Rather than pumps and pipes and all those expensive systems, why not just lay out the land in flats and catch the snow? Because the effects are short-lived? Well, then amplify them. […]
Irrigation the Other Way
If You Lose the Water, You Lose the Land
Lichen is a colonizer. It eats rock and releases minerals that other plants can use. Most of the lichen on the stone below has died. It’s a good chance to see the […]
Whole Worlds Hidden from the Settler Gaze
Under the snow, it’s spring. Under stone, it’s the same. Where the sun intensifies and molten water collects, it’s spring. This is when the rock is mined for nutrients that feed the […]
Of Christmas Trees and Hemp
Consider the lowly Christmas tree, a symbol of a people and its relationship to the Earth. Here’s Mission Hill Winery at Tsinstikeptum, courtesy of “Do the Okanagan.” There are many ways to […]
Okanagan Architecture: Fake or Real?
Fake: Thank You to the Globe and Mail Real: Here, a closeup, so you can admire the finer touches. Got that? No? Here’s another fake: Well, lots of room to park tractors […]
What is a Tomato Worth? You Might as Well Ask What is a Person Worth.
Nothing? Or maybe $2.54 each down at Save-On Foods? It’s not labour that makes the price. A friend of mine, a Mexican temporary worker, works his summers here in Canada because in […]
What Vineyard Culture Can Teach Canadians about Drugs
The topsoil and subsoil of a stretch of land can be removed by truck and then replaced in a state that mixes subsoil clay and topsoil together, or just clay on top […]
A Broken Culture Has Started Flogging Candy in the Okanagan Now
Land was taken from the Okanagan Indian Band to start a cattle industry in the 1860s, to generate a cash economy to support the administration of the colony of British Columbia and […]
Settler Culture Going for Broke
Landscaping is hard work. The name says it all: land + scoop, the Old Norse word for fate, the shape one makes of a life by work, the scoop that drains a […]
Gull Island: A New Island in Okanagan Lake
I herby name this new island Gull Island. It has been building for a decade from road sand dumped into BX Creek and carried into the lake at Canim Bay, but now […]
Okanagan Okanogan 