Sunflower Garden!

When I was working in the floral industry full time I was often asked what my favorite flower was. Now this was always a toughie as I find beauty within all flowers, but I tend to lean towards all flowers weird, wonderful and unique.
So here it is my number one favorite the always brilliant Sunflower! The majestic beauty which gifts our gardens with some of the most colorful one of a kind annuals, of course this is simply my opinion. I have found that these beauties grow every where very well when planted in a sunny location. Now there are many varieties of course and I really do like to experiment with all. Some areas of the garden show off the taller sunflowers and some spots show off the shorter or mini sized better. They present themselves always with a show of ultimate uniqueness and I love them all!
So here you go welcome to my Sunflower Garden in February. Maybe you'll forget about the snow for awhile and begin to plan your own flower garden. They'll never disappoint and the bees absolutely love them!

Bronze Giant

I was blessed while taking this photo...Mr. Bee looks pretty mellow.

Twins...

Almost a muted Bronze...

There are no words.

Gift of yellow...

PEACE OUT!!! Patty J.

Sparkly things!

Creative bottle design...

If I believed in reincarnation I would have to say that I was a bird, specifically a crow. Now you may wonder why I have started my story today with this reference? I once heard a tale of how crows adore all things sparkly, so today I have chosen to talk about my kind of sparkle, with possibly a mixed review from  a crows perspective thrown into the mix just to add some creative narrative. Oh okay you just caught a glimpse at how off beat and yes creative my mind can go sometimes.
Okay so here it is. I first of all find myself suddenly feeling a waft of happiness. As I begin to write about all things that sparkle with the added gift of light, from the sun. I am simply grateful to be able to see, dream then create all things possible.
Ironically the Earthship concept incorporates the use of colored glass in specific areas within her bones. Today I chose from my earthship/sparkly file a few images just to show you a beginning glimpse of the many ingredients that are mixed together within this our chosen style of off grid homes. Now yes I have certainly put the cart before the horse by showing you this part of what we will be creating, as we can only begin this step once the doors are on, but I just had to share with you today how utterly excited I am with this one of many creative stages of our up and coming build.
Of course by nature I tend to go off track when anything creative surfaces within my mind so the risk taker surfaces as I begin to color outside the lines when contemplating our first build together.

All for the love of all things that sparkle...I am sure I could find a place for this little colorful creation.

 This picture of glass beads could be hung in one of the many south facing windows. My cats would love this.

Blue bottles are beautiful!

 As you can see any attempt of using all things sparkly is wonderfully unique. The upright use of soft blue bottles with an almost a bubble look of white bottle ends is very creative.

Absolutely one of my favorite earthships...check out the BBC show Grand Designs Underground House found in Brittany!

As I mentioned before once the time arrives to even begin to layout then design any bottle walls found within an earthship home (or any other style of shelter) there have been many hours of labor involved up until this part. Just look at those tires below the long line of windows.
But I just can't help myself to begin with the bright and colorful ingredients. Its just like when you are making chocolate chip cookies you have to eat some of the chocolate before you close the door of the oven.

Glimpse of things to come. Let the sun shine in!

South facing tilted windows you will find in most if not all earthship homes. Due to optimal sun exposure.

Love this unique use of glass...

So our continuing collection of glass is only a part of what is yet to appear among the pages of my blog entries.
Am I ready well I will soon find out!
Okay I have to say good bye for now as I hear the calling of the crows outside the window I must take the time to see what they might be up to. Stay tuned for more.

PEACE OUT!!! Patty J.

Still here...planning...

Outdoor projects I am currently dreaming about.



Funky out door oven...

Okay so now that our pets are all settled in for their morning naps I can continue with my thoughts surrounding my new gardening ideas.
When we first arrived in the West Kootenays we just spent time settling into our first home and first time experience of renting and living in mobile home. The yard was small with no garden area so we settled for playing with some garden structures instead.
After our move to the land I began seeking out information from some of the locals for any and all gardening tips linked with growing with success in the sandy soil surrounding us. So last summer was a testing ground for me, with some wee amounts of growth with a small amount of yield...it was only for fun and what fun I had.
Since our white stuff has melted I have discovered pockets of black earth at the base of any of the larger rock formations as well in the forested areas remaining. It is truly the richest decomposed matter I have ever seen. So of course my planning for our first spring living in our new space involves more fun with gardening and construction of wattle screens and hopefully an all earth oven.
Now that we have started our new connections with this wee bit of paradise on the mountain we find ourselves becoming ready to progress with our plans to start the construction of our new life together. Starting with baby steps...small funky garden with all sorts of funky accents and an outdoor space where we can welcome all of our guests during this coming year.
An all earth oven has been a dream of mine for some time now ironically I have met someone who gets excited about such projects as this as well. So onwards and upwards we go.
Of course the direction is also aimed towards the start of our Earthship which will also begin this year, which of course is a whole different story that I will begin documentation on once we are in the midst of it all. But in the meantime I wish to warm up with all of the creative fun in my garden.
It is my hope to see you here visiting me during this our exciting time.

PEACE OUT Patty J.

Garden planning...of course the plants are amazing, but so is the wattle accents.
 



Our attempt at making a wattle screen, first stages...
 

This is the base of a woven dogwood basket. Looks good with the wattle structure we started.

Kathryn Courageous...

Hello Kathryn: Today I enter my special writing place celebrating my 62nd. birthday. A day of which I share with a very strong and yes I have to say courageous woman my twin sister Kathryn.
Wow 62 years ago today Kathryn (KC). Where we were gifted to Mom and Dad in the St. Joseph's hospital in London, Ont. Two very small gals I was told weighing in at just over 4lbs. each. Now for some reason myself born 2 minutes after Kat. I was the healthier one of the two, just the way it can go sometimes. Now more details I would share but my baby book is in storage so my story line will be composed with my total recall only. You can breath a sigh of relief now as this will be a shorter read then most.
Now my mind heads in the direction of what it was like growing up with almost a carbon copy of myself. One can only imagine a pair of look alike wee girls riding together in a large double baby buggy that was pretty much the size of  a VW. One can only imagine two look alike wee girls being proudly paraded down the streets with "oh my look twin" comments from most people passing by. When ever I see sets of twins even now I find myself fascinated by this sight.
Hey Kathryn do you have memories of any of our birthdays while growing up? I only have one that has remained with me and it involved pretty dress's cake and lots of girls running around squealing at the sight of pin the tail on the donkey. Yes we were children born in the good old days, twin girls born in the fifties to parents of mature years Mom was almost 40 and Dad was two years younger. Wow what a handful we must have been!
This particular birthday memory was when we were living on an air force base in Ont.
Even though this is not a birthday memory (K.C) the joy of childhood in Centrailia is connected with so many memories. Kinder garden, three more years of schooling and Brownies. Oh here come the brownie memories of learning how to tie knots mostly as well as remembering us race home after meetings with our brownie caps pulled over our faces where we would play that seek and ye shall find me game, impaired vision made this game more fun. Oh yes and there was always a warm homemade treat waiting for us when we got home, bread pudding was one of my favorites.

Tons more memories Kath but for now this will be it.
But I decided to share childhood memories via some old pictures. Hope you enjoy this birthday gift Talk about a blast from the past.

Winter day on the mountain...

These pictures were taken on a super sunny day several days ago. Our solar panels so do their job when the sun gifts us with her presence. So what do we do when the sun does not break through the low clouds for days on end. Well let me introduce you to the world of generator use. Simply put the generator is our sun's replacement. So with this winters lack of sunny days the sound of our generator is quite common. Being that I am a newly transplanted Albertan from the city generator use was never a part of my daily routine. Welcome to off grid living in the Kootenays.
Once we reach the power stage on our earthship these lovelies will be relocated closer to the house along with the batteries and power invertor that will be in a new location in the mechanical room.



Present solar set up...



Our greenhouse...

Here is a winter view of our greenhouse. No plants in there yet! But this to will change once our custom earthship is completed. Besides it works as our temporary workshop for any indoor timber frame work that lays ahead for us. The base of this greenhouse, walls if you will, Kurt choose the earth rammed tire technique, which will be used in the beginning construction stages of our earth home.
Today's blog is just a snippet of information linked with our earthship adventures. Once the snow melts away and our earth can be moved with the tractor more stories will surface, along new daily routines that will be another part of our chosen life style.

Stay warm and safe everyone!

PEACE OUT!!!  Patty J.
 

VINTAGE IS GREEN





I think that I just had one of what I like to call a "light bulb moment"! While spending some time cruising  on Facebook this morning I was greeted by an image of an old window with missing glass. The glass was replaced with wood which was then painted with chalkboard paint.  "Light Bulb" moment, Vintage is GREEN!

All images included are examples from the past, used and recycled into garden and home decor.

I can also see the headings... antique, retro and unique as being GREEN as well.

Almost every day we are bombarded with ideas of how we can re-claim, re-purpose or re-new and I have to say if one looks closely at the web pages and blogs made available there is a huge following out there connecting with the past. The attraction to the old and antique, if you will, has a huge connection with the simplicity of the day and age these many items were a part of. When I use the word simple I mean as in comparison to our world today, when folks made do with what they had.

One of my romantic notions, my memories from the past, I recall  as a youngster visiting my Grandparents kitchen in North Bay Ontario. Grandma Jessup's large wood stove stood out as a unique item to have in ones kitchen. Of course at the time I had no idea what was involved in cooking the family meals on this stove. I do now!

Romantic notion once again has me un-consciously thinking of my grandma's stove when seeing images of the Amish style wood cook stove, which is now being replicated today. You talk about a blast from the past. I find this interesting that these old stoves from the so called " good ole days" are making their new yet modified return. Surprised, not really!

Todays fascination with the old, antique, vintage and retro is popular due to their huge merit and appeal. These times were definitely a time of many hardships. But certainly a time when the family unit had to be strong and work together as a cooperative within their households to survive. Honest hard work was established within these good ole days and these ethics were past on and if we pay close attention we can grasp onto some of these concepts from the past and combine them with the huge resources we have within our grasp today.

I am grateful for the year that I was born and the ethics that were pasted down to me from my grandparents and parents as we now head into our own homesteading projects ahead.

I love this new found term, Vintage is GREEN!
  
PEACE OUT!!! Patty J.

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Earthship Pavo Natura

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Earthship-Pavo-Natura/452801488159104     

Okay folks even though there is still snow on the ground Kurt and I continue to plan for the beginning of our earthship journey. Our permit will be submitted shortly and honestly the days cannot go fast enough for us.
The first time I heard the term earthship was three years ago when I met my partner. Needless to say my life has never been the same since.
Three years ago I was living in Red Deer, Alberta in a simple but adorable home nestled within a cozy city close. I was, at the most, a ten minute drive from pretty much anything one could ever need, I was truly spoiled, a fact I am aware of now. I moved away from a city that was a huge part of my history and I will always be grateful for all the growth I experienced in the prairies. Oh how sometimes I miss the flatlands and big skies of Alberta.
Fast forward after a twenty year marriage, job, one daughter and a lot of good memories in Red Deer. Here I am in the vastness of almost 12 acres of land in the West Kootenay's after almost 3 years of planning, relocating twice and a lot of projects started and completed we await the spring thaw.
Currently our tires are under snow that actually look like sugar covered doughnuts waiting to be filled with the earth that surrounds us.
So there you go a short introduction to a small part of my life shared with my guy Kurt, 2 dog's Kasha our rescue senior mutt, Layla our young teenager pup, our two cats Heath and L.C which stands for "little cruiser" (another story).
Attached somewhere on this page is a link to our facebook page where you will find our homesteading journey so far.

PEACE OUT!!! Patty J.