Bear Valley Feature Horse: Ghost

This is Ghost in 2005. Such a beauty!
Note, she is not pregnant

Ghost is a horse near and dear to my heart. I sponsor her as much as possible (I sadly can't do a monthly sponsor due to finances). The first time I saw her, it was love. Seeing her before and after pictures, and her story just solidified it.

Ghost is about 15 years old (which isn't all that old for a horse! They can live until over 30!). She was originally rescued in 2005 from a feedlot (yes, horses are sold for slaughter in Alberta. For meat. Meat to be sold to eat in other countries. It is not legal to sell horse meat in Canada to Canadians), and then two years later she was adopted. You may be wondering, why, if she was adopted out 8 years ago is she back with Bear Valley now?

This is Ghost January 2015. She's pregnant.

Assholes. That's why.

She was sold by her adoptive owner, and she has, in her relatively short life, passed hands SEVEN TIMES, and, since being adopted out, been bred multiple times. Let me fill you in on some of Bear Valley's adoption rules.

Unless written consent is given by Bear Valley Rescue, mares are adopted or fostered on the condition that they not be bred. Colts are released on the condition they must be gelded as soon as possible and not be used for breeding. 

Please note that if ownership of the horse is transferred, these conditions must follow the horse to its new home.

Horses adopted or fostered from Bear Valley Rescue are released on the condition that they never be sold at auction or for slaughter.

Bear Valley also is always open to taking back a horse they adopted out, if it's adoptive owners can no longer care for it properly anymore.

She was bred without permission, the conditions of ownership managed to be ignored. Currently, she is going to remain a permanent residence of the rescue. 

She is currently expecting a foal, probably sometime in April 2015. 

Bear Valley Contact Information:

Facebook
Twitter
Website
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Donation (cheque, money order, paypal, and ATB cares  payment methods all available!)
You can also sponsor a horse monthly or through one time donations!
Charity Focus

Bear Valley Rescue!

I've started to volunteer with Bear Valley Horse Rescue!

I'm going to start making posts on Wednesday's having a feature animal, some progress reports, donation information, contact information, etc.

About The Rescue

"Bear Valley Rescue was founded in 2004, and we registered federally as a charity in January of 2005.

Back in 2002 or 2003, I was reading the novel 'The Grave Maurice' by one of my favourite authors, Martha Grimes.  It's a murder mystery, but part of the plot involves a pmu (pregnant mare urine) farm.  I'd never heard of 'pmu' before and started researching it.  Finding out about all the foals being born each year to pmu mares, with no future but slaughter ahead of them, started me thinking: If only people knew about these horses...!  From there we learned about horse auctions and horse feedlots. On our first trip to a feedlot, we went with our 2 horse trailer and came away with 12 horses (no, they didn't all fit in our trailer - the feedlot owner delivered them for us for free!).  Then we started buying pmu mares (all pregnant, of course) that were being culled, and had the privilege of meeting Jennifer Kunz through pmuFoalQuest (she is now the manager of Duchess Sanctuary in Oregon).  The rest, as they say, is history.  The Rescue has taken on a life of its own, and we now have well over 100 horses in our care, along with other residents such as rabbits, chickens, pigs, goats, and cows."

I hope that these guys capture your heart like they've captured mine!

Here's all of their contact information!

Facebook
Twitter
Website
Linkedin
Donation (cheque, money order, paypal, and ATB cares  payment methods all available!)
You can also sponsor a horse for $50/month!
Charity Focus

Many thanks!

Laura

Organic Japanese Sencha

Japanese Sencha from DavidsTea

Fine organic steamed Japanese green tea from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

OI OCHA!
(tea, please! apparently...)

"Japan's most popular tea"! And for good reason. This is a lovely light green tea.
The directions said to steep for 2-3 minutes, but three minutes was just too watered down for me, so I gave it another two in what was technically a second steep!

Is this tea ever smooth. The flavour lingers on your tongue, but not like your average green. It's very vegetal, almost grassy... in a good way. (Saying something tastes like grass doesn't really make it sound delicious, does it?) It's really nice, and I hope the other sencha that I have a lot of (and not just a sample size) is just as good. I could drink this ALL the time.

Aaaaand I just spilled a bunch on myself trying to take a drink. Because I'm about as graceful as a brick in the wind... yeah.

Yoshi likes it as well. Unfortunately, he is too afraid of the cup to take a drink so I can capture it on camera. Last time he attacked my tea a little too soon after being steeped and burned his little toes, poor baby. He wants it from my mouth, birds are gross.

It is also just as nice cold! Yum

This is the corner of my desk, where I write my blogs. This is not staged (besides the picture of me as a child with my dad that I moved out of frame). This is actually my desk with a -working- 115+ year old typewriter and that lump in the back is a chunk of fossilised dinosaur jaw. The rest of my desk is no less nerdy. The other corner has a ton of crystals, a crystal lamp and candle holder, and an ammonite. I will take a picture some time of my whole office when it isn't so bloody messy. (I'm such a slob!) And when I get better lighting, I had to point a lamp at my tea because the light fixtures in our bedrooms are on one side of the room, and my desk is on the opposite side.


WELL! Enough rambling about myself.

Go take a cheap trip to Japan (ie: in your mind, for us poor folk) with a cup -or several- of sencha!



Happy Steepping!
~K

Rooibos de Provence

Rooibos de Provence by DavidsTea!

As soon as you open the bag, you smell the black currents. I personally really like this smell, so I'm happy here.

I'm taking a super long time to type this up, I keep getting distracted. So if this feels a little disjointed in parts, it's because I went on tumblr or Youtube then remembered I was typing this up.

I steeped it 1 tbsp to 4 cups of water, in my handy standby teapot. I steeped it for about 4 minutes, JUST LIKE THE PACKAGE TOLD ME TO.

Okay, onto flavor (this has taken me over an hour to get this far. Don't judge me.):
You can really taste the lavender and the rosehips. It has a really nice smooth flavor, that I find characteristic of rooibos teas, with a bite of black current. Overall, it's pretty delicious. Fruity and smooth and lavender-y.

It DOES leave you nice and relaxed, which is a super bonus.

I've never been to the French countryside, but it would suit the Albertan countryside just as nicely. Sitting on the front porch, wrapped in a blanket looking at the leaves change...and potentially as an iced tea in the summer! SOMEONE REMIND ME TO DO THIS

I honestly can't decide how much I like this tea. I don't DISLIKE it in the SLIGHTEST, but I don't like it enough to get 100g all at once. It IS relaxing to drink, and it tastes really nice. It would be great for a day when you are super stressed and just want to zonk out.
So, once this bag runs out, I'll order more, but 100g would be far too much.

(Good Gods it's been 3 hours and I'm finally done what the hell is wrong with me)

-Drink your tea my lovelies,
L

I Met Our Mayor!

If you live in Calgary, AB Canada, you'll know that the mayor of Calgary, AB is pretty much like a celebrity. He was well liked before the Alberta Floods of 2013, but after his popularity soared. Mostly because of how amazingly he handled the entire situation; and how...well..let's call it honest, he was about certain things.

During the flood

Other reasons he's liked?

He supports the LGBT community, and goes to the PRIDE parade, and he's a total nerd.

"Mayor Who"

On Friday, October 4th (yesterday) I got to meet him! I was super excited! I admit, I fangirled a lot just a little bit.

Yes someone taped a picture of his face over Superman.

I'm not the only person in his fanbase though.









If you guys read our Facebook group, you'll have seen the picture I posted from when I tweeted Nenshi asking if he liked tea, and the fact he took time to respond to a question that was quite random and completely irrelevant to him being the Mayor of Calgary.

Well, when I met him he asked my name. After I told him, I was like "Do you happen to remember that tweet about whether or not you like tea?"

He said yes.

This picture is of that mini-conversation. (A shout out to my mom for capturing that moment)

I basically was fangirling on the inside

When the city celebrity says they remember a random tweet from a month ago, you get pretty hyped!

Afterwards my dad asked me if I asked him about tea.
My dad knew what I would do...my addiction may be obvious to others now!

But honestly, he's super nice and funny and a great speaker.

My one regret? I fangirled so hard I forgot to ask him what his favorite tea was! Which is something I really wanted to know!

If you're wondering about the hard hat, it's because he was at a ground breaking for my moms work. They are building a new building and he was invited and he came. 

-Laura