lead in the soil

If you've been reading my blog for a long, long time, you may remember this post back in 2006, where I mentioned lead contamination in our yard in Kentucky.  This is a snapshot of our yard, including my Professor husband, setting out the paths in our very 'fancy' lead remediation so we could have a garden.

Around this time, in March 2006, I'd written a long, detailed article explaining how to deal with this lead contamination issue and what it meant for safety.  I could not get anyone to buy it!  However, I tucked it away. For years it bugged me because I really did want people to know about these issues.

Sad to say, heavy metal contamination isn't rare...it's relevant to Winnipeg, too.  My article came out today on the CBC-Manitoba website:
Time to stop kicking the can down the road on lead levels in Winnipeg's soil

I'm hoping someone in power will read it.  There's somebody at the U. of Manitoba in the School of the Environment who has the right equipment to test lead. There's plenty of public interest and people want to fix this problem so school kids can play during recess.  If they must sample more, they could dig samples, cover the costs of running the tests at the U of M, and have the answers very quickly.  If they can't afford a real remediation team with diggers?  I bet if you gave concerned citizens a chance, well, we'd be out there with our shovels to start the digging and we'd wear masks to avoid ingesting it.  This is just an unacceptable thing, to keep children from playing on their school field and to leave for someone else to deal with later.

In other, happier topics:  The sun was shining for a moment and we caught photos of a new design today!  I am excited about beginning to write it up.  No big reveal yet, but it solves the problem of portable knitting for those on the go but who want to make sweaters.  Hint: It is knit in seven (totally portable) pieces. There is sewing up at the end, but I don't mind sewing, so it works out ok!

Last but not least--please don't forget:
the Pembina Fibreshed is sponsoring my Spinners' Tasting class--it's a chance to sample mohair, silk and alpaca (and maybe more...)!  It's on Mother's Day, in the afternoon.
  Please consider signing up if you're a spinner in Winnipeg!

I'll leave you with a photo from Fiber Gathering so you can think about camelids (alpacas and llamas are camelids!) while you rush to sign up!

Here's a cashmere buck (that's a boy goat!), for good measure....

Busy week!-a class, and more

Yes, it's true!  I am teaching a spinning class in conjunction with the Pembina Fibreshed on Mother's day.  (Take yourself out and learn something new as a gift this year!)

Here's the info in case you'd like to sign up.  It's one of my "Spinner's Tasting" classes, only this one is non-wool fibres: Alpaca, Silk and Mohair.  You need to be a hand spinner to take this class--
Click here to learn more and sign up!  

Also in the news, today my piece on gender inequity ran on the CBC.  This ends my "drought," for which I'm grateful...apparently there were changes going on behind the scenes at my local CBC, but for months, nothing I wrote ran there.  -Also, maybe nothing I pitched suited them, but I kept trying about twice a month anyhow.  I've been writing as a freelancer for the CBC since about 2014.  This piece seems to be eliciting a lot of comment, which sometimes means: a) I hit a nerve or b) I'm wrong or c) not enough people are working today.  (Who knows which!? Everyone has an opinion though.)

Key to this is the idea that when powerful women speak up, sometimes folks don't want to hear it. (and even women in power have to prove their points without a doubt before being believed.) I've also seen that Canadians seem to value caucus unity more than the thorough or public airing of reasoned debate and the building of consensus among equals.  It illustrates the real differences in how Parliamentary democracies run..other countries don't worry nearly so much about party unity.  Some countries air all the political conflicts, others keep it behind closed doors at caucus meetings and insist on privacy or secrecy.  What's better for good government and transparency?