For the most part, I enjoy taking in an auction, so it was kind of fun throwing my own online art auction. However, a farm auction, which I attended last fall, taught me a good lesson when I bought something by accident. I thought I was bidding on a long white hose, which could be used for drinking water but what I eventually bought, by holding up my hand periodically, was a gallon of softener for the washing machine. Fortunately, since we have a septic field, the contents were biodegradable and it was something we could use over a period of time. I did manage to successfully bid for the hose but am now a whole lot more careful when I sit with a large group of spectators bidding on one thing or another at the farm auction - matter of fact, I'm almost paranoid about it, to the point that I'm even very careful if I have to sneeze, scratch my brow or nod in agreement to a friend of mine who is talking to me. I may put another painting up for sale on my own personal online art auction since I was quite satisfied with the results of the last one. However, since it ties up my blog for a week, I'll have to think of some other way to let the people who read my blog know that it's going on, rather than posting the same thing day after day.
The logging next door has ceased and the trees, which were once standing like sentinels on the ridge at the edge of our property guarding Green Mountain, are now stacked about 30' high on a landing next to the road, which runs by our house. I have to admit the carnage the trees were subjugated to didn't look too bad near the edge of the road and by the front portion of our property, thanks to several small streams that run in the area, but along the high ridge and on the other side of Green Mountain, a good portion looks as if it were scalped - nary a tree was left standing. Our premier is touting fracking and logging like a crooked jockey riding a long-shot in the last race at the end of day, as a way of bolstering the economy of New Brunswick and giving the people here a lot of good-paying jobs. However, I was amazed to learn from the person who is in charge of the logging operation on Green Mountain that the four people who operated the logging equipment on a 24 hour schedule were not hired from the local people. The overseer apparently rents the equipment from a big logging company in Quebec, and all the workers, with perhaps the exception of the truck drivers to haul the logs to a mill, which is being partially subsidised by the government, employing a handful of workers, are from Quebec. And if that's not ridiculous enough, the company in charge of the Crown Land in New Brunswick is East Indian - looks to me that the only economy that's being bolstered on a radical scale is the Asian one. However, all that being said and done, what bothers me more than another country receiving most of the economic advantages, what really concerns me is the manner in which the oil is being extracted and our forests are being depleted - did I also mention how the agricultural land is also being laid to waste by care-less huge companies - the planet's natural resources, many of which cannot sustain these harsh methods of ripping the ore out of the mountains, blasting the oil from the depths of the earth, slashing the forests bare, and raping the oceans, lakes and rivers - it's as if the human race has evolved into some mega-sized piranha and is going on a feeding rampage. However, when the destruction finally ends, which it undoubtedly will at some point in time - what does the mega-sized piranha do then - devour itself?
When I look at our small farm located on 50 acres of mostly forested land, I am both elated and saddened. I cherish our land, the trees and all the tame and wild creatures that reside here; a good feeling comes over me every time I step outside the house; I am at the moment, their only protector but living at the edge of my life makes me realize that once I'm gone, my wife, at some point, won't be able to keep up with all the physical chores, makes me deeply concerned; who will buy our place then - will it be someone of like mind and values or someone who only looks at the dollar bills that can be extracted by laying the property bare? We have care attendants for our elderly; why is it we don't really have care attendants for our land, the oldest thing in existence? Our loss of respect for our planet is quickly becoming our demise and I don't see a hope in hell on the horizon that the carnage will cease. The big ball of destruction has been rolling for a long time but never before as rapidly towards a huge wall - the speed is out of control; brakes don't exist to even slow it down a smidgen because we are all standing at the base of the wall arguing who should be allowed to stand on top of the wall. Cheers, eh!
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