Thirty-Five Years in Canada

This week marks 35 years that I've been in Canada. I am more in love with the place than ever and don't regret for a moment coming here. I do miss my family and the mountains, but I feel in my bones this is the right place for me.

Since I'm no longer a U.S. citizen, I don't really have the right to an opinion when it comes to U.S. politics. I only want to say, I pray that -- no matter how things go in the elections this week -- people manage to find a way to be calm and civil. Kindness is everything.

I kind of forgot...

Years ago, I set up a print-on-demand storefront on Zazzle, uploaded some products, and promptly forgot all about it. I've updated some things and resurrected it, if anyone is interested in gifts for earth-lovers and handicrafters. (I don't control the pricing.)

Kristen's Zazzle Store

Trading

I grew a lot of sorghum this year, but it was the broomcorn kind that's too difficult to hull for human consumption. It was fun to grow (the tallest got to 11'8"), but likely not something I'll plant often. What to do with it all? I traded 5 litres of it to my new friend Erin for her chickens to eat, in exchange for fresh farm eggs.

I'm reading Jerome M. Segal's book Graceful Simplicity right now, and he talks a bit so far about trading -- time for money, money for stuff. He points out that in our inefficient society, "our very real and legitimate economic needs can be met only with high levels of income." He points out that simple living (a key interest of mine right now) isn't just about living with less. It's about enriching life in nonmaterial ways. But you can't get to that enriching part if you're so caught up in trying to meet your basic needs. 

I see this play out sometimes on those homesteading or Tiny House living shows and Youtube videos. You have to have a fair bit of money at the start to set yourself up for simple living, or at least gracious simple living. This differs from poverty, in that, with simple living, your needs are met (often with expensive solutions like solar panels), and with poverty, needs often aren't met. In the 18th and 19th centuries, only the wealthy or those with access to the patronage of the wealthy could play at being poor hermits. The only reason Thoreau could retreat to Walden Pond is because he was living on borrowed land and other people occasionally fed him, and he wasn't there for long.

I do like what Thoreau writes, though, about -- instead of trying to convince people to buy his baskets -- finding ways to make basket-selling unnecessary. I lost my job a couple of months ago, along with eight others on the same day, due to "restructuring." I'm taking my time thinking about what I want to do next and who I want to be for the last ---let's say third -- of my life. I don't want to jump back into the same desk job, the same hurly-burly and scampering and (it must be said) boredom I underwent for the last 35 years. I want to find a way to consume less, require less, so that I can do lower-paying but more fulfilling work. I do find it interesting that some of the most meaningful and soul-satisfying jobs in society pay the least. We value football players and bank CEOs more than we value those who serve the displaced and homeless or teach our children, if financial compensation is the measuring stick. 

So how do I live in such a way that I don't have to peddle my baskets? I don't know quite yet, but I have an inkling that Segal is onto something. I've written a book about simple living, which is coming out in January 2026, and losing my employment will force me to really put my own words into practice. We'll see how it goes! I don't know which way I'll leap, but it promises to be exciting.

Taking cleaning to a whole new level

I've always known my husband is better at housework than I am. I knew he takes the furniture out onto the lawn sometimes in order to sweep and mop a room. I knew he routinely pulls out the stove from the wall and empties the fridge when cleaning the kitchen. What I didn't know is that he also sometimes pulls off the kickplate board thingies from the bottom of the kitchen cupboards so that he can clean the floor beneath them when he mops. I didn't even know they were removeable!

I've married Superman.

Vegetable Garden Update

The garden may have gotten a little out of hand this year, with all the rain we've had. The sorghum is twice my height and beginning to ripen, though I find it's extremely hard to hull. I may just leave the hulls on and keep it for future chicken feed. I also had the idea of planting a grove of it by our church to provide shade, as it grows like a drought-tolerant bamboo. The canes can be pressed for syrup, but since I don't own a cane press, I'll just use them as poles.

The garden has been overrun with sunflowers, volunteers from seeds the birds scattered last year. Some are small and delicate and I don't recall ever planting them in the past, but here they are, full and healthy. The cherry tomatoes have done well, but the larger tomatoes are still green, and other gardeners I've talked to have found the same thing. The cucumbers were so-so, not as prolific as last year, the green beans didn't do much, and some of them just bloomed and bloomed but didn't produce beans, which is weird, because they don't tend to require pollinators. The cabbages are scrawny, the green onions are massive, the zucchini were a disappointment, the peas never even surfaced (squirrels?), but the dry beans have been prolific. The carrot seeds I planted were from a neighbour, who forgot to tell me they were for multi-coloured carrots, which turned out to be a happy surprise. The raspberries are flourishing this year. It's been a great year for collecting seeds of all types. And best of all, the garlic turned out the size of baseballs, absolutely the best I've grown in my life. So the garden has its compensations!

I was talking to my husband about the not-so-great-over-all yield this year, and I realized that food production is only about 75% of the purpose of my garden. The other 25% is for mental health, just the sheer joy of being outdoors, in nature, watching abundance emerge. 

4th in the World, Grade 3

Guelph Pipe Band just won 4th in the World Championship in their grade. They were in 1st place (out of 30 bands) in the qualifier, and 4th in the finals. Woohoo! So proud of them. They've worked hard for this. Their medley, which they played for the qualifier, is electrifying and gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. Tyler Bridge's arrangements really intensify the musicality. An outstanding achievement!

Guelph Pipe Band World Pipe Band Championships 2024 Medley Qualifier (youtube.com)

Celebrating

My husband is currently in Scotland. His pipe band just won 2nd place in the European Championships (Grade 3). Saturday they go on to compete in the World Championship. Fingers crossed!