September snow at the farm
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| Snow falls on the farm on 13 September, 2018 |
I woke up, thinking it was early as it was dark outside. I'd forgotten I was back in Canada and the dark nights and mornings had started. What made it more miserable was the snow falling. During the morning I could hear flocks of geese honking their way over the farm, looking for fields of grain that had been harvested. They need the grain to fatten up for their flight south but they are unable to get at the grain if it's under snow. Fortunately, the soggy snow started to melt during the day.
In the afternoon a young man, who is related to someone who works at the farm, came to cook chilli. I never did find out why it had to be done here. I'm hoping it's because mine is the only organised kitchen in the neighbourhood. He arrived with four enormous shopping bags full of ingredients - many tins of kidney beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, along with celery, carrots, onions. He also wanted a long list of herbs and spices, many of which I'd never heard being put into chilli.
Sam turned out to be 20 years of age and very tall and well built. I have never met a young man, in this part of the world, who was happy to talk about his personal life with someone he'd never met before. Recently, he'd spent a year in rehab because of dealing in drugs and having a drug addiction - he was addicted to heroin. I was amazed that this young man had been a dealer in drugs, selling it to people and dealing with the Hell's Angels - at one point he'd owed them thousands of dollars.
While Sam chopped veg and got his chilli cooking he told me about life with his parents. His father had died after a horrific accident and he said his mother was a sociopath, using her children for her own ends and making their lives miserable. Since then he's been raised by his grandmother and helped by an uncle. If I'd seen him on the street, without knowing a thing about him, I'd have classed him as a typical young Canadian who had his head screwed on. He knows that a lot of his problems come from his dysfunctional home life but, compared to many people, he was happy to face all these issues and learn from them.
He spoke a lot about his time in rehab, the friendships he built and how he keeps in touch with some now they have been released; it's given him a sort of support group. He seems to have come out of his personal dark tunnel knowing himself a lot better and more able to handle life. I began to think that rehab would be a great place for a lot of us to be in, just to get our lives back in order. He's been invited to schools to talk about his life and, in his words, to scare the pants off the kids. He admitted he'd seen a lot of things he isn't able to talk about at the moment - things that were not nice to see. I was fascinated by our time together, and the chilli's great too.
