Here we go again!

We found Pilger in Iroquois Boatyard, with thanks to Gratton Sheely. She needed her lid put on, her new bronze ports installed, some rot at the prop/shaft area attended to and various other things done to get her sea-worthy. Not being absolute perfectionists, we thought we would do the interior later. So you get no pictures of her interior! No, we thought we would...

finish painting her and just drop her right in!

Ta dah!

She didn't seem to mind!

Up went the masts,


On went the sails (only took three days for that!) By the way, this is our new friend Kate helping to hoist the fore sail. And yes, Pilger is a Chinese Junk Rig. Also called lug rig by the Brits, but the Asians got them first. Designed by a Mr. Colvin, her model name is a Gazelle.





Piled in the dog and away we went!

So! We have another boat! To make a long story short, we came, we saw, we bought. No one has ever needed more of an explanation! We took four beautiful days to drive her to Picton Harbour via Kingston, Deadman's Cove and Prenyear's Cove. Day One we made average 6 knots over the ground with main & fore sails. Wow! Day two we ran wing and wing (or wing and wong, as dubbed by Annie Hill, fellow junk-rig enthusiast) over flat water and still averaged 4.5-5 knots. Wow! Came into kingston in very light wind and still made pretty good way. I love this rig! Quick to get the sails up, the sails tack by themselves, no reefs to tie when the wind pipes up, you merely drop a panel. The only difficult thing about her is that it was hard to decide to not keep going!

Robin and Kate joined us for this trip, very helpful and able crew. They taught us more about Vegan cuisine and I taught Kate to crotchet! They are staying at our place for a few days, our first Couch-Surfers, and it's been fun showing them around Picton.

So we have decided to stay home for the winter and make plans to cruise in the spring. Out the St. Lawrence maybe.

Now I'm going home to sleep!

How Does One "Chill" in August?

Chill at the beach, get a breeze in your hair or sit in a shady garden. All of my favorite sports!

Thar Be Greens Here!

Those hoop houses worked out really well. The plastic covers kept the soil warmer by about 5-10 degrees, pretty substantial. We have actually been enjoying our greens for a month and a half now, wowwie huh? Jim now has plans to build a wee solar green house to start the plants in March or April. In the top-most photo, you will see we followed advice given by another gardener. Jim shaded his plants while hardening them off, did it with juniper boughs.

We are keeping busy with all kinds of things, mostly raiding the local dump for stuff we can salvage. We actually found a youth's bike and a mostly good propane BBQ dumped along the back road we walk along every morning. Took them home, fixed 'em up and presto!

Instant BBQ! Have eggplant, will travel! A week later we found a better fitting bonus-grate at the dump. Bob & Linda gave up a coule of bike frames for us, too. It only took two dives into the "Walmart" to find enough thrown-away parts to build a couple of Frankenbikes. That and two new tires from Canadian Tire (Who knew?) plus 10$ helmets and we're off and pedalling. Dreamy!

Our next big salvage will be another boat. Smaller than Chelonidae. Lighter. Better on gas. We plan to get her to Northern Florida, then keep her down there so we can puddle around down there during the winter. Suckers! So far we have looked at an Albin 23 ft. sailboat, but there was no standing headroom. I hate crouching to cook! Saw a Paceship 23, but the same problem, no headroom. The Grampian 23 at least had a decent layout to make a hree month cruise possible, but, well, what were we expecting? Then we got looking at 26's. Saw a Grampian 26 with headroom! Well, I thought we'd be a 10th, no maybe a fifteenth of the way there! You know how it is, Jim, needing everything to be so perfect, needed the right engine, sailing capability, water tight hull, blah blah blah! Turns out it had all that, so we'll go for a second look and a putter around the Picton Yacht Club. Maybe I'll need a new blog!

Besides that, things at the the Mini House are going well. The rainwater catchment system is working quite well, doesn't take too long to fill up those garbage cans! We use it for irrigating the garden and washing my hair. Lovely!

I am going to track down a copy of a book called "The Vanishing Face of Gaia" by James Lovelock. I heard an interesting chat with the author on As It Happens the other night and was intrigued by his theory: this planet is adding carbon of her own into our man-made-mess and climate change is not only inevitable, but on our doorstep, and that it cannot at this point be stopped. But it is not too late to save ourselves.

I am glad I live in a self-sustaining way. I feel lucky! In the meantime, we shall go for a walk...

Wow! you never notice the mess until...

Well! Spring brings a whole new set of work parameters! These are our Hoop houses, built over raised beds for our kitchen garden. Jim & I have been quite turned on by some old-timey garden & agriculture books, mentioned at the side-bar to the right. Perhaps the most eye-opening book is The One Straw Revolution, recommended by my dad, Stan Gauthier of Parksville, BC. The main premise is this:Farming (raising food) is a joy that requires no chemicals, tilling or heavy machinery. Too many farmers (gardeners) spend money they don't have to amend soil that likely doesn't need it, break it to useless bits with equipment that chugs diesel & spews carbon, and ends up harvesting the same edible portion as a natural farmer, who does none of these things. The author's main concern is for farmers & gardeners to take better care of their soil by amending it with the previous year's straw & leftover stalks, vines, etc. and to allow for natural decomposition and build the soil up year after year. No till? Hooray! I hate tilling even more than I hate shovelling! Mr. Fukuoka discusses the Japanese Ministry Of Agriculture's tests on soil quality, crop yield & insect damage, among many other things, and reveals that all things are not as they seem.
He calls his farming method the do-nothing method, or no-till. It is defined as growing cover-crops amongst his main crop, then leaving that cover crop plus the straw to decompose in the field producing an enriched humusy soil that is fully nourished for the following year. This means he doesn't need fertilizer. Because he grows a variety of plants and shades the soil with cover-crops, he also has a variety of insects that benefit his fields, so he doesn't need pesticides. All those roots do a good job of aerating and breaking up the soil, so he doesn't need to till. Refuses to squash this light & luscious soil with a tractor, so he harvests by hand, with a paid crew. No tractor or combine. No diesel. No fumes. No monthly payments. Better yield than a conventional farmer per acre. Doesn't need an outside job. Huh?
The part about Japanese farmers of a century ago having time to goof off in the winter and write Haiku is my favorite! Today, these poor guys have to work part time just to afford all the chemicals and machinery for their crops, plus feed their families. Read The Book! I got it through inter-library loan.
We have started many veggies indoors already, the tomatoes already have flower buds! Some of them are destined for what Jim is calling a One Straw trial. He is going to plant some fava beans in a grassy area, protected from all the wind we get here by scrub (short) Junipers. He will also put in some tomato & pepper plants. I'll keep ya all posted!

CSA, Quest ce que c'est?

Well, you pay for a product before it's grown or harvested, hatched, laid, bought on auction, raised, slaughtered, wrapped in tidy paper packages and delivered to your door! Some folks have veggies delivered once a week, some include eggs. We get pasture-raised meat from Nyman Farm here in Prince Edward County. We signed up for a mixed-pack, it includes all kinds of meat.
Now here's the thing. We don't have a freezer. Or a fridge, for that matter. So Colleen has generously said yes to my request to keep my stuff in with hers. I pick up once a week, which is probably all she can stand!
Nyman Farm is a pretty busy place; she and the WOOFers just packed up the annual maple syrup crop into beautiful bottles, for sale on premises. I should ask her permission to give you guys a link to her website, http://www.jcnymanfarms.com/ , I am sure she won't mind!
What we are not doing is saving money. What we are doing is weaning ourselves off growth hormones, anti-biotics and questionable feed sources. No more factory raised "meat" products for us! We feel better already! FYI, factory-raised meat is what you get from super-markets (even if it is labelled "organic". The criteria for "organic" does not include how crammed-in the animals are.) and meat shops. Ask your butcher how the meat you are eating is raised...you don't know until s/he tells you.
What we are also doing is supporting a family farm. Nyman's don't want to have to afford to become "certified Organic", as they would then have to bill that expense to their customers. So they just call the meat pasture raised. They raise the feed as well, with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Local eating, buying and being entertained is becoming more and more accessible. It all depends on the choices you make at home. Don't wait for anyone else, including government bureaucrats or industry organicrats (isn't that a great term? I read it in Fields of Plenty, Micheal Ableman), to legislate anything, you'll be waiting until the sky darkens with transport-diesel fumes and your children are all sterile due to growth-hormones build up.
There's my wee rant-y! S'cuse me while I whip up some perogies for dinner. If I pay attention to the quantities of flour/water, I'll give you the recipe.

Spring has sprung!

Yes, technically the ground is still frozen, but that doesn't mean a thing!!! We had some good thaw temperatures that have allowed us to screen some more soil for our raised garden beds. After procuring some good live-stock poo from our new farmer friends, we have built up some mighty good dirt to grow our kitchen garden in. We planted lettuce and Pak Choi yesterday. Jim's indoor tomato and pepper seedlings are doing famously, the best performers so far were sent by my gardening father from BC: heirloom Purple Cherokee tomatoes and New Mexico Hot Peppers. Can't wait!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

What a beautiful season!

This picture was taken some time in late November after one of those sticky, heavy snows.  It was bright on the first day after the snowfall, but I didn't get the camera out until the nest day, a dull grey day, but pretty nonetheless.

This dull, grey weather has brought out the best and worst of living off-the-grid.  Not enough sun to put heat into the house or power into the battery bank,  so we have kept the fire going most of the day.  The house is so small that it doesn't take much to heat it up with wood, also it is new construction and well-insulated so a little heat heat lasts a long time.  Last night was a good example of leaving for a few hours and coming home to a yet-warm place.  I guess we could have fired up the generator to boost the battery bank to give us some reading lights into the night, but that would defeat the rationale of the Mini House Lifestyle Concept.  But what the hell else can we do with only candle-light, a roaring  fire and no reading lights?!     um...wait a minute...

Oh well, we'll get that all figured out.  Let's talk about the future!

Just this morning we were talking about what has priority for the New Year.  The porch?  The interior trim?  A wind generator?  Landscaping?  Our funds are quite limited now, so these decisions must be made carefully.  We think the trim should go on as soon as possible, as we have found some draughts coming in through some of the windows.  Then, I think, the porch should be finished.  The south side will be a pergola; a simple overhead run of 2x6 boards on their sides to hold up vines and other green things to provide shade from the summer sun, yet allow the winter sun directly in.  The other sides will have a tin-roof.

There is much to look forward to in the new year, besides all the house-y things.  Seed catalogues in the early winter, gardens to plan, Bob& Linda will be clearing out a hunk of the property to get ready to start their house, all kinds of friends to keep up with.  I am missing my sailor friends and really wish we could join them in their southern tours, but winter in Canada can be nice, too.  Especially Christmas.