Just a quick note from my phone.
There has been much rain for the past day, but now it is the wind that is causing the most problems. The electricity has been flickering frequently.
Not good while on my desktop.
So once my computer finishes restarting itself after the last flicker that happened while I was prepping to do a blog post, I will be doing a proper shut down and leaving it off!
Hopefully, this will “blow over” soon.
Yeah. My sense of humour sucks. 😆😆
The Re-Farmer
Today was my day to go into the city to do part of our monthly shop. I ended up going to 4 places today, spent about as much as I usually do, but came home with a lot less groceries for our money. The non-grocery purchases were pretty much unchanged. :-/
It’s been a really long, hot day, and while we got a lot done, it feels like I got nothing done. Does that make sense?
Definitely a day to get to bed early. Which probably won’t happen, but I can daydream, can’t I? ;-)
I hope my brother does make it out tomorrow morning, though knowing him, he’ll probably be leaving his place at 5 am or something. :-D We’ll see. I have no idea if he’ll be able to fix the outlet, but we just really enjoy his company.
I’ll have to do a catch up post, some time tomorrow. I’m too exhausted to think straight right now!
The Re-Farmer
It’s been a chilly day today, with off and on rain. Too chilly to try and put the transplants out to harden them off.
While doing my morning rounds, I spent some time fussing with the garden shed to see if I could secure the sheets of metal roofing a bit better. I was trying to figure out why they wouldn’t lie flat, then remembered: a smaller piece of aluminum had been put on the roof, over where there is a hole that water was getting in. A rock was tossed on to keep it from blowing away. You can’t see the rock from the ground, and it was forgotten about. Now, the sheets of metal roofing are on top of it! :-D I was able to arrange them in a more centered way, was able to nail down one of them above the door, and found a way to clamp down the other. Between that and the strap the girls put back on, it should stay. It’s just a matter of time before we get rid of it completely, so we’re not too worried about it.
I got a phone call from my brother today. Our mother had called him this morning and left a message with him, saying something about not feeling well. She’s mentioned to me, when I last spoke to her, that “everything hurts”, but when my brother called her back, now she says she’s got a headache, too. My brother says it sounds like she has the flu. He convinced her to do the usual things she would do to take care of herself, and get lots of rest, so she stayed home from church. Apparently, she’d planned to walk to the grocery store after church, but also insists she has enough and doesn’t actually need to buy more food, so we’re not sure why she still planned to go shopping.
Since she needs to rest, my brother will be the only one calling her to check up on her, so she’s not constantly getting up to answer the phone. If it becomes necessary, he’ll let me know and I’ll head over.
That gave me extra reason to make sure to get to the hardware store in town today – I wanted to see if the gravel roads had improved enough to drive on with my mother’s little car. The high winds we’ve been having are at least good for that. The rough spots are still very rough, but no longer muddy, and the tires weren’t sinking as much while driving through them. It should be fine to use my mother’s car without damaging it.
Once at the hardware store, I found the roof repair tar and new caulking gun that we needed, then decided to look around. Which is always a dangerous thing for me to do, since I will always find something we can use! :-D Today, however, I found the lamp oil I’ve been looking for! I was able to get a large bottle of paraffin based lamp oil at a better price than what I’d found online at Canadian Tire, and without any scent. I got just one bottle for now; enough to fill all 4 of our oil lamps, if we needed to, though we’d probably only use two at a time, at most. Now that I know where to find it, I’ll pick up more for our stash, as we are able.
The main thing is we have what we need to patch up the roof, and should the need arise, we’ve got what we need to use our oil lamps. I feel much better having that option available, now. :-)
The Re-Farmer
With things going a bit crazy for the past few days, then being able to spend the day with a friend, I’ve been a bit behind on my usual computer stuff.
The kitties were very happy to see me this morning. I spotted a dozen of them this morning. Their trays in the kibble house had been knocked about; my husband tells me that, from the sound and smell at about 4 am (he had a sleepless night, unfortunately), there was a run-in with a skunk. Even the sun room had been ransacked a bit, again. It will be good when we can close those doors up again, which we should be able to start doing soon, now that it’s supposed to get warmer.
Going through over 300 files from just the one trail cam, then making a video using all those deer images, took a lot longer than it should have. Partly because I don’t have very good video editing software. The “easy” software that came with my computer suddenly needs a driver update and wouldn’t let me export all the work I did. I didn’t have the time nor inclination to search out and download the driver, so I used some old movie making software I have. It allows me to do a lot more, but the “new” version of the software I got was so much less intuitive, and useful than the first version I bought, not to mention a massive resource hog, I never updated it again and hardly ever use it. I’m told there are others that are better, but I just haven’t been up to searching for something that meets my needs.
Still, it was enough to get the video made. Setting it to export into an uploadable file gave me enough time to make supper. :-/
This evening, I finally sat down to go through the email notifications for the blogs I follow, and even find a few direct emails and notifications, including donation notifications to the fundraiser for the Cat Lady (thank you!).
It took several hours to catch up. Granted, I did leave the computer a few times to do other things, but I did finally get it done. I even managed to get it done before 11pm! ;-)
As I write this, it’s now just past 11pm, and we have continued to warm up to -2C/28F. Considerably warmer than this morning! Or even this afternoon.
We’re supposed to drop down a degree overnight, but tomorrow we’re supposed to reach a high of 1C/34F We’re also supposed to get a bit of snow, but that forecast changed from an expected 5-10cm/2-4 inches, to 1-3cm/<1/2 – 1 inch, in total, through tonight and into tomorrow.
If all goes well, we should be able to make our big, monthly shopping trip to the city tomorrow, and stock up again.
Thankfully, my brother made the 1 1/2 hour trip on Sunday to visit our mother, early enough to go to church with her. He was able to help her do her grocery shopping and other errands. Normally, I would have, but with the septic issues we were having, I lost complete track of how long it had been since I last helped her with her groceries. Usually, I would have phoned to ask when she needed me to come over, but that was when we found the mess in the basement and started having to get the snow cleared and the septic guy in. I called her today and mentioned it, as why I hadn’t called about her shopping earlier. She told me she had thought we would do the errands on the day I took her to visit her sister in the nursing home, now that they are allowing visits without appointments again.
Which was a bit of a surprise to me, since when we last talked about it, she had said it could wait until the weather improved again, and we would talk about it later. There was no other timeline discussed.
She was also remarkably incurious about the septic issues we had. Also a bit odd, since such conversations usually involve her going over everything I did wrong and telling me how I should have done it, or telling me I should have gotten my brother to take care of it, and how sad it is that I “don’t have a man in the house” to take care of such things for me. I guess my husband being disabled means he stopped being a man. :-/ So I suppose it was a good thing that she didn’t care that we had to deal with septic backing into our basement for the third time in four years! Still, it was very unusual for her.
She did, however, find the time to chastise me for growing potatoes in bags last year, because that was something to maybe do in the city, but it was just stupid to do that out on the farm.
I don’t think she knows that I know about the very, very stupid thing we found out she did that hurt my brother so badly. But then, she still doesn’t realize that what she did was in any way wrong. My poor brother is still trying to fix the damage. It keeps him up at night from the stress. He’s told her that, and she’s completely oblivious.
My brother is such a saint.
I know I’ve said it before, but I am so incredibly glad he owns the property now. I’m also glad that our living here does relieve him of some of the stress and worry about keeping the place from from falling apart – and our vandal from stripping it bare even more that he already had. It’s very much a “win-win” arrangement we have with him, and he is a much better “landlord” than my mother was!
We have much to be thankful for, when it comes to living out here. Even if we do have to deal with unfortunate things coming up the drain in the basement, every now and then!
The Re-Farmer
We are having another lovely, warm day today. Not as warm as yesterday ended up being, but still enough that things are melting.
Things are starting to look really messy and gross as the snow melts away to expose layers of dirt, but it’s so uplifting to finally feel “spring” happening, no one cares. Least of all the cats!
I checked the tracking on our Purolator package last night, and was happy to see that the replacement bands for our vacuum cleaner finally came in. I headed into town this afternoon to pick them up, which is when I saw the one unfortunate thing of the day. The first sign of trouble was when I saw two sets of headlights, side by side, coming towards me on the road – with a third vehicle on the side of the road in between. I started slowing down, of course, but so did the truck that was passing a car – which also pulled over to the side of the road!
When I saw the driver of the first vehicle on the side of the road get out and start walking around her car, I considered stopping to see if she was okay, but the truck stopped beside her to talk to her, so I kept going. Then I saw someone get out of the other vehicle that had just pulled over, which is when I spotted something on the road, across the lane.
It turned out to be a deer. The woman in the first car must have just hit it. The woman in the second car pulled it off the road.
This time of the year, we always see a LOT of deer crossing the roads. It makes driving unexpectedly dangerous.
Since I was in town to pick up our package anyhow, I made a quick stop at the grocery store. Bizarrely, the staff are still all wearing masks, as where most of the customers. Even outside, walking around by themselves. The psychological addiction can be very strong.
I was very happy to see one familiar face, though. A friend of mine that I used to work with, the last time we lived in this area, many years ago. She was just as pleased to see a face as I was. We chatted a bit about it, as well as the vaccine mandates that have also been lifted. Like us, she and her husband would be far more at risk from the vaccine than getting Covid, so the whole thing was very frustrating for them.
They have a farm to the north of us, so of course we started talking weather! Such a relief to see things melting. The amount of snow we got this year is not enough to make up for the last couple of years. Much will depend on spring. When she hears people complaining about how much snow we got this winter, her thought has been like mine: this is what our normal winter’s snow is! We needed more, to make up for last summer’s drought, and the conditions of year before. The response she usually gets to that has been comments on spring rains taking care of that, but she says we haven’t and spring rains around here for 7 years. Yes, we did get some last spring, before the heat waves hit, but nothing close to the average amounts. So these drought or near drought conditions have been around for quite a while now.
Of course, they garden as well, plus they have an assortment of animals. The cost of feed has been going up, and seed is running out. They’ve noticed lots of people diving into gardening as well, contributing to the supply shortages and increased prices (at least until the seed companies can catch up). As we were chatting, her husband joined us and commented on the cost of oats for human consumption. Seed oats cost over $17 a bushel right now. It used to cost about $3 a bushel!
Time to stock up on oatmeal while it’s still affordable!
Before I left the store, I picked up a lotto ticket. I figure if they can win the jackpot, so can I! :-D
Once at home, I opened up the vacuum cleaner and changed out the broken belt, and immediately started to vacuum my disgusting, disgusting floor. The carpet in my office/bedroom is a strange, felted sort of surface, and it probably 50 years old. It used to be in our living room, but when we got the current shag carpet put in, this one got slapped down on the floor of what used to be my parents’ bedroom, like a rug, with molding along the bottoms of the walls holding it in place. It’s severely stretched and lumpy-bumpy in places, and attracts dust, dirt and cat hair like nothing else I’ve ever seen! I was so thrilled to finally…
… break the new band on the vacuum cleaner.
It turned out I hadn’t quite lined the cover up right over the beater bar when I put it back.
I’m glad I got extra bands! If I break it again, there’s still a couple more.
It feels so good to finally have a red carpet again, instead of grey with cat hair. :-D
You know you’re getting old, when being able to vacuum a carpet is exciting.
Unfortunately, with the noise of the vacuum, all the cats ran off, including Butterscotch and Nosencrantz. Nosencrantz has started to explore the house more on her own, and has even visited the girls upstairs, but Butterscotch still hadn’t even shown an interest. Nosencrantz has made her way back and is settled down on my bed with several other cats, but not Butterscotch. Right now, I have no idea where she is!
Well, I guess that’s one way to get her to check out the rest of the house! :-D
The Re-Farmer
Amazing what a difference a few hours makes.
This morning, I had pretty much decided, Costco would wait until tomorrow. Which freed up my day for other things.
I was just starting to make a ham, leek and potato soup when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
After an atypical hesitant start in the conversation, of my mother saying she hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything (red flag! red flag!) she started asking me about a particular plaque that used to hang in the entry, above the doorway into the dining room. It had hung there for many decades, and was it still there?
No. It isn’t. She knew this, too, because we hung a cross of our own up there, made of olive wood from the Mediterranean, with the Lord’s Prayer engraved into the wood. She and I had had a conversation about it when she saw it. That was a while ago, so no surprise that she didn’t remember.
Then she started asking where the plaque was, asking if I even remembered it, and so on. I did remember it, but I did not remember where we packed it. I figure it’s on the storage warehouse. This building used to be a workshop, but it is now jammed full of my parents’ belongings, to the point we can barely move around in it.
She wanted me to get it for her, because she would like it now.
…
I reminded her that we can’t get to the warehouse because of the snow.
Oh, of course. It can wait until spring and the snow is going.
I pointed out that this is a very small item and would be very hard to find (in fact, I am not even sure it ended up in there, but it’s the most likely place) in all that stuff.
That’s okay, she tells me. It’s very important, you see. It’s patriotic.
The plaque has a Polish eagle on the front, and the Polish national anthem on the back.
*sigh*
Hopefully, but spring, she will forget all about it.
This is something that has frustratingly become more common. My mother suddenly remembers some possession she left behind when she moved out of here, decides she absolutely MUST have it, and then I have to find it and dig it out. Which isn’t too bag when it’s a large item, like a couple of framed prints she now has on her wall, but there is just no way we can keep on top of the little things. There was just SO much STUFF we had to pack away, just to be able to have the movers bring our own stuff out here, never mind the stuff we packed away, clean out and disposed of over the next couple of years. By the time we were cleaning out the old kitchen, we were having to put things in the old storage house in the front yard, because there is no more room in the warehouse. And the storage house is already full of junk and is so far gone, cleaning it up would require haz mat precautions. I don’t think we went in there even once, last year.
My mother has a very tiny apartment. The room I’m now using as my bedroom/office is probably bigger than her entire apartment. She has frequently rejected gifts, in her typically rude manner, because she has no room for them (then showing off the gifts given to her by family members that have been abusive towards her, but that’s a whole other issue…). Now, she’s suddenly wanting these old possessions she abandoned years before we even moved out here, with absolutely no consideration about how difficult it would be to even find these, while also worrying that someone is going to go into the warehouse and steal the things, and ALSO insisting we don’t throw anything away, because “they have value”.
*sigh*
I really don’t think anyone is interested in my late father’s old clothes, or the underwear she left behind in her dresser, along with the piles of old junk they just couldn’t let go of. Yes, there is some good stuff in there, too, but those pieces are literally buried in boxes and bags of stuff.
Thank God neither of them were actually hoarders!
Anyhow, after that conversation was done, my mother started saying she needed to run errands.
Which I will be helping her do tomorrow, thanks to her car being all fixed up, checked over and home again.
Since Costco tomorrow was not going to happen, maybe I should just go it today?
Nope. Not going to happen. Costco will wait another day.
I went back to making my soup.
After that was done, I came into my room and my daughter joined the cats on the bed as we got caught up on things. Even Butterscotch came out for attention, so she stayed longer.
There’s a problem with that.
I have a very comfortable, very large, bed.
It was covered with warm, sleeping cats.
We both got sucked into the cozy.
I fell asleep.
My daughter, sweetheart that she is, got up, laid more cats on top of me, covered us with blankets, then put away my glasses for me. She had some problems with my glasses, though, discovering that they don’t close anymore! LOL
Some time later, I got up, found my glasses, put them on and…
They don’t sit right on my face anymore.
It seems she bent them somehow, while trying to close them. They are so old and fragile, I don’t dare manipulate them too much.
So now I’m wearing my “spare” glasses, which are no longer the right prescription, but right now, the eye strain is slightly less.
Which means my plans for my tax return have changed.
With how much my progressive lenses alone cost, I’ll be lucky if I have anything left of my return by the time they’re done. Yes, we do have insurance, but only a few hundred dollars. Less than what my lenses cost – and that was years ago. At least the eye exam will be fully covered.
I just double checked. The plan covers 90% of lenses and frames, but only up to a certain amount. I go for the bargain basement frames, since I really don’t care to pay hundreds of dollars for a brand name and fancy colours. Maybe I’ll have something left over. We’ll see.
*sigh*
Well, it was nice to think about getting that portable greenhouse for a little while, at least…
The Re-Farmer
One of my goals for today was to start more seeds and transplant some little tomatoes, after I did some baking.
My younger daughter usually does the bread baking, but she not well today. So I did a double batch of oatmeal and chia bread, then another double batch of herb bread made into mini loaves and buns.
Of course, the phone kept being busy today! After my phone appointment with my doctor, he forwarded a 90 day refill for my prescription – but for some reason changed it from taking it twice a day, to once a day, which was not what we talked about on the phone. The pharmacy caught the change and called me about it. In the end, I went ahead and took what they could give me, while they sent another fax to the doctor for find out what was going on.
After that, I left the phone with my husband!
Even so, I happened to glance out the kitchen window while shaping loaves, and saw someone walking by with a cat carrier and some bags of cat food! He didn’t even go to the door, but let them near the cat shelter. I got outside just in time to wave goodbye to them as they drove away.
I’m assuming the guy was the Cat Lady’s husband. With no chance to talk, I quickly sent a thank you text. It turned out she’d tried to phone ahead, but … well… we do live in a cell phone dead zone, and this time, she had no signal at all. The cat food bags they left with us were very small bags; it actually made more sense when I saw them, after she told me she’d got them for only 27 cents each, but couponing. It should be enough to last us until after we get the van back and can do some shopping.
Then the pharmacy delivery guy called, but my husband was able to take care of that, while I finished shaping the last of the buns.
The down side is, by the time I finished kneading the second batch and setting it to rise, my left hip gave out. It’s still bothering me! I was able to finish the baking, but I’m afraid I had to leave most of the clean up for when my daughters to the evening chores. Which means mostly my older daughter, once she’s done working, since my younger daughter isn’t feeling any better, yet – and my older daughter has her own joint issues to deal with!
What a gimpy bunch we are. :-D
While I was doing all this, what I was NOT doing was keeping on on the Senate debates before voting for or against our Prime Dictator’s invocation of the Emergency Measures Act. They’d debated all day yesterday, and the people I knew who were watching it live were mostly incredibly disgusted by what they saw. A lot of the senators were repeating the same lies and slander our politicians and media were pushing.
I must say, though, this brief clip was probably the worst example.
The “ceased” guns she was referring to had nothing to do with the protesters, the vitriol wasn’t from the protesters, but… honk honk equals Heil Hitler?? Really? It’s one thing to see idiots saying that on social media, but coming from a senator?
There was some calm and measured speeches, though. This one is worth a listen.
The fact that she has been working right where the protests were happening, and could confirm what was really going on, was important.
Funny how people who weren’t there were the ones who complained about the disruption and noise of the protests more than people actually living there. I even had one person on my friends list claim they could hear the horns, even though 1) they live an hour away from Ottawa and 2) the honking had stopped.
A constant refrain I was starting to hear from people living there is that the police blockades were far worse than the protesters ever where.
The Liberals didn’t like it when the New York Times managed to accurately report on the police actions.
Meanwhile, organizer Tamara Lich was denied bail.
This video dives into the many problems about that.
That’s right. The judge who denied Lich bail is a T2 supporter who even ran for election as an MP, for the Liberal Party.
Then I started getting messages from people.
Our Prime Dictator revoked the Emergency Measures Act himself.
That’s right. It’s done.
Gone.
But not over, of course.
He went from saying the EMA would need to be in place for months, even though the “red zone” in Ottawa was cleared of protesters, because they might come back. His party was even talking about making some of the EMA powers permanent.
The Conservative Party had already filed a motion to revoke, which would have been discussed on Monday, should the Senate have voted to support the invocation of the Act. Under the Act, the EMA is in force for 30 days, when it either expires or gets extended by vote. Any party, at any time, could move to revoke the Act, at which point our Prime Dictator would have to justify keeping it in force again, then the House and Senate would have to debate and vote on it again. The NDP would be supporting the Liberals every time, which means it would always be the Senate that had to have the final say.
A process that could, potentially, keep happening, over and over again.
Meanwhile, it began to appear that not enough senators would vote in favour of the EMA. A number of them voiced displeasure at the pressure they were getting to just rubber stamp the invocation. They were still debating it when our Prime Dictator made a live announcement that, since the emergency was over (the emergency that was never there in the first place), it wasn’t needed anymore, so he was ending it.
I have not watched his speech, because seeing and hearing him makes me physically ill.
Literally today, as Trudeau was writing his short speech announcing that he was abandoning his Emergencies Act, his shills in the Senate were standing up and speaking in favour of it. Imagine burning up a lifetime of political capital, only to have Trudeau walk away from it moments later. Oh well – it was a useful exercise.
Which politicians — including in the Conservative Party. Oh yes, I didn’t mention it?
The cowards in the Liberal Party who announced that they were very much against it — but that they were going to vote for it anyways, because Trudeau was “forcing” them to.
But is it over?
No, of course not.
The reasons for the protests are still there. The federal mandates have not been lifted.
There continue to be protests across the country and, even near Ottawa, there are protesters set up and ready to come back, if necessary. People’s bank accounts that had been frozen are slowly being un-frozen. The law suits are still files and making their way through the process.
Ottawa’s newest Chief of Police was going to continue his witch hunt.
Will that change, now that the EMA is no longer in effect? I don’t think so.
Will this mean that our Prime Dictator will just invoke the EMA every time there are protests he doesn’t approve of? Or will his party just find other ways to grab power? For example, while all this was going on, they have been trying to push a bill that would make vaccination – but just one specific vaccination – a condition of employment, by federal law. Never mind that making any vaccine mandatory is illegal in Canada.
This is not any sort of victory. Our Prime Dictator has simply blinked first, but not until after his jackboots used illegal and violent measures to remove a legal and peaceful protest. This is not the first time he’s tried to make a power play. This is just the first time it involved the general public in such an open manner. A lot of people who were typically on board with him, even if they didn’t like some of the stuff he was doing, have had a very rude awakening.
A lot of people have also realized what a precarious position they are in, in many ways. I saw a huge leap in people moving towards increased self sufficiency, working to get out of the cities, and some even leaving the country. I foresee the “homesteading” movement to continue to grow because of what’s been happening these past two years.
For us, we’re still going to be pushing ahead with our one original goal to be as self sufficient as possible. The only change is to see how much we can speed up the process.
This is not over. Not by a long shot.
The Re-Farmer
I just wanted to start by addressing the update that I made in my post last night. Specifically, about an Ontario court freezing funds people have donated to the Freedom Convoy 2022.
This sort of pressure by Ottawa is what cause GoFundMe to capitulate, much to their detriment. GiveSendGo, however has pointed out the obvious.
A court in Ontario has no jurisdiction on what they, a company in the US, do with the money people donate using their platform.
GiveSendGo rejects Ontario ruling to stop trucker funding
“Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo,” said GiveSendGo.
As of this writing, the total raised at the GiveSendGo fundraiser page is almost US$9 million.
So what was the response?
Well, the Ontario Premier just increased the level of totalitarianism by declaring a state of emergency.
Ontario Premier declares state of emergency over blockades
Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment.
Aside from his inflammatory, slanderous tone, this part is of major concern.
The temporary order will be enshrined in new permanent law that his government will introduce, he said.
Now, there’s something that should alarm anyone, whatever their opinions about the Freedom Convoy!
Our Prime Dictator is right in there, too.
Perhaps he needs to remember this.
The trucker response?
There’s a funny thing about civil disobedience. It involved being civil. And disobedient.
Which is the stage we are at now.
Also, these government actions are illegal. No law can contradict our constitutional rights. It doesn’t matter if they get passed by politicians or even propped up by courts.
Illegal Government Actions Against the Ottawa Truckers
Interview with John Carpay, JCCF
Manitoba, meanwhile, has made a new announcement. They went from promising to maybe lifting all restrictions by spring (first day of spring is March 20 this year) to announcing all restrictions will be lifted by March 15.
Manitoba ending all COVID-19 restrictions by March 15
This is a legacy media link, but I included it because it included the response from Manitoba’s NDP leader, Wab Kinew; it is so very typical of the NDP.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are also living their mandates, though all seem to be conditional. They could change their minds (again) or bring them back at any time.
The things is, the prairie provinces never had reason to shut down in the first place. Check out these screen captures I took today, from the StatCan Provisional weekly all-cause death data.
The first thing you’ll notice is that Manitoba’s data is a year behind. I’ve been keeping an eye on these numbers for a couple of years now, and they have been consistently behind all other provinces.
Now, during a pandemic of respiratory viruses, there is a distinct pattern. There is a spike in excess deaths at the beginning, usually around early spring. That spike drops dramatically, then a small spike happens at the end of the year, during the usual winter increase in respiratory infections aka: flu season.
Manitoba had no such pattern. The only spike in deaths was at the end of the year – well after it kept increasing the restrictions. Plus, if you look at the ages, you’ll find that that spike is in the 65+ age categories. Manitoba was never part of the pandemic.
Now let’s look at Saskatewan.
Again, no pandemic pattern, but there is an increase in excess deaths for 2021 – after restrictions were mandated.
Alberta, however has something very strange going on.
Something very wrong has been happening in Alberta. This is not a pandemic pattern. These are all-cause deaths. There needs to be a much closer look at what lead to all those deaths – most of which, as with Manitoba and Saskatchewan, happened when the province was locked down and mandates were in place. This could be a reflection on increased in deaths due to lack of timely diagnosis and treatment, or deaths of despair, such as suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses, or vaccine deaths. It needs to be investigated.
These are not the only provinces that were never part of the pandemic, and had no evidence driven reason to shut down in the first place. This is not to say the Wu Flu wasn’t in these provinces, but that they did not meet the criteria for an epidemic, never mind a pandemic.
All of this needs to be questioned, and in a truly free country, we would be able to do so without being censored, demonized and punished.
Here is an Open Letter to the Canadian Truckers that addressed quite a few things that we need to be talking about.
But only one side seems to be willing to address these issues.
Doctors Supporting the Freedom Convoy 2022 to Convene Public Scientific Forum
I found this message from a Canadian army major well worth listening to.
There is no doubt that our Prime Dictator is underestimating the truckers, and our legacy is a disasterous failure, with very few exceptions.
Here is a reminder of just why the truckers are there, and why so many support them.
How will it end?
Well, here are some thoughts on that.
What’s hilarious is that tweet about a “wrecking ball” on a crane. Talk about showing how out of touch of elitists are, when it comes to ordinary working folk.
Just look at these terrible, violent, nasty protesters!
The weekend is coming, and the numbers will increase. How the police are going to enforce these new, draconian edicts is certainly a fair question. Hopefully, they will not resort to the levels of violence that has been happening in Australia and New Zealand.
In the end, though, the best way to face such attempts at authoritarianism is to simply expose it for the joke it is.
I think our political overlords are in their death throws, and they know it. Unfortunately, that makes them far more likely to do something very, very stupid.
Right now, how things go is squarely in our Prime Dictator’s hands, and he shows no sign of being intelligent enough to handle it.
The Re-Farmer
There’s stuff going on so quickly right now, it’s hard to keep up, but I’ll just start with this video, to give you a taste of what’s going on with the Freedom Convoy. If, for some reason, a video below doesn’t load for you, try clicking here. (original TikTok source) This is from the lawyer representing the Freedom Convoy.
Right from this morning, I was hearing some of the most infuriating things regarding the Freedom Convoy. One of the radio stations aired questions messaged to them. In part of it, while “graciously” acknowledging the right to peaceful protest, they went on to ask, what gives people the right to use vehicles?
Seriously? Suddenly, the right to protest is limited to… what? People on foot? There have been many protests that included cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs and even horses. But now, it’s suddenly in question?
Then there was the question of, what gives protestors rights over the general public?
Has this person never seen a protest before? Especially all the “mostly peaceful” protests during Trump’s presidency that included riots, vandalism, theft, arson, assault and murder?
More than that, the protestors are protesting legally, and have the exact same rights as the general public. But this person seems to believe that, because they don’t like this particular protest, they should be denied rights all Canadians are supposed to have?
It’s right up there with people demanding that the protestors have to be quiet and super polite, and must never show strong emotions – which always get interpreted as “angry” (as if there’s something wrong with being angry over what our governments have done to us over the past two years). Also, see the statement above out protests we’ve seen in the past few years.
The person who shared this had sent in their own response, which did not get aired. The narrative must be upheld!
Speaking of narrative, our government overlords and the media are doubling down on the hateful rhetoric, slander and outright lies.
But before I touch on that more, that $10million that was raised to support the truckers through GoFundMe? Money the government has been salivating over? Or at least Ottawa’s mayor. Well, they succeed in having the account frozen, and now it’s shut down. GoFundMe is claiming they have police reports of violence, and that the protest has become an “occupation”. Which is utter BS. The police have suddenly started issuing a slough of tickets, mostly for traffic violations. I’m curious how they ticketed someone for speeding, when the trucks are all just sitting there. And the only violence has been against the truckers, not by them.
Basically, GoFundMe has stolen $9million ($1 had already been released, to help pay for things like fuel). The statement at the site said something about working with the organizers to have the money donated to the charity of their choosing. People, however, donated to help the truckers, and all over the various social media groups I’m following, they are demanding refunds.
Also, a new Bitcoin fundraiser has already been started. People want to support the truckers, and GoFundMe is hardly the only way to do it. Frankly, I am not surprised they did this, given their history of double standards. Lord knows, they’ve allowed fundraisers for things that absolutely went against their terms of service, but they looked the other way.
This press conference below was done yesterday, before GoFundMe stabbed them in the back, and they were still thinking things would work out.
This move is going to be a whole lot of mud on GoFundMe’s face.
As usual, The Rubin Report covered the story well.
I tried to embed a video from Facebook but it’s not working, so here is a link. This was a live stream from someone that’s been an online friend of mine for years, and a real standup guy. He was at the Coutts border protest, and makes reference to Jason Kenney, the Alberta Premier, who has proven to be completely untrustworthy. The RCMP have also proven to be untrustworthy. Definitely worth clicking through and giving him a listen.
Viva Frei has been covering the whole thing a lot, including many live streams. Here, he talks about the GoFundMe fiasco.
He interviews people taking part in the protest in this video.
Gosh. All those crazy, “white nationalists”.
Here’s from another guy who’s in the middle of it all.
True North is among the independent media that are reporting accurately. This next video is a “fake news Friday” show and covers the media issue rather well.
The independent Rebel News also asks a very good question.
Why are the truckers being treated differently than past protestors?
Also, the truckers are making sure there are lanes open, so that people can get to work and emergency vehicles can get by. People complaining about not being able to get through are lying. Likewise, claims that they are hurting small businesses (as the government hasn’t been destroying small businesses for the past two years), when the protestors are actually giving places more business than they’ve had in years – when they’re not being jerks to the protestors, that is.
Check this out… people came for a protest, and a dance party broke out.
While this has been going on in Ottawa, other convoys of people who couldn’t go to Ottawa and converging on their own provincial legislatures, and even smaller towns are organizing their own protests in support of the Freedom Convoy. Some started today, while others will be held tomorrow. Oh, and there are still more trucks on their way to Ottawa. In some cities, the police have created blockades to stop the protestors which, ironically enough, is creating more disruption than the protestors would have, in the first place.
If you were to listen to the media and our government overlords, you would be told that these people are violent, rage filled racists, misogynists and homophobes. One of the stories I caught this morning mentioned a business in the area (at least I assume it is in the area) that found their front window broken – a business that just happened to have a pride flag displayed. The implication was that this was done by the truckers, because they’re homophobes, but there was absolutely nothing to support that. It’s just the narrative they want to frame. Oh, and the business went ahead and opened, anyway, with the broken window boarded up. Just more media manipulation.
So why would the media be lying like this? Well, our own Prime Dictator bragged about that, back in 2019.
Yes, he was leading into a joke on this, and went on to read some of the few critical headlines about him. The reality is, all our government approved media is dependent on the government. Aside from the $600million of our tax dollars he’s joking about, they are being kept afloat with all the Covid ads, also paid for with tax dollars. Governments don’t have their own money. It all comes from us. And right now, they are doubling down in slandering the Freedom Convoy, and whipping up anger and hatred. Since the protestors themselves have been doing things like dancing, singing, shoveling snow, feeding people and being an incredibly loving, passionate, positive and peaceful group, that has managed to not rise to the bait while being goaded, these media have no other option than to just lie through their teeth.
It’s the government rhetoric that is most troubling. The language they are using to describe the protest, now calling it an “occupation” in a militarized sense (not like when the Occupy movement actually did engage in occupations, apparently), and doubling down, is very troubling.
Someone had brought up an interesting point. In India, they gained their independence through peaceful protest. Non-violence was their method. What was pointed out is that this only worked because they were up against the British who, for all the things they may have done, did still have a sense of objective morality. They may not have lived up to that morality very well, but it was there. It would not have worked if they had tried such non-violent protests in, say, the USSR. Their morality was completely different, and they had no problem just slaughtering people. Which they did, at times, to the tune of millions dead over the years. I have family who were involved in Poland’s fight for freedom from Communist rule. Some of them permanently damaged by the beatings they got as they fought for freedoms we have been taking for granted. The Polish people did eventually win, but it was not “peaceful” or non-violent. It couldn’t be, because of what they were up against.
What I fear is that our government overlords are a lot more like Soviet Russia. Listening to them, I feel they are priming us for something drastic, so that when it happens, people will blame the truckers instead of the government.
Canada has been living under medical tyranny, and the powers that be are not willing to give up that power, just because people they view with contempt are finally standing up to it.
How far are they willing to go to keep that power?
It feels like everything is crumbling, but I can’t tell which way the pieces are falling.
The Re-Farmer
I was hesitant to talk about the Freedom Convoy again. I’ve tried hard to keep this blog pretty neutral, and focus on what we’re doing here on my childhood farm. Over the years, I’ve found myself pretty involved with contentious stuff, and part of moving out here has been to get away from this stuff. It’s hard to avoid, when living in the middle of a major city, and we were more than happy to get away from that. Yes, living here has had its own issues, but it’s still an improvement.
The problem is, what’s been going on over the past couple of years has long fingers, and even managed to affect us in our little corner of the world. What is happening now, with the Freedom Convoy, and all the other convoys and protests forming around the country, is going to affect us.
That, and apparently many of you following this blog are wanting to hear this, considering what traffic has been like when I do talk about it!
We are still very much on the outside of things, since we aren’t in a position to get directly involved in any way, and most of what’s going on is quite distant from us. Still, we need to keep watch on what’s happening. How things turn out in the end will affect the entire country. There are already some sudden changes; the Conservative Party of Canada just ousted their leader. He was the official leader of the opposition, but has not been leader of this party for very long. I’m not a member of any political party, but when the CPC were choosing a new leader, this one was not at the top of the list of who I would have preferred. Still, I had some hope for him. Unfortunately, he turned turned out to be about as two faced as they come. That the party turfed him after his complete failure to be an effective leader is a positive sign and, frankly, I think all our major political parties need to do the same thing. Even at the provincial level since, most of the disastrous restrictions and mandates fall under provincial jurisdiction.
The response from both our governments (at all levels) and our media has been pretty terrible, and the media, of course, continue to report lies. They just go through the list of accusations that they’ve been using on anyone they don’t approve of, to see what will stick. Racists? Nope. Misogynists? Nope. Extremists? Nope. Violent? Nope. Vandals? Nope. Stealing food from the homeless? Nope. Even “Islamophobe” has been tossed in the mix. Nope.
Now, it turns out there has been vandalism in Ottawa, but not from the truckers. During the day, there is a heavy police presence, but not at night – and that’s when people against the convoy have been coming out, vandalizing trucks and causing other problems.
Ottawa’s mayor has already tried to say, okay, you’ve made your point, now leave. Which is hilarious. Even more hilarious is that the city tried to get tow trucks to haul the rigs away (ha!), and they refused. I’ve heard they tried to do things like remove all the garbage cans, but people just started hanging garbage bags around for others to use. Public washrooms were closed, so people brought in porta-potties. Protestors are not just singing and dancing and honking horns. They’re shoveling sidewalks and keeping the area clean.
It’s not just in Ottawa. Other convoys and protests have formed elsewhere, including at an Alberta border crossing. The province tried to get tow truck drivers to haul them away, and they refused – some of them joined the protest, instead! Farmers are coming out with their tractors, too. The RCMP tried to from their own blockage to prevent them, but… seriously. How are you going to stop a vehicle that can just go through the ditches around you?
Worse, Alberta’s premier openly lied, claiming protestors attacked the RCMP.
Thankfully, independent media are on the ground, doing actual reporting – and right now, anyone with a phone and an internet connection is independent media!
Even media around the world are noticing just how badly the convoy is being misrepresented within Canada.
Watching all this, I can’t help but make comparisons. Our government and media are going to extreme lengths to attack these protests, where if someone so much as sneezes in the wrong place, the entire movement – and it is a movement, now – gets slandered.
I remember, years ago, when the Occupy protests were all the rage. Groups of people set up camps at Legislative and other government buildings and public parks. Where we were living at the time, they set up camp in what turned out to be a private park, but they stayed, anyways. The media portrayed them in the most positive light, and the varying levels of government paid them lip service. Even as the camps reached states of squalor, with theft and rapes happening, there was no real condemnation. I’m the sort of person who has no problem walking down a dark alley at 2 am. Apparently, I’ve perfected the look that makes other people cross the street when they see me. Which is funny, because I also apparently have “Mom” stamped on my forehead. Yet, when I had to walk past the Occupy camp, I crossed the street and stayed well away. I remember, long after they were gone, still finding damage to art pieces and trees, cause by the signs they attached to them, as well as whatever ropes and whatnot they set up. They all left damage and garbage behind.
These camps lasted for months, and yet… they accomplished nothing. There were all these little Marxists, imagining themselves as brave revolutionaries, who deliberately removed themselves from society for months to protest and…
No one missed them.
They contributed to little to the world around them, that when they left it to protest, it made no difference.
Now let’s compare with what’s happening now. The people protesting are truckers and, increasingly, farmers. They have so much support, the GoFundMe is now over $10 million, as of this writing. Between that and the direct donations, they could stay there for years. However, without truckers and farmers, everything collapses. No country can last long, if their truckers and farmers stop working.
Which is likely why the government has been trying very hard to deny them the money people have donated. One MP in Ontario is apparently trying to have the funds seized, and used to pay for things like the cost of policing or whatever. As if the government has any right to money people donate!
As of this writing, that GoFundMe is currently “Under Review”. No one can donate, and the funds are frozen. This, even though the organizers have been working closely with GoFundMe to make sure everything is above board and in compliance with their terms of service. There are serious questions as to why it would suddenly be “under review.” People who have donated are very angry. Particularly if the government does try to seize it. Many are already saying that they’ll withdraw their donations. There are many other ways to get support to the truckers.
So what’s going to happen? I know the truckers and their supporters aren’t going to back down. I also know our Prime Dictator is going to dig his heals in as long as he can.
This is not something that can end in a stalemate.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 