June 5, 2007

feel so much better today. Only a little bit of a headache. The kind you can ignore. I have basically slept mostly non-stop, only drifting from the couch to the bed since Saturday evening. Linda emailed me and told me about frozen socks to put on. I wish I had read that one sooner! But please! If you work in the sun, even if it does not feel that hot out, wear a hat, drink lots of water. This is the second time I have had heat stroke and the other time was worse. It is not worth it!!

Last night we had thunderstorms and rain. Maybe our pastures will start growing now. I peeked at my garden this morning and it looks good and growing. Other than doing the basic animal chores, I have done nothing else since Saturday. I do need to finish weedeatering and put a screw into my hand harrow handle to weed the garden, as after 8 years of a temporary fix, it finally fell apart.

Last Saturday, our 3 farms had a booth at the Cariboo Highland Games. I have wanted to go for years, but this year we got to attend by invite. It is where dancers, bagpipe bands and caber tossers come from all over to compete. It was nice having front row seats so to speak to watch all the events and listen to all the music. We also did quite well on our sales, though the morning started out slow. 

That night we went to a banquet called a Calliegh (Gaelic spelling error?) and had 2 roast pigs as well as other delightful food. Amy and I went as she is of Scot blood and I decided we both needed to go out. One of the gentlemen (Mick) that Amy sat next to is KEEN on organic growing and has pre-GMO wheat sealed in his cellar we are going to try to talk him out of a start of it and one of the other gentlemen is a mechanical engineer for alternative power. I tackled Steve immediately and asked if I could interview him for the magazine. He does the HUGE projects like tidal power in Scotland and windpower towers which have blades longer than 120 feet each. It pays to talk to people about green living styles.

Picture Above: One of the pipe bands playing. There were 5 of them this year.

Picture Above: The all woman team at the caber tossing event

Picture Above: The mass Highland Fling Dance. When they are being judged, they are judged in trios on a stage. I offered a man shade in our booth and it turned out he was the judges husband. He gave me a crash course in what the Highland Fling and other dances were about.

Picture Above: One of the younger dancers tying up her shoes before her turn to perform 

Though we love our farms and generally do not want to leave, I love to go to different cultural events. This summer find some free cultural event in your community you have never attended before. You might just be delightfully surprised at what you found. We will be going back next year and we already have our table for dinner 'reserved'.