Calgary!

We are sticking around in Calgary for a few more days due to Kristi's illness :(. Luckily, Calgary's International Film Festival is going on and we get to stay with Garrett's interesting cousin Bev and her husband who spent 5 years in Indonesia, so we are not at a loss of things to do.

For a couple of days Justin and Viera were staying at Prarie Sky Co-Housing (http://www.prairiesky.ab.ca/). It was a very inspiring place. 18 households and 55 people on 3 acres, which would usually house 2 families. Literally reducing their ecological footprint. The landscape architecture is very well done. They built the houses to be as environmentally sound as possible, which now saves a lot on their costs. The houses are so well insulated that they don't even have heaters, they just use the water heater. The people there were very kind. It seems the place very actively encourages community. It was very cool to see because it was successful, whereas many eco-villages/ co-housing units are struggling to keep people, and it was urban, which is accessible to more of the 80% + urban population of Canada than some of the rural places we are visiting.

On the way home one night Viera and Justin were whistled at and then a man ran across a highway to invite them to a Hare Krishna vegetarian feast! It was a highlight of the day.

Viera and Justin also attended a Food is Life festival. The first night they attended an event with the owner and chef of Forage, a restaurant that uses 80% local food and has a partnership with 43 restaurants. Some interesting things they learned were:
-in the past year Calgary has gone from 12 community gardens to over a 100! Wow!
-as well as being more healthy and better for the environment, eating local food can also bridge the current rural-urban social divide
-Meals on Wheels is able to accomplish what it would take the government 10 times as much money to do! (if there was a partnership between Meals on Wheels and local food, that would really set things off!)
-Many farmers markets struggle with the fact that most of the people there are resellers and so the profits go to them rather than to the farmers. Local farmers often can't afford the high costs of having a stand (the tables at some farmers markets, such as the Strathcona one in Edmonton, are subsidized)
-a study showed that kids in Britain can no longer name their veggies (compared to in Italy they can)
-The average age of a farmer in Alberta is 59! (losing the younger generations since it's such a hard living to make)
-Keeping farmland farmland: if not, costs go up since land is so much more valuable being developed. BC tried to make a land that all farmland had to stay farmland. It kept costs down but they're coming to the end of that experiment.
-the idea of sharing things in the community, such as lawnmowers
-ennobling farming
-example of a high producing organic farmer having 18 inches of topsoil compared to 3 on all the non organic farms around him, and holding a lot more rainwater. Response to when a lot of people say organic is great but it doesnt work on a large scale.
-for every dollar spent locally, you keep $2.50 in the community
-Canadian statistic is that 38-50% of our food ends up in the garbage
-believe in something and make a stand for it but also know that your perception of it will change with time.
-the SPUD distribution system seems to be very efficient in Calgary in linking farmers to and distributing food to urbanites.

They also went to a Backyard Beekeeping session, which was especially intersting to learn how easy it is to keep a smale scale bee house in your backyard, and that Canada is the worlds 3rd largest producer of honey and Alberta produces 80% of Canada's honey.
The next day we also went to some sessions on Vegetable Gardening in Calgary and Gardening in Small Spaces.

Before Prarie Sky Viera and Justin stayed with Viera's friend Kathryn, who head the Sustainable Alberta Association. She hooked them up with all sorts of environmental stuff going on in the city, hosted them at her house, advocated civic involvement, and talked to them about her Commuters project which encourages businesses to encourage their workers to get out of single occupance vehicles!

In other knews Viera got bung-lip (a bungee chord in her lip, which is funny since Otesha that Viera and Kristi did used to talk a lot about Bung-eye). Justin also got a trailer for his bike donated by Good Life bicycle shop in town.

Hope to head to Golden and visit Justin's aunt soon, as soon as we get Kristi's results!

Edmonton

Viera and Justin hurried to Edmonton, with the news last Wednesday that Kristi and Garrett were past Medicine Hat. Aiming to improve organization, Viera spent hours immediately called all the tv stations, radio stations, and newspapers in the city. However, the success rate was low, as only one radio station (630 ched) and one tv station (global news) interviewed, and the global news clip (which can be seen by googling edmonton global news, going to the second tap of video, clicking on September 17, were at about 11:11 into it), which didn't even mention the website! So maybe next time it would be more useful to spend a bit less time on it. Viera found an Amnesty International Building Bridges Conference going on at the university, so her and Justin attended that and learned some things about prisoners of conscience around the world and local aboriginal issues and wrote a couple of letters to the prime minister of China. In the evening they visited with Viera's brother and aunt and uncle. They also biked around town, got some donations. Especially Viera is looking at bike shops for donations of bike pedals and clip in shoes, which she now requires since her knees started hurting. They also watched the Sound of Music (it was Justin's first time seeing it). They are really enjoying Viera's mom's wonderful cooking, including leco and plum potato dumplings and poppy seed roll and lots of other stuff :). Today is Sunday and many stores will be closed so we will go to a concert and then tomorrow check out stores for donations. Oh, this morning Garrett called and said they had just arrived in Medicine Hat. Like Viera suspected, somewhere there was a miscommunication before, and their hurry and skipping of meeting wonderful couchsurfers was for nothing, but oh well now there is more time to do things. We will head to Calgary after this, originally there was a plan to climb Mount Robson with Viera's brother but it was determined to be too expensive, as well as a bit impractical with timing.

An update on Garrett and Kristi, they are staying in Medicine Hat through warmshowers (a hospitality service like couchsurfing, except by cyclists for cyclists), which was arranged by a fellow they met on the road, who is cycling from Waterloo to Vancouver. Hopefully we can bicycle with him, although he might not want to stay in Calgary for a few days so we'll have to see. It's Garrett's birthday tomorrow! Unfortunately he did not make it to Calgary to celebrate it with his mom but the celebration will just have to be postponed to later.

The Eco-Centre

Hello Friends and Family,

On the route to Saskatoon, Viera and Justin had a chance to stop by the town of Craik.

http://www.craik.ca/

Craik is a progressive town in south central Saskatchewan, Canada,  incorporated on August 1, 1907.

It is strategically located along Provincial Highway 11 (Louis Riel Trail), 140 km southeast of Saskatoon and 117 km northwest of Regina.

Our town slogan is "Friendliest Place by a Dam Site," which we are!

The town's economy is based largely on agriculture and related industries, although efforts by the Town and RM of Craik No. 222 have been made to attract and develop industry related to the principles of environment, ecology and  sustainability. The community is committed to conserving what we have inherited and lessening our footprint on our local environment.

We took some pictures of the eco-village which was quiet for a Sunday morning, so we did not get a chance to meet anyone there.

A beautiful Strawbale and Post and Beam House.

So we made our way to the Eco-centre just down the road off the main highway 11 from Regina to Saskatoon. The building looked especially sustainable, as part of the towns sustainable living project.

http://www.craikecovillage.com/index.html

We found these interpretive signs around the building inside, where there is restaurant/cafe.

Cobbed Wall

Cordwood

Rammed Earth

Composting Toilet

Stone Wall

Earthtubes

Windows

Post and Beam Construction

Geothermal

Masonry Stove

The Life Cycle of the Honeybee Family

Here is a picture of the composting toilet, it felt just like a regular/conventional toilet, even odourless, the one thing is that the whole looked bottomless. Much different then the bucket system we saw at HELP International, this would be suitable for any place.

See it looks just like a regular flush toilet, except you are not pooping into our drinking water source!! Then they use it on the local golf course.

Some Rules

A website: http://www.clivusmultrum.com.au/completesystems.html

The Battlefords

Justin and Viera did their interview in Saskatoon, but it wasn't the best day - a couple hours of contacting the media but to no avail other than for the one interview, getting lost on the bus system and wasting 2 hours of the day (if we had been better organized we could have biked). But it ended nicely spending time with couchsurfers watching a movie. Today we made it to Battleford. We are staying with a nice family we met and had a delicious spaghetti dinner. Tomorrow we hope to make it Lloydminister. We were surprised to hear that Kristi and Garrett are already in Medicine Hat! We thought they'd be behind us, Garrett mentioned he didn't think they'd make it to Calgary before the 23rd, but now we realize we will have to hurry up to meet them in Calgary in a couple of days.

PEDALing Off in Two Directions

Posted by Ken Mahy - 13 September 2010

After a lengthy and fascinating visit to HELP International at Weyburn SK, the PEDAL Team pursued a two-pronged strategy the past few days.

Viera and Justin took a NNW tack to Regina SK and from there journeyed further north to Saskatoon to pay a thank you visit to one of the PEDAL Project's generous contributors and attend a weekend agricultural conference.

Kristi and Garrett, meanwhile, headed towards Medicine Hat AB - straight into a gusty NW wind (replete with intermittent rain) that limited their progress September 11th and 12th.  Fortunately, September 13th dawned clear and sunny with the wind blowing gently from a more friendly SE quarter.  Doubling the distance they had travelled the previous 2 days, they were encamped about 20 km west of Medicine Hat this evening.

Plans for the next few days call for the dual duets to push westward, meeting up again as they approach Calgary - where Garrett's Mom Nancy will be waiting with several CARE packages from their Ontario supporters.

Saskatchewan!

Saskatoon

When we arrived in Saskatoon we first went to the eco-village. However, we didn’t find anything in the area, and thought maybe it was about to be constructed rather than already constructed (we later found out we were about three blocks away from the actual site). We did, however, find Saskatoon amazing with tons of trees, art, statues, musicians, interesting architecture, and youth. We contacted a couchsurfer in town and arrived at her stylish house. The couchsurfing family included Anna, a student who had just finished Katimavik, and her mom and dad. We were blown away by their friendliness and hospitality. We were lucky to have found her, as in Regina Viera got mixed up by the 11/09 and thought it was the 9^th day of the 11^th month rather than the 11^th day of the 9^th month, and thus was asking people for a couch to surf on for the 10^th which was confusing. Immediately after meeting her we headed to an international at the TCU Conference Center on Agricultural Biotechnology. We were lucky to be able to attend their opening lecture as the cost for the 3 day conference is over a thousand dollars and even the cheap student rate is $800! One of the lectures was given by: . We also visited a demonstration diesel truck nearby that converted its own canola oil into diesel right in the back. We walked through town and visited the B Hotel for its beautiful architecture, just missing the Saskatoon Symphony concert that was going on on the second floor (Anna knew some of the people as she is a double bassist herself. She is even related a bassist in the Edmonton Symphony that Viera knows). After that we headed to a free art gallery that had Canadian Landscapes and totem poles on exhibition. In the kids make-your-own-art section we all made drawings of swing dancers for a birthday party we were going to later that night, and had a lot of fun. We headed back to the house for a very fancy dinner, and made a birthday present for someone we didn’t know. We were able to use our creativity by decorating a box to look like it held date squares. But when it was opened there were square magnetized reminder notes to put on one’s fridge with details of when a date was and with who, etc. (get it? Date squares!). There was also a aspirin bottle with nerdy engineering pick up lines (e.g. I’d like to integrate our parts), a creepy eyeball (to remember that your mother is watching if you are feeling frisky), and tic tacs for fresh kissable breath.  They were a hit at the party, with a few people bending over backwards over the pick-up lines. They also made the most delicious sticky mango rice we’ve ever had (even better than the authentic stuff Viera had tried in Thailand!), home-made biscotti, and lots of other delicious desserts. The birthday boy was a swing dancer, and almost all of his friends were also swing dancers, so we got to observe some high class swing dancing all night long, as well as have interesting conversations with all the people there.

The next morning we got up early to say hi to Viera’s friend Hurly. She had met him in Toronto to give hitchhiking tips. He was doing a project where he was hitchhiking across Canada to raise awareness of racism and homophobia. He has an excellent blog: thumbsupcanada.com. (He’s trying to have people give a thumbs up against homophobia and racism). As well as giving workshops to people in all the major cities, he also raises the issues with his drivers, which in Viera’s experience were, while very nice, also some of the most homophobic and racist people she has met. We were amazed at his courage in doing this project, at possible danger to himself, and to smile through the constant prejudice and rejection. He is one cool dude!! You should check out his website!

After the late night we slept in. When we woke up we talked with the family and Hurley. We set up some media interviews with the radio the next day. Justin also found out through email that the feast his parents had organized to helped fundraise for the tour had raised $1000!! We are so amazed at this huge amount and the support that our family and friends are giving!!! THANK YOU!!

Through couchsurfing we got in touch with Neil, who Justin thought was a second Garrett based on his interests. (Interestingly, everyone at HELP International kept remarking how Garrett was just like another guy, also from Guelph University, called Paul, who had been volunteering there and setting up some perma-culture. Garrett, obliviously, did not know he had twins all over the place :P). He invited us to join him at a city council meeting where they were discussing allowing chickens in the city (which they had, as well as quails, at the Onean house where the PEDAL tour started). They were also discussing bicycling licensing, biking on sidewalks, and other issues related to bicycles. It was interesting although a lot longer than expected!

Craik

Before arriving in Saskatoon we visited the village of Craik, which has won national awards for its ecological commitments. It had also been highly recommended to us way at the beginning of our tour, in Whole Village. Specifically, we visited their eco-village and eco-center. Immediately upon arrival we were amazed at the composting toilets, which because of the use of a fan was the first composting toilet Viera had used which did not have an overwhelming smell. They had informational poster boards throughout that explained their many practices. Heading into it we Craik we also saw an experimental lot of poplars that had been planted by HELP. Part of their function was to pick up excess fertilizers from the nearby golf field, which was also in large part fertilized by the composting toilets.

Regina

When we arrived in Regina we met with Brad, a person Viera had met previously on one of her cross-country hitchhiked who had donated $1000 to the project. He is such a wonderfully kind and funny man. The first night we ordered pizza and he was making squirrel noises to the delivery guy and then saying “oh, sorry, squirrel” and many other hilarious antics which make him the funniest person Viera knows who is over 30 years old J. We concluded the night by a soak in the hot tub in the building that relaxed bicycle-exhausted bodies. The next morning we headed to the science center. They had the coolest informative playground ever, we visited the Our Body exhibit (a cheaper version of Body World?) which especially fascinated Justin as he could see and better understand the muscles and bones that he uses in bicycling. There was also other fascinating stuff including wooden games that even Justin and Viera couldn’t solve and a swirly piece that you spin and stare at and it looks like you’re going into a tunnel but after a minute you look away and whatever you look at, including the other persons face, spins J. That evening we were invited to an Optimists meeting, an international volunteering organization. The people involved were very committed to making their community a better place, had interesting stories, and even had some contacts for the eco-village in Craik that we were planning to visit . Viera also got to meet up with her friend from 5 years ago in Katimavik there J, and some deer were seen in the back yard. The next morning we got up at 6 in the morning to get an early start.

Watery Weyburn

Since leaving Winnepeg, we've been cycling through rolling fields of grain crops specked with oil derricks and patches of wetland and forest. We've had the opportunity to get off of the Trans Canada, which has meant less traffic and a more sheltered ride, but also variable shoulder conditions and less access to food and towns that include more than five homes. The isolation can be very freeing, but also frustrating when rations are running low and camping stoves malfunction.

We arrived in Weyburn, Saskatchewan on Wednesday, biking through a terrific rainstorm on our way. Its been an exceptional year here in terms of rain. Some say the most in 20 years. In total, we covered 100 km that day to meet back up with Garrett at the headquarters of HELP International.We were welcomed warmly by a team of interns from Kenya, Spain and France and shown to our sleeping quarters: traditional African mud huts. Its quite an experience to stay in these structures, made of mud packed in between woven sticks, topped with thatched grass rooves. They're a little chilly on Weyburn's breezy September evenings and crisp mornings, but at least this discourages the bugs.

Since we arrived here at HELP, we've assisted with and learned about a diversity of their ongoing projects. Our first task was to help with the grain bag recycling program. Many farmers have opted to store their grain in the field in these massive plastic bags, because they are more economical and flexible than traditional storage methods like silos. Unfortunately they also create a huge waste issue and local landfills have banned them entirely. This has lead farmers to resort to burning the polyethelene bags, which causes a huge amount of air pollution. So HELP has started a program to turn the plastic into mulch mats, which prevent weeds from growing around newly planted trees and allow their roots to retain more moisture, eliminating the need to water them. What a great way to recycle this resource and stimulate the local economy. Hopefully a less wasteful grain storage method can be developed soon.

Today we helped revamp the 'floating nursery', where small trees are started to assist in reforesting stream banks in the area. Many local farms have participated in this program. Keep an eye on the website for more information about this HELP innovation.

As well as volunteering at HELP, we have been doing lots of learning here. We've learned how to recycle paper into insulative wall and ceiling panels and attended a session on traditional African culture and living. We also got to view what could be the world's first solar oven compost toilet, which promises to quickly sanitize humanure for garden use. Later in the week we will be exploring how to make mud bricks and carve soapstone.

We'll definitely update the blog again before we leave Weyburn. We're sure there will be much more to share!