If you know the woods, you likely also know deer hunting season is a good time to stay out of them. I was tempted to put on my bright red toque and cut some firewood anyway last week, the weather being ideal and all, but thought better of it. No matter what, I certainly wouldn’t have taken the dogs with me, especially after what I saw Thursday of that week. Continue reading
Hope Ness
Tractor provides sage advice about enjoying life as a senior
A funny thing happened on the way back to the bush yesterday. Mr. Massey-Harris, the only submersible “22” model tractor still in good running order that I know of, suddenly stopped in his tracks and insisted he wasn’t going to go any further if I didn’t acknowledge that I was just about to become an elder and ceased being in negative denial about it.
Now, you may find it more than a little odd that I talk to my tractor. Some might say they’re not surprised; after all, that McNichol fella is a strange duck at the best of times. Continue reading
The Health of the Aging Human Brain
The topic this week was going to be municipal restructuring. Boring, I just heard someone say. But let me hasten to add the crowd of squabbling crows who live in the bush behind our house and are quickly taking over my garden (with the current emphasis on my meagre first-year crop of strawberries) agree. Continue reading
How Not to Grow Strawberries
I’ve always had a lot of respect for traditional farm families, those people who have devoted their lives to the backbreaking and often heartbreaking job of trying to scratch a living from the ground, day after day, year after year, sometimes generation after generation. A good part of my childhood was spent living with and amongst such people, and I’m sure it taught me a lot about what life is all about for most people who live on this earth: hard work, the planting of seeds, and plenty of hopes and prayers that the sweat of one’s brow will be rewarded with a bountiful life-supporting harvest. I believe those things apply to any honest work a person might take on.
Finding Hope Ness 