Howdy Chilcotin,

Truly, your efforts have been undermined. No pun intended. What is the timeline until the dust starts to fly and bury your plot?? Thanks for sharing this. It is a good lesson for all of us, no matter how secure our BOL may be today, tomorrow may change that.

Keep us posted. Good, prepared BOL's are a lot of work and to lose one is criminal.

Mountainman.

Hi gc-mountainman. you are right. Who is ever safe? But a few more details. If Harper approves the mine then the company would expect to start next spring. Right now all efforts are concentrated on the Review Panel. Two years ago a similar panel voted against the mine, this new proposal is a worked over version of the old proposal. But Harper has his majority now so anything can happen. The area is comprised of five First Nations Bands all dedicated to stopping this project. Both Native and non-native organizations from across the province and the country are aware of this project and prepared to offer assistance. All of us are hoping it won't come to that but if it does...

Interesting point you make about BOL's. Not only are they a location to which one can go, but they are the location where you stand and fight. In short, the mine will not be allowed to happen. Thanks for your comments I enjoy your other posts.

Chilcotin,

Thanks.

When I was younger and lived a bit East of your location, we were confronted by a plan from a multi-national company to dam our river about 20 km's up river from where I lived at the time. The plan would have had the water pumped over the mountains into the Columbia River watershed and then extracted in Southern Oregon State and shipped in 3x 21' diameter pipes to Southern California. The water was the equivalent of 5% of the Fraser River outflow. Except they wanted the freshest, purest water from the headwaters. The BC government of the day was all for selling our water. Thankfully, we never had to see what would have happened if the plan was actioned.

Sounds like things are in order to keep your unwanted mine away. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Mountainman.

We bought our place in December of 2007. In April of 2008, we got a notice that a company wanted to put in a large development on the flood plain directly across the river from us. The place we had bought to get away from the city was suddenly going to be overlooking what amounted to a small town. Not only that but their sewage treatment facility was going to be situated right across the river from us, below the house.
Luckily for us, there are quite a few well to do farmers in the area. Farmers with a lot of friends and influence in the county. One of the more influencial farmers stood up at a public hearing and as much as informed the county council members that the first groundbreaking would effectively signal the end of their political careers.
To make a long story short. We enjoy a beautiful veiw of the river valley and not even a whisper of development plans. It's great what people can do when they get together and work for a common goal. Good luck on your fight and keep us posted.

Hi Tazweiss. There are probably a lot of stories similar to these. It underscores the need for constant vigilance, trusted friends and a network, and an intimate knowledge of our BOL area.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men... thought I had it all figured out in March. Garden would be in by May 24, would have all the pasture fences repaired, a better irrigation system in place, and after a bit of research on the internet, I had practically convinced myself I could manage two bee hives, and would be sitting on 900 pounds of honey by 2013. How do things stand? As of today less than a quarter of the garden is in, the fences are still in need of attention, the yard needs to be raked, the barn needs rebuilding, I don't know shit about bees, still need a small cabin for guests, and mosquitoes are everywhere. What happened? The two youngest boys had whooping cough and I spent as much time in Dr's offices as in the garden, a couple unexpected large bills drifted in out of nowhere putting the irrigation and cabin on hold, a slow coldish dry spring has held up planting, a death in the immediate family has thrown off the entire family, and did I mention I don't know shit about bees. The everyday things sneak up, or as some philosopher said, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans".

Hey Chilcotin, a thought occurred to me as I was reading your posts. It won't solve your dust problem, but perhaps keep you growing your food organically and keep it clean. Have you heard of aquaponics? It's the system of running a large fish tank and cycling that water with a series of growbeds full of vegetables. The plants clean the water for the fish, the fish produce the waste to fertilize the plants. I've done a lot of research on this lately, and you'd be amazed at how much food you can grow in a limited space, and best of all, it's a self sustaining cycle, you don't really add anything except feed your fish. Once they're big enough, and start reproducing on their own, boom, now you're getting fresh fish and veggies on your plate. If you had or were able to build a greenhouse, you'd be able to run a system with no concern for the dust in the air above your crops. It's something I'm very interested in building when I get a house with a some yard space, as of right now I'm in a condo, and it's tight as it is. Anyways, I know this doesn't solve the overall problem, but something to think about, especially as a prepper it's another way to stay self reliant if TSHTF.

Cheers, Jer.

Hi Pomojer. This is a great idea and I have been aware of aquaponics. Our main solution to this particular mine threat is not to mitigate the dust problem. Those who live in this area have no intention of allowing this mine to proceed.The Tsilhqot'in have developed a strong network of supporters stretching across the country and into Europe. This could get nasty. But it is a good case in point that even before a financial meltdown affecting the worldwide economy or an ecological disaster is widely recognized by our general population as a time to get to safety, groups of us can be involved in a serious survivalist showdown in which our own citizens are pitted against each other. These are immediate serious potential conflicts which harbor a sense of much worse things to come. Most of us in these early skirmishes will be accused of "killing jobs", a bunch of extremists or wacos. The Keystone and Enbridge pipelines, and the fish farms are the types of trouble spots to watch. And we don't have to wait; they are in our faces right now. Thanks for your comments; I enjoy your posts as well.

Folks, you may want to skip over to the Ontario page and chime in on the thread called " A Sense of Community ". This is growing fast. And concerns us all.

Mountainman.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men... thought I had it all figured out in March. Garden would be in by May 24, would have all the pasture fences repaired, a better irrigation system in place, and after a bit of research on the internet, I had practically convinced myself I could manage two bee hives, and would be sitting on 900 pounds of honey by 2013. How do things stand? As of today less than a quarter of the garden is in, the fences are still in need of attention, the yard needs to be raked, the barn needs rebuilding, I don't know shit about bees, still need a small cabin for guests, and mosquitoes are everywhere. What happened? The two youngest boys had whooping cough and I spent as much time in Dr's offices as in the garden, a couple unexpected large bills drifted in out of nowhere putting the irrigation and cabin on hold, a slow coldish dry spring has held up planting, a death in the immediate family has thrown off the entire family, and did I mention I don't know shit about bees. The everyday things sneak up, or as some philosopher said, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans".

Hello
I have to admit this post made me smile "don't know shit about bees". It also took away a lot of my stress as I am about as far in my plans as you are in yours. Sometimes when reading positive posts about what people have done I feel like I am falling farther behind.

Thanks for sharing.
Waving from Southern Ontario with a half gutted back yard.

waving back!!

Agreed OldSchool,
It's good to know that not everyone is living in an underground fortress with a forest of edible algae in the cellar... Other people are like us and just trying to keep up with the simplest of our best laid plans. 😳

(P.S. I don't know a damn thing about bees either ❗ )

I know bees can sting and they are yellow & black 🙂

and yer supposed to stay away from the pointy end!