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Young Agrarians Apprenticeship: Reflections

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Over the course of the summer and into the fall months, Matt and I have been a part of the Young Agrarians (YA) apprenticeship program. Over the course of the past four months we have been working at Maplewood Acres Market Garden in Aremena and Newo Global Energy -- a Camrose basedsocial enterprise that focuses mainly on solar projects but is now branching out to begin a permaculture division.  During the first few weeks of the apprenticeship we had the opportunity to take a two week permaculture design course with Adaptive Humans Permaculture. This course gave us the opportunity to enter into our apprenticeship with wide eyes to a different perspective on reality, a perspective that sees the connections, needs, and yields in our natural ecosystems. Beginning work at the market garden was a joy. We loved having our hands in the dirt and harvesting nutritious food for people to eat. One of our co-workers said that she feels satisfied every day when she goes home because she

A Guestbook Glimpse: August Long at the Ruzicka Cabin

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Woke up this morning to Shane's report of pelicans gracing our time here with their presence. As they gradually took flight, the beavers emerged through the pre-solar mist and patrolled their rodentdom, while the earth turned to reveal the emerging glow of the new day.  After breakfast and some time spent listening to the awakening of more and more bird species, rustlings in the forest behind the cabin drew our senses over to discover a white-tail bounding along, escaping the pursuit of an ambitious coyote trailing behind. Only moments later, a hummingbird briefly buzzed over, paused for its morning greeting, and carried on to feed somewhere or to amuse some other fortunate soul along its journey. All this among the spooky hoots of the great horned owl (which we later caught a glimpse of while we earthed through the forest), the acrobatic show of the barn swallows, and the reverberating putter-putter of waterfowl flying low, short flights between reed bays along the shore. T

Norway: A Photo Gallery

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A Photo Gallery  An attempt to explain what words never could Above: A moonlight sky over Bø.   Right : Representing Canada at the international food celebration with homemade “Timbits”.     Left and right: An overnight trip to Lifjell. Right: A day of "skileik" at Lifjell. Below: Weekend friluftsliv with Matt. On our way for a ski at Vihus.  Below left: Sleeping under a tarp on the winter forest trip.  Right : Michelle Johannessen trudging through deep snow on the winter forest trip.        Left: Navigating in whiteout conditions on the 9 day winter mountain trip.    Left: Making pancakes in our home beneath the snow. Right: Telemark turns on a pristine morning.   Left: Overcoming my fear of steep ascents to reach the summit of Kista. Below: A beautiful sunny day on route to our t