The coming... and going.....

It's hardly a secret around here that we despise winter with a passion. Usually we figure on the snow staying after November 1st. It's here and it ain't going away until June.
This year it's early by a week and it's cold. Darned cold with more darned cold to come next week, with double digit darned cold at night which is pretty darned cold for the first week of November. Darn it.
The Geese are still flying overhead, the ducks left town instantly it seemed and the sun is already noticeably low in the sky, so much so that the solar panels are now shadowed by the cabin we are working on. It will have to be moved PDQ or we'll face mega generator time to keep the system running. At least we do have sufficient coal and wood in store for the duration.
The hay supply for the Naggeroos is ample and an improvement in feeding over our last efforts.
Vehicles are capable of carrying us through without concern, new tires are installed as needed and no real concerns lurk.... that we know of.
We're not as far ahead as we had hoped on the cabin project but we are warm and snug in what we have, so we'll do what we can, when we can. We learnt long ago to work with nature, not against it.

So all in all, I'm not too worried about it, the concern before us now is that a trip back to Blighty is necessary for myself, my Mum turns 100 and I need to be with her. This means Sylv will be holding the fort for 9 days on her own.
Watering the horses in winter is a struggle, even with electricity. We are therefore facing a challenge.
This week end our project is to build something to do the job and ensure Sylv can keep the water flowing on her own. Note the word problem is not mentioned. It's a challenge, not a problem.
Living this way builds a level of self reliance we don't notice anymore. We just deal with what comes.
Whatever we create, it will get us through and we'll be stronger for the experience.
Looking back on our years in Canada and how we've worked through the difficulties we faced, I know this winter will be no problem at all.

Maximus Minimalist.

Yes, it's been a while....
There never was any real intent here, just ramblings and thoughts when the urge arose. Guess I must be getting older and less inspired. Darned near a year passed and nowt written. There is no defense offered, none needed. It's been a busy while, things happened and life is good still.
The restoration of the old house here at The 12 is a fading memory, it's too far gone and so are we.
Sylv once said that she's not leaving the 12 again, because if we do we'll be robbed blind and loose those possessions we hold dear.
Her mindset got me pondering, as it often does.
We love to travel, particularly through the winter months, yet we cannot leave home for more than a day or two without risking robbery. We are prisoners of our possessions.
If we rebuilt the old house, everything we put into it would be a shackle to this propriety, emotionally, financially and physically.
Then my mind wandered towards options and the bigger, long term outlook for our lives. We are both heading towards our senior years and all that entails. We have lived in 6 houses in our lifetime together, every move bringing upheaval. That thought provoked the usual reflex of "never again".
We don't want to change house again, so how do we avoid it?
Simple: You take your house with you.

We've had a small cabin for many years that we never use, located at a campground we never enjoyed. So we cancelled our memberships, picked up the cabin, brought it home and embarked on a project like few others. It's now mounted on a massive steel skid, insulated to beat heck, a new roof, an addition and by spring, will be our permanent home. And that's the key. Permanent.
If the approaching years demand we move closer to our children, our home comes with us. We'll move our home, but we'll not leave it.
Van-dwelling, downsizing and tiny houses are all the rage but we're just not cool enough for that. We have too much stuff ....and we're not giving it up. A lifetime of collecting and creating who we are. We know we're not a couple of old hippies and we don't care what anyone else thinks. In fact, many quietly envy being able to live as we do. No mortgage, no worry of collapsing house values.
Nutty perhaps. And that's fine with us. We're doing what we feel is right, not to be trendy, not doing what the rest of the herd is doing. It's us.
And what fun it is! No architect, no approvals. Just the responsibility of protecting our own interests and safety. We can create whatever we can dream up that can be hauled down the highway.
When we leave the 12, we'll leave nothing behind. No house, no home, no investment other than the trees and gardens we've developed here. We're not buying into "The dream" of building forever, to leave it tomorrow.
And when we are done with our little cabin, it will pass to our children or perhaps grandchildren.
Whoever might care to embark on a similar path of simple living.
Our gift, with our love. Their home, for their dreams.

Is there an alternate life?

 Despite the fine and noble intentions of seeking a better life through minimalist doctrines, one has to question if the yearned for better life does indeed exist. Perhaps the one we lead is in fact as good as it gets. This IS it.
Turning 60 is yet another milestone (yawn) with ever increasing reflections on what-all has gone afore and what may yet be discovered.
Quote of wisdom: "Money can make life easier, but seldom better".
After 3 years of doing the minimalist thang here at The 12, living off grid, etc, the stark reality is that I'm still working like a slave. 
Granted I don't have to, we can live quite nicely on very little but we now find our children need a little help to set their lives on a better course. Which costs money......
And it's not just a case of handing over $500 to help where needed, it's a far less obvious cost.
As simple as taking a truck over to lift shingles onto my eldest sons roof can cost over $100 in fuel alone.
Lending daughter a vehicle while she enters the workplace after university can bump the insurance up a hefty rate because she's still rated as a young driver.
Not that we complain or hesitate for a moment in doing these things but the cost of simple acts of family support do add up in short order. Hence the continued need for income.
So as we coast out of summer and towards another grim winter, I question what we would have done had we stayed as we were. Had we stayed with the majority.
Our lives are now somewhat easier in several aspects but harder in others and our savings have certainly freed some income for those in need.
Sure I work the same as before and perhaps that was not the intention. Some might argue we have gone off course. 
I prefer to think of it as heading towards the same destination but charting a different course to get there. 
Sometimes we have to change vehicles, take a different road for a while, what ever.
Our pursuit of cheap living has given the ability to help others and also set an example to them that perhaps those things they thought they needed, are not so necessary after all. 
Perhaps we can set them thinking about their alternate life far earlier.

The mandatory winter gripe... 31st anniversary edition.

In my 20's, I was keen to leave the U.K. and fortunate to have the choice of 3 countries. Australia, the U.S; or Canada.
The first seemed an awful long way away and the very thought of living the rest of my life upside down still bothers me to this day. Dumb perhaps but I like the northern reality I live in.
The U.S. was very tempting and I did have a very good opportunity through connections I had there. Heck, I even had an invitation to meet then President Jimmy Carter, a farmer like me, whom history has deemed as being perhaps the last honest, decent President of any integrity. It was the foolish inbred British dislike for anything American that quashed that one. I regret that part of my psyche.

We arrived in Canada in February 1987.... in a blizzard.
The locals said we would get used to winter, give it a year, we'll enjoy it.
Then it was 3 years, then five years. In my mind, it hasn't stopped snowing in the last 30 years. Despite living in Alberta and savoring the most wonderfully warm summers imaginable, it's still snowing.
Every fall I look up at those beautiful birds migrating south, their calls haunt me daily until the last one disappears over the southern horizon and I sink into the sullen sadness of winter.
A few years ago we escaped this frozen wilderness to a magical kingdom called Arizona and I liked it there. I liked it a lot. The sight of Arizona sunrises and sunsets are like no other. If there is such a thing, I'm an Arizona junkie. Just can't get enough of that heat.
So you ask, what's stopping us doing the snowbird run?

Possessions.

Or more accurately, we are owned by our possessions. We have so many we cannot leave them because of theft, vandalism of the fear of loss in some form.
These fears are not without grounds, we have been broken into several times, even whist here at home. These parasites are fearless, brazen and without mercy. If you have it, they'll take it.
So we come to the deeper philosophical questions of which we are all aware deep down inside but we mostly avoid as being too uncomfortable to debate, much less take action upon.
But that's the subject of another entirely different gripe, to which I'll subject you at a later date.
Meanwhile, I conclude this 31st anniversary winter gripe with the comforting thought that at least there aren't too many mosquitoes out at 40 below.

The Miracle of Smokey Joe.

Joe came into our lives as a hobo.
Homeless, scruffy, always on the move, very guarded and cautious around people, he really was a lost soul. He'd show up occasionally through the summer months, then disappear leaving us to wonder if we'd ever see him again.
Over time, he came to see us more often but would never let his guard down.
We have no idea of his age, but he's still relatively young and in remarkably good shape for the life he's lived. He's never carried any weight, all skin and bones.
Sylv was initially very hesitant about showing him any hospitality. Knowing nothing about him, it seemed unwise to be overly welcoming. I saw him differently.
To me he was running from pillar to post, looking for a meal and knowing he had to find some shelter for the night. But there was more to Joe.
Perhaps I'm a sucker for the underdog but I saw someone looking for safety and a place to call home. I began to leave food out for him and he found it.
He'd want to hang out with us around the campfire but somehow just couldn't find the courage, always hanging back in the shadows where he could quickly vanish if he saw a threat.

His hair is the dullest smoke grey you will ever see, devoid of any other color. He is a living ghost.
Eyes of stunning yellow, he can disappear in a second.
He would sing his lonesome song at all hours of the day and night, unseen. When I heard him I would talk to him, as a friend and someone he could trust. He began to respond.
We would sit outside the cabin, he at a safe distance with the fall leaves dropping in the chill air, perhaps both of us knowing the clock was ticking and Joe was running out of time.
He would usually respond to my questions, telling me in his own way what I already knew. He had nowhere left to run and that the brutal cold of winter would likely be his demise.
Then came a miracle.
As I walked out of the cabin one morning, instead of vanishing as usual, he stood there on the deck, eyes locked on me as if gauging my response.
I sat down on the deck and we talked. The spell of fear was broken.
Within a week he was a regular around the yard, now becoming a target for our aging and deaf German Sheppard "Rex" to chase. Joe was never in any danger, Rex merely wanted to show he still had it in him to chase the intruders away.
And then we touched. I looked down one day and there he was. I reached down and touched the softest fur imaginable. The rest is history.
As winter locked it grip on his new home, Joe has become my best friend and we talk all day long as I go about my work, he on my shoulders or at least by my side.
I put a heater in our little workshop and cutting a cat door allowed Joe to move in without hesitation.
Sylv maintains he has A.D.D. but he certainly has an addiction to heat. Left to his own devices, he would set himself on fire by climbing onto a heater.
He still has an intermittent appetite and we offer him a very good palette from which to choose but he is safe and warm. Sylv has noticed there are no mice coming into the cabin since Joe arrived, so any concerns about his mysterious past have been dismissed.
Even Rex and Joe have become the best of friends.
Joe has found a home and a family to love him.
And that is the Miracle of Smokey Joe.

And so it was....

Now here is a testament as to who we are.
My lovely wife celebrated another birthday milestone in her life and so, as is the custom, there were celebrations to be made.
We headed out in the wagon to the fair city of St Albert and The Enjoy Center which is an elaborate garden / wellness marketing facility and a good way to spend a few hours.
Meeting with the kids there, we had a good time pondering and purchasing all what we needed before a group decision was made that Mother's idea of going to Timmy's for a sandwich was not in keeping with the sentiment of the day.
It was to Montana's that we then headed for a very pleasant supper with the 6 of us together, which, once done eating, led into the highlight of the day..... A trip to Value Village!!!
Make of that what you will.... but now you know.

As I was driving home today I got a call from a young fellow named Freddie, who's family were our farming neighbors for many years before we moved away about 15 years ago,
His Father (Bob) had died after some illness and he was calling to let me know about the funeral arrangements.
It was good to talk with him again and brought back memories of those days gone by.
We have known Freddie since he was a child and shared in many episodes of his life.
After the call, it occurred to me that this was the passing of the torch. Freddie and his brothers were assuming the mantle of responsibility towards their father and taking care of his affairs.
This is a profound measure of life's passage.
We don't see the calendars come and go but events like these mark time in our lives.
Bob's family were the best of neighbors to us and we remember them well.
Good people.
Sylvia and I will go to the funeral next Tuesday.

Wood, Coal & Love.

Despite the uncanny warmth of late, we are of no doubt that winter is about to deal us a blow.
A year ago we were in the -25 C range, today we are +7 C with water running down the yard.
We even sleep with the window open.
In the middle of December, that's never good but we are making the best of it.
It was therefore a pleasant trip we made down to Ryley, Ab today, on the coal run as we call it.
Dodds Coal is one of the few suppliers left these days and they are busy people. Despite the bad rap coal is getting by the media, there are many homes and businesses still burning the black stuff.
We took the truck and trailer for the last run of the winter and hauled home 1 1/2 tons to see us through with a good margin of safety should we get a blizzard or two on the tail end of winter.
Running around $80 / ton (half is the B.S. carbon tax), we still have no issues with the economy of coal. There is no additional monthly charge for administration, transmission, maintenance, etc; as with gas or electricity. It will be interesting to see what we get for the carbon tax dollars, if it's like the tire tax, we won't get anything.
Half the load is already under cover and the trailer is safe and secure from weather, so all is good.
It's amazing how quickly one can move a ton of coal with a grain shovel. Try it once.

The wood pile is doing very well in light of the mild temps and the horses have had their warm coats on only once so far, which is good as they can be a pain to keep putting on and taking off to suit the sun. The hay too is stretching well but again, we know that can change overnight so another load will be hauled early next week to fill the need when it arises. They are still picking in the field and chewing on bull rushes which keep them occupied if nothing else.

It's my lovely wife's birthday tomorrow, she's at that indeterminate age where we're all just people and the numbers don't matter.
We have fun together, we are still each other's best friend and neither passes a day without seeing the beauty in our lives.
Somewhere along the path, we chose to distance ourselves from those who lie, cheat and pursue greed.
Those with darkness in their hearts.
So we're going to have a nice afternoon out with the kids at The Enjoy Center in St Albert and declare the whole day a happy, B.S. free event.
When you surround yourself with those who embrace truth, honesty and love, darkness doesn't stand a chance.

.