Here we are with Christmas and 2024 nipping at our heels! The blueberry season, our best ever, was a whirlwind of people, picking, baking and bounty. For the first time I had enough blueberries for the roadside stand and everybody who came to the farm. It was awesome! Now the blueberries are settled in for the winter, the Christmas markets are finished and I am surely ready for some downtime. Fortunately my winter adventure is only a few weeks away.

This year I’m sticking close to home and dividing the trip into two legs. On January 7th I leave to hike the Florida trail, a 1500 mile through-hike that meanders through grassland, swamp, city and forest from the Everglades in the south to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in the north. I land in Fort Lauderdale, will hook up to the trail from there and hike as far as I can in the time that I have. It may be a little more urban than I’d rather but Florida certainly has a lot of wildlife. Between the alligators, snakes, panthers, bobcats and bears some of my friends are concerned, but I will be vigilant and careful. Especially since I’m flying solo again (Gord and I split up last spring but remain friends). Rest assured my story will not end with me being mauled by a bear or with my legs sticking out of a crocs mouth. At least I hope it won’t.

I’m looking forward to being fit again, but the thought of clawing my way back to fitness and detoxing from the cocaine of sugar is literally giving me hives. Even though I know I’ll feel so much better at the other end, getting there is going to be tough. I just keep reminding myself that it will get better every day as my body adjusts, I’ve done it before and I can do it again. Living outside, sleeping only in my tent, combined with the rhythm of walking all day, every day has always rebalanced my mind and body. I am counting on that reset! I’m looking forward to the simplicity of just putting one foot in front of the other and walking.

I will return home mid-February to see my granddaughter, Cadia, and work for a week or two. Then I will either return to hiking the Florida trail, start hiking the Arizona trail, or try out the van life. My son Colin built the infrastructure to transform my van into a cool camper so I may just drive south until the sun warms my toes and take it from there. Whichever way my travel legs shake out, I am packed and primed for the adventure.

Next post from the Florida trail!

After finishing university my son Max moved home and decided to become a registered Falconer. In September, after three years of slowly and steadily learning the craft and taking courses, he got his first bird – a Harris Hawk he has named Equinox. But we call her Quin.

Quin was ‘chamber raised’ with her parents and had never seen a human when Max got her at four months old from Amy, a master Falconer who also raises birds of prey. After 3 1/2 months of training, Quin flys free when they go on hunts following along with Max, comes to his arm when he calls her, and sleeps on a perch in his tiny home on our property.

There are three ways falconers make money 1. Bird abatement – Falconers are hired by airports, farmers, whoever has a bird problem that needs to be sorted. 2. Events – giving demonstrations at fairs, parties, fancy hotels etc. 3. Personal experiences – people who want a one on one experience or to go on a hunt with a bird of prey.

For me here at Balderson Blueberries, I am thrilled to be Max’s first customer for bird abatement in our Blueberry field. Quin will start working in the spring and we will have no more bird pecked berries. Hallelujah!

Being a Falconer is a great fit for Max. Quin is everything he hoped she would be. It’s quite a learning curve to read the body language of a raptor and navigating the training when you are just starting out. It’s sometimes painful (as Max has experienced), sometimes a little nerve racking, but always exciting. Congrats to Max as he embarks on this new journey.