BACK TO THE LAND

From La Sonrisa’s winter home in Degnan Bay on Gabriola Island Thomas and Elizabeth have found their way “back to the land”, as each of us has done in former chapters of our lives. We seek to live simply and sustainably and to grow our own food. And we have found a place that feels like home.

It’s a ½ acre lot across the street from the beach on False Narrows, Gabriola Island

Lots of room for sunny, south facing garden beds.

We still have familiar marine neighbours: herons, sea lions, seals, eagles, gulls, ravens

Thomas gathers miner’s lettuce, our first harvest on the land,

For now, the little woods is storage space for building materials we come by. Later perhaps a kids' tree house?

Very political corner

We got to work on our new place before we moved there, even before the paperwork got completed.

The first 2 deep beds with movable cold-frame covers

Beside the compost frame is a haystack of dried grass mowed from the lot, to be added as needed to the compost

Here is the site of what has become our root cellar. Done in true permaculture style

where a problem becomes a possibility

Building a driveway from everything we dig up

Under that big rock is an original community well

The truck became a portable workshop and transport of plants to new homes

The garden expands

Thomas’ first building project for the homestead – made from the wood of a discarded futon base

Our first poultry. These California quail are just visiting. Soon we hope to have our own chickens.

OUR NEW HOME

Friend Mark Shaw delivers our fifth wheel trailer

We’ve had an interesting variety of conversations about whether a 5^th wheel qualifies as a home, nevertheless here we are in our new home.

Daughter Tamaya chats with a friend

First of all we’re growing our food.

Our one big rock has become the herb garden, fed by gifts from neighbours.

Midnight visitor didn't eat the herbs.

Day after day, plants have appeared on our doorstep: day after day, experts have arrived with helpful advice on projects.

Our first water system, collecting rainwater for the garden beds.

Filling the water tank with drinking water gifted by water-blessed neighbours.

Measuring water level in the well. We had many tries with various pumps

before we finally got water from the well.

1998 South Road, Gabriola Island, V0R 1X6 – our new land address. We needed an address (for the compost toilet to be delivered) before jumping the various official address hoops, so we did it ourselves. Happily the mapping authority has agreed.

Welcome addition, "The Airhead" - a new compost toilet originally designed for boats

Family arrived for a post pounding party,

Here is the finished garden fence made with donated pink salmon gill net.

We fed the workers omelets made in Thomas’ favourite find at the recycle depot.

We’re getting prepared for the fresh eggs from our chickens-to-be!

Just the spot for a bike rack

The helpful local installer from the telephone company gave us the requirements

for a land line hook up: a deep hole and a pole.

Our new phone number: 250 247-0122

The grand-dogs do their thing.

HOMESTEAD DEVELOPS

The simple life is not a sleepy life. Thomas is usually up at 5 am working out simple solutions for our basic needs. Sometimes ideas come during sleep, sometimes it’s the busy morning birds that inspire us. And then there’s Rufus the towhee that thinks he’s a rooster. Either he loves us or he loves the reflection of himself in the trailer windows. We’ve come to expect him banging into the window, welcoming the new day.

Rufus' branch, view from Thomas' window

We’ve decided to operate off the grid. Our three solar panels, with boosts from the generator, are providing the power we need.

The solar cart is a golf caddy from the recycle depot, its base the former bulletin board from the Degnan Bay dock.

Here’s the power centre of the homested.

We finally got the right pump set-up for the well, and a successful way of getting water from 40 feet down up to barrels that gravity-feed the garden watering hose.

One of our interesting challenges has been what to do with greywater.

Measuring greywater drain

Greywater sluice

Our goal is to reuse greywater, after filtering, on plants that are compatible. We are learning from friends and local experts as we go. For instance, what products do we use for cleaning, cooking, etc, that we want to deal with on the other end of the drain?

We're now looking for products which are biocompatible - which biodegrade into materials that are beneficial for a particular ecosystem - not just biodegradable. We've found a couple of useful books: Create an Oasis with Greywater and Builder's Greywater Guide, both by Art Ludwig.

Here's the website to find out more: http://oasisdesign.net/

The temporary refrigerator - buckets under the trailer

Our trailer came complete with everything needed, but for some reason the fridge wasn’t working. For growing food, a working fridge and freezer – even a small one – is pretty important. For about a month we tried to figure out the problem. We’re not about to haul our home to the RV centre off island. Thomas got helpful advice from lots of folks, and called a neighbour who's a small engine repair person. It took quite a few tries, but what a satisfying day when it began to work!

Our work continues. All the beds have been double dug, slow work but effective. Low tech.

The garden fence does its job

We inherited the largest ant hill we've ever seen

The ant hill is a favourite spot for kids. We thought ants were helpful, hardworking neighbours, they seemed to be running up and down the broad bean plants, keeping the aphids away. Now we discover they farm the aphids, expanding their numbers for their own uses! And the ants aren’t friendly to the ladybird beetles.

Ants have colonized this wild cherry shoot, leaves are curled and dying with hordes of aphids.

The garden keeps growing, and we feel ourselves to be part of this vital, growing environment.

Cherry tree - gift from a friend

Sunny garden view from Elizabeth's window