And We're In!

Ok, actually we've been in for a month now. Sorry 'bout that, bit of a let down for you I'm sure. But it's been bloody fantastic and I've been too too busy to catch you up-- forgive me? The only reason I have time now is that I'm back in Victoria for three weeks of summer teaching at Uvic, staying at my friend Tara's condo while she's away traipsing about Europe and attending very important conferences in Brussels, I think. I was awake at 5am but don't start in the classroom until 9... I've watered her plants, had breakfast, reviewed the text, but with no garden to weed and animals to feed/walk/water/deworm, I'm a little bored. Don't take that the wrong way!

Important Things That Have Happened Since We Last Chatted:

Two Important Things, actually. First, we're going to have a Grandbaby! My daughter Rebecca and hubby Dean are expecting mid-August. It's been wonderful watching the baby bump grow, and seeing Rebecca looking just beautiful in that glowy pregnant way. Because they live farther away from the hospital in Nelson than we do, they'll be moving in with us the week before she's due, and staying on for awhile after the baby's born. What a gift to be here and be part of it, and have the room to tuck them in and provide meals and clean nappies. A dream come true for me.

Important Thing #2: My son Luke and long-time partner Erika are getting married-- at our place, on the September long weekend! When he called to ask me if they could tie the knot at Flying Leap, I said 'of course, honey, no problem.' Then I hung up the phone and started hyperventilating, and Paul had to hold me by the shoulders and tell me to just breathe. Then we made lists. Two very long lists, one of Outside Things To Be Done, and the same for Inside Things. When I left last weekend for Victoria, I think we'd managed to scratch off two items total. But it's all good-- this will be another DIY wedding-- my favourite and tons of fun. We won't have beautiful beds of flowers for this year, but the place looks like a dream anyway when it's all mowed and tidied.

So here are some recent pics before I head off to campus:

We had a dinner party a few weeks ago, and I found the Perfect Radish to serve with our appies. It was crunchy-buttery-delish. Paul is eating kale, broccoli, peas, and mustard greens while I'm gone (under strict orders not to let the mustard go to seed).

And here is a shot of the kitchen. It feels amazing to be living in such a beautiful home, and it works really well, just as I expected. More later-- I must run to class!

So Close

Greetings faithful readers! There are so very many things on which to update you, I thought I would organize into sections:

Where Things are at with the House

Ok, I actually do believe we are in our very final last week in the garage! The kitchen is complete except for grout on the backsplash tiles. One bathroom upstairs is complete (and looks fantastic, I might add), leaving one clawfoot tub in the master bath to be installed, and some work on a couple of sinks. After that, the plumbers switch our water over from the old hot water tank in the cellar to the new on-demand system, and they're done. Trim (and who knew it could take so long??) is almost finished-- the pile in the livingroom is dwindling rapidly as the crew work on remaining baseboards upstairs. I spent the weekend dashing back and forth between weeding the garden (who knew weeds grew so fast??) and painting shelves in the pantry, linen closet, and bedrooms. And hey, guess what-- I have a pantry and linen closet! What a thrill this house is, it's going to work really really well.

The hot water heater here in the garage pooped out about three weeks ago, so we've been washing dishes in cold. This weekend we had the bright idea of carting dirty dishes over to the house and running them through the dishwasher, then putting away in the kitchen. I need to wait until the paint in the pantry sets a bit, then I can transfer everything into the kitchen and we'll start eating there (hurray!).

Paul got called in to work at Selkirk College again for a few weeks, so the timing is not great except financially (who knew renos cost so much??). The good news is he can work from home (data entry), so his routine will be 'enter some numbers, move some furniture... repeat until done'.

A final sign that it is time to vacate the garage: Paul saw something furry scurry behind the tv last night. Pulling my feet up onto the couch, I asked (shrieked, actually) if it was a mouse. He said it was one of the tiny pocket gophers. I don't care, they're all rats to me. So we set Cassius to work, and I heard him hunting into the wee hours of the morning among the boxes of beekeeping equipment, tools, and household detritus. And I think I just saw some remains-- ok, a head (what does he do with the bodies??) behind the cat food bin. Ugh. I know it's not logical, but I just think the house will be more rodent-proof because I've watched as the carpenters have fortified, sealed, and made whole again what was a somewhat leaky boat.

Garden, or Things I have Killed so Far

Awhile back, when the tomatoes and two figs had been in the greenhouse for a few days, winter gave us one more kick in the shins before heading out the door. Here was the sad result:

Poor frost-bitten things, I moved them outside and snapped the post-mortem pics. I kept putting off dumping them into the compost for some unearthly reason, and Lo! Behold the Resurrection:

The tomatoes are also sprouting fresh green leaves, so I've spared them in hopes of a full recovery.

The lasagna garden is coming along... tucking transplants in is dead (oops, don't say that!) easy and works well. Seeding is another matter. The book says to spread dirt on top of the lasagna bed for planting seeds, but I found it dries out very fast and sprouting is spotty at best. So I'll add to the list 'killed one packet of heirloom specialty beet mix, and one packet parsnips'. I've resown both, but the results are still dodgy looking. Here is a recent pic of the garden (I haven't mowed the paths lately).

There is a seedbed at the bottom left with spinach and other greens just coming up; you can see broccoli in the centre of the photo, and peas to the right. To the back-left are potatoes, doing nicely. The beans just poked their heads up this week, and I swear every time I turn around they've grown another inch. I still have cucumbers to transplant out, they're in the greenhouse summing up the courage to start spending nights out of doors. And the cold frames are almost ready-- they're built and I'm amending and trucking over wheelbarrow-loads of soil in my spare-haha-time... the peppers will then be moved there from the greenhouse. So all is going pretty well there, despite being constantly behind on the weeding!

Bees, or How to Catch a Swarm, Paul-style

So far we've had two swarms-- one that landed handily in a fruit tree, about six feet up on the trunk, and the other that checked out a neighbour's pine tree, changed their minds, and flew back into their hive (who knew they did that??). With the first swarm, we set an empty box under the tree and tried various methods of coaxing them into it-- all to no avail. Then Paul (being Paul) had the bright idea of  vacuuming them off the tree. Here's a pic for proof:

Of course, being a guy, he used the shop-vac. The bees weren't harmed because he reduced the suction power (something involving a plastic bag around the filter?), and he simply emptied the live bees into a hive box. Expert swarm-catcher!

Final update:

Ok, I was just out in the garage-kitchen and saw a very plump rodent stroll across the floor into the office. It is most definitely time to vacate these premises. The next time I write will be from the comfort of our beautiful house.

Sayonoro, garage, I won't be missing you any time soon!

Quickie Update

I just stepped over to the house to snap a few shots for you, and was struck again by the amazing scent of morning-- a mix of woods and the river and grass, it triggers memories of crawling out from our big old canvas tent in the morning on summer holidays. Our family couldn't afford fancy vacations like Disneyland when I was growing up, but every summer we camped. One of my favourite memories is of coming home from a week-long camping trip (always slightly depressing for me-- the coming home part that is), and having Mom and Dad anounce we were just going to do laundry and some shopping and then head back out for another week! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. And now, I get to live in a place that smells like summer holidays-- how great is that.

We're getting close! About a month ago I asked Contractor Jim if he thought we'd be in the house by my birthday (May 19th) and he said he thought it was highly likely. So here we are, only ten days away, and Jim and the crew are speeding toward that (newest) deadline. While I don't think we'll be 'in' by then, there's a good chance the interior of the house will be mostly finished.

So where are things: baseboards and window and door trim are almost finished on the main floor, and what a beautiful difference it makes! Here's a shot of the foyer, looking at the front door. I'm so glad we went with wood trim, it just glows.

Adrian the Tile Guy is working hard on the wall tiles in all three bathrooms, and when he's done, the clawfoot tubs will be hauled up the stairs and set in place.

And none too soon, as the plumbers are also working on hooking up the kitchen sinks and will want to move on to toilets, tubs, and sinks in the next few days. Jim is hanging cupboard doors in the kitchen and installing all the door handles. And one of the last, big pieces is the staircase-- Carpenter John has been sweating over that. One of the challenges there is that the walls of the first and second floors don't exactly line up, so making them meet up neatly in the stairwell has been a challenge. We're also having a local craftsman install wrought iron railings on the stairs, so that is still to come.

Here's a shot of the kitchen island, which turned out to be... well, a little massive. The twelve-inch overhang you see at the front still needs two braces, but will allow lots of room for sitting at stools. Mm, can hardly wait to be serving wine and appies there!

Just a few more shots-- this one of the lasagna garden from a second floor window. And below are pics of the greenhouse and the strawberry garden in front. We made the raised strawberry beds from the old chimney blocks. And the greenhouse holds my 30 tomato plants, 29 pepper plants, and some leeks. Yay!

And one last photo, of the quilt I made this spring for the social justice fundraiser at the annual Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. This years' conference is being held in Calgary, and as per the Social Justice chapter's mandate, proceeds of the silent auction will go to a local agency, this time the Calgary Homelessness Society. Cheers!

Garage Easter, Marble Memories

Well, here we are-- another holiday spent in the workshop. I must be the worst judge of 'how long it will take us to move into the house' ever. Except maybe Paul, he's worse. After Christmas, I estimated we'd be in by Valentine's Day, which came and went in a blur of roses, chocolate, and drywall dust. Then I said 'Hey, we can have our house rewarming party for Paul's birthday on March 30th. We'll be in by then for sure.' A very nice dinner out that evening, but then it was back to the garage with you two! Now Easter. I asked Paul yesterday how much longer in his estimation, and he said 'April 21st.' I pointed out that was only two weeks away, and there was still the kitchen to finish, some gas and plumbing work, flooring in the upstairs hallway, all the doors, all the baseboards, plus installing the bathroom fixtures. He amended to April 27th. At this point, I'm aiming for my birthday, May 19th. But hey, there's always Canada Day!

On the upside (and a very, very good upside it is), spring is here and what a treat! I've loved watching the snow recede and the brave little buds pushing up through the cold cold ground. There are also buds on the lilac shoots I transplanted last fall, as well as on various fruit trees (many of which I've lost track of in terms of varieties... I missed them in blossom and fruit last year, so haven't memorized who is who).

We had about a week and a half of serious mud, but that's gone now and I'm spending more time outside. I've given two pear trees and three grapevines a serious pruning-- and am learning that pruning is very therapeutic. I could take out a lot of renovation angst on our flora if I'm not careful.

A few days ago, I was standing outside soaking up the sun and breathing in the smell of warming earth when I had a sudden, strong flashback to springtime of my childhood in Quesnel-- and marble season at Carson Elementary School, circa 1968. I haven't thought about that for years. As sure as the tilt of the planet toward the sun and the resurrection of all things green, was the clamour of children rooting through closets to find last years' marble hoard, and the rush to the local five-and-dime to increase the stake. Cat's Eyes, Steelies, Galaxies, Cobs, King Cobs, secured in velvet, drawstring Seagram's whiskey bags obtained from our dads. I remember plunging my hand into the bag and rolling the orbs around and around, just for the feel of it. Or holding a Galaxy up to my eye and losing myself in it's starry universe.

Then off to school early, where we'd plunk our bottoms on the school sidewalk, still barely clear of snow, and play. We girls sat in our pleated, plaid skirts and knee socks-- in our family, girls wouldn't be allowed to wear pants to school until junior high. Sitting spread-legged on the concrete, I suspect now that was why boys were willing to break the strict segregation-of-genders-on-the-playground rule (girl cooties and all that) and hunker down for a game. The rules were simple: kids would sit with backs against the school, lined all the way down the walkway, a shiny cob sitting enticingly between open legs, calling for shooters. The shooters would position a marble between thumb and forefinger, and, staying behind the shooting line, flick a marble at the cob. Anything that missed, the cob-owner got to keep. If you hit the cob, it was your prize. If your hand strayed over the shooting line in the attempt to launch your shooter, you were called on bullfudging.

I don't think my description, above, really does credit to the wild, almost hysterical energy of marble season. For example, I don't recall the consequence for bullfudging-- but I suspect we reverted to the over-arching Rule of Marbles, which was that in the case of a dispute, whoever grabbed the marble in question fastest got to keep it. Or if you could wrest it from the other person's fist, it was yours.There was pushing, shoving, cheating, fights, mud on skirts and knee socks, and things generally ending up in tears. The boys amassed the most cobs and marbles, but in my memory, I recall many a sore loser who wouldn't relenquish his cob to a girl shooter. There was also a fair amount of thievery of marble collections from the coatroom, and I think in general marble season tried the patience of teachers, who breathed a sigh of relief when the ball field was finally dry enough that they could direct our post-winter energies to that more refined game.

Do they still play marbles at school?
Back here on the farm, 2012 progresses. I've transpotted all my tomatoes into 4-inch pots, and given some of the original 90 (!!) away to Becca and Dean and the carpenters. I'll still have lots. The peppers will need to be potted up soon and I won't have room for them in the bedroom/slash seedling nursery. Dean's brother, Gord, has been here helping around the property, and I'm hoping the greenhouse will be up and funtional in a few days' time so I can put things out there. Gord built my three compost bins out of pallets strung together with wire, just the other day. And yes, that is a slight skiff of snow this morning already melting fast. The last, I swear.

Paul has been back over the border to Colville, WA recently to pick up our second load of beekeeping equipment. Here's a pic of a wee customer doing the bee dance with two bee brushes. That's our livingroom, kitchen, and beekeeping stock off to the right.

Billy has been enjoying regular playdates with her brother, Cooper (with head in cat door), and neighbour Spike. Cassius is back in hunting mode, and is sometimes seen doing the pride walk with a newly slain pocket gopher in his maw. Paul and I gave the bees their spring feeding of essential oils and amino-booster in sugar syrup a few days ago, and both hives looked good.

So the seasons turn here at Flying Leap Farm, and I get more of a sense of how the seasons in years ahead will unfold. Bliss! Happy Easter everyone.

Merry Vernal Equinox?

Hello spring-deprived readers! Yesterday I was photographing crocuses sprouting and bees flying...

... and today we awakened to an inch of new snow. Good news: it's rained enough today that, as of now, I'm looking at the same few stubborn patches of snow as this time yesterday, so we haven't lost much ground, so to speak.

Jo-Anne has been a busy girl lately. I'm splitting my time between the house and office here in the workshop (yes, on a good day it's called the workshop; on bad days, it's demoted to 'garage'). As       Jo-Anne Stoltz, PhD, Adjunct Professor Extraordinaire, I'm marking counselling masters' students' final project papers, shepherding them to the finish line in their internships, and prepping for summer teaching. Then I swap mask and cape and head over to the house, where I am Jo, lowly painting apprentice. One more day and all the walls in the house will have fresh faces. Let me show you some pics:

This is one of the spare rooms, and is a lovely shade of grey-mauve called Porcelain. Contractor Jim accidently referred to it as 'the pink room', but quickly realized his error under my withering gaze. One of the carpenters gently corrected him, saying 'I think it's mauve, Jim.' There are no pink rooms in the house.

The yellow room is a lovely shade of Buttermilk. And my favourite of the bedroom colours, below, is a silvery grey called Whitestone.

I liked it so much, I've gone with it in the smallest spare room and the master bedroom and adjoining bath. I think it will look amazing with the fir trim.

In and around these roles, I've also sewed the top for this years' quilt, to be auctioned at the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association's national conference. The conference is in Calgary in May, and the Social Justice chapter will auction my quilt along with other items, with proceeds to the Calgary Homeless Foundation. I'll post a pic of the quilt once I've quilted it. But in order to do that, I have to juggle space here in the... garage (it's been a long day), as my former sewing space has been taken over by seedling trays. Yes, I've gone from sewing to sowing. Behold:

I've sown herbs like lemon balm and thyme shown here, as well as arugula, basil, leeks, four varieties of tomatoes, and three of peppers. All are organic, most are heritage varieties from Seeds of Victoria and The Cottage Gardener, and all have germinated very well.

So well, in fact, that when it came to onions, I decided to save seeds by allocating only one to each space in the seedling tray. Something about it bothered me, though, so (well after they'd sprouted) I watched a  YouTube video on planting onion seed-- where the very capable looking, articulate man from a leading American university was packing a 4-inch pot with one hundred seeds. Oops. Apparently, when they're ready to transplant out you grab them by their long, green locks, pull them out of the pot and gently tease apart the one hundred tiny sets and plant those in the garden. Sigh. Ah well, I may have one hundred lonely, isolated onion sprouts shedding onion tears for the company of their siblings, but they will be tasty, unhappy onions by gum.

Sleeping Off Her Fuzzy Feast

See the small, white square tag, all that is left
of Jo-Anne's new slipper.

Just discovered, this afternoon while shopping for more seedling trays at Canadian Tire, that they sell slippers there. Mine have taken a beating this winter-- stained with all manner of bodily fluids, mostly non-human and no, you don't want to know. I wash them occasionally, but they take a long time to dry and make a lot of noise boinking around in the drier and it's so uncomfortable walking around on the concrete floor without slippers. So (true confessions) I probably haven't cleaned them as much as I should. So when I saw slippers on sale at Canadian Tire today, I bought some! A second pair to trade off while these are in the wash.

When I arrived home, I dropped the seedling trays, potting soil, slippers etc. in the garage and scurried over to the house to see how things were progressing. Have been leaving Billie loose instead of penning her up for these short outings. When I got back, one new slipper had been heartily, thoroughly, and unashamedly chewed, prompting me to write this verse, inspired by Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. We watched 'This Is It' last week so the tune has been running through my head.

Billie Jean is not my daughter
She's just a dog who thinks that I am her mom
But the beast is not my spawn.

Doo-do-doodle-oo (Oh!) Doo-do-doodle-oo (Oh!)... Doo-do-doodle-doodle-doodle, Doo-do-doodle-oo...

Ahhhh, that feels better.

House update! The painting is finished except for the plaster walls that are being rehabilitated, upstairs. The flooring in the kitchen is being laid. Light fixtures are being installed. Here are some pics:

We ordered all the light fixtures through Amazon.com at an amazing price. The wrought iron candleabra, to the left, I've had for many years. I found it at a second hand store in Victoria, and was told that two of them had been designed by a bride for her outdoor wedding in the '70's. I've always loved it, and had it wired for lights last summer by the Water Glass people before leaving town. I chose the other lights to play off of it. 

Paul is working tons (too much!) right now for Selkirk College, bouncing between campuses in Trail, here, and Nelson. Orders are still coming in every day for beekeeping supplies, so Paul gets home and starts his 'other' job returning emails and phone calls and keeping up with inventory. Luckily it's seasonal, although we're thrilled by the response. Once we've moved into the house and things are tidied up, we're going to start hosting monthly, informal beekeeping gatherings so people can swap knowledge and tips and get support and mentorship. One customer suggested 'Wine, Cheese, and Bees'-- love it!

Paul's Head Esplodes

Last weekend, Jo-Anne and I drove up to Kaslo for their Seedy Sunday. Lots of heritage growers -- we came back with a whack of Doukhobour bush beans, among other things. I took a picture of Jo-Anne and Billie with their backs to Kootenay Lake and the Columbia mountains in the background.

An aside -- I passed out a bunch of our beekeeping supplies cards to folks there, and the first was very pleased to get one. At the next booth, I bought some stuff and told her that if she was trying to run an orchard she might want to talk to us at some point. She took the card and looked confused. "Really?" "Sure," I said. "It kind of goes hand-in-hand with what you're doing." "You REALLY think so?"  she says. I look at the card. Only the first card of the stack we grabbed was for beekeeping. The rest were for Jo-Anne's counselling practice. I had to run around explaining this to all the people I'd handed her cards to, doing damage control.

I told this to Mom just now, and when she finished laughing she said, "Kaslo? That's where Uncle Dan's mine was." So I googled Armstead and Kaslo while we were talking and got 2100 hits.

As far as I can tell, Dan Armstead and his brother "The Colonel" ran the Utica Silver and Lead Mine in Kaslo. They lived in the old Kaslo hotel I stood with my back to when I took the picture of Jo-Anne and Billie. They sent the ore by rail across the mountains through Sandon, an abondoned mining town which, coincidentally, Mom and I visited last year. At New Denver it continued by rail down the Slocan Valley to the Columbia, which it followed down to the States.

In the Slocan, the old rail line is now a path which runs alongside Rebecca and Dean's farm -- they walk the dog on it every day. In Ootischenia, the old rail line is now Bridgeview Road, which is our street. The Doukhobour village of which our house was the center would have been much larger than just our current lot; the railroad would have gone right through it. The railroad right-of-way is on our title.

So Dan made his money on silver ore which ran through this property 60 years ago. That's where Aunt Miriam got her money, which she passed along to us, which let me buy the house in Victoria, which let me buy this place... which the ore ran through.

Boom. My head just esplode.

Jo-Anne here. Thought I'd post a picture of the quilt I made in January after the Christmas rush.

It's another Kaffe Fassett design, and I've had the material ready to go for a few years. Nice to have it done, and it will hang in the livingroom.

One of the seed packets we bought at the Kaslo Seedy Sunday was thyme, which I planted on Tuesday-- the girl selling told me that was the new moon and the best time to plant. Well, they were up in only three days, so there might just be something to that...

I've also ordered lots of veggie and herb seeds from the Cottage Gardener in southern Ontario, which specializes in organic heritage seed, and from Seeds of Victoria, which is Carolyn Harriot's line at the Garden Path. I've used Carolyn's seed before and the germination rate is terrific. Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to start all these plants.

I've also been tinkering with Mother Earth News' online garden planning tool. You can see what I've come up with here: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=231578. It's very cool-- it lets you plot your garden onto a graph, then click and fill in with veggies, flowers, and herbs. You can choose the variety from a drop-down list, and it then tells you how many plants per row or block you need. It uses your postal code to also determine frost free dates, and with each plant added to the plot, a list is generated showing when you need to sow, transplant, and harvest for your zone. You can even plan for succession crops (e.g., sowing leeks where the peas were when they're finished), and if you click on a given month it will show you what will be in the ground at that time. Finally-- and the big reason I wanted to try it-- is that it remembers plans for up to five years and will come up with a warning (which fades over five years) if you try to plant the same family in the same place. Because of using this, I've realized I don't have enough room in the lasagna garden for perennials like asparagus, artichoke, and strawberries, so they'll have to go elsewhere. I also don't have room for tomatoes and peppers but locals say they do better in the greenhouse anyway. What a great use of technology!

House update: drywall is almost finished, should be some time next week. I've finally decided on paint colours. Living in the workshop is starting to get on my nerves-- but then I remind myself that it is most certainly a first world problem, and one I can easily put up with. Many people would be more than happy to call this garage home!