On the Road Again (almost) 2013 #4

Attended a meeting and a going away party at the college and the went a bought 9 fleeces. The farmer had done a bit of work cleaning them - so I had to pay a bit more for each fleece. Got 4 grey fleeces - which is great plus quite a few fleeces off of yearlings. I think that means that they are not as big as some of the older sheep but I also think that it means that they will be softer. We will have to see. I do have the temptation to spend a day or two at home washing a fleece. Is that a sign that I am too obsessed with wool?

Tomorrow morning I leave for Sudbury.  I mailed the box of extra clothing off yesterday and with any luck it will be there when I arrive. I am always surprised at how heavy it is. I can't believe that I use to carry all that stuff with me. Even now I probably carry stuff that I never use.

I could leave now, my stuff is all packed but that would leave a really messy house to come back to. So tomorrow morning I will get up reasonably early and after the usual stuff will do quick sweep of the floors, clean out the fridge put the house plants outide and then unplug everything except the answering machine.

Must confess I feel somewhat nervous and some excitement. The weather is not looking great out west. The flooding in Calgary and Canmore looks pretty bad and I wonder if the roads will be passable. But the train ticket to Winnipeg is already bought - I got a great deal in terms of price but I can't cancel it so I am off. If I have to, I can spend a day in Medicine Hat or where ever. The good news is that because the general area is fairly high up, it should clear up fairly quickly - if it ever stops raining. Of course that is not particularly good news for folks out there. If the land was a bit flatter they would have a lot more warning about the impending flash flooding.

12 hours from now and I will be on my way.

On the Road Again (almost) 2013) #3

D-day-6.

This time next week I will be somewhere west of Winnipeg.

It has been a strange spring. Not just because the weather has been inconsistent and un-spring like but also because this year I have spent far less time thinking and planning my trip than any of my trips in the past 10-12 years. I am not nearly as restless or as excited as usual/ And I am not too sure why.

It maybe in part because I had a really challenging winter semester at school that consumed a lot of my energies. It took me a bit of time to slow down and refocus my "oomph" once school was finished. I have also in the past two months been far more consumed with my weaving then at anytime in the past. It has paid off as I have made some money selling at the Farmer's Market (not a lot but I am quite pleased with the possibilities). In the past year I have processed a total of nine fleeces. That is a lot of work. Last night was the first night in weeks in which I had no work to do with wool - it felt very strange. I was sort of lost and rather bored. That level of focus has not left a lot of room for over thinking my travel plans.

I have also been wearing my wireless headset a lot. Because my landlady frequently works nights and sleeps during the day, I keep them on so that I can listen to my "talking books" in whatever room I am working in without disturbing her. Having someone reading into my head distracts me from thinking about anything serious or complicated. I think that I may have thought less about the trip because my head has been too noisy. Even listening to music is more intense with the headset on. It makes me wonder about the impact on our collective creativity as we spend more and more of our time walking around with I-pods/mp3 players plugged into our brains.

But at the heart of it all, this may be the first year in which I am less sure about actually doing the trip. It is not that I don't want to go - I do. But I am spending far more time worrying about whether or not I have the energy to do it. Next Monday morning after taking a long city bus trip, I will have to walk for about an hour (depending who else is on the road and how busy the highway is) before I can find a spot to stick out my thumb. It is not a hard walk, the ground is flat - but I do have to dodge a few cars as I cross over a couple of exit and entrance ramps. There are no shoulders and if it has rained, it will be muddy walking. I have walked that stretch of highway  12-13 times - it is not a big deal. But for some reason it worries me. It worries me that I will not have the energy.

And finally - I have done it all before. The sense of adventure is just not there as it use to be. It all feels a bit too easy or at least a bit too routine. It took me just an hour to pack my bag, I spent virtually no time debating with myself as to what to take. I always take the same stuff. I then remade the signs (they were getting a bit battered). and recharged all of the assorted batteries ) cameras, phone etc.). And that was that. Total time - probably less than half a day. Not too much to get excited about.

 In the 20 odd hours since I wrote the above things have changed a bit. I am getting excited. In a week's time I might, if the hitchhiking Gods are kind to me, be on the other side of Calgary. I might be in the mountains!!!

No more Horses

I went down to Oshawa today and then headed back north to visit a friend in Lindsay.  I was sort of looking forward to the drive. While I have not been on Simcoe Road for a number of years, there was a time when I drove it on a daily basis.  I know it well.

It is, in good weather, a pleasant drive. The road which has relatively few straight stretches skirts small towns such as Columbus, Raglan, Sonya, Seagrave and of course Port Perry. There are small farms and clusters of houses scattered along the old road. Small ponds and creeks are hidden in the valleys of the gently rolling hills. 

But the best part of the road is the section just north of Oshawa where the road carves its way through the hundreds of acres that make up E.P. Taylor's Windfields Farm. It is a glorious section of prime farm land used for growing hay and for providing pasturage for the racing thoroughbreds. At this time of year one can always count on seeing the current crop of foals dance and gallop around the paddocks while their mothers replenish themselves on the rich grass.  Scattered amongst the paddocks and field are series of barns and houses. I visited one of the barns once with my daughter's Pony Club. I should live in a house so nice! But then Northern Dancer or one of his sons was living there earning lots of money through his stud fees. I never got to see inside any of the houses but the larger ones, which I assumed were for the managers etc of Windfield looked pretty nice. I always thought it would be a pleasant life - working with horses and living in a well maintained house provided by the company.

In the fall one could drive by the open sided hay barns and see the hundreds of square bales all stacked ready to feed the valuable horses throughout the winter, and watch the piles of bales slowly shrink as we moved through the winter months. I always looked forward to marking the seasons by what was happening in the fields of Windfield Farms.

But no more. The whole area is being transformed into a suburb. Already there are spots where the land has been dug up, survey stakes are scattered about and there are large signs announcing what developer will be building there. The barns are either torn down or sadly and slowly disappearing into the ground as they rot. The remaining houses have not fared any better. The windows are boarded up and the stucco is starting to peel off the outside walls. This time next year it will be all paved over; in ten years almost no one will remember the dancing colts.

I know that the population of Canada is growing.

I know that all of those people need to live somewhere.

I know that almost everyone with a family dreams of living in their own house - my kids benefited from that dream.

and I know that Windfields was not a good use of agriculture land. Raising thoroughbreds is a rich man's game, a game that I could never have dreamed about being part of.

I know all of those things - but I am still sad that the horses are gone.