Easter Weekend 2012

What a productive weekend its been!

I filled my first compost bucket.

I built a set of railings for the front steps

I added extra slats to the back deck so that the kids dont fall through.

And built a new railing on the one side of the stairs.....

All the wood working needed to be done so that I could get house insurance. They only gave me a 30 day notice to get the things fixed, so it will be nice to have this all off my list. And of course it would have taked MUCH longer if my brother in law and father in law where not there to help me.

We also changed all the outside door locks, as we did not get any keys from the previous owners. Now all the locks work with the same key!

And of course Ruby had a great time playing in the back yard with her cousins!

Trimmed some trees to brighten up the yard.

and uncle Andy and his nephews cut the branches and piled 'em up for me.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I won a leg of lamb at the farmers market! All in all it was an excellent weekend!

Sorry for the delay...

but boy have we been busy! The movers came and packed us up on Sunday and Monday the 18th and 19th of March. Then loaded the moving truck on the Tuesday. We then spent the next 2 weeks in a hotel in Comox. And after those very long 2 weeks in a hotel we sure were ready to move into our new house. We took posession on Saturday the 31st, and promptly arrived to do laundry! Since the movers do not work weekends, we had to wait until Monday for the movers to show up and unpack us.

Its been a whirlwind since then, unpacking and organizing all sorts of stuff. There have been a few milestones..... I filled my first bucket of composting and brought it out to the bin.  I've been religous about recycling; every thing has been rinsed and put in the bin.

Yesterday I trimmed the the trees to make more light in the backyard, doing so has allowed us to see Ruby everywhere in the yard.

Today I fixed the railings on the deck so that a 2yr old can no longer fit between the slats. I then went back to Home depot and begged some used (broken) pallets and made myself a compost bin this afternoon. Hopefully I will be able to rent a chipper tomorrow and take care of all the branches I took down yesterday.

Today most of the Campbell Clan (my in laws) arrived, and we are in for a busy weekend! An added bonus is that Ruby should sure be tuckered out!!!

Sorry for the delay in posting, I'll try and be more dilligent, but I have been a zombie this last week!

Cheers

Nick

Comox Organizations I plan to join

There are so many exciting things going on in the valley, that i figured I'd share a few that I am excited about.

LUSH Valley Food Action Society: I plan to attend some of their spring gardening classes. They also have an urban fruit tree harvest program to harvest fruit that people would otherwise let rot on the tree. Another program they offer is a VIHA inspected commericial kitchen for rent.

Comox Valley Seed Savers: "Our mission is to conserve and preserve our local plant diversity by encouraging and supporting public participation in growing heritage and non-hybrid food crops and other plants."

Comox Valley Farmers Marrket: Not something I can be joining right away, but I do plan on supporting them, and hopefully in a few years I can grow enought produce to eventually sell some at the market.

Comox Valley Bee keepers: This I plan on attending VERY soon. i dont know if iIwill be able to start a couple of hives this year, but next spring for sure.

I am sure there are other great organizations to join in the valley, but there is a LOT of work to be done in my yard to get it ready. I probally wont be able to get everything done i would like this season, but if we can get a few tomato`s and zuccini planted at least I will be happy!

Cheers

Nick

The Brix Index ~ Why Modern Day Veggies Taste like $***

The Brix Index

Have you ever seen those 'V8 Juice' commercials where they bop themselves in the head and say, "Shoulda had a V8!" And on one of those commercials the guy says, "You can do that (bop) all day long. I'm not going to have a V8 juice because I don't like the taste."

Well NO $*^!. In doing some research I have found out WHY vegetables taste like ***t. (Well at least modern day vegetables)

Commercially grown fruits and vegetables have been genetically modified (GMO) from seeds to produce the biggest, best looking, fastest growing product possible. These GMO'd seeds are then put into dirt which is fertilized with not so natural chemicals to 'enhance' growth; then the crops are sprayed with chemical pesticides to kill off any bugs (good or bad) to ensure a usable crop. The cycle depletes the soil and continues to produce less and less nutrient rich foods, year after year.

Some sources believe that if we were to take a head of broccoli from 1950 and test its nutrient levels against a head of broccoli grown today the difference in nutrient value would be shockingly less than the veggie from 70 years ago.

The other factor which is hardly ever talked about is the taste. By genetically modifying these fruits and vegetables we effectively have been modifying the taste! No wonder broccoli tastes like ***t ~ pass the chips please!

Enter the Brix Index... This folks is what got me on the band wagon!!!!

The Brix Index ~ in the most simplest of terms ~ is an index which measures the natural sugars (and much more) found in fruits and vegetables.

Here are some links with more information:

 http://crossroads.ws/brix/index.htm                    http://www.highbrixgardens.com/what-is-brix.html

In essence using non GMO seeds and fertilizing with 'natural fertilizers' (sea weed, compost etc) we can attain some of the best tasting fruits and veggies.

If you take away nothing else from this blog than understand the essentials: (as quoted from the aforementioned websites)

~ “Food should taste good and not just be ‘pretty.’”

~ ‘..Crops grown to the very best standards are so healthy that they don’t need toxic spray to protect them from insects & disease…. The very best produce will NOT rot or mold.’

~ “Brix = Quality”

~ Brix fruits and veggies have higher carbohydrate levels and mineral density

~ High Brix plants are resistant to insects and disease

So in order for we ‘Urban Agrarians’ to obtain this ‘high Brix’ fruits and veggies we plan to grow ‘Heirloom’ seeds; aka non GMO seeds. And we plan to grow them as organically as possible.

Nick will follow up with more info on ‘Heirloom Gardening.’ Thanks for reading!

 Kate

We MADE it to Comox!

It was a bit touch and go, and especially hard in these last two weeks but WE MADE IT! After 6 + long years in the North Island we have moved to Comox in Central Vancouver Island.

I thought it would be a more emotional day, but I don't think reality has hit me yet.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning singing a song from Disney's "Polly:"

'Lift your voices and sing! Let the joy ring!
Over, over, over and over again!
Stand up! (Stand Up!)
And let the spirit move you!
Stand up! (Stand UP!)
Don't let 'em bring you down!'

It was the perfect mantra for the day.

Movers arrived this past Sunday afternoon and started packing. Our little house in Port McNeill was 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, only 1050 square feet but it had a SPECTACULAR view of Broughton Straight.

It was our first house, bought three + years ago with money we'd scrimped and saved all on our own. We brought home our two beautiful children from the hospital to that house. It served its purpose. I learned many, many things about myself, my husband, my marriage and parenting.

I will miss my friends and neighbours but not the town.

I am EXSTATIC about moving to Comox! Although we almost didn't get there!

The moving truck left this morning at 10 am and we had planned to be very much behind it. Only I tried to be 'helpful,' and of course it didn't quite work out as planned!

I reversed the truck onto the front lawn right up to the front door, thinking, "Geez why get wet humping all our stuff when I could just make life easy?!" Ummm... ya.... So once heavy and loaded down, the lawn -ahem- moss covered yard becomes a big mud pit. OOOPs!

Called the tow truck to be rescued and then the Realtor and tell her that I'd left nice big muddy ruts in the front yard! And all my shovels are packed so I can't even fix it. Sorry new owners!

So then we headed off, Nick, myself, Ruby, Eli, Gypsy (the dog) and Onyx and Oscar (our cats). (Dog and cats kennels side by side in the bed under the canopy - glad I couldn't hear the commotion for the trip!)

But we hadn't even made it 10 kilometres down the highway when the tarp ripped off the top of the trailer and we had to pull over to remove it. Nick's wine bottles are soaked, oh well.

But the Eli fell asleep (bless his heart he is teething) and Ruby watched a couple of movies on Nick's Tablet while he and I held hands and listened to Eric Church's new album and then the Zac Brown Band.

There was of course snow in the Sutton Mountain Range as we headed south. But just as we descended into Sayward junction, the clouds parted and the sun started shining. It was very much like a sign from above that we were in the right direction and have nothing but greatness ahead of us.

We rolled into Comox just before 3 pm. Exhausted but here! Our new adventure is just beginning!

Kate

To Do List...... all the things I want to do in the new house

Hey all! I found another neat thing to try in the new house, and instead of just putting it on facebook, I decided a blog entry with all my ideas.

So here goes.....



A wall herb garden on the Main floor somewhere



Marbles in the fence I have yet to build



Build some gardens in the front yard





Get Bee's



Build a pallet compost bin

well these are some of the things I want to do at the new house. But the highest priority will be to get a better fence built in the back yard to keep the dog in. That and to chop down the tree's in the back yard so that I can plant a garden.

cheers

Nick

I'm a HOARDER!

We'll since the lovely Government of Canada representative decided that the movers won't be paid to stop at my storage locker, I have been tasked with moving everything from the storage locker into our house.

Yesterday after the 10 trip I told the wife i was done moveing stuff from the locker... The response i get..."wow, that was easy"..... you should have seen the look I gave it... I'm surprised the paint on the walll behind her didnt start to peel off.... easy considering I had to do it all.... dang BLUE jobs..

Anyways, the job is done, the trailer moved to the storage locker, and the smaller freezer moved onto the trailer. All that is left for me to do is load the wine onto the trailer, and move the food from the big deepfreezer to the small one. By this time tomorrow I will actually be done done......

The problem with being done.............

To The Ceiling!



adding this caption reminded me to turn the lights off before i melt something!

......... is that I now feel like a hoarder... I can't wait for someone we know to get knocked up so i can get rid of some of the dang baby clothes!

anyways, its only 5 more sleeps here with this mess, then its 11 - 13 sleeps in the hotel. I will be happy once we are in the hotel in Comox as I wont be living and having to worry about getting outta here. Add that I have until June before I have to go back to work, means that I have tons of time to get everything sorted away at the new place..... did I mention that I have 10 empty cases of wine bottles that I need to get filled :)

anyways... Katie is going to give me crap for posting pictures without clearing it with her (she was embarrased by the wine bottles in the last picture!) and most likly will find spelling mistakes.......... but hey, if she was awake at 8:50 she could correct me!

cheers

nick