Sure, it looks like winter. A bit of shelter for mammals and birds, a few seeds to keep them alive through hard times, and brrrrr. Na. These are the vitamin and steroid […]
Imagine the Technological Possibilities!
Imagine if you could regulate heat loss and roof melting simply by switching from a flat roof to a roof covered in river rock, or a lightweight approximation of it. The insulating […]
Saying the Names Shanty & the CBC Poetry Prize
As some of you know, when I’m not exploring the poetry of the earth, I am working for the words as they arrange themselves in similar patterns, also called poetry. Today, I am […]
Why It’s Called a Grassland
Look what happens! The grass grows, and dries in the sun, to catch the snow. No snow. A raven, though! But look… … then it snows. Now the grass is bent in […]
Ripeness
Ripeness is not “ready for eating,” no matter what the dictionaries say. Neither is it “mature.” Have a look. One definition is “sensuous and full”, as in “ripe lips,” and another “emitting […]
All the Bees Looking for a Home Now
Here is a grassland missing its flowers. Cows ate them. While thousands of people have been going to work in the valley below, and back, and forth, only the deer and a […]
This Land Must Burn
In the panorama of the hill, there are flashes of colour, very specific, which signify human food and the season in which they will be found. Indigenous humans spread seeds from those […]
Practical Ways to Re-Indigenize the Grasslands. Really.
Two days ago, I suggested that the former grassland hillsides of the Okanagan Valley (now large, private expanses of unproductive and water-wasting weeds), an area at least equal to the 100s of […]
Replacing Wild Harvest With Mountain Culture
100 Sustainable Paths for the Okanagan: 19 Currently, agriculture in the Okanagan Valley is industrial, in keeping with colonial models from 1858, when water was diverted through Nlaka’pamux villages in the Fraser […]
Cultural Blindness and Agricultural Practice
Culture is a powerful thing. Here is some earth, laid bare by a plow, in preparation for seeding in the spring. In the past, it has been used to grow tomatoes. This […]
Okanagan Okanogan 