It's Cumberland County Exhibition Week

The week-long celebration of agriculture -- and where our food comes from -- has begun in Oxford. I think farmers deserve to be celebrated, don't you?

How Do You Like Them Apples!

Saturday at the Pugwash Farmers' Market is your last opportunity to buy raffle tickets on a basket full of goodies from market vendors.
This is SO the basket you want to win!
Money raised will be matched by the Scotiabank in Pugwash and all the money is going towards the planned improvements to the market, including permanent vendor kiosks with retractable awnings.
Already, new improvements are making a different to the market. Gravel pathways are making it feel more like a market and making it easier to access all vendors. Nothing like good traffic flow to improve sales!

A second, long-term fundraiser are these wooden apples. Here, market president Danielle VanDalen and market manager Nancy Burgess-Graham model the red and green versions that will be nailed to the membership tree painted on the side of the market shed.

The apples cost between $25 and $100 dollars. A bird's nest is $250. All in support of the How Does Your Market Grow campaign.
The market opens at 8:30 am and runs until 1 pm. Don't forget to buy your raffle tickets!

Celebrating My Nova Scotia Country Boy

"Happy Birthday toYOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!"

And many more!

Rainy Day At the Beach

The cure for anything is salt water --

sweat, tears, or the sea.

~ Isak Dinesen

Round Bales As Far As The Eye Can See

I don't know why but I love the sight of round bales in the fields. I think it's because to me, they are the most visual representation of the hard work of farmers. Cows and grain and pastures and barns are obvious, sure, but somehow these bales -- the hay mowed, raked and baled under the hot sun of August -- seem to me the most visible sign to passersby that farmers work hard.
Haying is just one part of the work but it is a vital part -- this is what beds and feeds the livestock. And it is hot and heavy work.
Every August, my husband and his father start reminiscing about their farming days, when hay was done in square bales, and invariably my husband comments, "On a day like today, up at the peak of the hay mow, it would be 250 degrees."
He loved farming, he misses farming but he almost shudders when he recalls the dust and heat of a hay mow.
Farming is hard work, filled with long days, long nights, failures and successes, sorrows and rewards, rain and sun, snow and heat. When I see these round bales lounging in the fields in August, I think of the farmers -- young and old -- who do this work year-round, and wish we considered farmers "heroes" instead of race car drivers and baseball players.

Ditch the GPS for a Good Night's Sleep

As published in The Citizen-Record newspaper on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 by Sara Jewell.

           Driving to Truro at the end of July, the final story of the six o’clock news on the radio caught my attention. It was about the launch of the new Windows 10 operating system, a system Microsoft has created to work across all platforms: desktop, phone and tablet.

            My reaction to this story was to think, How far behind am I getting when it comes to being plugged in?

I don’t have a smart phone. I carry a flip phone in my purse that is rarely turned on; my tablet is used only for the Skype program, and I’m typing this column on a desktop computer.

I’ve never sent a text.

            Given all the other stuff that’s going on in our world, this may seem like a silly thing to worry about but is the day coming when I won’t have a clue how to work anything?

            There is no denying that soon, every aspect of our lives will be run by a device attached in some way to our bodies. Beyond remotes and timers and cars parking themselves, I’m talking about a time when everything we do, right down to breathing, is controlled by a tiny computer on, or perhaps implanted in, our wrist.

            But wait, that time is already upon us. We already wear devices that count steps and heart beats and calories, cars that run without a key and on voice command, and eye glasses that project information and analyze a situation on the inside of the lens.

            I’m worried I will wake up one day and not have a clue what anyone is talking about. Or how they are talking about it. Or how to make myself a cup of coffee or flush my toilet. There won’t even be an app for that because someone will have come up with a new concept I won’t even know about.

Admittedly, my resistance to keeping up with new technology has been deliberate. Part of me is not interested in gadgets but a bigger part of me has a stubborn streak that mutters, “You can’t tell me what to do.”

That stubborn streak grows stronger every time a car pulls into our country road and drives past the “No Exit” sign despite the fact they are now driving on a dirt lane. But the GPS says this is the way to Linden so they’ll keep driving until it becomes obvious to their own eyes that this is the wrong way.

            That moment gives me hope: Somewhere in their googled brain, they still possess the ability to think for themselves, to solve a problem based on the evidence in front of them, and make a decision. Without checking an electronic device.

            The funny thing is that those misdirected drivers are actually going in the right direction. For a moment, however brief, they have tuned into the world around them and used their senses to live their life. If they kept driving into the woods, they’d be doing themselves a real favour.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Colorado discovered that one week of camping, without electronics, resets our biological body clock and synchronizes our system with sunrise and sunset. The result is a good night’s sleep.  

Electronics disrupt our natural circadian rhythms. We stay up too late, we spend too much time staring at a lighted screen, we don’t give our brains a chance to rest. The result is a chronic sleep deprivation and really, what is the most common lament of the 21^st century working person?

“I’d give anything for a good night’s sleep.”

It’s time to consider ditching the GPS and turning off the smarter-than-you phone, and following your senses down a long dirt lane to spend seven nights lying out beneath the stars noticing that the universe is a whole lot bigger, and brighter, than a screen.  

A Lovely, Old Pet Goat

My kind of people are those who know that an old, lame goat who requires extra care is worthy of the time and consideration. Instead of putting a bullet in her head, they feed her and do the necessary work to her feet, they put her in with the lambs for company and they call her by name.
Which I don't remember but when I walked by this pen and heard the lambs inside baa-ing. A sheep call and a goat call are very similar so I replied with a goat call (learned through YouTube!) and this lovely head popped up over the barricade.
I must have spoken her name!
My kind of people are those who have children who help us remember that life isn't always about work and money, about getting something out of someone all the time. Kids, in the way they tend with devotion to any animal regardless of age or health yet particularly for those who need the extra care, remind us that being old doesn't mean being a waste of time or food or space or energy.