Today has been one of those days where I haven’t been paying much attention to things outside our little cave. I’ve been using various apps to keep in the loop about the Freedom Convoy, but simply have not been able to keep on top of the hundreds of messages, posts and videos. I have had to mute most of the channels. Otherwise, my phone would be constantly singing at me with notification noises.
This evening, I finally got to sit down and try to look at some of the stuff, and figured I’d check out some of the YouTube videos that so many people have been posting.
Well, now.
First, not a lot of related videos were showing in my feed, even though quite a few channels I follow are directly involved in some way. So I did a search. I did that yesterday and found all sorts of interesting videos, some of which I shared.
Not today.
Today, about 99% of the videos that showed up in my search were from mainstream media. Since they aren’t really covering it much, most of them are also days old. After a while, I did see more independent videos show up, but they are even older than the media ones.
YouTube is messing with the search results, and keeping people from finding videos made by anyone other than our government approved media.
The mainstream media has, of course, been spreading all sorts of lies and slander about the Freedom Convoy. Our Prime Dictator came out and made a little speech, supposedly to explain why he refuses to talk to the truckers. It was a speech filled with lies, misrepresentations, and was clearly intended to create more division and hate against the truckers. The former drama teacher was over acting again, too.
One of the few politicians that has openly and unapologetically supported the Freedom Convoy from the start has been Maxime Bernier, of the PPC; the video above has his response to some of the disgusting things our Prime Dictator said. The NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, who is Sikh, also made some really vile comments denigrating the protestors as racists. Which would be a real surprise to all the Sikh truckers and supporters of the protest. In fact, the Sikh community has been one of the staunchest supporters. There have also been a lot of immigrants, some truckers, some supporters, that talk of having escaped tyrannical regimes. They are saying they are there, supporting the truckers, because they could see the same things happening here in Canada, that lead to the destruction of human rights and freedoms in their homelands. Of course, there are also the many First Nations groups that have joined the protests. It’s gotta be the most racially and ethnically diverse group of “white supremacists”, ever!
One of the YouTube channels I follow is The Rubin Report, and I still had to go looking to find this coverage.
Other platforms, such as Rumble, aren’t censoring videos.
The Rebel, which is completely independently funded, is one of the few larger media covering the protests. This one addresses the real problem of people infiltrating the protest to deliberately mess things up.
This is something everyone knew was going to happen. It’s a standard MO, really.
If we were to listen to the mainstream media and our own federal government, we would believe that there’s just a “fringe minority” of racist hicks that can’t be taken seriously, that are also domestic terrorists bent on violently overturning our (oh-so-saintly) government and the greatest threat our nation has ever faced.
Well, I suppose you could say it is an uprising. An uprising of courage, hope, unity, and love from ordinary Canadians, standing up against division, medical apartheid an government enforced segregation.
The Re-Farmer
Update: well, this didn’t take long. I just found this story, from The Counter Signal.
“Ottawa City Councillor Mathieu Fleury wants to seize the protesting truckers’ GoFundMe support account, which has raised upwards of $9 million, to cover the costs of policing the city — among other costs.
Fleury, who represents the city’s Rideau-Vanier Ward, publicly announced on social media that he asked the city manager and city solicitor to “immediately launch court proceedings targeting the millions of dollars in funds frozen by [GoFundMe] so Ottawa taxpayers are not left holding the bag for these protests.””
As of this writing, the GoFundMe is over $8.8 million. If you listen to the interview above, they say they have the resources to stay in place for several years, if necessary.
Years.
And convoys are still arriving. There are so many convoys out there right now, they’ve lost track.
Meanwhile, truckers that weren’t able to join the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa have been holding their own protests at their provincial legislatures and at Canada/US border crossings.
There are people I know who are there in Ottawa, including neighbours, and I follow many others who are there. So I’m getting a lot of uncensored, first hand commentary on what’s going on – though it’s so huge, even that is barely touching the surface. The atmosphere remains incredibly positive, uplifting and united.
Our mainstream media, of course, isn’t reporting that.
One of the things people are suddenly clutching their pearls over is that protestors *gasp* draped Canadian Flags on a statue of Terry Fox, along with a paper sign saying “Mandate Freedom”. Terry Fox is a major Canadian hero. They are claiming the statue was “defaced”.
Seriously. They are actually saying that the statue was being defaced by the Canadian flag.
There have been other reports focusing on portraying the protestors in the most negative light. In one of them, a horde of protestors supposedly pushed their way into the soup kitchen of a homeless shelter, demanding food. The shelter organizers claim they were able to diffuse the situation by giving them soup.
To say that doesn’t pass the smell test is a massive understatement. There has been so much food, and other supplies, already donated to the convoy that people who approached truckers, intending to donate food, instead found themselves being offered food from the truckers! There is more than enough food for everyone. No one actually part of the protest has any reason to go to a homeless shelter for food, nor would they “demand” food from a homeless shelter.
An exception to that statement just showed up in one of my groups. If you can read the screen cap below, there are truckers on an isolated part of the highway, barricaded by the police.
So any troubles truckers are having to get food is outside the city, and deliberate. From the timestamp, this is was posted 2 hours ago, from the time I’m writing this.
While I have no doubt the incident at the homeless shelter happened, there is no way this was done by genuine protestors in Ottawa. Quite a few people have been outed for inserting themselves as if they were part of the protest, while doing things like carrying Nazi flags.
There has been an interesting thing going on. Communications are being blocked. Anyone could download the Zello app and listen to chatter on the CBs. There is no longer a signal. I’ve tried to listen in myself, but it’s dead. People have talked about other communication troubles, widespread enough to suggest they are being blocked externally.
Our media’s representation (and lack of it) of the Freedom Convoy is even being blasted by other countries, as in the video above.
You know things are bad in Canada in regards to the restrictions, when they are commenting on how extreme it is, in Australia.
How the media is handling this was the topic of conversation with Viva & Barnes. This is an excerpt of their regular livestream from a few days ago.
Viva and Barnes are both lawyers, so they provide some very interesting perspectives.
Most people know better than to listen to our own mainstream media, not to mention most of our politicians. However, there are still those who swallow the narrative, hook, line and sinker. They have gleefully accepted the notion that the truckers are white supremacists, Russian operatives, or whatever favorite derogatory narrative fits their preconceived notions, all on the edge of violence, and no amount of first hand evidence will change their mind. It’s bizarre to see, but they are most definitely in the minority. You can easily tell the difference between those who support the truckers and those who don’t. Supporters are overflowing with excitement, passion, love, hope and joy, and it’s infectious. The detractors are angry, condescending, insulting and dismissive. Mostly, though, they are contemptuous of people they clearly see as beneath them, and unworthy of being viewed as even human. It would be an interesting psychological study to look into how their views of humanity developed into what they are now. It is so opposite from what is happening across the country right now.
For many years, my biggest frustration with my fellow Canadians has been apathy. We’re so busy being “nice” and “polite”, it’s been destroying our country. With my own family having escaped the evils of both Nazism and Communism, I could see the road we were going down, and it was incredibly alarming. It is one of the reasons I am so thankful that we were able to return here to my family farm, and escape the city. Now, for the first time in my life, I see that something has broken. Something has snapped. A dam has broken, and there is no stopping the waters pouring through. Canadians have been pushed to far, and the apathy has been swept away.
Our country will be a completely different place, when this is over.
What a difference between this winter and last winter!
Though Chadiccus doesn’t know that, since it’s his first winter.
I’m sure the older cats are appreciating it, though!
Last year, we could barely go anywhere because it was too cold for our vehicles. At one point, we even had to ask my older brother to do some shopping in the city for us, because we couldn’t use our own van, or even my mother’s car. They started but, my goodness, the noises the engines made!
This winter, we’ve been able to head out as often as we needed – or wanted – to. I think I’ve gone somewhere almost every day this week!
With Butterscotch and Nosencrantz being dropped off at the vet on Monday, the earliest we expected to be able to do our Costco trip to the city would have been Tuesday, so I decided to pop into town after doing the morning rounds and pick up a few things we figured we’d need. It was disappointing to walk around the grocery store and being the only person open faced again, but not surprising for this town. At least I don’t get harassed in this grocery store. When I was done, I made a quick stop at the garage to finally book a much needed oil change. I kept forgetting to phone. Not a single sign on the door for the illegal restrictions. Gosh, it was so wonderful to see a beautiful, open face. It’s amazing how much removing people’s faces causes stress and anxiety that isn’t even noticed until it isn’t there. Anyhow, with the oil change booked, that makes Wednesday the earliest we’ll be able to head into the city, so I’m extra glad I made a small trip, today.
Today is Freedom Day. In support of the Freedom Convoy, all businesses have been asked to open fully, without discrimination or segregation. The main convoy has reached Ottawa, though it may well take days for them all to stream in. I’ve heard there are six convoys in total, coming in from different directions. Our Prime Dictator and his family have apparently been whisked away somewhere, for their “safety”, while the media continues to prime viewers to expect violence. As has happened before Antifa riots, people have reporting seeing trucks unloading piles of bricks in the area, while others are reporting finding piles of bricks already in place. Whistleblowers within the federal government have warned of paid agitators. Within the convoy groups, those who have reporting finding these bricks are being encouraged to report them to the police, and the constant thread is to encourage people on site to not allow themselves to be goaded into doing anything stupid. Considering that the overwhelming atmosphere among the Freedom Convoy supports is more like a massive, joyful, exuberant celebration, it would be pretty easy to spot the agitators.
Support continues to be overwhelming, and overwhelmingly positive. The GoFundMe now exceeds $8million, and armies of people are cooking, baking and donating food and beverages. Businesses that used to sell maybe 4 or 5 Canadian flags in a year, have been selling as many as 150 in a day – if they have any left to sell at all, anymore. Farmers in the area have plowed snow clear on their fields for truckers to park their rigs and get some sleep. Support flows in from around the world, with many forming convoys of their own.
It’s absolutely amazing.
Now we just wait and see how our governments respond. Whatever happens, this is big enough to affect even us, in our little hidden pocket of the world.
After writing and update about Cabbages and announcing a fundraiser for her, I figured I should post about less exciting things. :-D
This afternoon was my day to visit my mother and help her with errands. She wanted me to “not be in a hurry” and not have to rush home, so… I had to rush out earlier to make sure I got to the post office before it closed to pick up some packages. :-D Mind you, the only reason it was a rush was because of how much time I was on the phone, being updated about Cabbages by the cat lady, so that was quite acceptable.
She had actually called at first to talk about these two. She still has the cat carrier she borrowed to carry Cabbages, and she wanted to make sure I didn’t need it before Monday. We do still have 2 more carriers that we can use. Butterscotch is Cabbages’ mother. It will be good to finally get her fixed! Nosencrantz isn’t even a year old yet, and she is easily twice the bulk Cabbages ever was!
After leaving kibble in the tray under the shrine, I turned around and saw this.
Seeing how deep the snow is, in relation to the size of the cats, is just funny.
They just love the paths we’ve dug for them. :-D
Once I was done with the morning rounds, and the call from the cat lady, it was a quick run to the post office to get what turned out to be two parcels, not one, then to my mother’s. While I was gone, the girls did some work in the sun room in preparation for having Butterscotch and Nosencrantz recovering in there. After one section was reorganized, they made sure to cover the windows where the inside panes have cracked, with some sheets of rigid insulation, so there would be no chance of them hurting themselves. Tomorrow, I’ll work on it some more, as I’ll be going through some of our seed starting supplies, plus I want to bag up the sunflower heads that are still there. They got knocked about a bit when Tuxedo Mask was recovering in there, and I know Butterscotch will be far more destructive!I made sure to stop at the gas station to pick up some chicken and wedges for lunch, first.
I had a good visit with my mother while we had lunch, which with my mother is not guaranteed! She didn’t get to her usual criticism until after we were done and the groceries were put away. LOL The first stop she wanted to make was to a small department store, which I took advantage of. The handles on her walker wiggle, and while there are knobs on the outside that can be turned to tighten them, I can see the screw heads on the other side, turning instead of tightening. I never have the right tools handy to deal with that, so I picked up a multi-tool, to keep in the zippered pocket under her walker’s seat. I paid for it right away, so I could use it to tighten her handles while still in the store. They still wiggle, but it won’t tighten any more than they are. Hhmm.
While there, I was also happy to see a new display of Jiffy pots that can be buried directly into the soil when it’s time for transplanting. Those will be perfect for the squash and melon starts. When I did our Walmart shopping, yesterday, they didn’t have any of these in stock yet.
After that, we did her grocery shopping. I had been encouraging her to stock up as much as she could, just in case. She’s been seeing about the trucker convoy, too, and she has started to understand what I was trying to explain about potential supply shortages. We’d talked about it before we left, and even from the incredibly horrible news coverage she has been seeing, she recognised how utterly ludicrous is was for our federal government to impose the new restrictions on truckers. I was quite happy to see her doing things like picking up larger sizes of things she would normally get. Her needs are small, so it doesn’t take much for her to be stocked up for quite a while. I am hearing about shortages in the city, but so far, that has not been an issue in the smaller towns. I recall, when the shutdowns first happened and people were panic buying, it was similar; things ran out in the cities, but not so quickly in the more rural communities.
As for the freedom convoy itself, it’s just amazing! Not only are we getting thousands of trucks coming in from the US – and from what I’ve heard, none are being stopped at the border! – but there are now freedom convoys being organized in countries around the world!
The excitement and sense of unity it has generated is absolutely amazing. The level of positivity is infectious and inspiring.
There are still the detractors, of course, that are doing everything they can to mock and belittle the truckers and anyone who supports them. Most of it is parroting the media and government narrative. One example was some commenter who, after reference was made to the convoy stretching across Manitoba, from border to border, was to along the lines of “truckers can’t do math, huurrrr, duurrrr…” Apparently, this person thought it meant the people were saying it was bumper to bumper trucks across the province. With so many trucks, there is no way to know how many there are at any given time. On the open highway, they have to spread out. Those big rigs need a lot of space if they have to make an emergency stop. Plus, there would constantly be trucks going in and out of the convoy, as they stop to gas up, eat, use a bathroom and sleep. So of course, the convoy itself is going to be really stretched out in places, while packed together in others.
There are still people saying the GoFundMe was frozen. It never was. As I write this, more than $7.5 million has been raised. Yesterday, the money started to flow. The last I heard, there were about 100,000 registered truckers in the convoy. The first priority for the funds it to reimburse truckers for fuel. Then, as needed, to reimburse for the costs of food and lodging. The organisers have been working closely with GoFundMe to make sure everything is above board.
The mainstream media and our federal government have, of course, been increasing the negative narrative. Most people know better than to rely on them. They are acting as if the truckers are intending to stage a violent insurrection, and invoking the fake-news “insurrection” in the US last year, every chance they get (never mind that the FBI itself concluded that there was no insurrection). The Counter Signal published about internal documents leaked, exposing how our government is treating this though violence is a given. You can read about that here.
What is happening is priming. The federal government and the media that relies on them to keep them from going under are doing everything they can to create the very situation they are condemning, even though it doesn’t exist. It has been very obvious, from the beginning, that violence is exactly what they want. They are trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It would be just the excuse our Prime Dictator needs to do what his father did when he was PM; declare martial law.
Make no mistake. If there is any violence when the convoy arrives tomorrow, it will not be instigated by the truckers, but with the media and the feds already priming viewers to believe the truckers are evil incarnate, they expect people to believe them.
There is a problem with that expectation.
The past two years has seen our “leaders” doing everything the can to divide us. It’s been masked against the unmasked, the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, the believers against the heretics. The only acceptable thing we are supposed to shoot for is complete acquiescence.
However, this convoy has done the opposite. It has united this country at a level I have never seen before. Yes, people are angry, but that anger is being channeled into unity, positivity, excitement and joy.
These are people who are fighting for our freedoms with a giant party. Do people want our “leaders” to step down? You bet. That is because they have failed us, over and over. This gets twisted into being “hateful”, “anti-government” and “dangerous.” These leaders have imposed restrictions and mandates that have destroyed people’s lives, even causing developmental delays in children that they will probably never recover from, devastated the physical and mental health of our nation, and yes, even killed people, whether through deaths of despair, or from not getting diagnosis and treatment in a timely manner, to harmful treatment protocols. And when people try to stand up to what is happening, these “leaders” cry victim, while calling their victims the abusers. Pure gaslighting.
So what is going to happen over the next few days? Who knows. Our Prime Dictator has announced that he was exposed to Covid 19. While a rapid test came up negative, he says he’s going to isolate himself for 5 days, following the Ontario Public Health recommendations. The problem with that is, those recommendations actually say that a fully vaccinated person – which our Prime Dictator claims to be – does not have to isolate if exposed to someone with Covid. They’re just supposed to keep masking and distancing and watching for symptoms.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, areas of the city are being marked off for a “special event”, so that people won’t be parking on the streets.
But only for 2 days.
Which suggests they expect it to all be over within 2 day, or at least under 5 days.
The truckers plan to stay there until all mandates and restrictions are lifted, however long that takes.
Thousands of them.
That doesn’t even count supporters that aren’t truckers.
How will our leaders respond?
Only time will tell. Whatever it is, it will affect every single Canadian, and possibly have ramifications around the world.
The wind changed direction this afternoon, so I took advantage of it and headed outside to shovel the path to the compost ring that was completely filled in. Knowing we would be getting a delivery from the pharmacy this evening, I made sure to unlock the gate, first. The driver always calls when he’s close so we can unlock the gate, but I knew I would still be outside when he did.
Once I got the path to the compost ring clear, I continued on and cleared the path to the back door of the garage. It want much faster, since it doesn’t get blown in as much.
I had just reached the back door of the garage when I saw a car pulling up near the chain link fence.
To go to meet him, I had to take the path to the compost ring, across to the house, then down the sidewalk to the person gate he’d pulled up to.
I’ve been meaning to make a path from the back of the garage to the vehicle gate for a while. I wish I’d done it earlier! LOL
By the time I was done, it was getting dark. I had to adjust the lighting in this photo, just to see the new path! It now joined up with the path dug along the garden bed between the two gates, where there is a path to the driveway.
Normally, the inner yard would be cleared of snow enough for us to drive up to the house, with room towards the outhouse for turning, and we wouldn’t have needed all these little paths. Last year, we were able to keep it clear just with our little Spewie, but there is too much snow for the little thing, this year. We probably could have done it if the big snow blower was working. When I was a kid, my dad would use the old Farm Hand tractor to push snow into a pile about where the kibble house is now. It would reach most of the way between the house and the maples that our now outside the chain link fence, but used to be part of the inner yard back then. I remember one year, my siblings and I carved the pile of snow into three sets of stairs, with tunnels in between, leading to a two step platform at the top. The centre staircase had a wide, curved bottom step. We wanted to carve a throne at the top, but the snow pile wasn’t tall enough. :-D Gosh, that was fun!
This year, we’ve got snow more like what I remember as a kid.
Anyhow, without the heavier equipment, paths will have to do!
It was as I was near the garage door, and having to fling the snow ever higher, that I finally noticed just how deep it was.
I couldn’t quite stretch my arm out far enough to get a good angle, but the snow here is about hip height on me. Maybe a bit higher.
No, not all of where I was shoveling was that deep, though I wasn’t exactly shovelling right down to the ground in most of the paths, either.
After I cleared the new path, I kept on going, clearing the path in front of the garden bed, then scraping the sidewalk and clearing it wide enough for my husband’s walker. Which is really handy, when we have to use the wagon to haul stuff from the van to the house, like the sack of deer feed and other stuff I picked up today. Then I went ahead and cleared the cat paths, too, while there was still light out.
Clearing those paths is getting harder in places. The piles of snow from all the shoveling are getting high enough that the new snow I’m shovelling slides back down if I don’t throw it far enough – or falls into another path if I throw it too far! LOL
The cats were very happy with the cleared paths. :-)
As I write this, I can see more snow blowing around in the live feed from the security camera. I’m glad I got it done when I did! It’s still rather warm out – only -8C/18F as I write this. We’re supposed to have a high of -18C/-0.4F tomorrow, then it’s supposed to warm up a little bit again, and stay there for the next week. Much nicer than the couple of days of deep freeze we got, when our mini-convoy headed out, and the big one passed through our province.
That’s one of the amazing things about the convoy for freedom. This is happening in Canada, in flippin’ January. A friend of mine in the city had gone out to cheer the convoy as it passed by. She estimated there were about 150 people, just around where she was. It was about -32C/-26F where she was, at the time. In places, the convoy is so long, it took 4 hours to go by, with people outside, cheering them on, the whole way!
As the main convoy makes its way from the Western provinces towards Ottawa, more mini-convoys from the Eastern provinces are starting to make their way out as well. They don’t have as far to go, so they started later, timed so everyone gets there on the 29th. I heard there were so many trucks from Newfoundland, they got a ferry out just to take the trucks across. I’ve also heard that one of the border crossings into Ontario had so many truckers from the US coming in to join the convoy, the line stretched back 70 miles!
Our mainstream media has been avoiding reporting on it as much as possible, but they can’t avoid it any more. Of course, they are misreporting it, completely. One of the things they’re doing is wildly underreporting how many trucks there are. It’s just a few trucks, according to them. Not very many. There is also the usual, predictable slanderous reporting. They’re portraying the truckers as “anti-vaxxers” (most of them are vaccinated, and if they’re coming in from the US, they’re allowed to cross only if fully vaccinated), of course. Today, they’ve been ramping up the disparaging portrayal. The truckers are white supremacists, right wing, extremists, racists, and homophobes. You know. All the tired old insults that get thrown out so much, the terms have lost all meaning. Then there is that truly Canadian insult that comes from the leftist media that gets trotted out every election, and is being trotted out now. The truckers are inspired by *gasp* “American style politics.” Apparently, being compared to Americans is supposed to be an insult. This time, one news station even suggested that the convoy is somehow inspired by the January 6/2021 protests in the US that the media continues to lie about. They are really pushing the idea that the truckers and their supporters are violent crazies. Oh, and another claim that is supposed to be an insult: the truckers are “anti-government”. Because if you don’t 100% agree with what the current government is doing, that can only mean you are “anti-government”.
It’s all BS of course. Unfortunately, too many people believe it, and it’s endangering lives. A number of trucks were found to have their pins pulled. In one incident, a trucker who was not part of the convoy, and did not agree with it, apparently deliberately rammed his own truck into a truck that was part of the convoy. It’s been portrayed by the media as an “accident”. With the way the media is whipping up hatred and division – while accusing the truckers in the convoy of spreading hatred and division – they may very well get people killed.
And our Prime Dictator? Apparently, he’s on vacation in Costa Rica right now, though I don’t know if that’s true.
Thankfully, we have independent media who reporting on the convoy with better accuracy and truthfulness. Best of all are all the people who are documenting it themselves and posting about it. Like this guy.
Language warning!
It’s absolutely amazing! Our Prime Dictator has actually managed to accomplish something useful, in spite of himself. He has united the country. Against him! I have never seen so many wildly diverse groups, completely united in their support for the convoy and the push to end all the mandates.
The guy who made the above video is just one of many supporters, and he can only cover so much. We are also seeing many First Nations groups stepping forward in support. FN peoples are notorious about not getting involved in anything that could be considered even remotely political, with good reason. I’d mentioned before that a group of Hutterites had planned to set up kitchens to feed the truckers. The police wouldn’t let them, apparently because the parking lot was too full, so they drove 2 1/2 hours to the next major city, ahead of the convoy, and set up there, determined to feed them all. The GoFundMe has, as of this writing, reached over $5.7 million. I can’t even estimate how many hundreds of people are even joining the convoy in their own vehicles, so it’s not just a convoy of long haul truckers, but of all sorts of vehicles, too. Then there are the people getting together to prepare meals in take-out containers to hand out to the truckers, people arranging for things like porta-potties along routes where public washrooms are few and far between, and on it goes.
Meanwhile, there is stuff like Facebook deleting groups supporting the convoy, all of Toronto’s traffic cams along the 401 not working, people posting their own videos on social media are finding there is no share button for some reason, and I’ve lost track of the number of people I know who have found themselves suddenly restricted from posting on social media, and not knowing why. For all that, there is still tonnes of stuff out there, for all to see, showing what’s actually happening, and how huge this whole thing is.
Our Prime Dictator has already tried to call in the military and RCMP to stop the convoy, and they refused. So far, publicly, he’s been vocal about framing the truckers as angry (duh!) and potentially dangerous people, chastising them and their supporters for being angry, saying we don’t want to be that way as Canadians. Pure gaslighting, of course. The only truckers he’s talked to is an organization that is heavily connected to the Liberal party, condemns the convoy, but does not actually represent the truckers at all.
It’s a remarkable thing to see happening, and I honestly don’t know how it’s going to turn out. What I do know is that it is going to affect all our lives, here in Canada.
After the very sad call this morning about Cabbages, I headed out to do my morning rounds and take care of the outside kitties.
Though the temperatures at the time were about -28C/-18F, it actually felt a lot warmer. At least around the house. There was a wind chill, but the wind is from the west, so we weren’t really feeling it. The outside cats were a lot more active, too.
It was feeling warm enough that I shoveled out the burn barrel again, and got it going.
We clear enough space to have room for the bags of burnables. That wall of snow is now taller than the barrel in places!
We couldn’t use the burn barrel in the summer, because of the drought, but we are now burning the wood pellet cat litter, instead of having a cat litter compost behind the outhouse. With so much snow around, I let it go down to a smolder, then put the cover on and leave it. It can continue smoking for days. As the pellets are used by the cats, they break up into sawdust. Which then freezes when the girls dump it into the burn barrel. By leaving it to smolder, the sawdust slowly thaws out, dries out, then smolders. It can take a few days, but it eventually gets burned away. It’s been so cold, though, I’m still finding frost inside the burn barrel when I uncover it, even as smoke still rises from the contents!
As soon as I cleared the area around the barrel and moved on to clear the path to the electricity meter, the space around the burn barrel got filled with cats! Not only does the space give them shelter, but the smoldering barrel gives off a bit of heat, too.
Still not as cozy as an insulated, sheltered, sun spot!
Oh, I got a peak at Potato Beetle this morning. The wound on his head seems to be healing up just fine. I could barely see the wound, and he looks more like he’s got a weird bald spot.
In other things, I’ve been keeping on top of what’s going on with the trucker convoy. This is something that affects us, even out in the boonies. We are surrounded by farms, and farmers need truckers. Heck, a lot of them have their own trucks. Most farmers have to have some other source of income. Farming doesn’t pay very well and, unlike most businesses, farmers have to buy retail and sell wholesale, instead of the other way around. So everyone around here is very supportive.
So are many others.
Last night, I heard that an estimated 10,000 truckers from various US states are heading for the border to join the convoy. Those that are not allowed to cross the border plan to stay at the border. Chances are, there are even more truckers from even more states by this morning.
The provincial convoy that started yesterday is still at the city. The national one is expected to arrive this afternoon, and they will join up and continue on to Ottawa.
In the Facebook groups supporting the convoy, I’m seeing numerous restaurant owners announcing that anyone in the convoy will be fed, for free. Food truck owners are announcing where they will be setting up to provide food. At least one of the Hutterite colonies has announced they are setting up kitchens in one of the muster points to feed everyone in the convoy.
Garages are offering free mechanical repairs.
People are offering their extra bedrooms for overnight stays, and bringing meals to the truckers.
The GoFundMe has topped $4,000,000. Because of how eager our government and GoFundMe are to prevent the money from actually getting to the truckers, there is a whole process worked out where truckers will be submitting receipts to be reimbursed for expenses, etc.
I haven’t confirmed it yet myself, but people have talked about finding the traffic cams along the convoy route are showing images of empty roads, or have simply been shut down.
The mainstream media is finally reporting on the convoy, but have been misrepresenting it like crazy. Almost all that I’ve seen have been reporting wildly lower numbers. A CBC article that tried to claim the truckers were protesting icy road conditions was so inundated by people calling them on it merely added a “correction”, saying they were talking about a different protest. Which they weren’t, because there were no truckers out there, protesting winter. Others I’ve seen have tried to say the truckers are protesting only the most recent mandate made against them. They aren’t. They are protesting to have all government mandates and restrictions for everyone, ended. That last mandate against them was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, after being treated like crap for years.
Commenters have been calling out the media like crazy for their misinformation and sloppy reporting. What’s interesting as well have been the (very few) detractors. I’m seeing people say things like, what difference does it make for them to protest in Ottawa, when it’s the US that won’t let them cross the border. Which has nothing to do with what the convoy is about. I’m guessing some media somewhere claimed that, and they believed it. Others have been calling the truckers selfish and making the usual insults about people just being scared of needles. I’m still seeing people saying that losing their jobs is just a consequence of their “choice” not to get the vaccine, and calling them anti-vaxxers. Most truckers are vaccinated, bigots don’t care about truth or reality.
I think the funniest detractors are those trying to portray the truckers and their supporters as PPC “cultists” (the PPC are the People’s Party of Canada, a new party that ran in the last federal election). Even more laughable are those trying to accuse the truckers of “dividing Canada”. I haven’t seen Canada more united over something in my life. I’ve even seen people dismissing the truckers for protesting now, instead of when our Prime Dictator called a useless, early election.
Oh, I just tried looking something up and saw that the GoFundMe has now exceeded $4.4million. Someone posted a screencap showing a $10,000 anonymous donation. I also just found this screencap.
If for some reason you can’t see the image, it reads:
Colorado 420 trucks Georgia 675 trucks South Carolina 650 trucks California 19,000 trucks Heading to Canada
Way to go, California!! Assuming that’s not a typo. That’s a massive number.
Not on this list are the trucks coming from Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Alaska and Florida, that I’ve seen elsewhere.
The most recent update I’ve heard is that the main convoy from BC is now over 150km long. That’s over 93 miles. I don’t think they’ve even crossed the middle of Canada yet, and more mini-convoys are joining all along the way.
What I’m not hearing is much from our politicians. Including our own Premier. I might just be missing it. As for our Prime Dictator, I’ve heard he’s on another vacation. The truckers are supposed to arrive in Ottawa on the 29th. Parliament was supposed to resume today, though from the parliamentary calendar, they’re scheduled to sit in parliament for only 1 day this month, and that’s on January 31.
The truckers and their supporters don’t plan to leave Ottawa until all mandates and restrictions are lifted.
It should be interesting to see how our “leaders” handle this.
I had a smaller crowd of outside cats this morning.
There was still kibble left from being topped up yesterday, so I think a lot of them were well fed and content to stay in wherever their preferred shelters are.
But not Chadiccus!
He kept flinging himself under my feet while I tried to walk, then lying there as if he’d been slain. :-D
What a ham!
We’ve got a couple more cold days after today, one really warm one, then back down to average temperatures for this time of year. I’ve been looking ahead at the end of the month, thinking on when would be best to head into the city for our monthly shop. We shall see if we will even bother going in. Thanks to continued draconian restrictions, the supply chain was being disrupted, and the truckers have finally had enough. There is currently a convoy of truckers on their way to Ottawa, in a protest to end medical tyranny. Last I heard, they had more than 50,000 trucks from all across the country, with more expected to join as they slowly make their way across the country. They’ve also raised over $2 million in donations, to help pay for fuel and other necessities for the truckers. About the only response we’ve had from our federal government has been for our Prime Minister to threaten to designate the truckers as domestic terrorists, which would allow GoFundMe to deny them the funds raised. Our government funded media (which is basically all mainstream media, since they got billions in bail out money), of course, is trying to ignore what’s happening completely, or if they do report on it, they don’t tell the truth about what’s actually going on. We shall see if their tune changes over the next few days. Personally, I doubt it. At least not for the biggest companies. Their survival has depended on government handouts for years, now.
We’ve got about a week before we need to go into the city to stock up again. Depending on how things go in the next while, there may not be a point in trying to shop in the city. There won’t be anything to buy.
So the snow that was originally supposed to start this evening and continue on through tomorrow, arrived last night.
The snow was pretty much stopped when I went out to feed the critters. I had to dig out the non-heated water bowls.
Then I had to shovel the path to the feeding station so I could put seeds out for the birds and deer.
Then I kept shoveling.
I am so glad I cleared the paths of the hard packed snow, yesterday. The snow we’ve been having is all light and fluffy, so it made clearing the paths again very easy work!
By the time I reached the garage, the snow was coming down in big, fluffy flakes. We are at a lovely -13C/9F right now. The wind chill is -24C/-11F, but it’s coming from the north, so most of the inner yard is well sheltered. It only got a bit blustery when I reached the bird feeder.
I did most of the paths, but not all of them. Later on, we might break out little Spewie and see what we can do about the driveway. Mostly, we’ll need to clear the end of the driveway, and that will likely need shovels. I don’t think Spewie can handle that! Not only will we have a plow ridge to deal with, but there’s no shelter from the winds there, so it’ll be drifted over and harder packed.
At some point, we’ll be able to set up the snow fencing that we’ve got, rolled up behind the old garden shed. I don’t know where it was used before we moved here, but it would be good to set some up on both sides of the driveway, for both the north and the south winds.
When I came inside and hung my coat on a chair to dry, I discovered this…
I somehow got snow in my hood! :-D I didn’t use it because the only way to keep it on is to close up the flaps in front. They go in front of my mouth and I can’t breath, so I keep having to jam it under my chin, which pulls the hood over my eyes. So I wore a cowl, instead. I guess that left my hood to be catch snow! :-D
I put it in a water bowl we keep near the kitchen for the cats, that happened to be empty. Within minutes, there were three cats checking it out, and a fourth watching because he couldn’t squeeze in. All of them orange. It was funny, except for having to step over them to get into the kitchen! LOL Within minutes, the snow was all gone!
The view from the garage cam, not long after I came in. Looking at the live feed as I write this, the visibility has dropped even more, and those cat paths in the snow are almost completely gone.
I know people in the south of the province probably wouldn’t agree with me, but I am really happy will all this snow. It will be so good for the fields in the spring, and for the water table. Our municipality was among those that declared an agricultural disaster because of the drought, which allowed for farmers to get some financial assistance. So many lost entire crops – again! – and many were struggling with the the decision to cull their animals, because there was no feed to be had. Not that things are any better now. Thanks to the unnecessary, draconian government restrictions, animals aren’t getting to market. Tens of thousands of chickens are being culled. If the various government bodies don’t let up on their medical tyranny, we’re going to have major food shortages, even as farmers are having to throw away food because there’s no way to get it processed and to the stores. They’ll be blaming it on the Wu Flu, but this is the direct consequence of going against the emergency plans all levels of government already had in place.
We’ve long had the dream of being as self sufficient as possible. After moving here, I kinda hoped we would have more time to get there, though!
At least we’ve got our seeds in, and other orders processed for spring shipping. We’re going to be relying on our garden a lot more this year, if things don’t change!
Another reason to be glad for this snow. We are really going to need this moisture.
We did not get the predicted thunderstorms last night, though we did get rain. While I was out doing my morning rounds, I could hear thunder around us, and it was even starting to rain a bit by the time I was done. So, no work was done on the garden bed I’d started on yesterday. We had rain on and off all day, so hopefully those bottom layers got a good soaking.
A few more of the Mongolian Giant sunflowers have started to open up. If the mild temperature continue, I hope to at least see some Hopi Black Dye sunflowers open as well, before the first frost hits. Some areas in our province have already had frost in August, but so far, we are good.
I am really hoping that first frost holds off for quite a while, so that these Red Kuri squash get a chance to mature. Our first frost date for our area is Sept. 10; just over a week from now. From the looks of our long range forecasts, we will continue to have very nice overnight temperatures; cool, but nowhere near freezing.
I especially would love for the Teddy winter squash to have a chance. Yes, we finally have fruit developing on them! Again. I found three of them this morning. Where the Red Kuri/Little Gem squash ripen to a deep orange-red, the Teddy are a mini acorn squash, becoming a deep green and only about a pound in size. The critters have been staying away, after using the cayenne pepper all over the garden beds, even though we have no been able to re-apply the cayenne due to the rain. I am hoping that, having gotten a mouth full of pepper, the critters have learned to associate the garden beds with “ouch”. :-D If we can keep them away, these are supposed to be a prolific variety, and their small mature size should mean they may have a chance to fully ripen if we have a mild fall.
After checking the outside of the squash tunnel on the winter squash side, I went through the inside of the tunnel and found something waiting for me!
One of the Halona melons had dropped to the ground! I am so happy with how they are doing. :-) Of course, after finding this, I checked all the others, but none were loose. After I finished my morning rounds, I made a quick trip into town to run some errands, then headed out again later to meet a friend. While I was gone and there was a break in the rain, the girls picked the beans and some summer squash – and found two more Halona melons on the ground! I’m a bit surprised that it’s only the Halona melons that are dropping; the Pixies are still hanging in there. Literally! :-D
My friend and I went to the local Farmer’s Market this afternoon, and I had a chance to talk to my neighbour that sells pork – this time with a budget, and I picked up some sausages. :-) We had a chance to talk for quite a while, and I’m really looking forward to being able to get together with them. There are quite a few things they are doing that I would like to do as well, and I am eager to see their methods! And, from the looks of it, I won’t be able to go back to the market this year. Starting tomorrow, our province is imposing medical apartheid. With nothing to justify it, either. If we want to go to any “non-essential” places, we will have to show our papers to prove we’ve gotten the double jab for Schrodinger’s virus. The jab that works so well, those that have already got it are going to have to get a third one, while still covering their faces and remaining in physical isolation from other human beings. Our government doesn’t actually have the authority to impose such segregation, but they’re doing it anyhow, and people are being forced to comply through threats and coercion. Most illogically, while those who can’t have, or decline to have, the jab are now barred from doing things like buying food from a farmer at a market, instead of in a grocery store, the market vendors themselves are not required to have the jab. The levels of psychological manipulation and behavioural modification from our politicians and in the media, including social media, have gone into overdrive and, sadly, many people are getting sucked in and don’t even realize it. The levels of bullying and verbal abuse I’m seeing online has also increased substantially, in just the last few days. In typical gaslighting fashion, the same people who are doing the bullying are also the same people virtue signalling about how, if we don’t like it, don’t take it out on the poor employees trying to enforce the (illegal) restrictions. The obvious implication being that people who disagree with anyone being forced to partake in medical interventions against their will are the bullies when they voice their objections.
Meanwhile, another neighbor of ours I only recently met in person had an accident almost a week ago, breaking his neck. He requires surgery but isn’t getting it, nor is his family allowed to see him. They are literally denying him health care right now, because he is declining medical certain medical procedures that are unnecessary. Our health care system sucked before this, but now, it’s gotten beyond ridiculous.
Ugh. I was talking about my garden. I didn’t intend to go into a rant. It’s part of what we’re dealing with now, though, so I’m leaving it there.
I am so incredibly thankful that we are living here on the farm, and not in any urban setting. When I came up with the sub-title for the blog, “Sometimes you need to go back, to go forward”, I had no idea how true that would be.
Okay, I just have to start with the obligatory garden photos. :-D I took these yesterday.
The largest seed head of the Mongolian Giant sunflowers is opening up beautifully. Still nowhere near the size a Mongolian Giant seed head should be, but we’ll see what happens in what’s left of our growing season.
What amazed me, though, was seeing several of these.
The King Tut purple peas are still growing and producing! The green peas next to them are basically gone; completely died off and dried out, barely visible among the weeds and wildflowers that are left. Peas do not usually last this long, so I’m quite impressed!
I didn’t get to posting yesterday for a happy reason. An old friend from high school is in the province and was able to come for a visit. Even my husband was able to join us for a while. Aside from running into her briefly at the grocery store, we haven’t seen each other since we graduated! We had 35 years of catching up to do, and it was awesome. :-) Then, she and I headed out to a local farmer’s market. I’ve driven past it many times, but had never stopped in. With the crazy going on these days, I wasn’t sure if it was even a safe place to go for someone who can’t wear a mask. The mandates were over, though, so we gave it a visit, and that was awesome, too. No issues at all. Best of all, I found a vendor that has a homestead and supplies pork, among other things – and they live only a few miles away from us! In the spring, we’ll be able to make arrangements for getting a half pig in the fall, so they know how many piglets to raise. So now we have local suppliers for both beef and pork!
The place has a little bistro during market hours, and we ended up enjoying some awesome food and just talking until they closed down. Wonderful people running the place. We definitely will be coming back before my friend heads home.
Today was our city shopping trip, so I headed out as soon as I was done my morning rounds. I actually made it to Costco this time. With restrictions relaxed, I didn’t have to worry about being able to stand in line outside. It was the most pleasant Costco trip I’ve had in a long time. Unfortunately, by the end of it, my hip was giving out, so that was the only stop I made before heading home. Which was okay. I was able to stock up on the main things. It was a bit disconcerting, though. I didn’t buy more than I usually did at Costco. In fact, I probably bought less than usual. And yet the final bill was about $200 more than the last time I was able to do a full stock-up trip there. Prices have really gone up in the past few months. :-(
While I was out, I got word about a freedom rally in town this evening. I had time to get home, unload, then head out again. I wanted to be early, because I wasn’t quite sure where it was happening. It’s not an area of town I usually go to. There were people already there and even my friend was eventually able to join us, so that was awesome. The rally was to protest the school board forcing children to wear masks all the time which is, at its most basic, illegal. The government and health department can make recommendations, but cannot force, anything that goes against the charter rights and freedoms, or the human rights code. That’s actually written into the health act and the charter. Anyhow, there was a really good turnout, and I ended up meeting people in person that I’d been getting to know online, and even a family that may become “neighbours” soon! It was funny to discover we had other personal connections, too.
The people from the school board were not particularly useful to talk to. Their stance was basically, they’re just following orders. Now where in history have we heard that line before?
While there, I learned our province has made another step backwards. While I was on the road home from the city, our government announced that the mask mandates start again tomorrow, even in many outdoor venues that had been exempt before. There is no actual reason to do this. We aren’t seeing any surge in hospitalizations or deaths. It’s all been so arbitrary, and like all the lockdowns and restrictions is just as illegal as the schools forcing kids to wear masks.
All the families there with school aged children were planning to homeschool, rather than engage in government enforced child abuse. The school is going to lose a lot of funding over this. Some of the parents I spoke to told me they were getting to many calls from the school to get them to register this year, it bordered on harassment. I’m hoping to keep in touch with some of these families, since we homeschooled the girls completely. I look forward to being able to help and encourage a new generation of families taking this route! There is the makings of a vibrant local community. Something that didn’t exist, when we last lived here and were homeschooling.
The whole event just happened to be next to the grocery store, so when it was all done, I stopped by to pick up a few things I wasn’t able to get in the city before heading home. Even with the the sale prices, I still spent way too much money. :-(
One of the things I want to do is get chickens, for eggs and meat, but we are not at all ready to have birds yet. I was hoping to get to that point in a year or two, but the way things are going, I think we need to prioritize that and make it so that we can get chicks in the spring.
So, along with building high raised garden beds for next year, we need to build/acquire a chicken coop. Preferably a mobile one. That way, the chickens will be playing a significant part in soil preparation for planting.
After all the running around over the past couple of days, and being around so many people, I am feeling quite tired. It is, however, a good tired!
The Re-Farmer 