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Pride and Throttle in field adjacent to my mother's house

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This photo is located at my mother's house, in the mountains. To me, this environment has become extremely important in my self-care routine.

When I look around here all I can see are trees, mountains, and wildlife (including my horses). Here, you do not smell any of the pollution that you would in the city, only nature. When this photo was taken, it was a brisk day, I could feel the cool air biting at my skin.

My identity is closely related to this land. For one, my horses reside here and they are some of the most important things to me.

There are hardly any thoughts, mostly calmness and relaxation. I do feel as though I am living in a movie. This cannot be real, can it? It is so.... perfect!

When they are there, I tend to focus on my horses, they are all perfect to me. How they majestically trot around, how much peace they bring to me... How much they can eat... Some people are scared of them, but for me, I would not be alive today without them.

In years to come, I do believe, as long as this land stays in the family that it will forever stay natural as it is.

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Panther Creek has become a very important place for me as well. Every time we go riding, my favorite part is the wildlife. Unfortunately, I have never remembered to take photos of them, but wild horses are always in this open area. There are so many trees, both dead and alive, that litter this area. It is amazing to see just how dense this bush is. I remember as a child, all I wanted to do was see a wild horse. Now I have!

When I am out there, I feel as though I can accomplish anything. My horse and I are one, taking on this exhausting but exhilarating trip together. I trust them, just as they trust me.

The meadows always catch my eye. Not only because that is where the wild horses go to rest, but because of the rest it gives all of the animals in this absurd terrain. Often you will see prey here relaxing as they are aware of their surroundings with no trees for predators to hide behind.

I am worried that in years to come this land will not look this same. Because it is Crown land (government-owned), There is a lot of logging, and trapping in this area. If our cities become large enough, they may even engulf this beautiful scenery into desolate concrete buildings. Years prior, it looked fairly similar from what I understand.

I do feel a sense of responsibility for this land. That is why anytime I go out, I make sure to leave it exactly how it was when I appeared. This includes not leaving any garbage (including toilet paper), and leaving every plant and animal untouched.

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Ice Lake is where my mother had her wedding. This place is incredible, and I highly recommend if you ever get the chance to go, take it!

This place is completely ridden of human occupation, the only way to reach it is by either helicopter or horseback. On this particular day, for my mother's wedding, we went by helicopter. The scenery is a once-in-a-lifetime view and once you're out there, you are in complete awe. There is a little lake just under the mountain behind my mother and her husband in this picture. It is small, but it is almost always completely frozen over. This lake is called Ice Lake, and it has the bluest water you have ever seen. When I am up here, I feel just how insignificant all of the things I thought were problems are. All that matters in that moment is the calmness I feel.

I have never been taught that nature itself can be calming, but that is something I learnt completely on my own through experiences.

Ice Lake itself is amazing. It brings fresh water and food to the inhabitants around it (wildlife), and is filled with fish (I am unsure exactly what types of fish). It keeps the grass around it hydrated and green in the warmer months.

I do not believe, or at least I hope that in years down the road Ice Lake will not change much. There is hardly any human contact there as it is several miles away from the closest road. It has also been essentially untouched for the years previous as well.

I feel it is important for me to not tell other people, especially those irresponsible with nature about Ice Lake. By no means am I trying to gatekeep this location, I just want to make sure it is not destroyed.

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Another incredible experience I had was on the way to Ice Lake from Panther Creek. We took a helicopter through the mountains and you could see absolutely everything. In most of the meadows we passed by, you could see herds of wild horses. On one of the mountains, we saw a herd of mountain goats. It is the type of thing you dream of. When I was up there, freedom was the main feeling I had. This is who I truly am, this is the land where I belong.

Throughout childhood, I had always wanted to just be a part of the mountains. Just me, my horses, and nature. I believe this is still instilled in me because that was all I could think of.

The Red Deer River was a big focal point for me most of the ride as we followed it the whole way. It provides water to so many plants and animals, and supplies so many carnivorous animals food with its fish. I was told once that this river supplies many smaller lakes and rivers with both its fresh water and its fish, and on this day in particular I got to see that first hand.

This area is so densely forested that I understand it will more than likely be used for logging soon. As for previous years, there have been many fires that have burned through this land, causing mass destruction and death upon its inhabitants, but this was necessary for the cycle of life, and to bring on new life.

I wish there was more I could do to protect this land, but once again, being Crown land I do not have much say for the use of it.

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Unnamed Road, Torquay, SK S0C 2L0, Canada

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Family Homestead, Torquay, SK S0C 2L0, Canada

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Family Homestead, Torquay, SK S0C 2L0, Canada

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This is my family's homestead in Saskatchewan. It is the absolute most important place to me as not only was I born and raised on the farm, but so have my ancestors dating back to 1912 when the war broke out in what was once known as Austria-Hungary. Out here it is all grasslands, with the occasional tree. All of the trees pictured here were planted when my ancestors first homesteaded the land. There is not a lot to it until you look into the sky.

When I am here, I feel at home. I am comfortable here. Everything about me and my family is here. The house we built, the trees we planted, the crops we have farmed for one hundred years. The hill I used to sled on, and the memorial of where the school my grandfather, and great-grandfather attended are all on this land.

The best and worst thing about this land is the skies above it. They produce the most amazing sunsets, sunrises, and clouds, but they also cause the most destruction to lands I have ever seen. There have been many years that I can remember, there was too much rain for our crops and for the grassland to absorb. Those years most of the land was flooded and all of our crops were dead. This however brought new life to the area, salamanders. These salamanders were everywhere you looked for several years. You could not see gravel on the roads, only salamanders. That was when I learned reptiles do not like salt, as my grandmother put a ring of salt around the house to keep these little creatures out. At least once a year we have hail so large it could knock you out. Anytime a storm was coming, the whole family would look like chickens with their heads cut off, driving every single vehicle and farm equipment into the shop, garage, and Quonsets, and sometimes even hiding them behind the house in the opposite direction the wind was blowing. Not only did these storms have destructive hail, but they also had beautiful but deadly lightning, extreme thunder, abundant amounts of rain, and profuse winds that often turned into tornados. We also watched the skies. This teaching came from my grandmother, who learned from her grandmother-in-law, and back to when my family first homesteaded here. To this day, even though I am now residing in a large city, I always watch the sky and trust my instincts.

As I stated previously, my family has been residing on this land for over one hundred years. Therefore, I know that not a lot has changed on it for that amount of time. However, I also know from stories passed down through the generations of what it was before we came here. When we first homesteaded, the one hill of the home quarter had several tipi circles. The land was hard, so to farm it, my ancestors had to dig it up. In doing this, they discovered several arrowheads. I am unsure how it is going to look moving forward, however, I do not believe it will change much. I am hoping it will stay in the family as I do eventually want to move back to my homeland, however, my family does want to sell it. There is not much out there, all of the towns surrounding it are almost abandoned due to everybody moving to the city. Most of the people who still reside are old farmers who are too stubborn to move into the city.

This is my home, and because of that, I feel a large responsibility to protect it. It is the one place I feel most like myself. Multiple times I have told my grandparents not to sell it until I can afford it, but we all know that is not exactly feasible. I also want to protect the graveyard of all of my ancestors dating back to our arrival here, and several of my late cousins are buried. To do this I will continue going back every chance I get, cleaning up all of the graves, cutting the lawn, laying flowers down on each of the graves, and just continue to do what I feel is necessary.

This is also the place where I can connect most to my roots. Knowing that both sides of my family have lived in this area for generations, makes me wonder... Was it my ancestors on my father's side that once lived on the very land my mother's side homesteaded on?

Here, we do not see the land from a Western point of view, at least from those I know. We see nature as sacred and we protect it as much as we can. It is a strong belief that if you take care of the land, it will take care of you, bringing us plentiful crops. Here, we share. We take care of our neighbors and town. It is much different than the big city where everyone only cares about themselves.