Here’s the grape terroir in the Similkameen Valley. That’s right. There are no grape plants. They would die here. Should one plant them (and someone has across the road behind us), one […]
Settler Culture = Terroir
Of Wine, War and Peace
Wine is largely made in laboratories. What is grown in the field is grapes. The result is a decreased ability for the plant to distribute potassium where needed. The additional remove of […]
Let’s Cancel Christmas
I mean, really. A holiday that sees people putting spiritual wreathes on their doors, made out of the woven limbs of bushes in a prayer for coming spring, that sees them tossed […]
Too Much Sagebrush
As we have arranged our property ownership in such a way that we can’t move out of the path of necessary fire, we are going to have to cut this stuff out […]
Climate Resilience 3: Self-Fertilizing and Self-Watering Islands
That’s right, islands in the grass. They’re not just sitting there. They are creating nitrogen and releasing minerals from the rock into a form that plants can use. In fact, instead of […]
Murdering Geese for Tourists. It’s What We Do.
These geese. Come June, they will be herded with kayaks, put on a truck, killed, and dumped in the landfill. These geese: On a beach that has silted in with road sand […]
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 […]
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 […]
Settlers on the Beach
Every winter, Okanagan Lake piles up leaves, wood, reeds, weeds, shells and feathers on the shore, high and low, bringing life to the dead strand line, building a forest. Every spring, the […]
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 […]
Okanagan Okanogan 