Let’s backtrack a bit, to see what might have brought a man to try to change orcharding culture in the Similkameen Valley, and in the process anger half the people and become […]
10. A Black Market in the Similkameen
Rewilding the Vineyards
Ah, German wine, German women, and German song. It’s in “The Song of the Germany”. The third stanza is about a blooming land and is used as the anthem. The second is […]
Gardens for the Grand Kids: an Organic Model for Slow Release Fertilizer in a Post-Petroleum World
Compost requires labour and tillage. In other words, it is a renewable input. It is one that mimics natural processes, or interjects materials into them. I guess it is a bit like […]
New Land Use Regulations for Okanagan Grassland Communities
Communities include grass and flowers, animals, insects, birds, trees, water, gravity, people, sun, rock, dust, soil and wind. Each contributes to maintaining a community balance. ANew communities built in the grasslands need […]
The Rivers of the Sun
What makes a plant a plant is not its growth. It’s not that it’s a “growing” thing. Neither is it that it spreads. Branching is popular, but not all plants branch. Similarly, […]
Back to the Fire
The west shore of Okanagan Lake burnt last summer, amidst the burns of years before. It was a terrible time last summer, but now that the year is in its last hours, […]
Hiding in Plain Sight
Garter snakes know how to do it. Mariposa Lily seeds do it. Water knows how to do it, too. In each case, appearances are deceiving, as an obvious thing is revealed (a […]
Look, First: Updating Scientific Method
This is red osier dogwood, or Siberian dogwood, if you will. Have a look at her. Nice work with the star clusters there. Here’s another look: See that? When she grows in […]
Should British Columbia Change Its Name?
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is asking this question. They illustrate it like this: There’s been a national reckoning on place names and the people they’re named after — and some say that […]
The Only Hope for the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in a Culture of Fire
I hate to say it, but the dream that has kept my family tied to the land for 91 years in this trough in the Columbia Plateau is over. Instead of a […]
Okanagan Okanogan 