If you go out to the woods today.....

Watch out for BEARS. Yes you heard me gentel readers BEARS!!! Spotted outside my parents cabin at White Bear Lake. Yes a mother bear and her 2 cubs were going through my neighbours garbage, (which pissed me off because they got there before me). Unfortunately they didn't manage to get any pictures but they were black bears. Before long there were people on quads chasing them away. It's quite the development but lets face it, they are clear cutting trees out at Kenosee so where are the Bears going to go? Our backyards of course. Did you know there used to be a prairie grizzly that used to roam until the last one was shot in 1886? Crazy. In other news I finished a book called "Prairie History" so now I know everything that happenned around here in the last 400 years. I read this book exclusively at Cannington while I was "working". I've started a new book "The Paliser Expedition" and I'm already halfway through it. The book is about John Paliser who explored the western interior in 1857-9. It been a pretty interesting book so far.
In other news, my girlfriend has come back from Ness Creek "all nessed up".

Anyways that's all from my corner of the province and internet
Peace
And watch out for bears

Depressed....

So yeah here's the lowdown on my week.
There are some positive but damn it's hard to be today.
So gentle readers where do I start? Well first off as your may have previously read, my car has crapped out on me. There is an engine for it and it's supposed to be comming to me. Rhonda's dad knows this guy, it's his boss. He's also supposed to help me install it. But. Rhonda's dad is quitting.
This means it may not get done. But tha's not all it also means he's leaving here and probably never returning. Which sucks ass because I like that he's around.

My mom keeps getting screwed-over by mechanics in Weyburn, I think people have been charging her for doing work and they actually havn't been doing.
If anyone knows anything about ABS breaks fucking up a transmission then please comment and give me your e-mail.

I miss my friends, I feel cut off out here without a phone I can use for any lenth of time.

On the plus side, With Rhonda's dad gone, we'll have a bedroom open for guests.
I guess we'll have to fend for ourselves now (ha ha).
j.b.

Frustration on a national scale

It's interesting to watch tv ( I only get 2 channels CTV and CBC), and I watch alot of news.
It has become aparent that the US will never leave Iraq ever. There are plans to build permanent military bases there. Why? Because you need to keep the oil, to drive the military machine that is the U.S. To preserve a way of consumerism and introduce products to more people so that they can buy and make other people super rich. Without oil, you can't run a military. Without oil you can't dominate the planet with your totatlitarian regime.

So lets just take a quick look at the situation of the U.S. right now. Ok the parts to build a B-52 bomber are produced in every single state. Why? National security? In a manor of speaking. Because it means that every state employs people to build weapons. It doesn't matter how Liberal of a person you are, if you build weapons to support your family you WILL vote to keep you job.

War for Profit. This was once a term used in Sid Meier's 'Pirates!' but is now big business. If you are an arms dealer war is your business and in order to make money, people have to die.

So you install a government that is collecting kick-backs or were at one point linked to a defence contractor in order to give your business a "boost".

Dick Cheney and Halliburton for instance is a prime example.

I alos find it "funny" that a friend of the U.S. for almost 30 years went by the name Saddam Hussein. In fact he was given weapons by the U.S. during the Regan administration. Donald Rummsfeld personally delivered them.

So where do the Troops fall in? Well they are basically your average good-hearted American who are just trying to get ahead in life. They were promised skills to succeed in life, to learn a trade and to be given money for college, at the expense that they might be killed and lose it all. If you're a gambling persona then go for it I say, or if you already have nothing to lose, which would suggest you're poor and clearly your country could do without you (seeing as how Congress has voted against raising the $5.15/hour minimum wage where it's been for 9 years).

Yes, so war is the grand solution to the problems of the rich people in the US. It makes them money, and gets rid of all the poor people cluttering up the streets not buying anything.

So when someone asks me if I support our troops I say "damn rights I do, god save them"

Makes me bloody sick to my stomach to think of all this going on and I'm powerless to do anything but bark about it from my dark little corner of the internet.

Peace
J.B.

Legalize it!

Well you can criticize my political ideas all you want but lets look at a simple chart to see what might happen if we legalized all drugs and started up a drug licensing program like I suggested back in February.

Legalize Cocaine = a broken economy in countries like Columbia, Venezuala, Bolivia. But it would mean that the US couldn't meddle with them at their will or does it? There's oil in Venezuala isnt' there? and the abasador already said the leader should be assassinated on public television.

Legalize Heroin/Morphine = a broken economy in Afghanistan where we are fighting a war that will probably never end...

Legalize Crystal Meth = natural selection of species it's the bottom of the fucking foodchain right here. Not to mention that a government controlled lab facility would probably be alot safer than a lab moving in next door to you or into an apartment building where there could be innocent children.

Legalize Pot = Problems with grow-ops will dissapear overnight. Farmers will get another crop to plant in the spring. Reports of domestic violence will go down.

Just some things I thought people should consider.

The south prevails!!

Hey all I just wanted to salute the Confederacy on their victory. Yes sir Evangalistic southern conservative values have overtaken the United States and it is spewing over into Canada (just look at the federal election last Jan). 90% of the black/hispanic people in the states are living below the poverty line and are slaves to the government (or big corporations). Thousands of black voters were disinfranchized in the 2000 election so lets face it they arn't included in the democratic process so they really ARE second class citizens. Science is taking a back seat to religion and God's 'warriors' are taking over and bombing abortion clinics. To this I reply: GOD HAS A BIG ENOUGH BUDGET HE DOESN'T NEED PEOPLE TO FIGHT HIS BATTLES.
Fly on confed flag and fly true

Ever wanted to know what happens....

when you combine diet coke with Mentos?

go here http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html

Back On-Line

Hey all,

I've just got internet re-connected in our new place and I have some developments to share. First My Suzuki is giong through some technical difficulties, probably is going to need a new engine. I'm torn as to what I should do with it. Buy a used engine, have the current one rebuilt, or sell the body and buy Rob's Topaz for $300. The hot tub is still leaking but not as bad so I'm going to have to re-repair what I worked on and then hopefully it'll stay fixed. it's been about a month now since I've been able to use it and I'm damn frustrated with that.

That's all for now.
J.B.

For Saskboy:

Echo's or the new Toyota Yaris are phemonenal on fuel. If you are looking for great gas mileage you won't be disappointed. It's about 51MPG. July 22 is our special event day at Cannington Manor so I will have to work but it would be nice to meet all the bloggers from Sask.
J.B.

More Tales from Cannington Manor

So these past few days have seen me working with school programs which so far have been all day programs. 9:30-3:30 They start with Criket, then peel and cut vegetables for Cannington stew. Then they have lunch, go on a tour of the village, eat their stew and leave. One of the real challenges is keeping the kids busy so I tend to knock down the wood pile and blame it on the raccoons. Speaking of which I saw one on the road today running along the grid. I've certainly been brought closer to wildlife lately, as well as, farming life. Yesterday I got to help heard cattle for the Cudlows. They were moving the herd down the grid by Cannington when I was leaving for the day so their truck was on one side of the road and my Swift was on the other and they had quads in the ditch pushing them along. It was a mess of mooing, and horn honking but I had nowhere in particular to be so I didn't mind giving them a hand.

Yes I have started driving my Swift to work now after some serious thought. Rhonda's car is good on gas but it's just too light, it's tires are too small, and it's gear ratio's are too far apart. My Swift however is nearly perfect for these roads and lets face it, with a few mods it could be a rally car, which is something an Echo doesn't have a chance at being because it's too high off the ground.

More news: R's buying a house. It's far bigger than this one and doesn't leak. The house we're in sucks soooooooooo bad. For those of you who came down at May long you already know there's not enough room to keep anyone over or entertain in the living room. The roof leaks when it rains and the roof is metal so it's impossible to fix. The floor in the bathroom is rotten and the floor joyces were cut too small and the whole floor is slowly sinking. There arn't any screens on the windows. There's no fence or privacy in the back yard not great for hot tubbing or playing Croquet. Our landlord isn't happy we're leaving he even offered to sell us this house for $20Gs but i wouldn't pay more than $17G for it. The neighbourhood is sketchy too (well for Carlyle anyways). Our neighbours lawn is knee high and they have a dog tied up in the back yard that doesn't go anywhere, and we never see them because they never open curtains even during the day (I know who they are thought). Their front yard is littered with old appliances and BBQs and some are overgrown with vegetation.


So yeah we're moving up in the world and I like Crikket
Peace
J.B.

Echo's don't off-road well

So I'm comming home from Cannington today and I decided to take the 603 Grid to Manor rather than drive through the Rez because there's more pavement out that way (2km more). It has been Raining since 3 in the morning and I thought it was a better idea. so about 6 KM down the road there's a huge patch of quicksand basically. I coulnd't see it until about 3 seconds before I hit it. Down sinks the Echo at 80 KM/hour. Still moving though because rule #1 of driving in muck...NEVER TOUCH THE BRAKE. The ass end of the car starts to slip and veers right while the front end starts to slip left. I still have my foot on the gas because you have to keep the tires moving or else again, sink. I gave the wheel a light crank to the right and started to pull out of my jack-knife. I was bracing for the impact with the ditch (and probably a roll) when it pulled out and back on the road. Mud was flying up all over the cab, and I still had a fair stretch to go before I was out of trouble. I was able to keep the front wheels relativiely straight for the remainder of the mud patch but the ass end still slid around and I wabbled around back and fourth in the cab until I finally hit some solid ground. Needless to say I almost lost the car and it's covered in mud, but I arrived in one peice.

Tomorrow I'm going to jump it over a gorge.
J.B.

Big Dreams Big Failiure

I'm starting to feel the theme of Cannington Manor in my own life now. The main theme being big dreams and big failiure. I won't be able to make canoe trip this year so that disappoints me, but I think the biggest disappointment is my hot tub already has a leak in it. I guess I got what I paid for eh? So needless to say I'm pretty pissed off, because I have $1350 paperweight in my back yard unless I can figure out how to fix it. The leak is fairly slow but I'm not sure how to go about finding it unless I pull the liner off and I'm not sure I can do that if there's water in the tub. Anywhoo, I better get back at it

Later
J

Tales from Cannington Manor

Monday-cleaned Cannington, all of it. Every building that's out there, (except the blacksmith shop). The Maltby House at the end of Cannington is possibly haunted, apparently one of the workers last year felt a hand on their neck while playing the piano and a few others felt something "strange" when they were there I myself feel as though I'm being watched in that house.

Tuesday- taking inventory and setup. I basically worked in the carpentry shop all day, and was about the best place to be temperature and shelter-wise. So far it's my favourite place to be in the whole village. I also found out that we can use the shop to make stuff. We're allowed to start and run our own projects (blacksmithing excluded). I was soooooo pissed off when I was told I couldn't blacksmith! Of all the shit that I wanted to learn was how to do that kind of work, but I guess you can't leave a fire burning unattended.

Wednesday-Watched movies all morning about Canningtion, Remittance Men, Motherwell, and Pioneer Quest. Then went out to Cannington to get a thourough history lesson from my boss. I also tried on some costumes.

Shit I've learned this week:
-Just like our idea to start a planned community the people at Cannington had the same idea to build a utopian society.
-They call it "Moose Mountain" for a reason I have seen 2 Moose already on my way to work.
-I have to drive about half an hour from Carlyle to get to Cannington on gravel dusty roads but the traffic isn't bad. I had a bloody scary moment today when I drove past a semi on the grid road and I went completely blind from the dust! I could'nt see out the windshield for a few seconds, but it was enough to get the heart pounding. Rhonda's car wasnt' exactly built to handle gravel. It's way too light and it fishtails around 110kph. I imagine it's better than my car what with no struts and all.

Other shit:
My parents have been out here all week and it's been nice we've gone over for supper and stuff a few times. Tai has cavities in all her teeth and needs to have them fixed soon. Rhonda is coaching soccer and is already frustrated with all the "soccer moms and dads" Jesus Christ the kids are 5 -6 years old just let them have fun and chase the bloody ball.
I've tried to get ahold of Dan Duthie but I think his phone number has changed. I think I might have saw him riding a bike this morning on my way to work. It was a guy with red hair, and a bandanna, it kinda fits the description.

Anyways that's all from the Moose Mountains.
peace J.B.

Chillin in Carlyle

It's been a great few days out here. Fairly relaxing. I spent yesterday playing pirates and eventually finishing the game I started a few days ago. I've been catching up on all the Dead Like Me episodes I havn't seen yet. I've also had time to chill in the hot tub in the back yard. It's pretty crazy here compared to Regina or Weyburn even. You don't hear much at night here. The odd car passing on the highway, but mostly the crickets, which chirp in odd rhythms and patters. You can hear the Mallards in the ditance, Bats flitting around, the odd dog barking. I havn't actually lived in a town this small before, so it's a bit of a surprize. The moon is bright behind the trees and it's quite dark, not alot of streetlights. I also recently found out we have a picnic table.

Anyways, I will grace y'all with some pics of Carlyle town later on.

Peace

Training

Ok this is 2 posts because I barely had time to breathe let alone blog.

So May 1st 2006 started with me getting to the university at about 9:40am my boss had told me to be there by 10:00. So I waited.....and waited.....and then another girl showed up she was told the same thing by my boss. We chit-chatted, grabbed some coffee and eventually by about 11am some people started showing up. They gave us a package of info, and rooms in the North tower of the new university residences (which are very nice). We proceeded to have some long but interesting presentations with lots of pictures from all the parks and a historical overview of Sask Parks. The session wrapped up at about 2:30 and then we went outside for a walk around the bird sanctuary which was F***ING cold and windy. Of course I dont' have my winter coat it's in Carlyle town. I was ok though. I was getting through it. The ticks were out in full force. One guy tucked his pant legs into his socks, another girl had 6 of them on her, but I seemed to luck out.

The time was about 5:00pm by the time we got to the Wascana Tourist center for supper and a celebration (it's Sask Environment's 75th b-day this year) and yes we sang happy birthday to sask environment parks and recreation....happy birthday to you. We had beef on a bun and coleslaw, and chocolate and white cakes, which were delish. Then we had to go sit around a camp fire, down by the lake.. Oh yes did I mention it was cold, rainy and a lake is possibly the windiest place in the world to be? I had a short sleved shirt, long sleeved shirt and my fleece, but I also grabbed a few pop bottles and filled them with HOT water. They were my saving grace for the first hour while we watched 2 presentations but I was bloody well freezing by the end, and I had to pee REALLY bad. The day finally ended at 9 PM after having sat outside in the bitter cold for 2 hours.

Damn I will have to finish thes later, time to eat

On the Move

Wow what a weekend! Moving sucks but it's always a good time for reflection. When you toss out all the junk you've accumulated and think about when the next time you'll need it. That's how it always works isn't it? The second you throw something out you need it. I guess that's how people turn into pack rats.

A thousand thanks to Stevie D. for his services on Monday. I coulnd't have moved that fast, and convieniently with anyone else. Yes he even moved a hot tub for me! Unfortunately I left all my bloody chemicals in Regina, oh well I'll pick them up another day. It took us a good part of a few hours to move out of the room I was in at Krisite and Robs, but less than half an hour to move into Carlyle, (not having to go up 3 flights of stairs and accross a parking lot makes a huge difference.

I also got to surprize the hell out of R. because she certainly wasn't expecting me till later in the week, if at all.

So for all my gentle readers, I just thought I would extend my back-yard for your camping pleasure. We are living in a corner lot and have a Massive and fairly level back-yard right close to Kenosee and White Bear. It's wide open for visitors so please feel free to come out.

Peace
Jeff

Is this the alternative we're looking for?

Yet another point for organic farmers.

Loose ends

This semester seems to really have been a time of pulling everything together. It truely is the end of an era for me because it has been 6 years since I started a serious career path. It's funny how things seem to be comming together and other issues are resolving themselves.

It's been 6 years since I bagna my interest in hot tub. I researched them and studied them, hell I even built a few. Now I'm actually about to buy, own, and hopefully run a business with them. It's been a dream I've had for so long and it's finally happenning. I tested the tub out yesterday for the first time. I couldn't find anyone in Regina to help me either and it ended up comming down to a last resort. The tub was amazing, it even has a surface skimmer! There are 6 jets and they are easily interchangable and customizable. I'm even working on a plan to add a gas heater to the tub.

The last reort I spoke of is an old flame who still carries a torch for me. My torch for her went out long ago, which can make it dificult to be around her. I want a friend no more, she wants more but will settle on being a friend. Anyways it was another loose end I had to tie up. I dont' know how many times I had to tell her that the only torch I carry now is for my current gf R. When I started spouting off wedding plans I could tell she was starting to get the picture and it all came back to why? She wanted to know why everything changed and why I'm so willing to get married now when a year ago I was against it. All I can say is maybe I grew-up.

Everything happens for a reason. If I had never dated Mel, I can honestly say I might not have dated R. It was my expereince with Mel that made me more accepting of dating a single mom. Dating a single mom isn't always a bed of roses there are certain things you have to get used to, and you lose certain freedoms. However, you do gain some new freedoms that you never expected either.

So where does that leave Mel? During my short time with her I think I helped open her eyes to new approaches to parenting. I also motivated her to finally do something with her life (she's pursueing an education now).

I had a huge interesting conversation with Rob at 2 in the morning, just after Mel left my place. It was great, he informed me about "the Naked Arciologist" and how Jesus may have just been a student of the messiah, and Jean de Batiste might have been the true messiah. I think some of those deep conversations hit me more as I went to bed and really reflected on the past few years. I've also been meaning to hang out with Rob for sometime but school keeps getting in the way, so this was another loose end.

On a broader scale, I've been running into people I know EVERYWHERE! I've been stumbling into old friends and relations on a continuous basis up here. It's like I'm having one final conversation with them in person before we all go out into the black.

Wow aren't blogs theraputic LOL!

peace JB

Robert McMullen is the funniest guy I know!!!

there is something about rob that just kicks ass! he's damn good at being funny! I mean he told me about this awesome picture he drew in high school. but a bunch of teachers dumped on what he was doing so then he created one of the funniest concepts ever. Using Jesus to sell nails! The tagline was "Christ, those are good nails!" It's kind of offencive but meh you have to be able to laugh at your god once in awhile because he's got to have a sense of humor! No if's ands or buts about it.

At anyrate I hope I never stunt my student's creativity either. If it wasn't for shittty teachers sometimes you wouldn't have greats! Rob never would have made that joke if he would hav been more encouraged out of spite. Interesting shit, but damn it made me laugh.

J B.

A Sad Farewell...

Ok so tonight I said good-bye to a one of a kind unique prof. Helen Christieansen, who taught me ELNG 326 (Teaching as a second language) , taught her very last class that she's ever going to teach tonight, she is retireing. I can say that I truely felt 'taught' by her. She started univeristy in 1959 and never really stopped. So she gave us some nice words of encouragement and we said our good-byes. Any ways I ran into Katie, W. tonight and wow it was so crazy talking to someone about the good ol' days of living in Weyburn. The conversations really made me think back to when I was 5 years old and hanging around Souris Valley with my dad. Back then they used to produce their own electircity (until 1993). I remember how many cars were around the power house, and the steam pouring out of the stacks...the grounds were beautifully groundscaped. We just stopped to drop my grandfather off lunch. It was also part of history...Anyways...I'm sleeping in tomorrow because I deserve it!!! Rhond, don't know if you'll read this or not but Goddamn I miss you lots!! can't wait to see you again!!!

I can see the light

8 more days left till classes are over and counting...I think I have a job comming to me as well.
I'm moving in with R at the end of the month and I'm pretty pumped about it!! It seems like everything is falling into place.

Just 4 more projects left to go I'll keep y'all posted