(no subject)
I've been sick for a few days, which means I didn't go to food not bombs this week, and I wrote in sick to the farmer's market, so there's not a whole lot going on for me this week.
But the last few weeks have been full of excitement for me. I went to FnB last weekend, and while nothing really happened, I still enjoyed myself. I went to the address listed, and found absolutely nobody there. So i sat down to wait, and chatted with the residents of the apartment building where we cook. The first half hour was spent chatting with a man who introduced himself as the son of god, king of kings, and the son of Ronald Reagan, and after that, I joined a table of two older women and they told me about how they came to live in vancouver, and one graphically told me about how she got ripped off, and how if she ever saw the guy again she'd beat him good. Finally someone showed up, and he and i chatted. it turned out nobody was actually coming, but at least i know they exist, and will join them the next chance i get. The ottawa group was so elusive that i thought they might be a giant hoax!
Last week's farmer's market went off wonderfully. It's a fun group, and i enjoy stretching my retail muscles and feeling useful for a few hours a week. I got to set up and restock our locally grown produce as we sold to students and faculty, and i got a box full of mushy peaches which i cut up and froze for later use in a peach pie or crumble.
The main adventure of course was heading up to Brittania Bay and checking out the mining museum. I tragically forgot my camera, so my words will have to stand in for the pictures. I hitched out to the museum, which is about an hour and a half maybe from Vancouver, and at the museum they took us down into the mine to show us the conditions the miners had to endure.
Brittania Bay was a working copper mine starting in the early 1900's, and the oroginal method of mining was to just chip away at the stone with a pick and a hammer, and then blow it up! In an effort to speed things up, they started the men working in teams of 3. One unlucky guy held the pick, and two others hammered it. In the dark, lit by only one candle, you can guess how well that worked. After all the injuries that caused, they switched back to the solo technique. Their next attempt was a hand-cranked drill, but that causes terrible back injuries, so once again, back to the solo technique. They finally got past these problems when they invented the pneumatic drill, which didn't cause any injuries that were immediately noticable. The silica dust in your lungs and the rapid deafness these drills caused weren't noticed until a few years down the road.
Copper mining also has an unwanted by-product. Sulphuric Acid! And for years upon years, it all just washed into the bay, making Brittania Bay the most polluted spot in North America (and that is something to be proud of). They still had gallons of this acid run off in the miles of tunnels, so when the mine closed, they let it all run down to the very bottom and then just plugged the entrance with concrete.
Liz and i discussed this, and decided that the government could start putting it's criminals down there, and if you stuffed enough in, one or two would survive by the same process that superclean hospitals are breeding superbugs. Just one or two will turn out to be acid breathing supermen, who would thrive down there, eating the acid-bloated corpses of the others. They would breed and create a whole race of acid crocodile men.
Those are some hidious candy apples.
But the last few weeks have been full of excitement for me. I went to FnB last weekend, and while nothing really happened, I still enjoyed myself. I went to the address listed, and found absolutely nobody there. So i sat down to wait, and chatted with the residents of the apartment building where we cook. The first half hour was spent chatting with a man who introduced himself as the son of god, king of kings, and the son of Ronald Reagan, and after that, I joined a table of two older women and they told me about how they came to live in vancouver, and one graphically told me about how she got ripped off, and how if she ever saw the guy again she'd beat him good. Finally someone showed up, and he and i chatted. it turned out nobody was actually coming, but at least i know they exist, and will join them the next chance i get. The ottawa group was so elusive that i thought they might be a giant hoax!
Last week's farmer's market went off wonderfully. It's a fun group, and i enjoy stretching my retail muscles and feeling useful for a few hours a week. I got to set up and restock our locally grown produce as we sold to students and faculty, and i got a box full of mushy peaches which i cut up and froze for later use in a peach pie or crumble.
The main adventure of course was heading up to Brittania Bay and checking out the mining museum. I tragically forgot my camera, so my words will have to stand in for the pictures. I hitched out to the museum, which is about an hour and a half maybe from Vancouver, and at the museum they took us down into the mine to show us the conditions the miners had to endure.
Brittania Bay was a working copper mine starting in the early 1900's, and the oroginal method of mining was to just chip away at the stone with a pick and a hammer, and then blow it up! In an effort to speed things up, they started the men working in teams of 3. One unlucky guy held the pick, and two others hammered it. In the dark, lit by only one candle, you can guess how well that worked. After all the injuries that caused, they switched back to the solo technique. Their next attempt was a hand-cranked drill, but that causes terrible back injuries, so once again, back to the solo technique. They finally got past these problems when they invented the pneumatic drill, which didn't cause any injuries that were immediately noticable. The silica dust in your lungs and the rapid deafness these drills caused weren't noticed until a few years down the road.
Copper mining also has an unwanted by-product. Sulphuric Acid! And for years upon years, it all just washed into the bay, making Brittania Bay the most polluted spot in North America (and that is something to be proud of). They still had gallons of this acid run off in the miles of tunnels, so when the mine closed, they let it all run down to the very bottom and then just plugged the entrance with concrete.
Liz and i discussed this, and decided that the government could start putting it's criminals down there, and if you stuffed enough in, one or two would survive by the same process that superclean hospitals are breeding superbugs. Just one or two will turn out to be acid breathing supermen, who would thrive down there, eating the acid-bloated corpses of the others. They would breed and create a whole race of acid crocodile men.
Those are some hidious candy apples.