Over the past four months since we started fostering Chloe, I’ve been noticing the damage to lawns caused by crows and other critters going after the grubs of the European Chafer Beetle when I take her out for a walk.

A video from City Farmer explains the problem:

Last week I decided to do something about it. I created a flyer that I am distributing only to houses that have lawn damage clearly attributable to the Chafer Beetle. It isn’t hard to figure out.

Flyer: [Click for full version]

We don’t need more lawns. Ideally, as the City Farmer says above, we need more vegetable gardens in our front yards like this one,

but if you are going have a lawn, use a grass seed that doesn’t require much mowing or watering. The product above meets that criteria.

So far, I’ve walked between Cambie and Main from 16th to 19th and plan to go all the way up to 24th. Then I’ll do the same route between Cambie and Oak. It takes me about an hour at a leisurely pace and Chloe loves it too.

100 flyers: $5.55

Exercise and improving the world: Priceless

-30-

Many people during the summer asked if I would be at Winter Farmers Market at the Wise Hall, so I decided to apply.

2009

December 5 - 10am - 2pm

December 12 - Holiday Market 10am - 6pm

Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive

2010

January 16

March 27

I am, of course, available at other times to meet with new and repeat customers.

There is also a coupon on p. 209 of the 2010

book [and p. 201 of the 2009 edition]

http://www.greenzebraguide.ca/GetHome.php

http://www.greenzebraguide.ca/AllListings.php

http://www.greenzebraguide.ca/Buy.php

-30-

If you are a returning customer, send me an email or give me a call to let me know the day you plan to come. That way I will bring extra bokashi for you.

New this year: All customers will get a bokashi card. After your 5th refill, you get a free bag of bokashi!!

June 28 - Kitsilano [Map]
July 1 - Main Street Station [Map]
July 8 - Main Street
June 15 - Main Street
July 22 - Main Street
July 26 - Kitsilano
July 29 - Kitsilano
Aug 2 - Gastown [Map] - New!
Aug 9 - Kitsilano
Aug 16 - Gastown
Aug 23 - Kitsilano
Aug 16 - Gastown
Sept 6 - Kitsilano
Sept 27 - Salmon Celebration*
Oct 18 - Kitsilano
Oct 25 - Kitsilano

*in Vanier Park [Corrected 25Sep09 - Not a Farmers Market event. Regrets for the inconvenience this may have caused]

I have also applied to am attending the Gastown Farmers Market which will operate on Sundays between August and September. When I know my dates, I’ll add them here and in the sidebar.
-30-

I did not like the way the situation looked.

A scruffy man was talking to a young oriental woman on the road side of a car while I was cycling by.  I turned around, rode up to them and asked "Do you know each other?" The woman clearly said "No." To be sure, I asked again.

The guy was upset - as if I had insulted him - and told me to mind my own business. So I said  "You are standing on the street, talking to a woman in front of the door of a car. It looks like she is trying to get into her car and you are stopping her from doing that." He then started to tell me his story and the woman gave him a dollar. It turns out she had just arrived and was getting ready to shop. She did say "Thanks" to me a few times and wanted to stick around to see how things ended, but I encouraged her to leave.

The fellow continued to act as if I had insulted him and threatened that he would call the police on me! I rode away.

Notice to panhandlers: The road is not your space. Let us choose whether or not to help you when you are on the sidewalk. As much as I don’t like restricting your right to make a living, when you approach us out of our comfort zone, it is threatening no matter how benign and honest your intentions are.

That’s why I stopped and turned around.

-30-

It could have been a lot worse [#1]

Today at the Riley Park Farmers Market I met two interesting people. I cannot replay entire conversations for you but they did give me permission to take their picture. So look at the picture and try to imagine what is special/different/unique about these people:

Werner

.

.

.

.

Auschwitz survivor

Melodie

.

.

.

.
Railroad engineer [drives trains for CN!]

Bonus photo:

Jane Doe

.

.

.

.

Wearing nice sunglasses [that's all]

-30-

Vancouver’s changing landscape:

The Vancouver Molson Indy winners circle in August 2004*

and in August 2008

Olympic Village construction in November 2007

and in August 2008

Guerrilla Gardening in September 2005

and in August 2008:

-30-

*photo by Andrastia [with permission]

InPrint Graphics

is at 1935 West Broadway across the street from the big box FedEx Kinko’s*.

I have used the services of both stores which are open 24 hours but InPrint is better. Here are a few reasons why:

They let me access the internet, download files and edit them without charging me a penny.

They printed the files directly from the computer, so there were no darkened images.

They designed and printed my banner

There is the fixed priced and the "I’ll give it to you for this much" price. The deal price is probably built in, but it feels good anyway.

However, nothing prepared me for what happened on Tuesday evening this week.

I needed more brochures printed and when I went to pick them up I discovered I had brought the wrong credit card. Ready to leave my order behind until I returned with the proper payment, I was shocked when Dave said

"Take it now."  What?

"Yeah. Yeah. Its okay. Take it now." So I did and came back a few hours later.

This is Prabhakar "Dave" Davkar

Thanks Dave!

I have experienced a casual, but professional work environment. When I went to InPrint in May, I made a decision not to worry about how long it would take get what I needed done. I haven’t tried them on a rush order yet. They are sometimes very busy so patience is required. Usually that pays off in more attention for you when most needed. And you may see some customer interactions that are worth the price of admission!

-30-

*long time Vancouverites will remember that the Kinko’s current location was also home to Cardz Computers - I worked there for six months in the early ’90s.

I’ve been a member Neighbors Organics Weekly Buying Clubs for a while and was disappointed to see them cease operations a few months ago.

So were a lot of other people who convinced owner Grant Watson to keep it going and here is the next step:

Member Drive to Restart NOWBC Operations

Please show your support by July 21st

Hi Everyone,

Neighbors Organics Weekly Buying Clubs is moving forward with plans to re-start operations, please help us get the co-op started so that we can start selling great organic food again! So far 14 people have filled out the online survey. We need 50 people to take action by July 21 so we can move to the next step. And we need you to tell your friends.

Help us revive NOWBC as a Co-op and start sourcing delicious, local organic food again by doing any or all of the following:

1. SUPPORT THE CO-OP SET-UP: We need a minimum of 50 people who want to be members to send a cheque for $20 to NOWBC to help with consulting fees. Cheques will not be cashed until we have enough to actually proceed. There are funders who will augment this if we show that there is support among our members and potential members. Make cheque payable to NOWBC, put "Co-op Share" in the memo and mail to:

NOWBC c/o Grant Watson 102-5698 Aberdeen St Vancouver, BC V5R 4M6

2. COMPLETE THE ONLINE SURVEY: We need to have at least 150 people fill out our survey. Whether you are ready to sign up to be a member yet or not, please fill out our survey. This helps us decide what the terms of association of the co-op will be.

3. TELL YOUR FRIENDS: Tell your friends and give them the opportunity to sign up and/or fill out our survey too. Feel free to forward this notice! Help us build a strong local food distribution network.If you are new to NOWBC, please see our web site (www.nowbc.ca) to find out who we are! In short though, NOWBC is a source of local organic food, at co-op prices, structured so that members can order exactly what they want from our suppliers each week (and not what they don’t!).

NOWBC Re-Structuring Details

Here is the NOWBC good news–we now have sources for start-up money and some advisors ready and waiting to help us revive NOWBC as a co-op. But here’s the deal: in order for us to actually GET the funding to setup the resources we need to get going, we have to show we have PEOPLE who want to buy food through NOWBC by having at least 50 people commit with seed money. Cheques received by NOWBC will be collected until we have at least 50. Then we will work with a co-op expert to build a business plan and by-laws. You then be invited to join, and funders will be invited to help with seed money. They have already expressed interest, but need to see a solid plan.

With sufficient sale of shares and outside funding, we can move forward–form the co-op, source some food, set up the infrastructure, hire staff and provide our members great food again! We don’t need a huge amount of startup money, but we do need enough people making a commitment to buy food through NOWBC to make it viable. Lets believe in ourselves and

Thank you for your time and interest!
Revitalization Committee: Joanna, Ross, Cabot and Grant
Neighbours Organic Weekly Buying Clubs
www.nowbc.ca

Please share this with all your friends and neighbours.

Tammy T was featured in a blog post last summer. Yesterday, she sent this email and I received permission to print it here.

I have officially entered the hive mind. It is what I had wanted to do so that I may understand her more succinctly. It is a bit creepy though, when the aging next door neighbor now appears to be a failing queen and the groups of teenagers at the skate park across the street are moving like a cluster of bees at the edge of the hive. I hear the buzz in everything, the tiny tapping of bee feet on wood is my new favorite sensation in my ears and having those same feet clinging to my skin as they walk along my fingers, hands and arms is by far my favorite skin sensation these days. I love being with them, I love learning from them.

The queen though has been a mysterious figure to me since the get go. I know her power and I know some of her challenges these days, but I had yet to meet her. It wasn’t until I met her absence that I began to understand a bit more of what it was that she possessed. And like I said, I have yet to truly meet her, but in time I suppose, in time.

When a hive loses its queen you know it right away, it sounds like a box full of mourning monks chanting the same sorrowful LOUD tone. ZZZZZZZOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH as opposed to the higher pitch of ZZZEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH. I am working on understanding the frequencies of pitch and scent used by the bees. The subtleties are where the communication happens in the hive. When I first heard the sorrowful sound I had no idea what it was. My imagination saw the inside of the hive as a high domed cathedral and they were inside praying. I thought that this hive was a special hive, a different hive, that wasn’t so preoccupied with the hum drum of collecting nectar and instead geared her efforts in prayer. I prayed with them

A few days later a queen arrived in the mail from Pennsylvania. A queen breeder who does not use any chemicals sent her. He breeds bees that can live with the destructive varroa mite and survive (they are called survivor stock). As far as queen breeding goes he seems to have an ethical operation, but queen rearing is a whole other topic altogether!

As we put the queen cage in the hive we played a recording of a queen piping (a call a queen makes when she is being born and letting the hive know she is there). The ladies immediately settled down to a low hum. I continued praying with them.

Will they accept her or kill her? Will there be enough workers to tend the hundreds to thousands of eggs she will begin laying if they do accept her? Will she survive her mating flight or will she be eaten by a bird or grasshopper or spider? Who is to say? There are so many variables in this whole wide world of bees. Nature! So many variables! Makes me want to pack it up and go get a predictable office job so I can buy things to keep it all in control! For someone who is such a proponent of the wild nature of life, I must admit that sometimes I do get flustered with just how wild things really are and I crave some semblance of control. But aha, the bees have called me and I have heeded and so, and so, I humbly submit to the wild nature and ride the ebb and flow of the life and death of the Hive.

For there really is only one Hive. All bees feel it, all the backyard bees that are being loved and treated with such care can feel and are affected by the murder of the queen mother that happens every spring when the majority of beekeepers re-queen their hives to prevent a failing queen or swarming. I believe that we all have the ability to feel these subtleties. It is just that the bees don’t have a choice. Subtleties are how communication happens and if the entities in the wilderness were to tune off the subtleties they would die. Unlike humans who have been trained to tune them out so that we can survive. Imagine if we were in tune with all the subtleties of our world today? We would be completely bombarded with so many chemicals and loud sounds and strong vibrations of our modern industrialized, mechanical, technological era that we would be incapable of doing much else.

I find the Hive mind is much different than the Human mind. It is all connected for sure, but I find that there are so many sections and segments…fragments, I suppose, in the Human state. The Hive mind is continuous and ever flowing. Life, death, pain, love, mystery, assuredness, community and conflict all exist at once. There is no separation between me and my enemy. I will kill you if you try and enter my domain. I will hurt you if you try to steal from me, AND you are me. We all exist as one. I suck on the nectar of your soul and you feed me. I am filled with love and you are love. We all exist as one. Blessed bee

-30-

It is official. I have 16 days at the Vancouver Farmers Market this year. Eight days each at Kitsilano & Riley Park. You can see a schedule on the right, but for the record, here are the days:

-30-

If you are in the Vancouver network on Facebook you can join the Farmers Market group page here and their fan page here.

I also have a fan page on Facebook: Great Day Bokashi