Trouble with the Kite - TKG Sustainable Sunday

This is the best snow kite surfing video I have ever filmed. You will love it! So I am sending it to you on a Sunday. (Usually TKG Take Ten comes out on weekdays).

I am in Canmore, Alberta, Canada now. And in the interests of transparency- this is the only time I have ever filmed a snow kite surfing video. So, of course I love it. Watch right to the end. Quite by chance a story evolved. Out there on the Vermilion Lake.

Snow kite surfing was a surprise for me. You know I come from the beach, right? We surf on waves. On boards. Up here in the mountains they surf on the ice with kites. And it looks like so much fun.

TKG Take Ten (the 10 minute video of daily farm and travel) is usually published on a week day but as I am not writing a newsletter this Sunday (I have company). So. Let’s watch this Take Ten, instead. And remember this is unedited. Un-fixed. There is no story board and no direction. No AI. Nothing is choreographed. NO special programs. The camera rolls and records whatever happens. And I send it to you.

The vid itself is weaving about (horizons going awry) because my hands were slowly freezing to death. The wind blowing in the swirls and gusts we will talk about soon. Not too cold. 16F (-8C). But I had the wrong gloves. Note to self: trendy leather gloves are not what one should be wearing out on a frozen lake. But I was not going to bring my sub zero farm gloves to the mountains! So - we make do.

I sat on the end of a little pier to shoot this video with my boots planted firmly on the ice. There would probably have been 4 inches of ice on the lake and it was sheer ice under the snow which meant with gusts of wind a person could lose traction and become airborne.

And like all kites flyers they were at the mercy of gusts and patches of dead air.

Julia had a little bit of trouble getting started because the wind was gusty and swirly and flipping her pale blue kite into a sausage then threatening to tie it in a bow. (Later my son Logan’s kite did exactly that; chose the bow-tie look, then followed Logan across the ice on the end of a string like an apologetic bright red spaniel knowing he was headed to the dog box). You will see.

Last night after the late afternoon ski on the ice we watched this video together with glasses of wine and dinner and laughed so hard we cried.

Laughing at yourself brings out the best most honest hooting laughter.

Sustainable Sunday Opinion.

We talked in the car yesterday, as we were driving up into the mountains, about micro-plastics. And how a major contributor to microplastic environmental contamination and eventual ingestion into the bellies of our whales and our children’s precious hearts is clothing. Yes. Clothing.

And our power to make a difference comes in the purchases we choose to make and how we launder our clothes. I know we can only make a little difference with our sustainable home changes but to sit about and make no changes at all is simply not sustainable.

It is not only the factories where these fabrics are manufactured that cause this environmental threat to our water. We also release microplastics ourselves when we wash them.

• Agitation of synthetic petro-chemical based fabrics (polyester, nylons, acrylic, etc) results in shedding of micro plastics. The microscopic scraps of plastic go straight down the drain from your over zealous washing machine and too much of it winds up in the waterways. Some of this water must make its way straight into our drinking water or scientists would not have found micro plastics in the hearts of heart attack victims. What can you do? Wash your clothing less often, use a gentle cycle and hang the clothes on a rack to dry. Cut down on the agitation and tumbling.

• Maintain a frugal intentional wardrobe.

• Choose natural fabrics.

• Buy second hand.

• Beware of the trap of the recycling bin. Recycling facilities also release micro plastics into the air especially if there is crushing or shredding of the plastic involved.

• Extend the life cycle of your clothing. Remember to look at your purchase and say ‘And Then What’. What happens to this jacket when you are finished with it. What will you do with it next.

• ‘And Then What’. If the answer to this question is any kind of bin other than the compost bin - question the purchase.

So, have YOU ever walked out onto a frozen lake? Let alone skied across the ice being towed by a kite?

Celi

Have a lovely afternoon.

Celi