Category: Homesteading

Over the last couple of years, I’ve talked to a lot of people who thought that our crazy scheme of going OTG and developing a “permaculture homestead” was a really good idea.  But when asked whether or not they would consider doing a similar thing, they would always end up saying no, followed by a list of excuses (my kids …, my parents …, my job …, my social needs …, my lack of money …).  I’ve always figured that the reason why I’m out here and the rest of the world is in there (the box, that is) is because I’m a doer, and not a dreamer.  But maybe the real reason is because I’m a Gen Xer (short for being a member of Generation X).

Continue reading “A Gen Xer Goes Homesteading”

Since I have written quite a few journal entries about foraging or wild harvesting, I figured that now would be a good time to post this presentation I gave a couple years ago, titled “Ethical Wildcrafting”.

Continue reading “Ethical Wildcrafting”

With the start of the fall rains, mushrooms are popping up everywhere.  It’s time to go shroom hunting.

Continue reading “Shroom Hunting”

After being away in Campbell River for two weeks, it was time to get caught up on a bunch of fall projects, before the rainy, drear weather of winter settles in.

Continue reading “Fall Projects”

Sometimes I can go weeks without remembering my past life of over 20 years in Prince Rupert.  This week was not one of those weeks.

Continue reading “North Coast Tidings”

Having just got in from chopping wood in the forest (hence the wild woman look complete with twigs and moss in the hair), I decided to pick some vegetables from the garden to make a good lumberjack stew, and pulled up this beauty.

Continue reading “Now That’s a Carrot!”

We’ve been away from home for two weeks, and sometimes things happen when you’ve been away.  This time, it was a dreadful smell associated with the sinks.

Continue reading “Something Dead This Way Came”

Well, the time finally came.  We had sold the old Moody Blue, so we now had a little bit of money to deal with boat problems.  We had bought the Draiocht, so that we had a reliable runabout while we were sorting out the Awen‘s engine problems.  We had bought a new motor for the Awen, and that was now waiting for us in Campbell River.  Ken had created an amazing jury-rigged contraption on the back of the Awen to hold the little 9.9 hp outboard that was going to help us get to Campbell River.  The westerlies had calmed down at last.  We were now ready to take the Awen to Campbell River and get her “repowered”.

Continue reading “Adventures with Awen”

On the top of a bookshelf, not too far from where I am sitting now, is a wooden model, made by my father 20 or more years ago, of a boat named the Oliver Clark.  That model was made far from the ocean, in the dry interior town of Keremeos where my father had been an orchardist.  It has come a long way to return to the sea.

Continue reading “A Bit of History”

Another first for us here – we just met with an old friend from Prince Rupert who was traveling down to Victoria.  Being so far off grid, it can be hard to schedule meetings with people, particularly as the Johnstone Strait crossing can be so weather dependent.  It’s also rare that any of our friends from Prince Rupert are coming down to the Island.  So we were “doubly blessed” by this meeting.

Continue reading “Meeting with a Friend”