Greetings from Blue Mountain!
Yesterday's oppressive, heavy smoke has given way to a slightly clearer day this morning. The forecast calls for the chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, which will hopefully not bring lightning ignition of more fires, and tomorrow we are still seeing a high likelihood of real, heavy rain in our area and in areas to the north.
We remain hopeful that we will finally see some decent precipitation to fill our water tanks, put some moisture into the soil and, most importantly, help to extinguish the fires raging in northern and west central areas of the province.
The unseasonably dry and hot conditions which have created the perfect conditions for wildfires should be an important reminder for all of us that we humans are a part of and subject to the natural systems upon which we depend for survival. Homo sapiens does not exist as the crowning creation of the natural world, but is embedded in and fully dependent upon these natural systems continuing to function in a somewhat consistent and predictable way.
Our complex civilizations, built on a foundation of agrarian culture evolving over the last 12 000 or so years, developed during a period of relatively benign and stable climate which some wise people refer to as the Goldilocks zone. Not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too dry.
With its over-reliance on fossil fuels to fuel growth for the sake of economic growth and it's unwillingness to confront the negative consequences of this growth, our industrial, globalized economy has destabilized our global climate to the point where we are no longer living in the Goldilocks zone and have created a new planetary epoch, the anthropocene.
The challenge of our future will be learning to exist in this new epoch, where we can no longer count on a stable climate to allow our agricultural activities to reliably bear fruit and where the risk of extreme weather brings the risk of destructive fires, floods, hail and drought. The very fundament of our civilizations' continued functioning, agriculture, is at risk, and I cannot help but be dumbfounded by the numbers of people who are completely indifferent to or ignorant of this new reality, or worse yet, living completely in denial of it.
Like many gardeners in our part of the world, this weekend and the following week is a very important one for our farm in terms of getting seeds and transplants into the ground. Throughout the course of the following week we will be putting close to 10 000 transplants into the ground and putting in place irrigation manifolds and drip lines to keep these plants growing.
The last few years have brought us so many lessons in terms of adapting to unpredictable and changing conditions and we feel like we are better equipped for what is to come, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of practices. We are focussed on becoming a resilient farm, and are confident that we will be able to produce healthy and delicious food, come what may.
Thank you all for supporting us in this journey of learning and adaptation. We hope, and believe, that we will be here growing food for many years to come and that we will be able to teach many others how to do so.
Sending big love from our little farm,
K+T
Yesterday's oppressive, heavy smoke has given way to a slightly clearer day this morning. The forecast calls for the chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, which will hopefully not bring lightning ignition of more fires, and tomorrow we are still seeing a high likelihood of real, heavy rain in our area and in areas to the north.
We remain hopeful that we will finally see some decent precipitation to fill our water tanks, put some moisture into the soil and, most importantly, help to extinguish the fires raging in northern and west central areas of the province.
The unseasonably dry and hot conditions which have created the perfect conditions for wildfires should be an important reminder for all of us that we humans are a part of and subject to the natural systems upon which we depend for survival. Homo sapiens does not exist as the crowning creation of the natural world, but is embedded in and fully dependent upon these natural systems continuing to function in a somewhat consistent and predictable way.
Our complex civilizations, built on a foundation of agrarian culture evolving over the last 12 000 or so years, developed during a period of relatively benign and stable climate which some wise people refer to as the Goldilocks zone. Not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too dry.
With its over-reliance on fossil fuels to fuel growth for the sake of economic growth and it's unwillingness to confront the negative consequences of this growth, our industrial, globalized economy has destabilized our global climate to the point where we are no longer living in the Goldilocks zone and have created a new planetary epoch, the anthropocene.
The challenge of our future will be learning to exist in this new epoch, where we can no longer count on a stable climate to allow our agricultural activities to reliably bear fruit and where the risk of extreme weather brings the risk of destructive fires, floods, hail and drought. The very fundament of our civilizations' continued functioning, agriculture, is at risk, and I cannot help but be dumbfounded by the numbers of people who are completely indifferent to or ignorant of this new reality, or worse yet, living completely in denial of it.
Like many gardeners in our part of the world, this weekend and the following week is a very important one for our farm in terms of getting seeds and transplants into the ground. Throughout the course of the following week we will be putting close to 10 000 transplants into the ground and putting in place irrigation manifolds and drip lines to keep these plants growing.
The last few years have brought us so many lessons in terms of adapting to unpredictable and changing conditions and we feel like we are better equipped for what is to come, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of practices. We are focussed on becoming a resilient farm, and are confident that we will be able to produce healthy and delicious food, come what may.
Thank you all for supporting us in this journey of learning and adaptation. We hope, and believe, that we will be here growing food for many years to come and that we will be able to teach many others how to do so.
Sending big love from our little farm,
K+T
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