Category: Journal

Going back in time a few years, here is laundry day on summer solstice, 2015.  We washed the laundry in the creek, in buckets, by hand, and hung it on  ropes strung between the trees.

Continue reading “Laundry Day”

For the last four years or so, our back door has opened out onto a set of rustic cedar steps built for us by a friend.  They were meant only to get us by in the short term, but, like many things, became a nearly permanent part of our cabin as other things in our lives took priority over building a back deck.  Getting Brennan ended our procrastination on this project!

Continue reading “Brennan and the Back Porch”

Meet Brennan!  He’s an eight week old Border collie puppy, and he’s joining our family (pack).

Continue reading “A New Addition to Our Family”

Some many years ago, back when I was an instructor of first and second year biology at a British Columbian college, I used to give my students genetic problems.  These are really exercises in logic, brain teasers, if you will.  I’ve always loved them, although I understand that some of my students weren’t quite so fond of genetics.  Recently, I have been inspired (more about that in another post) to take an interest in the genetics behind coat colors in dogs, specifically border collies.  So here’s the puzzle …

Continue reading “A Genetics Puzzle – Coat Color in Border Collies”

I don’t write many negative posts on my blog, but sometimes life can throw some really serious s**t at you.  I guess it’s all in how you cope.  And, by the way, don’t stress out!

Continue reading “Misadventures When Worries Become Reality”

It’s been a cold, slow spring, but gradually the signs of its impending arrival are starting to show up.

Continue reading “Signs of Spring”

We have considerable rain catchment – something around 20 blue barrels that collect rainwater from the house eaves.  Last year got really dry, and we ended up taking some of the blue barrels down to a creek to refill them, using our herring skiff, then pumping the water back up the slope to more blue barrels by the house.  A bit of a long process, but it saved our garden.  This year, we’ve decided to put in two 1100 gallon water reservoir tanks up by our catchment pond.  We are not heavy consumers of water (no dishwasher or big washing machine), but our garden is large, and does require watering after the beginning of May if the weather is hot. 

Continue reading “The Saga of Water Storage Tanks”

We started our homesteading project back in June 2015 … and finally, nearly 4 years later, we have hot running water in the cabin, and can take a hot shower!

Continue reading “To Have a Hot Shower …”

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the next step in our homesteading … bringing in animals.

Continue reading “Animals on a Woodland Homestead”

I was messing around on the Google Earth Engine the other day, and discovered that their Timelapse site finally had satellite images available for our region.  So here is our homestead from 1984 to 2016 …

Continue reading “Our Homestead through Time”