Some pics of our place (British Columbia)

[Joel_BC]

When the snow ain't here...

Well, I've already introduced myself in various ways over the past couple weeks. (No need to wave hello, really... you folks have already made me feel welcome. ) We're in the mountainous southeast corner of BC, Canada - the Canadian province that lies just above Washington and Idaho states. Nine acres. The outdoor gardening season runs around five months, sometimes longer. Been here since the early '90s. On the Farenheit scale, our temps run more or less from 0 to 100 during the year, with a snowy winter.

Excuse the range of sizes with these pics. They've been used for varied purposes in the past, so I had sized them differently.

The north side of our house, showing the barn I rebuilt and added onto in the background. Originally, we boarded a friend's horse in the barn - but I converted it into a sculpture studio for my wife, who is a professional artist. (Earthen floor to joist/plywood floor on one side, concrete floor on the other; electrified the building; installed wood heating; installed better plumbing.)

Part of one of our gardens in spring. The fall rye cover crop is the green on the left, there's a rototilled strip down the middle, and a mulched garlic bed on the right. This is part of our larger veggie garden (which is about 30x100 feet, overall).

Here is a stand of corn in a block in our larger food garden, probably August (not sure). Anyway, weather conditions have been changing, summer nights have been cooler last couple years. I've had to experiment with varieties in order to get any corn to mature & ripen.

This is a view of a willow tree and a pond my wife and I made. My wife designed the pond area. The stones that we brought in weigh from less than an ounce to about 500 pounds.

Part of a bulb onion crop in 2010. Probably doesn't matter too much, but the variety of these was Copra. But we grow several bulb onion varieties... also green onions, and leeks.

 

[Joel_BC]

Our seasons are running a little late this year... maybe three weeks. But one of the joys of late spring and early summer here rests in a bowl like this.

I guess I haven't usually taken pics of strawberries, but a couple weeks back I did shoot this one (first pick of this year). Mmmm-mm! We eat some fresh, but wind up freezing a lot of the annual crop and have them until the following year's crop shows up.

 

[Joel_BC]

Those look so good! I bet they actually have taste, unlike those big red imitation strawberry-like things at the store.

Yeah. You're obviously familiar with the realities. The ones in the supermarkets and even in some outdoor markets are often large, and they usually have a crisp white core - a crisp, white, tasteless core that makes up most of each berry, I should have said. That type lasts a long time before going over-ripe and mushy. So the markets like them. But, growing your own at home, you can pick and eat soon after. So... emm, smaller berry maybe... but three or four times the flavor!

 

[Joel_BC]

“Summertime and the livin’ is easy…” well, maybe that should be hot, dry, and occasionally breezy.

It’s been a summer for hundreds of wildfires in our province, some large, some small. Many of them are distant but some have been close enough to make the sky here smoky. And dull grey looking. But not today. So — hot nd sweaty from morning-outside work — I walked downhill and to the east and took another shot of our place, to celebrate a return of the blue sky… don’t know how long that will last, though.

 

[Joel_BC]

Side garden — our small garden — summer 2018. Carrots, onions & leeks, dill, flowers… pea vines already pulled out. Greenhouse slightly visible to the left.

 

[Joel_BC]

Late start to our spring, but followed by many hot, sunny days. Combine that with an adequate water supply, and things are coming along.

Below, a shot of a wee portion of our sweet-corn patch and then, to the right, sunflowers just coming into bloom in the squash bed. All having a place in our larger garden.

A shot of the side garden that has peas, onion family, parsnips, beets, zucchini, lettuces, and other veggies, and dill (plus flowers, of course).

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@Joel_BC, beautiful pictures! We lived in Washington state for 8 years, and used to go to BC often (we had a good friend who was a dual citizen). We had a lot of fun "waaaaay back when" skiing Blackcomb and Whistler. It was fun to start in slop at the bottom of a ski run, take the lift literally up through the clouds, and end up above the clouds with tons of snow and big blue skies and sunshine. Then we'd ski down through the clouds... I would've never thought then that I'd be raising chickens now... Life is funny like that!

 

[Joel_BC]

We've been harvesting some things from the gardens. Here are preparations for some of the tomato sauce that's in the works these days. Roasted garlic and fine-chopped, sauteed onions are part of the recipe. The sauce gets canned and stored in our basement cold room.

 

[Joel_BC]

On another thread I posted to recently, after my long absence, Beekissed mentioned she was eager to hear about what's happening on our homestead. Not all that exciting, really - we're more or less in maintenance mode this year.

Very late spring season, as we had a lot of cold, some late snows, a huge amount of snow accumulated on the ground to thaw and drain away. So the food gardens have been waterlogged. We've just started planting within the last 10 days, and are behind.

One maintenance thing is that the rototiller broke down. I had to tear it down to some extent, then getting the needed part involved time/patience. Once I got that, I spent the better part of a day putting the machine back together again.

I'll have to re-do our electric fencing, as bears have been getting in, in the fall. Our big shed needs work in its under-structure.

Also, over the last year and more we've had raccoon problems. Did a lot of damage here, and no effective way to fence them off all our land. The whole neighborhood has been plagued with a big infestation. We have a live trap, and (since our valley folks, us included, love wildlife) through a period of months I was relocating the first four we trapped.

Then we caught another one, quite large. I'd felt that probably there was no place in the woodsy, creekside areas I'd been taking them to that was far enough from people's home sites and homesteads. So I shot this last one. Goodness!... since then, we've seen no sign of raccoons. I think they sense something when their species' blood has been spilt on the land and (maybe... hopefully) stay quite distant from the execution spot. But we'll have to see.

Now maybe, besides the pretty ordinary stuff I'm mentioning, our year will turn out to involve some new and interesting things. But, especially on a day when the sun is in the blue sky, just living here is fine enough. Trees are leafing out. All sorts of birds have returned.

 

[Joel_BC]

It all looks great - and ya just can't beat the look of those mountains in the background. Breathtakingly beautiful to a flat-lander like me!

Yeah, it's beautiful around here. Of course, we all probably appreciate landscapes that are different from home... I've visually enjoyed vast flatlands planted to wheat as far as the eye can see (like in eastern Alberta and in Saskatchewan), or flattish cactus desert like I've explored some in Arizona. Contrast is a treat.

You really have a beautiful place there! Must be gorgeous in the winter with snow covered mountains! (I know, no snow talk in July!)

The mountains can be gorgeous here in winter, however in winter we do get quite a bit of low cloud, so often we can't see so much of the mountain ridges to east or west. But there are days in deep winter with clear sky and sunlight displaying the beauty of blanketed snow on the ridges.

By the way, the compliments on our place and location make me feel like a well-petted cat. Thanks!