Painting 101

Vicky was the owner of my home before I purchased it in June 2013. It would seem that she was particular for the colour blue. Every room in the house was or still is a combination of bluey and bluey green  hues. No disrespect intended here for Vicky, because it is very apparent that she loved her home; but, the colour scheme was killing me! Once she used each of the tones in different rooms, she then decided to sponge the other rooms in combos of her colour hue. Environmentally friendly for sure!

See, :) isn't it lovely? Ok, so I've been painting since December and have a room almost finished, the living room. I need to paint the bedroom door and frame that leads from the small house. This room was the baby bluey green colour from above; opposed to the greeny blue. Now it looks like this, and that is the door needing paint.

The living room is large so I broke it up with a little quiet library in behind, painted in a nice light grey called pepper tree. The living room it went with a bright golden colour; I figured it might brighten  the long winters here.

Originally I thought that an office would be nice in this alcove, but my nice ikea desk doesn't fit. 

This brought me to a conundrum as I had already envisioned my masterpiece of design without measure. I could try and sell my desk and get a smaller one, but this would defeat my ability to engage comfortably with home bookkeeping on a smaller surface to work with. Plus, my very dirtiest secret of lazy slothfulness was worried with the work of listing on kijiji and pennywise, do I need to put together to photograph? F word, how much bloody work is that? Plus find another? So I've decided to put my desk in the front entrance. The space is larger, plus it comes with a great view of the mountains! 

This area was one of the lucky spaces sponged in turquoise hues. Here it is with just the trim re-painted.

And here is my new office with the first coat of paint done.

I will post again to show it to you with the furniture installed. I like it!

A Moose Looks a lot like a Horse!

When it is barrelling down the highway coming straight at you. I said to Hayleigh "that's a horse coming at us." And she said, rather urgently "that's a girl moose!" I was so perplexed that I didn't get a photo. Even when the cow (that's a female moose) slipped on the road frost when she tried to finally swerve from our head on collision I didn't think to snap a shot. She slipped around a bit then managed to get her feet to cooperate and she shot off the road heading to the Salmo River. 

That was by far my coolest experience with wildlife since arriving here. So amazing to see a moose up so close. I really wish I had a photo to share.  

Worm Composting 101 v2.0

V2.0? You ask? Many of you might remember that at one time I was the proud owner of the Queensborough sQuigglers. With a little work, even you city slickers with a little work and creativity can own your own. 

Back in September I purchased some red wigglers from a Trail family. They arrived home with me in an ice cream bucket. Immediately I set to work and drilled air holes in a Rubbermaid tote.  I put a wet burlap empty sand bag on the bottom, then some hay, I emptied the worm bucket, added some compost along for the worms to start eating, then finally I placed another wet burlap bag over that and put on the lid.

In 4 months I filled the Rubbermaid and decided to engage a two bin method. See them here.

The bottom bin is the original bin. It now contains 75% of the compost cumulated from September through December. I will leave that bin alone other than an occasional tossing of the salad to aerate it for maximum composting and worm casings. 

The top bin has 25% of the original bin and my recent organic matter. By the time this bin fills, the bottom tote should be ready to harvest for casings. At this point I will spread the bottom bin into my garden in May and split off my top bin to continue this cycle. Next cycle will be ready for September revitalization before the frosts set in. 

Oh and if you look closer you can see the wonderful sloupy tea on the bottom, this shit is a powerful plant food. I learned the hard way that it needs to be heavily diluted before giving to house plants. :( I lost all 3 of my hot pepper plants. 

Oyster Mushroom Extravaganza - I Hope.

Oyster mushrooms are delicious! This summer on one of my weekly visits to the Salmo Farmer's Market I met a man that was selling homegrown mushrooms out of gardening bags. He wanted $20 bucks, which is a steal, however, there was a beautiful necklace that I just had to have and well, if you know me, you know that the accessory won! I went back the following week and every one there after and he never came back. So, I decided to try it myself!

First I researched it on the web, like any good do it yourselfer. I purchases a beautiful oyster mushroom from the Kootenay CoOp; the only store I've ever visited that has a box of crocs at the door so they don't have to refuse entry to any barefooted nelsonians! I sliced the bottom portion of the mushroom into thin slices and place them onto small pieces of corrugated cardboard that was previously soaked in water. I layered the cardboard with mushroom into a small Tupperware container and sealed it, then I placed in a warm dark spot and waited for the spores to regenerate.

This project was ready for transfer in December but Christmas got in the way. :) my niece Alex tried her spores using used coffee grinds but she was not successful. So I decided to try using the straw approach. Two days ago I cut straw into one or two inch pieces and put on to boil. Once the water started boiling, I turned down to low for an hour. Before straining I added a tsp of peroxide into the water as this kills off bad bacteria but doesn't inhibit the mushroom growth.

I used an old plastic half gallon olive container. Using a box cutter I cut holes into it and then lined it with a vegetable bag. One site suggested putting a little bran in for additional food, so I tossed in a tsp of it and then I got to work on layering the spore covered cardboard and the wet straw into it. In the end it looked like this.

So now I keep it somewhere with indirect light and try in this weather to maintain 15 - 20 degrees Celsius and I should get a shitload of mushrooms. Let's keep our fingers crossed! I will keep you posted. 

My Dirty Ymir Secret

We are talking laundry here folks....Look what I am doing. Saving the planet one laundry load at a time; that's right, I hang my clothes to dry.There I've said it. If you come to my house you are probably going to get one of those crunchy rough hewn towels. I know; the shame. But hey, I am saving electricity AND I am saving some cheese! I will save roughly $50 this year by not using my dryer! Cha-ching! Here is how it is currently working  during these winter months; please note that the laundry rack didn't cost me a thing as it came with the house! Big score there.

 The dollar savings comes from the BC Hydro website. I am all up for saving on my electricity costs as they are through the roof as I have an electric furnace that runs the show here. The house is well insulated and the furnace is in great condition as it has been well maintained by the previous owners. The floors can still be pretty cold though and I recommend wool socks and slippers if you come.

I got all gung-ho when I first moved here and bought a used wood-stove from a family in Nelson doing a re-model. I haven't put it in - and wood is expensive. dirty and hardwork! Next year I am considering a small addition and if that happens I will incorporate a woodstove there. In the meantime I have become quite astute at balancing my loads on that crappy wire rack. However, in the summer I bring out the big guns.... The outdoor clothesline. Anyone who has not experienced fresh hung sheets on an outdoor line are really missing out. Check out these beauties - glad Tyler and Casey are not still young - they would have climbed that Cedar and rode these babies.

Which brings us to the chicken coop I had built this fall. The terribly teal and white building is the original settlers cabin which was built in the early 1900's. There is electricity and an old woodstove  but no running water. It is essentially a 3 room cabin with a very small loft. And attached on the right is a fouth room which has been a garden shed. I turned that shed into a small coop with two hen boxes and a small door on a string that leads out into the covered yard. The house on the far right is the neighbours that didn't like Fabio my rooster - that is their bedroom window.... he was very vocal; and an early bird gets the worm kind of guy. Anyways, Fabio went to the farm - no really, he went to the farm where he has many fine ladies to entertain. However, I know he doesn't have anything quite so fine as Foxy and Cleo - because they are a whole lot of woman!

315 Birch Street

Wow, 2014 is here! I have been here in Ymir for almost 6 months now. I know I promised a blog of my adventures and well here it is. I will start posting some of my humourous new beginnings! So far 2014 has had a slow and steady start, of snow and well, more snow. I've cumulated nearly 2 feet of the stuff in the backyard. The thing about the snow is it just cumulates up here; especially around the roof lines as the snow falls from the roof and that stuff adds up. Later in January I will take a photo of it for you; I'm worried it will block my windows from any natural light.

I haven't managed to get my bee hives going yet. I'm going to take a course on beekeeping soon and then get started in the spring (which could mean May here). I've decided on an overall garden plan for next spring which will include the addition of a greenhouse and a horseshoe pit. The house has been painted some very horrendous colors as well - I didn't know there were that many shades of baby bluey/green. When they got bnored of painting the walls in one of these hues, they (and I think Becca will love this when I say) sponged it in an assortment of all of the hues. It really was quite spectacular. I painted one of the walls a golden color but more yellow than orange for all you lovers out there of the Corn Gold. Here is a photo of Hayleigh and I celebrating our Christmas Eve Pajama Festivus! You can see the gold, the old baby bluey/green and a green I am considering for the area behind the livingroom. Ok, it's not that big and the detail is a bit lost, but you definitely get the idea about the gold!


So Friday nights here in Ymir are pretty exciting. I usually walk down to the pub for a nice dinner and a few drinks with some of the locals. The pub is great, the food isn't too bad and the staff are eccentric and kind hearted.
They have an open jam night every Friday and last week was no exception. It is an ecclectic group of musicians usually and they play an array of country/folk music. I've heard some really great tunes in the pub; the best was most definitely Mel singing Bobby MaGee. I've always admired my brother Terry for his musical abilities, perhaps when he comes up we can convince beat master T to get up and mix us a beat. I'm not sure he will be able to keep up though; what do you think?

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