Another Afternoon Adventure~ Photos

Distractions that Blind Us

How do we as people sit back and let our home, our world, and life as we know it be destroyed by the governments, religions, and leaders of our world. How can we go on everyday knowing that the car we have to drive, the electricity that turns on our light, the air-conditioning to keep us cool, along with the many things we don't know about that are quickly destroying our earth. How do we let this go on another day longer?

We all need to sit back for a moment, and think about our life and our future here on this planet. We each, first, need to think about how we are too busy working, to busy keeping a roof over our head, the power for the lights on and the boxes and packages of processed/pre-made food in the freezer, to actually take a minute to sit down and think about anything. Then, we need to think about all of the other millions of things that have been created to distract us; such as debts, bills, TV, internet, materialism, consumerism, religion, disease and addiction, to name only a few. While we finance the newest vehicle, shop for the latest must have' fashion trend; while we go to the movies, while we hack away on our computers, very important decisions are being made about this place that we live. We are more concerned and willing to give our attention to things like the newest video game release, a celebrities lack of underwear, who Ben married, or how many times a twenty-five year old girl can check herself in and out of rehab and jail in a month, to worry about something like melting ice shields or the depletion of the world's natural resources. Come on, now.

So, if you were the media, if you were concerned with viewer numbers and the next gruesome headline story that would get everyone's attention, wouldn't you give the viewers what they wanted? Why would you give people the stories they don't want to see? Women don’t what to see the destruction and grossness of the land mined for their precious diamonds. People don't want to see how many humans and animals have, and are being killed so we can drive our vehicles and heat our houses. And while we all sit at home, or at our desk at work, or on a beach somewhere, to busy to do anything about it, the rich get richer, the greedy get greedier, and the powerful destroy our world and our planet. This facade of the "American Dream", this fight for freedom, this war on terrorism, is all distraction so that the powerful that control this distraction, can go about their plans right under our noses, with no one saying a word.

We all go along with it, we put our trust in them. I don't know about you, I would only put the future and safety of my life in the hands of someone I fully trusted and to trust someone I need to know them, their values, their ideals, their morals, where they have come from and where they have been. You have to gain my trust, and prove that you are trustworthy. But for some reason, humanity; me, you, we have put our lives in the hands of complete strangers. We put our safety and future in the hands of the world's elite, but do you know who these people are? Do you know anything about these people other than they must be trustworthy because they are politicians and leaders of countries and religions? I don't. And I really don't feel comfortable letting the choices made about our planet, a planet we need to survive, be made by complete strangers that I know nothing about. But for some reason, most people seem to be all right with this.

JT

Still

Branches bent low with weight

Water frozen to clear

Cracks running deep through the middle

Drifts of white blown everywhere

Silent and still the winter nights.

 

Sun shining makes the world a crystal ball

Sparkling and glowing in the universe

Tiny flakes join to create

A feathery blanket over all that is still.

Marmots, Marmots, Marmots

To see the cutest photos of "a clown car" of Marmots, please click on the title above...

Jessica

A View for the Evening

Fighting back: Small town says turn-around fair trade in 'Buy America' battle - Investing Markets - Market News - Sympatico / MSN Finance

GOOOOOOOOhhhhh Canada!

As I read the news this morning, this came to my attention and I felt it necessary to post... Hope you enjoy the read.

Fighting back: Small town says turn-around fair trade in 'Buy America' battle - Investing Markets - Market News - Sympatico / MSN Finance

Cold, Cold, Cold...

It is the middle of May and where is our spring? In my quarter of a century living in Canada's only desert area, I have never felt a spring like this. I have seen almost no sign of our beloved warm spring and summer weather that most move and live here for. Please Mama Nature, give us some sun!
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Short Wheel Base Vs. Long on BC’s Back Roads…

British Columbia’s back roads taught me how to drive. In a Volkswagen, a couple old school SUV’s, my jeep and one or two reputable heap piles, I learned how to rip around the maze of back roads that spider web the Okanagan valley and surrounding areas. One thing all these hunkers had in common was their relatively SHORT wheel base, which is what you need when venturing through the tight brush, narrow roads, treed areas, and the rocky, mountain sides that are frequently found in BC.

http://www.helium.com/items/1444817-short-wheel-base-vs-long-on-bcs-back-roads

I have been looking forward to the spring opening of my favorite adventure places especially much this year, being that this will be my first summer with my new ’08 Sierra Extended Cab/ Short Box. Friday night, I felt like getting outside for awhile after work and took the dog and the truck up the hill again. I was happy to find that another section of the road was finally rid of its last snow drifts and I was able to get into a road I hadn’t been though in quite a few years. Catching it out of the corner of my eye as I was driving by, I thought what the hell, let’s check it out and see how far we can get. So, all was well until I started winding up the top of the mountain and came to a very narrow section of the road that was cut into the side of a rather steep bank. Stopping for a moment of contemplation, I figured that going any further was pretty stupid when taking into consideration that spring run off was still ‘running off’ and that would be just too expensive of a mistake for me that day! No biggie, I thought I would just turn around and find a different way to go. Easier said than done.

Not noticing how far I had gone up this narrow little path without seeing one pull over spot I realized that where I stopped was going to be the closest place to turn around but I wasn’t going to make it. This in the past would not have been a problem. All I can say is that I am quickly becoming a pro at the fifty point turn thanks to my Sierra! Although, I fully agree that shorter wheel based vehicles are more necessary for meandering through the paths and valleys of BC’s back country, I think I am just going to get used to watching for bigger turn around spots, learn how to finally use mirrors maybe (a joke), and become a pro at driving backwards, downhill in the mud. Or maybe the solution is just to stay out of silly places in my shiny new truck, but… What fun would that be?

Moose Racks and Mud…

Yaaa! The snow up the hill has finally broken for spring melt and most of the local back roads are accessible again. This afternoon, I loaded the dog up in the back up the truck, called my brother to see if he wanted to come for a rip, grabbed a couple drinks and headed to the store to fuel up before we hit the road. Looking for a great excuse to get outside and up the hill, my brother decided to come and met me in the parking lot.

We followed our usual track up the mountain that lead to the hidden valleys behind our small country community and took off on one of the deactivated logging roads. As we approached the main fork in the road, I stopped as usual to let the dog out for an adventure of his own. A half hour later, I noticed he had been gone a few minutes longer than usual. When taking into consideration his somewhat short attention span I thought it best to give him a whistle and see where or what he had got into. A few moments later, I still hadn’t seen him dive out of the bush and was kind of beginning to worry until I caught a quick movement of black out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t help but laugh and as I caught my brother’s attention, neither could he.

Both of us were is awe as we watched my hundred pound Black Lab come so daintily and proudly prancing around the corner carrying half a moose shed, nearly the same size as him between his teeth was quite the site to see! Even more entertaining was the ordeal I had to go through to get that damn thing out of his grip, there was no way he was letting go of that treasure. Finally though, I got him to give it up and brought it home with us as a little (of very large!) souvenir for the yard. Base to tip the thing spread almost four feet; it would have been nice to find the pair but time was not on our side! As darkness began to set it, we loaded up the truck and headed for home with another good story to share…

2009 Spring Update

The warm weather has just begun and spring is on its way.  It has been a strange start to 2009 around the Okanagan Valley, the winter just never seemed to end!  With warm weather on its way, I have been more willing to take an afternoon out in the wilderness and look forward to many new stories and photos for 2009.    

I look forward to sharing my adventures of 2009 with you all, so please keep checking back for new postings.   Cheers to all.