Happy Earth Day, everyone. We hope that you spent time outside, enjoying this planet that sustains us.  |
| Our backyard this morning. |
Our community centre is hosting a grassroots Earth Day event (that means we are not preparing too much, but allowing the people who attend to dictate what will be happening)- this afternoon should be a lot of fun. Bev Gray, our local herbalist and the author of The Boreal Herbal , is coming to cook up some natural medicines and wild-collected foods. The food theme does not end there; another amazing neighbour is doing a raw food demonstration. I'm planning on doing a litter clean-up on the areas that are no longer snow covered. There will also be some musical entertainment (including our pal Kim), and some youth are doing a magic show. All the entertainment will be local and people-powered (unplugged).
It is still odd to not be planning the planting of thousands of trees with Friends of the Rouge Watershed, but we are delighted to share with you that they are doing very well. In fact, I want to congratulate them for their winning of a Green Award from the City of Toronto for their Community Involvement.
Closer to home (our home, that is), Lauren and I are getting ready for the last week of Firefighter Advanced Training with the Yukon Fire Marshall's Office. Yesterday we had a practical exercise where we spent an afternoon extinguishing a car fire over and over again. It looked a bit like this (but this is just a photo found from the internet):
All the protective gear gets really hot and heavy (especially the air pack that you carry on your back and the oversized helmet), and working with the charged hoses under 100psi is physically demanding; but despite this we had a tonne of fun. We even got some practice driving our fire hall's Quick Response vehicle, which was also a lot of fun. It is a big F350 with all the lights and sirens and a whole bunch of equipment on the back- yeah, super fun.
Our fire hall has just got a "new to us" tanker truck (photo below), as soon as our new parking bay is finished (within a month we are thinking) we will be getting it all set up with pumps, hoses and tools so that when a call comes in we can just jump in and go. We can't get the truck set up just yet, as it is parked outside, and as irresponsible teenagers here have the same inclinations as irresponsible teenagers anywhere in Canada, we just can't take the risk of leaving a loaded emergency response vehicle sitting out unsupervised on a quiet road.
Other exciting news to share is that Lauren's parents have sold their house in the Beaches and therefore will be retiring with a year or so. We are very excited for them, and delighted that they were able to realize their dream of retiring to the cottage in their fifties. They will be moving out of their house in July (just after they return from visiting us in 49 days!). It is odd to think that the next time we are in Toronto, we only have one family to visit there, as the Barretts will be living in Haliburton.
Lastly, another doggy picture for all those people who only check our blog to see pictures of the huskies:
The dogs are loving the freedom of running unleashed in the bush when we go out for walks. It is amazing to us, the speed and agility that Cookie has. She can, at top speed, run over a 3 ft stump, weave between adjacent trees and climb over a huge pile of brush all within about 3 or 4 strides. All she needs now is to learn come, or at least run slower, so that by the time we realize she is gone she is still within earshot!
We still miss you all (but you should all come visit cause we are not leaving here any time soon),
Love Colin and Lauren
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