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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Sprouting Lawn

Posted by Melanie at 20:26 2 comments

I can't wait untill it is grown so I can sink my bare feet into its cool lushness.

sprouting lawn

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Friday, May 30, 2008

I want my kitchen to be NORMAL again

Posted by Melanie at 12:56 0 comments Kitchen update

I made a mistake fine I'm sorry! I'll never renovate (build a house) again. I wanna bake a cake, I wanna make real food from scratch for dinner instead of warming up some food product on my pocket rocket stove or eating raw fruit, crackers and cheese.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A State Of Emergency In Prince George BC

Posted by Melanie at 21:13 0 comments

I feel compelled to blog about this only because it has been dominating the Prince George media and the British Columbia media all day. The News about the fires, the biggest in the history of the city of Prince George, even made the National News.

It started in a Canfor mill 6 PM yesterday evening. I live northwest of town, a long way from where the fire started and later spread so unlike nearly everyone I spoke to today I noticed nothing. When I checked my flickr photos this morning I saw this photo. The weather forecast had a smoke warning. I knew something was up. I eventually heard all about it on theCBC news during my drive to work.

The biggest questions are - will Canfor rebuild their plywood Mill? and what will happen to the 300 or so people who lost their livelihood?

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Monday, May 26, 2008

“Frailty, (vanity) thy name is woman”

Posted by Melanie at 19:48 0 comments

For almost a month now I've been wearing these wonderful multi focusing contact lenses. Instead of taking my glasses off to read the fine print or putting them on to read the fine print, when I'm wearing my other contact lenses, these new lenses are able to somehow grab my eyes and force then to focus both on near objects and objects in the distance. I've become so use to their multi focusing abilities I couldn't not order a three months supply. Who cares if they are almost twice the price of my regular contact lenses. I know my better than nothing extended healthcare plan will only pay a fraction of the cost. But you know sometimes you gotta splurge.

 
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Summer At Last

Posted by Melanie at 21:05 1 comments

I got horribly sunburnt sitting on the deck reading Paul Torday's book Salmon fishing In the Yemen.

The book was very entertaining, so different what what I usually read. It is about a hairbrained scheme by a Yememi sheik to introduce salmon to it rivers. A UK Government fisheries expert, Dr. Alfred Jones, is hired to assess the feasibility of the scheme and put the whole thing in motion. For better or worse Jones life takes on an unexpected air of excitement- what do do about his frigid realtionship with his wife, his underpaid work as a government hack and his new coworker the sexy Harriet Chetwode-Talbot.

After finishing the seed planting in the garden I sat on the deck to read the book becaue it was hot. I love basking in the suns heat, feeling it soaking into my bones all the more so since hot sunshine is so rare up here in the boondocks of civilization. Robert and Bob were inside slaving away over the installation of the granite tiles for the kitchen countertop. It is far from finished, seems I will be kitchenless for at least another two weeks.

In a vague sort of way I did realize I was getting sunburnt. It wasn't untill I came inside to use the bathroom that I noticed my red arms, neck, cheeks and even parts of my legs.

I've finished reading the book and have started my second one, King Leary By Paul Quarington. I'm using my Pocket Rocket stove to boil water for hot drinks and the barbecue for everything else, even toast.

In the garden I've got spinach, radishes, peas and potatoes coming up and yes I bought some tomatoes for the greenhouse.

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Unheard Of

Posted by Melanie at 18:51 0 comments

The other day I picked up a truckload of manure from a friend. I could see the steam rising from it as he dug into the huge pile with the bucket on his little tractor. It is a bit hot but spread thinly I put some around my rhubarb. It will be good for a top dressing around the pea vines and on the potatoes. But, because it is so hot and not as soil like as I would like I'm looking for more topsoil. I need to beef up my raised beds so I can plant carrots and the greenhouse needs more nutrients before I can plant basil, beans and tomatoes.

Since I started gardening 20 years ago I always started my seeds inside the house, placing the flats in a south facing window. The plants always sprouted and grew mightly exceeding my expectations. This year they sprouted but they didn't grow.

I'm not sure what the problem was, lack of warmth maybe? Its heartbreaking because it means none of my heirloom tomatoes will reach maturity, everything is in the greenhouse soaking up the spring warmth in the hopes the tomatoes, peppers, portulaca and dill will start to grow. It means, for the first time in 2 decades, I will have to break down and actually buy tomato seedlings or do without

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Kitchen

Posted by Melanie at 19:43 0 comments

Last Saturday and Sunday while I wrestled with yards of sandy loam, clover seed and grass seed Robert took out the old temporary kitchen.

out with the old

On Monday his friend Richard came to help install the brand new, handmade by my husband, solid wood extremely heavy cabinets.

Yummy walnut and maple cabinets

As you can see the kitchen is still unfinished The sink was not reinstalled there is no counter top only plywood no backsplash and no cupboard doors. Sure I was able to put 75% of my kitchen stuff away, love those new drawers on their metal sliders.The rest of it is piled on the table and or the floor.

Today for some ridiculous reason I decided to make a butterscotch cake, with burnt cream icing and cream cheeese filling and for supper brown rice with steamed green, parmesan cheese and boneless pork chops. I actually got used to going to the bathroom for water and I piled all the dirty dishes on what little space is left on the table.

On Saturday Bob, another friend, is coming to install the tile and back splash. I will keep you posted.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Stop Already

Posted by Melanie at 19:00 0 comments

Remember yesterday when I said how glad I was it was raining?

There can be too much of a good thing

This morning it was pouring but I was going to work so I didn't care. But, by the time I got home and looked at all the sandy loam full of puddles I could envision my clover and grass seed also in puddles or worse being washed away into the ravine. I say enough with the rain.

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Monday, May 19, 2008

My Clover Lawn

Posted by Melanie at 22:03 1 comments shoveling dirt

It's raining again, for once I'm glad.

Yesterday I shoveled 3 yards of dirt, today I shoveled a yard and a half. I laid it down, about 2 inches thick, all around the house in preparation for a clover lawn. I bought Dutch White clover seeds and a grass mixture made up of 50% Creeping Red Fescue, 25% Perennial Rye and 25% Kentucky blue grass. The grass shades the roots of the clover helping it to get established.

I mixed all the seeds together then put them in a shaker made by punching holes in the lid of a yogurt container. Clover seed is a very tiny. Grass seed is a bit bigger about the size and shape of a lettuce seed. I sprinkled the seeds all over the soil then sprayed water over the lot with my hand sprinkler. Of course as soon I was done the black clouds overhead let loose and it's been raining on and off ever since.

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

Why the Western Diet is Making us Sick.

Posted by Melanie at 08:49 0 comments

Why I agree with the argument in Michael Pollans book, In Defense of Food- An Eaters Manifesto, eat food, not too much, mostly plants

Real foods are disappearing off supermarket shelves to be replaced with nutrients. Michael Pollan has coined the word Nutritionism to label this trend. He says we no longer eat meat that looks like meat or yogurt containing only milk and bacteria. Real food is being replaced with highly processed, food products gaudily packaged, loudly claiming to be fat free, high fiber, enriched, low cholesterol and the like.

The fear of fat has been with us since the fifties when the lipid hypothesis- the concept that fat found in dairy and meat products was responsible for the rising rates of heart disease and has resulted in doctors recommending low fat diets.

Pollan hastens to argue that it is not eggs, milk, cheese and red meat that are bad for us but they way they are produced.

In the large agribusinesses of today vast acres of land are tilled over for the production of corn wheat and barley, excessive amounts of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and even pesticides are used to raise these plants to maturity. Fed on a diet of chemicals the natural vitamins and minerals in these plants are low. These basic grains are then processed into animal feed and fed to chickens in batteries and cattle in feed lots. Because of their crowded living conditions they need antibiotics to keep them well. The meat, eggs and milk from these animals is then processed and fed to us.

In the second half of this book Pollan sets out his rules for eating, things like- don’t eat anything your grandparents or in some cases great grandparents wouldn’t recognize as being food. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients or ingredients you can’t pronounce or recognize as being food. Shop in farmers markets, buy grass fed cattle and free range eggs direct from the farmer. Organic food is not best if it has been shipped halfway across the continent. Eat lots more fruits and vegetables especially leaves as they contain omega3 fatty acids. (one thing I didn’t know) Learn to cook.

He says it might be worthwhile to infest in a deep freezer so one might freeze excess produce available in season at the farmers market or that half cow you bought from your friendly farmer.

I’ve long suspected what Pollan says is true. My back to the land/hippy streak has ensured I’ve not strayed too far, as well, my mother, who taught me to cook, produced delicious meals from scratch everyday for her lucky family so how could I be any different.

Like everyone I believed, at first, that animal fats were bad for us. But, I drew the line at so called healthy Becel margarine. Yuck. From that day forward we ate butter. Butter contains one ingrediant, cream. Compare that to Becel which contains –

Canola and sunflower oils 74%, water, modified palm and palm kernel oils 6%, salt 1.8%, whey protein concentrate 1.4%, soy lecithin 0.2%, vegetable monoglycerides, potassium sorbate, vegetable colour, artificial flavour, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3, alpha-tocopherol acetate (vitamin E).

which one would you rather eat? Of course, according to Pollans rules, I have to search out the right butter, one that has been produced from local dairy cows grazing green grass. Having spent thirteen years has a sheep farmer I know hay fields are not subject to pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. It is simply not necessary, fertilizing is done naturally by the cows/sheeps own manure.

I know all this takes time and real food cost more. But-

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

So much green

Posted by Melanie at 21:01 0 comments Chionodoxa

My sister got married in March during Spring Break. We came down from the Frozen north to Hazelmere golf course where the ceremony was being held. I was distracted the whole time by the grass. It's greenness beckoned to me from every window, I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Today I drove home from work along foothills boulevard a big wide street lined on both sides and down the middle with raised expanses of grass. After so many months of black and white it is comforting, soothing even to see so much green.

I forgot to take a picture of the grass so I'm giving you this Chionodoxa, blooming today in my garden.

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mothers Day

Posted by Melanie at 17:26 0 comments

I was in the garden, covered in mud, weeding, checking the perennials for signs of growth and thinking about planting the flowers I bought the other day, as well as the potaoes which have been languishing, sprouting in my pantry for weeks. Robert came by covered in sawdust. He had been chopping down beetle killed trees and bucking them up for next years firewood. He wanted me to come with him on a search for more firewood.

Driving randomly down roads looking for dead trees that would probably belong to someone anyway seemed like a waste of time.

I also have to get ibufrofun, he said. He has bad knees. Hmmn, I thought, that would mean a trip up to the highway where the mall is and Brother Johns nursery. I was lusting after an apple tree.

Five minutes later, still covered and mud and sawdust, we were both in the truck. I got my apple tree and a white lilac to plant by the back door. It was my suggestion to drive down the road where I got the rocks for the garden last year, to look for potential firewood. Not a lot of people live down that road so it might be easier, I said.

We scored big. Huge pieces of wood I had to wrap my arms around, hug tight and stagger out of the bush with, sinking above my boot tops in snow. Yes it still lurks in the cool spots. I was a bit worried when we balanced the tree on top of the wood for the drive home but it arrived safely.

I came inside to wash the mud off, make dinner and phone my Mum. The first thing she said to me was, Happy Mothers Day. After returning the sentiment. She said, my son Callum and my sister were going over there for dinner. Both of them had already taken her out for her Birthday dinner last week. She thought, even though it was Mothers day, she would make dinner this time. She also said she would remind Callum it was Mothers Day and too give me a call.

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Todays Links

Posted by Melanie at 09:52 0 comments

Solving the pine beetle crisis

Via treehugger

According to this article Hemp consumes 1.7 times its dry weight in CO2 during its growth cycle thus each hectare of hemp could soak up to 22 tonnes of CO2.

Global warming has allowed the pine beetle, a tiny insect which sucks the life out of the tree, to grow unchecked devastating much of British Columbia's forests. The dead trees have become a huge source of CO2 emissions. The Canadian Government thinks growing hemp could be a way to alleviate, soak up, the massive amounts of CO2 emanating from the dead trees. They have announced considerable coin to develop a pilot project near 100 Mile House BC.

Your Jetson dream realized

Via treehugger

Working from the premise that the whole fossil fuel automobile infrastructure needs to be rethought and the notion that commuter planes can be designed which are easier to drive than cars, the CAFE Foundation, a non-profit organization advocating personal air travel, thinks the future lies in airborne cars. They are looking for a sponsor to augment a competition. The first prize, $50,000 will be given to the "first airplane which can fly at least 100 miles per hour for 100 miles per gallon or better." Now that is one competition and it's outcome I'm looking forward too seeing

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Dawson Creek 50th Anniversary

Posted by Melanie at 07:50 0 comments Down Town Dawson Creek

In 1972, when I was 12, I was randomly selected from hordes of other Girl Guides to attend a provincial get together camp in Dawson Creek. Heather the other girl chosen from our area, Powell River, and I were driven to Vancouver by her Dad to catch the plane.

Too my 12 year old eyes the streets in downtown seemed exceptionally wide just like in the photo. When I later moved here in 1985 I learned it was to accommodate angled parking, easier when you drive a pickup, and snow removal.

Even though the businesses have evolved and changed, traffic has increased ten fold because of oil and gas exploration I'm sure the town looks exactly the same.

Today in 2008 Dawson Creek celebrates its 50th anniversary. See more photos of Dawson Creek and the surrounding area here

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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Making Me Happy

Posted by Melanie at 21:56 0 comments

I'm here in Dawson Creek. We came up here for work but mainly to get away for a short holiday. Spring is a lot more advanced up here than it is in Prince George. The grass is green and down north of Chetwynd the trees are starting to leaf out.

The yellow crocuses are in my garden. Plantwise things will be coming fast and furious making up for last time.

Yesterday I went to Art Knapps to buy stuff for work I also ended up with 3 Oriental poppies a fragrant Dianthus and some Sweet William, for me. Even though I swore I would not buy any more peonies, I love them but they need far too much water, I got seduced by the Bowl Of Beauty. It's a pink flower with a yellow center. I've always wanted this one. I've left lots of other peonies behind in other gardens, I've loved them all, but this one is special.

First flowers

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Monday, May 5, 2008

Junk Mail: how to lessen the deluge

Posted by Melanie at 16:14 1 comments

Wire and Twine present 50 simple ways to help the Planet. They suggest things like-
hang clothes to dry
use both sides of the paper
brush your teeth without letting the water run
cut down on junk mail

It's the last suggestion I need to do something about. If I lived in the US I could sign up with GreenDimes, a simple effective one step answer. In Canada you have to do a lot more work.

First- paste a sign saying, No Junk Mail, on your mailbox. Second- sign up with the Canadian Marketing Associations do not contact service.

I really hope it works. I'm off to walk up the road to paste a sign on the inside and the outside of my mailbox. 

Herringbone Headache, aka, how to knit the Doctors bag my way

Posted by Melanie at 07:26 0 comments

A twill weave makes a thick sturdy fabric with a prounced wrong and right side. An even sided twill is called herringbone. I spent most of yesterday screaming trying to learn how to knit the herringbone pattern. I want to make the fabric for Tracy Ullmans and Mel Clarks doctors bag.

docters bag

The directions to knit this stitch pattern are below, supposedly they produce a fabric which looks like the bag in the photo.


Row 1 k2 *slip 2 wyif, K2* repeat between stars till end
Row2 P1 *slip2wyib p2* repeat P1
Row3 slip2wyif *K2 slip2 wyif * repeat
Row4 P3 * slip2 wyib P2* repeat till last 3 stitches slip2 wyib P1.

It took me almost all day to decide that no matter how many other instructions I found, using google and tried to follow there was no way I was going to produce a fabric that looks like the one in that photo. Eventually I stumbled across this tutorial. It was easy to follow. In no time I was knitting a herringbone fabric similar to commercially available cloth. Knitting Herringbone StitchI know it looks nothing like the fabric in the bag photo above but it is thick and sturdy and will make a good substitute. Best of all I only need to use one strand of yarn instead of the double strand called for in the pattern.

There was a time, during the hours I spent struggling with the incomprehensible stitch pattern, when I thought I should just felt an old sweater instead, use it to make the bag. But a desire to succeed, sort of, kept me going and besides I needed to find a use for this yarn.

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Saturday, May 3, 2008

Bring it On

Posted by Melanie at 18:29 0 comments Sunbathing

My right arm is red and itchy. It's sunburn from spending all afternoon on my deck. I was able to leave the door open so I could hear the radio above the fabulous sound of running water. I predict all the snow will be gone by next weekend.

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Friday, May 2, 2008

I want to ride my bicycle ( Freddie Mercury)

Posted by Melanie at 20:38 0 comments

I rode my bike 23 kilometres to town today. It was warm, in fact I came back home to get rid of some of my clothes. About a third of the ride is downlhill but into a stong headwind. It held me back so I didn't need to use my brakes. Apart from the dust and grit which got noticeably worse as I got closer to town I enjoyed the ride. I'm thinking I might do this about once a week to go to work.

It took me an hour and a half. A bit longer than I thought it would. It means I will have to leave home. at 6:30 to get to work by 8:00 Hmmnn.

Today I picked my husband up at work, but not before riding to where the car was parked. I pulled down the back seats, took off the head rests so the seats would lie flat and stuffed my bike into it. I had to move both driver and passenger seats forward a lot to get the bike in. We went to the pub for a beer before driving home. when I ride to work I won't be getting a car ride home or a drink at the pub. I will have to ride up Foothills Blvd. a lot of uphill. I'm still thinking about wether I want to do this.

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

May Day

Posted by Melanie at 16:28 0 comments early spring

I've driven an automatic vehicle three times in my life, one of them was today. I sat in the drivers seat and took a few moments to look at the levers and remembering how they worked. When I was a farmer, in another life, I bought a one ton truck to take my lambs to market and bring home one ton bags of barley. The first time I drove it I spent at least ten minutes trying to get the key out of the ignition before realizing I had to put it in park. Today, after momentarily panicking when I couldn't find the clutch, I managed to back it out of my employers driveway and drive off. I had to keep reminding myself there were no gears and it was OK to keep my foot on the accelerator although I still felt a flutter of dread in my stomach everytime I drove up to a stop sign or red light.

I was more than glad to get rid of it, get back in my own vehicle and head off to the post office. I was expecting to pick up a returned priority express letter I had sent to my son in Vancouver. Canada post was unable to deliver it? It wasn't there.

I came straight home to phone them up to find out where it was. When I told the representative I wanted her to look for it right now she was incredulous. They were supposed to be sending it back to me on April 23, today is May 1. I pointed out to her that Canada post had had 6 business days to deliver it back to me. She said it was coming by truck but she didn't know exactly where it was. I told her the priority insured letter, which I had paid $9.45 cents to send to my son contained his passport and a government cheque and I could have walked from Vancouver to Prince George in less than six days with the letter. I suppose she was trying to calm me down because she offered to put a trace on my letter and she said it was safe. " What do you mean it's safe?" I said. "you just told me you didn't know where it was, I bet someone has stolen it and is using my sons passport right now for nefarious purposes." She cut me off to put me on hold while she waited for her supervisor to talk to me.

I heard a knock on the door. It was the Insurance Agent come to take photos of my woodstove and the house. Surrounded by piles of dirty snow and acres of mud, which I'm going to hydroseed with a slow-grow, no-mow legume and grass mixture when it warms up, the house does not look its best. Not having railings on the deck wasn't good either. I assured him It was on our long list of things to finish when the snow melted and the mud dried up.

The phone rang it was Canada Post telling me the trace for my letter was top priority because it contained a passport but because they were in Ottawa, 3 hours ahead it was now 5 PM, they couldn't do anything till tomorrow. Humpf. I still think they have lost my letter.

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