In The Begining....

Since embarking on this journey of enlightenment, I have kept an eye open for a title.
My preferred choice being "The Eden Project".
What better name to hoist above our valiant crusade to save the world.
Alas, it seems every human with an eye for what ails this planet and the balls to do something about it has titled their efforts thus.
Initially I was annoyed at the widespread use of this "perfect" title, especially as some of the projects were so far removed from my vision of Eden.
How could something like a city garbage programme possibly warrant such a name?
Over time, I have come to realize that there is no better a title for all these projects, large or small. Pooled together, they are all working towards the same objective.
Who was I to exclusively claim that handle?
So we are now content to become a tiny corner of the garden, to do the best we can in tending it's needs and share in the greater good of making a difference for all to enjoy.

I defy any one of us to name a date that we "started" down this path.
It is a process, an evolution into a mindset that something has to be done and it's my responsibility to do it.
Our, or I should say "my" choice was to move our little farming operation from Bluffton, Ab; which is a little north of Rimbey, to the distant lands to the north.
Sylv was a little less than enthused, but being who she is, she set forth beside me.
We bought a 1/4 section with a summer house and a few buildings about 20 minutes north of Manning which is about an hour north of Peace River in N.W Alberta.
The house was built about 60 years ago out of squared logs cut from the land as it was cleared.
The previous owners had put a new basement under it in recent years and it was in good condition.
The logs were now covered in white vinyl siding, but it still had a charm all of it's own.
The electric power had never been installed, nor was there any indoor plumbing or heating.
It truly was a summer house for use through the busy farming season only.
There was a life-times work in the gardens with hedgerows planted around the lawn, oak trees along the driveway, lilac bushes and all manor of other beautiful shrubs planted around the grounds.
The summers were a paradise of colour and peace. Time stood still it seemed.
We installed a solar power system and wired the house with the basics needed to live.
Next was a Propane furnace and ducted for a minimum provision of heat when all other heat sources were off.
A second-hand concrete septic tank was installed and basic plumbing for the kitchen & bathroom.
In the Kitchen our pride & joy was a "Guelph Sultan" coal & wood fired cook stove with a propane fueled regular stove as a back-up and for the summer months when Sylv didn't want to run the cook stove.
We collected second hand kitchen cupboards via the "Bargain Finder" on our trips to Edmonton and made the best of everything we could find.
In the lounge a large "Triumph" wood stove in one corner would cook us out of the room on some nights but was very welcome on others.
In the basement we rigged a large wood fired furnace which was tied in beside the propane one but which we seldom used.
In hindsight I feel somewhat ashamed of having modernised that old house.
It had survived so well without all the updates for all those years.

Our power supply was fine in the summer, but in the winter we needed a generator to keep things going when there was no sun.
Our first was a 6500 watt Honda which was far too small, but did well until it cratered.
The next was a PTO driven generator brought with us from Ontario.
It had all kinds of power, but we now had to run a tractor in the dead of winter. No fun at all.
Finally we bought a self contained diesel generator which we kept under cover and released us from the tractor episodes. More on those adventures another time.
Water supply was a real issue as there is no good drinking water in much of the Peace country.
We built a cistern in the basement & hauled our water from town. We managed, although I don't know quite how.
All this was done over 6 years, much on the go and as needed.
Our lives were influenced in ways we never imagined.
Compared to living in a modern, grid powered house, we were stepping back in time.
Summer was as close to paradise as I will ever know. There was no finer place to be.
Winter was hell. It always was. This is Alberta.
We learnt in short order that our comfortable way of modern living is totally dependant on a very fragile infrastructure.
Take away the ease of limitless electricity or the luxury of cranking up the gas furnace without a thought and daily living takes on a very different perspective.
When you disconnect yourself from "the system", you really are on your own.
It is true survival and there is no room for failure.

The Way Ahead, Is To Go Back.

There is no doubt in my mind that progress (and I mean "real" progress) should not always be measured in linear terms.
We humans measure our development on a linear scale, usually choosing a display that shows a stark positive or negative achievement depending on the axe we are grinding.
A circular measure is perhaps far more appropriate.
When I look at the heavens above us, I cannot believe that we are the only civilization to have existed in the cosmos.
We may be the only one at this time, but surely there were others.
Somewhere out there it's all been done before.
They ran the race & ended up right back where they started, dust in the wind.

Based on the track record to date, there is no creature on this planet less worthy of survival than the human.
We murder, loot & pillage every form of life and resource in the name of progress, evolution and development.
We then try to appease what is left of our conscience by lavishing ourselves with the spoils of our victories.
A typical example of this is in the brainwashing we give ourselves through television.
The sensationally popular science fiction series "Star Trek" laid before us a vision of the magnificent future we are building for the generations to come.
Money & it's evils will be banished and humans will together work for the common good of all.
We will travel the heavens, dispensing goodness to those who deserve it & what we define as justice to those who don't.
In truth, it's all a con game and the media are the largest perpetrators of that con game.
"Feel good about ourselves, we are on the right path".
We even build our world around this dream, this vision that it's all good.
Look at our cell phone design.
Almost a carbon copy of Star Trek's communicators.
We have spent millions trying to build a "teleporter" device to move objects from here to there.
The scientists have allegedly move a single molecule.
Our greatest human endeavour is to have put a man on the moon, and that event is questionable.

The reality is that we are going in the exact opposite direction.
The planet will be mined and exhausted of every element we can conceive a way to use.
And when it's done, so are we.
Having travelled a full circle, we'll be right back where we started.

In maintaining our present course we are charting our own demise.
Our consumption of rapidly diminishing raw materials is growing daily.
Each one of us has the ability to make a difference to the outcome and yet we continue down the path of doom laid out for us by our corporate visionaries.
Modern society looks to government to do it all for them.
"The government should do something about that" we say.
We have devolved our personal responsibility to government.
We hand our children to government approved daycare & schools, whilst we, as "responsible parents" earn money to buy bigger houses, new cars, R.V's, boats and cottages at the lake.
Consume, consume, consume.
Again, it's all a con game.

Each and every one of us has the in-born knowledge of what is right & what is wrong.
We have a choice, use it or ignore it.
The vast majority choose the later.
Safety in numbers.
Yet the human spirit keeps nagging away.
Something is wrong and we know it.
Each of us has the responsibility for our planets survival and a duty to conceive ways to make a difference.
To know where we are going, we have to know where we are from.
Looking back will teach us a greater truth about where we made a wrong turn.
Allowing the visionaries to lead us to a future where science will fix the consequences of those wrong turns is a fallacy.