My Community, My Home; A Vision Statement

Hello friends, I have recently been enrolled in a mooc (massive open online course) titled "Intro to Sustainability". One of the assignments, the final essay, is a vision statement outlining your goals toward living a sustainable life. I thought I would share this with you and possibly spur some conversation on the subject, I would love to share some of the information I have learned in this course with you.
My Community, My Home;
Building wellness and education, a hands on approach is applied to sustainable living. By growing relationships with like-minded individuals, and sharing our combined knowledge and experience, we will help organize community based activities that promote sustainable practices in the home, garden and beyond. Initially I shall continue to be involved in my community, helping neighbours and upholding an awareness of global issues. The next step is to allow myself the time to maintain and improve my home and land to run both efficiently and productively within a permaculture system, this work is critical and ongoing. In the long term, other community members shall be contacted with the possibility of a business/co-op to help construct sustainable projects within the community.

Back in Black

Hi guys and gals! It's been a while eh? To be honest with you I have been thinking about the blog lately, pondering my future in social media and how I can either (a)stop it all together, (b)keep laying low and pretend it doesn't exist or (c)give it another go and try to make it exciting again. My biggest reason for laying low as of late is simply my work schedule, I have not been working a night shift and therefor do not have that transition shift where I used to find time to write. I am also going through a bit of a lesson in humility, I really need to get away from pushing my ideas, let go of some of my grandious visions and just be a contributing member of my community. I still feel a strong sense of leadership, that is just part of me that will not die. I believe that by leading by example, calmly and quietly, your message will get through to those who are ready and willing to learn and share your common goal. So yes, I admit it, I have been pushy, demanding and biased when it comes to certain changes I have made in my life and if any of you who read my blog have been concerned, offended or otherwise, I sincerely apologize and hope that I can withdraw my urge to be 'popular' for lack of a better term. When it all boils down most of what we do from day to day is rather self serving and we do need to slow down once in a while. That being said, I am back on this crazy schedule of seven days, seven nights, seven off. I should find time once again to write! I am excited because I get to watch myself, I want to se if I can stick to my guns, it is difficult to keep your ego in check. I often find myself caught up in conversations about other people, you know what I am talking about here, the classic office gossip, the rumour mill. These petty little words that you use to make yourself feel better than that guy or girl. It's all self serving bullshit! It drives me crazy because I know it's wrong, yet I still do it. So, I hope in this admission of guilt there is reprive. Possibly, just maybe, by actually printing these words the message will finally get through this thick skull. It may be difficult to avoid these types of conversations, I guess I will have to figure out something to skirt to chatter to a different topic, or just outright say that I would rather not talk about other peoples' problems or shortcomings. I have enough of my own, thankyou very much! I truly wish you all the best in the new year, happy holidays, enjoy your family and friends, and please find time to give a little back to your community in any way that you can, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem to you.

Overdue

Hello there! I have been meaning to get back to the blog for a while, but as you know life happens and sometimes these types of things get set aside. With that said, it has been a very busy four months for myself, I took the summer off from the oil sands and worked for a new HVAC contractor back at home, I had the pleasure of meeting some great people and enjoyed my time with 21 Degrees Mechanical. I am grateful for the opportunity granted to me by Graeme and Doug and wish their business well in the future. For now I have retired from the residential constuction end of things and am going to focus most of my career on Heavy Construction and Mining. I feel much more comfortable behind the wheel of a massive mining truck than I do crawling around in shitty crawlspaces and attics. So that's that, and I am back up here in Fort McMurray for the forseable future. My local food initiative The Comox Valley $100 Challenge, has taken off, maybe a little slower than I thought it would, but the page is growing steadily and with a little fine tuning and some creativity I think the goal of 1000 participants is achievable. If you have not heard about it check it out, www.facebook.com/ComoxValley100. The local food and Paleo diet go hand in hand. We are so blessed in the Comox Valley to have a fantastic climate and decent enough soil to grow and raise all sorts of fine meats, veggies and fruit, and enough long beautiful grass to supply a dairy cow all it needs to produce a wonderful milk for hand crafted cheeses and yogurt. If you are struggling with your health, as was I, than I believe you have much to gain from sourcing your food from our local farms and avoiding factory farmed grains, corn, sugars, and meat products that are not fit for a dog. This summer I also re-learned the importance of preserving and prolonging the life of food and cutting down on waste from our homes. A trip to science world in Vancouver was inspiring. Anyway, I feel as I am rambling on here so I will leave it at that. I have a few ideas rolling around in this caveman brain and will be asking for some input from you to help make some ideas come to fruition, so until then, take care.

Are we there yet?

I am sure many of you have been on a long car ride when someone mutters the question "are we there yet?" in a whiny kind of voice. That is not the question I am proposing today. My question is not of a place on a map, some sunday drive to grandmas' house, my question is however about grandmas' house. In grandmas' kitchen more precisely, some where in one of the cupboards or perhaps spread open on the counter, pages with bronze corners and polka dots of tomato sauce, a patina of sorts earned over decades of christmas turkeys, sunday pot roasts and strawberry-rhubarb summer nights. So when I ask you "are we there yet?" I am asking you to go back to your childhood because some where along the way we lost sight of grandmas' house. We forgot about those tattered pages, handwritten reminders of measure and temperature, no pictures yet somehow colourful and lively. We forgot that butter is almost always the secret ingredient and that love is always the perfect medicine. Somehow we got lost and with all of todays technology and navigational aids at our fingertips many of us are having trouble finding our way. The answer is in those old pages. We need slow food. We need fresh food. We need to read grandmas' recipe book.I am often astounded by the number of young men and women that claim to have no culinary ability, that show no interest in where their food is grown or how it gets to their table(or sofa). In my opinion this is probably the largest problem facing North America today. Serious health problems run rampant, genetically modified cancer causing high fructose corn syrup is in almost everything that comes in a plastic bag, box or plastic lined aluminum can. Why can't we see the light? The answer is we are addicted. Addicted to wheat, sugar, corn and money. So before I get all political and scare you away I just want you to contemplate one thing. Are we there yet?

"change" for the better

Hello everyone! This morning I had one of those ideas that I want to throw out there and see if you and I can make work. The first thing I want you to do is take a look at your food budget. I am sure almost all of you know roughly what you spend on food per month, this is probably the one place where we all try to go as cheap as possible and will forgo our health and wellness for the sake of saving a few bucks alas I do not wish to go off on a rant about my views on nutrition for the sake of this idea. I am going to create a new facebook page, where we can document our local spending. My goal, a rather lofty one, is to re-invest 1.2 million dollars into our local economy (Comox Valley) in one year. All that is needed for this project is the dedication of 1000 Comox Valley residents to spend $100 of their monthly grocery budget at local suppliers or farms and of course farmers markets. You can also include the purchase of locally crafted soaps, candles, art and music as these are often purchased in the context of a big box store. The page will be called The Comox Valley $100 Challenge, membership is free, the only requirement for joining is that you stick with it and help us raise 1.2 million for local growers and artisans. The page can also be used as a forum for discussion on local accessibilty of produce in season and how shopping local has changed your life for the better. Lets do this!!

mark it zero

Once again CBC Radio 1 has given me a fairly important topic of discussion. This one has a very obvious knee jerk reaction response, and also a more in depth, thought provoking side of the debate. From what I have gathered from the radio broadcast a teacher at an Edmonton high school has been suspended indefinately for breaking the schools' grading policy which states that teachers are not to mark a zero for any incomplete or missing assignments. According to the schools' policy the instructor may only make a written comment of the missing work, and must grade the students for work that has been completed and handed in. Now of course this has created an uproar in the Edmonton area and also across Alberta. The phone calls and emails to the radio station pretty much echo one another. "Zero mark for zero work", "How will students be prepared for college/university if they get a free pass in high school". Noone has really looked at it from the schools point of view. The school says that a zero grade will only deplete the students' self esteem and give them no incentive to try harder. They also believe that the repeated missed assignments may be an indicator of a behavioral issue that cannot be beaten into submission by poor marks. This is the sort of outside the box thinking that many school districts are missing. Let me explain from my personal experience why I think a zero grade is just a way of the teacher saying "if you don't care, then I don't care" and why low high school grades may actually help some students choose a college education. Now I know there's a bit more to it than what I am going to cover here, but some crumbs must be left behind for chewing on later. Here's a few numbers as well. 30% of high school students in Alberta do not graduate, of the remaining 70% only 30% of those will carry on to post secondary education. So does it seem like the system is failing to you? Or am I alone on this one. To me it seems obvious that some of these kids are not getting the attention they deserve, given too many zero's over the years and they just don't give a shit anymore? Maybe a bunch of those kids have not had a single nutritious meal in the last month or two and they just can't think from the lack of brain food. Maybe they have drug or alcohol addiction in their lives and show signs of brilliance at times, but just aren't consistent in their work. When you start to open up the pages of this book and read between the lines a bit you begin to notice how deep the wound is. The system is hemmoraging and we are in the golden hour. I did ok in high school, but I worked evenings and weekends at a local restaurant so I would blow off the odd class here and their to go fishing or hang out with my girlfriend. My grades suffered and I dropped Math 12 for lack of interest. I did well in shop and physics, leadership and social studies. After graduation I felt as though I was missing some valuable courses so I enrolled in the local college and took biology and math, both of which I enjoyed and my marks were much better than what they would have been in high school, so for me those low marks I got in high school gave me the incentive to improve myself, I don't remember ever getting a zero though, low marks were enough to keep me interested without the feeling like I had been given up on. If there is a single correct answer to this debate we would have found it already. Teaching methods vary as much as learning ability and readiness. I agree that hard work deserves reward and nobody should get a free pass. I also believe we need to invest a little bit more thought into the system before we start telling kids that we don't care about the real reasons why they are having troubles getting their homework done. I know I have probably left out a few key points in this issue so feel free to give a little input into this story as it affects all of us. Thanks for reading and sharing!!!

find yourself

The last time I found myself on two wheels on a island named Hornby was 1994. Driven by a teenagers' sense of adventure and looking to get lost in a haze of girls, bikes, beer and hash. Mission accomplished, I was convinced I had lived the ultimate Hornby experience. Little did I know, some 18 years later I would revisit this island oasis, this time with a different outlook. A lot changes in 18 years, the once shoulder length haired, squinty eyed, stoner has blossomed into a somewhat responsible, SOBER, loving father of two amazing children, eyes wide open. My love for mountain biking is stronger now than it ever was in the '90's and what better place to find yourself than this remarkable island. But this time it wasn't about me, it was about us. I was so proud of my 4 1/2 year old son as he peddled his way over roots, sticks, rocks and calmy stopped and pulled over to the side to safely let the odd vehicle pass on by. The whole time his 10 year old sister leading the way on the 4 km ride from Tribune Bay to Whaling Station Bay. Our riding was cut short by a blackberry thorn that punctured Haileys' tire, so we got to experience the fine art of hitchin' back to the Co-Op! Luckily, we got a ride back to our truck in no time and the tube was replaced at the local bike shop (fantastic little store!). We had alot of fun in a short amount of time and I look forward to many more trips, hopefully mom can tag along with us next time. I would also love to get over there for a dedicated day or two of mountain biking, this time I want to remember a bit more than '94!