Of the great contentious debates, the topic of stores and shopping dominate.
Comparative development issues, labour force ethics, natural resource consumption, and societal values, all culminate at the store where we make some of our most important and influential decisions.
Western culture is undoubtedly fraught with materialism, which in turn, has contributed to resource waste on an unimaginable scale.
The implications of our excessive consumerism are vast and reach deeply into the lives of countless souls.
The tragedy is that while many of us understand the enormity of the problems associated with buying goods, few will escape the need to participate.
Ever driven by our search for the lowest price, ethics fall short of reaching parity with the lust for a good deal.
Perhaps there are some easy choices available such as fair trade, locally made, or so-called "green" products. Many claims, however, are largely unsubstantiated, lack reasonable context, and are employed as marketing tools rather than as free market altruism.
There are likely exceptions to this sweeping generalization, but when money is involved, good faith is shy.
There are solutions.
Many of them could bring the current economic growth model to it's knees.
Thrift stores have the innate ability to correct some of the injustices prevalent within the corporate drive for perpetual growth.
And though the second-hand stores may fall into a greed trap, the inherent reuse of manufactured goods diminishes the power that the retail sector wields.
There is a wonderful thrift store model in our local town.
Haliburton is home to a few such stores, including the Salvation Army shop.
The most notable is Ted's Thrift Store.
It is a very large warehouse packed with material goods.
Everything has been donated (read: disposed).
The owner takes a portion of the profits in order to make a modest living, and the remainder goes to charity.
To be honest, I don't know the exact details.
I suspect that the owner uses the more valuable but less sought after items to make his living. Perhaps larger and less manageable items and valuable scrap metals.
The warehouse is laden with housewares, electronics, furniture, appliances, plumbing and lighting fixtures, among other typical household goods.
There are no price tags, with the exception of the better quality furniture. The owner negotiates the price with the interested consumer.
The prices are, indeed, very low.
When we need to buy something, the thrift store (or junk shop as we call it), is the first store we consider.
Unfortunately, we cannot find everything we need there.
Also, there is an uniqueness that characterizes the owner.
Outward appearances suggest that his life is simple, and his goal is not wealth.
Entrepreneurial retailers rarely possess those traits.
Greater interest in this sort of marketplace would contribute product variety and availability.
If you are unable to buy a used product from an ethical thrift store, consider this.
Buying a quality item that has been imparted with longevity allows the opportunity for future reuse in the hands of another consumer.
A marketplace dominated by reused products, and refreshed only gently with new ones, would continue to satiate consumerism, while easing the burdens on natural and human resources.
There was a great discovery today.
While preparing our first crop location, I found that the soil is quite deep in this spot.
Maybe not deep by most standards, but in shield country, any deposit of earth may be considered deep.
I don't know if this depth is consistent throughout the plot, but it looks like it may be.
The soil appears clayey but well drained.
There shouldn't be much mechanized activity here, so soil compaction shouldn't be an issue.
It is a real treat to find soil of some depth.
But if our property was marginal throughout, we would still farm here.
Having recently viewed some soil studies for this region, I found that the report results were evaluated relative to conventional farming.
It seems counter intuitive to be looking for the right soil to plant commercially successful crops.
For this region especially, it would seem more practical to search out the crops that will thrive in the existing soil conditions.
Markets in the past have been cold towards foods not typical in the North American diet.
The demographics are changing though.
Canadians are no longer represented exclusively by northern European descent.
There is room for new foods to enter the market.
The misconception of finicky markets is a result of a corporate food network lobbying, subsidizing and marketing. The consumer is continually reinforced to buy products made from heavily subsidized and market controlled food commodities.
There are countless options available on this planet.
There are plants from other countries that will thrive in our short season and marginal lands.
Many of these have been proven by time to be life sustaining, without having to industrialize them or manipulate them excessively.
I honestly fail to understand how a continent can survive on so much corn which is nutritionally inferior in so many ways.
Why it is grown on such a huge scale is more clear.
The corn feeds much more than people.
Corn feeds a hungry and powerful market machine.
As the country's demographic changes, I hope that the younger generations will be more likely to
bridge the cultural divide and experience different foods. The options available also encourage solutions.
Properly farmed land is a renewable resource.
It needn't be renewable by adding artificial fertilizers.
Choosing the right crop for suitable land, and following tried and true principles of crop rotations
and crop following, creates soil and does not deplete it.
As wonderful as it was to see a fence post go into the ground more than eight inches, I know that there is a crop for every soil condition.
Plants have adapted to almost every corner of the biosphere.
And so we too must adapt.
Every so often, we talk about buying a wood-fired cook stove or a wood stove designed for cooking and baking.
The price of the units usually finishes the discussion.
They are likely worth the cost, but could the money be better spent on a greater solution?
And, so ended our last conversation about the Vermont Bun Baker soapstone stove.
It's a beautiful unit to be sure.
It is, however, very expensive for a stove that only heats 1000 square feet and has an oven intended for modest batch sizes.
I would still prefer a boiler to heat the entire house, and a wood-fired oven that could turn out enough bread to sell.
At the same time, the hydro bill came in and is getting away on us.
Our greatest consumer is the kitchen stove.
All of our food is made from scratch, including our bread.
That really eats up kilowatt hours.
Having talked again about doing more cooking on a wood stove, we thought it was time to try harder to use the heat that we already produce.
Though we have used the wood stove for bread, it is a little tricky.
There is a plan in place for building an oven into a large stove that we will be using outdoors.
In the meantime, we can still use the stove top for as much cooking as possible.
To make it easier to handle pots and pans around the wood stove, I have modified our fire wood rack.
Having a small counter top next to the stove will help juggling the hot cookware.
It will hold trivets, oven mitts, utensils, hot lids, an so forth.
It could even be used for food prep, though really, the kitchen isn't too far away.
The original fire wood rack is just a box frame built with 2x4s.
It holds the wood that's ready for burning.
All I needed to do was to put a top on it.
It did hold our mitts and scarves and gloves, on the top.
That stuff can be moved to the porch; wet items can be dried on the hearth.
I used reclaimed lumber that I had in the pile.
It just needed to be hosed off and then dried.
No stain required.
No finish either.
I may treat it with food grade oil, but we'll see.
I have yet to try the oil and beeswax furniture polish.
It just needs something to keep from being stained by spilled food.
Taking small steps and making simple changes can give you the perspective and experience needed for bigger decisions.
Of course, it helps if you can make the small steps simple.
