Smoke Sickness

I am a passionate believer in the whole picture, which I’ll admit can often be difficult to grasp. Afterall it is one’s own point of view that shapes the picture we see, right? With the chicken MRC project closing in on the finish line and other new summer systems coming online I am not always privy to national or even local news. On Tuesday morning we woke up to strange weather. 

From my point of view it seemed like a strange hazy morning. Like it was going to rain, except that the air felt different than rain and the haze was mainly to the West. My eyes were itchy, my head felt stuffy and I thought to myself, man, my spring allergies have been pretty mild so far, what is happening today that is making them go crazy.

After breakfast I headed down to the barn to continue work on the third MRC (only one more to go!) where I met James Graves, from Full and By Farm. James is a good friend and we have a long history of working together including helping James and his business partner Sara Kurak renovate their old bank barn; Racey and I worked with James and Sara on their farm for a season before starting our farm; James helped me build our house…the list keeps going. Now James was coming over to use our shop and welder to build his own version of a MRC. The first thing James asked me was, had I read about the wildfires that were causing so much trouble to our neighbors to the north? After all, James commented, this was the reason for the bad air quality we were experiencing. 

My point of view shifted.

Moments ago I had seemingly sudden and severe allergy symptoms, and an uneasy feeling about the weather. Now I was aware that wildfires across an international border and weather patterns were carrying smoke from the fires over our farm. And is that even the whole picture?

Wildfires from all across Canada are generating smoke. Weather and wind patterns are pushing that smoke across the US causing lots of air quality issues. Is that the whole story? Why did the fires start? Why are they so widespread? 

Tully, John and I worked the day on MRC #3 and discussed the wildfires, air quality and climate change. We learned about what Tully called “smoke sickness” which he experienced many times while living in Colorado for a few years. By the end of the day I felt exhausted, my body ached, my head and sinuses were pounding with pressure and my nose was dripping constantly. Could this really be all from wildfires? 

I went to bed early, slept poorly with bouts of coughing, runny nose, itchy eyes and even a fever in the middle of the night. Wednesday morning I felt so sick and exhausted I stayed in bed. I was reminded of the summer I spent 4 months in bed with a herniated disc in my back. Was this smoke/air quality? Was this severe allergies? Was I sick from a virus? Was this a new normal? Can our farm and farms like ours make a difference, because feeling sick is not how I want to live.

By Wednesday afternoon I was feeling much better, and looking at the historical smoke maps, I think I can see why. The phrase “a breath of fresh air” comes to mind. Tully and John both commented how strange it was that I went from feeling so bad to almost back to normal so quickly. 

I’d hoped that writing this week would help me distill what I’ve learned. All I’m left with is the vague feeling that our small organic farm can make a difference, and that small differences matter. 

Update on the MRCs:

We are welding the last frame this week, and next week we need to finish the last MRC! 

Preparing to pull the cover over the hoops. We run a long pipe through the sleeve at the end of the tarp. Cut some slits in the tarp and tie a strap to pull the whole tarp over with.

Tarp is up! It took four of us to pull it, and push it along. As the tarp pulled over more and more of the hoops, the friction was intense!

We use a ratchet strap through the sleeve on the end to hold the tarp down on the frame.