minimize stress by limiting the number of times you check your phone

We put an offer on a house today.  Often we've felt that we could take our food forest to the next level if we owned the land we worked on.  I'm not quite sold on the concept of home ownership, it being more maximalist, but I couldn't quite bring myself to rent a Bobcat these last three years.  To me, the removal of annoying dead stumps in the ground is an expense for the property owner.

While others are flattening their lawn, we might create waves and mountains where a dry shrub would live on the peak and lettuces can nestle in the grooves below.  We'd paint, we'd polish, we'd do laundry in the laundry room.  We'd pay hundreds of thousands to get our hands on extras like a dishwasher.

We'll get to hear back one way or the other by late tomorrow evening and I must not begin to pack just yet.  The realtor will phone us and maybe even meet us.  Although her office was small, I believe it could still do with some minimizing.

no one rides for free

It's lovely to eat food you've grown, foraged, or caught.  I'm undecided if we're living off the land when we go fishing since I know they stock the lakes around here.  Kitson told me that they don't stock them every year, just when the fish numbers dwindle.  We're suburban homesteaders, not doomsday preppers, so what's the big deal?

I never got my fishing license this year, but that won't stop me from getting out in the canoe.  I'm tired of hearing, "FER! Check your rod! FER! You've got a fish!"  I just want to read and write, or draw a picture.  It's comfy in the canoe when one end is full of pillows.

The trout tastes fantastic when we cook it at home and know where our food comes from (although I'd love to steal the trout recipe from the restaurant at Hillside Winery).  Does anyone have a good trout recipe?

you'll never believe what we purged from the house today

On Monday I went downstairs to top up my bowl of cherries, when I came across a snake sliding out of my old skate shoe.

I opened the back door and herded it outside.  Pleased with myself for getting the snake out of the house, I went upstairs.

Today we discovered the snake not only had found it's way into the basement, but that it appeared to be living there.  Kitson asked the internet what to do.  It turns out the best thing to use on a snake is a rake (and garbage can).

Somehow with the help of a rake, Kitson got the snake into a Rubbermaid bin.

We drove it out of suburbia to set it free at the bottom of Campbell Mountain.

It wiggled out of our lives forever (I hope).

seed saving

Seed saving is a big part of reducing a garden's reliance on inputs.  Seeds cost money and gardening should be cheap!  In the case of these mammoth melting sugar snap peas we didn't get to harvesting them all while they were fresh so we decided to save some peas for seeds.  Once they are good and dried out we peel away the pea pod to collect the peas contained within.

We then separate out all the little ones (chuck them into the food forest which is abundant with volunteer plants) from the larger ones (which will be planted in a more strategic way at a later date).

nasty thorns part two

This season's formal farming footwear is best displayed in pin-stripe or chevron.  Ad-hoc, I love my new socks!  We are ready to get to work.

Wheelbarrow tires are pumped and so are we.

Now that those nasty brambles have been run through the chipper, we have ourselves some fabulous mulch.  The city's newsletter arrived today and water restrictions have come into place.  Mulch helps keep the soil shaded, allowing it to retain moisture.  The living micro-organisms in the soil rely on moisture to stay alive.  

Making your own mulch saves you money and gives you the opportunity to get rid of yard waste at the same time.  It saves on the energy required to truck your store bought mulch in and haul your yard waste away on garbage day.  Mulch makes the garden beds look neat and tidy.  I love my chipper!

nasty thorns

In the spring I pruned the blackberry bush which had come back to life on our second year here.  It had recovered from being cut down to a stump (and sprayed with RoundUp) by the property manager before we moved in.  I wish that she would have pulled out the stumps from the fruit trees she had chopped down (or better yet, left the trees).  It makes for tricky mowing.  Most of the trees have come back to life, spitting out shoots everywhere.  We wonder if it is the rootstock itself that is growing back.  After three years we still haven't gotten fruit from the apples.

Finally I got around to picking up those hazardous thorns which had been left laying where they fell.  "Chop and drop" is a method for dealing with weeds in which they can be left to break down and contribute to the life of the micro-organisms in the soil.  It's all biomass!  Chop and drop mimics a forest where plants are constantly in all stages of life.  It doesn't always look pretty.

Some plants don't break down as easily and that's where the chipper comes in.  Kitson managed to get the thorns through our electric chipper without ripping an arm off (I had refused to try).  Thorns aside, chipping is very satisfying.  I prefer the chopping and styling elements of gardening to planting, maybe for the same reasons I enjoy working as a hairdresser.

I was about to show you the after picture but it looks like the camera has gone fishing!

someone take everything

Kitson sold his banjo.  We've had it seven years and no one here can play even a phrase.

He used the money to buy sunglasses.

I finally donated this painting I did in high school.  It was for the play 'Harvey' and my friend was the star.  Everyone who knew him said it was such a likeness.  Now is probably a good time to confess that I used a projector and traced his face directly onto the canvas.  The painting is enormous.  

If you are having trouble getting rid of things like this with memories attached to them, the best thing to do is to take a picture.  I can't post all the pictures because I'll be in so much trouble with all of my family and friends.  They gave us all the clutter that we didn't buy ourselves.

I don't know how to tell you guys this.

Kitson sold most of his climbing gear.  I don't know a lot about climbing but from what I was able to surmise he had gear for three techniques.

1. Boldering
Climb up a rock wall with no harness and rope, fall on a giant chunk of foam.

2. Sport
Climb up a rock wall with a harness and rope, attach your rope to bolts that have been placed by other climbers that came before you.

3. Traditional (aka trad)
Climb up a wall with a harness and rope, attach your rope to little chunks of metal (cams, nuts) that get wedged into cracks (very dangerous).

As part of our downsize, Kitson decided to part with the trad gear which had never been used.  He advertised it online and a fellow came on his motorcycle to pick it up.  He saw the other gear and started offering extra cash for the rest of it.  In the end Kitson was left with only his boldering gear and one harness (which will allow him to join other equipped sport or trad climbers).  The guy even took our slack line, which we used at least once every two years.  Somehow he attached everything to the motorcycle and rode away.







When I got home from work the next day, Kitson had spent all the money on mountain biking equipment.

the canoe

My husband told me a few years ago that he wanted a boat.  I told him it wasn't in the budget.
"But it's only $300!"  I decided that wasn't too bad and he got his boat.

People ask what kind of canoe we have.  I always tell them the kind that has a regatta '78 sticker on it.

The other sticker is in memory of my husband's cousin Neil, who is best know for being glad.

The wood trim around the fibreglass had cracked and Kitson replaced it with new wood.  We polished it up with our home made all purpose polish (half beeswax dissolved into half olive oil) which aids in waterproofing.

More recently Kitson decided the boat needed some handles.  He used some scrap rope and threaded it through some irrigation tubing that was laying in the backyard in a sorry heap.  Ta-da!

he thought the trees might be 100 years old

At the winery where my husband works, two large cherry trees stand out front.  The fruit was ready that day so we took the opportunity to glean.  I threw my water bottle in my purse and we proceeded to fill a wine box with cherries.

I was up a tree, when I saw my husband's boss' boss' boss setting up a ladder.
"Be careful!" he shouted.  He knew I was pregnant.  He was overjoyed that we were out there to pick the fruit.  The man was best known for being very rich and I enjoyed the sight of him perched on that rickety old ladder.  He was also known for working really hard and he picked the same amount as the two of us in less time.  He was there for the same reason, to enjoy it at home later.

I thought it would make a great photo op for the blog so I went down the tree for my purse.  Unfortunately, while I was up a tree the purse had filled with water.  My camera and phone floated somewhere in the purse's watery depths.

The phone came back to life after three days in a bag of rice.  I'm still waiting to try the camera.
Here are the cherries, safe at home.

What do you see?

Is it the latest shade of green?

Every year new shoots reach for the sky.  In February I cut them down.  I make the cut past the second node to encourage the right amount of fruit to grow.  Okay, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I know this farmer family that has pear trees.  Guess who harvests their hair?  

In September I pick the pairs.  Our cellar isn't really built for long term storage and the pears seem to ripen all at once.  I usually dry them with the dehydrator.  They turn into delicious candy.  Processing is a lot more work than growing in this case.

Here are our pears today.

minimize

We popped out the extension from our big table...

...and made it small.

heirloom tomatoes

The heirloom tomatoes are coming along nicely.  The cultivars included are Black Krim, Green Zebra, and Gardener's Delight.  They've been trellised up on branches that grew on site.  Using what is already available around you is part of the theory of Permaculture.  We're attempting to reduce our inputs as much as possible.

Reducing inputs can be challenging.  It always seems to be easier to shop than it is to create.  My efforts to downsize were thwarted this week when we received a free air condition that someone was getting rid of.  Hopefully keeping cooler in the July heat will make us more productive on our mini farm.  Ahhh! More stuff!

big berries and ballon blasts

The first raspberries are ripe for picking.  One berry got ripped before the photo shoot and passed out on the floor twice before the session even began.

...

In front of our house I like to position the 'free' pile.  I'm not sure if the neighbours love it, but I sure do.  Countless people have gotten treasures (or junk) from our hand-me-down stash.  Today our summer umbrella was claimed.  It didn't tilt so it was really useless in the afternoon sun, and it's far too hot to sit out mid-day.  We made the decision for the umbrella to go after I broke the umbrella stand.

I think the umbrella stand was meant to be filled with sand but I had chosen water, which had since gone putrid.  I attempted to tip the water out of its container off the edge of the deck, but it slipped through my fingers, exploding like a water balloon into the yard below, blowing itself to smithereens.

I don't usually recommend purging by method of vandalism.  I suppose I have taken a hockey stick to a perfectly good alarm clock once but that was a long time ago.

cleansing

I deleted all my emails.  Even the important ones.  I couldn't decide if there were any important ones.  What a feeling of purity!

The midwife told me that in the third trimester I would feel an insatiable desire to clean.  She didn't mention that I'd have a desire to purge.  Since I only just entered the second trimester I'm not sure there will be anything left to clean when the baby is born.

made from scratch

Tomorrow we go back to work.  We sure needed this week off to catch up on gardening, preserving, and decluttering.  We managed to get rid of fifty things and I think we must have completed fifty chores as well!  Some of our labours of love:

Fermented Beets

We had a bumper crop of beets this week, which is great because it was part of my Naturopath's prescription.  We started some ferments in jars with the lids left on slightly loose.  We dissolve 2 tbsp of sea salt into 4 cups of water and then pour the mixture over the grated beats.  Check every few days and see if the beets are tasting pickled enough (like sauerkraut).  Then chill them down in the fridge to stop the ferment.

Dried Herbs

After growing all these herbs, if you them to last longer than the life of the plant, you have to preserve them in some way.  We used our dehydrator on our two types of oregano (Italian and ...the other kind), mint, peppermint, and sage.  We made cilantro pesto since cilantro doesn't dry as well as other herbs.

Home-made Granola

Good granola is expensive!  Ours contains spelt, kamut, raisins, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, molasses, cane sugar (not a lot), and coconut oil.  I forgot to add that dash of salt!  For breakfast I just add coconut milk and some fruit.

Dry Shampoo

To be honest I've never made this before and will be testing it in the morning.  I love dry shampoo since I have long hair and I find that washing it every day dries out the ends.  For in between days I pat a little hair powder into the roots and then brush it through.  It looks clean with a matte texture.  I mixed 5 mls of baking soda with 20 mls of cornstarch and two drops of lavender oil for this test batch.  The puff will be kept in this lovely lavender pouch in between powderings.