The Great GORP Project

. . .loving our french friend:)

 
Well. We broke it to the kids. . .they have a new french brother Honore. .. pronounced Honour + Eh! = our new son. . .except that we would've had to have been 14 when he was conceived. .. so he's more like a brother. . but regardless. . .he's ours now. I'm totally threatening to rip up his passport. . .when I can find where he's hidden it??!! (kidding. . .kind of:)

. . .I had him worried the other night. . .it was late, and I was forcing him to let me practice my franc-ais on him chatting in the kitchen. . I offered him some tea (en franc-ais of course), explaining that I often like to have tea before I go to bed. . .he looked at me kinda weird/worried. . .and declined the tea. . however I continued pressuring him to have some tea with me. . .he finally broke into a kind smile. . .realizing that the silly Canadian lady was obviously making a mistake. . .

Apparently, I explained to him that I always have tea right before I give birth. .. although in translation I have a feeling it was a bit more graphic than that. . oops:)

I've been pleasantly surprised. . that despite the language barrier we can actually communicate some pretty profound concepts back and forth.  . .the other night we were talking about seeing God in nature, living life to it's fullest and staying young at heart. . .This morning Honore handed me this poem that he thought described our conversation. . .I had to share:)

 General Douglas MacArthur: “Youth is not a period of time”

"Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, of the taste for adventure over the love of comfort. A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. the years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul. Preoccupations, fears, doubts, and despair are the enemies which slowly bow us towards earth and turn us to dust before death.

You will remain young as long as you are open to what is beautiful, good, and great; receptive to the messages of other men and women, of nature and God. If one day you should become bitter, pessemistic and gnawed by dispair, may God has mercy on your old man’s soul.”

. . and that's fantastical in my opinion. .. love it!

My bass pictures will have to wait. . .Honore has them on his camera and lately I'm falling asleep while reading the kids bedtime stories and keep missing him. . .I totally should have kept it to mount. . .but a man who shall remain nameless made me throw it back:( Boooooo!

. . onward Hooooooo! 

 

Je suis une pamplemousse. . .?

 

Yup. You read correctly. . .I am a grapefruit!

Ahhh. ..the memories of french class of yester year. . the fun we had. . .this was a joke that materialized sometime in those awkward early teen years between my sister and I. . .my recollection of the exact circumstance is somewhat fuzzy and is eluding me, but I suspect it was on a long road trip or something like that. We would often challenge ourselves to converse en francais. . .fun for a while, but then the fighting would begin. . .this insult surfaced when one of us was at the end of our available french vocabulary. . .out of desperation it was blurted out, probably because we didn't know any french curse words. . .grapefruit would have to do. . .what I do remember very clearly is that we ended up bursting into fits of laughter and it became one of those family jokes that we brought up again and again and again. . .(it just kept on getting funnier. .plus there were endless possibilities to insert other various fruits and vegetables into the mix.. .Tu es un pomme de terre etc. )

So naturally when our exchange student from France arrived the other day, it was only a matter of time before the terribly immature grapefruit joke would force it's way out of my mouth. .. it was sitting there in the back of my brain, I could sense it. . .it wanted out. . and bad. I did my best to repress it. . but unfortunately it made it's awkward appearance at the cabin last weekend. . I'll blame it on the sun. . and maybe the G&T I had earlier. . .I'm not sure how it actually went over. .or if Honore (our french guest) was too polite to correct me. . or if his smiling meant he thought I was the wittiest host EVER. . .but I wished I could have taken it back as soon as it came roaring out. . .

This is the thing. .. I've turned into a bumbling idiot? Honore is an awesome guy. . hardworking, great with the kids and he's totally eager to learn English. . .but what he probably didn't anticipate is his hosts equally enthusiastic eagerness to learn french. . .I imagine we are getting pretty annoying while we practice our rusty grade 9 francais out on him. . The worst part is how I transform into a super nerd in the presence of someone who speaks a different language than myself. . .I immediately start speaking poor english, then I start using excessive body language with wide eyed/wild eyed abandon in the hopes that my bulging brown eyes can somehow make my words more understandable???

Grant (because he loves me) gently pulled me aside today and explained that I am talking to our guest like he's 4, plus the sound effects I include in my communication with him might not be necessary! (ie. urrp. .zip.  .zing. . click click. . zoink! That's Colleen-speak for how to load the dishwasher. . ) Also, my tendency to unconsciously yell at Honore in the hopes that increased volume will help with the language barrier might not be all that helpful either. . .why am I acting like such a dolt?? I have to find someone fluent in french to come over so I can explain to him that I'm not a total dork. . I'm just acting like one. . .yeah, that makes sense. . .? Or should I say. .zink zink. .burrrr. .ding dong blich?

Other than my weirdness, having Honore in the house and working on the farm has been awesome. .  .we love him like family already:)

On a side note. . .if you are wondering how Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown workout video is. . .IT'S AMAZING. . I give it two thumbs up. . .I am totally sore today in all the right places:) I blew off my 5 am wake up call AGAIN. . .but am biking to pick the kids up from daycare today. . .so there we go:)

I love the idea in the comments yesterday from Kyla to put a sticky note on the alarm clock that reads "CHOOSE". I'm totally doing that! This is reminding me about this rant from a while back, to choose puts you in a postion of control and power. . .to feel like you "have" to do something is almost like a victim mentality. . .don't be a victim of your expectations. . instead rephrase your whole self talk and choose!!

Onwards and upwards. . .

Oh. . .and if you are interested there is a neat on-line community of women at www.toneitup.com. . .they have fantastic workout videos on youtube and diet tips, recipes. . you name it. . .check it out, I promise you will spend 5 minutes on the site and be inspired:)

Bad pics from the cab. . .

 

 

This weekend was filled with fairs and fields. . .I gave myself one heck of a pep talk and carted all four kids to the Niverville fair. .. the first night I had my sister, bro-in-law and mom to help me, but all day Saturday was solo. . and breastfeeding. .. it was awesome. .and yes somewhat hellish all at the same time. . .and I was being slightly sarcastic when I said "awesome";) Now I know I wasn't the only one doing the one woman show routine, but somehow this year it just felt wrong. . .knowing my husband hasn't slept inside for days. . . he's been literally running round the clock trying to get the seed in the ground. Our livelihood. . .I sometimes feel useless/clueless as a farmers wife. . .I often tell Grant that he really should have married a good ole Mennonite gal. . .instead of this Irish chick. . .then maybe some homemade buns would make it out to the field, and she would probably know how to make that ohhhhh. . you know what I'm talking about, that deep fried dough stuff that goes with watermelon. . what's the name??? Whatever it is, it would probably be nice to surprise our awesome crew with on a hot dusty day. . .

During seeding and harvest when it's so busy, and stressful and rain is looming I tend to do a disappearing act, thinking in my head that I'm being super helpful by not being a bug and taking up his precious time. . but then forget that he may actually appreciate company or something(!). . .I'm learning. .. I still don't have this wife thing down yet. .never mind the "farmers wife" thing, and after a crazy run like this, it often hits me. . .too little too late. .. Colleen. . what the heck?. . .better get my butt in gear for harvest. . .

The countdown is on. . .the guys are hours away from finishing. . .we hopped in with Grant around supper hour and helped deliver meals to the crew. . .here are some cruddy pics I took from the cab of the truck. . not stellar by any means. .. but they carry with them an aura of victory. . .you just have to look hard enough;)

 
 
I couldn't resist taking this close up of the bull dog hood ornament on our MAC truck:) It just fit the mood for the evening. .. his defiant stature. . proudly pushing out his chest as the rain clouds circled. . BE VICTORIOUS. . .I can almost hear him growl. . .

This farming gig is something else. . .I am in awe of our hardworking crew and especially my crazy husband. I don't even know how it's physically possible for him to function on as little sleep as he does when he has to organize the logistics of seeding a 13000 acre farm. . .and the rain won't stop?? When he sees a window that guy can make tracks. . .I'm pretty sure the prayers for wisdom the kids pray for him every night are working:)

Every time I feel stress/fear starting to get a foothold in my thought-life, I combat it with the eternity perspective. . .wherever this life takes us. . .I don't care about anything more than being in God's will. If at the end of my life here I have ran the race with integrity and truly followed HIM, then that is the victory, the purpose and my salvation. I am excited to welcome whatever His plan is for our lives, no matter how hard it is. . .I would rather be clinging to Him in the storm than walking my own path. .

We will walk through trials, but His burden is light. . .it's a promise. Cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you:) Yup. . .time to let that one sink in. . .

I still don't hear tractors rumbling back to the yard, but I also don't hear rain drops on the windows. . .(!)

Unlike my husband, I don't have super powers, so this farm wife is hitting the hay. . .dreaming dreams of exponentially effective heat units raining down on our late seeded crops. . AMEN!

Manly enough to carry your baba's:)

Yup. . .seeding is underway! Thank you Lord. Although, with 4 little ones at home, 2 of which have to get up for school tomorrow, we can no longer go for ride-alongs with daddy late into the night. . .my goal this week is to get a two-way radio set up in the house so I can hear all the guys chatting and joking and dealing with all the challenges that inevitably show up during the day. . .makes me feel much more connected. . .I do miss being part of the action. . .my next goal this week is to bake up some yummy treats to keep the guys energized. .. maybe some gorp bars will show up:)

. . off topic, but totally cool. . .is this manly diaper bag I found on-line. . .Grant cringes every time I make him carry the diaper bag. . .he'd pretty much rather carry all the kids perched on his head than don my bright green "vintage" RE-PURPOSED samsonite luggage turned diaper bag that I got such a great deal on ($20) at Old House Revival. . .so I Googled "Daddy Diaper Bags" and this puppy showed up. .. I LOVE.

 
He's called the PETUNIA PICKLE BOTTOM JOURNEY PACK. . .yeah, not the manliest of names. . but his masculine lines make up for it non? You can see more details here! Although my Samsonite wonder is looking a tad tired after probably 40 decades of carrying some flight attendants essentials. . and 7 years of my leaky bottles, breast pumps and dirty diapers. .. don't know if I can justify the price. . .$159 bucks.  ..one can dream though. . .:)

This week I'll be kicking it cleaning my kitchen to get ready for inspection on the 26th! Whoot. Yeee Ha!

. . .getting excited:)

be mighty.

 

 

A good day for seeding?

 

My promised Dukan update will just have to wait, cause something much more important is going on in these here parts. . .tractors are rumbling, seeders are being calibrated and the farm crew is rocking! It could be the first day of seeding. . .if things go well. .. praying for dry fields and much sun and wind. . . we also want to keep those farms who are much more affected than us by flood waters in our prayers as well. . .crazy.

Pictured above is my indoor farming effort. . .herbs and flowers. . .I LOVE planting things. . .I DETEST weeding things. .. so this year is my first effort at a container garden on our rooftop deck. . .I can't have a "traditional" garden this year because we have sloping and landscaping to do. . so I'm super curious to see if this works! So far I have broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, swiss chard, cucumbers and an array of herbs growing their hearts out in containers. . .pictures to come:)

Gorp update: My kitchen is scheduled to be inspected on May 26th, so I'm busting my butt to make sure I'm up to code and all spic and span for the big day. . .can't wait to start production! I'm still waiting to hear back from the Women's Enterprise Center about my mega loan application so I can put the order in for my packaging machine. . .I've heard nothing but great things about them. . hopefully they will give me a chance.

I'm finding out that having a newborn and trying to get stuff done is like trying to shave a chicken. . .pretty near impossible and messy!. . but I've now discovered that if I put Moses in my MEC backpack I can make headway. .whoop whoop. . .albeit slow awkward headway. . I'm not complaining:)

Have a mighty day everyone. . .HELLO SUMMER. . .GOODBYE NASTY.

Culture building on the farm;)

 
Our farm. Our core.

ARTEL By definition means a group of people working together for a common goal. We are branding and company culture fanatics, every piece of equipment gets logoed up. It has done wonders for fostering pride in our team, plus it's just FUN!  If you need a logo, read on. . .we found two economical and entertaining ways to do it. One is to go to your nearest tattoo parlour. This will run you about $50; and tattoo artists are some of the most talented folks out there. .  the only thing is it gets a little awkward when you have to explain you don’t want the image on your body, just the sketch please! The second is logo tournament.com, 4000 designers from around the world competing for your business. Totally fun. . . and you set the price and the timeline of the contest. . .our whole crew participated, it was a blast:)

The attitude that “IT’S JUST BUSINESS” IS THE BIGGEST LIE IN MARKETPLACE CULTURE. Business is never just Business, where you find business, you will also find people, and where there are people there are families, feelings, and heart. We obviously arent' perfect. . but we sure try to make our farm a place people want to be. . .

If you take care of people and genuinely encourage them in achieving their goals, regardless of if they are in line with the position you may need them for, it will come back to bless you. Some people may be with you for life, and that's awesome, but for the others, why not try to be a pleasant stop on their way through life instead of a necessary evil. . .doing what is right.

Our goal is to have peoples interaction with our business's leave them feeling improved, inspired and motivated, not crushed, suppressed or used.

Our crew has seen us through some tough times, the loyalty has been amazing, considering the huge amount of time we spend “at work” it only makes sense to invest time in cultivating culture.

That being said. . . hands down the most successful teambuilding event EVER was. . . The Artel Rally. . Mini vans, hatchbacks, pick ups and even a school bus came out to compete for the coveted Artel cup..scary, yes, awesome, yes, here's a little glimpse of it. . .uploaded to youtube forever more. . .I have to add. . .the women did some pretty fancy moves in the minivans. . .sure the guys called it the powder puff race. . but we kicked some rally butt!

 “One compliment can keep me going for a month.”

Mark Twain

 “Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.”

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

stomp on. . .be mighty!

farming forever:)

 

Thank you Lord for allowing us to work in this profession. . where there always seems to be plenty of opportunity to trust in you. . to be broken so we can grow. .. and to honour a cause bigger than us.

Rolling out. . .
 

Food Inc.

This is a sexy film alright. . .controversial, shocking, extremely well done, provocative and relevant in the sense that we all eat. . .so most of us are interested and completely entitled to an opinion because of that very fact. .. WE ALL EAT.

Fact: We are conventional grain farmers. We grow food, to do this we fertilize, and spray to prevent disease and control weed pressure. We are not organic. Although we don't oppose it, we see a need for all types of farming. We are growing food for the world, our neighbours, and our cities. .. We believe there is room for everybody, from conventional to organic to free range and local. In fact we raised free range chickens for years, and our energy bars contain mostly local product, some organic, some not, and no preservatives or artificial anything. So we run the gamut of being villains or angels depending on where you stake your flag.

My opinion: This film is most certainly biased and uses shock value to communicate. Technology, innovation and our governments regulatory system has had a profound effect on the safety of our food chain as we know it today, let's not lose sight of this, we have one of the most envied and safe food processing systems in the world. HOWEVER. .I think the worst thing we can do in the Ag industry is to react to this film in the same manner that it was presented to us, which is to be defensive and biased. Pretending we don't have problems in our systems will do nothing but make us less credible to you the consumer. . that's the last thing we want. Plus, how do we continuously improve if we aren't being honest with ourselves, never mind the public??

What this film does do is get us talking about food, and that's great! So if folks are naive enough to swallow all the hype hook line and sinker, well, that's sad. However, I believe even though our culture isn't breeding critical thinkers these days, most of us know when we've been fed a one sided line. . .I've been asked countless times what my opinion is on this film from folks without an Ag background. . almost like they can sense there is more to the story. . .and there is much more to be told, INDEED!! There are also truths in the film that are horrible and need to be addressed, lets do less finger pointing and more critical analysis and start having some meaningful conversations. Encouraging a culture of cover-up's and defensiveness isn't working for us is it???

That's my rant.

My thoughts: Be careful how quickly you jump on a bandwagon. . .they often disappear into the night and leave nothing in their wake except the hollow trace of shock value marketing and no long lasting change to speak of. . .

There are ways to evoke change. . .what about honestly looking at our industry and working together instead of pointing accusing fingers. . .sure, it's not as sexy as some of the anti-Ag propaganda floating around out there. .. but maybe it could work?

Good Morning:)

Well my BUS TRIP to the pas for 3 days of meetings/Ag tours was AWESOME! Who knew The Pas was such a beautiful welcoming vibrant community? I didn't. .. and I'm ashamed to say I was expecting something much different, and not in a good way.

I think this sign in the Super 8 was one of the highlights for sure;) I just wonder what the events were that necessitated the making of such a specific sign? I LOVE IT! Only in small town Manitoba. .. can't you just picture it:

Hey fellas. ..no running in the halls please

WE AREN'T RUNNING MAN. .

Um. .yes, you are running and chasing that ball around. .

YEAH, WE'RE PLAYING HOCKEY. . THAT'S TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

Oh. ..(I guess we better make a sign. . obviously the current no running sign is unclear!)

The board I'm on is full of an array of different producers and folks related to the interests of creating vibrant rural communities. . AKA some real crackerjacks. It was inspiring to see the real passion that is simmering out there. . .beneath the cruddy weather, markets and all out crisis for many in Ag. .there are people all over our province that are willing to volunteer there time, connections and smarts to evoke change. . . obviously there needs to be change, a morphing of systems/ideals/process and programs to support this quickly changing industry so we can keep it and the communities built on it viable.. . but how? That's the question. . my ideals were challenged on this trip and it is always exciting to get your brain stretched. . . on the bus we watched Food Inc. the much debated documentary (I use the term loosely, as it was obviously a biased film) on the Ag/Food processing industry that focuses in on meat specifically. . .

Did you know? 1 in 8 jobs in Manitoba depend on the Ag industry just to survive. . .so from accounting to banking to equipment dealers, construction and grocery stores in small towns (to name a few). . .many need Ag to ironically keep food on the table and some don't even know it. . .INTERESTING NON?

I've got  a BIG GIANT OPINION about the Food Inc. film that I will share tomorrow. . .it might actually surprise you. .. considering we farm.

The Saskatchewan river. .. beautiful!

Did you know that there are no rats in The Pas? There are also no disease/mite problems in the bee colonies, and this problem has plagued this industry all over the world. Neat.

Yeah. .. this was another unexpected highlight.  .we stopped at a gas station/restaurant on the trip home to eat. . .the ladies in our group kept coming back from the bathroom smiling and laughing. . they implored me to make a visit to the washroom before we left, insisted that it would be worth my while. .. from my experience visiting the washroom is always worth my while. . .but I could sense by the suppressed giggles that they meant something different. .  .SOMETHING DIFFERENT is exactly what I found. . .TWO TOILETS IN ONE STALL?? Definitely warranted a picture.  ..sorry. . .I just had to:) And no, I opted for the other stall if anyone is wondering! Purely on principal:)

Tomorrow... my rant on the film Food Inc.. . and a bit of the story of the wake up call I experienced during my month long blogging/pregnancy induced pity party break. . .

Laugh today. . .even if you don't feel like it. . .and pray for an opportunity to live outside yourself and affect someone else. . .that's what's on my agenda. . .that and making a load of energy bars for a tour coming by the farm on Sunday. . Step on!

Flicks, Shaved heads and sweet honour/buns and green slurpies!

Once again I've become a lazy blogger. . .I tend to go in waves of inspiration. . .some days I have ants in my fingers and can't wait to get typing, others. .. well. ..only have enough energy to drag my bag of chips in front of the tv and plunk in a movie. . .

Speaking of which, here are a few reviews, using the highly sofisticated Grant and Colleen rating system of Good or Bad;)

Avatar - Good (although am left wondering why big budget movies always have cheesy scripts??)

Pirate Radio - Bad (Painful and horrible waste of time... too bad cause the true story is amazing, but all the gratuitous shagging in the movie is pointless. . )

Lovely Bones - Good (but subject matter is ugga.)

 
  
Apparently, late is better than never when it comes to the annual 1st day of seeding head shave ceremony. . .half the farm is seeded, but we finally got to it, thank goodness, cause Leo was beginning to get stars due to his short bangs and wavy mullet do. . .

Also. . .some exciting news for Gorp! My branding company, Cocoon, informed me a little while ago that they submitted the package design for Gorp into a graphic design competition and it was actually short-listed!! I think that's pretty cool. I've blogged before about how much this brand development process has stretched me, in some big areas I had to give up my initial vision and trust the process. . .I've yet to unveil the new logo/packaging design that Cocoon came up with, but it's coming soon, I promise:) On May 14th I should find out if Gorp's redesign will take the prize! Cool.

Initial inspection of the commercial kitchen in the basement has been completed and I'm heading to Toronto in June to test out the packaging machine using our actual film.

In the meantime I'm perfecting my cinnamon bun recipe. .. apparently you should make sure you actually have more than a meager pinch of cinnamon before making these suckers. . .DOH. This is one food item that I refuse to try to make healthy. . .if I'm going to indulge in a big fat sticky bun, it better not be ruined with whole wheat. . . that's my take on it. .. I did chop up fresh apple and spread it in the filling though, yum-er!

Super affordable home-made green drink!

Leo's new and improved do:) Plus he's sucking down an uber healthy green drink, I didn't make this one up, instead I copied it from the back of a bottle I bought at Organza for $8.00 for a single serving!!(Ahhh!). . .I threw in a cup of orange juice, 2 cups of very cold water, 2 peeled oranges, 1/2 a banana, and a few leaves of Kale (major cancer fighter) and blended her up until I couldn't see any chunky bits floating around, pour over ice and enjoy!

Super healthy, and Leo loved it, this is his second glass:)

Hey, cinnamon buns and green drinks all in the same day. . .if that's not balance, I don't know what is;)
 
Stepping out. . .