"Community Supported Agriculture" 
      Creating a CSA for Eastern PEI
           
There are more small organic farms selling directly to customers every year.  We joined a CSA in California back in 1997 and that experience helped lead us to our own farm in Prince Edward Island! This year we're pleased and excited to launch a farm share program of our own.

What is a CSA?

CSA means Community Supported or Community Shared Agriculture.  The model generally is that local customers agree to buy an annual share of farm produce. Shares are then boxed and delivered each week. Payment is made in advance and the farmer then has money to invest in seeds, fuel, labor and production.  Our model is slightly different and follows an example set by Brian McKay and Kathy Ware at Red Isle Farm.

What Does it Cost?

Each CSA member will be asked to pay their first and last week and then week to week for the season. This year we expect our program will start June 23rd and run for 17 weeks. Weekly shares start at $25.00 and should provide enough fresh produce for a family of four. We're specifically interested in serving people on a budget, families, moms and kids and anyone who loves having locally produced fresh organic produce.  We're here to be your farmers.

What Do You Get?

Our goal is to provide things that families (including ours) like to eat in season.  So there will be fresh mixed greens, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, lettuces, chard, spinach, sweet peas, onions, broccoli, summer squash, winter squash, herbs and dried beans.  We'll also have summer favorites like juicy heirloom tomatoes, fresh yellow beans and those delicious cucumbers! We also plan to add fresh organic eggs from our pastured laying hens.

How Do You Sign Up?

A good place to begin is by joining the Dunn Creek Farm group on Facebook.  That's where I'll be updating our CSA members about the farm this year.  Just drop a note and we'll get you going. Or leave a comment on this blog.

There will be more news on this but for now, I'm encouraging you to sign up.  We have a very limited number of CSA memberships available and we'd hate to have you miss out!

It All Comes Back To Manure

We need all of our farmers.  I firmly believe that. Trial and error and ten years of trying to learn how to manage something  resembling a farm has taught me that no one can wave a magic wand and make a professional who can wisely manage natural resources, operate and maintain machines, fix buildings, design and construct infrastructure, supply field labor, deliver lambs at 1 AM,  fix a leaky kitchen faucet, push a teenager to get the  chores done and drive an 11 year old to hockey. We need all of our farmers because they know something about everything.

When I came back from the ACORN conference in Halifax last week, pumped full of information until it was leaking out of my pores, I called on a young farmer in my neighborhood to share the information I'd learned with him.  You see, one of the things I learned at ACORN was that this potent and highly concentrated input needs to be spread around.  It's no good just keeping it in a bag in the barn.

So we talked about soil and seeds and fertility for about an hour when this young conventional farmer said, "You know, I've been looking at it.  And it all comes back to manure". He'd just this year produced the best corn crop he'd ever had by loading up his soil with manure from his cows instead of buying in chemical fertilizer.

In 1969 an oil well blew out in the Santa Barbra Channel and flooded our beaches with crude oil.  It was an environmental disaster that created the first Earth Day. The students of the new environmental sciences, our "alternative" neighbors and people all over the world woke up and saw that we were making a mess and something had to be done about it.  Lines were drawn. The politics of the environment were born.  Many good things came of that movement but something went wrong.

Santa Barbara County is an agricultural area on the coast of California that also has fishermen and oil production. We have old cowboys from families that go back to the Spanish and Mexican land grants of the colonial era.  These families worked to manage grazing and pasture for beef and tended their lands responsibly for generations. They weren't ready for the kind of people promoting Earth Day in 1970. When the lines were drawn around the ecological movement, these "descendientes" excluded themselves and there was no effort made to include them in.  That was a mistake on both sides.

When I was 24, I volunteered to help work 350 head of range cattle on a family "brush ranch". I met a rancher  who was the descendant of people who had worked that land for 130 years. The owner had been educated at UC Berkeley.  This was not the red-neck cowboy I had imagined. And in fact I later learned that our University system had been supported by families like his so that their sons and daughters could get a first class education in their own state and bring that education back home to the farm and their communities.  It turned out that that old cowboy was the one who lost the family ranch a few years later. I know for a fact that he later died of a broken heart. I was at his memorial with his stetson, his riata, his work saddle and his family who no longer had the home their grandfathers and grandmothers built.   

The young farmer I was visiting last week was interested in the material I brought back from Halifax on soil science. We started talking about biological farming.  And we talked about an old man in our neighborhood, recently departed, who farmed naturally all his life.  Not because it was the thing to do, but because it was something he'd proven over a lifetime.  The young farmer and I talked about bringing up seaweed from the shore for mineral supplement to feed the fields.  And we talked about pellet fertilizer. The young farmer thought for a moment.  "The old man said, 'You don't need to put that "hail" on the field.  Everything you need is right here.  We never put that stuff on and we always had a good crop'."  The old  man put kelp and manure on his fields and rotated his crops.  "It all comes back to manure"        

We need our farmers. All of them. The young farmer and I have listened to and learned from "Los Viejos" - the old ones. When we lose a farmer we break the chain of generations of knowledge on the land.  And as the young farmer and I can tell you - it's a long hard row to hoe getting it back. But the old men still try to tell us, "Don't lose what we worked for. Nature is giving you everything you need right here".  
         

The Bounty of Organic PEI Produce

What we Grew In 2010 
This is the answer to the question I get most often. I've listed most of what we grew though I did not include things we made from our farm, (pickles, preserved and dried food, catsup, etc) and I left off several trial projects.  The rest is presented here so you can get an idea of what we grow and sell and where we find seeds. The research in seed sourcing is a pleasure, but it is time consuming.  We source as much as we can from Vesey's seeds in York, PEI. They Have US and Canadian catalogs available for gardeners and growers. I encourage you to start a garden and try these varieties yourself. If you've got an idea for a  trial growing project or a seed source to share...please let us know!    


Variety                                                                 Source
Cucumber
Mideast Prolific (smooth skin - salad type)             Seeds of Change
Straight 8                                                               Vesey's
Sweet Corn
Lucious                                                                  Vesey's
Lettuce
Red Iceburg                                                           Seeds of Change
Spicy Mesclun                                                       Richters
Arugula                                                                  Seed Savers
Beets
Red Ace                                                                Vesey's
Carrots
Napoli                                                                   Vesey's
Scarlet Nantes                                                       Vesey's
Peas
Green Arrow                                                         Vesey's
Tomato
Scotia                                                                    Vesey's
Roma                                                                     Seeds of Change
Orange Cherry                                                       Vesey's
Broccoli                                                     
Bellstar                                                                   Vesey's
Cauliflower
Early Snowball                                                       Seed Savers
Dill
Dukat                                                                     Seeds of Change
Hecules                                                                  Richters
Fern Leaf                                                               Richters
Basil
Genovese                                                               Seed Savers
Cilantro
Slow Bolt                                                               Seed Savers
Summer Squash
Black Beauty Zucchini                                            Vesey's
Yellow Crookneck                                                 Seeds of Change
Winter Squash
Sweet Dumpling                                                     Seeds of Change
Waltham Butternut                                                  Vesey's
Young's Beauty Pumpkin                                        Seeds of Change
Potatoes
Gold Rush                                                              Vesey's
Chieftan                                                                  Vesey's
Penta                                                                      Vesey's
Beans
Goldrush Yellow String Beans                                Vesey's
Kenearly Yellow Eye Baking Beans                        Seed Savers
Onions
Cortland                                                                 Vesey's
Peppers
King of the North                                                    Seed Savers
Parsley
Italian Flat Leaf
Asparagus
Jersey Giant
Hops
Halertau and Cascade                                              Richters
Sage
Thyme
Oregano
Red Currants
Lavender
Mint
Tarragon 
Cherries
Apples
Blueberries
Cranberries
Prescott                                                           Homestead Organics
Field Corn 
Reid's Yellow Dent                                                  Seed Savers
Barley
--                                                                     Homestead Organics
Soy Beans
Fiskeby Organic                                                      Seed Savers
Field Hay
Livestock Feed
Oat & Barley Straw
Livestock Bedding and Mulch

We grew a large variety in small quantities this year.  Most of our work is done by hand in our large market garden. The seed we buy is premium quality carefully sourced from organic and heritage heirloom growers at considerable expense - all so that we may support organic seed growers and provide you with an exceptional product.

We serve our local neighbors and we welcome you to visit our farm.  Wherever you may be, you are welcome to share your thoughtful comments and suggestions on the blog.  

JQ's Thought For Today:
Maybe we should get over the idea that little boys are the same as little girls with a behavioral disorder.

Food Fight in the US Senate - S-510 Stalls - to Conservative Oppostion ?

Lots of notes on this follow up to my last posting.

Preface:

US politics has fragmented in to left/right black/white mudslinging on far too many issues.  And my considered opinion is that Canadian Conservatives are trying their wings with US style Conservative flapdoodle on the "Long Gun Registry".  When something this minor consumes all the air in the room...hold on to your wallet.
It's a diversion used to provide cover for bigger issues. And there's nothing bigger than food on the daily menu of families across the globe.

Meanwhile, so many of the conversations I have with farmers here on PEI focus on distribution.  How do we get our small farm  products into the market? Now we have to wonder, will we all have to do whatever global markets require for traceability of  local products?  

US Senate Bill S- 510

This legislative issue was first brought to my attention by the farmer pirates at "The Small Farmer's Journal".
Independent small farmers have been struggling along only to become more suspicious of the motives of big government and big business.  And the warning was dire - a direct threat to small farming.

I read the bill summary and comment and concluded that indeed there are questions unanswered in a political process too often steered toward big business and away from family farm interests. In the US, Ag. policy has been consistently bad for small farms. So let's say I am suspicious.  Who stands to gain?

Comments On the Blog:

Stephen  Jannise of  Software Advice writes for "The Distribution Blog".Stephen contacted me after reading this blog to invite me to read his post on tracking food recalls.  I did and added my comment.  I encourage you to visit this link for a fascinating look at software and supply chain management of a food recall in the big picture of industrial management.  

Friday - S 510 Comes Up For Discussion.  Google Gives a Tell?

As I mentioned to Stephen, our political world has been polarized into paralysis.  To get a clue I often look into who supports or sponsors a bill.  Who sponsors or participates in the debate?  In this case,  I found the  the water getting murky pretty fast.  This important legislation isn't as easy as guns, gays and God.

The bill was was proposed by senior Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat) of Illinois. Co-Sponsors include respected senior Democrats and Republicans Including "Liberal Lion" Ted Kennedy and Liberal leader Tom Harkin plus Conservative leaders Orrin Hatch and Michael Enzi. Weirdly enough in our political climate, this is a bi-partisan bill.  But when the bill came up for discussion Friday - it was faced with Conservative opposition including Tom Coburn of Oklahoma as reported by "PCT Media ".  PCT stands for "Pest Control Technology" and is a website sponsored by,  "Dow Agro Services, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, DuPont and Univar".  All are big pesticide makers. Univar is the largest chemical distributor in the US. I found this report through Google.  

Supporters and Opponents

Follow the "money trail" and you find that supporters of the bill include:

• Grocery Manufacturers Association
• National Fisheries Institute
• General Mills
• National Restaurant Association
• Produce Marketing Association
• Kraft Foods North America
• Consumers Union
• American Frozen Food Institute
• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Food Marketing Institute
• American Public Health Association
• Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention
• Consumer Federation of America
• International Bottled Water Association
• United Fresh Produce Association
• National Association of Manufacturers
• National Confectioners Association
• National Consumers League
• Pew Charitable Trust
• Trust for America's Health
• Snack Food Association
• Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP)
• American Bakers Association
• American Beverage Association
• International Dairy Foods Association
• International Foodservice Distributors Association
• National Coffee Association
• American Farm Bureau

Meanwhile...

Specific Organizations Opposing S.510

• Weston A. Price Foundation
• Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund
• National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association
• Raw Milk Association of Colorado
• Farm Family Defenders
• American Grassfed Association
• Small Farms Conservancy
• National Family Farm Coalition
• Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

 (Information provided by Open Congress)

 So...why would conservatives line up in opposition, with such groups as, The Raw Milk Association of Colorado?  And why would liberals join in support of General Mills and Kraft Foods?

Senator Coburn Presents His Objections

In his detailed objection the Senator outlines the overlap over Federal agencies tasked with food safety and his belief that this bill is not "deficit neutral" -  It will cost tax payers more to implement than it takes in. All play to his Conservative principles. But there is little or nothing in his objection that addresses regulation to protect public health and safety.  Presumably these would fall under his objection to "burdensome regulations".
This comes even in the face of broad support from liberals, conservatives and business.  Opposition comes from independent farmers, small special interests and...chemical manufacturers?

Frankly, I am at a loss to explain the position of either side.

(Update)

Objectivity suggests this excerpt from Sen .Coburn should be included here:  


Burdensome New Regulations
There are 225 pages of new regulations, many of which are problematic. While some regulations are potentially onerous, but perhaps reasonable – such as requiring every facility to have a scientifically-based, but very flexible, food safety plan—others give FDA sweeping authority with potentially significant consequences.
While it is hard to pull out just 1 or 2 regulations in the bill that make the entire thing unpalatable, on the whole this bill represents a weighty new regulatory structure on the food industry that will be particularly difficult for small producers and farms to comply with (with little evidence it will make food safer).

I hope we're seeing here from Dr. Coburn a realization that regulation of flawed production models such as factory farming chicken, won't make the product safer or better.   

And Finally, Why This Debate Is Not The Real Issue

CBC Radio's, "Quirks and Quarks", the national science radio program in Canada, aired a segment today entitled,  "Empires of Food".

"... what caused the downfall of great empires throughout history, from the Mayans to Mesopotamia to Rome. Warfare? Invasions? Political infighting? Well, according to a new book by a Canadian researcher, it was famine. Dr. Evan Fraser makes the case that we are what we eat; and when the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature changes, that's when great civilizations fall.  He also thinks we just might be headed for such a fall ourselves."

Listen to the segment at 30:35 into the show...

What if the issues and the stakes are much bigger than big politics or big business? What if the question evolves into, "Where does food come from in an era of collapse"?

If this becomes the question,  then the answer is to make friends with your farmer.

Haying and Shearing - Posts From Our Busiest Farm Day Ever!

This has been a crazy year. We moved from Southern California with big plans and schemes for success already in motion. I can't tell you how many times Susan and I have looked at each other with no idea how we were going to do it all.  We go ahead anyway, wondering how things will work out.  I've been told by one of the world's great explorers that this is the basis for any great adventure.  If you already knew how everything would turn out - why would you ever leave home?  The video posts and photos below will lead you through one of our busiest days in our busiest year...and hopefully show you why we love it all.  

Video Post Monday Morning:

 

We've mowed down this field every year...to keep it cleaned up and to take a bit of loose hay for the horses. In the past few years I began to work a bit harder to understand how to make hay knowing that one day we'd be staying on and we'd need to feed our animals for the winter.  Well, "one day" turned out to be  Monday.  And luckily, I got a lot of haying help from a young Island farmer, Adam King.

   

I met Adam because I heard he had an old square baler for sale. Square hay bales are relatively easy to store and use on a small farm like ours.  Most farms have gone to the big round bales. But smaller works better for us.  So I bought Adams' old Massey Ferguson baler and with it - I bought some help.  Turns out Adam's uncle Doug knows these old machines about as well as anyone. So I asked for his help to get us ready to work. He came over on Thursday and had the old thing purring in a couple of hours.  And I learned that a hay baler, like any boat, machine, or practically any singular noun in the Maritimes is a "she".  After Doug finished his work, a fellow might  rightly say, "Now that she's got the rust out of her, she'll run just as slick as anythin'!" If you aren't living in the Maritimes - please don't try this phrase at home.     

Adam came over Saturday morning with his new John Deere tractor and a New Holland hay mower/conditioner.  In about an hour, he'd  mowed a bit more than 5 acres.   The conditioner cracks the grass stems so the hay will dry faster. Then it's important to get the hay dry, baled and in the barn before it rains.  Speed is a valuable asset and we were happy to hire some help. 

    

 

Saturday afternoon I put our old wheel rake on the tractor and made nice fluffy windrows of hay. These would sit in the sun and wind and be turned again the following mid-day.  Around here, keeping the Sabbath  still keeps many folks from working on Sunday.  I'm not of that tradition but I do make a point of not running machines on Sunday morning out of respect for my neighbors and to help keep the peace and quiet of a Sunday in the country.  But by the time church was out on Sunday, I was hitched up and turning the hay to finish drying.   And by Sunday afternoon, with clouds gathering and the forecast calling for showers, I knew I had to start baling and loading as fast as possible.  We got a head start Sunday evening, but Monday would be the big day.

Baling on Monday Morning - Dark Skies and a Threat of Showers Push us On.

 

That's our new-old Massey Ferguson Model #10 in the field. After I had learned a few of the tricks of this old machine, I gave Susan a quick lesson and set her off on the windrows to finish the job. The baler missed a few now and then, but Susan did a great job and picked up all the hay.  As the bales hit the ground, the rest of the crew loaded an old horse trailer and the Big Yellow Truck to pick  them up from the field and deliver them to the barn.  We unloaded the hay and bucked the bales up for stacking in the loft. 

About now I should mention that we are grateful for a lot of help.  Young strong backs are essential so we hired a couple of neighbor kids, Rachel and Logan, and we relied on the help and experience of our  mature farming partners, Brian and Lorna, to load and stack in the barn. Their visiting friends, who had come  up from the States on vacation pitched in too - working as hard as the rest of us to support  the effort. Spencer proved to be the "strapping  young son" every farm needs and our ten year old and his buddy came to the field to pick up bales too. Everyone shared the hard work and by 5:30 PM we had 500 bales in the barn.  That should be enough for the horses and sheep to make it through the winter.   

But we weren't done yet.

Lorna Shears Sheep in a Heap

 Sheep Before...

Sheep After.

So the hay was baled, the sheep were shorn, Spencer delivered produce to Angela at the Sand Bar and Grill on Panmure Island and Susan even managed to dig some potatoes and sell some fresh salad greens to customers who came up the lane.  

When the work was finally done for the day we had a lovely farm dinner with our friends, drank margaritas and danced to some good old rock and roll in the kitchen.  We celebrated our harvest, hard work and good friends and then...we went to bed. 

Good Night from Dunn Creek Farm.

           

The California Dream: Kelly and Regis Come to PEI

I heard today that some islanders are selling their free tickets to see Regis and Kelly when they broadcast live in PEI.  I have to smile.  And I want to share something with my island neighbors about what all this California dreamin' means - and remind them of what they already have.  

After I left radio, I worked in my own commercial recording studio in Santa Barbara.  I wrote and produced radio commercials, voiced audio for film and television and worked in sessions where I  recorded projects for blockbuster films,  famous actors and models, voice talents, authors, adventurers, Hollywood studios and wanna be's.

About 8 years ago, I had spent the Christmas break on our farm in PEI.  It was a magical time with our young sons. We cut our own Christmas tree from our woods (instead of buying it at Big Wave Dave's Tree Lot), and we spent time in the snow exploring our new home.  A couple of days after we got back to California, I was scheduled to record a commercial voice session with Dennis Miller.  At the time, Mr. Miller had left Saturday Night Live and was working as an announcer on ABC's Monday Night Football. Mr. Miller has a home and family in SB.

Mr. Miller had a bit of a reputation for being gruff and difficult to work with. I never saw that in all the times I worked with him. On this session I came in a bit hung over but ready to make sure the studio was in order. Reputation or not, I knew there would be no excuses for not getting things right; we were connecting to a commercial studio in New York.  I was introduced to Mr. Miller as I was setting up the mic booth and he said, " how are you today Johnny?  "Delirious" I said.  He laughed.  And we began the session.

The laugh broke the tension for me and things went well.  During a break in recording, while the clients in New York were reviewing the takes, I turned off the mic.  "So how was Christmas?" I asked, trying to strike up some mild conversation to pass the time while we waited for New York. There was an unhappy pause. 

"I was in Pittsburg"

At that moment, a light went on in my head.  I had just spent a glorious and memorable Christmas with my wife and children at home on our farm.  He had been in Pittsburg, watching an NFL game and making ludicrous money from ABC.  But he missed Christmas. Funny, huh? It was the moment I realized that all these people I saw on TV and sometimes even worked with at the studio were missing out on something my wife and I held more dear than money. Over the years, I found many of these charming, highly paid and talented men and women were working hard to make enough money...to GET OUT.  We gave up a good deal of money when we chose to leave all that behind and come here. Now we have what islanders have and what so many well paid celebrities don't...we have our own lives in a beautiful place.

I remembered that today as I was weeding corn and soy beans in the heat. And then I heard on CBC radio that John Corbett would be guesting on Regis and Kelly, here on the island. I laughed out loud.  John Corbett and I have worked together over three years in the studio.  The last time I saw him, I told him I was leaving Santa Barbara and moving to our farm in PEI. I described it to him and told him how much we love it here.

And now, Mr. Corbett has found his way to the island.  Maybe it's just co-incidence.  He is promoting a new film he shot in Canada. So probably just a fluke right?  He and Bo Derek live on her beautiful horse ranch in Santa Ynez.  She is a kind and graceful woman who would sometimes accompany John to the studio (and sometimes did her own work with us.)  She is a master horse woman and I think she loves the country and the outdoors. He is a son of Wheeling, West Virginia who has a touring band. He loves to sing and play country music. Could they have chosen to come here? Will they find their way back home to PEI?

Why not?

Take it from me, for some of us, the California dream doesn't end in California.

And if you live here, you don't need tickets to a TV show to find out why Hollywood is coming here.

Will  I try to track down John?  Well, maybe.  He's a great guy and I'd love to show him our little bit of the island...you know...show him what we love. But I think I might just let time and the island work that out.
I've got corn to weed.

UPDATE: 7.13.10

I watched the 15 minutes "Live" posted on line of Monday's show.  Really enjoyed it.  Regis and Kelly and the Live crew really did a nice job. And compliments to Tourism PEI as well.  They are doing a great job of  showcasing PEI. 

And I did contact John Corbett. He's only making a brief stop for the Thursday show but I offered him our hospitality and a welcome to PEI.  After all...it's the island way.            

Fear is a Learned Behaviour and other Lessons From Earth

It is Spring at the farm.

This is my second Spring of 2010. The first was in California, where rain stops falling in March or April and the sky is clear almost every day. That means outdoor living is well under way and the under dressed (or undressed) can streak out of the house, cross the breezeway and dash into the garage for that pair of pants (or underpants) that never quite made it from the laundry into the house.        

Here, in PEI, in Mid May, spring meant settling into bed last night, and then realizing that I hadn't put on the space heater in the greenhouse and the forecast was calling for a low of 2 (about  34F).  I seriously considered nodding off to sleep anyway...then realized this was not an option. I have invested in planting the hundreds of seeds in flats that are just now sprouting with this year's harvest.  They are particularly sensitive to cold now - and I was afraid that letting nature take it's course would be crippling to our plans and our investment in time, money and labor. What to do?

I got up, went downstairs and put on a sweatshirt, a hat and a pair of rubber boots and sprinted out the door.
If you had been driving by Dunn Creek Farm at about midnight last night, you would have seen this farmer sprinting up the yard in his tighty whities to flip the switch on the heater and then dash back to the house.
Mission accomplished and this years crops saved!

Yesterday I hitched up my ugly old 3 sod trailing plow and tilled new ground between the peach trees in our little orchard.  I have a history with that plow that includes a spooky horse trying to flip it over onto me and some pretty ugly plowing when I didn't know what I was doing.  Call it a general lack of operator ability. I was pretty frustrated and afraid I'd never measure up. That awkward experience comes up each time I hitch up the plow.    

Yesterday I lined up my plow, set the points and laid out some lovely rows of nice turned earth which will
be planted with dried baking beans and potatoes for this fall and winter.  The plow was flawless and this plowman knew how to hitch the plow at the proper angles and set the points for turning the sods together
into the center of the row.  Thanks to my neighbor, Glen, who patiently gave me my first instructions a few years ago and by paying attention at the Dundas Plowing Match for the last few Summers, I knew what I was after. And I congratulated myself for this basic graduation.

I'll never forget my first try at plowing with Glen. After looking at my field and then at my plow he said, "That's a tough contract".  A few days later he said, "I talked to a few of the lads in the neighborhood and they said you did not too bad a job for your first time plowing".  Glen is now about 80 years old now and a lifelong bachelor farmer.  I'm so lucky to have had elders like Glen in this community offer their help and a lifetime of experience.

Warren Brush at Quail Springs said, "A community is a place where each person is needed." I like that.
But I'm still trying to figure out how I can be needed in our community.  I know I need my neighbors, like Glen. And Nancy, who took my seed orders and planted early starts for me in her greenhouse and my neighbors who continue to offer me their welcome home and suppers at their houses.  Like my friends who come to weed asparagus and visit while we work.   

A Change is going to come even as the world outside argues and frets.

Many people say,
"We can't change what's wrong". 
"We can't choose what is best for us".
"Government is cporrupted"
"Business can't be trusted"

Fear is a learned behaviour and it has become a crippling force. We are afraid to be wrong, afraid to make change, afraid of failure, afraid to be cold, afraid to be ridiculed, afraid to be alone and afraid of being hungry.

But I've learned that our friends will come forward and teach me.  They will cheer our success.  I will choose to be cold to save our seedlings and our neighbors will put a hot, home cooked meal in front of me. Being wrong teaches me more than being right. When you're right you don't need anybody.  When you're wrong you need your friends.

In the past 10 years I've learned to fear less and do more. And I realize now that I have less to fear  from the people around me than I do from the big anonymous world that wants everything I have - in exchange for my life.             
  
And I'm so much more impatient now with those who say, "No we can't".

Coming Home - Moving to PEI

"Welcome Home."

I've heard that from many friends and neighbors since arriving in Eastern PEI.  Nice words to hear from islanders and other folks like me who have come home from away. It's a simple and sincere act. One that my dog Annie understands how to perform to a fault. Other than that, coming home has not generally been a celebratory event in my life.

As the move to PEI goes on, Susan and the boys are heading for the home stretch, finishing work and school and packing up the house in Santa Barbara.  I'm not sorry to be missing that.  My last few weeks there were spent wading through too many things collected over the years and realizing that I can't afford to carry so much stuff around with me. Much too much baggage, you know?  So I parted with things and reduced the time capsule of memories preserved in cardboard boxes. They'll have to open my, "Boyhood Home Museum and Gift Shop" without them.

Hours of old radio airchecks and car commercials and assorted nonsense went into the trash.  My old orthodontic retainer. (Really.  I think because I had to swear I'd never lose it.) The Santa Barbara Mission carved out of a big bar of Ivory Soap (a 5th grade social studies project). Boy Scout stuff, newspaper headlines and high school rally buttons. And I came face to face with all of my old notebooks and writing projects. Hmmm.  Seems I've been a writer most of my life. And I wrote a lot of seriously bad stuff too which, thankfully, no one will ever have to read.

Some of the ideas I sketched in words were fun to see again.  Vast quantities went to the recycling center.  There was a series of "newspapers" I wrote for friends at school, starting in 6th grade and running into high school.  Yikes!  After stealing shamelessly from Mad Magazine and old TV comedy writers it's a wonder I wasn't arrested for theft...and for being deeply nerdy. 

I picked up the thread of a time line begun in my old High School class notes, "Where Are We And How Did We Get There?" which was actually a question on the final exam in my senior religion class at Bishop Diego High School where I spent 4 years as a virtual heathen in a Catholic school. Pleading ignorance on the final got me an "A" and a lesson about confession.

So I've touched all these things one last time.  The baseball cards, the pictures of Civil War battlefields, the notes from old girlfriends. And I reviewed a few of  those hours spent writing when I really didn't have much to write about. Those hours were awkward. I had to imagine an awful lot about life when I was 16. And much of it reads more like bad science fiction than autobiography. It's really just chewed gum under the table. The past may be prologue but you can't live in it.
 

Thirty years later I'm at a kitchen table covered with packages of seed. There's a red wing blackbird singing in a poplar near the creek.  A partridge is foraging in a brush pile in the yard. Earlier today a nesting pair of Canada geese were checking out the ponds like young marrieds looking for a starter home. And a moment ago a neighbor's son drove up and invited me to come over on Sunday for a chicken dinner. Just another way of saying, "welcome home".

Islanders have a natural outlook that comes from their seafaring culture. Those who seek to build communities would do well to consider the simplicity of their point of view.  When you're here, you are home.  When you're not, you are away.  And so it's the most natural thing for islanders to welcome you home when they see you.  It's a simple yet powerful thing to be greeted warmly and welcomed back into the community. 

Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean. The next time a loved one comes through the door, stop what you're doing.  Hug them close and say, "welcome home".