Walking on a Chilly Day

I was walking around the acreage this weekend enjoying the winter sunshine as I inspected trees and bushes for winter damage.  It still amazes me that I can pick up sticks in the fall and find more in the late winter or early spring that I had actually already cleared up.  The winds seem to get harsher every year or else the trees are just getting too old to withstand those winds.  This year part of my windbreak by the hen house also took a dive so that has to be repaired come spring.  As I walked and mentally stored away the tasks ahead I also used the other side of my brain to ponder philosophy.  Gasp!

I was thinking about how much I enjoyed walking around a piece of property that belonged to me and feeling appreciative of having 5 acres to trudge about on.  Ownership is a powerful feeling but it can also make one very vulnerable.  There’s this attachment thing which can trigger some very fierce emotions if that sense of possession is violated.  Attachment can also make a person stubborn or inflexible, change may be unwelcome.  These thoughts were reinforced by watching Robert in Downton Abbey struggle with change after the war. 

As I inspected my new apple trees I also felt a sense of frustration with nature in the form of deer.  They are pretty, I feel sorry for them getting shot at during hunting season but I do not like them eating the bark off my expensive Japanese Ivory Silk Lilac tree or chewing the young branches off the apple trees.  My mind went in circles as to how best to shield the trees from these hungry deer since the construction I currently have in place doesn’t seem to be doing the job.  Just as mice can squeeze through the tiniest of cracks so a deer can leap the highest fence or find the space between trees and bushes.

I remembered that the vineyards of my childhood had the sound of shotguns firing to keep the birds away.  Hmmm?  I’ll have to ask John if he can fix me a shotgun sound.

The Best Quiche Ever was eaten by a girl

Do you remember the mid 80’s when quiche and crepes were the big lunch favorites in downtown Anywhere?  They even had a book named “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche” on the bestsellers list “back in the day”.  For some of us quiche is a genuine comfort food on a miserable day and I’m not ashamed to admit that nor that I make the best quiche EVER.

It happened like this; back in 1980 Dad, John and I deviated from our original financial plan.  What else is new, right?  Instead of staying in real estate we decided to start up a bottled water company.  Now that is a whole other story but here’s where the quiche comes in.  Dad felt he had to wine and dine with a lot of different business people but Nanton had a rather limited range of restaurants (although I have to say here that there were more restaurants and gas stations in 2,000 pop. Nanton than 5,000 pop. High River – why I don’t know).  Therefore Dad discovered restaurants in other local towns one of which became a real favorite with him.  The Flying N in Claresholm was owned and operated by Jean Hoare and her husband.  I loved her Chicken in the Gold feature and that is what I usually ordered when I happened to be one of the party.

Jean Hoare eventually wrote a cookbook and of course we had to have a copy.  I discovered her Classic Quiche Recipe and have been using it, or my version of it, for years.  One of the most important tricks to making a good quiche is to have a good pie recipe.  Basic pie recipe is best and for that I do the following; 1 cup of lard or Crisco, 2 cups of flour (plus more for dusting), ½ - 1 cup of COLD water, 1 tsp salt.  Cut the lard with knife & fork or use a pie cutter.  Slowly add in the flour (salt has been sifted in).  Once cut in then slowly add cold water to get it from crumb stage to a ball.  Usually you don’t need more than the ½ cup of cold water.  I cut the ball in ½ and roll out one portion for a pie.  Now here is an important TIP – do not over-roll your crust.  I turn my crust as I roll rather than rolling back & forth (which makes the dough tougher).  Handle it as little as possible.  Put in pie plate.  Repeat for second piece.  Leftovers go to make stripped topping.

For the filling of a quiche (Jean’s recipe with my substitutes in brackets):

·         4 slices bacon, 1 tbsp bacon drips (or you can substitute bacon bits, even the artificial kind)

·         1 cup sliced onions (or you can use a tablespoon of dried shallots)

·         1 ½ cups cheese (old cheddar is best)

·         4 eggs, beaten

·         1 cup milk

·         1 cup cream (note – if you have a smallish pie crust then reduce this to ½ cup of each)

·         ½ tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp pepper

·         ¼ tsp nutmeg (optional – I never use it – instead I use 1 tsp of dried roasted tomatoes)

Bake the piecrust for about 5-8 minutes just to be slightly flaky (at 425 C).  Add grated cheese and then add liquid mixtures (beat eggs, add milk, cream and spices as well as bacon and onions).  If you need to slightly stir the mixture to spread the onions or bacon, be gentle). 

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 C (If you have a convection oven you should reduce to 425C), then reduce heat to 350C for another 20 minutes.  Cool slightly before serving with a nice green salad.

Oh so good.

Understanding God

In the midst of my bible reading venture I also read several complimentary books throughout the year.  These included “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis, “Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers” by S.E. Frost, Jr., “The Heart of Christianity” by Marcus J. Borg, “How to Know God” by Deepak Chopra and “What God Said” by Neal Donald Walsh.  I was mostly profoundly affected by Deepak Chopra’s thoughtful book on understanding God by understanding one’s brain seconded by Borg’s “The Heart of Christianity”.  Both books endorsed humanity seeking spiritual enlightenment without the need to become Fundemental.  Their findings aligned in many ways, most particularly with people’s need to understand that there is something “more”.  We have a desire to believe that there is meaning to our lives and this has developed into religious or spiritual seeking.

Deepak’s book is subtitled “The Soul’s Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries” and yet the book itself is based on science as well as the spiritual.  He writes about the seven stages of God which in essence is the evolution of humans as well as personal development.  It was a fascinating read that gives a person not only hope for themselves but also for mankind.  If Einstein could believe in the universe as a thinking entity, a god, then who are we to doubt?  I highly recommend this book to get a deeper understanding of the workings of your mind, heart and soul.  Lovely, lovely book.

As a Christian, nominal or fundamental, I also recommend “The Heart of Christianity”.  Borg writes about how many people have difficult with religion as it has developed today, feeling that it has no meaning for them anymore.  If you feel almost embarrassed to want to be religious or Christian and yet still feel a desire to seek out spiritual comfort this is a book for you.  He talks about the emerging paradigm, what is most central to an authentic Christianity and Christian life today.  I thought it was very well written and I wished I could find a church with that open type of religious thought.

Christianity is not the only path to either God or spirituality but it is the one most familiar to my readers and our Western society.  I am still reading more on Buddhism, Islam and other religions so there will be another summation at the end of this year.  Now gentle readers you have something to look forward to (no cliff hanger this). 

Forget Politics - Remember History

I have wanted to steer clear of politics and negative blogging but I feel I must speak out about the recent turn of events in the United States.  I am talking about Trump’s banning of certain media from his White House briefings; The New York Times and other respectable media outlets are being banned because Trump perceives them to be against him.  He calls their reporting “fake news” among other things.

No matter what your political leaning may be or whether you are American, Canadian,  Western European or any other nationality,  I think you MUST see that not having Free Press is a terrible blow to Democracy.  This move of Trump's may only be the tip of the iceberg which this government is rolling out so it is vital for everyone to stand up and protest.  This is no time for anyone to poo poo about what is going on here.  This is no time to be lazy, oblivious, ignorant or “above it all”. 

Just reflect back on any of the books or films you may have seen with respect to what went on in Germany in the 1930’s.  Perhaps you may have heard stories from your parents or grandparents who lived in these times, even as I have.  This wasn’t pretend, these things really happened and the really alarming part about how the Nazis and Hitler came to power was that middle class Germans never dreamed that their society would take such a horrendous turn.  They thought they could get rid of Hitler and the Nazis, that it was just a momentary blip in the political stream.  Suddenly though Germans were afraid of THEMSELVES.  If you read no other book this year, read “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallalda.  If you can, then read “Countrymen” by Bo Lidegaard.

I know social media currently is an avenue to have your say but this too may be shut down.  Perhaps not a literal shutting down but if a person writes something and one or two days later uniformed men come to take you away . . . you see what I mean?  These things can happen, may even be happening now.  A better way to voice your concerns is to write or call your elected representatives.  All of them.  And when you vote be really sure that you know who you are voting for.  Don’t be fooled by those who tickle your ears.  Don’t go down the slippery slope of hate and fear. 

Make a stand for what is right.  We may not all believe in the same things but surely we all believe that vilifying people who are different from us is wrong.  And most of all surely we believe that killing is wrong.  Whether we are in Canada, the United States, Europe or elsewhere, right minded people must be strong and must speak up for democratic rights.  Free speech and freedom of the press are unalienable rights in the Western world.

Make a stand for what is right, please.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  George Santayana

Takeaways from Bible Reading

In reading the Bible cover to cover, my personal judgment is that one can read the Bible as literature first, history second and religious philosophy a distant third.  Many authors owe a debt to the Bible as their inspiration for their own stories; writers and poets such as Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, the Brontes, Dickens as well as contemporary writers such as Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman (to name a few).  Our literature is strewn with biblical allusions but this is not news to any literate person.  The Bible itself as literature is worth reading as a good story with an intricate plot and many beautiful passages that read as poetry.

The Bible as history may surprise less religious people but in fact archeological finds have confirmed many of the biblical figures are in fact historical figures.  The books of Kings and Chronicles are accurate in many respects and both Pilate and Jesus are documented historical persons outside of religious writings.

Now for the crux of the Bible as religious, spiritual and moral teachings.  My personal takeaway did not change substantially from before my “Bible in one year” reading.  The most valuable lessons are Jesus’s Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and no one can go very wrong if they live by the Ten Commandments. 

All the other teachings are not essential to morality (in my opinion).  Rather there are guidelines to behaviour, stories with moral lessons (Job, Esther, Judges), outcomes on loyalty (Ruth), parables with many different life lessons (the Gospels).   Leviticus is a book of rules on hygiene, incest, leprosy (oh yes, leprosy seems to be stressed frequently in the Pentatuch), money lending and so forth.  Yet if one refers back to the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule then all the other lessons are (for me) either obsolete or in simply illustrations that prove that the commandments are the rules to live by. 

Overall I do recommend reading the Bible with an open mind as literature, history and morality stories.  For the religious person the Bible is a very complex string of moral stories and that’s all I will say about that (for now).

 

Bible Reading Results

Completing a year of bible reading along with taking courses on the Old and New Testaments as well as  companion reading has given me a different way of looking at both the Hebrew and Christian religion.  Instead of looking at the Word or possible philosophy or interpretation of what this or that prophet meant it was interesting to look at the writing of the Bible from a historical perspective.  As an historian the first thing one must do is suspend any belief in the writings come directly from God.  That was easy for me but for others I know that is a hard one to deal with.  Just do it in order to get a new perspective.  Why would you want that new perspective, you may ask.  For me the answer was to then be able to understand people from both sides of that perspective as well as understanding how religion(s) evolved; not necessarily to debunk religion.

I’ve always had problems reconciling the Old and New Testaments but when you understand the theory of how the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was developed it becomes much easier to appreciate the differences in the 2 testaments.  Furthermore when you take the step to analyze the different Gospels in the New Testament you can again understand the conflicting messages both between the Old and New Testaments but also within the New Testament. itself  Looking at the Bible from a historical perspective is fascinating and enlightening.

More to come on this tomorrow.

Fodder for Stories

Last week I went a little crazy, as I think you may remember, so I have been a little cautious about getting myself into anything new.  Each morning Mom pops her head into my office and asks me “have you bought another house” and John comes by for coffee and asks “is everything normal today”?  It’s so easy to have one’s reputation as being down to earth ruined.

I am relishing the mundane, the pedestrian, the vanilla kind of life.  I laugh when I recall John’s simpler life.  It can be uncomfortable thinking about one’s ridiculous exploits except through the lens of 20 years or so; when it happens as a weekly memory it’s not so fun to laugh over.  Unless you have that absurd sense of humour where you can laugh at yourself unconditionally.  But right now, I am going for a very quiet life.

Some people wake up every morning without even thinking about having a quiet life although it is their silent hope. And almost every day they encounter something weird or unfortunate which ruins their day.  I happen to know someone like that.  The oddest things seem to happen either to him or around him and we wonder what sort of magnet draws this to him.  Sure people who rent homes may also experience a grow op in their basement but how many people have the tables turned on them when the police are looking at you for “unlawfully” entering your own property rather than busting the grow op people?  How many people go fishing and catch a seagull on their line rather than a fish?  When they take a fall they don’t just twist their ankle, they also get weird infections. 

Old novels call these people hapless, current books call them marginalized people.  Yet these anecdotes are fodder for stories, wonderful and entertaining once they have been lived through to tell the tale.  Unfortunate incidents help to build character they tell us but it would be nice if they could be spread farther apart for some of us poor folk!

Fun with Thinking

I have been thinking . . . one often will start a conversation with that little gambit and we may get sarcastic rebuttals about the pain of that exercise.  However, I have actually been thinking about this and that but mostly about how to get the most out of a life in retirement.  Everyone has their own character, their own style, their own philosophy and no one is right or wrong.  Or are they?

I think there is one style that is definitely wrong and that style is not having any plan and suddenly finding yourself retired with nothing to do.  These people have a shock coming to them when I tell them that their chances of living more than a year in retirement are slim.  I was personally very shocked to learn this fact and was relieved that I, at least, had a plan.  I am grateful for having the ability to think ahead. True it is a blessing and a curse but I’ll take it anyway.

My friends are concerned about me taking on more farm responsibilities.  Building my apiary, adding to my flock of hens and building up a fruit farm seems to them too much working and not enough retirement.  However I love being out in the fresh air, I love the physical exercise of digging in dirt, I find my hens comical and endearing and the anticipation of bee keeping is very exciting since I will be learning something that is both science based and creative.  I cannot imagine just sitting back drinking pina coladas or watching soap operas.

I am writing new goals in my Jumpstart book and will be excited to review them in 2018.

2018 . . . I can’t believe how fast this century is moving along.  Is that something old people say?

 

Jumpstart my Jumpstart

You’ll recall that last year I took a 90 day course in jumpstarting my thinking.  This year I have been reviewing the book and my notes and was pleasantly surprised to actually see positive results from that “course”.  In reviewing my notes I saw that I had put down as my overarching goal “a quality retirement”.  When discussing this with friends they asked “but what is quality”?  Immediately I said “continuing to learn and staying active in old age”.

I have been somewhat nervous in making the commitment to start up an apiary but since I had mulled it over for so long I was able to visualize going to the next step and now I feel confident that I have made the right decision for me.  Friends were concerned that I would be taking on a lot of work “in retirement” but my vision of my retirement is not to be sitting in a rocking chair while reminiscing.  I want to be doing and since I love gardening and the outdoors this is a natural fit for me.

Finding things that make you happy for many years to come is vital if a person is going to have that “quality retirement”.  Sometimes ideas will come to you that you never saw yourself doing 10, 15 or 20 years ago but learning to jumpstart aspects of your thinking is amazing.  This step I have taken is in the “possibility thinking” niche and it is quite exciting.

Have you done your jumpstart yet?

Bee Keeping in Earnest

Last year I took the step of searching out and finding a mentor to learn more about beekeeping and I was very fortunate to find someone close to home who has taken me under his wing.  Having received my bee stings without dire consequences I am now happy to report that I have ordered my first bee colony and some of my supplies for my first season as a bee keeper.  I am still hoping to buy another colony early in the spring and then I will officially be able to call it an “apiary”. 

It was with some trepidation that I took the test in my knowledge of bees since it had been well over a year since I took my initial course.  Lucky for me I had read the first couple of chapters in my notebook and can brag that I got 87.5% on the test.  That means I am on the list to get one of the colonies from this particular beekeeper.  Most beekeepers don’t put you through that ordeal though as it is a bit nerve wracking.

The venture is fairly expensive to get into since the cost for 2 colonies is going to reach approximately $1,000.  Coupled with the fact that there is really little commercial return for 3 years it is quite a commitment to undertake.  However I am doing this for the long term benefits of learning something new, helping our environment and let’s just throw in world peace so that it sounds good. 

In fact I am taking on this new aspect of farming as part of the overall goal of developing a small working farm.  But more about that tomorrow.

Blue Noise

It’s been a crazy month since the inauguration of President Trump.  All the tweets, the media responses to the tweets, the executive orders and more media furor over the decisions is difficult enough to wade through but then social media goes stark raving mad.  I understand I am not the only one who is experiencing a form of battle fatigue with all this nonsense.  Hence the blogging went quiet for a while in order for me to sort through all this “experience”.

Ultimately I have come to the conclusion that minimizing social media access would be a positive step and avoiding comments as much as possible would be ideal.  Unfortunately I am not the sort of person that can let too much stupidity go unnoticed but I am now practicing mental biting of tongue.  I must say that I enjoyed hearing Dawna Friesen of Global News speak out for journalists in the days just following the inauguration where she explained that journalists had never had to tread through this territory before.  I’ve already lost track of what incident it was that caused the furor but it doesn’t really matter.  There’s been fodder every single day since he took office.  Can anyone imagine 4 years of this?

Having discussed the Blue Noise as I am calling it I hope I can avoid going down this path again at least for the foreseeable future!

Easy Come Not So Easy Go

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking away on the site and I thought by one o’clock I would know if I had the first house.  Geez louise, it went to zero and wham, another 24 hours started ticking.  Good lord, I was not on the hook quite yet. 

“Alright, let’s go to High River and look at these houses.”  And off we went, John, Mom and I to see the infamous houses in High River.  John fiddled with his GPS since Google Maps did not recognized the addresses.  We would soon discover why as we drove around stomping ground that were fairly familiar to us but these 2 areas where the homes were being sold were both located in bush areas.  Hard to believe that there is bush areas in High River?  There’s a reason why these homes were being sold but that’s another story.   

Looking at the first house I was even more panicked than I had been as this was not a house, it was a freaking mansion.  Apparently these were million dollar homes but on the site they looked suspiciously small and non-threatening.  These monsters would definitely require lifting up of electric poles along the highways to our land.  Ka-ching, Ka-ching.

When we finally found the second location I started to breathe a little easier as there were tons of vehicles along the street and people bustling about.  We had noticed a considerable amount of vehicles driving along the desolate road at the first location with plenty of u-turns being performed so we knew there was action in town that could only be others looking for these auction homes.  My spirits picked up when I saw the Holmes Building Movers trucks.  Yes, definitely lots of people waiting to pounce.  My money was not lost yet.

The second house was even more imposing than the first one.  John’s evaluation was no more cheerful than at the first house.  The house was very high, there were turrets, a three door garage attached to the house, balconies.  It would be a nightmare to move.

“Well, at least you can’t say that I didn’t give you a lot of action today.”  I assumed a cheerful mien.

“Are you sure you weren’t drinking?”  John sniffed my breath “Perhaps we could say you were out of your senses so that you can withdraw your bid.”

“There’s no mechanism for withdrawing.  I already looked.”

John gave me a sour look and sighed some more. He was definitely not happy.  I don’t know if it was all the complications or the thought that Felix might be his neighbour.

However, I am nothing if not a woman of action.  I got on the phone as soon as I got home.  Who did I call?  Holmes of course and it’s a wonder that my hair did not turn white after that conversation.  The cost of the second house would be $75,000 to move and the first house definitely did not have underpinning (the floor was built straight on a cement pad, not great for a move).  However, the gentleman gave me some hope.  He said there were some prospectors who were definitely going to buy the million dollar homes because they had a project to relocate and sell them again “for big bucks”.  I thought “good luck” but didn’t say so.

Meanwhile I was frantically looking at the site.  Boom I had been outbid on the first house.  But still there was one house remaining.  Waiting, waiting, oh thank the lord.

I had a day where my blood pressure must have sky rocketed and I vowed never to do anything so insane again.

John just asked that I not try to ruin his life for at least another year.

 

 

Yesterday Life Was Simpler

Yesterday I woke up later than usual so I had the radio on while I was making my breakfast.  Suddenly I heard that there was an auction for houses and the deadline was “today”.  I took my breakfast into my office and excitedly began searching for the Alberta government online auction site.  That took a few moments and before I had had my first sip of coffee I had not only registered but suddenly had bid on 6 houses.  I took a sip of coffee and some sanity seemed to clear my brain.

Six houses, was I out of my mind?

On two of the houses I had put a proxy bid of $10,000 (good God I really had lost my mind) but luckily by the time the fog had lifted from my brain I saw that I was outbid.  Churls, I thought, this is a scam!  Who is up at this time of the morning outbidding me?  You see most of the 26 homes were bid at around $1,500; only one lunatic (thankfully not me) had bid $100,000 on one of the homes.  Having finished my coffee, woken up mother to the alarming news that I possibly was going to get 4 houses and then having read the fine print I saw that I was on the hook for $80,000 in security deposits it was now time to spread the alarm wider afield.  First I took another look at the site before calling my brother.

“Hi Ole.  The good news is that I am only the owner of 2 houses, not 4.”

“Whaaat?”

I explained what had happened and his solemn response was “are you sure you woke up sane?”

”Can you come and look at the site.  The houses are really nice.  I was thinking of Felix.”

He said he would come and he did show up about an hour later.  Meanwhile I was pacing back and forth from the hen yard to the office, refreshing the site page every 5 minutes.  Yep, I was still the highest bidder on 2 houses.  My brain was firing on all one cylinder (let’s be frank, I was in a panic).  I didn’t know if I should be excited-happy or excited-hysterical.  On the one hand, I would be helping out my brother but on the other hand, complications loomed.  Little did I know how complicated those complications would be come but John was shortly to disabuse my mind of any sense of excited-happy.

He showed up and as usual put the kettle on before getting his ashtray, searching for his lighter and then sitting down and looking at me with a frown.

“What were you thinking?”

“Well, I thought it would be great to get a house for Felix.”

“You know you could be looking at $50,000 just to move it.”

“I thought it would be around $20 to $30,000” I said lamely.

“Bobcat Johnny said he could put in a septic field for around $50,000.”

“$50,000!” I exclaimed “I thought it would be about $5,000.”

“The rules have changed.”  John said bitterly.

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission; we’ll do it anyway.”  I was grasping at straws.

John sat back, blew a slow puff of smoke up to the ceiling then looked across at me and sighed. 

“Yesterday life was a lot simpler.”

To be continued . . .