Escape to the Foothills

Foothills Nor'easter

2012-01-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

The beauty of our 16 or so, inches of snow, was blasted in the middle of the night by an East-Northeast wind, roaring out of Canada. Fortunately our power stayed on during the night and all the next day, until 4:50 pm that is, when the power went out. It had been such a wonderful day, sitting near the wood stove, reading a Tony Hillerman novel, Dance Hall of the Dead. The power loss occurred right when I was about to put a baking dish, full of homemade granola, into the oven. Sue was out loading up the firewood boxes and tending to our Hens. The "Girls" were having no part of the wind as they hung out in and around their coop. One of our local wild birds was much braver, a Blackcap Chickadee worked over some Blackeyed Susan seed-heads and then took a break on a grapevine.

The good news came fifteen or twenty minutes after the power outage, the power came back on. Sue and I were not sure it would stay on, so we shoveled a path from our garage to the pump-house. We did this so I could drag our generator there, to use in case the power went out again. It's so nice to have running water when the power is off. One worries less about the water lines freezing when the water flows and there is power for the pump-house heater. My fingers got so cold I had to take my gloves off a few times, so I could put my hands into my pants pockets to warm them up. We did get the pathway cleared and the generator is now at the pump-house. I also got the granola baked and Sue, moments ago, put the finishing touches on a sweet-potato pie, oh yum! She is now making her famous vegetable soup.

By the way, Sue makes great pies. The crust is often made with some whole wheat pastry flour and butter, gosh is it good. The pictures are of a Hubbard Squash pie and a mixed Berry pie she made a year or so ago. As you can tell, we do not go hungry at our place, and it's so much fun growing a good portion of the food we're now eating. As the NE Wind blows outside, I'm already thinking about the Spring Planting. ~ John

Snow New Year

2012-01-18T01:54:00.000-08:00

The New Year came and most of my family gathered at my mother's home to support each other because my mother passed away. Family traveled from near and far to visit with mother during her last days and hours. My mother, Wanda Mae McDonald-Browne let her spirit take flight at 9:10 pm on Sunday, January 8th, 2012. She had a good long life and was ready to go, so the sadness I feel is for the loss of a kind and generous woman, interesting talks and her wise council, which we'll no longer be able to share over her kitchen table. My brother Sidney, sister Rebecca and I had wonderful parents who gave us so many practical skills but more importantly, they nurtured our minds to be creative in thought and curious about who we are and why we are here. I'll do a proper tribute to my mother in a later post.

The snow has returned to the foothills and this time in force. It started the morning of January 16th and snowed off and on, all day.

The evening of the 17th, Sue and I removed the Christmas ornaments from our Christmas Tree, which we left decorated due to my mother's illness and passing. We played Christmas music, Christmas with the Academy, as the ornaments were returned to their respective boxes. The tree was put out next to the South-side stairs and all this time the snow was falling. After the last of the fir needles were swept away, Sue put some Christmas Lights on the South-facing window ledge, along with three colored glass

birds. Christmas was over but we still have our Winter Lights to add cheer until Winter gives way to Spring.

As we awoke on Wednesday, January 18th, we saw that it had indeed snowed all night and was still snowing. It was at least 12 inches deep now and piling up fast. Sue and I came to the realization that we were not going to be able to get out of our driveway if this snow kepted up, and it did. I finally had to let my Masonic Brothers know that I would not likely be attending the Thursday evening meeting.

By mid afternoon our backyard table was piled high with snow. You can compare the two photos and see how the snow added up. The snow slowed down around 2 pm and a bit of sun tried to peek in. Sue went for a walk and I went out around 3:30 pm to clear pathways. When Sue got back she brought in more firewood and then fed the "Girls." Our girls were having none of this snow stuff, they mostly hung out in their coop and told stories or played a game of cards, I should think. After dark I took a few more photos to show what our place looks like in the cold of a Foothills Winter Night.

Thanks for visting ~ John

2011-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Tis the Holiday Season and in keeping with spending our $$ locally Sue and I have been annually cutting our Christmas tree at a local tree farm. Unlike those folks who put up a tree right after Thanksgiving and often take it down a few days after Christmas Day or the day after New Year's Day, we have a different plan. Back in the day, you know, when Christmas was less commercial and a bit more of a religious observance, Christmas was more than two weeks long.

Several years ago, in part due to slower economic times, but more out of a desire to put our Christmas back into the spiritual sphere by de-emphasizing gift-giving, Sue and I started breaking our old habits. One thing we did was to limit the number of and cost of individual presents. After a few years we radically changed the gift-giving to our Grandchildren, we now have six. No longer do we give toys or clothes - because with clothes its too hard to get the sizes right, the kids growth so fast. As for toys, they already get so many from their own parents and the "other" grandparents, it seemed to us the value of an individual toy was lost shortly after the next present was opened. What we did was to start buying EE Savings Bonds for each grandchild, one for each birthday and one for each Christmas. So far this system is working pretty well, for us anyway.

A number of years ago my daughter Sasha, I think it was her anyway, gave me a very nice book for Christmas, 'One Hundred Saints'. I learned from this book that December 6th used to be the official feast day for St. Nicholas, who we all know now as Santa Claus. It occurred to me that the Christmas Season ought to start with a nice dinner on December 6th. I even penned a short work on how St. Nicholas became Santa Claus which I read the evening of December 6th. The next event in our season is to cut our own Christmas Tree.

Christmas Tree cutting, for us, takes place about mid-December. Cutting our own tree gives us the freshest tree, which we want to last through January 6th, Epiphany. By our

system the Christmas Holiday lasts one full month. Though we are not Church-goers, Sue and I observe the Advent Sundays and Sue reads the Advent Calendar. On Christmas Eve we read the Nativity Story and watch a Christmas movie. We do give a few gifts, a good proportion of which are food treats, but some may be DVDs, books, CDs and this year I sent a Teaching Company Course, it was a 12 lecture course and it was on sale - I referred to it as "food for the mind."

Christmas at Berryridge Farm is truly a season and it gets more fun each year.

2011-12-08T15:03:00.001-08:00

Snow Falling on Berryridge Farm

We had a little dusting of snow a week or two ago but Thursday evening, November 17th, the first real snow fell. I was in town at a Masonic Lodge meeting and returned home to find almost four inches of snow had already collected on the back door porch. There had been no snow falling in town, nor any until I was well into the foothills, but six or seven miles from home the flakes were coming down. The real accumulation came at the four mile from home mark.

The timing was perfect because earlier in the day I had taken the Ford Escort to the tire place that we use and had the studded snow tires put on. Our little Escort is a very good snow-mobile when the snow is less that 8 inches deep, its not a very good snowplow however. The arrival of snow is not a big deal, unless of course it drops more than 8 inches, then we just don't plan to go anywhere. Three of our neighbors have tractors with bucket loaders and they often keep the road open for all of us to use.

The "Girls" (our Hens) actually do OK in the snow. We take them warm water when their water dispenser freezes. Last Winter, it was only a few times I hooked up a heater (60 watt light-bulb) to stave-off serious cold (single-digit numbers like 3 deg F). The girls are not thrilled about the snow or frozen ground because they like to scratch the earth and so frozen ground really slows them down. So what do they do, they just hang out as best they can. Only a week ago or so Susan saw a Bobcat pacing back and forth next to our Girls pen - so we have been more careful to lock the girls in for the night.

Just recently, our nearest neighbor Tina, got some Hens of her own, four I think. She has an interesting coop, sort of a Gypsy Coop. Since she has a horse and her sons visit frequently with their dogs we hope her hens are safe from the local Bobcat and the Coyotes we often hear after dark.

During the past five days we've had several vists from Jack Frost. I took a turn around the yard to photograph the jewel-like quality the leaves take on when covered in frost. Who knows, one of the photos may end up on the Christmas Card we send or in the Berryridge Farm Star Christmas newsletter.

Sue is working hard to get a Christmas short story finished in time to publish before Christmas. I've been looking for a snow scene to use as part of the cover. This is an Irish story so Sue would like a scene of an Irish Cottage or village, at night, when its snowing - Dreamstime has some good snow stuff but nothing that fits what we'd like - I may have to improvise.

I'll close for now. Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave your comments, questions and suggestions. Grand John

2011-11-10T21:21:00.001-08:00

Grandkids Rock II

The next grandkids I'm going to feature are the three whose parents are Sean and Sasha. (I have to check-in with Aunt Meghann to make sure its OK to post pics of Seamus and Rowan).

Sean and Sasha were married in the Spring of 2006, both having waited into their 30's before tying the knot. With the biological clock ticking away they got started on a family and the first bundle of joy arrived in July of 2007. "Devan"

Devan was an instant hit with all who got to meet her. In the photo at left, she has her uncle Collin right where she wants him.

Having two very active parents, Devan soon started collecting frequent flyer miles. If memory serves me correctly, before she even had her 2nd Birthday, Devan had flown to Hawaii and to Paris, not to mention several trips across the USA, both east to west and north to south.

Devan became an 'Older' sister in November of 2008 when the 2nd bundle of joy, Bria, joined the family. Devan was fascinated by her baby sister and enjoyed being right at hand to assist with bath time and other baby care duties.

Devan was always very careful when holding and playing with her little sister. Little sister's do not, however, stay little. They get bigger, start to crawl and well they begin to get into your stuff! Mom and dad do their best to keep things in order. Daddy really enjoys his two "Irish" girls.

Something was missing though, oh yes, a boy! That oversight was fixed on April 1st of 2010 when the 3rd bundle of Joy arrived. Conor came to join the happy family and he had not one, but two big sisters to give him all the love and affection a boy could stand. It is a wonder he survived the attention. Devan actually showed a great touch with her baby brother. Bria, however, did not yet have command of her own strength. Conor, in the pic at right, wonders - "who is this girl?"

Sean, Sasha, Devan, Bria and Conor are lots of fun. Conor, who turns two next April, is walking and now holds his own with his two sister's. In fact, he even invites the rough n' tumble with Bria, they'll probably enroll in Judo together.

One of the great things the kids enjoy is lots of attention from family and friends. At right the kids pose for a photo with uncle Kevin, earlier this Summer - 2011.

2011-11-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

Grandkids Rock

Now that the firewood preparation is under control, I'm taking a little time to reflect on what it means to be a grandparent. Sue and I have six grandchildren in our combined family: I had two kids with my first wife, a daughter Sasha and a son, Collin, while Sue had two daughters with her first husband: Carrie and Meghann. I guess you could say we are right in step with the modern American Family.

There are many things I like about being a grandfather. One is that you can sort of get "do-overs," experiences you might have missed the first time round. For one, I take lots more photos now than I did when Sasha and Collin were very little. I did take quite a few photos on our boating trips, starting when they 6 and 4 respectively, so that was good, but I didn't take many everyday photos - so to speak. With our grandchildren I've tried to capture everyday life, when we visit them or they visit us. This Summer Sue and

I were blessed to have all our grand kids visit Berryridge Farm.

I guess the place to begin is with our oldest grandchild, Meghan, who is now ten years old,

Meghan's family at left, L to R are Carrie, Meghan and Kevin.

Meghan is named after auntie Meghann, Carrie's sister. Little Megs was a very cute baby from the git-go but especially so the older she got. She stole many a heart at almost 2, when she danced at her Aunt Meghann's Wedding, see photo at right. Meghan's mom has a flare for the dramatic and Meghan often has Great Halloween costumes. A couple of years ago Meghan dressed up as 'Dorothy' from the 'Wizard of Oz', as you can see at left.

In 2010 she dressed up as a 'Corpse Bride', as shown in the photo at right.

This costume was the inspiration for Susan's Middle-Grade novelette, The Curse of the Corpse Bride. I actually hope that Sue is inspired by many more of Meghan's Halloween costume choices, because it is fun to see what books might spring from said inspiration. In fact it won't surprise me if Megs takes up acting, perhaps in High School. Both her mother and aunt were putting on little skits as girls growing up. One of Meghan's talents is that of being a good baby sitter. She gained lots of valuable skills playing with her two younger boy cousins, Seamus and Rowan, who are aunt Meghann's sons.

OK, that is the introduction of the 1st of 6 grandkids. Stay tuned for more.

2011-11-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

Falling Fast

October has given way to November, we have a fire in the wood stove every day now, and the first traces of snow have fallen on the upper reaches of Black Mt. Most of our garden has been harvested, with the beets, carrots and parsnips coming out of the ground last.

The last couple of weeks have been so colorful, with reds, oranges and yellows predominating. The only green plants are mostly evergreens. In the evening the western Sunlight hits Red & Black Mountains and adds a richness to the yellow-gold which turns pink when the the Sun dips below the visible edge of the earth.

The air is brisk, nips at your nose, there is no chance to forget you're alive, one's senses are on high alert. The country is beautiful but it plays no favorites to the careless. It is not uncommon to see a hawk flying away with dinner in it's talons. The coyotes call in the evening and the owl hoots in the nearby forest.

As each Fall approaches I tell Sue, "this year we're just going to have to set out our Autumn figurines on 'Michaelmas' (Sept. 29th) but we're always a few days late. We pick 'Michaelmas" because it is a date often mentioned in the various Jane Austen novels-made into movies that we love to read and watch. Besides, it makes a convenient on which to mark the Autumn Harvest Season. It makes no sense to wait until late November. In productive gardens, harvesting starts in Mid-Spring. We keep our Fall figurines displayed until December 6th,

St. Nicohlas' Feast Day, when they are replaced by our Christmas figures.

Sue and I are very fond of the evening and night sky. We especially like the Fall and Winter night sky because we love to look at Orion. I'm also a big fan of Moon scenes as you can see at the left.

Thanksgiving is not long off and I can hardly wait. I love turkey, cranberry sauce - home made of course and pumpkin pie - also home made. Got to now, have to start the evening's fire. John

2011-10-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

A Hen's Life at Berryridge Farm

It's been about a year and 1/4 since we got our original six hens. They have survived one winter and lost one sister to a local hawk. Our hens get to roam around in a pretty good-sized area during each day. Sue and I secure them in their safety zone, the coop plus a ten foot square caged-run, each evening.

I sited our coop to the west of our fire-wood processing and storage sheds. We knew the coop was going to be a little raw-smelling, at times, so not having it too close to the house was part of the reason for siting where I did. The structure I built was divided into a coop and a tool storage shed. The roof is metal.

I saw a very convenient nest-box set-up on some pre-fab coops in a homesteading magazine Ad and so I designed my own variation, see photos at left and right. Just recently I put a rain gutter along the overhanging roof so we wouldn't get as wet collecting eggs on rainy days.

As the Fall of 2010 approached I wondered how the "girls," as we learned to call our hens, would be able to handle the cold and snow. It came to me that maybe they should have some outside shelter, with a roost perhaps. So I built a smallish covered roost within their "safety Zone."

The shelter at left is what I came up with and little did I know how welcome it would become during the "girls" first winter on Berryridge Farm, as you can see at the right.

If Sue and I didn't quite feel like home-steaders the first few years, we certainly feel it now that we have "live stock." As live stock goes, hens are pretty easy and if you don't have a rooster, then the hens love you all the more. They want to be around where

you are working, even when you're cleaning their coop. What's more they make their feelings known as soon as they hear the back door of the house opening. They are very greatful for any treats that you bring them, like bugs, berries, kitchen scraps etc. The "girls" will peck at you from time to time and they steal food from each other, no one's food is safe. However, they do seem to tollerate the small wild birds who raid their feeder.

We did name the "girls" but I can only recognize three of them on sight, Dottie, Marilyn and Chole O'Brien, yes, from 24. There you have my Hen Report - oh, how could I forget - the EGGS - they're soooo goood!!

Have a wonderful Fall ~ John

Fall, the Season of Color

2011-10-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a Masonic friend of mine yesterday and he told me he was not just sure whether he liked Spring or Fall the best, both are colorful and full of promise. I said to him that for me it was Fall, because the harvest was in and there were so many good fresh things to eat.

As I look out my little home office window, my feelings are very mixed. The day lily plant I can see is mostly yellow with a few remaining streaks of green. The black-eyed Susan's have dropped most of their yellow petals and the plant leaves are turning a burnt orange around the edges. The crowning gleam in my sight is the Maple Tree, its called October Glory and has already gone from green leaves to dark red and eventually they will turn a brighter red before the November winds will strip them from the branches.

Out here in the foothills the Vine Maples turn from green to orange-red or green to yellow with orange-red edges, in either case it is a beautiful sight. One other show-stopper in our yard are the blueberry shrubs, so red-orange they look as if on fire. I mentioned my feelings and they are tugged-at by the wilting leaves on the bean plants and grapevines. I have to remind myself that life lives in a cycle and that during Winter's apparent rest, plants are rebuilding for Springs emergence.

Another reason I love the Fall, are the low-lying clouds which settle in the valley's. The scenes they produce remind me of Taoist Paintings from China's past. Images of mountain tops peaking through clouds as if floating on those very clouds surrounding them. I sometimes watch in wonder as clouds drag by through the stands of Fir, Hemlock and Cedar trees on nearby hills. There is such a quality of Zen philosophy, available for those who seek it, here in our foothills. Living in the moment, the now of time, it becomes easy to feel connected to the rhythm of life and with the creatures we share existence with on this planet.

Sue and I are ready for Winter, we have a good supply of dry wood, a fair amount of food in the freezer and most important the knowledge we've gained from our previous winter experiences. We hope each of you have planned and made ready.

So Much to Do!

2011-05-30T17:54:00.001-07:00

I'm sure some of you are like me, it feels like you always behind because there is just so much to do. Spring and summer tend to fly by with all the attention you give to planting, weeding, watering.....and weeding again. Spring and Summer is also the time I move and stack the coming Fall/Winter firewood into shed One. Once in awhile Sue gets into the firewood action as you see in the photo.

Fast Forward: Sorry I let the above entry slide so long - its now 10/22/2011

Sue and I have certain tasks we share and ones which each of us handle pretty much on our own. The weeding we share because it without it the garden areas can simply be over run. Sue pretty much handles the watering chores and I pretty much take care of tieing-up the plants needing support structures. Sue and I share brush removal, though I handle the cutting down of small trees, she helps me move them to the firewood cutting area. Spring and Summer zoomed by this year but May, June and the first half of July were cooler than usual, and we had much more rain. This did not hurt the root crops but the bean, summer squash, table grapes and to some extent the tomatoes were held back. The tomatoes got a needed boost at the end of Summer and we did somewhat better than we feared.

The biggest change in the garden this Summer has been the installation of several raised beds. After trying to trap voles and failing miserably, it came to me that with digging front feet they would not be good climbers, so a raised bed might be good. But then how to keep the voles from tunneling under? Well, to the rescue came hardware cloth, in 1/2 and 1/4 inch mesh. I constructed the beds to be 36 inches wide, to the outside edges, the width that the cloth normally comes in. I built nine beds, using 2X10 Douglas Fir planks.

The harvest at Summer's End was decent for tomatoes, beets, most of the carrots, parsnips, strawberries and cane berries. The apple trees produced some fruit but the trees are still young, as are the blueberry shrubs, so the crops are still small. We did have some summer visitors, daughter Meghann and her two boys stayed one night, granddaughter Meghan stayed several nights and got to meet her two Moriarty cousins, Devan & Bria and he aunt Sasha. This Summer was fun and we learned lots and added to our homestead.

Spring Cleanup!

2011-05-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

The month of May is nearly over and much of the garden is planted, except for the summer crops like beans, corn, squash and tomatoes. I have a few of these started in peat-pots or in small plastic pots and a some have even sprouted. Sue and I will purchase tomatoes in commercial pots so we'll have a jump-start going into the few hot days we have here in the foothills. Sue and I have been fairly busy this Spring, on the days it was not pouring rain and it did rain lots.

I took down a number of coppice trees, birch and maple, on the south side of our main garden. Most of these have been cut into what I call "loglets" and stacked to dry in wood shed #4. I also constructed 5 raised planting boxes, three of which have 1/2" mesh hardware fabric and the bottom side to deter voles from getting into the root crops we have planted. Sue and I purchased 6 more blueberry shrubs and planted them in part of the West Orchard. I built a new fence line within the W. Orchard to secure the new blueberry patch from the Hens. This new fence also allows me to secure the Asian Pears from the Hens. The area with the Asian Pears is where on of the raised boxes was installed. I plan to put one or two more boxes in this area. The new blueberr patch actually has 8 shrubs, 2 of which were ones transplanted from the western portion of the Main Garden.

Sue prepaired and planted a new strawberry bed at the south fence-line of the western part of the Main Garden. This variety of strawberry is called Reliance and are supposed to be very hardy and produce fruit for up to 10 years before needing to replace the plants. Sue has also planted several small beds of potatoes and a nice quantity of spinach. Onions, garlic, leeks, parsnip, beets, chard, carrots and peas have all sprouted.

By the way, the hens have recovered nicely from the April Hawk attack. We get 3 to 5 eggs per day now and lots sqawking when the "girls" think we'd not been attentive enough to their needs. I did double the size of their "bird-cage" area - this is an area off the main entrance of the coop where the birds can be outside but completely protected from predators. When Sue and I are outside we let then out into a larger area to roam around in, secure in most respects except from the brids of prey.

Sue and I have plans to expand south of the Main Garden, where intend to construct a sort of patio using lots of larger broken rocks, filled in with fist-sized stones and then topped with gravel. We also plan to expand planting areas,south of the Main Garden, to grow winter-squash and some grains, which we'll have to protect from deer and rabbits. Sue and I will stay busy, not only with the garden but doing some up-keep on the house but also with the well's pump-house. We also have to get educated on putting up food for we hope that the garden will produce enough that we'll need to put it up for winter use.

When Will Spring Arrive?

2011-04-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Fall and Winter 2010-2011 was relatively good for us at Berryridge Farm. We had some snow, beginning in mid-November. For Christmas dinner we tried our fist heritage turkey (above right) and we found it to be very tasty. It was raised locally on a farm a little NW of Lynden WA. With the turkey we enjoyed some homemade cranberry sauce and a bottle of Cranberry Wine, made by the Pasak (sp?) Cellars Winery in Mt. Vernon, WA. To make our Holiday Season more festive each year we place out a Seasonal Church scene, on the dining room table, to remind us to be thankful for the bounty we enjoy from the earth which sustains us and to the provendance that brought it all into being.

There was the usual period of cold temps and Northeaster Winds but I have to say that the Winter was not as bad as it was projected to be here, I can't say the same for other parts of the U.S., the East Coast for instance, seemed to have been slammed hard repeatedly. The first snow came in about mid-November and revisited numerous time, even into March.

During the Winter Sue and I did collect some windfall wood for next season's fuel supply and we attended to our Hens, who came though the coldest part of winter very well. Sadly, about mid-March, one of our Hens was killed by a Hawk. I was able to scare the Hawk away and I gave our "girl" a decent burial to enrich the ground from whence she came.

A Pleasant Surprise

2010-09-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

How could I forget. This June we learned that our memoir 'Little Farm in the Foothills' was selected as one of nine books to be featured on the Washington State Library's Summer Reading list. That was a very pleasant surprise!

Here chickie chickie!

2010-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit blue because it's late into September and the rain has dominated the month's weather pattern. In fact it is raining right now and that is why I'm inside writing on this blog. Back at the beginning of June I had my 62nd birthday and Sue engineered a surprise for me. She took me for a ride to the South part of Whatcom County, down Hwy 9. We turned off the highway and headed East into the countryside. Finally we stopped at a little farm where I observed some dogs, goats, pigs and oh yes - chickens! We met a young woman who raises chickens, both for meat and layers. Sue told me she had located this woman, Shona, via the WSU Extension office in Bellingham.

Shona, who goes by the handle 'Dirty Mama', in the 'Grow Northwest' magazine, showed us around and told us that the hens for sale were 'teens' at present. Shona called them the 'Girls', and said they would begin laying eggs around the 1st of July. The variety of bird she said was called 'Bronze Sexlink' and were supposed to be good layers. Sue and I decided to purchase six hens at $15 each. We asked if Shona could hold onto them until the first week in July because, ah, we still had to finish building our coop and chicken-run. Sue and I really liked the look of the birds and they seemed calm and friendly.

The month of June went by quickly but we made steady progress and finally the coop and run were ready for the hens. We figured to make adjustments as needed. A day or two after the 4th of July Sue and I returned to 'Dirty Mama's' farm and picked up our chickens. It took a little while as one of the birds ran off into the tall grass and hid for awhile. Shona eventually caught the hiding hen and Sue and I said our farewells. But not before getting lots of good advice and tips on the whole chicken & and egg opperation. The trip back home took about 45 minutes - the hens were in two good-sized cardboard boxes with air holes. Once home we released the 'girls' into their new home.

During rest of July, August and first half of September we have indeed made a number of changes to the Coop & Run. But the good news is that for most of the Summer the hens were regular egg layers. Also, the 'girls' are so very glad to see you when you come into their area. Sue and I did have lots of other chores to do like weeding, tying up tomato vines and spliting firewood for the Winter ahead (as of today we have a good supply of wood on hand). The hens egg production has declined as the days have gotten shorter. For a time they were laying one egg per day, per hen.

In the garden the volves are our new Enemy #1 - any good ideas on how to wipe them out without chemicals - we do want a more or less organic based opperation. The root crops have done well - carrots, onions and so forth but the leafy greens did not do well this Summer. The tomatos are very slow in ripening - so little Sun to do the job!

Well, its 2:35 PM and time to give some feed to the Hens. We have joined a local chicken feed Co-Op to buy organic feed for the 'girls'. Sue and I were pleasantly surprize how many folks, not living on actual farms, raise chickens - many live in the city limits of Bellingham. I get my lumber in Everson and the guys at the building center tell me that this summer many of the purchases for wood have been for the constuction of chicken coops. After the recent egg scare in Iowa - the number of persons getting their own laying hens may climb higher.

Farewell - hope to write again soon. ~ John

When will the Sun come to stay?

2010-05-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

The month of May is nearly over and it's been rather cool and rainy. I have built fires in the wood stove the past few days to take the chill off. Sue and I have not totally lost our spirits because we know that the rain keeps us green and helps, many months from now, to replenish the water-table. We're nearly done with a new Western fence enclosure to keep the deer out of the West Orchard and to help protect some chickens we hope to purchase soon. Yesterday I planted three varieties of sweet-potatoes in a newly prepared bed in the Southeast Orchard area. The caneberries are busy beginning to blossom and the strawberries are setting fruit, and, we're eating asparagus - what a treat!

Thank goodness for the Whatcom County Library System. It is so easy to use and they have a very good selection of homesteading books. Sue and I have ploughed our ways through Root Cellering and Gardening When It Counts. Plus I've looked though and taken notes regarding the raising of chickens, building farm structures and home water systems. Some of these books we'll be adding to our home library because they are rather in-depth manuals and we can't retain all the information we'll need and use in the future.

Gosh, the Sun is out - got to close and go play. I'll try to post some new photos shortly ~ John

Strange Spring

2010-05-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

When Sue and I got up this morning it was gray and drizzly and 40 deg. F. We hadn't been up long before wind and hail, thunder and lightning came. After 20 minutes that stopped and the sky began to lighten, but that only lasted half and hour and the wind, hail, thunder and lightning returned. Now its 3:25 PM and its nice and sunny - but Sue says there are gray clouds on the horizon so she'll take the silver streak, her bad weather bike, out for her ride.

Today I have been adding photos to some of my old postings. It will take some time but I'll try to get all the old posts updated so you see the fun we've had and continue to have.

As you can see by the two photos above, one of the wonderful sights of spring are apple blossoms. The light pink one is from our Red Gravenstein tree and the red one is from our Williams Pride apple tree.

Thanks ~ John

New Adventures at our Little Farm

2010-05-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

May has arrived and excitement came with it. Yesterday, May 1st at about 3:30 PM, I returned home from visiting my Mom and did a little work on the new chicken coop. As evening fell, about 7:30 PM, I heard some noise off to the west. I grabbed my walking stick and went to see what the source was. I arrived at the NW corner marker of our acerage but by then the noise had stopped. I decided to return back to the house by cutting through the woodsy center of the property. I discovered that we had some trillium growing in places. I also startled a Grouse which flew off towards the south. I moved a little south myself in case bird had been sitting on a nest, I didn't want my scent too near the nest. After walking twenty five or thirty yards more I stepped on and snapped a twig. In during so I startled another creature. I heard a rustle and saw a shape move off to my right, behind a birch clump. As it cleared the clump it turned and looked in my direction. It was cougar! For a few seconds we made direct eye contact, the cougar and me, about 15 yards or so apart.

As you can imagine my heart jumped in my chest and I spoke to it - the cougar that is, something like, 'oh, hi there!" I then started backing up keeping my face towards it. After several yards I turned and walked towards the cleared area just north of me. I turned frequently to see if the big cat was following. I reminded myself not to run but to walk with purpose. Once in the clearing I continued to walk, turning frequently to make sure I was not being followed. I made it back to the house and inside the tall fencing we have up to keep the deer out of our garden. I was thus reminded that we are in the foothills and are not to take our safety for granted.

This morning, May 2nd, I had a different sort of adventure. At about 10:30 AM Sue was standing at the south facing glass sliding doors and I heard her exclaim, "there's a rabbit in the south strawberry bed." I went to the door and sure enough a small bunny had some how managed to nose its way under the chicken wire fencing around the bed. But once inside it could not figure how to get back out. I grabbed a sweatshirt, put on my shoes and went out to remove the intruder. After several minutes of maneuvering and a missed toss of the shirt, I was able to get the bunny cornered and tossed the shirt over him. I gathered the shirt and bunny up and tossed both over the 24 inch high fence. The bunny worked its way out the sweatshirt and ran out the garden.

Later this morning Sue spotted a Red Tailed Hawk in a small Alder tree on the other side of the south fence. The hawk was much too big for the top of the tree and so after a few uncertain and wobbly minutes the hawk flew off to find a more secure perch.

Just another couple of days out here in the foothills ~ John

The New Year - 2010

2010-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Golly, its been too many months since I last wrote. I find it hard to keep up since I'd rather be reading a good book or actually be outside playing in the dirt. Anyway, here is just a bit of writing to catch readers up on what Sue and I have been doing.

The Winter of 2009-10 was pretty mild but there have been some cooler trends this Spring. In fact there was fresh snow up about the 1500 foot level just a day or two ago. As I write this the sun is peeking out between high clouds. The garden is doing well, we've already had our first picking of rhubarb and Sue made the first crisp of the season - rhubarb plus some frozen strawberries from last Summer. The asparagus is coming up, the onions, garlic and potatoes are all planted and we're getting ready to build a chicken coop. Oh, how could I forget - the early apples are in blossom, as are the plums and the cane berries are pushing flower buds.

Well, I'm going to stop for awhile and go play outside. I hope to be back later to write more. For those of you who know about our book, "Little Farm in the Foothills", it has been doing pretty well. We've sold over half the number printed (500) and Sue is working on getting library systems to purchase copies for readers to check out - feel free to ask your library to get one or more copies.

PS. The Hummingbirds made their first appearance on April 9th 2010 - the 4th anniversary of moving in to our home here in the Foothills. The photo above was last summer-2009. Thanks ~ John

Its Fall Again

2009-11-09T18:59:00.000-08:00

I finally made it back to my Blog. It must be true, that old saw about how time flies when you're having fun. Its been almost a whole year since I wrote in this Blog and so much has happened. Let me begin to bring you up-to-date!

The biggest news has to be that my second grand-daughter turned 1 year old this month, her older sister turned 2 on the 4th of July, they are soooo cute and the 1 year old is walking and getting into stuff. And then there is the 2 year old who is talking, and has an opinions on many topics. Anyway, being a grandpa is lots of fun.

The other big news is that Sue's book is doing pretty well. It was published this past May (the 27th) and Sue has had several author nights - one at Village Books (they're on-line by the way) in Bellingham, WA and the other at Third Place Books, in Lake Forest Park,WA. The book is available at the following library systems: Seattle Public, King County, Bellingham Public and the Whatcom County Library system.

Sue and I have continued to expand the vegetable garden and fruit orchards. We got a very nice crop of strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, summer & winter squash and greens of various types. This Fall Sue and I have been adding some structures to better support the cane-berries. The Fall sees me spending a fair amount of time splitting and stacking firewood - both for this year's burning but also for next.

Well, I'll close for now, its time for dinner, but I hope to up-date this Blog more regularly in the days and months ahead.

Naming our new lifestyle

2008-12-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

Quenching the thirst for Reading
My wife Sue and I are hooked-on-reading. Sue is a professional writer/instructor and she pours over newspaper and magazine articles, self-help books and women's fiction novels. In her girlhood-years she read the Little House on the Prairie series and a number of biographies. As a youth I began with comic books, including Classics Illustrated, moved on to Science Fiction, history and biographies. Today I include religion, philosophy, self-improvement and real science, among the subjects of the books I read. Out here in the country our thirst for reading is being partially quenched by visiting two local libraries, where we also check-out a few movies. A couple of weeks ago, while visiting the one in Everson, WA. I wandered over to the magazine rack. Since Sue and I have been developing our gardening skills I was looking for related magazines. I selected three and brought them home.

Identifying a style of living
Once at home I leafed my way through all three, looking mainly at the pictures and titles of the articles. Two of the magazines in particular caught my interest, Farm & Ranch and Countryside. After reading them almost cover-to-cover I decided I had struck gold with one - Countryside & Small Stock Journal. Farm & Ranch is fun and has really nice glossy color photos and interesting articles, but I found it short on helping me add to my outdoor skill-set. In comparison, Countryside has only a few photos, most not in color and only the cover is glossy. However, the content is what is important and Countryside holds a marvelous treasure. This magazine is full of practical information for those of us who are already in the country, planning to move out into the country, or are turning their city-home-lots into kitchen gardens. Countryside magazine is a forum for the sharing of ideas, failures and successes in the writers attempts to live in closer harmony to the natural world. It also contains articles by experienced homesteaders, providing information on a wide range of topics related to living the homestead life. Sue and I liked the magazine so much we picked up another issue just yesterday and plan to continue as new issues come out.

A light comes on!
It was not long after Sue had read a few articles in Countryside that she learned the term for the style of life we are now living. Back when Sue and I first moved into the country we thought of a few names to call our place, we really liked the names of the estates in Jane Austin's novels. Finally we settled on Berryridge Farm. Sue and I did feel a bit funny about calling our place a "farm" because we don't plan to grow anything for commercial purposes, at least not yet anyway. From the Countryside magazine Sue discovered that what we were doing this past three years is called, by those doing more or less the same thing, homesteading. A term we both knew of course but never thought about applying to our situation. The Countryside & Small Stock Journal opened our eyes to just how big the movement back to valuing a land-based lifestyle really is.

On the Internet
The Internet can be either a useful tool or a place of addiction or obsession. I try to use it more as a tool but I can see how seductive it is too! Countryside magazine has its share of Ads, the cost of publishing is not cheap. Fortunately the advertising is related to farming, gardening, stock raising, home & out-building construction etc. Most of the advertisers have websites listed, so you can visit and survey what they have to sell, which might solve a problem you're having. In the magazine I discovered there is a website devoted to homesteading, the Homestead Exchange Network or H.E.N. I now have it marked as a 'favorite' on my browser.

Berryridge Farm - Homestead
The snow arrived this morning and cold northeaster winds are predicted for tomorrow and the next day. Sue and I have been putting more wood up for the 2009-2010 burning season. Our garden is pretty well put to bed for the winter, Sue covered many of the beds in straw. I did plant garlic for this coming summer and we still have some of this season's potato crop in the ground, to be dug up as winter goes along. Sue has been editing her memoir, which we now hope to have published this coming spring.

Well, I'd better go put another log on the fire - stay warm & safe this Holiday Season!

November Rains

2008-11-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

Late September
I just don't seem to get around to up-dating my blog but every month or two. Sue and I have had lots of fun since my September entry. We continued to harvest zucchini, beans, snow peas and a late ripening Raspberry called Autumn Bliss. Once the tops of our potato plants started to turn yellowish Sue dug up a few Yukon Golds to test their flavor, She pronounced them delicious.

Since Winter would be hard on the heels of Fall, I thought I should get started our fourth wood shed. Sue had expressed her desire that the roof on shed three be raised. It was indeed too low for both of us to move around in and not risk conking our heads on something. The solution seemed to be to remove the roof on shed three, build and frame for shed four and then build one large roof over both. Dismantling the roof on shed three turned out to easier than I'd anticipated. It did not take too long to set the frame for shed four. The hard part was trying to figure out hoe much higher to make the roof. I didn't want to have to replace the 4X4 posts in shed three. I settled on setting the roof on the tops of shed three posts - which raised the roof about 8 inches, but it was just enough for head clearance for me.

I was able to get the work done in a couple of weeks, only working on dry days and I did take time off to visit my daughter and her family in California, at the end of September. I had a wonderful time seeing my grand-daughter for only the second time. We went to the Huntington Gardens one afternoon and the next day to the Getty Villa. I was impressed by both and took a fair number of photos so I might draw on them for garden designs at home. At that time my daughter was nearing her term with baby number two - who finally came into the world on November 1st.

Early October
I was able to finish shed four in early October. Part of the project entailed putting in a gravel floor and pathway around the perimeter. As soon as shed four was completed Sue and I began bringing up the 45 inch broad-leaf maple tree logs from the slope on the East side of our house. In most cases I had to split the logs length-wise, the logs were just too big in diameter, in order for us to carry them up the steep hillside. At the top of the slope there is a nice flat Douglas Fir stump I used for a cutting station. Using Sue's birthday present, I couldn't believe she ask for one, an electric chainsaw, I began cutting the 45 inch logs into 15 inch sections. Once I had the really dry (standing dead portions) logs cut and split, Sue stacked them into shed one, where we put the wood ready to burn. During the rest of October Sue and I brought up more of the greener sections of the two maple trees - but we have lots still to be brought up.

As the end of October approached I connected the gravel path from shed two to the one around shed four. This connection made the whole wood shed complex look and feel like a unified complex. Sue and I turned our attention to clearing an area just South of the wood sheds to be the site of our Garden Shed. It will house our gardening tools and serve as a potting shed and maybe even a partial green house.

November Rains
The rains of November have come to the foothills and them Sue I spend more time inside. She, writing & editing her book and me, taking care of my Masonic Lodge secretarial duties and now finally adding to this blog. Though the rain does dampen our spirits some, November weather does have its own beauty. The clouds are often low and sit in the valleys between the hills and mountains, reminding me of Taoist and Zen paintings where Mountains seem to float in the air and streams emerge and disappear into misty banks of fog. When we do get a break from the rain or its only misty drizzle, Sue and I venture out to do some weeding, clear more brush or put straw on the garden beds. Yesterday Sue brought in three of our beets. She cleaned, peeled and roasted them for dinner, they were just delicious.

Soon I hope to get a few photos scaled down so I can post them for you all to see. Have a wonderful Holiday Season everyone.

Fast Forward

2008-09-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

The first Summer (2006) and Winter (2006-2007) were challenging months for us, which my wife Sue is writing about in a book we hope to have published within the next year. In hind-sight Sue and I were glad the first year in our house tested us because we no longer take the basic necessities of life for granted. I think we also have learned to really value the process of tending to life's basic needs. For example, we actually enjoy cutting brush, preparing the garden, harvesting the fruits, cleaning and cutting vegetables for meals. After a hard day's work dinner tastes so much better and we love the fact that many of our meals now come from plants we grow.

I may have mentioned it in an earlier posting, but some time ago Sue and I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and we loved it! Sue and I were motivated by this book to become "locavores" - what we cannot produce ourselves we attempt to purchase as close to home as possible. After we were able to get fully settled Sue and I began looking around our community for local farms who sold their produce by farm stands or via phone orders. It turned ou there were more farms doing this than we imagined. In fact, several local organizations joined together and annually publish a guide map of the farms in Whatcom County, WA identifying what items they grow and sell. It also and provides location and contact information. We go to a local Blueberry Farm to do you-pick for about $1.25 a pound - this year Sue has frozen about 50 lbs. of blueberries. Our own strawberry crop, this year, netted us over 9 quarts of frozen berries - not to mention the amount we gave away to neighbors or ate fresh ourselves.

At present our garden harvest is winding down and I'm spending a good deal of my time building up a supply of firewood for heating our home this Fall and Winter. We hired a couple of professional loggers to fell two very large multi-trunked broad leaf maple trees, which were growing on a steep slope just east of our home. Both trees were slowly dying and there was a good deal of standing dead sections, which we wanted to use for firewood. I had the loggers fell the trees and buck them up into 45 inch-long logs, which I will latter cut and split up. This will take some time. I'm working on the dead portions first because I can use them for firewood right away. Well, have to go, its about time to go out and cut some firewood.

Frozen pipes - December 2006

2008-09-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

When I lived in town I never really had to worry much about our home's water pipes freezing. If the power went out it was most often back on in a matter of a few hours. What's more power outages were pretty infrequent. Not so out here in the foothills. We've had the power off eight or nine times in the past three years. And instead of being off for only a few minutes or hours we've been without electrical power for 38 hours on one occasion and 52 hours on another. Years ago I had experienced frozen water pipes when I lived in a mobile home. That year I learned about heat tape, which one wraps around your pipes and is plugged into a receptacle, often located under the mobile home near the crawl space access. But that presupposes you've got electrical power. Out in the foothills I learned how to unfreeze frozen pipes.

After a northeaster had knocked out our power we soon had no water and no way to protect our water system. [We did have a gen-tran system installed at the pump house but we did not yet have a generator]. Naturally the pump house froze. Once the power was back on I called Gary, our contractor, and he talked me through solving the problem. Our system was complicated by the fact that we had a water meter in our line. The cold had popped out the freeze plug so just thawing the pipes would not get the water flowing. The good news was there were no obvious cracks or ruptures in the pipes in the pump house. The first thing Gary had me do was to remove the water meter and replace it with a spare he had left in the pump house. Next I plugged in a space heater and turned in on to let it run for several hours. I set the heater so it would blow warm air on the pipes and the nearby wall to get the pipes and surrounding area warm. I also turned the power off to the water pump during the warming period. At home we turned on our electric furnace and let it heat up the house in hopes of unfreezing any pipes that were frozen under the house.

After several hours I went back out to the pump house and turned the power on to the pump. At first nothing happened. Several anxious minutes went by, then I noticed the arrow on the water pressure gauge start to move, just a little. After a few more minutes the arrow started to bounce a bit and then all of a sudden I heard ice breaking - I jumped a little and then realized the pipes were still intact and the pressure gauge was rising. I quickly returned to the house to let Sue know and to see how the water situation was there. To my relief the water was flowing just fine, no apparent breaks had occurred in the pipes under our home.

As a result of this learning opportunity we now have a nice generator for back up electrical power. We had a gen-tran installed at our shop, to serve the shop and the house. We also had a wall mounted thermostatically controlled heater installed in the pump house. Sue and I found we could cope because we had good friends to call upon for assistance.

Water - October 2006

2008-07-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

When one lives in the country you learn not to take the basics of life for granted, like food, shelter and especially water. I had the opportunity to observe well-drilling in action. The company arrived and set up the drilling rig beside the well casing, which at our place protrudes out the ground 30 inches or so. Here is what I observed.

The crew began by measuring how far down the water level was presently. Then a trench was dug on the side of the well-pipe so the plastic water-pipe, leading to the pump house, could be disconnected. Next the wells water-pipe and pump were pulled out of the well and set aside. A new 20 foot long length of well-pipe was raised up and welded onto the existing well-pipe and then the drill was lowered down the well until it hit bottom, then drilling began. While the drill bit was chewing up dirt and rocks it was lubricated with water. Air was forced down the well and the water, dirt and gravel creating enough pressure to force the dirt and gravel back up the well. The dirt, gravel and excess water were blown out onto the ground. After the drill bit went down several feet the drilling stopped and the well-pipe was hammered down further into the ground. This process was repeated until the new well-pipe had only about 30 inches remaining above ground.

Due too a layer of clay a second length of 20 foot well-pipe was added and drilling commenced again. A good source of water was found by deepening the well about 40 feet. Once the drilling portion of the operation was completed the pump and water-pipe had to be placed back into the well. First however, the water line leading from the well to the pump house was reconnected. A hole was cut into the new pipe, about 2 feet under ground level. A brass fitting was placed around this hole, with parts on both the inside and outside of the well casing (pipe). The inside part of this brass fitting was slotted so that a corresponding part on the water pipe going down the well lock onto it with a rubber casket sealing the connection so it would not leak as water was pumped up from the well and pushed into the water tank in the pump house. With the pump back down at its new depth, about 180 feet, and electrical cables reattached, the pump was run for 15 minutes or so, until the water ran clear.

One of the things which impressed me the most was how small the water pump appeared in comparison to how much water it could raise up the well. I think my wells casing is about 6 inches and the pump maybe only about 4 inches in diameter and 24 inches in length. That pump is quite a little work hours - thank goodness.

September 2006

2008-04-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

The month of September was great for the most part. The weather was warm, mainly sunny and our rough little garden was doing ok, though the tomatoes weren't ripening as fast as we would have liked. There was still so much ground yet to bring under control. I began the construction of our first wood shed, opposite the west side of the shop. I dug post holes by hand and braced the 4X4 posts up so I could set them in concrete. Once the concrete was cured up I quickly added the horizontal members, to hold the siding and simple sheet metal roof. The contractor who built my shop left several partial sheets of metal siding/roofing, enough to cover two small sheds. Shed one was completed by early October.

One thing that Sue and I observed, as September became cooler, was that the flies and lady bugs liked to bask in the sun's warmth by attaching themselves to the exteriors of our house and shop. We were very glad that, earlier in the summer, Sue had asked that we get screen doors for the front and rear entries of our home. Still, some of the flies and lady bugs made it inside. Sue and I were pretty ruthless in getting rid of the flies, whereas we attempted to get as many of the ladybugs outside alive as we could. A few we just chose to tolerate. Ladybugs, you see, are friends of the gardener, so we are not upset by their presence around us.

Summertime Greens and Blues

2008-02-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

Our first summer at Berryridge Farm was both a joy and a frustration. There was just so much to do and the vast majority of it had to be done by hand. To our dismay, the money we'd gotten from the sale of our previous home, did not stretch as far as we would have liked. Sue and I had had to make some serious priority decisions. Having spent money to replace the carpet in our new home meant no office in the shop for me. Actually, we didn't feel we could even put in the washroom facilities in the shop. In respects to our garden, it meant we had no money to purchase tilling equipment but we did set aside the money for plants, as described in the previous post.

The Summer of 2006 was hot and Sue and I labored hard and made pretty good progress for two fifty-somethings doing it all by manual means. The orchard was planted over a two week period. Not all our fruit/nut trees went into the orchard on the North side of the house. We planted two walnut trees West of the house and South of the shop. The vegetable beds slowly took shape and we put tree debris into piles which we carefully burned. The work in our yard was not the only activity Sue and I had going on in our lives, however.

In June of 2006 I attended the Grand Lodge of Washington, F.&A.M. as I have done for the past several years. But this year was special, I was appointed and installed as the Grand Orator by MW Charles McQuery, Grand Master for the term I would be Grand Orator. We had a very busy year, opening Grand Lodge some 15 times to lay cornerstones, constitute new lodges and celebrate the 100 Anniversaries of several lodges. I truly had a wonderful time but my duties put me on the road and to some small degree broke up our work on Berryridge Farm, but I would not have missed the experience of being Grand Orator - it was great!

In September of 2006 we made great progress in completing the landscaping between the shop and the house. The rock-ringed raised planting bed was finished and the graveled paths were pushing out into the south yard area. As October neared I realised that we would need a place to put our firewood, to keep it dry during the winter months. I had gone merrily along my way all summer, not fully appreciating just how much wood it was going to take to heat our home for the up-coming winter. I like to think that I am one of those persons who actually learns from his mistakes. Although sometimes the first time round the lesson isn't fully learned in every detail. Sue and I had begun this adventure a little naive but we are growing with our experiences and having fun in the process.

A new Garden of Eden

2007-12-02T17:00:00.001-08:00

Mid-late April and May - 2006
Once Sue and I had some semblance of organization to our home's interior we surveyed the area around our home. We first decided that we'd create an orchard on the North side of the house and begin two simple vegetable gardens, one on the South side of the house and one on the South side of the shop. Sue pointed out thought that we should take advantage of the heat reflected by both buildings for heat loving plants like tomatos, peppers and basil. We did not then, nor do we yet own a tiller or tractor, and so with pickaxe and shovel we started the creation our garden of Eden.

Eden comes with rocks
One thing we are blessed or cursed with is a plentitude of rocks, in various sizes. The larger ones, say the size of a bowling ball or large watermellon, I gathered to form the borders of some raised planting beds and to line our main pathways. The first project I started was a simple gravel path from the driveway to the back door of our residence. Sue had read about the technique of using newspaper to retard the growth of weeds. So, we laid newspaper down on the ground I'd picked and smoothed for the path. On top of the newspaper we put a layer of stones, from the size of golfballs to a small fist. Next came a 2 inch deep layer of gravel. It did not take too long before we ran out of newspaper and so we started to use weed retardant fabric.

Over the Summer and into the Fall of 2006 I extended the pathway to the shop, from the back door of the house to: the SW corner of the House and the NW corner of the house. I had also develped some planting beds between the house and shop.

Plants like nice homes too!
For the planting beds I pickaxed the designated areas, setting aside all the rocks from the size of a golfball on up. Sue ordered ten yards of mushroom compost which we put into most of the beds. Some plants don't care for this compost we learned, blueberries in particular, so they and the cane-berries were treated to a special locally made compost. I constructed the rock-bordered raised bed, along the south side of the shop. It looked pretty good once I was done. The vegetable beds were planted in late June. I devised various fencing systems to discourage the local wildlife from feasting on our baby plants.

Before planting the orchard it only made sense to put up a tall fence first. Deer feel completely free to munch on most anything we humans desire to plant; we learned the hard way on a few of our favorite trees and flowers. I dug post holes and put up 4X4 treated posts and then tacked up a 48 inch high by 2X4 inch mesh utility fencing, at a height of 6 feet 6 inches. Under the untility fence went a row of 24 inch high poultry fencing, to try and keep out the rabbits. We are still fighting it out with the rabbits.

Our orchard is home to: 2 Filbert Nut trees, 2 Pear trees, 3 Apple trees, 8-9 Blueberry shrubs, 9-10 cane-berry crowns.

Tea Time! (June-July 2006)
To try and recapture one of Sue's favorite Spring and Summer activities, her morning Tea Time, Sue began to create a patio off of the south-facing glass sidding doors. Sue and I had thought about a nice large deck running along the south side of the house from west to east, but, we also wanted to plant tomatos along the south side of the house. So we chose a patio option as being the one which gave us the best use of the space. Sue placed the patio at the base of the southside porch, extending it toward the south. She used 12" square red concrete pavers. Sue's patio was ready for use by July 1st, 2006

Springing Forward

2007-11-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hooray for spring! I visited our home site on April 3rd and there were stacks of cinder block and of sacks of mortar waiting for brick-masons to put them around the base of the house. I returned on April 7Th and the cinder block skirting was completed, tar applied and the roof and foundation drainage system installed. Sue and I were told, that if we didn't make too much noise we could move in, so on April 9Th we did just that. It was just like camping, we slept on a double wide air mattress for five nights.

On April 11Th our contractor Gary and his daughter Diana, constructed our three porches. Gary finished back filling around the cinder block. While they were doing that our wood stove was being installed. Little did we know on that day just how important a decision it was to go ahead and purchase the wood stove. Yeah! the County Inspector came, checked out the house and signed our certificate of occupancy.

The next day, April 12Th, the top layer of gravel was laid over our driveway. Gary hooked up the water and septic system to the garage shop. In the house, our new carpet was installed. A little rain fell but our spirits were not dampened. Now we were ready to move in our furniture and set up our home.

Thursday April 13Th came and the move commenced. I had lined up my good friend Glenn and he helped me move our furniture from storage out to the house. The down side was that it rained hard that day and for the two following days as well. Because we had no proper walkways Sue and I had decided to purchase two bales of straw. I laid straw down on a track leading from the driveway to the backdoor and from the backdoor down to the south facing glass sliding door. Glenn and I were able to get the furniture in without tracking in any mud. This was the most unpleasant move-in, from a weather point of view, I ever had. I truly thank Glenn for helping.

We did do a wee bit of furniture arranging that evening. On previous occasions I had moved many of our boxes of belongings from the storage units we rented into our garage/shop. It took Sue and I many days to get really settled in. To some degree in fact, we're still getting settled. The garage/shop still has to be put into order. As April moved into May we felt a strong need to get some sort of garden and landscaping done.

Trial by Nature: Building in the Winter

2007-11-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Winter in the foothills presents a few challenges to any building project. Though a contractor can pour concrete at fairly cool temperatures, there are other considerations such as wind, snow and rain. The rain creates soft earth and/or mud. There is also the dance between site developement and construction. Our contractor Gary was asked by Dale, who was building the garage/shop, to hold off digging the trench for water & power until he had the concrete floor of the garage/shop poured. Dale was delayed on putting on the garage roof because too few sheets of forest green metal for the roof were delivered. The next lot were the wrong color and then some of the sheets of the correct color were damaged when dropped off the truck, so several days were lost do to human errors.

The two halves of our house were joined within a few days of arrival, Dec 9th, and the interrior finish work was begun. In transit several cracks in the wallboard appeared and they and the joint seams had to be covered and painted. We had to wait for the carpet to be laid until electrical power was provided, so the shell of our home sat empty for several weeks. The good news was that the garage/shop's shell and the house were ready for interrior work at about the same time. Snow, cold and the Christmas Holidays slowed work until the new year.

The floor for the shop was poured on January 5, 2006 and the water & power trench was dug on January 19, 2006. This brings up the matter of working with the power company. While arranging for electrical power, Sue and I werinformed that we needed to provide a diagram showing the locations of our house, shop and our well's pump-house in relation to the electrical vault and indicating the distances the power cable would run to each. One of my good investments was a 200 foot flexible tape meassure. Using this tape I got the required measurements. I created a diagram, on my computer, using the shapes, lines and text frames in MS Publisher. I submitted the digram along with our power application and we waited. One has to wait for several inspections to take place. The depth and quality of your trench is looked at and of course the electrical panel and wiring has to be checked and a green tag applied. We got hooked to the power grid on January 25, 2006. About two weeks later the shop was wired by Lane, Gary's electrical sub-contractor, and the shop was ready to be used. Power meant that the heat could be turned on to warm the house in preparation for laying the carpet. Turning the power on inside the house was done by the home seller's set-up crew The process felt so slow, Sue and I wanted to move in so badly but we had no water and the septic system was still not hooked up.

The month of February came and on Feb 13th, Gary and his daughter Diana worked on hooking the septic system to the house and in laying the water line from the house and shop down the trench to the electrical vault. A trench from the vault to the well's pump-house pad still needed to be dug. It was dug on Feb. 15th. Constrction was begun on the pump-house on Feb. 21. The work was done by Gary, his son Gary Jr. and Lane.
Oh, and I watched and took photos as I did for many of the construction activities. The well's pump installation and wiring were completed by March 17th. One wiring feature we had installed on the pump-house was a Gen-tran, so we could easily hook up a generator to run the pump in case of a power outage. I informed the power company that we were ready for the power cable to be run from the vault to the pump-house. The electrical cable was laid by March 26th. On March 28th Gary and Gary Jr. hooked the water system to our house. We then waited for the home seller's crew to turn the water on inside the house, to make sure there were no problems. The weeks we spent waiting to move in wore on us but at least the weather was getting somewhat better and we were now officially several days into Spring.

Home Sweet Home

2007-11-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

The key to staying out of finacial trouble is pretty simple: live within your income! Sue and I were more interested in having space around us than of having a large home to take care of. Of course it is easier for us because we are both introverted personalities, hence we don't feel a need to entertain much nor do we feel a need to be constantly connected to someone, anyone, by means of radio, TV or phone. Having a modest sized manufactured home kept us within our budget. Being so far away from a city does make it necessary for us to plan our trips into "town" so we make the cost of travel work. So we plan to run mulitple errands when we drive into town.

(We had about a 1/2 acre brushed-out on our 10 acre parcel. The photo above left shows the pouring of the foundation pad for our pump house. The right hand photo is the pad for our home.)

When trying to choose a manufactured home, Sue relied on her sister who told us about a company whose homes are so well built that they offer a 10 year warranty - probably the best warranty in the manufactured home arena. We checked out a variety of floor plans and Sue settled on one she particularly liked. The square footage came to about 1400 sq. feet. The house was ordered in the Fall of 2005, once our loan was approved. While the house was being built the site had to be prepared. The home dealership we bought the house through gave us the business cards for several local excavating businesses. The one we chose turned out to be a family run business and we really enjoyed working with them. Whenever I went out to our home site I took along my trusty digital camera to document the process.

I met Gary, the contractor, out at the site in late October, 2005 so we could discuss how to approach clearing a building site. I tagged some evergreen trees which I hoped he could bypass while clearing the area. The site included an area for the house, the garage/shop, and a septic system drain field plus room for a small orchard and garden. On November 23, 2005 the concrete pad for the house was poured. Two or three days later it snowed. In very early December the garage/shop was started. On December 9th, I think it was, the two halves of our house were delivered. It was December 12th that the crew came to put them onto the pad and join them together. I was present and took lots of pictures. It was a very impressive process to watch.

Going for it!

2007-11-02T11:45:00.001-07:00

Now that my wife Sue and I have been living in the foothills of the North Cascades for over a year, I thought it would be interesting to set the proverbial pen to paper and write about our experiences. Moving from a medium sized city out into the hinterlands was not an easy task. For one, finding a suitable piece of property was a bit daunting. A good year before our move Sue and I took a few trips into the country just see what felt like a new home to us, to see if some area drew us to it. In fact we were drawn to a particular area and with it in mind I did a computer search to see what was listed.

(The two photos above show Sue and our realtor looking over the plot diagram. In the right hand photo note the tall trees on the left side of the background. Look for them in later post photos to help you orient the house & garden as our place grows.)

I think I found the big lead in a local newspaper, a realtor was himself selling a 20 acre piece, described as being on the side of a hill. When Sue and I visited the property we enjoyed the commanding view but neither of us desired to try and get up and down the hill during the snowy months. Though there was plenty of land it was not very usable for what we had in mind, we wanted a vegetable garden and an orchard. Sue and I wanted nature trails however we did not want to fully exhaust ourselves on a steep slope. But the good news was that this realtor knew of several others parcels of land being prepared for sale.

A few miles away from the hill top property there were some five and ten acre parcels. After visiting both Sue announced she preferred the ten acre parcels. As it turned out, three of the ten acre parcels were ready to sell, though one already had buyer. Sue and I did not waste time in making our move, we made an offer on the parcel we now own. From the County highway, our parcel is one mile in distance along a private road. At present most of the other ten acre parcels have been sold. On the one next to ours, the owner is nearing completion of her house and on another the owner is just now preparing the forms to pour a concrete foundation.

Once Sue and I decided on the property we had to decide how much house we could afford. The short platt covenants stated that the house could not be less than 1200 sq feet in floor space and there also had to be a two car garage. Sue and I decided on a manufactured home and a pole building for a shop/garage. In order to make sure we could handle the mortgage we based our home loan around the monthly payment we felt we could afford to make. The sale of our previous home netted us a fair amount, but it never goes as far an one hopes.

Fortunately we had a place to stay while the home site was prepared, the home set up and the garage/shop built. We were able to move in during the month of April, 2006.