I was awarded a late-season elk draw in British Columbia’s Limited Entry Hunting lottery (LEH) in the Dawson Creek, Peace River area. Our friends at Corlanes Sporting Goods are D.C. locals ( who you may remember from our very first episode) and kindly offered to help us track down an elk. Help we most certainly needed! Even though there are approximately 18,000 elk in Northern B.C., and roaming herds can include as many as 400, they are cagey, cautious, and often completely elusive.
Read MoreSome of the best moments of filming Season 1 of Finding Nowhere were off-camera and had little to do with the actual hunting of animals. It was the moments after and in between all the “action” that I recall feeling a happy kind of contentedness in my heart. Moments where I’m just sitting there in this absurdly beautiful place on Earth. My hands and clothes are dirty from the pursuit, but who cares. I’m enjoying the rare privilege of time in nature, fully present with a few friends, and probably half-drunk under a hot sun or a bright moon.
Read MoreThroughout history, human beings have gathered around the table, the Christmas tree, the T.V. and the fire. It’s April, so Santa is still on vacation and, believe it or not, here on my farm, we don’t have a properly working television. So this just leaves the table and a fire. Fortunately, that’s all we’ll need for our finale episode of Finding Nowhere Season 1.
Well, that and a whole lot of meat!
Read MoreAs the leaves change from green to gold, the night air cools enough to usher in a morning mist that blankets the fields in every direction. Each evening comes just a little sooner and morning comes just a little later. Skies are paler blue and the clouds flatten and sprawl with a heaviness that looks as if they will remain overhead for a prolonged rest.. The natural rhythms of the season require no calendar to tell what’s coming. It’s autumn and it’s time for our annual moose hunt.
Read MoreOff the west coast of British Colombia’s Vancouver Island, the mighty North Pacific Ocean crashes against the rocky shore. Battered from storms and high winds, the evergreens look strained—their roots clutching an unlikely foundation of rock outcrops and sheer cliffs. Bears, wolves, and even cougars comb the beaches for sea life left behind from the ocean’s generous tide, while eagles monitor the activity from above. Sea lions and seagulls rest as cold waves break against their stony island homes, while a cornucopia of life zigs and zags beneath the ocean’s surface.
Read MoreA mountain of hog fuel, about twice as tall as I am, sits just out of view from my home-office window. I can’t see it but I know that the cool, rainy spring morning is making it steam. Hog fuel is a lumberyard byproduct comprised of sawdust, wood chips, shavings and bark. There are no actual hogs involved and it doesn’t stink. It does, however, have a smell — a redolence of earth, with a hint of ocean salt.
Read MoreIt’s cold but it’s not that cold. At least not as cold as it can be in this part of British Columbia. Still, chunks of ice float down the mighty Fraser River and snow banks are piled four feet high along the roads. It’s the dead of winter in Quesnel, British Columbia.
Quesnel is a vibrant little city in a relative wilderness about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver’s sandy shores on Hwy 97. Almost smack dab in the middle of this expansive province we call home.
Read MoreIf we were to pay attention to the seasonal rhythms of nature, we would rest in the winter. The land rests, and many animals slow down or hibernate to conserve energy while food is scarce and conditions are harsh.
In British Columbia, winter is a season that seems to linger on, and on. With bitter cold and long dark stretches, there is little to do but cosy up and stay warm, while dreaming of sunny green days ahead.
Read MoreThe call to do something we feel we want to, or should, do is often ringing loud and clear inside of us. Yet, how often do we actually listen to it?
Maybe we don’t believe we can or should do something simply because it doesn’t seem to fit into our lives at this time. These are the moments that we must take a leap of faith and trust that our intuition (or whatever you’d like to call it) is guiding us down the right path.
For me and my family, it was moving to a farm
Read MoreAs spring blooms throughout the province of British Columbia, the flowers blossom, the grass turns green, the rivers swell, and the bears emerge from their dens. There are over 120,000 black bears in BC’s wilderness; their habitats range from mountain tops to coastlines, and forests to ranch lands. They are the province's most widely distributed mammal. In the spring, black bears prey on young deer, elk, moose and caribou, but they also feed on the grasses that sprout alongside logging roads and in cut blocks (an area recently logged).
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