Well, the hot doldrums of summer are finally here.\u00a0 Everything is so full of life, maximizing on the long days, and getting all the growing, reproducing, etc. in before the wet days of fall come around again.\u00a0 We too are crazy busy.\u00a0 Every year I think we will slow down a bit, but every year is much like this.\u00a0 The berry crops are great \u2013 we are eating strawberries, raspberries, logan berries, and now blueberries for breakfast and supper.\u00a0 Our currants (red, black, and white) put on a heavy crop, and I\u2019ve been spending mornings making jelly and\/or syrup from them (either works for us, depending on how much pectin is in the fruit).<\/p>\n Going to head to Sayward again this week \u2026 we have a bunch of stuff to pick up from the post office (including a couple of camping hammocks and a new grain mill).\u00a0 We\u2019ve still avoided Campbell River, but we will have to go sometime in August as Brennan needs his vaccinations.\u00a0 I\u2019ve actually been pretty happy not to drive into the big city \u2026 our shopping trips are always so hectic, and I\u2019m definitely not a shopper. \u00a0I\u2019m learning to order stuff into Sayward more.\u00a0 Maybe in the end, we pay a little more for shipping than we would for gas, but I doubt that will be the case for much longer.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see gas prices going anywhere but up in the future.<\/p>\n We had the couple who run the Salmon Coast Field Station in Echo Bay come out and visit us, along with two students from the station.\u00a0 That was a fun day \u2026 we very seldom get visitors, and it\u2019s really great when someone comes who is interested in the stuff we\u2019ve been doing.\u00a0 They have a lot of Sointula connections, and had a chuckle when I told them Brennan was a Sointula special.<\/p>\n We are all so lucky to be living out on the land, close to nature!\u00a0 I remember all the years I spent in the city, pounding pavement \u2026 now I go to Campbell River, and even though it is a very nice place and I like it, I\u2019m overwhelmed within a day or so and ready to come home again.\u00a0 We are especially fortunate now, during COVID times.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine what it would be like not to be allowed to use the parks or walk casually on the streets (although these restrictions are being gradually lifted).<\/p>\n How to keep the weeds down \u2026 donkeys, yes!\u00a0 Or sheep, or goats, or even pigs.\u00a0 We would love to have a living lawn mower\/brush cutter.\u00a0 The hardest work around the place is trying to keep the weeds and brush under control.\u00a0 This year it\u2019s sheep sorrel \u2026 everywhere.\u00a0 Great stuff, and nice to eat, but we could feed several armies and not make a dent in our supply.\u00a0 It takes over the gardens and chokes the vegetables out if you turn your back for five minutes.\u00a0 Unfortunately, with all the predators we have here, livestock will not be an option until we can get a second family on the land.\u00a0 I suspect that nice tender sheep or goat would be a tasty treat for the cougars and bears.\u00a0 Someone needs to be on hand pretty much every day to keep them deterred \u2026 Brennan is a great bonus for this!<\/p>\n We have a few thistles, and no burdock, around our home.\u00a0 So far, knock on wood, the thistles haven\u2019t been too bad.\u00a0 I could imagine, though, that a change in weather on a given year could give them the edge that they need.\u00a0 Our raspberries and blackberries (a gentle, almost thornless variety) are trying to take over the yard.\u00a0 I could see the place becoming one great briar patch if left to its own devices.<\/p>\n Our soil is quite thin, and we are constantly adding compost and seaweed to build it up.\u00a0 The winter rains are so hard on soil fertility.\u00a0 Everything you\u2019ve added during the summer gets washed out by the following spring, and you have to start all over again.\u00a0 I think if we had animals, and a ready supply of manure, it would be easier.\u00a0 In the meanwhile, our humanure is just sufficient to keep the plants growing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a pretty good year for berries.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been abundant, but not exceptionally sweet (I think the lack of sun early in the summer is responsible for this).\u00a0 Our blueberries and gooseberries are cropping for the first time this year!\u00a0 We\u2019ve just had our first tomato (yesterday) and our first couple of zucchinis, which we eat fresh and raw with a little salt and pepper, or some salad dressing (I like a hot peanut sauce with them).<\/p>\n We just cleaned up our little root cellar.\u00a0 Not much left of the carrots \u2026 we had a bad carrot fly infestation, and this caused them to rot over the winter.\u00a0 However, the potatoes, stored nearby, seemed to use the rotted remains of the carrots as a type of soil, and started producing little baby potatoes, totally in the absence of producing any chlorophyll.\u00a0 Weird, eh?\u00a0 We\u2019ve been eating the little tubers, and they taste fine, just like new potatoes should.\u00a0 It makes me wonder if potatoes are saprophytic?<\/p>\n Summer\u2019s been whipping by.\u00a0 Now that we have the first shed up (looks pretty good for a kit job), there are still lots of little stuff to work on \u2026 and then we get to fill it!\u00a0 However, I think it will be a one-shed year in spite of my earlier optimism about getting two built.\u00a0 This one took a lot more planning and effort than I thought it would, even though it is a kit.\u00a0 We also need to collect a bunch more yellow cedar for the foundation posts, so we\u2019ll probably be at that awhile this fall.\u00a0 Also like to get a little fishing in, and maybe even take a deer, as our meat supply is starting to run low, and the price of meat in the stores is outrageous (and it\u2019s probably not even that healthy for us).\u00a0 Ah \u2026 the list goes on.\u00a0 Life\u2019s wonderful when you have so much to do!<\/p>\n I\u2019m sitting here working on the computer in the middle of the day, which is a rare occurrence in the summer, except when it\u2019s raining, or like to today, just too hot to doing anything worthwhile outside right now.\u00a0 We did manage to get some work done on the garden and the compost bins this morning, so I can\u2019t complain too much about the heat.\u00a0 And yesterday we put the Awen<\/em> \u201cup on the grid\u201d and did a good scrape job, got new zincs on, and Ken cleaned and polished the prop.\u00a0 Wow \u2026 on the return trip she went like a good thing.\u00a0 She always slows down a bit as the barnacles build up on the hull, but this occurs gradually and sort of creeps up on us; however, once we get her scraped, we realize how inefficient she\u2019s become.\u00a0 We should probably do it twice a year, but it\u2019s a big job that takes the right tide and reasonable weather, so once a year it is!<\/p>\n We\u2019re always on the lookout for equipment for the homestead.\u00a0\u00a0 However, it\u2019s hard to find good used equipment, and harder still to find the parts to repair said equipment.\u00a0 Lots of new stuff is meant to be \u201cmaintenance free\u201d, which means it works great for a little while, then breaks and there are no replacement parts involved \u2026 our throw-away society.\u00a0 I sometimes find myself wishing I could turn back time to when I was a kid, when all the old equipment we remember was very much in service.\u00a0 On the other hand, we\u2019ve made some significant gains in quite a few fields (I\u2019m typing on a computer, which wouldn\u2019t have existed back when I was a kid).\u00a0 I\u2019m not prepared to go back to the Stone Age, but it would be terrific if we could find a happy medium somewhere in between.<\/p>\n Weather and weather forecasting models \u2026 one of our favorite subjects in this time of climate change!\u00a0 We make plans to do a certain activity based on the weather \u2013 for example, crossing Johnstone Strait when the westerlies are down \u2013 and by the time we get to the day, the weather forecast has completely changed.\u00a0 I would say that at the moment, the forecasts are usually only good for two or three days.\u00a0 Occasionally, the weather settles into a pattern, and then the forecasts might be good for a week.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if all of this is due to a higher degree of variability in the weather patterns as a result of climate change, or a lack of weather model updating using recently collected data, or possibly both.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a tough year for dehydrating our fruit \u2026 too cloudy and damp most of the summer for either the solar drier or getting sufficient power from our solar panels to run the electric drier.<\/p>\n The carrots have finally taken off, although there are lots of bare patches in the rows where germination failed.\u00a0 Peas are cropping now, but beans are still slow.\u00a0 The corn is just above knee height, and starting to tassle out, which is strange, as last year it was over my head when it formed tassles.\u00a0 Does that mean we will get mini corn cobs?\u00a0 Time will tell \u2026<\/p>\n We made a trip into Sayward four days ago to get some parcels that had accumulated in the Post Office for us, one of which was our grain mill and flaker (Family Grain Mill), finally!\u00a0 Spent an afternoon making cracked wheat and barley, rolled oats, and a little bit of wheat flour.\u00a0 This unit has both an electric motor and a hand crank.\u00a0 With all the sun right now, we were able to operate the unit off of our solar panels, but I think in the winter we will need to run the gen set or do the grinding by hand.\u00a0 We tried some freshly flaked oatmeal for breakfast this morning, and wow!\u00a0 The oats actually have a sweet taste when they\u2019re fresh.\u00a0 I\u2019m really impressed with the system, and am looking forward to making flour, etc. from our own grains someday.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oceanecology.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Herb-garden-in-bloom.jpg\")
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\nJuly 25th<\/sup>, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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\n<\/a>July 27, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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