The project begins!

Last week I wrote that I would challenge myself to really uncover how I would like to earn my future living...this week I will begin the process of peelin' that onion! ....hmmm cheesy segway into my first thing that I would like my future to hold (looking for a better term than "thing")

Agriculture:
For the past few years I have really immersed myself in agricultural issues. I have somewhere along the line been drawn towards the path from which both sides of my family stem - farming. While I was born into a farming family, we exchanged rural life for urban life when I was very young. I didn't grow up on the farm and am thus lacking a vast amount of farming skills and knowledge.



So why do I want to do something with farming if I don't know how to farm?

True, I have no idea how to run a tractor (though I am experienced at sleeping on the floor of one by dad's feet), but nor do I want to. I am looking at farming on a different scale; on a local, small, and urban scale. Backyard farming, community gardens, Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) farming, and permaculture.

I have always been really connected to my food. So understanding the system it comes from is important to me. While hot topics in agriculture are focussing on how to feed the world population, I believe we should also be focusing on how to feed the world WELL. It's about quality, and knowing where you food has been and how it has been produced (with love?!)

So there it is...something my future MUST contain is an active role in agriculture! While it may or may not become my professional role, I won't be satisfied with a life without it.

Uhm, about this future business?!

**woops, computer problems = lack of blogging!**

Hi honeys!

Normally, the events of a week or two would not be very exciting; however, the past few weeks have been filled with pretty exciting opportunities, many changes, and some last-minute decisions ("Really Micki? That is so out of character though!")...I know. I know. 

Andrew is off to Italy tomorrow! As always, it is bitter-sweet. Very excited for this opportunity for him and so, sooo proud of him. He always works hard to get where he is going and I know Italy will be a fantastic journey for our boy Andy =)

The next few weeks will pass quickly enough for me as school finishes in three weeks and then final exams will take me through to mid-December until I make the journey home again (just in time for sugar cookies, ginger bread, my mom's spiced wine, and the traditional Scottish Christmas cake I am determined to make this year *help!*)!

My other update is about an opportunity that I have stumbled upon - I have applied to be a team member with the Global Youth Network on a social justice trip that will take me to Northern Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Western BC to live on First Nation reserves to better comprehend the social issues such communities face. In observing these situations I know I will be greatly affected and hope that it will provide me a better understanding for the problems that are present here, in Canada. While the GYN mainly targets 3rd world countries, I applied for the Canada trip as I have felt strongly that while international aid is important, we also need to focus on self-healing ( as I might put it if Canada were a person).

Good news came yesterday that I was selected for this team. It is going to be a lot of work, but good work!
I'm hopeful that these new changes will be directing me toward a more clear future - as I struggle at the mo to find myself in my future.

I know nobody ever knows exactly what their future will be....but I often feel many have a better sense of it than I do. It's been challenging for me to envision what my future looks like lately so I have designed an experiment: The next few blogs I am going to be writing about things that are important to me, things that I want my future to be comprised of! Perhaps from this, it will become more clear where I should be and what I should be working towards....and perhaps not, but at least I will have tried!

Your thoughts, wisdoms, and good vibes are always welcome. I hope you're all well =)

Lots of love xxx

P.S. In other news, tomorrow I am helping the Bee Farm on the Guelph Campus can their honey!!! A dream come true....mmmmm can't wait for some amazing local honey! <3

Reflection leads to appreciation

To start this off again, I suppose I need to account for all of the great things that have happened in the last year. It's funny how we always think nothing much happens each day...but when you look back on it, things really seem to accumulate. This is what life is made of and I feel really grateful for the life I have. Reflection always leads me toward appreciation.

Last summer (and a few posts to the south of us) I took a course on Permaculture. Since then my mind has been really honed in on urban agriculture and social improvement. I completed my fourth year at U of Saskatchewan where I got to do a fourth year project with the Ministry of Environment, designing a forest management plan for the Island Forests of Northern Saskatchewan; and then I got my dream summer job as a tech assistant with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, where got to assess environmental projects and learn more about watershed protection and planning... oh and Andrew and I skipped off for a little trip to Costa Rica somewhere in there too!

Rooted (the environmental club I head) also had a busy year - we held a free, 3 session, crash course on permaculture in Saskatoon and completed 5 backyard conversions in the city. That means 5 households are now producing much of their own foods (some even have chickens now to produce their own eggs!), and are focused on implementing a no-waste/closed loop lifestyle!

**Pictures to follow**

And this leads me to where I am today. Today I am sitting in the big old brown chair in my lovely little basement suite, across the park from the University of Guelph (Ontario). I found my way here after being drawn to this city's progressive policies and engaged student body - both of which I love. Guelph is a beuatiful little city and is really homey. Even though I finish school in December, I hope to make my way back to Guelph again...

But come January, I will be off again!
A few months living in Rome will be a great way to finish off my degree! I plan to take a language course, hopefully get a little job, and eat a LOT of pizza =) those are some good goals. I also plan to continue trying to figure out what I am to do with myself afterward... there is a lot to be lost in at the moment but one thing gets me by -- It always works out in the end.

Well, that was a lot of reading and a lot of writing but next time we can start from a more recent point.

Take care...errr, I mean, CIAO!

x

Blog-ON!

It's been over one year since I have written on my blog and I am feeling that now is a good point to write again. Until recently I didn't feel like there was a lot for me to write about, but then I thought more and more about the past year and am feeling exhausted already just thinking about all there is to write! I'm not sure to whom, but that's the beauty of a blog - there might not be anyone reading! These posts don't have to be substantial breakthroughs or strokes of genius each time, but looking back on my blogging days from last year made me realise how much I personally get out of blogging.

Looking back has also really shown me how each day does count. This will serve as good motivation to blog more frequently...so I can look back again and remember how each day meant something.

So here is to another year of blogging, friends! Let me know if you have a blog going too - I'd love to catch up on your lives too =)

From she, who loves bees - take care!

Finally, a Solution.

I arrived home from Toronto on August 5th, and enrolled for a course on permaculture offered at the U of S as soon as I landed. The course was from August 8-21 and ran us 9-5 everyday of the weeks! As with most other experiences in my life I came away with a new set of friends, and a new skill to continue developing.

Saskatchewan's newest permaculturalists! (...and Guelph's)

Permaculture is a way of designing landscapes so that they are able to sustain themselves more easily with less of a human element. Although we design mainly for the needs of humans, permaculture focusses on humans being one point amongst many within the complexly inter-connected webs known as ecosystems.

Here are some many principles I got out of the course:
- Earth Care
- Human Care
- Return of Surplus

Earth care - although the Earth isn't a sentient being, we really should take time to recognize it as a living body and take care of it as one as well.

Human care - to me this point means taking responsibility for your own life, and the lives of your children, in ways that ensure future security and self-sustainability. This means getting rid of destructive habits to your surrounding environments as we depend so much on nature for food, materials, water, and shelter. Not only that but it is caring for what you are putting in your body, be it food, air, water or medicines.

Return of surplus - this makes sense. Think about it - we take and take from the Earth, and what do we give back? We return garbage wrapped in plastics and chemicals, we throw away food and let it mould and rot away, and we flush "waste" to some sort of treatment plant (often open waters). Instead of taking and not returning we need to be replenishing our soils with the same nutrients we strip it of. This can be done by composting our organic items including humanure.

***Side note on humanure

Before you turn away with disgust I think you should consider what is more gross - wasting billions of litres of drinkable freshwater every day on flushing nutrients down the toilet and then recycling that water by treating it with unsafe amounts of chemicals not meant for human consumption at the levels we consume them. This current system then leads us to having to use intensive synthetic chemical fertilizers on our food that has numerous charges on our health and bodies as well as the air we breathe...or collecting the nutrients our body can't access and composting them so they are in their plaint available forms and can cycle again to feed us! It is pretty obvious that our western culture needs some desensitizing to what we find unacceptable!

one group giving their presentation for how to design a site on campus

collaborative supper! mmmmm

tons of talent in this class

Linda and Mike...dancing the night away?!

Paul gave us good vibes =)

we maybe should not have encouraged the beer chugging...

popular footwear choice amongst the parmaculture designers

Mon Québec

Well I've been away from the blog for quite some time but as school approaches it's time to do some housekeeping around here! I've been reminiscing about my time in Quebec and it has inspired me to turn this post into a virtual scrapbook of my time in Trois Pistoles. 

I hope you enjoy it, here is my Quebec!

the other students that I ate with - Suzanne cooked us lunch and supper

Overlooking Parc Du Bic - a good hike to an incredible view from the top

Aileen and me =)

walking along the pier at low tide

two close friends of mine - the sunset and ma bicyclette!

the view of the St Laurent from my backyard

on our bike home from school we would pull over in this area with giant pieces of concrete and wild flowers to watch the sunset

the sunset from my backyard

thank god for sushi! After a sub-par meal at Suzanne's we would head to Boite de Sushi (Sushi Box) for THE best sushi I have ever had! In Trois Pistoles, Quebec! Who would have thought?

performing a rap en francais for my communications class!

late night pit-stops to the boulangerie (bakery) were frequent

studying was difficult on hot days - the "chutes" were much more refreshing

the weekends were filled with long bike rides with Sarah, my roommate!

the incredible countryside of 3P

a secret bridge over train tracks Sarah and I found in the little valley behind our house

horses near the house

where the rocks meet Laurent

=D

my professeur loved mes bottes! I would wear them if the skies were any shade of grey just in case, so she used them as a sign that we would be getting down to business in class that day! I can still here her say "Oh! Tout le monde, Michelle porte ses bottes!" 

Aileen and Rachel in Quebec City for the weekend

ferrying across to Levis for some night shots of the Chateau

Quebec at night

Je l'aime the crazy Quebecois performers this guy was amazing!

I tried to get a shot of the sunset every night - this was taken inside the cafe

...we forgot our key

after our course ended Sarah drove me back to Quebec

a necessary pit stop - the best chocolate dipped cone in the world!

look who found me in Quebec! My old friend Andrew!

messing around with some night photography

a few of my favourite things!

parliament...

...this doesn't mean we are supporters of the Bloc!

I'm lucky to have been given the chance to learn French in Quebec. It was an amazing experience and one that gave me a lot of knowledge, and a lot of life-long friends! 

Now here is a short but sweet list of must-do's in QC:

- eat sushi at Le Boite De Sushi in Trois Pistoles

- go to Librairie Boutique Venus (bookstore-not library!) in Rimouski for the best selection of books - English and French! Upstairs is a unique collection of clocks and phones too...random but incredible!

- after the librairie, go to Le Crepe Chignon for some top-drawer crepes and a cappuccino to top it off!

- visit Les Chocolats Favoris for some gooooood chocolate. This is where Sarah and I picked up our chocolate dipped cones. Only one word will suffice - Amazing!

Bon appetit! Thanks for reading =)

Thanks for Reminding Me!

So I guess Toronto found out the news that I am returning to Saskatoon August 5th, so she decided to throw me a little party called "Love, Saskatchewan" (please disregard the hick-ish looking photo on the front page - I really do find it offensive!)

Ok so it may not be a party in my honour (minor details), but this weekend down at Harbour Front most certainly is the Saskatchewan themed weekend of the summer. I can't wait to check it out - the food, dancing, poetry, art, storytelling ect. all to get me warmed up to go back west!

Although I have mostly enjoyed the time I've spent in Toronto, it really did remind me of where I am from and now, where I am going!

Thanks TO, you really are too kind!