Home on the Hill

RT and Rhoda and Molly the polar bear dog and Tommy the Corgi Shepard cross arrived. We have been having a great time exploring the joint and eating fresh Veg and grass fed beef. Xena has been having a wonerful time with her new friends. Taking a particular liking to Tommy. Here she is giving him a slurp. Note the giant muscular body suspendend on short legs. Handy during the upcoming tale: We went out to gather some eggs and water the chickens. What I didn't notice was when I moved the run earlier in the day I had left the gate shutter in the run to keep the chickens in the coop. I watered them and then got the eggs and started pounding on the back of the chicken coop to get them to come out in the run so that Rhoda could see them. Puzzled as to why they weren't flocking to the pile of goodies I had left them, I opened up the back bottom clean out door and was going to persuade them to move towards the light. From there on pandemonium reigned. Tommy zipped throug...

Here's a couple from the Coast perusing a building on the new property. I believe we have talked them into something in the 600K$ for this little fixer upper. Actually it's our friend RT & Rhoda and doggies out for a chunder along the new piece of property we bought. Eating Saskatoons we walked partway up the West property line and cut back via the Christmas tree field to the house for a lovely cup of tea. Before I put RT to work in the Wood Barn..

Just a small rant. Packaging. I am always astounded when I see such extravagantly wasteful examples. I bought the most expensive eggs I could find in the local food mart. I just had to see. We had to save ours for company. These were just for the Saturday morning meeting in Fraser Lake. These are high priced, gotta be good for you, brown eggs. Don't they? Have a look at the packaging. Three part plastic --two to hold the eggs and one to put over top so that the advertising on the labels would be easier to read. Each egg is individually marked. These babies go for close to five bucks. And more than one ran when I put them on the grill. I picked up a cool health tip recently: Don't eat anything that the packaging says is good for you. Chances are it isn't. Have a look at the packaging and ingredients ( if you can decipher it ) on any "Healthy, loaded with good triglycerides, full of fibre etc. etc. product that tries to tell you it can solve all our heal...

I added a movable divider to the skid steer tote.  The skid loader, a 1980 1845 Case is pretty old and the driveway is gravel with the odd pot hole.  Not the smoothest terraine to deliver packages over.  The other day while trying to move a small smoker a buddy had given, me the skid loader went into spasms and dumped it on the ground breaking it.  I was reluctant to use it to transport tools from here to there.  But not now: tada! Of course Ewe, the cat, had to check it out.  Xena also tried it.  I thought she wanted to go fro a ride as she stood on the platform.  But as soon as the engine coughed to life she jumped off- smart girl. Had another sweat last night.  It started late, around eight o'clock. One of the rounds was so hot I had to remind myself that my hair would probably not catch on fire as there was too much steam. We just lay in the lodge for a half hour after the pipe was taken apart, indicating the end of the sweat, and relaxed.  I drove home a little slower driving ...

It became apparent yesterday, as I was removing the board and batten doors from the garage, that I will have to make lounging provisions for Boose, our yard cat. She likes this tall shelf which will have to go when I put an inch of spray foam on the walls I will have to make her something similar in the new layout so she can feel at home. The perfect spot ,high and isolated. I watched her get to the top shelf and acrobatics --more accurately, catrobatics involving careful and considerate route planning and execution were required. I was impressed. And yes, just a little envious. This was a pic that Jo took and shows why the new garage roof is required. When the roof was first installed it's ingenuity would have been pretty impressive. The top ridge line was covered with transparent green house plastic to let the light in. After time it deteriorated and peices of plywood was added to cover the leaks. It doesn't look like any preservative was used. Without it a low pitc...

I discovered this beauty when I was dismanteling the old shelving and workbench in the garage in preparation for a new roof, door and insullating. It was being used as a bench top work surface. It is a georgeous piece of fir. At least twelve feet long it has to be eighteen inches wide and an inch and half thick. a few cabinet projects come to mind when I looked at this mother of all boards. One problem, not insurmountable, is that I only have a sixteen inch thickness planer. Oh well, that's why Makita makes four and a half inch grinders.. I also managed to score a bunch of nice looking one by eights that were being used as overhead storage. ( Mostly for Pack Rat droppings) These eight foot rough fir planks are over an inch thick. I am carefully piling it in the wood storage barn. And realizing I am going to have to make some more storage racks out there. That was a late last fall project that got called on account of cold. Tomorrow I will salvage the wood from the two f...

Twelve billion earthworms can't be wrong. One of the joys of living a bit remotely is the surprises we find in the mail box when we go to town. Today I got a parcel from my Daughter Sara and Husband Kevin. My belly button was 58 years old recently and she sent me a celebration package. I got a cool "T" shirt. From now on simply referred to as "my favorite T shirt". And I know there's a snow shovel in the back ground. We like to keep on on the deck " just in case ". Yes it has snowed here in July. Hopefully not this year. And a great book on gardening vegtables and herbs. I want to expand my gardening experience to include herbs. I also got a package of some healthy stuff. Dried tomatoes. They are delicious so I am not sure about the truth in packaging. I also got in the mail the two most read magazines of middle age men. Victoria Secret and Lee Valley. I don't subscribe to Victoria Secret -- must have been a postal error.

To those of you in warmer climes the title of this blog would be "the late May Harvest". My gardening buddy Carol Browne is even harvesting watermelons. However, remembering that less than two weeks ago we were waking to 3C (37.4F.) temperatures, this bunch is a bit of a gardening miracle. The round black object on the squash is a lens cover for Jo-Ann's camera. I really enjoy the white radishes. Large, juicy, not too hot with a solid core. No bug bites or worm holes this year. Knock on wood ..er rubber. The tires make such a huge difference, soaking in the daily sunshine and assisting the yard or so of soil in each unit to maintain an after dark temperature in the tires many degrees warmer than the outside air. Jo-Ann thought the spaghetti squash was getting too large for the tire. I don't know. I think we could have let it get a bit bigger. But it will be a great test. This one is the size of the largest ones we had last year and they were plentiful and a ...

In order to make putting up the joists easier, and to facilitate the insulation of the garage it was necessary to complete the dung out.  I had already hauled away several defunct fridges, a standup freezer ( I had to duct tape that one so what was inside couldn't get out..) and a couple of stoves.  This round was all the other crap that had been stuffed in there.  The Before: The after: What came out ready to be burnt and buried when the weather allows.   and then joists, spray foam, inside sheeting, loose fill insulation, some windows and doors.  It will be nice to have a heated garage this winter.  If I get really ambitious, and time allows I will even dig out the dirt floor lay two inches of insulation  and then drop a slab in. So little time, so many projects.

Back into the " Ugly Duck " and we found a table that suited our kitchen better than the round one. The round one didn't have a leaf and this one had a little more room.  Just in case we get visitors.. The round table made it's way to the upstairs library.  Nice.  Tables everywhere.  The big improvement was having a table on the balcony to gaze over the joint.

We picked up a round oak table for the kitchen. Which left us with a design dilemma. Well O.K a storage dilemma. Our current kitchen table got moved to the balcony. What a difference. We had a rough table out on the balcony but took it down when we laid the new decking a year ago. I really missed having a table out there. Nice to enjoy the balcony during the summer time. I spent the day dunging out the garage in preparation for a roof rebuild, some insulation and perhaps a couple of windows. I am always astounded how the largest part of reno projects around here consist of clearing out the sites preparatory to doing the actual construction. And this time: two pails of bent nails. I don't get that one. Saving bent nails. And I do it. These ones were left out in an un heated garage so basically turned into a mass of rust.

We were tooling around in the garden today adjusting the sprinkler system and trying some underground drip lines. Gotta like that idea, no waste, water goes directly to the plants roots. While we were out there we had a bit of a brainstorm. We have a couple of tires of soybeans for edemame growing and they require a bit warmer temperatures. We had wrapped tires with green house plastic before. Screwing it to the sides of the tires. We had some plastic left over and came up with this idea: Put the plastic on the inside of the tire, sticking it down into the soil for stability and putting a tire "lid"( with horticultural fabric for venting) on top. 15c rise in temperature. Lots of light. Tried it with the tomatoes all tho we didn't put a top on them. It also helps cut down the wind on the plants. We've been having a lot of high winds and cold temps lately. This looks like another innovation in the world of cold weather gardening. I opened a package from my t...

This is one of those projects that seemed to take an inordinate amount of time: I have been working on it, a bit here and there for over a week now. Some friends dropped by a couple of days ago and I swung them into action, cutting and drilling and screwing and bolting. After a couple of hours it was done. The new skidsteer dumper pallet. Actually very handy for moving stuff around the place. Mixing garden soil, that kind of thing. Now I can get that last apple tree planted. Nice to do that before fall. Well maybe it is fall as the temperature is about 12c and we turned the furnace on to take the chill off..

I was at the dollar store in Vanderhoof when my life changed. I had bought a package of envelopes and the store clerk asked me if the senior citizens discount applied. Apparently they have a policy that Mondays is senior citizens discount day. If your over 55. I am. This month I will be 58. I took the discount. And went into midlife crisis. Now I know, technically, that it's midlife only if I plan on living until I am 116. I immediately explained to Jo-Ann and the perplexed clerk, that I was leaving her for a blond 20 year old. Perhaps several. And buying a red convertible. And a motorcycle. I was going to grow a pony tail and call guys "Dude". And wear gold chains. On the other hand --joining an Ashram was kind of appealing. Perhaps I could take the name "Pukawongolamablom". I probably would look very spiritual wrapped in saffron. Jo-Ann took it rather hard. She was gurgling and laughing nervously when we left the store. I beleive she was making...

I have a theory that we don't eat enough dirt. Everything is homogenized, sterilized, sanitized, iodized and chlorinated vitamin and fiber enriched. No wonder we have some weird diseases cropping up. And our general health is going down hill. We don't eat enough whole unprocessed food. Food fresh from the garden. Vegetables with traces of the soil still on them. Vitamins au natural. So in that regard-- Radish reborn: Reds and a very nice, mild white one. With all the weather we've been having lately the radishes and lettuce didn't seem to be doing well. Some friend of ours were over and we were walking through the garden and I was telling them how we didn't get any radishes because of their early dust up with the dreaded, light sucking, ( but astoundingly delicious) Lambs Quarters . Ellen looked at the radishes and told me that they seemed to be doing all right. Lo and behold. She also gave me a lesson on zuchinni . I didn't know that there are male and ...

Happy independence day you guys! Let's make sure the spirit of independence grows and flourishes. And thanks for your contribution to the progress of the world. It's amazing to me, how many people, Americans included, castigate the U.S.A with nary a thought to the enormous progress this world has made due to the blood and sweat of the nation the founding fathers conceived. Eat cake and dance. Hopefully cake made with the 100 mile diet . My planting plans have been waylaid a bit as I changed the skid steer's bucket to the fork lift tines. I am building a dumping box that can be picked up by the fork lift tines to help move crap around. and mix soil in. Picture a pallet that is super sized and with reinforced sides. Photos to follow. I picked up a cool alarm clock at the second hand store in town, " The Ugly Duck " It's my favorite store in Fraser Lake and is full of treasures. As a matter of fact today I will be taking the trailer to town to get a load...

We are pretty excited around here this morning. We just found out that we have officially registered an 80 acre parcel of land in our name. I.E. we own it. It's the parcel in red just below our existing property marked in green. The new parcel is important to us because our driveway passes through it. Before this we had to cross some one elses land to get to ours. And the fir and poplar provide a great visual break from highway 16. We were always worried that some one would come along and log it off, or block the road, or --burn it down. As land goes it's probably not that great, mostly slopeing, with two right of ways and an easement. One of the easements is for an old telegraph line that hasn't been used since the late 1800's. The other is for a Gas line that also crosses our existing property. There is a flat portion near Savory road that has a building site on it with a bunch of cobbled together houses - all delapidated that were built by an interesting character t...

Take off 'eh. Another birthday! To celebrate we are working on becoming a little more self-sufficient. Today I am still planting apple trees. Well, O.K. digging holes. We are adjusting the drip and spray irrigation in the garden and tomorrow we will be going to Prince George for supplies. And some shut off valves to make adjusting the system a little easier. Xena has discovered that playing in the swimming pool is a great way to cool off after chasing Ewe around the yard. I am amazed that the hole still has water in it as we dug it at the end of May. The ground is hard clay so that is probably holding the water. I just may get some EPDM liner and make a more permanent water feature/Xena splash pond.