch (ski through pristine pastures).

By Olga Sheean

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hen wisely applied and when based on empirical research, science helps keep us safe. Science makes sense of things and helps us understand how things work. It stops us from sticking our fingers in electrical sockets or from thinking we can fly if we jump off a high building, in defiance of the law of gravity. It provides us with a solid, reliable, fact-based foundation and a better awareness of the laws of physics and nature that govern our existence. And it enables us to make informed choices that are healthy and sustainable for people and the planet, while protecting physical infrastructures, the economy, and our essential humanity. We disregard it at our peril.

Yet many governments, including Canada‘s, have rejected the solid scientific evidence of the harm caused by humanmade electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Despite the 25,000+independent, peerreviewed studies by scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, biologists, and researchers who have published their findings in scientific and medical journals, government healthcare agencies are categorically denying, diminishing, or distorting the facts regarding the proven dangers of radiofrequency/microwave radiation in our environment.

This radiation has reached intolerable levels for millions of individuals worldwide, causing an epidemic of illness that has yet to be officially acknowledged. Depression, neurological disorders, autism, ADD, anxiety, insomnia, brain tumours, heart conditions, seizures, and infertility are just some of the numerous conditions that result. Uncontainable, unquantifiable, and cumulative, the radiation is coming at us from multiple sources—WiFi, cellphones, cell towers, cordless phones, electricity smart meters, and other wireless devices that rely on microwave radiation to transmit their signals far and wide. Known since the 1920s to be harmful to all forms

Image submitted by Olga Sheean

of life, microwave radiation has been used as a military weapon since the 1950s. Yet now it‘s being used by the wireless telecommunications industry as if it were benign and perfectly safe.

Industry. That‘s the giveaway word.

Worth trillions of dollars, the wireless industry pays millions of dollars in licensing fees to governments every year. It‘s an undeniable equation: industry + money = influence + corruption. Here‘s another one that‘s likely to come back to haunt the government very soon: government denial + increasing harm to the public = massive lawsuits. Remember asbestos, lead, DDT, and thalidomide, not to mention cigarettes?

If you start out telling lies, it‘s very difficult – and enormously costly – to then backtrack and admit the truth.

We should not have to fight for protection from our own government, which is supposed to keep us safe.

Countless studies of the biological effects of microwave and other forms of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) show our cells are adversely affected by even minute amounts of this non-ionizing, non-thermal radiation. Millions of people worldwide are now experiencing physical/ neurological symptoms due to EMR, which should be evidence enough on its own. Many of these individuals have been ill for years, suffering misdiagnoses and financial loss before finally realizing that EMR was the cause of their condition.

No one wants to be electro-sensitive.

Even though electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is now a recognized disability in many developed countries, many of those with EHS/microwave sickness are marginalized, ridiculed, and dismissed as cranks. They‘re excluded from normal activities and services—not because there‘s something wrong with them but because the environment has become too toxic for them to handle.

Collective collusion—your country needs you Both our government‘s denial of the facts and the wireless telecom industry‘s enormously profitable existence rely entirely on your continued ignorance of the scientific facts about electromagnetic radiation. But you don‘t need to be a scientist to understand what‘s going on. Just think about the nature of radiation itself. It acts like light, radiating outwards in all directions. It travels at the speed of light, instantly penetrating walls, concrete, buildings, vehicles, plastic, wood, bone, tissue, and every cell of your body. And it doesn‘t just pass through you. It affects your organs, muscles, nerves, brain, blood, and, therefore, every biological function of your body. Bear in mind, too, that when radiation is flying through the air in this way, invisibly extending for unknown distances and simultaneously overlapping with multiple other sources of radiation, you cannot possibly measure, monitor, control, or contain it. You might as well try to trap light with your fingers. How, then, can government safety guidelines protect us? The answer is: they can‘t.

Of course, being so reliant on all our wonderful wireless gadgets makes us reluctant to confirm the facts. What happens if they get taken away? How will we cope?

My iPad/cellphone is my life! For those who do not remember the olden days (just a few years ago), we actually used to hardwire our computers and use corded phones, obtaining all the benefits without the harmful radiation. Admittedly, that means having to walk a bit further to answer the

T

he wildness of the Northwest coast of British Columbia and a lineage full of prolific artists provided the soil in which the seeds of Christina Mary’s own creativity could sprout. Her childhood was spent roaming beaches and exploring the coast’s inlets, crisscrossing rivers and bay hopping, discovering the texture of the natural world. Her father’s family homesteaded on north Vancouver Island, and in her very early years, she describes the wonder of this place, where the forest was full of magic, goats roamed the yard, and art happened all around her. She speaks to her talented aunts as having a great influence on her appreciation for the creative, of the significant contribution art brings to a life and society. That environment awakened recognition in Christina of her own yearning to create.

After a youth spent in a few communities on the west coast of BC, including

The Seer. Owl sees in the dark and shows the way to total truth. Charcoal drawing, printed on silver alupanel.

By Christina Mary

Shearwater and Sandspit on Haida Gwaii, she set out in the early 1990s to embark on a full-time life as an artist in the Cariboo. ―It‘s an act of faith,‖ Christina Mary says about her artistic life.―If you know you‘re pursuing your calling, you have to have faith until the end.‖ By 1997 Christina had built up a body of work in clay, jewellery, and sculpture, with the thread of willow weaving through it all. She participated in gallery shows and business fairs. It became a very busy life, creating on demand. She worked at developing a rhythm, balancing work with play.

phone or having to leave your laptop in your office rather than having it with you at mealtimes, in the garden, and in the bathroom. Once the dangers are acknowledged, however, innovators always step in to fill the new niche.

Cafés, libraries, healthcare centres, and other public places could provide internet sockets for hard-wiring laptops, thereby retaining their customers and their health.

As for cellphones, there are ways to diminish their impact and usage so we can enjoy the technology without the brain tumours.

Emerging technologies may prove to be just as effective as WiFi, without the deadly downsides. Whereas technology always evolves to meet the demand, whatever our agenda, science has evolved as a result of our quest for knowledge and safety. If we disregard it, we simply won‘t survive. But if we respect it and apply it to the technologies we create, we can have our cake and eat it.

No need for pies in the sky… and no need for millions to wi-fry.

Olga Sheean is an author, educator, relationship therapist, and empowerment trainer specializing in human dynamics and holistic healthy living. She also helps empower those affected by EMFs, offering practical information, guidance, and support. See www.olgasheean.com.

See: https://www.emf-portal.org/en, a database of over 25,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications on the effects of EMFs.

Soon family life called her and the rhythm of creation was transferred to the home. With family grown up and needing less of her attention now, Christina has turned to drawing, painting, and natural arts, including living sculptures, basket making, and teaching.

Her new work featured in the show Spirit Calling is as varied as her interests and the subject matter is always what looks within and the divinity that binds things. It is a series of portraits and dreams, that while navigating uncertain times, have moved through her on to paper. She views it as dark infused with light with promise of the greater potential. Christina combines her original work with printing technology to bring her pieces to life for this show.

Spirit Calling is on Display until Dec 3 at the Gecko Tree Café in Williams lake at 54 MacKenzie Ave N. Williams Lake. The café is open Tuesday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

By Guy Dauncey

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et me be blunt: the terrible forest fires we experienced this summer have the footprint of climate change all over them.

It’s just as the climate models predicted: less winter snowfall, more summer drought, more summer heat, more forest fires.

The dead pine trees that provided so much fuel for the fires are also climate victims: the pine beetle used to be killed off by winter temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius. The dead trees also reduce forest evaporation, increasing the forest air temperature by 1 degree C. So, what‘s to be done? I have been absorbed in the climate crisis for 20 years, and I know how bad things will be if we don‘t get a handle on it. I don‘t believe in the optimism/pessimism thing, however.

If you are watching the Canucks play, you can be optimistic or pessimistic, since apart from shouting you have no power to affect the outcome. But if you are a player, even if you are 3-0 down in the third period, you are either determined or defeated, and if you are defeated, the coach won‘t want to give you ice time.

To be determined, you need four things: First, you need to know what needs to be done. What can people, businesses, colleges, schools, and municipalities in communities such as Williams Lake, Vernon, or Cranbrook do to make a rapid transition to a zero-carbon, climate friendly future?

What does the province need to do? What does Canada need to do? And what does the world need to do?

Second, you need to be determined to do whatever you can. That‘s a personal commitment. But life is more fun when you do things together, so third, you need friends who will work with you in an ini-

Image: Microsoft word clip art

tiative or non-profit society, which can have a presence and build a reputation.

And fourthly – sigh – you‘ll need to know enough about the climate denial arguments to not be intimidated by deniers, who believe they know better than the world‘s top climate scientists.

The solutions are quite straightforward.

First, since the use of fossil fuels is 70 per cent of the problem, we need to make a rapid transition to 100 per cent renewable energy for our electricity, transportation, buildings, and industrial needs. Secondly, since eating meat is 15 per cent of the problem, we need to eat less meat and adopt a more vegetarian diet. Thirdly, since the loss of forests is 15 per cent of the problem, we need to do whatever we can to plant more trees and minimize their loss through forest fires.

And fourthly, since we need to suck all that surplus carbon back out of the atmosphere, we need to maximize organic farming, sustainable holistic ranchland management, and ecosystem-based forest management, since all three methods store more carbon in the soil (and the trees).

Reduce the world‘s population? Yes, that‘s important too, but it‘s not an issue in Canada, where we breed below the re-

placement rate. Globally, it means providing education opportunities for women and girls, and spreading the use of free contraception, usually in the face of cultural resistance.

So, what about locally? This is where most people get engaged, because it‘s more immediate, and more personal.

In Victoria, the BC Sustainable Energy Association chapter decided to make 100 per cent renewable energy its goal, and it has been instrumental in persuading Victoria and Saanich councils to adopt that same goal, focusing on ways to increase walking, cycling, public transit, and electric vehicles, and to help businesses and residents retrofit their buildings so they are much more efficient and can be heated with a heat pump instead of oil or gas.

Vancouver has committed to the same goal.

It‘s easy to dismiss the 100 per cent renewable energy goal, since people in rural communities usually drive longer distances than they do in cities, and some people believe a heat pump can‘t handle a really cold winter—which isn‘t true. If you install them right, the latest generation of heat pumps can keep a home warm when it‘s -20°C outside.

The point about adopting the 100 per cent renewable energy goal is that we don‘t need to know all the answers today. In 1962, when President Kennedy made the commitment to get a man to the moon and

back by the end of the decade, no one at NASA knew how to do it, or what it would cost. They had the passion and the inspiration to make it happen, however, and that‘s what mattered.

By 2020-2025, a new electric vehicle with a range of 400 km will cost the same or less than a conventional car, and there will be electric pick-ups on the market.

Electric buses are already on the market for no long-term cost difference, and by 2020 the truck company Cummins will be offering an electric tractor cab capable of pulling a 22-tonne trainer with a 160 km range and an on-board generator that can extend the range to 480 km.

For parts of the world that still burn coal and gas for electricity, the price of wind energy is falling so rapidly it is now the cheapest form of new power, and solar is also steadily falling in price. By 2050, Germany‘s Fraunhofer Institute has forecast that it will cost just 2 cents/kwh, in contrast to the 30 cents/kwh most people in Canada will be paying by then for utility power.

If this inspires you to get together with friends and form a local chapter of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, call the head office at (604) 332-0025, and have a chat.

Guy Dauncey is author of the novel Journey to the Future: A Better World Is Possible. www.journeytothefuture.ca. He lives near Ladysmith, on Vancouver Island.

November - May: Kinikinik Restaurant and Store in Redstone, BC is closed for the winter season. Accommodations are still available: email kinik inik@pasturetoplate.ca.

November 24 & 25: 7th Annual Earth Friendly Holiday Event. Saturday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central Cariboo Arts Centre, 90 4th Ave N, Williams Lake. (250) 398-7929

Now until November 17: Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, gifts for children in need around the globe. Pick up your box and brochure at Cariboo Bethel Church, 833 Western Ave, Williams Lake.

Call (250) 398-6731. Deadline Nov 17.

November 25 & 26: Williams Lake Medieval Market. Admission: $5 for Saturday & Sunday. $3 for Sunday. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Contact Williams Lake Medieval Market on Facebook or at (250) 392-6284.

November 3 to 25: The Station House Gallery in Williams Lake presents Nonsensical Matter. Open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (250) 392-6113.

November 10 & 11: The Cariboo Potters Guild fall sale. Central Cariboo Arts Centre, Williams Lake. Friday 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

(778) 412-9044.

November 15: Travelogue evening to Chile with Verena and Willy Berger. St. Andrews United Church, 1000 Huckvale Place, Williams Lake. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. (250) 398-6745.

November 18: Craft Beer & Chili Meat Up Fundraiser Saturday, Ranching Friends! at the TRU Williams Lake campus. Tickets at Laughing Loon, Margett‘s Meats, and BC Livestock Co-op in Williams Lake 6 to 10 p.m. (250) 319-2367.

November 18: Made in the Cariboo Craft Fair. Williams Lake Tourism Discovery Centre, 1660 South Broadway. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (250) 392-5025.

November 24: Plaid Friday, Williams Lake. An alternative to Black Friday wear plaid and support our local businesses.

(250) 392-8480.

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eaders from the British Columb i a a n d Tsilhqot’in governments are recommitting to reconciliation through work under the Nenqay Deni Accord.

A letter signed by Premier John Horgan and Tsilhqot‘in Chair Chief Joe Alphonse renews both parties‘ commitment to the Accord, and to the shared goal of achieving true and lasting reconciliation for the Tsilhqot‘in people and British Columbia. ―We approached these discussions with respect and the intent to deepen our partnership,‖ said Premier Horgan. ―In that spirit, we‘ll work together to turn the goals outlined in the Accord into action that will benefit everyone.‖ Key components of the letter are ensuring commitments are turned into action, leading to substantive progress under the Accord. The letter reaffirms the work of the five sub-tables formed under the terms of the Accord, and that the Province and the Tsilhqot‘in will work together to make

November 29: Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society and South Cariboo Sustainability Society present Era of Megafires.

Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School, 200 7th St., 100 Mile House. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

(250) 791-7284.

November 30: Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society and South Cariboo Sustainability Society present Era of Megafires.

Gibraltar Room, Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex, Williams Lake. 7 p.m to 10 p.m. (250) 398-7929.

December 1 - 31: Station House Gallery Christmas Market with Local Artisans.

Open Mon. to Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Station House Gallery, 1 MacKenzie Ave N, Williams Lake. (250) 392-6113. Gallery closed Jan. 1 thru 15.

December 1: The Hobbit House 18th Annual Open House. 71 South 1st Ave. Williams Lake. 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (250) 3927599.

November 3 - Williams Lake Film Club documentary "Straws," 6:30 to 7 p.m. "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" 7 p.m. Central Cariboo Arts Centre, Williams Lake. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Call (250) 398-9149.

December 2: Downtown Williams Lake BIA Winter Lights Festival. Santa parade, carolling at the Potato House, business

progress on the eight pillars of reconciliation underpinning their work.

The pillars include a true governmentto-government relationship, healthy and strong children, families and communities, language fluency, and reducing conflict over lands and resources. They include support for the practical challenges of transitioning the management, benefit and control of the Declared Title Area, and addressing socio-economic gaps. ―Today we‘re committing to work with the Tsilhqot‘in, neighbouring Nations, and stakeholders to achieve certainty for residents of the Cariboo-Chilcotin,‖ said Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. ―We know there are many different paths to reconciliation but the common thread is the importance of working transparently and collaboratively to find mutually beneficial solutions that make a difference in people‘s day-today lives.‖ ―Today the new BC government and the Tsilhqot‘in Nation have hit the reset button to relaunch and reinvigorate our reconciliation discussions under the Nenqay Deni Accord,‖ said Nits‘il?in (Chief)

window decorating competition. 11 a.m.

Contact info@downtownwilliamslake.com or (250) 398-5717.

December 5: Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex, Williams Lake. (250) 398-7665 December 10: Skate with Santa at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex, Williams Lake. 1:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

(250) 398-7665.

January 24: Travelogue evening to Vietnam/Singapore with Lyn and Mark Temple. St. Andrews United Church, 1000 Huckvale Place, Williams Lake. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. (250) 398-6745.

January 28: Cariboo Partners for Literacy presents Family Fest. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gibraltar Room at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex in Williams Lake.

(250) 392-2311.

We plan to be hiking/walking each day until we have enough snow to extend the activities to include snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

We leave the Sam Ketcham Complex at 9 a.m., so come at 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 your $10 annual fee if you wish to become a member.

Once you‘re a member, you will receive emails with schedule and schedule changes.

Schedules and updates are also on Facebook.

November Schedule Wednesday, November 8 – Beecher Prairie hike (off Hwy. 20) Thursday, November 9 – UBC Forest grasslands walk (off Hwy. 97S.) Tuesday, November 14 – Kitchen Sink walk (off Hwy. 20) Wednesday, November 15 – New trail off Hwy. 20 at Xat'sull Thursday, November 16 – Walk up/down old Hwy. 20 – possible shuttle.

Tuesday, November 21 – Dairy Fields walk (behind United Church) Wednesday, November 22 – Kekuli walk on Jeep road (off Hwy. 20) Thursday, November 23 – Anderson Road area off bike trail (Dog Creek Road) Tuesday, November 28 – Scout Island walk (from Sam Ketcham) Wednesday, November 29 – Snap/Berracouga Trails (Fox Mtn.) possible shuttle.

Thursday, November 30 – Dog Gone Trail – off Hwy. 20 These activities are subject to change according to weather conditions, so keep an eye on your email/Facebook daily. Visit the Williams Lake Wanderers Facebook page or call (250) 392-6423 or (250) 392-4705 for more information.

No Host Breakfast Social at 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, November 9 at the Dog & Suds before the UBC grasslands walk.

Joe Alphonse, Tl‘etinqox Government, TNG Tribal Chair. ―This is a powerful statement of commitment from the new government. This work is tremendously important for the future of our people and for all British Columbians, so we are very excited today to celebrate a renewed relationship with the Province. We believe all the arrows are finally pointing in the same direction—something I never thought would happen. Now it is time to turn commitments into action and we look forward to the work ahead. The Tsilhqot‘in appreciate Premier Horgan‘s long-standing support of the Nation, including speaking in support of the exoneration of the Tsilhqot‘in War Chiefs long before he became Premier.‖ ―The Letter of Commitment signed today sets the stage for a new, better relationship between the Tsilhqot‘in and British Columbia,‖ said Nits‘il?in (Chief) Russell Myers Ross, Yunesit‘in First Nations Government. ―For generations, our people have fought without compromise, have made every sacrifice, simply to live our way of life. My vision of reconciliation is one of peaceful coexistence between the

Tsilhqot‘in and other governments, supporting and enriching each other, based on mutual respect and reciprocity. The commitments of the new BC government to implement the Tsilhqot‘in Nation judgment, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bring us closer to that reality. We welcome the opportunity to bring those commitments to life on the ground, in our communities, for our Elders and our youth, and for the generations to come.‖ Both the Province and the Tsilhqot‘in recognize the role of the federal government in achieving reconciliation. Full acknowledgement is given that the rights and interests of other First Nations must be respected at every stage of discussion and negotiation.

To learn more see: Nenqay Deni Accord: ow.ly/ZTHb30g9lpF Tsilhqot͛in National Government: www.tsilhqotin.ca Let t er o f Co mmit me nt : ow. ly/ PpYT30ggfhh

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 .

“ 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 Chilcotin Conservation Society, (250) 398-7929 Unit 102-197 2nd Ave. North, Williams Lake ccentre@ccconserv.org, www.ccconserv.org Working within the community to promote a healthy environment as the basis of a strong economy and vibrant society. Programs include Water Wise, Waste Wise, Sustainable Living, and Watershed Health.

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 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 New Paradigm Teas (250) 267-3468 newparadigmteas@gmail.com Four Nourishing blends of locally, organically grown and wildcrafted herbal teas.

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 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 and 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, trails, Nature House, natural history programs for children..

Smashin’ Smoothies, (778) 412-2112 102-41, 7th Ave North, Williams Lake Juice, Smoothies & Espresso 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.

Windy Creek Farm, (250) 296-3256 Miocene, BC Grass Fed Beef. No hormones, antibiotics or vaccines. www.grassfedbeefbc.ca

100 Mile House Donex Visitors Centre Chartreuse Moose Higher Ground Nat. Foods KFC Nuthatch Books Rise & Grind Coffee 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 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 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 Williams Lake Adorn Naturally

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

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 Co-op Cariboo Ski Community Futures Concrete Fitness Conservation Society CJ‘s Restaurant CRD Library Creative Scissor Dairy Queen Dog & Suds earthRight 4 Sure Bistro Friendship Centre Greyhound Bus Stop 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 Margetts Meats McDonalds Mt. Timothy Ski Area New World Coffee Oliver‘s Bar & Grill South 2nd Deli Red Shred‘s Bike & Board Shed Rona Home Centre Safeway Save-on-Foods SBL Liquor Store Scout Island Nature Center Senior Citizens Center 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 WL Acupuncture Clinic Williams Lake Physio WL Seniors Village 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 AND WHY Beautiful Crystal Jellies Ingredients 1 litre Kiju brand grape apple juice 5 T grass-fed gelatin from www.greatlakesgelatin.com or Kinikinik 3 T trumarine collagen from www.withinus.ca or Kinikinik Method Heat 3.5 cups of juice. In a shallow bowl sprinkle gelatin and collagen on a half cup of juice, wait until soft, then stir into hot liquid. Set in a deep dish for two hours. Cut into squares (or with cookie cutters, melt the left overs, and set again and cut into squares).

This is a great way to get your kids to eat high quality protein and minerals.

NUTRIENT DENSE MEAL Squash and Sundried Tomato Soup Ingredients 1 butternut squash 2 onions chopped 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil 1 liter chicken or beef broth ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes 2 tablespoons basil, finely chopped sea salt and pepper for seasoning crème fraiche Method Cut squash in half lengthwise. Place cut side down in a baking pan with a ½-inch of water. Bake at 350 degrees F until tender (about one hour). Sautee onions in butter.

Add tomatoes, stock, chili flakes, grated ginger, and turmeric (optional), and bring to a boil. Scoop cooked squash out of the skin and into the onion mixture. Simmer for a ½ hour. Add basil and season to taste. Ladle into heated bowls and serve with crème fraiche.

To make this soup a super food, add 1 inch ginger, ¼ inch turmeric, both grated, and 5 tablespoons each of trumarine collagen and gelatin.

Enjoy!

Tip: Too busy to make bone broth?

Here a couple of places that have real bone broth you can keep in the pantry, Kettle and Fire, or in t he freezer, www.pasturetoplate.ca.

MYTHS UNVEILED Minerals the Key to Health Over the past 60 years there have been fundamental changes in the quality and quantity of food available to us worldwide.

The character, growing method, preparation, source, and ultimate presentation of basic staples have changed significantly to the extent that trace elements and micronutrient contents have been severely depleted. This trend, established in a review of the 5th Edition of McCance & Widdowson's, The Composition of Foods, is still apparent in a review of the 6th edition of the same work. Concurrently there has been a precipitous change towards convenience and pre-prepared foods containing saturated fats, highly processed meats, and refined carbohydrates, often devoid of vital micronutrients, yet packed with a cocktail of chemical additives including colourings, flavourings, and preservatives. It is proposed that these changes are significant contributors to rising levels of diet-induced ill health. Ongoing research clearly demonstrates a significant relationship between deficiencies in micronutrients and physical and mental health.

Buying organic food will help to get more minerals in your food as commercially produced food often is produced using Roundup, which contains glyphosate—a chemical that inhibits the plant‘s absorption of certain minerals, resulting in poor levels of minerals in food.

Tissue salts may be the answer.

In the early 19th century, Dr. Schuessler identified 12 tissue salts, which he located in every human cell.

These tissue salts are vital min-

eral constituents of every cell of the body.

They combine with organic substances in the body to produce and maintain the infinite number of tissue cells, of which the human body is composed. Thus, any cell salt deficiency or imbalance may result in illness. Vitamins and supplements can only get cellular acceptance provided the cells are adequately mineral-enriched and balanced in the first place.

Tissue salts are not drugs, but valuable micro-dose cell foods prepared homeopathically in a form that ensures rapid and easy assimilation, for the speedy restoration of the natural balance of the body system. They are safe to use for all ages. The sprays are lactose-free.         

Number 1: Calcfluor - Tissue elasticity restorer Number 2: Calcphos - Bone health and anaemia Number 3: Calcsulf - Blood purifier, skin disorders, purulent agent Number 4: Ferrphos - Ant iinflammatory, fevers, first defence Number 5: Kali mur - Detoxifying agent, congestion Number 6: Kali phos - Nerve and brain cell agent Number 7: Kali sulf - Metabolism, pancreas conditioner, skin and hair Number 8: Mag phos - Pain and cramp killer, relaxant Number 9: Nat mur - Water distributor and fluid balancer



Number 10: Nat phos - Acidity neutralizer, indigestion and heartburn  Number 11: Nat sulf - Liver cleanser  Number 12: Silicea - Skin and connective tissue conditioner There are also combination salts available. Check Hylands tissue salts or Martin & Pleasance.

Tissue salts are inexpensive and available online at health food stores and Kinikinik.

Small handbook guides are available at bookstores or on Google.

Winter is an ideal time to start to balance and strengthen your body.

A WALK THROUGH YOUR PANTRY: GET RID OF: All commercially produced food and white table salt. All have very low levels of minerals.

REPLACE WITH: Organic food and high -quality sea salt.

Brought to you by Jasmin Schellenberg Inspired by and resourced from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. For “Nourishing our Children” newsletters of the past visit www.thegreengazette.ca.