I just finished reading Kathryn Stockett’s novel ‘The Help’. It came out three years ago so I’m a little late. In fact, it has already been made into a movie starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer which I haven’t yet seen. The book gives a telling account of life as an African American [...]

I’ve had a very animal filled day. With horses, sheep, chickens, dogs and a cat you could say every day is animal filled around here, but this day was more about wildlife than the domestic type. It started early this morning when I glanced out the window and saw the most amazing sight. Two flickers [...]

This morning I got up, made a cup of tea, leaned against the kitchen counter and took in the view of the river fed lake below our cabin. Then I walked over to another window and had a look at the waterfall tumbling through our garden. Sounds pretty picturesque hey? You might even be experiencing [...]

Neither Darcy nor I realized just how excited we were about heading off on our first garage sale Saturday of the year until we were about a mile from home. That was when we noticed two things. One, we still had the tank in the back of our truck that we use for hauling water [...]

Up here in the Peace Country we have had three drought years in a row. The fire pit we bought in 2009 has never had a fire in it. Within days of the snow melting, fire bans would fall into place and stay there until the end of summer. The ground was so dry it [...]

There’s a baad man on the loose in our neighbourhood. He’s been stopping his truck at the end of our driveway to baa at our sheep. He did it twice this week and once the week before. Maybe he’s doing it every day. Maybe multiple times a day – it’s hard to know for sure. [...]

I’m a Canuck fan by marriage. For the 31 seasons we have been together I have watched Darcy’s hopes rise every year only to be dashed to pieces in the end. “Oh well,” he says at the end of every hockey season. “Next year.” And sure enough, when the next season skates forward on its [...]

With father’s day coming up it seems a fitting time to pay tribute to my dad. I spent a lot of time with him while growing up on our cattle ranch. I was the youngest of three daughters. I think he was resigned to my having to be the son he would never have and [...]

For years I postponed planting asparagus because of the commitment factor. It takes three years from the time you plant until you get a harvest. Who knew what could happen in three years? We could move, die or not even like asparagus by that time. Then I started thinking how if I had just planted [...]

The snow has only disappeared for three weeks and already our yard has gone wild. The grass needs mowing, weeds are busting out all over the place while the vegetable seeds bide their time. In the garden quack grass and I resume our battle where we left off last fall. I shovel up its long [...]

The cliché “if it bleeds it leads” is often used to describe the focus of the nightly news. People often question the focus on terrible things and wonder why we can’t report on happy events instead. I see it differently. To me the fact that bad stuff is considered news means the good and the [...]

My bees arrived yesterday after a very long trip. They started out in New Zealand before landing in Edmonton and being trucked another six hours to where I was anxiously waiting to chauffer them home. As I bounced along our country roads with 10 pounds of bees buzzing away on the backseat I couldn’t help [...]

Sunday mornings have a slow pleasant rhythm around our place.  While one of us feeds the dogs and the birds, lights the stove and makes coffee the other heads out with a pair of buckets to feed the chickens, gather eggs and throw some hay to the sheep and horses.  While the chores are being [...]

My hopes of being a beekeeper instead of a beehaver are over.  When I held my ear to the hives in mid-February I was reassured by the low hum of buzzing inside.   The next time I checked all three were silent.  A quick heft of the hives told me plenty of honey was still inside [...]

  Ah, books.  I love them, I buy them, I have way too many of them.  I covet every piece of empty wall space as a possible spot for a shelf, which I then fill with even more books.  I also have an abiding love affair with trees.  Weeping, upright, shaggy bark, smooth bark, coniferous, [...]

Spring is coming slow here in northern BC with daytime highs of five or six and lows in the minus seven range.  The roads have turned bare and dry but the fields are still full of the white stuff.  It is slowly – oh so slowly – settling into the ground and filling the earth [...]

  Last week I wrote about a psychologist who recommended deliberately putting oneself into embarrassing situations to help overcome ones fear of humiliation.   While I found her theory interesting, I confessed I wasn’t the sort of person who needed to seek out embarrassing situations.  They find me just fine on their own.  Here’s just one [...]

  It stands to reason there must be people who are comfortable enough with attention and drama to tell the truth when they are hurt, but I have never met one.  Instead you will witness a human lose their footing on a busy street, tumble to the hard cement only to leap up and proclaim [...]

You know it’s been a long winter when your spouse comes home, announces he has just bought several years worth of firewood at once and all you can think is he should have bought more.  At a time of year when it makes more sense to be visiting plant nurseries, saving up for a vacation [...]

  I’ve been planting some garden seeds.  Getting my hands into the soil – even if it’s only the bagged kind – has been pure bliss.  I’m thinking maybe it won’t be winter forever after all. Maybe spring really will come.  It always makes me giddy when I tear open that first pack of seeds.  [...]