Seeds?

Our family is getting into saving our own seeds. We've had great success with tomatoes and are starting to branch out. Why is this important?

There was a fair bit written this spring and summer on the seed shortage, many companies saw a dramatic increase in sales to the point of running out. Many comments were made that as more people see the wisdom of growing your own this problem will likely increase, comments about getting your orders in before Christmas if you want to be sure of your seed. Sharon Astyk writes "Are We Seeing the Early Signs of a Seed Availability Crisis?" Rhonda Jean over at 'Down-to-earth' writes about seed saving as another step towards self-reliance.

So saving seeds is a good thing, until you start to think about jail time. Seriously.

'That company' has been patenting seeds, even heritage seeds and they aren't shy when it comes to legal action. They have been in the news again harassing farmers and now even seed cleaners. For a good article rounding up links to the pertinent information see 'Daily Kos'

Now I have hundreds of seeds from 8 varieties of tomatoes saved from this year, it was great fun! And I'm thinking it would be nice if we had a seed company here again. Local seed for local folks. 100 mile seeds :o) But at the risk of jail if they just happen to grow something that is patented? Gosh! Who'd take the risk?

All Bets ARE Off!

Friday I biked to work, biked home at noon. Nothing too amazing for this warm December but by the time dh got off work at 5 it was a different story. He came in covered with snow with the temperature dropping. Wind and snow and very low temperatures have turned our streets into sheets of ice.

None of us has been on a bike since. It has been very cold, I think it got up to -10 yesterday. Dh, who planned on biking to work all winter has been sidelined by this extreme cold for our region, the promise of studded bike tires just don't seem to make up for it.

We'll have to see what happens if the temperatures warm up.

Biking in December?

I'm a people popsicle.

After riding about town today I can't imagine how dh feels after biking to work before the sun is up! Yesterday it was -10 when he headed out.

Our family bikes. Dh, myself, our oldest dd all ride bikes to do our everyday things. The rest of the family pretty much walks. If, and it's a big IF, we head somewhere as a big group we then take the van, 120km for example, makes much more sense in the van. Grandma's in the dark calls for the van.

Once it snows all bets are off though, cold you can bundle for, I barely trust myself to walk on slippery sidewalks, I'm not trying to bike on the roads then. Dh and dd want winter tires for their bikes, I guess they are more hard core than me! I remember people biking in Edmonton in the dead of winter. Now that's dedication.

I have noticed other people still out biking, yesterday at work we had a tourist come in on a fully loaded bike and a couple other folks too. And it gets me, this is CANADA, this is DECEMBER, and we are still biking. LIFE IS GOOD!