Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 30, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 21^st Anniversary, Philip and Liz Seager!

Naomi is missing out on her parents’ celebration beyond the vid-chat we did with them, but then we’re still helping them out with the kid-free night – or month for one of their kids; and we wouldn’t have gone along to the pub for that part of their party tonight anyway!  Their family and friends are making sure they are having a happy day; we left gifts for them too; and that’s pretty much all we have for that story so far today.

As for our adventures, we’re closing in on Calgary as we’re writing this update; and this has been another travel-work day with stops along the way from Regina to Calgary that were again mostly about agricultural partnerships with one charity conservation project site visit near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.  The weather has been beautiful and sunny from the chilly, cooler morning in Regina to the afternoon highs in the mid-eighties.  While we loved the cameo sightseeing today, we’re amazed by the view of the Rocky Mountains that we’re just beginning to see as we close in on Calgary.  It really is amazing to see that happen while still so far away that the mountains come into view from a curvature of the earth perspective, and while similar views are available in our country too; we haven’t experienced that in person.  Cassie and Michael have; so they knew when to get us to start watching for the phenomenon; and they helped us out with locating the first visible peaks too.  We’ll have more on world wonders in the coming days, but that’s enough for our own news; and we’ll cover the rest of our adventures from Calgary with the next report too.

As for the world news; war is back on in the Middle East with new bombings against Iran; on American targets in Jordan; and ships are still being targeted and restricted in both straits.  There were additional, new attacks aimed at Iraqi militant groups that are actually also part of the Iraqi armed forces; so escalations like that could really expand the war if those militant groups join in to fight America and Saudi Arabia too.  The Ukraine war continues to be horrendous; the people on the ground on both sides continue to suffer the most; and our leaders roll on without any care for the true costs as long as they keep power and get richer.  Other than ongoing destruction and death on the ground, there aren’t many changes to report from Ukraine – partly because the western media is ignoring all of the bad news for Ukraine ranging from their troops being surrounded in multiple locations along the front lines to the devastation happening in Odessa, Kiev, and elsewhere.

Compared to all of that, reports of coordinated cyber attacks on thirty Minnesota water systems seems minor, but got media attention because the blame was directed at Iranian hackers.  That’s convenient, but then if not Iran; Russian hackers are right there to blame instead whenever needed!  We can’t possibly just blame bad government for wasted spending or taking cheapest bids – or recognize that there are cyber-criminals and hacktivists willing to take advantage of old, vulnerable systems.  That would risk exposing government corruption and incompetence; and we can’t have that!

Let’s stop there.  We’re getting close to Calgary now; the co-ed cuddle time and view of the mountains is more-entertaining that writing about narcissists and crooks; so we’re going to get back to the real world fun starting right now.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 29, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 22^nd Birthday, Ben Norton!

Before we get to our news of the day, let’s take a moment to write about Ben – formerly known as Benjamin or Benji, since we haven’t mentioned Rebecca’s youngest brother-in-law and his life has changed a lot over the past couple of years while we haven’t really been involved at all.  We didn’t even mention in our journals that he got married to Bonnie Benton last fall after harvest in a very small wedding; they had opted for two-year college programs geared toward farm mechanics and retail management respectively; and they have a house on the Norton farms not far from Rebecca and Lucas.  While we see them around town and at church now and then; Ben and Bonnie keep busy with their own lives; and their adventures really don’t intersect with ours very often despite the family and work connections.  That isn’t actually unusual, so we’re only mentioning it today because we should point out now and then that life does go on even in our little town without us really having anything to do with those events at all.

That’s definitely true here in Regina, and while we’re hoping to make an impression and helping a lot of people in this area and province; we are not so egotistical to think that we can visit for a day and change and become the centers of attention or even have our passing through noticed by the vast majority of the people!  We have been having a really good day and got a lot of work done with Cassie and Michael; there were cameo sightseeing moments along the way; and now we’re winding down toward nap time because we’ll be up early for the work-drive day from here to Calgary, Alberta.  The work has primarily been agriculture-related for everything we’ve done, and while that’s a bit repetitive to the past couple of days; I find the expansion of our lab projects awesome – even if it isn’t as much fun for my twin and our best friends!  There is still a lot for all of us to see and do, though, so we have all had a lot of fun with all of the work and play adventures.  The sightseeing highlights included the Wascana Centre Park and Lake where we did some boating on the lake and had a working picnic lunch; the Royal Saskatchewan Museum where Scotty, the world’s oldest T-Rex skeleton is on display; and the RCMP Heritage Centre where we learned all about the history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

While we worked and played around here; the world moved on without us – and not in positive ways when it comes to the top wars, politics, or business.  The world markets blunder along regardless of the real news happening while computers try to battle each other to make the most money for their respective companies and investors and the actual purpose of those markets is lost in the process.  The top political stories of the past day and change have revolved around Senator Graham’s funeral and the leader-level meetings that have been going on in Washington among the dignitaries that came to pay their respects.  We aren’t going to write about the funeral at all; since we wouldn’t have anything nice to say about the Senator or the undeserved ceremonies and accolades.  The politics of faux peace have been on display, and the hypocrisy is never-ending as terms are being demanded of both Russia and Iran that will not be accepted; so even suggesting those proposals is a pointless waste of time.  Add in the sanctions package being pushed through congress in Senator Graham’s name; and our leaders are not looking for peace – they want another world war.  Let’s also clarify that those new sanctions are really aimed at China, and if we don’t already have enough stress on the world economy; placing up to five-hundred percent tariffs on China would be insane – and they have already promised to halt exports of rare earth minerals if those sanctions are activated.

The fighting on the frontlines and air attacks in the Ukraine war continue to be devastating, and since the diplomatic positions on each side are hardening as the costs rise; there will not be any peace deals anytime soon.  There is less news out of the Middle East, but shipping through the two straits has all but stopped despite claims to the contrary; and the only thing holding back more bombing appears to be the real fear of retaliation from Iran and their allies – especially after the Houthis caused so much damage to the Saudi refineries in retaliation for the attacks on Yemeni ports.  The Houthis have fired on more ships trying to pass through ‘their’ strait; other ships have been turned back into the Red Sea; and the supply chain shocks will come over the next weeks and months.

Finally, for today, we want to mention reports we’re seeing about the supply chain system.  There are obviously already a lot of problems, but we also know that even if both wars ended today; it would take months just to re-deploy global shipping lanes – and longer than that if stability isn’t also restored with some confidence.  We doubt that anyone can even predict what will happen to companies that might be going bankrupt without cargos to transport; and it could take years to repair the damage to ports and energy infrastructure in both war regions.  As the shutdowns continue, even without more bombing, those issues will continue to worsen; and months could easily become years for recovery.  That will hurt the poorest nations and people first; and we will earn all-new enemies as world-wide desperation grows.

That’s another depressing blast of world news, so let’s stop there; and we’ll do our best to switch to happier thoughts as we wind down toward dreamland.  Our favorite co-ed cuddle buddies are here to help us out with that; so we’re out of here and will work on filling our personal spaces with love and happiness that we will also hope will spread into the world – even if we can only help to make that happen for a few people at a time!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 28, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This update is coming to you during a drive time segment of our travel day between Winnipeg, Manitoba and Regina Saskatchewan.  The total distance we’re covering today including work and sightseeing stops will be around four-hundred miles with around fifty miles of that being side trips off of the Trans-Canada highway.  The Canadian Prairies are similar to some of the States directly to the south of these provinces, but while Cassie and Michael have driven across our country a couple of times now; this is still new to us; and even the flattest parts of the provinces we’re crossing this week are amazing and awe-inspiring.  The weather is great too; we’ve had lots of sun; and the high today is flirting with triple digits this afternoon as we’re writing this update.  The work today has mostly been farm-related; Cassie and Michael have confirmed a handful of new partnerships to grow lab-patented crops – including for my cold cure hybrid plants; and Naomi is very happy about that because her goal to help with making us billionaires is on-track and years ahead of schedule! ;^)

As of now, we’re about half-way to Regina, but we’re expecting to be busy for the rest of today and have plans for the evening in Regina too; so we wanted to get this report finished while we definitely have time to do that now.  The sightseeing we’ve done so far today hasn’t included major tourist attractions, but we have loved checking out the smaller towns we’ve visited; and the natural wonders don’t need to be world-famous to be beautiful and memorable!  We don’t want to minimize anything about the awesomeness of nature and the communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan; so we’ll simply recommend that future Magi reading this report should include visiting this area of the world to their travel and sightseeing to-do list!  Ethan and I need to do the same for this kind of tour of our own country; since we really haven’t traveled all that much of it by ground transportation so far.  Cassie has us closing in on our next stop soon; so let’s wrap this up with a quick world news update.

The war with Iran is still off again so far today, but the threats continue for more bombing and destruction, and the peace talks appear to mostly be mirage.  That flare-up and the news out of Saudi Arabia and Yemen are helping Israel a lot as they continue their destruction of Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians while the rest of the world is distracted; and we really wish we could do something to stop them – and all of the wars and conflicts.  The top news for the Ukraine war will be the Ukrainian President’s visit to Washington for meetings with President Trump and for Senator Graham’s funeral, but while he is busy begging for more weapons and money to keep his war racket going; his military is desperately trying to impress western leaders with daily waves of drone strikes into Russia; there was another major attack on Moscow that mostly-failed; and the Russia retaliations are continuing to decimate Ukraine – particularly the cities of Odessa and Kiev.  The Ukrainian people will not be impressed by media and political points victories this winter when they have no food or heat – assuming they still have a country left at all worth trying to live in amidst the rubble and with generations of men killed or permanently disabled and unable to rebuild anything even if the war did come to an end.  European leaders continue to blissfully support Ukraine, but we are wondering how long Russia will put up with pretending that those countries aren’t helping Ukraine directly before they get fed up with the drone attacks and retaliate directly.  Maybe they won’t do that at all, since Russia doesn’t want to go to war against NATO, but then that’s what those same E.U. leaders are counting on; and it will not end well for them if they end up being wrong.

We haven’t been writing about what seems like daily incidents of violence in Europe and elsewhere recently because they seem small by comparison to the war stories, but we want to mention that tensions continue to rise around the world and that is leading to more violence.  For just a couple of examples, there was both a vehicle ramming attack on a Pride festival in Germany over the weekend and then a separate stabbing attack at the same event the next day; and then there was another stabbing attack on multiple women in Paris.  Ethan and I do not want to fan any flames of intolerance; so let’s stay away from blaming individuals or groups and instead suggest that oppressed, exploited people can do desperate things while blaming the wrong people for everything bad in their lives.  That isn’t an excuse for doing evil; and we can only do what we can to share our own love and joy with the world and hope that we’ll collectively win over evil sooner instead of later.

Cassie is slowing down for our next exit off the highway; so that’s all we have time for today.  We hope that your ‘now’ is amazing while we get back to our Canadian prairies adventures in progress!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 27, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 7^th Anniversary, Cassie and Michael!

Happy 2^nd Anniversary, Rowen and Tim!

For the record, I have no good reason for why we sometimes start those name combinations with the girl or boy name first – though I do know that I go with the girl name first more-often than Ethan does when he’s writing our journals!  As for the actual anniversary fun for today, we did a group vid-chat with Rowen and Tim at breakfast; they are working today too; and they are not really planning a party tonight because Tim can’t be sure to have the evening off if the number of emergency service calls stay as high as expected thanks to the triple-digit highs at home that always stress farm equipment that needs to be kept running all summer.  Cassie and Michael are working all day today too, but we do have plans for an anniversary dinner and some sightseeing to go along with the work.  We don’t have that news for you yet because this is an early update while we’re taking a quick break and dealing with some chores, but we should have also mentioned that the group vid-chat included Proctor and Stone family members for celebrating Cassie and Michael’s special day too.

Here in Winnipeg, the weather has been pretty good so far after some overnight rain including during our drive time from Thunder Bay, but there is a chance of some more rain later that we hope won’t get in the way of the work or play time.  It isn’t as hot here as at home, but mid-nineties is still hot; so there might be a pool swim in our future later today too.  That comment has Ethan’s thoughts wandering off on a girlfriend-in-swimsuit tangent; so we should likely just wrap this up now that he’s totally lost interest in this little task! ;^)

The war with Iran is still off so far today – or not; since they get blamed for everything that happens in the region and beyond that includes the fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.  The two straits being fought over are also either open or not depending on the source; so we’ll just have to wait and find out the truth as supply chains either recover or continue to be destroyed depending on what is actually true.  Oil prices are currently down on hopes of another ceasefire, and we can only continue to be amazed by the insanity of investors continuing to believe in rhetoric over reality while insiders are obviously making billions at their expense and loss.  While I won’t get into a rant about that, let’s also mention that the most-obvious display of that cost to investors is the ongoing distortion between spot and future prices that in normal markets would only be a difference to either side of the futures price of only a couple of dollars that has instead been a difference of forty dollars or more since the start of the Iran war at the end of February.  The people getting to pocket the money from that difference are gaining those billions; and that is really nothing more than winning – or losing – bets on a market that is currently rigged.

Ethan is still daydreaming of Naomi-in-a-swimsuit, but we should at least mention the mess that is Ukraine.  The western media reports endlessly on every daily Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian civilian targets that include retail warehouses, tourist resorts, and passenger buses while they ignore reporting on the massive Russian attacks on Ukraine.  Russia is continuing to target Odessa ports and any ships daring to attempt to use them; missile and drone strikes are continuing on the Kiev region; and we can’t imagine how tough that must be on the people for everything from lack of sleep to power outages during summer heat to pressure on emergency services and daily life survival.  The frontlines fighting continues to be a disaster for Ukraine, and while we are repeating ourselves too-often in our journals, this war will eventually end one way or the other; and it truly is insane for Ukrainian leaders to keep fighting when taking a bad peace deal is far-better for their people than fighting to the last citizen!

Okay, that’s enough for today – and I’m not just writing that because Ethan has lost all ability to focus on anything serious!  I’m okay with getting back to the real world, and our chores are nearly finished anyway; so that’s all for this report.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 26, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The news from home included a heat-shortened church service this morning; a Quarry Lake play afternoon to stay cool on one of the hottest days of the summer-so-far; and a buffet dinner at the Inn as a semi wrap-up blast of food fun for the Malloys’ anniversary weekend getaway.  Our cousins have helped to keep Valerie and Marcus entertained while we’re away; so they’ve had fun without us.

Our adventures in Thunder Bay were amazing; so we didn’t feel bad about what we missed at home today.  The evening sailing tour last night was awesome and unforgettable views of the water and shoreline were spectacular!  Great Lakes sailing is nothing like anything we have near home; and the tour company we sailed with has some incredible options from catamarans and sail boats to speed boats, cruisers, and fishing options.  We are not advertising for them here in our journals, but for future Magi, if you’re ever in the area; you should definitely include a Superior sailing tour! ;^)

The working dinner last night was good too, but the other sightseeing highlights of our Sunday included the fort visit, the shoreline bike ride, and checking out the Kakabeka Falls that we stopped to see on our way from Thunder Bay as we started the trip-in-progress to Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Those falls are referred to as the Niagara Falls of the North, and they are the second-tallest falls in Ontario at over one-hundred and twenty feet, but while they are amazing; we really loved the location that is still mostly-natural without the extreme tourism built up around Niagara Falls.  We helped Cassie and Michael with a total of four work meetings today too including a working breakfast and lunch; and that’s pretty much all of the news we have for our own adventures.  We’ll be on the road this evening for around eight hours plus any stops for breaks along the way – though we’ll switch time zones too; so that will help a bit with our available sleep time once we’re in Winnipeg.

While we have the time again tonight, Ethan and I do not want to get into a major world news rant – though we could do that every day as our leaders continue the insanity around the world!  In the Middle East, war is off today – or on, depending on where you look or who you listen to, but President Trump is apparently flopping again to war-off with Iran despite no changes in diplomacy.  Some reports claim that he is stopping the bombing due to missile and bomb stocks being depleted, but we don’t believe that this will be more than another break while plans are assessed and changed again.  There is still fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen; Israel continued to commit atrocities in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and beyond; and the oil is not flowing in the region at the levels needed to keep the world economy from driving off the cliff ahead of us.

In Ukraine, the bad rolls on; the leaders in the west are still oblivious; and the ‘normal’ people continue to pay the price every day.  In addition to the frontlines fighting and bombing across the country, the blockade of Odessa and attacks on any ships attempting to travel there continues; and it won’t take long for that to have a major impact both on Ukraine’s ability to fight and conduct business.  Ukraine is still fighting back with their drones – including on civilian ships; so the combination of the attacks from both sides are causing serious problems for the world transportation system.

We haven’t mentioned Europe’s latest sanctions package on Russia, but they are really only shooting their own economy in the head; Russia will ignore these sanctions or work around them; and the European leaders are insane if they believe they have the power to enforce a price cap on Russia petroleum products on the world market.  They also continue to talk about blockades for Russian oil tankers, and that’s insane too, but then America started that blockade trend with Venezuela and Cuba; so now it seems as though the rest of the world has decided that high seas piracy is the new norm.  We think that all blockades are stupid and basically acts of war along with being bad for everyone; so we think that they should all stop before it is too late and we find ourselves in another world war.

I should likely stop writing that we don’t want to get into any rants when half the time we go on to doing one anyway, but we are going to stop there; I’m going to enjoy some quality co-ed cuddle time with Aiden; and we’ll all enjoy the drive time out of Ontario and into Manitoba.  Stay tuned, future reader, since we are going to have a very busy week working and playing in three Provinces with the work covering everything from agriculture to the energy industry.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!