
We all have healing to do

CBRM has a rat problem. To reduce the rat population, it’s important to understand rats. First and foremost, rats are really, really smart (and not as dirty as people think)! Smart rats call for smart solutions. Learn more about rats from this episode of CBC’s The Nature of Things.
Most importantly: we can’t leave it up to each individual household to solve this problem. That would be like asking each person to deal with climate change on their own. This is impossible. If one person cleans up their property, the rats will simply move elsewhere.
Rat problems require collective action led by government.
We have to cut off rats’ food supply. That means better control and regulation of food waste with these 3 actionable plans:
By cutting off food supply, the population of rats will rapidly diminish. Once the population is diminished, we can work on cleaning up the neglected and abandoned areas of CBRM where rats live and thrive.
How can we do this?
Simply: no. Alberta has one major advantage we don’t have: it’s a land-locked province. Cape Breton and Nova Scotia have many ports that bring in ships that bring in rats. This is how we got rats in the first place! Completely eliminating rats would take the effort of every municipality in the Maritime region, again, an impossible task.
To learn how Alberta eliminated rats (and learn why it can’t be done here), listen to the Decoder Ring podcast episode, “The Alberta Rat War.”
1When restaurants closed during COVID lockdowns, rats moved into residential areas in search of food. That’s why we’re now seeing an increase in the number of rats in our neighbourhoods.
“What matters isn’t if people are good or bad. What matters is if they’re trying to be better today than they were yesterday. You asked me where my hope comes from? That’s my answer.”
Michael, The Good Place
“The only task worth doing is fully dismantling and replacing the system.”
Jessa Crispin, Why I am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto
Square Foot Gardening (SQF) is a method that makes planning and planting your garden way easier. Mel Bartholomew, who came up with the idea, has determined how many seeds or plants can be planted in one square foot of space.
Read moreI’m a lazy gardener. I don’t pull weeds. I don’t harvest the kale and lettuce that’s going to seed. I don’t till the plot where I’m planning on planting fall vegetables. That’s too much work, it’s way too hot, and, besides, the bees enjoy the weeds and kale flowers, and my chickens will gladly do the tilling for me.
Read moreThe first food I ever attempted to grow was herbs. One winter while living in Toronto, I bought some small clay pots, soil, and chive seeds. I planted the seeds, watered them, placed them on my south-facing windowsill, and waited. My mouth watered at the thought of adding fresh chives to my soups, rice, eggs, and salad.
Read moreAdapted from Pascal Baudar’s The Wildcrafting Brewer.
The flavour (and colour) of your hike soda will change with the seasons. Experiment with flavours by combining multiple plants—it’s fun to figure out what plants taste good together…and which ones do not.
IPA beers make me sneeze. The higher the IBU (international bitterness unit), the worse I get. My face gets flushed. My sinuses clog up. After a mere bottle or two I get nauseous.
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