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Saving Seeds.

Around this time of year many communities now celebrate Seedy Saturday a local exchange of seeds collected by backyard gardeners and small scale farmers. Only a few short years ago I remember Seed Saturday being a tiny gathering that likely meant a long day cooped up in some tiny community hall (the packing house in my hometown) with grandmothers who gardened to save on the grocery bill before it was the ‘in’ thing to do.…

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Daylight Savings

Tonight we all lose an hour of sleep, the groundhog saw his shadow and I got a notice in my mailbox yesterday that said it was time to clean up my yard all of which point to one very exciting fact: spring is in the air. And as I go through my notebook and review the list of goals I sought to accomplish I am pleased to be able to put a great big checkmark…

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Dear Crayola…

Please stop making gimmicky felts that my children lose interest in almost immediately. It’s wasteful and makes me sad. Stick to what you are good at and cardboard containers only please. Thanks. These include the felts that are ‘invisible’ except when you draw on special paper, the felts that you ‘twist’ up to color with instead of putting a cap on, the felts that you press to another felt inside that makes it a different…

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Very Large and even bigger Thanks!

Man it is so nice when people send their gratitude. It has got to be one of my most favorite things. Giving and receiving! Krystal we cooked and slept and hung with cats we laughed and rummaged and admired our cool hats your parents and to you, thank you for the reprieve many nuggets of a blossoming friendship in which I do believe kelowna or kamloops or vancouver or wherever in a dream we must…

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I bought a house!

Whew. After almost 4 years of searching and being indecisive I finally got off the pot and did it. I committed. I tied myself down. I moved all my stuff out of storage and into my very own home. The plan is to not move again until my kids are out of elementary school at least. With a move there are always projects. The things you want to do to make better, make it livable…

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ReThink, ReAction

I belong to a mailing list. Well several of them actually, don’t we all. And recently this email showed up in my inbox. I thought it was an excellent email, well formed (concise) and well put. I wanted to share it with you because it shows that some who are working for change truly do care about the bigger picture while others tend towards fanaticism and drama.

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A Day at the Fair

While it may seem slightly contradictory to pretty much everything I believe in and stand for my kids and I went to the fair when it was in town this weekend. Like all good adventures we didn’t plan on it it just sort of happened. We were looking for something to do on a Sunday after 4-H, our hike plans bailed and we were feeling kind of lazy one of the 4-Hers mentioned that she…

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Coming Together

It is inspiring to see what can happen when we come together for a common goal. One of my favorite things in life is to be a part of those moments. Recently in my community a project was put forth that would see chemically treated wood chipped and burned in an incinerator. The company was from out of province and there was no consultation done with the public before the Province gave them the green…

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“Permaculture is revolution disguised as organic gardening”

I will admit to not being much of a gardener. Honestly my problem is seedlings. The transplanting of this delicate little baby plant into the earth where it is left in the open to the elements and susceptible to drying out, drowning or any other random event is just not my cup of tea. So I am not lying when I say that my approach to gardening has always kind of been stick a whole…

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Goats on the Mow

Next spring I hope to be able to tell you that instead of mowing your lawn with a gas powered lawn mower you have have it cut by some earth friendly goats. I’ve been working on the finer details but the jist is that 4-6 goats will come to your place and hang out for a day or so depending on the size of your yard. They’ll eat some grass, pass along some fertilizer which…

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Grey Water Collection

The water from our washing machine is going to be drained into a garbage can that sits beside it. There is room there because we don’t have a dryer. When I was hooking up the washing machine I discovered that what came out the back of it was a hose that I was supposed to shove into a tube that led to the sewer. What a waste! Not to mention that soap has long been…

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