56.51 miles

Remember Jami-Lee’s “weewalls”

and the matching headband that I made awhile ago?

Well she’s grown into them now and I think she likes them!

Today I made the rest of the ensemble. Aren’t they just the cutest? I can’t wait to take them to Calgary next time we go.

I love baby shoes and often buy them as gifts for newborns. When I came across a pattern and discovered that I could make them myself, I was delighted! Now that I’ve made the first pair and found out how easy it was, I’m sure there will be many more.

49.85 miles

We finished harvesting yesterday! It’s always a bittersweet time for me. The goal is to finish, of course, but I love the process so much that I always hate to see it come to an end.

Beating winter was a challenge this year and I don’t think we won by much. The snow geese flew over last week on their way to warmer climes and the weasel that peeked out of his hole the day before yesterday was pure white. The forecast calls for mixed precipitation on Monday. There are still a few farmers out in the fields so I hope the rain and snow hold off until they too are done. As we look across the countryside, however, most of the land is at rest.

The results this year were varied. The canola was the best crop Louis has seen in his more than 60 years of farming. Combining it was slow going as the swaths were so heavy. Forty bushels an acre is considered a very good yield and we took off about 47, all top grade.

The wheat didn’t fare as well. The early killing frost was hard on it so the quality is low. Much of it will only be good for feed. There was also quite a bit of ergot in this year’s crop. Ergot is a fungus that infects cereal grains, replacing the kernels with small black masses that look like burnt seeds. It seriously lowers the value of the crop.

As I put my farming jeans and my John Deere pocket knife away for another season, I’ll hang onto memories of beautiful sunsets, golden stubble, wildlife sightings and many hours of solitude on the combine. I’ll also cherish the great visits that Louis and I enjoyed as we traveled the swaths together.

47.04 miles

I made my fifth loan as a micro-financier yesterday and it didn’t cost me a cent. That’s the beauty of Kiva!

I first learned about Kiva last March when I read the eye opening book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kiva is a non-profit organization that allows a person to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. Though Kiva provides loans to both men and women, I choose to lend to women who are borrowing money to purchase specific items that they will use to generate income that will help them support their families and educate their children.

My first two loans of $25 each went to Rann Sar, a Cambodian villager who wished to purchase two cows to begin a breeding program and Pascuala, a Bolivian who needed a bigger stove to use in preparing the meals that she sells at her food stall. But how can $25 purchase a cow or a stove? It can’t. Many lenders pool their resources to fund each loan.

Rann Sar

Pascuala

Shortly after making these first two loans and after receiving my first repayments, I decided to double my investment and loaned $50 to Alina, another Bolivian who wanted to purchase a dairy cow to add to her small herd of four cows. Alina, her husband and their four school age children live with her mother because they can’t afford a house of their own.

Alina

But how can I make a loan without it costing me anything at all? Easy! As each of these women makes a monthly payment on her loan, my share of that payment is deposited in my Kiva account and I receive an email notifying me of my updated balance. I could withdraw the money at any time but instead, as soon as my balance reaches $25, I search the Kiva database and choose another woman to lend to. By August, just five months after making my initial loans, I was able to make my first “free” loan and I chose Jacqueline, a 32 year old mother of four in Rwanda who wanted to buy a refrigerator for her small restaurant. After all, can you imagine trying to run a restaurant without a refrigerator? So many of the things that we take for granted are out of reach for many people around the world and by sharing just a bit of what we’ve been blessed with, we can make such a difference!

Jacqueline

Yesterday’s borrower especially touched my heart. An adolescent bride, at just 23 years of age she is already the mother of  three children and since her meagre income helps with household expenses and school fees, it’s obvious that some of those children are already school age! Two years ago, she started a hairdressing business in her home. Wanting to purchase better hairdressing equipment and to prepare a corner in her home where she can display products to sell to her customers, she applied for a loan. She hopes to earn enough to eventually open her own salon. She lives in Lebanon and for security reasons, her name cannot be published nor her face shown.

As these loans are repaid, I will continue lending the money again and again. For as little as $25, you can do the same. To get started or to learn more, just click on the Kiva banner in the margin.

39.12 miles

This weekend we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Across the nation families gather around turkey laden tables to celebrate and give thanks for our many blessings. Traditionally, this was a time to give thanks for the harvest but much of this year’s crop is still in the field. Since we were harvesting all day yesterday and, weather permitting, we’ll be back at it tomorrow we weren’t able to get away to spend today with family. Only one of our children lives close enough to come home for a day and he’s exploring Costa Rica at the moment, so there were only two of us at our Thanksgiving table.

In some homes, the Thanksgiving turkey weighs as much or more than the youngest child at the table. Obviously, I couldn’t cook such a beast for just the two of us! Instead, we enjoyed rock cornish game hens. At the opposite end of the size spectrum, they each weighed a little over a pound and with all the traditional trimmings, they made a fantastic mini Thanksgiving! Of course, no Thanksgiving meal would be complete without pumpkin pie but by the time we finished the main course, we were so full that we decided to go for a walk before indulging in dessert!

Of course, Thanksgiving is about much more than food. In church this morning, we were reminded again just how blessed we are. Did you know that if you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the people on earth? We were also encouraged to finish the sentence “I am thankful for…” with five words. There are so many things that I could have said but the five words that immediately came to my mind were the names of my grandchildren (including the two “adopted” ones in Japan): Andrew, Jami-Lee, Sam, Ayumu and Michiru. How they have enriched my life! When harvest is over, we’ll be going to Calgary for a late Thanksgiving celebration with two of them and I suspect that we’ll have turkey!

31.32 miles

I wore a skirt to church this morning. I’m sure millions of other women did too so on a world scale, it’s really not all that momentous but for me it’s a rare enough occurrence that people wonder what the special occasion is! Though yesterday was our anniversary, that’s not the reason for the skirt.

In North America, at least, I’m one of a dying breed. We are the women who had to wear skirts to school every day while we were growing up. I think that’s why so many of us don’t really like wearing them now! I do enjoy dressing up once in awhile and, like a little girl, I love the swirl of a skirt when I dance but most of the time I’m a blue jeans kind of girl.

Right now it’s harvest time and I spend every day except Sunday on a combine. I wear my farming clothes; old jeans and a t-shirt. Though I show up clean every morning, getting dirty doesn’t bother me. My farmer worried about that at first but I’ve assured him that I’m washable often enough that he doesn’t fret about it anymore.

I learned how to replace broken teeth on the combine this week. Sure, I got my hands dirty and may have chipped a nail or two but it was fun!  After all, I’m the girl who wanted to take shop in school. Unfortunately, in addition to having to wear skirts, girls were required to take sewing and cooking instead even if their mothers had already taught them these skills at home. Only boys took shop. Somehow, in those days, pants and tools must have gone together!

As much as I love wearing my farming clothes, I do find that after six days of coming home dirty and tired I like to clean up and be a little bit girly on Sunday. That’s why, during seeding and harvest, I’m more likely to show up for church wearing a skirt than at any other time of year!

Some say we should always dress up for church, that we should only wear our best into the presence of God. I don’t buy that. Of course, I never wear my dirty farming jeans to church but I sometimes wear my dressier ones. After all, I am just as much in His presence in my dirty jeans on the combine as I was in my skirt in church this morning!

When I was in high school an innovative physical education teacher introduced a program designed to help students develop the habit of exercising regularly. At that time, I was a total non athlete but the 100 Mile Club challenge captured my interest and I signed up. It was a very simple concept. A huge chart went up on the wall of the gymnasium and participants filled in a tiny square for each mile that they ran, jogged or walked. My mother used the odometer on the family car to figure out one and two mile courses around our neighbourhood and I was on my way.

I don’t remember how long we had to complete the challenge or what the reward for those who finished was. I do remember, however, that a sprained ankle took me out less than half way to the goal. I was an awkward teen and it seemed I was always spraining something! Though I was happy to have an excuse to miss phys ed class, I was deeply disappointed that I couldn’t finish my 100 miles.

I haven’t quite figured out what motivated me to go from being that awkward, non athletic teenager to the fairly fit middle aged woman that I am today. I suppose that marrying a phys ed teacher might have had something to do with it! We have a mini gym in our basement complete with three weight benches and lots of free weights. Richard and I lift weights 3 times a week all winter long.

Though I’m not sure what caused it, I’ve been being treated for tendinitis in both shoulders for the past few months. They’re much better than they were and I’ve been able to start exercising them with resistance bands but when I saw my doctor at the beginning of this month he cautioned me not to start thinking about lifting weights. When I asked what else I could do for exercise, his answer was simple. Walk!

I’ve always enjoyed walking and the treadmill that we added to our basement gym several years ago means that I can do it even when the weather is bad. As I thought about what the doctor said and the fact that I might not be able to lift weights this winter, I decided to keep track of the amount of walking I do. That’s when I remembered the 100 Mile Club. It may be a little after the fact, but I’ve decided to take up the challenge again and walk 100 miles! I know, it’s not the 60s anymore and Canada has long since gone metric but the treadmill measures in miles and I can use Google Pedometer to calculate the distance that I walk outdoors in either miles or kilometers so for this challenge, miles it is.

I’m off to a good start. In fact, since I started keeping track three weeks ago I’ve already walked 22 miles! It’s easier to stick with an exercise program of any kind if you have a fitness buddy or make yourself accountable to someone so if you read my blog regularly you’ll notice my mileage at the top of each upcoming post. By committing myself to reporting to you, I hope to complete my 100 miles and perhaps many more. Hopefully there are no sprained ankles to stop me this time!

I wish I could say that the blog has been silent these past couple of weeks because I’ve been busy combining wheat and canola. Instead, I’ve been bemoaning the cold wet weather that has kept us off the fields. As each day goes by and winter creeps closer, the situation becomes more and more critical. Not only does time become short but the longer we have to wait, the more the quality of the grain deteriorates. What looked like a bountiful harvest a few weeks ago is in danger of being lost and the mood of the community is sombre.

As long as I’ve lived in a rural community, I’ve recognized the importance of the weather to the local economy but never so much as since I started working on the farm during seeding and harvest. Now I check the forecast several times a day. Finally today we have reason for hope! Though the sky is gray and the ground wet, there’s no more rain in the 14 day forecast! If it’s correct, and oh how we hope it is, it will still be several days before we can be back in the fields. Not only does the mud have to dry so that the heavy equipment doesn’t get stuck in the fields but the grain itself will spoil if it’s combined and stored when its moisture content is too high.

We also have another reason for optimism. In over 60 years of farming, Louis (the farmer that we work for) has never seen a year without a harvest! Some have been better than others, of course. There have been lean years and years of plenty but never a year without any grain in the bins. We trust that this will not be the first.

In church yesterday, we were reminded of the words of the Old Testament prophet, Habbakuk, who said “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength.” (3:17-19a) Ultimately, our hope is in Him.

Richard is out swathing canola so I’ll be combining soon and I can hardly wait! I love harvest time!

Usually when we combine, the straw is cut up and spread back over the field. Last year, however, the cutters came off before I started combining wheat. Another farmer who was in need of bales had arranged to come in and bale it. When we seeded this spring, we discovered that he’d left a lot of baling twine laying in the fields; definitely poor farming etiquette! It was constantly getting tangled around the equipment and that’s when I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t a real farmer yet. A real farmer carries a pocket knife!

When we travel, I like to buy practical souvenirs; things we can actually use rather than fancy knickknacks that collect dust. This summer when we visited the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois, home of the John Deere farm implement company, I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. A pocket knife, of course! With Richard’s help, I chose one made of stainless steel with the John Deere logo imprinted on the shaft. It has a wooden handle and a 3 inch locking blade.

I also bought this, simply because I loved it and sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

When I told my son, Nathan, that I’d bought myself a knife, his immediate response was “That’s not the mom I grew up with!” When my boys were young, I was quite nervous about them handling knives. Richard, being a farm boy himself, thought they ought to be able to. Well, Nate, who knew back then that Mama would grow up to be a farmer? From now on, when I’m out in the field, I’ll have my knife in my pocket just like the rest of them!

Exploring caves is a passion for our son, Nathan. Knowing this, I decided that I ought to share the experience with him. Nathan wisely chose Canyon Creek Ice Cave near Bragg Creek, one of the easier caves in the area, for our outing yesterday. I’ve been into tourist caves in eastern Canada, the US and Vietnam before; guided tours along lighted pathways, but this was entirely different.

Our adventure began with a 7 km walk along a gravel service road that is closed to the public. It would have been much easier if we could have driven to the bottom of the path that leads up Moose Mountain to the mouth of the cave but the road was closed several years ago in an attempt to discourage inexperienced and poorly prepared hikers and cavers from exploring the area and thus reduce accidents.

The vertical black slash toward the top left of the photo is the mouth of Canyon Creek Ice Cave.

The trail begins as an easy uphill path through the forest but eventually opens onto a somewhat precarious scree slope of broken jagged rock. Nathan, as sure-footed as a mountain goat, negotiated this with ease but I found scrambling across it a bit scary!

When we reached the mouth of the cave, we rested on a large rock platform before going inside. There we donned coveralls, knee pads, gloves, headlamps and helmets. Though I’ve spent most of my life battling a fear of heights, I’ve never experienced claustrophobia. Once inside the cave, closed in by walls of rock, I felt entirely secure.

Rather than entering the main chamber through the wide cave entrance, we chose a narrow side passage. I quickly discovered that this isn’t an activity for people of wider girth! There were spots that I was barely able to squeeze through!

The temperature inside the cave remains steady at slightly above zero. Unlike many caves, there are no stalagmites or stalactites but there are tiny fossils embedded in the rock and the back wall of the main chamber is solid ice. Sliding ourselves over the rock slabs of a low passage to the left of this wall brought us into a smaller chamber and from there, we lay on our backs and maneuvered our bodies through a crack that was only about a foot high! Though this required some interesting contortions, it was such fun that I found myself laughing in delight!

Of course, when you go in, you must also go out and when you go up, you must also go down! Making our way back out of the cave was fine but climbing back down the mountain was a challenge for me. Nathan was a patient guide, however, helping me find secure hand and footholds as we made our way back across the rocky slope.

After walking another 7 km, and returning to Calgary, a hot bath was most welcome! Though I’m a little more aware of some of my muscles and joints than usual today, I’m happy that this old body is still up to this kind of thing and I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to share a great day with Nathan in his milieu.

Once in a while, spoiling the grandchildren is a grandparent’s prerogative and today Richard and I indulged ourselves. We spent the day at the Calgary zoo with Drew and spoiled him rotten!

Of course, we enjoyed the animals… the elephants, camels, zebras, giraffes, wallabies and flamingos to name just a few. Drew’s eyes grew big when both the Siberian tiger and the cougar passed in front of him with only a window separating him from them but, without question, it was the little train that impressed him the most so, of course, he had to have a ride!

The carousel was also a big hit as was the chocolate milk at lunch!

Drew was the best little buddy all day. Though he rested in the stroller once in a while, he walked, ran and climbed until his little legs were worn right out but not a whimper was heard! Finally, though, he had had enough!