Peep and Quack

New life has arrived at Eco-Sense.   With Spring comes the first chicks…but we cheated…sort of.  Olive, our hen (who was conceived and hatched here last year), has become a mom herself.  She sat on eggs for 27 days…and being 4-5 days past due, nothing was going to hatch…so sad listening to her sitting there making all the mom hens sounds.  Anyways, Ann broke down and purchased 6 chicks – she snuck them under Olive as she pulled out the past-due eggs (Ann’s sneaky… its amazing what she can hide in an omelette too).   One got squished, but the other five are thriving with their very attentive new mom.  Something so wonderful to see these chicks diving into momma hens feathers.

Bitty Boo, the muscovy female is still sitting on eggs and doing a fine job.

Nursery is in full swing with blossoms coming and going on so many of our plants.  Very beautiful to see new flowers for the first time…like our fruiting quince in the food forest.

Farm Gate Sales – Perennial Edible Plants:  Saturday April 30th from 10am – 2pm.  3295 Compton road, East Highlands, Victoria, BC

We have been busy mulching the nursery plants to keep them healthy, and reduce watering requirements.  As well, Gord has a new pump sprayer to fill with his various brews of home made fertilizers…plants are thriving – its a bacteria fest in the soil… or a bacteria feast for some.

Here’s some photos of the nursery:  Sea Berries, peppercorn trees/bushes, perennial leeks, dwarf cherries, Dug – the duck, Josta berries, currants, apple trees in full bloom, Toona tree (chop suey tree), edible hostas, and literally a couple hundred more edible perennial plants.  Our inventory sheet is here:    WE HAVE EGGS FOR SALE TOO!

Sea Berries, pepper corn plants (

Perennial leeks, (Dug), Josta berries, currants

Flowering apple trees

Toona trees (chop sued tree), edible hosta’s

Here’s some photos of our food forest:  Hardy kiwi, Fruiting Quince flower, Aronia flowers, Mulberry with lots of berries, Walnut with large catkins, etc.

Photos from the past…Eco-Sense cob root cellar.

Eco-Sense Video of the Week:  Here’s one of Gord giving a short Grey Water talk and showing our worm filter.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1OHFKO6HBw

Baird council Initiative of the week:  As a municipal councillor for the District of Highlands, Ann sits on the CRD Inter-municipal Climate Action Steering Committee.  Ann has just submitted an agenda item for discussion at their next meeting:

Topic: Planning for sea level rise. At our first meeting last year, our group was given a presentation on the ongoing work by the CRD on sea level rise. We were informed that the work was based on the provincial forecast of 1m rise in sea level by 2100 and did not include storm surge. The current science indicates that we need to adjust our projections. I would like our committee to discuss this and I would like to put forward a motion for the committee to recommend to the CRD Climate Action Program to update projections for Sea Level Rise (and storm surge) into the planing tools.

Background:   Recent paper by James Hanson (and 17 other leading climate scientists), that it entirely possible that we could experience multiple meter sea level rise mid century (2050). Published March 2016. http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3761/2016/
The insurance industry was just informed at RIMS 2016 (April 2016), that they should plan for a 3 meter rise in sea level by 2050-2060. This is based on NOAA data. Here is s short must read article. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm

And finally, to end this weeks blog post, here is a picture of our salad bar…LOVE.