Murray Boal - Gigs & News
October 2011
Another season of vegetables growing is done. It has been perhaps the most challenging season we have experienced in our 20 years of market gardening. It was cool and rainy all of June and July. The first half of August was sunny but cool.
We did get our bumper crop of hay put up. If it hadn’t been for the warm spell we had in September many of the late crops (corn, squash, beans) would not have ripened. Oh well, enough complaining….
On the positive side, early October has been glorious, sunny days, bright yellow leaves. It has been perfect fall weather. Now we have to clean up the garden, finish getting fire wood and hunker down for the winter….
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Music wise, I have had a few good gigs this summer along with my fellow wingdamrambler, Bob Campbell. We have a bunch of new tunes that we want to start recording sometime this winter. I have also been getting together with some old musical pals ( from my rock & roll past) to play for a good friends birthday bash this month. Its been loud but a lot of fun.
Also, one of my new songs, Working for Betty Frank, is being used to promote a soon to be published book by Sage Birchwater and Betty Frank .www.caitlin-press.com/what.html . Betty is a true Cariboo character, a hunting guide (with a one million acre guiding area in the wilds of the Cariboo mountains at one time), dog musher, horse wrangler, small logging contractor, teacher, story teller, and late '60s teen rock band manager. I worked for her in the late 1970’s. Betty turned 80 this year.
here is a demo for your listening pleasure,
Working For Betty Frank
userfiles/media/01%20betty%20frank%20mp3.mp3
That’s all for now….
Murray
ps. here is a link to a blog from Peter North of CKUA radio in Alberta about the town of Wells and the wingdamramblers!
www.ckua.org/09/06/11/Alls-Well-That-Ends-in-Wells/landing.html
July 2011
Summer is always a busy time here at Dragon Mt Farm. I haven’t got around to updating my “Gigs and News” page for a while.
It has been a terrible summer so far, rain ,rain, rain. Our river has been high and threatening to flood since early June. xWhile we haven’t had to irrigate at all, the early crops in the market garden have been good but the things that need heat are suffering. It has mostly been rotten working conditions for our garden crew.
On a more positive note, our local Farmers Market is booming and our “Box a Week veggie delivery is going smoothly
We probably have the heaviest hay crop in 20 years but no dry weather to put it up. We need the weather to turn around soon.
On the music front, I have a few projects and some new tunes on the go, but it has been a quiet summer for me performing wise. See below for a couple of future gigs. Hopefully this winter I will get out there playing a bit more.
Gigs
Monday Aug 1 2011, 12:00 pm Artswells Festival, Wells BC www.artswells.com
Cariboo Songwriters Circle
Saturday Aug 27 2011 ,8:00 Bears Paw Cafe, Wells BC www.thebearspaw.ca
wingdamramblers
Saturday September 10, 2011, 10:30 am Quesnel Farmers Market www.quesnelmarket.com
wingdamramblers
Murray Boal & The Cultivators live!!
February 22, 2011 
It has been a wacky winter weather-wise in the Cariboo this year. Short stints of extreme wind and cold, incredibly warm thaws, rain, and tons of snow.
It is almost March and the forecast is
for record breaking cold. It snowed another 6 inches last night
I have spent way more time plowing our ice rink this year than skating on it. We did have one good skating weekend earlier this month.
We are getting ready to shear the sheep (hopefully) and lambing is a few weeks away . I have also started planting stuff in our house greenhouse.
It has mostly been a quiet winter here on the farm. Traveled a bit, did some home renos, and I have been doing a few machinery maintenance projects in the shop. It is almost busy time again.
On the music front, I played a few times this winter and have been learning some new tunes with my “wingdamrambler” partner Bob. There are some gigs and new projects on the horizon, 
thanks to Tom Neville for the portrait!
I’ll keep you posted.
Gigs
Friday March 11, 2011, 8:00 Gold Pan City Dance Studio, Quesnel BC, tickets at Quesnel Music
" Hwy. 26 Folk Music Review" with Yael Wand, Karyn Ellis, and the wingdamramblers
November 2010 (update)
so much for my previous enrty, winter arrived suddenly, -25 and blowing this morning and lots of snow in the forcast
November 2010
photo by Anne Adams
It has been a nice warm fall here in the Cariboo, we are still waiting for the first snowfall.
Most all the vegetables and lambs are sold, so it is pretty quiet around here. It was a crazy busy summer. We wish we had more time and energy to enjoy the summer. Hopefully we will be able to slow down a bit in the coming years.
I accompanied my mother on a two week trip to the UK in late October. We visited some old friends and also spent a few days at the southern tip of Cornwall.
I got to ride around London on the Underground visiting various sights (I even walked across the famous sidewalk at Abbey Road!). The main thing that struck me was the amount of people. I have never been in such crowds. Cornwall was busy as well, but incredibly beautiful. We had a nice time, but I can’t say I wasn’t glad to be back home on the farm.
On the music front, now that things have quieted down, I am planning on playing and performing a bit more. The wingdamramblers (Bob Campbell and myself) are getting some new tunes together and are hoping to play them for you sometime, somewhere.
We will see you then!
I guess that’s all for now.
Murray
Gigs
November 26, 2010 Geko Tree, Williams Lake, BC
concert/ dinner with chef Martin Comtois
September 2010
I can always tell how busy I have been by how long it is between these “what’s new” posting. Five months! That has to be a record.
Another summer is done here at Dragon Mt Farm. It has been an interesting season. It was extremely dry, we basically got no rain for a couple of months. The market garden mostly grew well, as long as we kept the irrigation going. The same went for our hayfields and pastures. I spent a lot of hours moving irrigation pipe. Our local farmers market is booming and our weekly Box a Week vegetable home delivery is going well, so on the whole it has been a successful season.
The big issue here in the Cariboo this summer was the wildfires that burned up huge areas. Because of the pine beetle infestation, much of the forest in the Cariboo is dead or dying, creating a major fire hazard. Many people were evacuated from there homes, farms and ranches, including some of our good friends. The big issue for us was the smoke that some days was almost unbearable, blocking out the sun, giving us all headaches and breathing problems. I think this summer was a sign of things to come, with global warming and all the dead forest surrounding us.
But a couple of weeks ago the weather changed and now it will not stop raining. Enough already!
On the music front the wingdamramblers (Bob Campbell and myself) are still going strong. It has been a bit of a quieter summer on the performing side of things, partially because I have been so darn busy and partially because of a tragedy in Bob's family. It has been a heartbreaking sad time for them.....
We did have a few good gigs this summer and are planning few more later this fall. I’ll let you know.
We both have some new songs and are hoping to get a chance to get them together.
That’s all for now
Murray
Gigs
November 6, 2010 Christian Petersen’s book launch for All Those Drawn To Me,
7:00 Beotcheese Bistro, Williams Lake BC