Author: Spirit of the Land

 “Beauty Everyday: Stories from Life as it Happens”

Written by Battle River Writers, and illustrated by regional visual artists, photographers, poets, and musicians, the anthology is:

– an outcome of Culture, Creativity & Place Conference I-2012 at Red Deer Lake,
– based on First People, Settler People, and New People in the Battle River Region.
– inspired by landscape, communities, and the arts.

In September 2016, four of the book’s authors were invited to present the book at various venues in Australia: e.g., Aboriginal Cooperatives and Land Sites, Deakin University, Centre for Ecological Integration, Hopkins River Water Ceremony, Municipal County and City Councils, Art Galleries, Health Centres, public readings, and more. Further encouragement has come from a Maori group in New Zealand to have us come there to present the book and the First People, Settler People, New People model we’ve used for community engagement.

There will be a book signing table at the upcoming “Reconciling Land, Life & Livelihood” Conference.

Previous trips: Sept. 10, 2015, July 12, 2015

As you are familiarizing environmental awareness in your local areas, we do the same through a tour of our farm.  Everything is connected.  If there is anything that we don’t understand, it is because we have not yet found its purpose and that is our task or mission to find out how it fits into making the picture complete.

For example, mountain blue birds are a joy to see on our farm.  Their blue plumage can take your breath away and leave you in awe.  However, the BB is not just another pretty face.  It enjoys dining on terrestrial insects like grass hoppers and their larvae.  When a drought comes along, grass hoppers are part of the package, as they like dry conditions.  They can wipe out entire crops of grain and also pasture. 

The industrial model of farming has discovered pesticides that kill grasshoppers and save crops and pastures.  However, pesticides do not target only one thing.  Eventually, they make their way into the food chain and have been found to be a cause of breast cancer, one pesticide called Carbofuran, to be specific.  It is examples like this that make us realize that any action that we do, cannot only do “one thing.”  This relates not only to our farm but also to your community of Camrose and area.

One thing that industrial agriculture does well, is that it treats symptoms.  It rarely identifies the cause.  On our farm, we have 240 nesting boxes that we hope will attract many mating blue birds.  If they do their job, we have great hopper control.  To discourage hoppers, we leave lots of standing pasture in the fall which dies and becomes litter that covers the ground in the spring.  The fewer bare patches that you have in your pastures, the fewer hoppers you will have as they seek out these areas to lay their eggs.  So we are identifying the cause.  The temptation is to have more cattle which would leave the pastures bare in the fall and if the following spring is dry, there will be ideal conditions for hopper out breaks.  More cattle translates into more money for the short term, but less in the long term, as overgrazing will soon have you reducing your numbers and recovery takes a long time.  I know because I have visited there and done a great job of reducing the abundance that the land can provide.  In 1996, we began to “rebound” and rebuild what my previous management had compromised.  As Wendell Berry mentions, we have to understand how much is “enough.”

The other benefit of leaving more grass in the fall is that the litter that it provides in the spring covers the ground and reduces evaporation.  This provides the grass with moisture so that it will grow, even though there has not been any rain.

I have asked many people what benefits come from a drought which sounds like a dumb question.  I have had no takers.  However, in the extreme drought of 2002, the BB’s that came to our farm and nested, found so much food (grass hoppers) that they nested twice and doubled the population.  There is the benefit to our farm and the common good.

A tour takes about 2 to 2&1/2 hours.  We drop in on the hogs on pasture.  Kids seem to enjoy this the most as few if any of them have ever seen a real pig, except for “Babe,” let alone observed it in a farming environment.

The chickens, turkeys and laying hens on pasture is the next stop.  Again, this is something that few adults or children have seen.  It re-frames the paradigm of raising livestock.

We begin calving next week and should still have a few more to come when you come for the tour.  We will drop by and see the cows and calves grazing or lounging while chewing their “cud.”

We will also be grazing about 120 cattle for another farmer.  Water is pumped to them with a portable solar powered pumping sytem.  By keeping the cattle out of the creek, we are improving water quality for those downstream.  If you ponder this, you will realize that there is always someone else “living down stream.”  Even when the water runs into the ocean, there is “life” living downstream.

We have trees planted in many different varieties of plantings such as eco-buffers, wildlife habitat plantings and shelterbelt plantings.  All of these have very diverse purposes.  The eco-buffers attract native pollinating insects which pollinate our pastures as well as the native flowers in them.  The habitat plantings attract a plethora of species of birds as well as ungulates, insects and predators.  The two row shelterbelts provide “shy” wildlife species corridors to travel throughout our farm and feel “at home.”

During the tour, you will see all of our 10 dugouts (watering sites) and creeks, fenced off from livestock.  These areas provide tremendous habitat for biodiversity.  Since 1970, the “Blue Dot” has lost 50% of its wildlife…………………………(this requires a pause)……………………………………….I feel that this needs to be emphasized as we are all dependent on many forms of flora and fauna to exist as a species.  This is our main goal of offering tours; plant the seeds of the importance of caring for the land and its creatures and hope that our guests will take this home.

The last stop is at the cabin for the potluck at about 4:00 to 4:30.  There is a small propane stove with an oven.  There are two composting toilets – each looking like the best toilet you’ve ever seen.  I would ask that folks bring chairs.  The cabin has a wrap around deck and the front overlooks the wetland that inspires us to keep on keeping on.  We have three pick-up trucks that we can transport about 40 people so dress comfortably and prepared for “weather.”

RSVP to: spiritoftheland1@gmail.com.  Also, please feel free to ask questions if you require clarification or have suggestions.

Our hosts, Don and Marie Ruzicka:

This is a rather difficult post to write…I am sitting here in class, listening to Lorne Green speaking about the history of residential schools, the effects and healing.

This semester I have been involved with different classes doing some work around residential schools which has been very impactful to say the least.

I saw first hand what kind of impact these systems and school had on people. My father and his younger brother were put in foster care and then in a catholic orphanage when they were young. The experience and its effects stayed with them through their lives. They each spoke a bit about it, even on their death beds. My dad and I were very close and spoke about many different subjects quite openly. When the horrors of residential schools began to be exposed more and broadcast my dad and I had several discussions about it. I did come out and ask him if anything had ever happened to him while in an orphanage and all he replied was that: “There are a lot of weird people in the world and a lot of sick people. Really sick people”. He also told me he saw a lot of severe beatings of kids, some where he knew they would never be the same. When I asked about sexual abuse he told me they stayed away from him for some reason. For a person that was always positive, optimistic and full of life and energy, this was one of the rare occasions where I saw my dad slide into a dark place with a different look on his face.

My mother and father very rarely disagreed on anything, however, I do remember one of the fights they had was about my mother wanted to take my sister and I to church or at least to Sunday school. My father absolutely refused. Its was one of the only times I saw him raise his voice and I knew there was no way to sway him. Even my mother crying didn’t help the situation. He said that there was goingto be no discussion about it, that when us kids were old enough that we could make our own decision about whether or not we would attend. I never really understood until experiencing and learning about the effects of trauma and grief later on in life. Funnily enough, towards the end of his life, my father asked to meet with one of the catholic priests in our city. They had several visits and I saw the effect that these meetings had on his sense of peace and well-being at the end of the terminal illness he died from.

I grew up in the Northwest Territories. Apparently between the NWT and Nunavut there were a total of 10 residential schools. The first were in Fort Resolution located on the South side of Great Slave Lake in 1867 and in Fort Providence on the shores of the Mackenzie River also in 1867. I still have friends residing in both these places. When I was growing up Fort Res was home to several dog mushers and kennels who did very well on the race circuit. My dad spent several weeks a year in Fort Providence hauling supplies over the river during break up and freeze up with a helicopter. It’s only been in the last few years that a bridge has replaced the ice bridge that we would travel on. When the bridge was out during these times there was no other way to cross the mighty Mackenzie.

Growing up, I heard stories about abuse that had gone on in these schools. Many different stories. I remember my friend’s mother telling me that when she was a young woman in her home community that she refused to go to church until they got this “half daft, sicko priest out of there” and she told us a story that is to obscene to repeat here. Coincidently, that same man many years later was brought before the courts for things he did to children in his care and in his community. She told me and her daughter to be very leery all the time and not to trust a soul.

Other stories included explaining the reasons as to why adults I knew around me drank or acted wild and abusive and crazy. As a kid, I didn’t really understand that it had a lot to with being taken away from their families and put into residential schools…in looking back now and knowing what I know about severe trauma and grief…it did. The witnessing of ongoing shame and trauma, blame and neglect. Struggle with severe addiction and different forms of abuse and just general insanity and the normalcy of it all is something which has permeated my life and beliefs and has taken a great deal of thought to somewhat sort out.

I look at my own two children and I think of them being taken from me, abused and neglected and I have no idea as to how a family ever would recover from that. My first instinct is always to think of my children’s wellbeing. That is very strong within me and I put it out there that it is very strong within every parent. To have your child taken from your care and subsequently abused is unimaginable. Like really sit and think about that for a moment. Think about what went on. The effects of these schools and this system had will be apparent for generations to come.

I believe that more healing will come from others speaking out more about the effects that these systems had on individuals and families. I am also going to propose that the current system continues on with these abuses today. That the abomination of indigenous and aboriginal individuals, families and communities in this country is blatantly continuing on today. One example that I put forth is the abuse and poisoning of one of the largest fresh water systems in the world, the Athabasca. Aboriginal communities along this river system are essentially being poisoned. There are children who are sick. Imagine being a parent of a sick child. A child you know is not going to get better. This is going on in this country today. There are still children being taken from their families by our government in this country. I encourage you to really sit and think about that. Has our society evolved at all? From residential school abuses to environmental abuses…Is this at all acceptable for any reason? It’s not to me.

My son was born six years ago and since his birth I have been a single parent with several challenges and very little support. Finding myself in this situation and at this age posed a reevaluation of significant long held beliefs regarding every aspect of my being.
It became very apparent that my children were watching every move I made and were emanating it in their interaction with the world. Beginning to understand the importance of community, rural and environmental sustainability I began to understand that the family plays an enormously important role.

I am lucky. I am a pretty social person and there are a lot of people in my life I would consider friends. I have received a lot of good support and good advice over the years pertaining to the home I should co-create with my kids. A few of those I would like to share in this brief post:

1. “Conscious decision making. Think about it and implement it. Conscious decision making.”
2. “Families the most important thing. You take care of your family. You make them a priority and you let those kids know every day how much you love them.”
3. “Figure out how to grow your own food and be in service to your family and to your neighbors. Help one another out. You teach those kids how to take care of themselves and contribute and that’s the best thing you can do. It will come together, trust me on that one.”
4. “Kate, you focus on improving yourself, building a good home for those youngsters and figure out the people that really truly care about you and you focus on that and the rest will fall into place. Everything else can just ^*!!@ right off. You got me? ”

This is what I held onto in dark times and which I now dole out to others who are struggling to identify and build a life. All of these can be extended to sustainability. Looking at the products we use in everyday life and talking to my kids about it. Taking the time to plan on taking them for walks and on short trips. Initiating conversations about what we have seen and asking for their opinion. Having them research different recipes and getting them involved in food preparation are all activities that contribute to sustainability on a more broad spectrum.

Start the truck, make sure it has gas and you have a full jerry can in the back that’s sealed good…theres nothing worse than having gas everywhere.
Double check the directions to the camp.
Head out onto the ice road, yah yah sort of like Ice Road truckers, just not as well groomed roads. “You’ll see a bright orange marker, its rough but well send the Bombardier out to open it up a bit”.
We see the fish camp, they’ve been out there for a while and there’s a big file of culled fish…fish that won’t be processed and sold to restaurants.
We back the truck up, we load the truck high with frozen fish. We have some tea.
She tells me: “You know Kate, when the world is kicking at yah, yah just keep kickin’ back, just keep kickin’ back and eventually they’ll stop”.
Drive back to the “city”.
Put the extra dog houses in a circle.
Back the truck up to them, unload the fish, throw a tarp over it. Throw snow up over the tarp and the dog houses. I see a fox watching from a ways a way. No ravens will get into this pile but I will leave it open just a bit so the fox can get in if it’s that hungry. There’s lots of them and they are starving this year. Poor soul. I leave some grub out for them and watch them eat a bit. They eat more like a cat than a dog like animal and they don’t like my cooking.

When I was really young I would watch Laura and Gerard and their relatives Peter and Linda work with their French Bulldog and other dogs. They would prepare different types of dog food. I learned to make fish dog food from watching Fran and Mathew. They were patient with me and let me tag along and watch. They set me up with my first 3 dog team and Matt would go ahead on the skidoo and the dogs would chase and if I fell off Peewee, the big white leader, would turn the team around and come back for me. I wasn’t very old.

Pull three big fish out of the pile. Chop them up with an axe. I have a little rule: a chunk for each dog. Chopped up, they cook faster that way. Throw them in the big metal pot. Turn the propane on, start the torch. Lift the metal pot onto the frame. Pour the hot water from the house into the pot. Let it cook for about twenty minutes and check on it.
Take the lid off and stir with the old boat paddle.

It’s bubbling. I breathe in the steam. I believe the oil from the fish makes me healthy. Healthy lungs, healthy hair, healthy skin, healthy mind.

The fish is cooked. Let it sit and cool.
Dump the contents into the big plastic garbage can. Plastic, because it is easier to clean and also to drag along the snow to where ever it has to go, heavy sometimes.

If it’s cold, add more oils – like corn oil.
If you want to enrich their blood feed them some beaver.
If they are sick feed them some beaver intestines.
You want to keep them parasite free, give them some beaver fur to play with. Eventually they eat it and it will go through their system.
You want to make them lean and fast? Feed them beef.
It’s cold and you want to still keep them training? Add chicken skins or start feeding real fatty chicken. If it’s cold and you want to go real old skool, give them oats and lard.
You want to give them wind and open up their lungs? You chew on some rat root, kneel beside their bowl and spit it in there. Just a bit.
Lots of water. They always need to get to water. If they are healthy and aren’t training they won’t want to eat everyday but they always need access to water.
Jackfish they don’t like so much.
Whitefish they like better in the summer when you throw them a frozen one to knaw on.
Trout they kind of like only frozen and chopped up and they just need a little chunk.
Char when you can get it. The dogs that know what that is gobble it right up.
Pickeral, um, not so much. It has spikey fins.
Fresh water cod or Ling or Mariah or burbot, that’s what I feed, they love it when its cooked.

“Feed them good and work it off them” said John as we were standing there watching Robert feed these beautiful, lanky, strong hounds. John taught Robert how to run dogs when he was a young adult, a loooonnnng time ago. Robert won every race that year.
I got to spend a couple of seasons with John and his wife. He taught me a lot. “Kate, why do you always have to do things the hard way? Think about things!”. When I saw him he gave me a big huge hug. So big, I scared myself around it. He was glad to see me.

I have the individual dog dishes all laid out around the garbage can. I look up at the first dog in line. Esau. He looks a little thin, a little more for him. Longlegs. She looks a little fat, a little less for her. Those crazy puppies are under four months old get them fat in case they get sick they will have some reserves.
Don’t feed them so much them so much that they lose their appetites. If they ever turn away from their food take it away from them and give it back a bit later. Sounds funny but you train them to eat fast. That way when they are under stress or sick or tired that eating becomes automatic and in extreme cases of sickness that can be lifesaving. “Those dogs eat so fast I thought they were going to eat their dishes!” I heard Danny say once. He also said to me one time when I was talking about training a young leader once, a dog he didn’t like: “The only place that dog will lead you to is straight to HELL!!!” I am still laughing about that.

I am still kneeling there, deciding how much of this heavy oily dog food I should add. Not to much, they don’t need a lot.

My dogs know, they don’t jump up. According to Cesar Milan, I am to be the pack leader, the dominant one. I am not sure I like being that, however, it makes life easier. The respect me and I respect them. They watch me and I watch them and if they don’t pay attention to me when I walk in the yard, I’ll throw a little rock or twig at them when they are not watching to get their attention. You need this, you don’t need out of control baboons not listening and potential killing something and they are more than capable of it. They should be aware of me. They are working dogs and only after we have had a real good run do we play a bit.

I make each one sit before they get their food. It takes longer.

Each one eats vigorously. They are healthy. Healthy coats, healthy eyes, good muscle tone, coordinated balanced and focused. They are not the fasted, we are still trying to find our niche. I am thinking longer races. 50 to 150 to 300 miles maybe. We will see. I don’t really know how to train them. If I asked them for something than they give me everything they have. It takes a very long time to figure these things out on your own.

I get to travel to other communities. Communities beside rivers and lakes. Not many dogs. Why? Hard to get food I am told. That’s weird. Even fifty years ago dogs were a huge part of life, there was food then wasn’t there? Even when I was a kid people were still keeping dogs. That’s how I learned.
Dogs that people did get are dying, big pussy cysts vets can’t figure out. Can’t get them healed. Breast cancer. Pups dropping dead from at four, five months old. One right after the other.
Fish? The stuff I chose to feed my dogs? You find them with cysts. Even the ones without cysts I would be leery of. Feed them to my dogs now, if I had any? No. Fry them up for my kids, the way I was raised? No way.

My kids haven’t learned to make dog food like that and they probably won’t. The more I think about it, the harder it would be to find a steady supply of food.

Now, instead of hopping in the truck to drive hours to a fish camp on the tenth largest lake in the world, we go to a mall.

This is a thing that I do on my Facebook page about 2-3 times per month. They seem to generate some discussion around issues that are infrequently addressed in media and in everyday conversation. They are based on actual discussions with different friends. Names of course have been changed and a blanket apology for all of those I may unintentionally offend is stated.

Friend Quote of the Day
Scene: I am sitting in the University café area eating a sandwich when my friend Gerald, an Environmental Science major walks up to me and takes a seat. I know him well enough that I can tell by the look on his face he has a question and/or concern to hash out.

Me: Hey hey! I saw on Facebook that you are headed to the Oil sands Student delegation primer at main campus later this week! I guess that means they accepted your application! Right on! That’s wicked!

Gerald: Do I really have to go to this oil sands delegation primer dealie? Like what do they do there?

Me: Last year that had some wicked profs talking including Dave Schindler! That man has a spine, something I appreciate that’s for sure you can find some of his lectures on You Tube. You have to go and check it out! Super, super interesting.

Gerald: Well you know Kate, I was talking to my friend and I told her about how you went on this trip last year and how absolutely mortified and traumatized you were by what you saw in the Mac and she was like: “Gerald, I really don’t want you to go if you are going to end up with PTSD!” Am I going to end up with PTSD?

Me: Well, quite honestly Gerald, if you think about the implications of what is going on in our country with regards to environmental legislation failures, corporate takeover of our government, food systems, medical care, media, education and absolute total disregard and disrespect for not just human life but for all life on earth you may just end up with PTSD. The Tar Sands – I refuse to call them the oils sands – and all of our governments complete and absolute failures and basically everything that is undeniable wrong with human civilization all rolled into one disaster beyond all imagination. Breaking through the denial of what this is what would cause such utter trauma that I suppose it could, with the right medical professional be diagnosed as PTSD. I mean there are misdiagnosis going on all the time…don’t get me started on the autism spectrum and ADD & ADHD stuff today my friend.

Gerald: You know if I didn’t know you and if I had spent so much time hearing you lecture people on this stuff I would think you were nuts. In fact it did cross my mind when we first met. Not that I am trying to insult you in any way shape or form, I know I can be honest with you that’s all.

Me: Oh my goodness, there is no insult taken whatsoever! Have a look at the news today about what’s going on in New Brunswick and anti fracking protests. People standing up for basic human rights and the media (TORONTO SUN – shame on you) slaughtering them. I so know it is not just me that sees this… I think it is really important for you as a environmental science student to really get out there and see what is going on and this trip will be good for that. Also Dave Schindler and David Suzuki are going to be speaking at U of A next month….maybe we should make a date of it???

Gerald: A date with you would be a total trip anyway, however, a date with you to go and listen to Dave Schindler and David Suzuki speak about the state of the planet would be completely surreal! You know you did demand that I watch a couple different documentaries that ended up blowing my socks off like “The World according to Monsanto” and “Thrive” and got me super aware of the horrors of GMO so you know what…I am going to the primer and I am so not going to hesitate going on this trip to the Tar Sands.

Me: That is good Gerald, hopefully they talk about the cancer related deaths up river from this “development” and the abscess and cyst ridden fish of the Athabasca. That will give you a bit of a view of how incredibly far reaching this disaster is and how out to lunch our society has become. And you know what, quite honestly, if you are that affected and think you are suffering from PTSD by your visit I will hook you up with a week long course at a place on an island off the coast of Vancouver Island that I know about….but I will tell you about that place later….

In Wendell Berry’s Conservationist and the Agrarian, Berry explores the different levels of commercial farming and its effects upon the environment. He presents the smaller farm as a more appropriate choice in promotion of sustainable food systems. Berry also puts forth control systems that are “commercialising with unprecedented haste and aggression in order to grow the world’s food supply” (68).

Over the last few years I have learned a great deal about the food system that the vast majority of the population benefits from. I had to, as I have a now six year old son who was experiencing major behavioral issues. Through a variety of different types of assessments through the traditional medical system I was advised to put him on medication. Which I chose not to do. Eventually through a holistic health practitioner it was determined that he had food sensitivities. Within 24 hours of cleaning out the cupboards and starting to eat only food that had no colorings or preservatives there was an enormous difference in his behavior. This got me really thinking about the impact that food available to us in grocery stores is having on our population and how it may be affecting our mental capacity and overall general health.

One of the questions that I have thought of and asked often in relation to some of the environmental destruction that continues and despite the mountains of evidence that these projects are having upon our planet. A population controlled in a variety of ways including nutritional deficiency is one of these controls and could be an answer to the unbalances in our population today. It is definitely something to consider and also supports Berry’s call for a return to a smaller more sustainable food production measures.

In Kaylynn Sullivan Twotrees “Indigenous Mind”, the author makes a call for more awareness of the “broader accountability of the uses of power” and suggests that the understanding and awareness of “species relationship and interdependence” is essential in securing a future on this planet. This is something that seems like common sense to me, however, without providing a long list of environmental disasters (some of which in our own backyard) it is obvious to me that this is not common sense and that this type of empathy and awareness might have to be taught to people.

I am very lucky. I had a father that believed it was important for me to be exposed to a lot of different raw and real life situations. He also had a lot of faith in my ability to make sense of what I was seeing. My family owned an aviation company. Aviation where I grew up plays a pretty big part of everyday life. After Yellowknife, there are only winter ice roads that head north and a lot of those are for exclusive use for the mines and large exploration projects. In the summer months you travel by aircraft to these remote locations. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to be hauled along on many trips under the guise of “swamper” which usually involved shoveling snow or loading and unloading different objects. What this opportunity did give me, besides the development of a strong back, was an aerial perspective of the effect that human development had on the landscape. In my mid to later teens the federal government put a pile of money into cleaning up old mine sites that had been abandoned.

One of the reasons my dad came north is because of the DEW line site construction. The DEW Line – short for Distant Early Warning Line – is an integrated chain of 63 radar and communication systems stretching 3,000 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska to the eastern shore of Baffin Island opposite Greenland. The DEW line is located within the Arctic Circle over the entire length and for much of the distance completely unexplored. Both he and my uncle flew both helicopters and airplanes to these remote locations all across the north. Funnily enough, many years later I worked as a flight attendant on small 40 seat aircraft that ferried crews and supplies in and out of these sites when the government finally decided to deconstruct them.

One story my dad told me was about when he was doing work in the Arctic Islands for some sort of resource Exploration Company. He was flying a couple of geologists around and was told to land at this one spot. At this spot there were little hoodoo like formations. Apparently one of the geologists walked up and started kicking one of them over. My dad told me he was horrified that this university educated man did not realize how precious these structures were. He told me it was then that he realized that a formal education does not always make for someone that saw or cared about the bigger picture.

Think in ways you’ve never thought before.

If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message

Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,

Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

 

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,

Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose

Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers

A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.

 

When someone knocks on the door,

Think that he’s about

To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,

Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time,

Or that it’s been decided that if you lie down no one will die.

 

~ Robert Bly ~