Off and Running

Posted on March 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

Finally, spring is here and plants are showing signs of life.  It’s definitely been a long hard winter and the warmer temperatures and rain are most welcome.  (POND IS FULL for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!!)  It is becoming abundantly clear to those of us living close to the land that there is no longer predicable weather for growing food, which further supports our choice of moving more towards perennial gardening (see below for workshops on perennial foods).  Food is getting more difficult to grow, plan for, predict, harvest, protect, and the costs of food are certainly going UP.  What a joy to rarely ever go to the grocery store.

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This is what a happy Gord looks like when he finds his favourite mug (had for 14 years) sitting in the grape arbour…It was lost for over a week.

We have been busy with tours, council work, consulting, and the gardens (and the usual general “poop” disturbing and distributing).  We have been busy innovating with our raised garden beds to increase our productivity and resiliency.   Our co-housing neighbours Tayler and Solara have been busy with their interns working on some challenging areas to bring them into higher production for perennial gardens for beauty and function.  Our lower garden has had a major face lift as has our walnut tree guild.

Hatchet & Seed Edible Landscapes:  Tayler and Solara are very talented and offer broad-ranging landscape design and installation services.  They partner with home-owners, businesses, municipalities, planners, farmers, community groups & developers to connect food, place and people in inspiring ways!  It’s easy to see why we all chose to work and live here together on this amazing land.

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Life with two – 2 year olds…always a blur.

Next opportunity to come and check it all out and see what’s new at Eco-Sense is on Saturday March 18th from 10am-2pm when the nursery will be open.   New this year we are also selling 1 and 2 lb bags of cover crop peas for food, mulch, and N2 fixing.  Check out the plant list to see what we have in stock.  We have lots of new plants in stock just in time for the Spring season…Including larger fruit and nut trees.  The first sweet potatoes slips will also be available…but still way too early to plant.

Tours and Workshops:  Link here for all the details:  https://eco-sense.ca/our-services/courses/.

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Typical Eco-Sense lunch:  Fermented cabbage, scarlet runner beans, pickled egg, apple, and cheddar cheese.  All home made and local!

Resources:

Now if we could only stop the ducks from laying eggs IN THE POND, we would be happy.

Ann and Gord

 

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Is it SPRING yet?

Posted on March 9, 2017 | 2 comments

Well, it’s March 9.  Ann’s 50th birthday and it’s trying to snow…again.  We’ve had snow off and on all week and needless to say it is becoming frustrating on so many levels.  Ann has always had daffodils on her birthday, and in the last decade or so daffodils have been blooming much earlier.  But not this year…not a single daffodil is anywhere to be seen.  No peas.  No plums in bloom.  No rhubarb.  No spring greens…not even radishes.  Even the sweet potatoes slips are clinging to life in the earth sheltered greenhouse.  Thank goodness we put so much dried and fermented food away last year.

The nursery is almost ready for our first “spring/winter” open house for sales of perennial edible plants.  Plant list Here (All prices INCLUDE GST)

  • SATURDAY March 11th from 10am-2pm
  • If you are coming to buy plants please drive up to the top of the hill.

It is so odd to start the nursery season when virtually all the plants are still dormant.  Thank goodness for the Cornelian cherries, Black currants, and the fuki.

Lower Garden is getting a make over:  We have been landscaping the lower garden area and have plans for a small pond against the cliff and a simple hoop house greenhouse.  We are propagating more plants rather than bringing them in and need MORE space.  The lower garden has been levelled out and a parking area made on the east side right before the driveway starts going up the hill.  Just yesterday Tayler and Solara along with their three interns also gave the area a great start to a permaculture makeover.  Wow, does it ever look great down there.  (Please note that plants in the lower garden area are NOT FOR SALE).

YAM Magazine:  New article on our home is just out this week in Victoria’s YAM magazine. read online here:  https://issuu.com/page-one/docs/yma17/46

Highlands Community Garden:  The community organized a group to spearhead  the development of a community garden, a garden much different than the one’s you’ll find in the rest of the region.  Why is it different… well they are applying permaculture principles without really knowing it, because it just makes logical sense.  It is also mingled in and amongst some of Highlands finest rocks… so working with an undulating landscape and varying soils depths means biodiversity.  A huge thanks to the team.

Just a quick update to let everyone know, yes, we are open this Saturday (March 11th).   Feel free to come walk in the soggy food forest, in the soggy garden, and look at the wonders of what the Canadian Border Services can do to a perfectly healthy plant order as we nurse $1000 of plants to life.    And come see water in the pond!  Plant list Here

PS.  Bring gumboots!  Bathing suit not required.   Just your birthday suit… right Ann?

 

 

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Welcome to spring…sort of.

Posted on March 2, 2017 | 4 comments

Well, it’s now March 2nd and we are usually into full spring here at Eco-Sense with native bulbs poking up and daffodils almost open, and usually the first round of plum tree grafting completed.  However, this winter has been unusually harsh, cold, and snowy.  Today, as we write this, we are in a snowy winter wonderland…again.

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Making the best of a snow day (early Feb)

Three Events at Eco-Sense:

Saturday March 11th from 10am – 2pm.  FIRST plant sales of the spring season.  Due to the weather, we will be delaying our first open house for sales of perennial edible plants until the second Saturday of March (March 11th).  Following this date, we will be open every Saturday this spring from 10am – 2pm.

Thursday March 30th from 1-4 pm:  $55 – Grafting workshop at Eco-Sense.  Gord will lead the instruction to graft 2 of your own apple trees of choice to take home (choose from a variety of scion wood).  Tour of food forest and perennial food systems included.  Bring your own THIN BLADED SHARP knife… no longer than 5 cm… everything else is supplied… hopefully no band-aids required.  Only 12 spots.  Suitable for kids 12+ and adults.  Registration via Eventbrite

Sunday May 28th from 1-5 pm:  $40 for a very special PUBLIC TOUR.  We are hosting the first public tour in many years to launch our partnership with Tayler and Solara of Hatchet and Seed.  If you don’t know Tayler and Solara be sure to visit their website.  They specialize in transforming under utilized landscapes (farms and yards) to abundant and beautiful site appropriate food systems.  This special Eco-Sense tour will last about 3 hours and then we will have a social and snack time inside the cob home.  Space is very limited and already half sold out.  Full details and booking is via Eventbrite link here.

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Photo by Solara

AND…Maybe…Just Maybe, Gord will do a workshop on grey water systems.  We have two systems to install for first rate hands on learning.  Tentative date: Thursday, April 27th from 10am-3pm.  Bring lunch.  $60.  Only 8 spots.   Registration via Eventbrite:

AND…Maybe…Just Maybe, Gord will do a short workshop on Humanure composting toilets.  Learn the 3 P’s of composting toilets:  Pee, Poo, and Policy.  Sat, July 22 from 10am-noon.  10 spots.  $30  Tour of our bathroom here at Eco-Sense in the main house, the very slick Eco-Hut system, the outside bathroom setups, and watch an actual bucket dump.  Good opportunity to confront your fears…and leave fecalphobia behind (oooh could have fun with that).  Registration via Eventbrite:

In other news:

dsc02802Despite the harsh and unpredictable weather this winter, it has been an abundant, tasty, and nutritious winter of food.  Ann put away lots of dried foods (fruits and veggies), and fermented foods.  We have lots of fresh apples, garlic, leeks, parsnips  and carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash.  Here’s a photo of one of our pre-packaged soups…pre assembly.  Venison bone broth, fava beans, carrots, garlic, sweet potatoes, bayleaves, parsnips, squash water, dried tomatoes, dried mushrooms, dried kale, and dried zucchini.  It was an AWESOME soup.  Also on the counter in this photo are ginger beer on the go, kefir, sourdough spelt starter, fermenting Jerusalem artichokes, and the cheese curds and whey.

AND…Maybe…Just Maybe, Ann will write a radical homesteading cook book… one without any recipes.

AND…Maybe…Just Maybe, Ann will do  fermented foods workshop.  AND… just Maybe…

Ann has been making lots of cheese too.  Brie, waxed cheddar, washed rind natural cheeses, and feta.

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Our back deck has also become much more useful with a small roof extension and installation of an outside kitchen.  This is where Gord, Tayler and Ann processed Beaker.  Yes, all five of us (Tayler, Solara, 2 year old Flora, Gord and I) ate our much loved rooster.

dsc02806Here’s the story:  After 1 year of living well together and sharing hens peacefully, our two roosters went at it. The young one being the stronger, and our lovely gentle cuddly Beaker getting quite messed up (bloody head and missing an eye). In the morning we had to make a choice. If we let them back together Beaker would surely lose his life in a bloody battle. Beaker also had longer spurs which were damaging his favourite 3 hens. We also suspect Beaker was not very fertile as last year we had a zero hatch rate. So…to make a long story short, guess who we are eating for dinner? We looked after beaker well for 2.5 years and now he is looking after all of us. He was not frightened to die and went quickly without a struggle. RIP Beaker.  (Our freezer has become an interesting place with interesting labels on glass containers…”Beaker Soup” and “Beaker with Pesto”).

dsc02812We gave our Earth Sheltered Greenhouse a work over as the mice and rats were having a field day in there.  Spent the afternoon cleaning out the mouse/rat infested greenhouse while Gord spent the afternoon digging up two sides of the earth sheltered insulated greenhouse to bury metal lath to stop the persistent rodents. Apparently the rodents like to chew through the recycled dock foam insulation buried in the earth to gain access to summer tomatoes, peppers and newly planted seeds. What a mess. Then it started to rain. Found numerous mummified things…ack.  So happy to have the greenhouse all cleaned up and rodent free…for now.

And a pond update.  We are retaining a lot of fluids… at the moment, every 1 inch (2.5 cm for you young folks under 46), is 4000 gallons (that’s a lot of litres for the young folks).  The overflow corrugated culvert was leaking preventing the pond from filling up the last foot of height.  All it took was a large elbow, small elbow, 2 of Gord’s elbows, 4 inner tube tires, water potable sealant, hose clamps, large and small rubber couplers, a heckling duck named Dug playing with Gord’s tools, frozen fingers and THREE persistant configurations of the above list of items.  Fingers crossed that this does the job.

Lots of Council initiatives going on right now, but we’ll save that for our next update.

Ann and Gord

 

 

 

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We’ve Failed – Now What?

Posted on February 9, 2017 | 12 comments

The environmental movement, despite Herculean efforts has failed and continues to fail.  The evidence for failure is:

  • Populations of vertebrate animals—such as mammals, birds, and fish—have declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. More details at this link  2016 Living Planet Report
  • We are on the business as usual scenario for climate change…this means we are headed for the IPCC scenario of a rise in global average temperature of up to 4.5 deg C by 2100.  This is not survivable on many levels and may even be overly optimistic as it does not take into account many of the self reinforcing feedbacks we are starting see in the melting arctic.   Read more here:
  • Every mothers breast milk is contaminated with toxic chemicals from industrial civilization.
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Honey bee pollinating our lemons

Why are we failing?
First off, we define environmentalists as a separate class of people, separate from the average person,  which emboldens the myth that the environment is separate from “us” the human species.  These so called environmentalists fight to preserve habitat, protect species, and reduce harm from being inflicted upon our human habitat, our fellow species and our planet.  One would have to be insane to not see that our human habitat is the same shared habitat as for the rest of the species on earth.  Most people in the “environmental movement” get this basic concept of inter-connection…    It’s called ecology – the earth is a complex living system of relationships; relationships that work together to provide the necessities of life.  So every time you hear about “environmentalists” doing this or standing up for that, simply change the word to “the people”.  This makes a very powerful statement about WE and not THEY.

The danger in the continuation of environmentalists as being “they” or “them” is that “they” become targets.  When you have people speaking out against Site C, “they” are moms, dads, farmers, First Nations, community members, students, scientists, economists, etc. More appropriately, “they”, should be called “the people”.   The term environmentalist is actually a denigration and distraction to the issue at hand.

5040623-binSecondly, our human civilization, culture and global economic system are profoundly broken.  Even those of us wanting to live in a way to drastically reduce harm can only go so far…we are trapped.  As an example, here at Eco-Sense we literally live in a MUD house and shit in a bucket.  Our award winning home has been called the “world’s greenest modern house” as it achieved petal recognition with the Living Building Challenge.  The home features living roofs, rain water harvesting, solar PV, solar thermal, earthen floors, earthen counters, recycled wood, recycled features, LED lighting, very high energy performance for the full lifecycle of the building, and a low carbon footprint, etc.  However, the biggest thing that makes our home green is our lifestyle.  Our lifestyle directly challenges the paradigm that cradles the economic system. Our lifestyle is not good for the economy.

11216225_10153277514545309_413888765205766848_oOur Positives

  • We use 90% less energy and water in the home than the average person in BC. We have less STUFF to plug in and and use energy carefully. (Conservation First)
  • We grow and process the majority of our food here on site (or source locally) year round.  We eat local ecologically raised meat and wild meat.  (Local Food)
  • We choose to earn less money.   Earning less money means that we buy less stuff.  The whole Less Life STUFF…More Life STYLE saying is one we came up with over a decade ago. (We don’t maximize our earning potential – we have better things to do with our life)
  • Over this last decade, we have created sufficient diversified employment for ourselves that fits with our values.  (Perennial food systems plant nursery, education, tours, consulting, presentations, rain water harvesting, writing, municipal politics, and more.)  (No specialization… we specialize at being generalists…more fun)
  • We don’t fly (Local Living)
  • When my parents moved out we paid back their investment not through a bank or credit union, but through an arrangement with friends.  This large chunk of cash coming from friends did not create more debt in the system and therefor did not help to fuel the growth economy.  Our friends were able to then remove their funds that were invested in planet destroying activities and invest in us and our regenerative design initiatives.  (Local Finance)
  • We consider natural capital, social capital, human capital, financial capital, and manufactured capital in all our decision making.  We make sure to factor in all forms of currency.  Life is complex and beautiful.
  • We have homemade wooden wedding rings (no gold or blood diamonds) as a symbol to each other and to the earth.
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350 ppm atmospheric concentration of CO2 is long gone…We are well over 400ppm now and not going back.

BUT sadly, even given everything that we do here, we still consume more than the planet can support.  If everyone lived like us we would still need more than 2 or 3 earths.  We acknowledge that there is only so much individuals can do…the system needs to change.  In order to get to the next stage of living in a fully regenerative way, we need community…we all need to be in this together.  It’s delusional to try and go it alone.  Prepping is not going to cut it.

Our Negatives:

  • We still have a car (used smart car), and a farm truck (filthy and old).  (CO2 and mining).  In 2016 we drove less than in all our prior years at Eco-Sense.
  • We still buy a few new items like clothes, tools, and some garden items.  We have fleece (micro plastic clothing) and plastic rain gear.  Can’t buy used due to all the toxic fragrances people use.
  • Buy coffee (organic and fair trade).  (CO2, habitat losses)
  • We each have a laptop computer  (no green fully recyclable computers available)
  • We purchased a pond liner (after trying for 5 years to seal the pond with clay).
  • We buy pumps, tools, metal products, etc for the farm. (CO2 and mining)
  • We use some concrete (BIG CO2 footprint)
  • People drive here to buy plants (lots of CO2 and mining)
  • We buy some mined products like aluminum, copper, coltan, etc which are in our electronics, solar panels, wiring, solar panel frames, orchard ladders, etc.  (mining is toxic and destroys habitat)
  • We produce some plastic garbage. (Toxics, and CO2)
  • We buy some misc household stuff…but really try and look after it so it lasts a long time.
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Gord contemplating his carbon footprint after building raised concrete garden beds

And the third reason why the environmental movement has failed is that many “environmentalists”, oops, I mean “people” standing up (safely from their desks) to work on environmental and human rights issues are not actually doing much to reduce their own impact.  Many of the activist people out there are not walking their talk.  They are flying the “flag”… and flying (the single biggest impact item we can do as individuals), and consuming, and spending,  and wasting precious resources and carbon budgets all while preaching what we need to do.  By not taking reasonable steps to curb ones personal contribution as much as possible many have compromised their moral authority.

Chickens self harvesting their OWN food.
Gord and Dug (Nina behind Gord)
Chicks being raised in JA forest.
This is where milk comes from. My friend and Neighbours goats.

Imagine a parent teaching their children to do as I say, not as I do – modelling action is immensely more useful.  Action is the BIGGEST tool we have to effect cultural change.  Walk your talk as best you can and begin starving the beast.  By not standing up to the broken culture, to the consumption economy, many activists give power to the system as they are part of the system.

Now What?  First and foremost, we need to start acting like we really want to see the changes we are working so hard for.  

  1. Stop fuelling the system we desire to change by reducing our personal consumption.  Live simpler lives.  Walk our talk as best we can.  When we are unable to walk our talk, we acknowledge this gap between our values and our actions and carry on.  We don’t beat ourself up.  Talking about our consumption/over consumption will go along ways to help change the story.  Change the story : Change the system
  2. Work to change the system…pick something that you’re passionate about and go for it:  economic systems, political systems, community building, health and wellbeing,  equality, oil tankers, pipelines, dams, LNG, water, farming methods, old growth forests, invasive species, polar bears, carbon taxes, electric cars, transit, greener buildings, endangered species, butterflies, bees, small homes (tiny too), energy efficiency, local food, fragrance free personal care products, GMO’s, glyphosate and pesticides, oceans, the arctic, palm oil, rain forests, etc. 
  3. Create a better system:  The fun part – permaculture principles can be applied to everything from food, to shelter, to community, to governance.  
  4. Stop calling people that care “environmentalists”…call them people.  
  5. Give up on hope or attachment to outcome.  If you pay attention to the full science, complexity and magnitude of our global predicament it will seem hopeless.  Grieve it,  cry, get over it, and then get busy.  Find others to grieve and get busy with.

So what has inspired our latest rant?  Many things, but primarily the documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio called Before The Flood.  It’s excellent, However Leonardo is one of this earth’s single biggest consumers alive today contributing to climate change and mass extinction. It’s the ultimate in absurd to be an activist and not walk your own talk and this approach will only lead to more failure of the environmental movement.  All activists need to live like they believe in what they are fighting for.   (This is where Ann spews profanities, but Gord edits them out) We are literally toast if we don’t change our way of life – NOW.  It was a stunning moment in the documentary where Leonardo is discussing with Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, where he basically says that the American way of life is not negotiable.  Seriously watch this documentary and then read the analysis by Rob Hopkins.  Both are here on this link.   http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-11-02/leonardo-dicaprio-s-before-the-flood-a-review

So there it is…if we don’t change our way of life now, we are literally changing Life on earth to Hell on earth.  In order to change the system, we need to change ourselves and the external system we live within.  We need to change EVERYTHING.

And for those now depressed, we’re sorry.  Please know that there is still abundant joy out there by living simply.  Here’s what we do to help cope:

  1. Spend time with friends
  2. Spend time in nature (gardens, hikes, etc)
  3. Limit our time online or listening to the news.
  4. watch permaculture videos…seriously, they really help
  5. Cook and enjoy local whole foods
  6. Drink home brew/wine

Thanks for Reading,

Ann and Gord

 

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The Learning Curve

Posted on November 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

When you specialize in being a generalist, you set yourself up for a whole lot of learning.

How I describe Ann’s skills:  high level bookeeping; biologist; cheese maker; fermenter; dishwasher; goat teet squeezer; grower, harvester, and cooker of  food; councillor; nursery person; farm manager; Gord manager; assumption checker/elephant observer (also known as an elephant pointer outer or general s**t disturber); critical thinker; chainsaw owner; lifestyle consulting, and soon to be book author.

How do I describe myself… I don’t dare.   I’ll leave that up to Ann if she so wishes.

When asked what I do for a living I really don’t have a clue what to say.  When I do try and respond it always starts with… “I follow my own interests and do whatever I want”.  I often say that I clean the public washroom, collect the compost toilet materials, and distribute the s**t… and I am a councillor where I (like Ann) disturb it a little too.

One thing is certain, I feel uncomfortable stating my skills.  I would rather speak to my interests.  My interests are plants, rain water harvesting, grey water, provincial policy, electronics, sustainable building and designing and building integrated systems (heating/cooling), composting toilets, water filtration,  carpentry/cabinetry, public speaking, teaching, and beer and wine making, digging holes.

Inevitably interests lend to energizing my learning, an appetite not easily satiated.  The most recent two learning opportunities are the step towards earning my EOCP in Small Water Systems, and presenting on the topics of small scale agricultural pond pumping design and grey water re-use and other responsible water alternatives.

Small Water Systems Operation and Management – EOCP certification

SWS Operation and Management is a course that will enhance my abilities to effect change on the topic and issues surrounding water, a passion of mine.  Hopefully in the next several months after exams are over I will have earned the qualifications to install, operate and maintain water systems for populations under 1000 people.    The materials cover a wonderful broad range of skills from how to work a community through the process of creating an aquifer protection permit area, to pumps, wells, filtration and laboratory testing, and setting water rates.    A nice addition to my work surounding Rainwater harvesting, grey water and composting toilets.

Farm Water Management Seminar – free

Thanks to Tayler Krawczyk of Hatchet & Seed for inflicting the second learning opportunity.  A seminar on Small scale farm water management.  Tayler will be presenting two sessions covering his research work on keyline water  management  and the installation of irrigation ponds.   His ask of me… cover the topic on how to choose a pump for the small scale farm pond.  Small scale means in this case 60-70 gpm pumping, much different than the 27gpm rainwater systems.  I am happy to say the learning curve is looking much better than a pump curve.

The seminar is 4 sessions (noted below), is free and open to anyone.  All costs are covered by the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative and the CRD.

Registration Link

9:00am – 11:00am – Keyline Water Management

Tayler Krawczyk, Hatchet & Seed and Sara Duncan, p.Ag.
About “Keyline Water Management Project”
Introduction to ‘Keyline Geometry’
Using contour maps for farm water planning (CRD WebMap Demo)
Keyline plowing to reduce compaction & manage water
Monitoring results to date – Sara Duncan, p. Ag.
Alternative drainage techniques for bottom-lands
Q & A

11:15am – 12:30pm – Irrigation Pond Design

Tayler Krawczyk, Hatchet & Seed
Review of regulations: water licensing (Water Sustainable Act) & Dam Safety Board regulations; municipal soil movement
Sizing the pond (irrigation, evaporation %, seepage, environmental reserves)
Using topographic maps
Siting (usage & catchment analysis)
Spillways and other design features
What to do with excess fill material?
Construction & earthmoving
Q & A

1:30pm – 2:45pm – Pumping from Your Farm Pond

Gord Baird – Eco-Sense, Highlands Councillor, CRD Water Commission Board Member
Tools for assessing your needs and sizing your pump; Basic components of a pond pump system; Advantages and limitations of solar pumping
Case studies: pump systems for drip and micro-spray; Q & A

3:00pm – 4:30pm – Greywater Re-Use & Other Methods of Conservation for Small-Scale Agriculture

Gord Baird, Eco-Sense, CRD Water Commission Board Member
Regulation; Design considerations; In practice; Q & A

Nursery Update:

Sales are by appointment only through the winter.  Special orders for the spring can be arranged.  Specialty grafting can be pre booked.  We’ll keep some of our postings up on Used Victoria as there are usually good gifts for that season coming up

Take care till next week… when Ann will have her rant on what gone wrong with the Environmental movement and the activists.

Gord   (and Ann if she sneaks in and edits after the fact).

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