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Forever Berries

@true-dedication.bsky.social
326 followers 312 following 96 posts

Climate, water, organic farming, food security, traditional crafts, survival skills, green infrastructure, running, biking, swimming, gay love, growing queer community 🍁🏳️‍🌈👨‍❤️‍👨🍉🏃‍♂️🚲🏊‍♂️ (He/him) 🏳️‍⚧️ ally Treaty 3 land Views are my own and not those of my employer

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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Maybe I should be grateful some mistakes can be undone and there was time before winter to fix the floor so it's level. Lesson learned: make the deck blocks in middle of floor accessible for adjusting through a screwed down panel. Also, a strong spine along the joists is better with dado joint.
Plywood floor in a wall tent cut open to adjust the height of the posts that are holding up the floor framing. This was done to make the structure more level.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
First frost in Guelph, Ontario. Shimmering touch of death for nightshades and flowers. Also if you can spot the mistake I made with spacing this concrete pier, please come help me build my next project :P #diy
Pink and Orange sunrise clouds in the sky over a frosty field of grass, beside a platform holding lumber.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A hard lesson learned today: leave room for shims between the concrete and the rim joist. That way, if for some mysterious reason the deck isn't level, you can lower it without having to dig the blocks in deeper 😞 Pic is of the happier part of the day which was wall framing (much easier to learn)
Wood wall frames partially constructed on a deck to make a porch for a wall tent.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Stories all about the power of love, cozied up with his Cuteness at the Eden Mills Writer's Festival. Also we were elated to be at the same festival as @elizabethemay.bsky.social, the green goddess of Canadian environmental justice #booksky #natureheals
Authors reading their books to a crowd in the background with the knees of myself and my partner in the foreground on a blanket.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This water is our lifeblood. It should be revered with our actions, not just words. Keep our lakes, wetlands and rivers cool and clean. Protect shorelines as biodiverse buffers. No nuclear heat dumping No untreated waste No AI data centres #waterislife #greensky
Standing in the frigid water of Lake Huron. Shale rock, Craigleith Provincial Park
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tfw when you decide to go to the conference reception to eat hors d'eouvres and make new friends instead of burrowing peacefully under the 27 pillows in your hotel room
White man in a dress shirt and a pensive facial expression looking  in a hotel  bathroom mirror
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My handsome farmer showed me an interview with Ocean Vuong (a writer and professor we admire). Vuong talks about the mystery of human kindness, how in hopeless situations, people with nothing are still generous. I keep thinking about Vuong's brave voice, hinting at terrible light and darkness
A rainbow sky background with an overgrown garden foreground, and a handsome farmer walking toward the camera.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Love Guelph! - Bike the Night, Sept 19, 6:30-10:00PM at Market Square (1 Carden St) @activeguelph.bsky.social - Migrant Rights Protest - Sunday, Sept 20, 2:30-3:30PM. Outside No Frills, Willow West Mall - Pride in Nature: Tree Planting at Arkell Spring Grounds - Sunday, Oct 4, 2026 – 10:00-12:00 pm
Garden herbs and seed that I harvested, roasted and crushed for spice mix
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This land is abundantly generous when we protect it and live within ecological cycles. In the face of violent expansion by petrostates and military-industrial mining complexes, my queer friends and allies are saving seed, preserving, rucking, tracking, hunting, racing, constructing, loving #elbowsup
Cover crop seed heads glowing in sunrise yesterday in one of the gardens, part of organic crop rotatation to prevent disease
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Even our labour can bring pleasure. My housemate grows this garden, and I worked with her yesterday to weed and harvest, laughing and swatting and tasting. She loves each glistening orb of colour. She carefully arranged this bouquet of vegetables with total contentment blossoming on her face
Bountiful garden harvest of vegetables and flowers in early September, laid out on a table. Part of the farm fields are visible in the background
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Taking care of a herd of cattle is a ton of work for us. But there's something eternally peaceful about stopping to listen to the sound of cows chewing, surrounded by waves of green grass #dextercattle #cowboys #grassfedbeef
Cattle grazing in a green field of grass in late August
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Vegetable mountain season! My toddler nephew helped gather beans with gusto and prepare them for preserving. Teaching food skills to the next generation is fundamental to their freedom from capitalist systems of control and supports healthy minds and bodies #localfood #preserving #farmlife
Kitchen counter piled up with vegetables, with a large bowl of chopped green beans and a toddler trying to help.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I'm thinking about it.. but it seems like best friends have each other's backs? Worst enemies actively try to hurt each other. But if we're talking about vulnerability, then yes, depending on a best friend does run the risk of them failing to follow through. Still, friendship mostly lifts us up
Highland cattle friends at the Fergus Highland Games and Scottish Festival
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Canoe tripping with the love of my life. The Mississagi boreal forest is an incredible ecological treasure we want to better protect. Gratitude for beaver dams that enable paddling, sandy shores for swimming and thick beds of white pine needles for sleeping #canoe #gaycamping #greensky
Two white men hugging and smiling goofily in front of a black truck with a canoe strapped to the top, after arriving back home from a canoe trip together
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Peach canning fills my senses. The round fuzzy curves, the ripe scent rising. Climate change is flooding and frosting Niagara peach trees. New pests and diseases kill them. What can we do? Buy from local farms, support strong emissions reductions policies and fund research for resilient peaches 🍑
About 100 peaches spread on paper on an antique table. The peaches will ripen better over 3 to 5 days without mold because they aren't touching. These will be used at our farm for canned sliced peaches.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Increasing my gratitude. Abundance fills my life every day. Vegetables, intimate conversations, cuddles with friends, healing music, books of wisdom. When one window for love closes, it's still good to know the gifts we shared. I keep my heart open #gratitude #cnm #thisisenoughvegetables
Community farm harvest of vegetables. Organic, one till then no tractor, herbs, kale, green beans, zucchini, cucumber. Coordinated by my friend at Beet Box farm.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Our future depends on reconciliation with First Nations and land defenders, to connect deeply with and sustain the ecologies that give us life. Right livelihood is regenerative and compassionate. I reject the false economy of fossil fuels and extraction. I want renewables and community #greensky
Ottawa River seen from Kiweki point, with Canada's parliament buildings under renovation in the background
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Go far up the river, until you can hear the leaves shushing in the trees and water riffling over rocks. Enter as though the salt on your skin is an offering #waterislife
Ottawa River flowing with blue sky in the background and shoes in the foreground.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Amateur carpenter messing around with building a wall tent for a woodworking shop. It has to be strong enough to hold 1,800 lbs of snow with no ridge support poles, so I used a 12" deep ridge beam instead. That leaves floor space open for all the saws and tables #farmlife
White man looking cautiously at a mitre saw blade inside the wall tent he is building.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
"It is in the nature of a military weapon to turn against its wielder... Only on necessity will he resort to them. For peace and quiet are dearest to his heart, And to him even victory is no cause for rejoicing." ~Tao Teh Ching, 30/31
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
"There was something else I wanted to thank you for, but I don't remember it now." Said with a kiss as he walked out the door #jun #tea #fermentation #gay #romance
Jun tea in a glass, which is fermented green tea with raw honey. The glass is held up by a white guy who is me.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Met these amazing women in Elora who make linen textiles from flax fibre. l can't stop thinking about how I could be making clothes from plants growing on the farm #flax #linen #diy #self-sufficiency #farmer #fergusscottishfestival #tartanup
Braids and skeins of linen thread spun from flax stems fibres. Also a poster board explaining the process. Seen at the Scottish Festival in Fergus, Ontario.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
What is it about bagpipes that makes me want to go berserk while also raining tears for all the ancestors who sacrificed for future generations? #tartanup #fergusscottishfestival
Mass bands making powerful waves of vapor and drinking music at the Fergus Highland Games (aka Scottish Festival)
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
The plus side of rejection is you learn to fill your own cup. And when your cup overflows, you have more love to give again #blueberries #queer #summerlove
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
7 years ago we planted 8 acres of organic currants (about 12,000 plants). Mostly left the currants to fend for themselves (not a good idea but necessary when farming with full time jobs). Yields were good for a few years... Then LDD caterpillars, earwigs, septoria spot. Maybe I'll switch to ducks...
Man looking at black currant bush with fruit and spotted leaves in front of a field of currant bushes
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Our dear friends had to bump up their gay wedding by several months to include their dog in the ceremony (as her cancer progresses faster than expected 😢) So we were surprised and honoured to host a wedding at the farm, with the cows mooing, barn swallows swooping, and love and laughter all around
Three friends embrace at a gay wedding with cameras and champagne, along with a dog who is the guest of honour
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This lake is where I'm doing morning swims with the Guelph Triathlon Club. A clean, cool and peaceful refuge from human-caused heat waves #waterislife
Dock overlooking a lake with swimming buoys lined up
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Heartsick at the pain Samra Habib experienced, as well as emboldened to reclaim our queer spirituality "As I was still soaking in every detail of what a mosque could look like, a black trans woman in her twenties got up to give a beautiful recitation of the adhan ... I tried to hold back my tears"
Cover of the book "We have always been here" by Samra Habib
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Fire is a terrifying destructive force; it briefly illuminates the hard truth of death, and the hope of transformation #solstice #pagan #farmlife #dance #whatdidyoudothisweekend
A group of people holding hands dancing around a large bonfire in a field at solstice sunset
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Heart berry, ode min. Pleasure is a gift we can give in abundance because it was given to us, in our own body and awareness. We tend each other out of love. Robin Wall Kimmerer's sharing of Indigenous wisdom transformed strawberry ethics for me #braidingsweetgrass #maplenation #fruit #agroecology
A plate of ripe strawberries
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
This is the steamship we jumped off to start the swim at Gravenhurst triathlon today! #queerjoy #muskoka #itdidnotimprovemyswimtime
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Do you like spending hours preparing for outdoor fun? Does sports gear give you butterflies? Then triathlon is the sport for you #gravenhurst #triathlon #gay #amateurathlete #raceday
Triathlon gear for race day
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Stumbling into a dance with summer, warm sky against my skin. Drenched in waves of inexorable grass. Ascending as barn swallows, flashing boldly as fireflies
A clothesline with dry clothes and rain clouds coming in
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Bottle jack trick to secure loads that are longer than your truck bed #gaycarpentrylol
Short truck bed loaded with two 12 inch LVL beams strapped and jacked against a board that fits the truck bed.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Pride blossoming in my hometown 🌸 was on a date with my partner downtown and wandered into a scintillating queer art exhibit at 10C and saw the Guelph civic buildings and churches radiating rainbows ❤️ #guelph #happypride #loveislove @ootslibrary.bsky.social
Guelph Civic Museum lit up for Pride with rainbow lights
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Jacking posts out of the ground to move the veggie garden fence. Tip: use a few wraps of chain to take the strain, then insert the cotter pin (prevents the cotter pin from taking the stain) #garden #fencing #jacks #farm
A red jack with chain attached to a steel T-post, being used to pull the post out of the ground to move a chicken wire garden fence
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
A sprightly baby paw paw tree in a pot with green grass and sunlight in the background, held up by a white hand with an orange thumb stained by turmeric.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Here's the Bluebird house building crew yesterday - we're attracting bluebirds to balance out the bugs that have been eating the black currants. Four chicks hatched so far this year #organic #gay #farmers #ecologicalrestoration
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Guncle lesson of the day: Steamed apples and pears are healthy and delicious for babies. They should be peeled before steaming, since the skin can be hard to eat until teeth are all in (apparently not a choking hazard but I'd be vigilant anyway)
In this picture is me, a gay man who is white and middle-aged, reading a book with my 1 year old nephew.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Guncle duties while babysitting my nephew: Naps, nature walks, snacks, clean up, and play time. He's teaching me self-care
Man holding baby under a beach umbrella
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Why do I like it when older women call me 'hun', 'babe' or 'love'? It plays on patriarchal vanity to believe that five seconds in my presence somehow endeared me to them. But I want to show them my heart is open to theirs. I want to name every aspect of their radiance
A raceme of yellow flowers glowing in the morning sun. The Laburnum anagyroides tree blooming in May, in coastal British Columbia.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Bluebird homes is what happens when you put four gay guys in a wall tent with power tools #diy
Seven wood birdhouses freshly made, sitting on a workbench next to saws and measuring tools
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Many loves woven together makes a pathway to heal this land, our body
 Mom and friend covering gay man's eyes to surprise him with a smorgasbord of colourful fruits, vegetables and nuts and lift him away from any hint of midlife crisis
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
My family can easily eat all these delicious organic greens from the Guelph Farmers Market in the next few days, right?
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Cool event! "Sustainable Seed Starting" Thursday, Apr 9, 6:30PM, at The Hive Arts Collective, 33 Cork St. W. in Guelph (hosted by Ashley of Sweetwater Trees; spotted in Guelph Queer Happenings)
My cabbage sprouts emerging from the soil in a seedling tray, next to a large organic cabbage to compare sizes
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
We planted hackberry saplings today. First tree planting of the season. Hoping they draw birds away from raspberries in late summer... the permaculture quest continues
Hackberry sapling planted with cardboard mulch and white plastic rodent guard
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I think if I were a FFVII character I'd be Aerith's adoptive mother, Elmyra. Protecting a safe place with a garden for healing
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
When making lunch, there are always one or two sprouts that spring out of the container. I'm fond of them, they remind me of the cute queer rebels in my life
Glass lunch container containing fenugreek  sprouts (my favourite, they smell like licorice)
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Found a way to store my bike so we can sleep in the same room and train together in the morning
Picture of a bike hanging vertically from a high shelf I built myself. This creates more space in the bedroom when my bike isn't being used.
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Forever Berries @true-dedication.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
In this fleeting life, I make choices to use my tiny power to challenge colonial and unsustainable institutions and move closer to peaceful, loving community. To stay brave and get out of oppression, I start with a few seconds of self-care. Look at the sky, take five deep breaths. Arrange flowers.
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