I've been blabbing inconsistently for the past 2 years and I'm still not sure how to approach this 'blog'. I feel like I have so many different directions happening in my life and at least one of them is worth blogging about... but a concrete purpose has not yet shown itself to me....

So, babble and blab-on! I am turning a leaf and looking back on the past couple of years to remind myself of the lifestyle choices that benefit me and the family most... and working on re-integrating some of those habits and behaviours that have slipped out of my life. This site is one of those things that I'm turning back to.

If nothing else, I can at least make it LOOK like we're doing stuff here on the farm!

Forget about the fall... let's head right into winter. I've had some successful events in the Coop, and I'm trying to squeeze in one more before Christmas. Social Night in the Coop (Dec. 16) deserves more time and attention, but I've set the date and I'm crossing my fingers... If I can somehow find 20 people interested in the evening, it will be a go. If not, I'll schedule it for the New Year and give it proper 'marketing' attention.

As always, I am challenged to find the time and energy to get to the diaper store and do some 'work'. Last week I managed a full day of work, compliments of my mother-in-law. Today is one of my work mornings, so its no surprise that I have two kids home sick. They all managed to inherit my bronchitis bark.... poor kids :(

What a different strawberry season this year is from last! Last year the weeds were so far ahead of me that I was still 'liberating' plants from a jungle when the first rows started to ripen. This year I might actually get a second weeding pass in... And last year I harvested a lot of berries before anyone found us... and those berries all got washed, hulled and frozen whole... that was a lot of late nights in the kitchen. This year I'm wondering how to make sure that I get enough berries for the year... the u-pickers have been coming in just the right number at just the right times.

We've started receiving registrations for the Stewards workshops this summer and I've been talking with a few organizations about doing a staff training/policy development partnership. That's super cool.

I'm going to be in the GTA between July 19-24 and would love to do a staff training while I'm in the area... maybe I'll put the call out on facebook and see if I can score myself a job while I'm on vacation :) 

Berries should be good for at least another week... hard to say for sure... the cool weather seems to be slowing them down, but if they don't go fast enough I just lose them to slugs and rot... anyway, if you are looking for u-pick, get in touch with me while the pickings good! 902.670.5028. Out of towners will just have to make a trip of it :)

Yesterday I drove up the driveway and was greeted by 2 very excited children proclaiming that the strawberries are red and delicious! **RED??!!** I'm not done weeding yet! yikes.

No worries, only a few have turned red, and the weeding is almost done. I'm excited to see what kind of a harvest we will have this year. So far, it looks good.

I had a nice afternoon at My Fair Baby in Halifax on Saturday afternoon. It was nice to catch up with some of the other vendors and see some new and drooly babies... I talked to a lot of people about the Stewards training, and I'm hopeful that the summer 'Pay What You Want' dates will entice a good crowd. 

It's a greyish rainy day here... so I'm taking it easy... catching up on some online stuff... cleaning the office... getting ready for next weekend...

Tim and I drew straws to decide who was going to work late last night, and who was going to work early this morning. I got the late night, but it was so awesome to convert The Coop from party mode to office ensemble... by far the easiest and most enjoyable transition I have had yet! And it looks pretty sweet.

The morning workshop fell together with ease for me. I was fortunate to have a couple of people in attendance. I am currently able to set dates for the training, but I really haven't had the ability to promote the dates, so I was happy that a couple of people were able to make it out.

Tim's on chores, and managed to look after the kids this morning and still get some farming done. He's out strip-tilling right now. It's hard to believe it's not raining :)

Wooahh. It's spring again.

Strawberry plants are in good shape. Weeding was on schedule until the rain started falling about a week or two ago...the Coop looks awesome and we had an amazing time celebrating Michelle's M.Ed graduation this weekend... We had a 'live karoake' party with an amazing musician and a professional D.J. who even shared the mic once in a while... my voice was shot before the evening started, but it was still fun to play 'make believe I'm a Christian Rock Star'...

The seasonal turnover on the farm is just beginning... nothing is in stone yet, but things look promising for a family-work-farm-fun balance. I'm particularly excited for the fun part :)

I've got a tonne of work to do on all the different farm projects, but there is no stress here. My diaper store time is likely to increase from 3 hours/month up to as much as 10-15 hours/week. Should be interesting to see how those extra hours at work will impact productivity....

Rumour has it that another storm is heading this way... kids are getting out of school early this afternoon... sound to me like a great excuse to make some cookies and watch season 1 of LHOP (Little House On The Prairie) with the kiddies...

You know, when I was in grade 3 and I raced home after school every day to glue my face to the television watching LHOP.... I never really imagined that I would one-day live in a farm house, be married to a modern 'pa' and have 3 kids... just like the Ingalls.... I guess television really can make a big impact on our lives :)

I'm glad my kids enjoy the show as much as I do :)

It is a new year and we have lot's of changes in store. Russell has self-declared himself a graduate of child-care and will now be attending nursery school two mornings a week. He is very excited and his sisters are excited for him. For me, this means going from 3 child-free work days/week down to 1 half day of child-free time... whoah. Talk about re-prioratize.

I am up for the challenge though. It will be nice to have some alone time with Russell... and Tobi will do well to be on her own a few days/week. I'm just going to have to complete my goal of having organizations seeking to hire me... so that I don't have to spend time looking for organizations who should train their staff to prevent child sexual abuse... this way I can devote my time to the actual training, and then I'll be free to spend the days with my kiddies.... learning to keep things organized :)

I had a bunch of other things I wanted to say, but I took a sip of tea, thought about going home, and lost all my thoughts. Here's to a productive and relaxed year! I'm ditching the office for the night :)  Oh... but great news! I finally got my Dad's 30-year old-about-to bust Fender Guitar re-strung. It doesn't seem to hold its tuning for more than one song, but now I have a guitar at home and one at the office... so that makes me happy... nothing clears the head like hammering out a few chords.

Read the Article to know what I'm referring to....


In this article about the increased risk of suicide by individuals accused of child exploitation, the author states that police are not trained or required to assess the suicide risk of those who are charged with child sex offences.

It is also worth noting that the evidence that I have gathered, through my work promoting child sexual abuse prevention, seems to suggest that this is also true for victims reporting sex offences that occurred when they were children. The police do not seem to be trained to receive these complaints with the sensitivity I would expect to be demonstrated towards someone who is disclosing evidence of a traumatic violent crime. It seems that the historical nature of reported child sexual offences lends itself to a misconception that the event no longer has a psychological impact on the victim.

Despite the evidence that the trauma of child sexual abuse causes long-term psychological impact, the police will handle an incoming complaint with as much compassion and concern as a report of an historical fender bender. Mmmm.. maybe even less. I have heard of police putting a lot of effort into finding low value material items....

Lois Powers of the John Howard Society of Toronto (although I confess, I don't know what this society is) says in this article that a restorative justice system offers more support than the criminal justice system. Powers is referring to support for the accused.

I think it's great that this article has been published. Support and Compassion should be a part of conflict resolution. Isolating and rejecting those accused with child sexual offences will not help to reduce the prevelance of child sexual exploitation. And since victims of child sexual offences seem to be provided with half of the supports available to the accused... perhaps improving services to the alleged perpetrators will mean that the victims 'half' will grow proportionally.

This article also states that most of the child pornography offenders are white, male and educated with no previous contact with the criminal system. This means that the people who have the most power and influence in policy making in this country are more likely to identify with the accused than with the victim.

For those of us who would like to see our justice system become truly restorative, it would serve us well to further promote the benefits for the accused, rather than expending energy trying to demonstrate the benefits for the victim.

We have some temporary power to get online... but no heat in this building :(  Crazy wild windstorm has wrecked havoc on the farm... lot's of damage... but nothing life-changing :) 

We have no power still so the Stewards of Children training set for Dec. 16th will have to be postponed. I can't get online on my computer/can't email registrants...

I'm too cold to stay out here... hope everyone is doing well... we'll upload some photos when it warms up.