Free Range Living

An Update

2008-05-13T15:53:00.018-07:00

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted anything, but we're finally back to a somewhat normal life and schedule. My husband has returned to work, and while we're not quite living in the house yet, we're hopefully only a few weeks away.
Our time spent working on the house was pretty great - we haven't spent that much time together since we travelled through Europe 12 years ago (and no, we haven't filed for divorce!).
I mentioned in an earlier post that we were pretty much freezing our butts while working there, but on April 12, it was positively balmy. We had a work party with some friends who came to help install soffits, and had our first barbecue of the season. One week later (April 19), we arrived to this scene:

It was breathtakingly beautiful, so of course we had to take time off from wiring to have a snowball fight. What a crazy winter it's been.

You may be wondering if I've gone off my rocker and painted the house mustard and black. As lovely as the combination is, the yellow is actually rain screen mesh that we've had to install on the gable ends of the house where the overhangs aren't adequate to keep the siding dry. There has been a huge "leaky condo" crisis in BC over the past 10-15 years (my mom and step-father both had to shell out big money to have their apartment buildings completely redone), because condos were being built with complete disregard for our drizzly climate, so the BC building code has been changed to make rain screen mandatory on most new buildings. The mesh creates a space behind the siding so that air can get behind it and dry any water that may have gotten through. It's an added material and labour cost, but much cheaper than having to redo the whole exterior 10 years from now.

Here you can see the Hardie shingles that we decided to go with. It has been installed on some of the house, but there's still a lot more to do. We've had help with this from a few of the guys on our contractor's crew, as the bank wants us to have everything done before they'll give us a mortgage with a decent rate. So we've had to choose between doing things ourselves and paying more in interest, and hiring someone to help us so we can save on interest. Either way, this is costing us more than we'd ever hoped!

This is my husband giddily wiring the very last fixture in the house. It took us way longer to wire the house than we thought it would, but we saved ourselves approximately $18,000 by doing it ourselves.

This is the stage we're at now - the house is insulated and awaiting drywall. A neighbor who also happens to be a contractor (and an organic farmer - but that's another post!) mentioned one day that it can sometimes be almost as cheap to hire someone to install the insulation as it is to do it yourself, since they get the materials for so much less. We did some calculating, and after our contractor sweet-talked his insulators, we ended up with a deal that we just couldn't pass up, and our house was insulated in two days (something that would have taken us weeks, I'm sure!). Even without a heat source, the house feels downright snug!

Our raven friends have been keeping a close eye on our progress, as have many other kinds of birds. We have dined with eagles swooping playfully overhead, watched red-headed woodpeckers excavating logs for a meal, and you can't be outside for 10 minutes without a hummingbird buzzing past your head.

Spending 6 weeks on the property has given us plenty of time to get to know the area and its inhabitants (human as well as animal), and we are smitten. I have never met friendlier people, and I can't wait to be a member of this community. I already know more of my neighbors than I do after 12 years of living in the city!

This process has not been without its problems, however. As I mentioned earlier, our budget has been blown completely, in spite of our best efforts. Fortunately, interest rates are low right now, and the basement that I fought so hard against in the beginning will in all likelihood become a welcome source of income, as we are going to put in a suite to help pay down the mortgage.

Thankfully, we've been blessed with a good builder, which was one of our biggest concerns about building. Unfortunately the pre-fab company we were dealing with has turned out to be a bit of a dud. If we had to do it all over again, we would hire this particular contractor to stick-frame the house rather than do pre-fab, as this method of construction has saved us neither time nor money (quite the opposite, actually). The upside is, if we hadn't used them we never would have met our builder, and besides doing a bang-up job on our house, he and his crew have become good friends to us as well.

And that's about it. Next on my list: putting up a deer fence up so I can get the garden started!

Garden Firsts

2008-04-01T22:28:00.005-07:00

The smallest hint of a garden has begun popping up around the house, as the bulbs I planted a month or so ago have recently started to bloom.

These varieties will naturalize and spread, and should eventually blanket the hillside with blooms.

It's not much, but it's a start!

Let there be light!

2008-03-26T23:35:00.005-07:00

We did it!! We managed to wire two complete circuits and get them both working!

That's a happy man you see before you - I hate to think what his expression would have been like if nothing had happened when he flicked that switch!

We've been freezing our buns off for the past few days, as we seem to be caught in a late winter cold snap. Snow fell on us both yesterday and today, but by the early this evening the sun was out and everything looked amazing.

Perhaps a circuit for the baseboard heaters should be next on the agenda?

Days 1 and 2

2008-03-24T23:03:00.006-07:00

We got started on the house wrap on Saturday, but we quickly became too short for the job...

...the rest is on hold until we get either taller ladders or scaffolding.

I wired my very first electrical outlet today!

Only 200 or so left to go...

And so it begins...

2008-03-21T22:39:00.008-07:00

First off, thanks for your nice comments about my little dresser project. I'm sorry that I haven't been responding to each of you individually as much as I'd like, and I promise to be better about it when things settle down a bit!

Speaking of not having a spare moment, the house is finally to the lock-up stage, so the days of having other people to do all the work for us are over, and my husband is officially (as of this evening) on 6 weeks of "holidays", during which we're hoping to get the house to a point that we can actually move in. It likely won't be anywhere near finished at that point, but it will be easier to plug away at things once we're living there, so that's the goal.

This is more or less what the house looks like at the moment (there are a few extra windows and doors now), and I am totally in love! I know it doesn't look like much yet, but I'm very excited nonetheless.

From this side you can see the decks (the closest one is off the dining room, and the small one on the other end is off our bedroom). The pile of gravel on the left is our septic field, which has since been buried.

This is my favorite part of the house so far - the underside of the roof over the front porch, with it's lovely curved brace. The brace is in the wrong place at the moment (it should have been on the outside edge - don't get me started!), but I love the way the soffits look with the rafters.

The first step in our journey starts tomorrow, when we'll start papering the exterior walls so things stay dry inside, and after that we'll move on to the wiring, insulation, and drywall. The scope of the work ahead of us is more than a little overwhelming, but we're trying to keep cool heads about it.

I'll try to post a few photos occasionally, but until then, I hope everyone has a great spring and I'll see you sometime in May!

Restoration

2008-03-10T22:28:00.015-07:00

I've been living for the past year and a half with a dresser that only has two functioning drawers. The gliders for the other four have lost all of the little ball bearings that are supposed to make them slide smoothly in and out, and they've seized into a permanent state of not-quite-open/not-quite-closed. If I'm lucky, I can pull a drawer out just far enough to reach in and grab the article of clothing closest to the top, but there are things in the backs of those drawers that I've completely forgotten about over these long months.

I took a quick glance through Craigslist last week and found this antique dresser for $50, and while it was in obvious need of some serious care and attention, it had sturdy dove-tailed drawers (with no gliders to break), and I could tell that it had good "bones".

I had no intention of trying to strip it down to the original wood, so it got a good sanding and priming, and the hardware went into the crockpot to remove the layers of paint that had accumulated on them over the years.

I went to my favorite green building supply yesterday and was lucky enough to find a can of "mis-tint" Safecoat cabinet paint in exactly the colour I wanted (at a reduced price!).

After a few coats of "Autumn" white, the old girl was looking almost as good as new:

A good scrub with a wire brush got the paint out of all the nooks and crannies on the drawer pulls, and they're looking much nicer now. I can't decide whether to leave these handles in place, or whether I should go look for some glass ones to replace them (I just think glass might look better with the white paint).

My favorite part of this dresser is the daisy medallion along the bottom edge.

We've gotten a lot of our furniture from Freecycle and Craigslist over the years for very little or no money. Often all these treasures need is just a little elbow grease and TLC to turn them into something really unique and beautiful.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go use the Jaws of Life to extricate my wardrobe from the grips of my "old" dresser.

Good Omens

2008-02-25T22:49:00.010-08:00

Whew! Things are starting to fly along at lightening speed around here! We're in a rush to find things like fixtures so that the plumbing rough-in can happen (it's starting this weekend!), as well as finalizing a few other things.

We bought two of our kitchen appliances yesterday, so I can move on to dreaming about other things now (toilets, maybe?). We found a very nice man who sells scratch and dent appliances for about half the cost of new (all tested, and with a six month warranty).

The stove that we bought doesn't have anything wrong with it (it was a floor model), and the dishwasher only has a very slight ding on the side, which you'll never see once it's recessed into the cabinets. Buying slightly damaged appliances has allowed us to upgrade to much higher quality units. We got the Kenmore Elite range with convection oven for about what we would have paid for a entry level coil top. The dishwasher is a Whirlpool Gold energy star model.

Over the past few weekends while at the house, we've noticed that we seem to have a pair of ravens living on or around our property. Ravens hold special meaning for me, so I see this as a very good omen for our life there.

In addition, while we were sitting enjoying the sunshine last Sunday, we noticed the distinct sound of owl calls coming from the woods behind us, and since my husband's family crest is an owl, we're taking this as a positive sign as well. With the reality of our future mortgage becoming clearer, we're looking for all the reassurance we can get! ;D

Spring Fever

2008-02-20T22:30:00.006-08:00

First off, thank you all so much for your input regarding appliances, it was a huge help! It sounds like the consensus is to go with white, and I think I've found the ones that I want (more on that later). I saw an ad for Heartland Appliances recently that said "Stainless steel belongs in your cutlery drawer", so I'm taking that as a sign. I've even found a line of pressure canners that can be used on ceramic cooktops in case we decide to go that route.

The weather has been downright warm here the last several days, and I'm finding myself with a bad case of spring fever. It's so bad that I've actually been walking around with butterflies in my stomach, like something really exciting is going to happen. This happens to me every year, and it probably explains why most of the big things in my life happen in March when I'm totally abuzz. I never realize how much these dark winter days (which I love, don't get me wrong!) affect me until spring arrives and I turn into a totally different (giddy) creature.
Part of the excitement might have something to do with our house actually looking like a house:

This photo cracks me up. It looks like I managed to catch a tiny cat walking on the fence, but it's actually the neighbor's border collie picking up the stick that I'd just thrown for her - perspective is everything!

My husband and I have been doing the weekly site cleanup instead of paying one of our contractor's guys to it, and it also ensures that as much is being reused and recycled as possible. We pulled nails from our plywood concrete forms for one of our soon-to-be neighbors to use, and we're going to use the left over 2 x 4's to frame in our basement walls. The plastic that comes wrapped around the pallets of wood has been recycled, as have the leftover bits of rebar and metal strapping. Any wood scraps are being sorted and saved for later building projects (the future garden shed and/or chicken coop) , with anything too small being earmarked for the wood stove. Our contractor said that the other house he's currently working on has had three skids worth of garbage hauled away already, but so far we haven't even needed one, and they're nearly finished! I'm hoping we can avoid getting one altogether.

With this warm spell, the ground has started to thaw, and I spent a good portion of our clean-up day planting bulbs. Most of them were wildflowers which I planted on the edge of the wooded areas where they will naturalize over the coming years. My garden fever has been so bad that I've already been to my favorite nursery (even though I have nowhere to plant anything yet), and I've even started a few seeds (just sweet onions so far).

I'm not the only one who's been enjoying the sunshine. While we were out the other day, we saw three eagles riding the air currents over the park we were picnicking at, and when we got home later that day, we heard this guy calling from a tree behind the house (my daughter took this great photo):

Clouds moved in for a while today, but luckily they went away long enough for us to get a glimpse of the lunar eclipse that occured this evening.

I think there's more rain in the forecast, but I've had a taste of spring now and there's no going back. The cherry trees will be blooming soon, and then it'll be game over. I can almost feel the dirt under my nails!

Appliance Overload

2008-02-12T23:10:00.005-08:00

With our house progressing, we're frantically trying to finalize things like appliances and finishing details because we know we're not going to have time to do so once we're in the middle of insulating, drywalling, and all that fun stuff. I've been scouring Craigslist looking for a good deal, but we haven't really settled on what we're looking for yet, so that's making things a little difficult.
I'm feeling a huge amount of pressure to go along with the current trend toward high end stainless steel appliances, and while I do like the look of them , I don't love the inflated price (or their tendency to attract fingerprints). I don't really mind the look of nice white appliances, including coil elements, which seem to be on their way to extinction. In fact, my dream would be to get a set of refurbished antique appliances (I adore the look of fridges and stoves from the 1940's and 50's), with their white enamel and shiny chrome accents, but the price is prohibitive. I've looked at getting originals that haven't yet been updated, and while that is technically recycling, their high energy requirement is a turnoff. We're going for a "modern farmhouse" look for out kitchen (wood floors, beadboard, and other vintage touches), so I think good quality white appliances would look fine, especially if we throw in a few stainless touches elsewhere (knobs, faucets, etc.).
Clearly I need some help solving my dilemma, and I'm hoping that some of you might take the time to weigh in with your opinion on this matter. What do you prefer? White or stainless? Coil or ceramic cooktop (gas isn't an option)? Convection or not? Bottom or top mount refrigerator? Is there a particular brand that you swear by (or swear off)? Why?
Please help!

Grooming Behavior

2008-02-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

This week's news headlines have been filled with reports of chemicals in baby products and their possible toxicity. The main concern of this latest report is over phthalates, which are added to plastics to make them more flexible and have lately been raising concerns over their use in toys, as they are suspected carcinogens and hormone disrupters. It turns out that phthalates are also regularly added to personal care products in order to increase the longevity of the fragrance, as well as to increase the absorption of lotions into the skin.

The main reaction to this latest information seems to be one of helplessness. Many people feel like there's nothing that can be done, as these chemicals are in everything (even though they're not listed on the labels) and are seemingly impossible to avoid. While it does take some careful shopping, alternatives are certainly out there. I've been allergic to most mainstream grooming products for almost 20 years now (I'm convinced that this is some kind of payback for my "product" addiction as a teen), so I've had to find products without any kind of artificial colors, chemicals or fragrance whatsoever. It can be a little frustrating, but it is possible, and it's a small price to pay for eliminating the eczema and skin irritation that I experienced previously.

The best place to start when looking for healthier alternatives is your local health food store - I gave up shopping in the beauty department of drugstores and supermarkets years ago. However, not everything being sold as "natural" actually is - many of these products (even ones labelled as "organic") still contain irritants and questionable ingredients. Look for short ingredient lists, with things that you actually recognize listed on the label. There's a good list of things to avoid located here.

Another option is to make your own products, which gives you total control over what's going onto your skin, and can save you money. One of my favorite books on this topic is Natural Beauty at Home by Janice Cox, which is packed with recipes for everything from lipgloss to hairspray. Cranberry Lane is a great local company that sells everything you need to make your own delicious homemade goodies. Not only will these things be better for your family and the environment, but it's a lot of fun too. Kids love making their own flavored lipbalm and bath bombs, and it makes a great birthday party or sleepover activity!

We seem to have been duped into believing that we need this stuff in order to make ourselves look and smell better, but it's absolutely not true. I used to spend a fortune on mousse, gel, and hairspray to get my hair looking how I wanted it (bear in mind, it was the 80's), but now I don't use anything and my hair is shinier and fluffier than ever. I was also convinced that if I found just the right cleansing routine, I'd end up looking like Cindy Crawford, but now I use nothing but a bar of olive oil or goat's milk soap, and I'm happy to report that I don't look any less like Cindy than I did before.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a total ascetic when it comes to these things. I definitely love things that smell nice, but now I just have to have them around me, not on me (and they can't be artificial!). And while I don't wear full make-up like I used to, I still wear a lick of mascara and a touch of blush if I'm going out. It took a long time to find brands that didn't make my face peel off, but I can get away with a little bit of it now and then.

It only makes sense that if we shouldn't be exposing ourselves to these chemicals through our personal care products, we shouldn't be using them to clean our house either. Detergents with any kind of fragrance or chemicals drive my skin crazy, and if I walk into someone's house that's been cleaned with regular harsh cleaners, I'll have sneezing fits for an hour (I used to think that people with allergies were either wimps or faking it - can you say Karma?). I get by with baking soda, vinegar and liquid soap for most of my cleaning, with a dash of my favorite essential oil for a little added zip(there's nothing like a little lemon, lavender, pine, mint, or eucalyptus oil to make things smell really fresh and clean!).

It gives me the heebie jeebies to thing about the chemicals that get dumped into our water supply every day. Next time you reach for that harsh cleaning product, stop and ask yourself how you'd feel about stirring a bit of it into your next glass of water, because that's exactly where it all eventually ends up.

But what about killing germs, you might ask? By now, most of us know that taking antibiotics unnecessarily is creating strains of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics, yet we think nothing of using anti-bacterial products in our homes, and they also contribute to resistant strains of bacteria. If we're careful and avoid splashing raw chicken juice around our kitchens, most of these things are unnecessary anyway, and it has been suggested that children who are raised in very sterile environments have higher rates of asthma and gastrointestinal illness. It turns out that a little bit of dirt is good for us.

Having this chemical senstivity has, for the most part, been a royal pain in the you-know-what, but it has also been a blessing in disguise. If you suffer from itchy, sensitive skin, eczema (my doctor was convinced for years that the rash on my arms was a fungal infection), or other unexplained skin irritation, watching what you put on your body or clean your house with might make a difference. Even if you don't have such a visible reaction to these unwanted additives, choosing milder products will decrease your family's exposure to potentially toxic chemicals, keep our water clean, save you some money, and maybe even prevent future health problems. How can you go wrong?

A Slow News Day

2008-02-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

Things are still cruising along at a pretty slow pace around here, but I just had to share my big splurge!

I'm not a woman with the stereotypical shoe fetish - I'm pretty monogamous when it comes to footwear. I have one favorite pair of boots which were a gift from my brother and sister-in-law when my son was born (how's that for a baby gift?!), and I've worn them probably 300 days a year for the past 9 years since then. They fit me like dream, and I have never felt the need to replace them (despite their very shabby appearance), until recently. The wintery weather that we've had this year has clearly demonstrated that I've worn the soles so flat that I'd get better traction by strapping toboggans to my feet than I would wearing my beloved Blunnies.

I thought about having them resoled instead of replacing them, but the leather is badly worn on the toes, and Princess had used them as a chew toy when she was a puppy, so they're looking a little worse for wear. These babies are not cheap though - nearly $200. When you work it out, that's really only about $20 a year, but it's a big chunk to shell out all at once, so I was preparing myself to slip and slide through another couple of years on these ones. On a whim I checked Craigslist, and would you believe it, there was a woman selling a lightly used pair in just my size for a fraction of the price!

Now I've got myself some shiny new boots, and the best part is, I'm able to maintain my dignity while walking in the snow. I'll definitely revisit my old pair now and then. After all, I raised my babies wearing those shoes.

Since I'm sharing things that make me happy, I have to post a couple of videos for an artist that I'm addicted to at the moment. You might recognize Feist from her recent iPod commercial. She's a Canadian musician who's been around for a while, but I've only just started listening to her stuff on a regular basis. I absolutely love her music, as well as the fact that she's not above looking silly in her videos:

Click here to see more of her on Youtube.

Lazy days of winter.

2008-01-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

Well, so much for a house update - Vancouver has been hit by several snow storms over the past few days and progress on the house has ground to a halt. They were apparently unable to shovel the snow fast enough to see what they were doing.

The roads have also been too trecherous for us to get anywhere (being a city that receives very little snowfall, we are woefully unprepared for the times when it actually does happen), so the kids and I have been enjoying a few days bundled up at home, venturing out occasionally for a walk in the snow and hot chocolate at a nearby cafe.

I've been enjoying watching my mom's maple tree change throughout the seasons. I hope to get one just like it for our place. Just look at the colour in this photo that I took of it back in October:

Stuck at home, I've been spending a lot of time watching the birds as they come to our yard, with it's well stocked feeder, in search of food. Talk about an armchair naturalist - sitting by the window with my feet on the heater and a cup of tea at my side.

I'm not the only one who's been keeping an eye on the birds. Shadow has hardly moved from her perch on the kitchen window ledge...

...and Princess has also been ensconced in her usual lookout at the window on the stair landing, watching the wintry world go by. This activity is occasionally interrupted so she can have a brief fritz around the yard, excitedly running laps and kicking up snow.

I love these days. Spring can take its time.

A lot can happen in two hours.

2008-01-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid you're going to have to bear with me for the next few weeks (months) while I'm unable to think of anything but "house". I hope to be back to regular gardening and cooking posts before too long.

The main floor of our house went up on Friday, and we happily froze our butts off so we could take in the show!

When we got there, the basement walls were all done, and the subfloor for the next level was in place.

The truck carrying our house arrived not long after we did. Look at that excited grin!

The crane started lifting the panels over onto the structure...

...and within about 3 minutes they had two sections up (here you see the very first one, the corner of our master bedroom - what you can't hear is my husband giggling like a schoolgirl).

There was an entire wall within 20 minutes.

Here, the living room window is being dropped into position...

...as well as the dining room window. I was a little freaked out by how large and looming it looked, because I was wanting it to be nestled into the hill a little more. Our contractor has promised me that once the backfilling is done it will look less obtrusive.

From the back side it doesn't look too bad, so I'm hopeful.

All of this happened in the space of about two hours. This week, they're working on the floor joists and subfloor for the next level, and the roof should go on in a couple of days. You gotta love pre-fab!

To get an idea of what the finished house will look like, click here.

We have walls!

2008-01-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on our building progress.

Concrete went into the forms last Monday...

...and they started framing the basement walls late last week.

The foundation has been waterproofed and drainage is in.

At this point, the basement walls are fully framed in (this photo was taken last weekend) and the subfloor for the main level is going on. We went to the pre-fab company's warehouse yesterday and saw actual sections of our house, and they told us that the main floor walls are being lifted into place on Thursday! We're really hoping that we can be there to watch it happen (our contractor thinks we are a serious couple of geeks).

I couldn't resist taking a photo of our electrical meter. If only the reading could always be this low!

Things I Love - Hollyhock's Yeast Dressing

2008-01-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

I've been talking about doing a post on my all time favorite salad dressing for a long time now - so long, in fact, that I took this photo in June of 2006 in preparation for it.
I've been making a version of this salad for about 8 years. In the beginning, I used a locally made bottled dressing, but I was lucky enough to discover a "taste alike" recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks several years ago. Since that discovery, there's always a bottle of this delicious concoction mixed and ready in the fridge.

Yeast Dressing (from Hollyhock Cooks):

Into the jar of a blender add:

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (not brewer's yeast, which is bitter and awful - look for yeast flakes such as "Red Star" brand)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup tamari (try to find tamari as regular soy sauce or Bragg's doesn't taste quite the same)
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons garlic (I often just thrown one or two whole cloves in and let the blender do the work)

Blend for a minute or so until everything comes together. With the blender running, remove the lid and slowly add (in a thin, steady stream):

1 1/2 cups canola oil or other light vegetable oil (don't use extra virgin olive oil as the flavor is too strong)

This will taste better if allowed to sit in the fridge for a while, but I always end up using it right away when I make a new batch. Shake well before each use. Keeps well in the refrigerator for a long time, but usually doesn't last that long.

The dressing itself isn't something I would want to eat a lot of on its own, but when mixed with the right salad ingredients, it becomes something entirely different. I've rarely had a salad that is so completely satisfying and "meaty" - I think it must be all the B vitamins in the yeast (which is another bonus of this dressing, it's extremely good for you!).

It would be stretching it to call the following combination a recipe, but this is how I almost always use this dressing:

Fill a bowl with washed and dried lettuce (mixed greens are my favorite), crumble some feta cheese on top, add a handful of sprouted mixed beans (garbanzos, lentils, adzuki, and mung beans preferably), and pour on some dressing. Toss to mix, and enjoy.

I sometimes substitute grated cheddar for the feta, canned chick peas for the beans, and if I have it, a few slices of creamy avocado (not locally grown, I know, but I'm weak when it comes to these things!). It's so hearty and satisfying that I regularly have a big bowl of this on its own for lunch - and I'm not a woman who would typically consider a salad a meal. ;D

Is there a salad (or salad dressing) that you just can't live without?

Long time no see!

2008-01-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

I don't know if there's anyone coming around here after I've taken such a long and unexpected hiatus, but if you're reading this, thanks for stopping by! No, I haven't been busy working on our house, things are only just getting underway now. As I was saying to someone earlier today, the construction industry in BC is going crazy these days, in part due to our booming economy, and partly due to the pending 2010 Olympic games. We ended up having to wait until December for the contractor who will be assembling our house to finally fit us in (about two months later than projected), and all we've been able to do is smile and not rock the boat, even though we're chomping at the bit (there's not another contractor to be had, anywhere)!
Anyway, I think the ongoing stress threw me into a bit of a funk and I seem to have lost all interest in blogging. I've been wondering whether or not to keep it up at all, even though I still have lots to talk about. I have to admit, I've been enjoying the extra free time in the evenings, but I've been missing my blogging friends and desperately need to do some catching up - I hope you're all doing well.
Here are a few photos (taken with my new camera!) from Monday's trip to our property:

Snowy mountains as seen from another house that our contractor is working on (isn't that a killer view?!).

This is the view down the trail that runs past our property. We seem to get a lot more snow here than we ever do in the city (it was warm and rainy in Vancouver on the day this was taken). We're excited about the prospect of having four distinct seasons!

Here's my grandfather inspecting our foundation forms. He worked as an engineer for the Canadian military and has built structures of all kinds in places from the Arctic circle to the Middle East, so he's proving to be a valuable resource throughout this process.

Electricity is getting hooked up on Friday, concrete will be poured on Monday, and then the walls should start going up. We might actually have an outer shell within a month or so (but I'm not holding my breath)... ;D

Graham Crackers

2007-11-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've been on the lookout for some good cracker recipes for years. My kids love snacking on crackers of all kinds, but the cost of supplying two good eaters with organic, unrefined munchies isn't cheap, so I've been keen to make them myself. I got lucky several weeks ago when I scored a copy of The Fannie Farmer Baking Book at a second hand store, and lo and behold, it has several recipes for crackers. The most exciting discovery (for me anyway) was the recipe for homemade graham crackers.

That typical graham cracker flavor comes from a combination of graham flour and honey. I don't usually have graham flour on hand, but I found some at a nearby bulk food store without too much trouble. It's similar in appearance to regular whole wheat flour, but with larger pieces of bran.

Click to enlarge image

I followed the recipe exactly (see above photo), but found it unnecessary to flip the crackers halfway through baking. I did the first time, but didn't like the way they browned on top. The texture didn't seem to suffer for baking on only one side.

The one thing I did learn was that it's very important to roll them to the right thickness. I had a few in the middle that were just a bit too thick, and they came out of the oven lacking that cracker crispness.

I'm happy to report that they taste just like graham crackers (who'd a thunk?!)! Most of them were gobbled up within the first day, but we've got a few left almost a week later and they still taste good. The true test will be whether I can use them for pie crusts (or s'mores!).

I can't wait to try the cinnamon version, and I can only hope her savory cracker recipes are as good.

Sight Seeing at Home

2007-11-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you don't often get around to taking in the "touristy" sights in your own hometown, thinking you'll get around to it when you're less busy, when there are fewer actual tourists, or when the weather cooperates. Stupidly, that's how I felt about things like the 1000 year old cedar tree that lived in Stanley Park. It had been there for 1000 years already, surely it would wait around a bit longer until I got my act together and finally went to take in this awesome sight. Sadly, sometimes it's a mistake to wait.

This tree was reportedly the oldest of its kind in North America, (standing 131 feet tall, and 42 feet around at its base), and it even managed to withstand the wind storms of last winter that destroyed so much of Stanley Park. Unfortunately, the root system and interior of the tree had become so rotten in recent years that it was unable to support its hulking size any longer, and it crashed to the forest floor last month.

We may have come too late, but it was still an impressive sight, even laying down. It was nice to see that we weren't the only ones who were moved by its longevity - there was a steady stream of people who came to pay their respects to this fallen giant.

The above photo is taken from the mound where its trunk stood for so long. You can see how huge it still is in relation to the people standing beside it - the two halves of the tree were pushed to either side of the trail to allow passage through. The majority of the tree extends off into the distance and out of sight.

We had fun imagining all of the historical events that this tree would have "seen" or lived through in its lifetime. It seems fitting that it will be left to decompose in this place and enrich the ecosystem that it oversaw for so many years.

Since we were doing the touristy thing anyway, we stopped and visited the famous hollow tree that we've driven by for years without ever stopping to take a look. Now we've got our very own copy of the requisite Stanley park photo.

Those of you who have been reading for awhile will probably remember the devastating storms that we had last winter and the toll it took on Stanley Park. I posted some photos of the north east side of the park last year shortly after the storms, but I've never shown you the worst of it. The first time I drove through this side of the park I was reduced to tears (granted, I am a bit of a sap) - it looks like someone took a huge weed-wacker to the north west side of the park. These two photos were taken from the road - this time last year you would never have known that there was water on the other side of those trees.

We were lucky enough to bump into the park warden who lives in the park directly across the street from where this photo was taken. She and her family were there for each of the major wind storms, and they had to leave their cottage and spend the night in the middle of an open field each time to avoid being flattened. Their house didn't end up getting hit thankfully, but she said that sitting out there in the driving rain with the sound of the forest smashing down around them was one of the scariest things she's ever been through.

It's devastating to think that the park will never be the same within my lifetime or even within my kids' lifetimes, but I'm glad that we spent enough time there in previous years to remember it as it was.

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

I wasn't looking forward to our planned trip to the pumpkin patch this year. The weather had been particularly cold and drizzly the day of our scheduled outing, but our group of homeschooling friends heads out there together every year and we certainly didn't want to miss out. Besides, what would we do without pumpkins for Halloween? (Our pumpkins from the garden were gobbled up as pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving). Thankfully, the rain stopped just before we left, and by the time we got to the farm, the sun was shining brilliantly!

I tend to go a little camera crazy when I get to this place. They just display everything so nicely, and there's nothing so appealing as endless piles of squash, in my opinion (I think it appeals to my strong hoarding instincts).

The pumpkin patch itself was a bit of a challenge, though. We've had a substantial amount of rain this summer and fall, and the poor pumpkin farmers suffered serious losses (as much as 50% apparently). So not only was the field a mass of rotting pumpkins (probably 95% of them were mushy - making it difficult to even find a pumpkin let alone the perfect jack-o-lantern), but our boots got sucked off our feet with every step.

The sunshine made up for it though, as did the massive flocks of snow geese that were gathering and vocalizing in the area (enlarge the above photo to see them flying in the background).

Huge flocks of these geese pass through the Fraser River delta on their annual migration, and tens of thousands of them spend the winter here before returning to the Soviet arctic to mate.

It ended up being a lovely day, and I was really happy that we forced ourselves to get out of the house in the end. I'll have to file this memory away for those days when I don't want to get out of my pj's.

Colours of Fall

2007-10-23T23:18:00.001-07:00

A few random fall photos.

Don't you just love this time of year?

Gathering

2007-10-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

We've been slowly collecting things for the house, which means I finally had an excuse to browse through a shop which I've eyed longingly for years. This place is jammed with reclaimed doors, windows, and other salvaged treasures.

We didn't find a salvaged door to fit our needs, but we have put an order in for one similar to the door on the far left, except the six panes of glass will be bevelled, and we're adding some dentil molding under the windows.

It's a good thing we stopped here when we did - the owner is planning to retire and is selling off his entire inventory. I suspect I may just find a few more "necessities" before we're through!

Another great find was this butcher block/island that we bought on Craigslist.

It's made of solid maple and is just the right size for our smallish kitchen. It should help create the "modern farmhouse" look we're going for, and I can already envision the many loaves of bread that will be kneaded on that countertop!

Now if only I could get my hands on some great reclaimed light fixtures...

Grilled Eggplant

2007-10-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've talked about anything other than the house, so I'll spare you my thoughts on exterior doors/house colours/trim size for at least a few days and post a recipe instead.

I've been wanting to share this one for a while, and since we managed to produce two lovely eggplants in a year when we couldn't even get tomatoes to ripen, I figured now was the perfect time to share it. The cookbook that this recipe comes from is packed away with everything else I own, but it's a very simple combination, so I was able to reproduce it without any trouble.

The book is called Inspirations, and it's a compilation of recipes put together by a group of seven renouned Vancouver chefs called "The Girls Who Dish". They've written several cookbooks, and while I've only really cooked from this one, I don't think you could go wrong with any of their recipes. This particular favorite of mine is for grilled eggplant with feta and mint, and I don't care if you think you don't like eggplant, I can almost guarantee that you will love this recipe!

Start out by slicing two large eggplants into 1/4" rounds. Brush each side with a light coating of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill until the eggplant is tender (I used the barbeque this time, but I usually just use a cast iron grill pan on the stovetop). Lay the grilled slices (a layer at a time) on a large platter, and sprinkle with red wine vinegar (a few tablespoons should be enough for the whole batch). Next, top it off with with some crumbled feta and finely chopped mint. Layer the rest of the eggplant rounds on top, and repeat. Serve at room temperature with pita bread cut into small wedges and watch it disappear!

This is a great appetizer to make when you've got people coming over (it also transports really well if you're going to a pot luck), but it would also make a nice light summer meal, preferably paired with a glass of your favorite wine.

Ground Breaking and Thanks

2007-10-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who left comments on my last post. Your remarks were much appreciated, and gave us a lot to think about. If you're curious about which way we went, after a lot of hemming and hawing we decided to go with the fiber cement. It was a difficult decision to make, especially as I'd just finished helping replace some of the cedar siding on my mom's house and the smell alone was almost enough to sway me in that direction. But, we're concerned about the risk of forest fire, as we will be surrounded by trees on three sides, and the area is prone to water shortages and dry summers. While researching fiber cement at a local building supply, the man working there mentioned that several of the homes that survived the severe forest fires that swept through BC two summers ago were spared because of their fiber cement siding. A pretty convincing argument in my books.
While talking to our contractor, we learned that the James Hardie line of products was an option for us, and we decided to go with that instead of Certainteed, as we feel that their shingle siding looks more realistic.
For those of you who were pulling for cedar, all of our trims, decking, and decorative moldings will be made of cedar, so hopefully our house should still have some of that natural warmth.
Concern about the risk of forest fire also led us to change our mind about the Enviroshake roofing shingles. It turns out they only have a Class "C" fire rating, so we tossed around the idea of going back to the steel roof option. Unfortunately, the curved roof over our front entrance is concave, and standing seam steel roofs can only be used on convex curves. Can you see where this is going? You guessed it - we ended up having to go with the product that we were hoping to avoid in the first place - asphalt shingles. The upside is, they have a Class "A" fire rating, and since we opted for the ones that come with a lifetime warranty, we hopefully won't have to deal with replacing them in our lifetime. If we ever build another house, we'll be sure to avoid house plans with curves in the roofline (although that was one of the things that drew us to this particular plan!).

See that lovely mud pit above? We finally have a hole in the ground! This was taken on the day that we went over to the property to spray paint the house's footprint on the ground so the blasters could come in and make some room for the foundation. The house is going to run the length of the rock along the trench that you see on the left, with the back extending over the rock's slope, and the front entrance on the right hand side on the rock. I was initially against blasting to put in a basement, but because of where the house has to go (due to covenants, etc.), the front of the house was going to require a 9 foot foundation wall anyway, so it made sense to blast out a little bit more of the rock to give us a full basement for storage (that way we don't have to build a garage or shed right away). At this point, the blasting is nearly done, and we're hoping that the foundation will start going in over the next few weeks.

We're currently recovering from a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, and we've been happily munching on leftovers every day since Sunday. Saturday was also the last regular farmer's market of the year, so we stocked up on apples, asian pears, cranberries and honey. Luckily, they're planning to do bimonthly winter markets this year, so we didn't have to stockpile quite as much as usual.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for posting in the coming months, as things are just starting to rev up for us. Our part of the work probably won't begin until around December however, so I should be around for another month or so. I look forward to catching up with all of you again - I've fallen way behind in my blog reading!

Thanks again for the good advice!

Your Opinion Please

2007-09-25T00:07:00.002-07:00

We're down to making the final material choices for our house, and we are having a really hard time deciding on the kind of siding we should use. We were originally set on fiber cement, but are now reconsidering cedar.
The benefits of the fiber cement include fire, rot and insect resistance, 30% recycled content (fly ash), and low maintenance. Cedar is esthetically pleasing, renewable, locally sourced, and also rot resistant, but may require slightly more maintenance. Cost is about the same for both.
Has anyone out there had any good or bad experiences with either of these materials? The houses on my mom's street are all sided with cedar lap and shake siding that is almost 100 years old, so it's obviously a durable product, and I definitely like that it's traditional in this area.
Our deadline is Wednesday afternoon - please help!

Crop Failure

2007-09-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

Our cooler than normal summer did nothing for our tomato crop, which struggled from the get go. The plants grew nice and tall and looked healthy enough, but they set very few fruits, and the ones that did develop just sat there not changing colour. Even the mature plant that my mom bought at the nursery produced a few ripe tomatoes in early August, but then the rest just sat there. The alternating rain and cool weather was good for one thing though, producing blight.

I'd say that more than half of the tomatoes we got have succommed so far, and the rest of them are still as green as they were at the beginning of August. This is so disappointing - we planted about 17 plants, thinking that would give us plenty between the two of us for canning and salsa, etc., but it looks like we're going to have to buy all that stuff this year.

There are still some beauties hanging out there though! The above Speckled Roman is huge...

...as are the Tiffen Mennonites. This variety (so far) seems to be resisting the blight relatively well.

I'm going to leave the tomatoes on the plants for the next few days, but it's supposed to start raining again soon, at which point we'll bring them in and let them ripen on the counter. My mom cut off most of the extra foliage last week hoping that it would hasten their ripening process and prevent the spread of the blight, so we'll see how that goes.

A couple of them are showing some promise, hopefully we'll be treated to a few fresh tomatoes in the coming weeks.

Some things grew well despite the weather, however. This huge zucchini (which looked very serpentine sitting on the kitchen counter) produced about 30 cups of grated flesh, which I froze in two cup amounts for use in soups and our favorite Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Did anyone else suffer any major crop failures this year?