While Tangerine Dreams

Ode to a Horniman

There was a cool little healing festival held on top of mountain here in town. There is a little hike you can take to a bluff which I took off on and was able to catch this beautiful vista and incredibly cheesy kodak moment. It's suppose to, you know, capture my warrior woman embarking fearlessly on her continuing adventures belly first? From this spot I was able to see the Horniman here:

(If you squint your eyes you can see it) It was pretty emotional seeing in one direction the property we've owned for five years endowed with so much of our dream energy and Craig's muscle energy and then in the end, even after submitting our building permit and booking our builder, letting it go. But it was also really exhilarating to turn my head to the left and see our new house (well, the driveway at least) four kilometers away where all our happiness and dreams are being lived out in a different, unforseen way. Yeah, we sold the Horniman. The day after this photo op we went to the lawyer's office to sign off on the sale.  But, that's okay, the Horniman has served us well and I thank it for all that magic it has brought to our lives.

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The  universe has alternate plans for us and it is with sadness in our hearts that we must let go of our beloved Horniman Ranch.

The Details:
• 5.87 Acres about 2km north of Winlaw Bridge.
• Located on a quiet side road (off of the back road).
• Sunny pasture with great views of the valley.
• Magical and mature cedar/hemlock forest with three creeks (including the ‘famous’ Horniman Brook) passing through.
• Fenced on three sides.
• Sweet and savoury neighbours

What we’ve done so far:
• Built a road to access the pasture and a sunny building spot.
• Brought in power/phone line
• Secured water licence on the Horniman Brook.
• Built open walled pole barn/car port (22’x 11’)
• Travel Trailer with deck and snow shedding roof included.

If this sounds interesting to you call us...

Oi, these hormones got me so kerplemked! (Last line not on sign.)

Sold the Farm

We answered an ad:

Straw Bale Gem on 6.78 quiet, private sunny acres. Inviting and artistic home, close to village shops and cafe, with great neighbours. New water system, additional potential building sites. Small workshop/shed and open shed, and a lovely cedar grove.

And then we fell in love and bought the house. For a time there I was all over the idea of moving to the closest town; primarlly I was stoked on the idea of Edie going to the Waldorf school and becoming a pedestrian again but after having an offer on a house fall through there we had a pause to realize that this special valley is our home and we're not ready for a return to a teeny tiny yard quite yet. I have sheep I intend to attempt to raise!

So the day evening before we were to leave here for our trip to Calgary I found the ad for this house and as luck would have it I visited back in the day I was pregnant when I was researching strawbale and hung out with the owner's now ex-wife (yikes. We have some serious smudging to do. The owners before who built the house met the same demise). I started my Horseshack oo-oo-oo (those of you who remember Welcome Back Karter) and getting really excited by myself (that sounds weird) because Craig just took off kayaking. I called the guy and I'm like, "don't sell your house, we'll be right there" and he's like, okay, freak, then I spent three hours at home wondering out loud where the *$^% Craig was - though I knew he was kayaking.

This house has everything on our check list. 1800 square feet (not too small, not too little), straw, four bedrooms (we only need two but both Craig and I need an office each), building potential (for Craig and my office each out of the house), lots of acres to play with permaculture design, a beautiful sunny spot, and, finally all this without the drama and stress of building. I might want to be nesting here pretty quick for Craiglette II you know?

And, in a funny piece of fate, the house was designed by the same architect we hired for the Horniman Hacienda. That's funny. So our trip to Calgary was delayed by a day and we ended up purchasing it pretty much over the phone in Calgary. Luckily I was the first person to answer the ad. The price was so right and inspection passed with flying colours. Our move comes just in time for the change in season.

How I Spent My Summer Holiday...

First of all, thank you all soooooo much for all the way to goes last post. It warms me all the commoderie to be found in this bizarre world called blogging (so hard to explain the beauty to non-bloggers without sounding like a freak). I love you guys.

We attended a Family Yoga Retreat this long weekend not too far from us, a short ferry ride then water taxi trip. There was full-on catering and tippi accomodations if we were so inclined.

We spent the four days swimming, attending three yoga classes a day (Craig and I took turns, there was a kid-friendly one too), eating amazing vegetarian fare prepared by the staff (no dishes, yay!) and just basically goofing/lounging around. Edie got to hang with some yogi kids and even made a new best friend (Craig's backpack lost its status, yay!).

One Drama Queen moment I'd like to share because you know, the beauty of blogging. When we were almost at the camp a feeling crept up leaving me to believe on a 65% level that I left the iron on. I called three neighbours to peep through my basement window to confirm it either way. I'm somewhat more embarassed of the thought that the locals think I iron before a camping weekend. It was, of course, to iron out the seams of Edie's hemp poncho I whipped up for her right before our trip. You know, to protect her alabaster-like skin. Like right before. Thus I left the iron on, perhaps. Luckily, our friend was able to jimmy a window open, crawl through, crawl back out the way he came to report back, right before I lost my yogic cool that I indeed unplug it. I thought so!

 

We had a frog living on top of our sleeping quarters,our tent, again. This happened throughout my pregnancy when we'd stay in the Horniman Trailer. Little critter kept waking us up at 5:00 am. We believe it's Edie's power animal. Can't you see the resemblance?

Sweet greens...

Summer's Been Rad(ish)

It's been way too busy to post. Summer's glorious here as usual but both Craig and I are overwhelmed with work and stressed with what are next move is going to be. That's why it's been rad -ish. Ha, ha. I keep saying to myself, quit the blog, what a time waster but this excercise, again, I find so helpful in seeing what I have been prioritizing, capturing on camera the simple beauty I find around me and recording the mundane around what seems like chaos.

The beauty of summer here captured at a farmer's market, little girl's birthday party and our new kayak!

The ugh-ing it bits include the mosquitoes, deciding where we're going to live, busy with work in form of training a couple of soapmakers right now and Craig's usual job-related stress. We decided we're keeping the Horniman, that's for certain, kind of as a weekend/holiday retreat, but we're leaning now a move to the town of Nelson so that Edie could attend the Waldorf school and to lower our environmental footprint indentation by avoiding all the driving around we find ourselves doing in this rural set-up. Plus, the mosquitoes are driving me insane! My strawberries are popping but I can't bask in their juiciness because the critters are finding me just as appetizing. So, those are my big motivators but it's a tough decision. We're still flip-flopping up to this point.

Permaculture Shock

Yes, I know, I'm suppose to be posting on how our building is going. We have had our share of luck, both good and bad, with this dream home building adventure business. I'll get into the bad some other time, let's just say we're direly realizing that the cost of building on our beloved Horniman is counteracting our whole intention of moving out here to live out a simpler life (less work, but more real work in terms of growing our own produce, perhaps animals to milk, pursuing other interests, not just me). Anyway, the dream's still on but we're exploring other options just for reality check's sake.

On to the good news! The Kootenay Permaculture Institute selected our property as one of their sample cases for the students of their 2007 summer intensive to study. It rocked. The students all met us at our property and me and Craig talked about the story of our dreams and intentions for the land and all the students (from all over, including the Southern States, a long lost Do Be Clean employee and one girl from Brazil!) hunkered down over the weekend to scheme up designs for our land that will best suit our needs in a permaculture kind of way. I blabbed on about goats, sheep, chickens, yoga studio in the forest, little playground area next to the garden and wouldn't it be cool to have a meditation nook next to the shores of the Horniman Brook (that's how we got the name incase you didn't know)? Craig was a little more  stoicly Debbie Downer style and shared how we are confronting expensive issues with septic, water and just generally dealing with the craziness of bureaucracy, new codes and the increasing cost of building. Still, this has been too cool because we have been reading up on permaculture for years, we have even wanted to take this program this year but thought we would be busy building, and it was nice to get some trained eyes on our situation and site potential. Here's some of what they came up with:

Ahhhh, permaculture. Something about the philosophy of the lazy man's approach to gardening and stewarding the land speaks volumes to me. This study embraces working with nature as oppose to wrestling her into dust to reap some Gaia booty (pirate booty, not Beyonce booty). Thanks for visiting the Horniman, you guys and I'll leave you with a quote from Wikipedia: " Renowned environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki has stated: "What permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet."^"

Enjoy the Greenery

Pics courtesy of my dreamy guy. He's a wicked photographer and thrives out-psyd. Some corners of my world these days. Have a green weekend!

Fuzzy, Muddy Fairies

The fuzzy picture kind of depicts my head space lately. I had a touch of the flu this weekend, following Craig's bout earlier in the week. I think the stress and last minute decision making has been hitting us in our wellness keepers. We're all feeling  better now and it feels good to be able to post something after a long absence. I have much to share but seems like no time no grab the camera. The above picture was the best I could do lately. It's a delightfully rainy day here (oh my god, did I just right that? See, I'm still not completely right in the head, yet) so trying to capture my floaty fairy on the camera was tricky; especially with the Monkey wanting to follow me up on the kitchen table paparazzi style.

I took a roving fairy making class at my favourite store in town last week and this is who I came home with. So fun, quick and fairy grati-flying (even my puns are weak these days). I'm in love with the doll-making process so want to make a bunch of these now - maybe I'll try to come up with a tutorial. I've been tackling the garden (or at least trying to establish a garden, that's what me and my shadow are going to work on today) and I'm thinking, I'm sure though this will not make any sense, using these fairies like little garden gnomes. They'll get all soggy though right? Fairy's make good compost perhaps?

And, we started digging. At least to move the neighbour's water line over once we find it. That's what Dada's been busy with while Mama's been recouping and trying to keep the home fires burning calmly and muddy laundry laundered.

Sweet Pea

Was Edie's first day of school last week. I finally have a brief moment to post some pictures. The program is called Sweetpeas and it's for one and half to three year olds. Just an introduction the Waldorf schooling style. Oh my, I love it because Edie does.

What is especially thrilling for me to be in this space is that it was designed by the same architect we hired to help us with our dream home. Equally thrilling to me too was how Edie stepped into the little classroom and just busted out of her pretty little shell. The classroom is painted up in all these pastel-y tones of pink and saffrons, the strawbale walls edging off any sharp corners and organic toys are all neatly place around the periphery. What turns me on is the philosophy of age-appropriate learning methods. Right now it's all about playtime ya know?

And speaking of play, though I have been pumping out soap the last couple of weeks and have made a feeble attempt of starting up a garden here, I have been crafting up a storm and have experienced some exciting material scores recently. Apparently in my sleep because everything seems like a dreamy blur.

So, soon I will have pictures of that business. The pictures I took at the Waldorf school were all in the foyer then when I went crazy in the classroom the batteries died. Next time. Next time too I promise I'll bring the focus back on some crafts cuz crafting's good!

Picnics and Mohair

It was a lovely day for a picnic. And a lovely spot, too. The survey tape stakes out our house's footprint and Edie and I are plunked right on top of the dining room table.

We had a quick meal together as a family then, this was too idyllic, I gaily tiptoed across the field to a momma-only blessingway and Edie and Craig held hands and serendipitously skipped down the driveway, across the road to our neighbour's birthday party.

It's exciting to be spending time on our property. Though it's only three kilometres from where we're residing right now, our original intent reemerges and those tingly Horniman feelings resurface. We're at the same time feeling overwhelmed and super stoked about the journey ahead.

Until then, trying to get in lots of picnics and tingles. This is crafting blog so I best share my latest craftiness. Yesterday, I freaked because of lack of childcare again. Luckily, someone amazing pulled through (as always seems to be the case, thank you Universe) just in the nick of time too because I really have to adhere to this soap production schedule and I also had a commitment to join in on another dye day at the Threads Guild. Got some mohair and only had time for a little piece to colour. Behold:

Totally not what I had in mind but still it's so much fun this learning curve. I was aiming more for an Mini Egg kind of feel. But who knows how this will spin then knit up? I'm thinking of a hat like this. Cute!