West Coast Homestead

Moving On

I've been too busy in the garden to post much of anything lately, but I'm posting now to say that I'm moving my blog to http://freerangeliving.blogspot.com/ . The new blog will be a little more all encompassing (more of a family blog exploring unschooling, gardening, cooking and environmental issues).  Hope to see some of you there!

A Good Read

I just finished a really good book last night that I thought I'd share - The Birth House, by Ami McKay.

Here's the official description:

The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent first years of WWI, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives.

 www.thebirthhouse.com

Eagle Webcam

I thought some of you might enjoy this webcam - it's watching a pair of eagles who are nesting on one of the islands along the coast here.  They've got two eggs which are expected to hatch at the end of the month! 

http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/wildlife/default.asp

Here's an article that talks a bit about it:

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_eagles-20060403.html

A break in the weather.

We finally got a couple of days without  a continuous downpour, so we actually got some work done!  We've got two large beds dug and filled - the herb bed and the fruit tree/blueberry bed (which runs down one side of the yard doubling as a screen between us and the neighbors). Luckily, the rain held off until we were finished - it will help the trees get established so I can't complain.  Another weekend or two and we should have all of the plants in the ground!  I'm still trying to figure out the most space-efficient way of trellising the raspberries and blackberries...

On another note, I was happy to see Vancouver featured in the current issue of Organic Gardening.  It was a good reminder that even though we haven't attained our rural dreams, we still have it pretty good!

I saw the first installment of Jamie Oliver's Great Italian Escape tonight, and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.  He's travelling around Italy in his rebuilt VW van learning how Italians eat.  I have a bit of a thing for all things European - Chuck and I did the obligatory backpacking trip to Europe when I was pregnant with our daughter, and we seriously considered never coming home!  Now that I think about it, my ideal homestead would be a little stone house in Tuscany, or the south of France, or the Scottish highlands (hey, a girl can dream).

Calvin, the ultimate unschooler.

Rainy day activities.

Blueberries!

Starting Out!

Just over a year ago, Chuck and I finally managed to convince the bank to give us a loan (we live in the most expensive real estate market in Canada, and on one modest income) and we acquired our tiny little starter home in December 2004.  It's a charming 2 bedroom house with a grand total of 770 sq.ft - but it's in a nice neighborhood, and it's ours, so we're thrilled! It's not the homestead we long for, but it's a step in the right direction.  We're hoping to build up some equity until we can afford to buy a large parcel of land outside of the city and build a "green" home (I'd love to get off grid).  Until then, I'm going to employ the idea of edible landscaping to this 3000 square foot plot of land and see what we can squeeze out of it!

Last year we worked on fixing roofs and foundations, painting the inside and outside, and uncovering and refinishing the wood floors.  This year we're going to focus on the yard, as I'd like to get some fruit trees established.  I've recently been on a bit of a garden shop binge with my mom (who also just bought a house and has the gardening bug as well), so I've got a yard full of trees and shrubs waiting to be planted (peach, pear, apple, cherry, plum, fig, and apricot trees, kiwi and grape vines, as well as some lingonberry bushes).  I'm hoping to get some blueberry bushes in the next little while.

We've spent the past couple of weekends enlarging last year's vegetable garden and building raised beds (being in a temperate rainforest, drainage is a bit of an issue).  Our window sills are full of seedlings and I can't wait to get them into the ground!!  It's taking some creative landscaping, but I'm hoping everything will fit.  If we ever manage to get our 5+ acres, I'm not going to know what to do with it!

Anyway, I've really enjoyed reading some of the other blogs, and look forward to getting to know some of you!