thanksgiving

what a great thanksgiving that was!
people gather around food. why?
i suppose its one of the few things every human has in common (besides noses and ears and all that) we all need to eat to live! so why not be artsy and social about it!
and hey, why not be local and organic if we can? tastes better and feels better! Gives eating a more full filling feeling, knowing where your food comes from, and that its safe and happy.




I am slowly savouring the saskatchewan author, Amy Jo Ehman's book, "Coming Home for Dinner".
its all about her year of eating only local food, and her need to become a detective to find out how!
Its great if you live in Saskatchewan for all the resources she gives. Its great anywhere for the modivation and inspiration! the recipes are scrumptious.

I heard her talk on CBC about thanksgiving yesterday. It was a sunny Saskatchewan morning, Atlin and I were driving out to Vanscoy to meet sister family for breakfast, and Amy just brightened up my cbc morning even more.
here's her blog: home for dinner

There are other similiar books done by authors in other areas.
"The 100 Mile Diet" by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon was the first one i read, and it is GREAt. I read it while living near Vancouver and that was neat cuz i could visit the spots they talked about. Looks like they have a new book out called "Plenty"

there's the No Impact Man documentary
which is about more than food, the family goes a year with having as little negative impact on the earth as possible... very good film, i think you can watch lots of it on utube.

Where do we find the local, free range items to eat???

first stop is the farmer's market or local market garden:

Saskatoon has a great farmers market - Saskatoon Farmers Market
they are open on Wednesdays and Saterdays, but the little market store is open all week, they have a little bit of everything ya need!

Regina has a farmers market, which i am eager to check out - Regina Farmers Market

then there's this here little directory I stumbled upon : stop the hogs organic farm directory


thats all I could find today... but If you know of any other resources, or have any stories on gathering your food, please, leave a comment about them!




aaaanyhooo,
enjoy your free range eggs and wild blueberries!

Art

I absolutely love this here one, i watch it often!
it is the music video for Tanya Davis' song Art
by film maker Andrea Dorfman

our own space in this world

626

this is the house number on the house which is going to belong to us tomorrow.

we are buying it!!
what a great thing it will be to own a home. ours.
no more paying off other people's mortgages!!
yippidee doo da.
home sweet.
i can paint the walls what ever shade of white i choose!
i can put orange shag carpet all through er if i so please!
we can paint the thing some fluorescent shade of pink...

what would the small townians think.
i guess we should do it just for shock value.








lookit that nice bright room!
what color should we paint overtop of that wall panelling?

I am feeling like chopping a hole in that wall to make it open into the kitchen.
or just fill that wall with bookshelves...
that will probably be more what will happen...
books everywhere. and plants.








this was the selling point. what a knob. i was taken aback!
that and the fact that i could have bought it on my visa. small town sask is cheeeap!




















so if your ready, hold on to your hats, cuz here we GO!!! wooo hooo!

its corn harvesting season! i picked most of mine and now am going to get to work freezing it!
it is supposed to freeze here tonight so i picked all the zuchinni, corn, cucumbers and spaghetti squash.



this is Adolf Nordin and Dorothy Dahlberg , my grandparents (on the left), my grandpa's sisters beside....oh! i just noticed another girl hiding in the corn! wow, can you see her? its gotta be another sister.




I love how old photos are almost always taken out doors! i guess because they didn't have flashes?



even in the winter...

this one was labeled "courting days"

















lookit my dad gettin wood from the pile!
so cute.
I can't wait until my daughter is getting wood from the pile.






















simple details of day to day life, the clothes on the line...
some of those look like diapers

















this looks like hard work!
chuking those huge heavy bales up into the hayloft

this barn is still standing strong on our farm.
the cat's always had their kittens up there.
and, my auntie had her wedding dance up there! how AAwesome is THAT!?









Here's gramma and grampa with the foundation of the barn























oh, how I wish i could just zoom bak to then, to see what its like to live simply and sustainably.
to see what community is really like.
back when people were more important than things...
when work was just as fun as play because you were surrounded by your friends and family thru it all!

Groovy Dancing Girl

you like-a da beanziz

Blanching of the beanziz night.























wash and cut
it was 10:06 as you can see. in the pm.























blanche for 2 minutes then quickly dunk in cold water...
now its 10:15




















i did this while listening to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, on DVD. Unfortunately, the only reading i have time for nowadays is to have someone read to me! works fine. the woman has a nice voice.


Just read the part where she was talking about how every city has a word. A word that its inhabitants think about often.

She said that, to her New York's word was: achieve.
and Rome's word was: sex
I think Rome's not the only city who's word is 'Sex'...
what would your city/town's word be?

lets think... sometimes i find it easier to make 2 or more words:

Dawson City, YT: exist how you are
Whitehorse, YT: active winter
Vancouver: mountain hip
Saskatoon: flow cavort
Winnnipeg: middle artsy
Canora, SK: Perogy flats



homework for you:
1. think of a word or phrase for your town/city/area
2. think of a word for yourself...



oh here's a story about beanziz.
told to my by a friend in whitehorse:

him and his buddys, while travelling in Mexico ended up getting invited to a part at the end of the night. turned out to be a bunch of burly, rough lookin, biker type mexicans. He was feeling quite out of place there and maybe wondering if they should be there at all.
Got in a conversation with one of the mexican guys over some beers and asked him what he thought about the really white canadians hanging out drinking with them.
This is what the burly Mexican man said:
"I come from a woman, you come from a Woman, I like tha beanziz, you like-a tha beanziz, We Are the same! "

doesn't that just sum it all up...
beautiful.
thanx for the story, D#2.

bread n balls

it was fabric ball and bread making day today.
i've been meaning to make a ball for a long time. here's how it turned out:

the pieces are all shaped like this:
























Atlin thought it was alright...
























not quite as interesting as headphone wires though.