Limits to Goats

Well here we are at the end of April 2024 and all hell is about to break loose both here on the homestead and with record breaking heat, droughts, and fires in BC and around the world.

But first…a quick note from our sponsor…Mother Earth…

Please plant more trees.  hehe.  The Eco-Sense Nursery is open for one day (no appointment required).

• WHERE: 3295 Compton Road
• When: April 28th from 10am – 2pm
• What: Plant list
• Why:  We don’t want to try and keep all these plants in pots alive in a very hot/dry summer AND we want you to grow food AND Mother Nature wants you to sequester carbon.

Gemma

On the homestead, hell breaking loose is not really the right phrase…unless you’re talking about baby goats breaking loose from pregnant momma’s. Or breaking loose when I forget to latch the barn door.  Our biggest momma goat is Gemma and this is her second “freshening”, meaning she is very likely to have 3 or more “kids”… little hellions.  Gemma is due in 3 weeks on May 18th.  This is the same day as Bob’s 100th birthday party… Highlands legendary centarian.

Four days earlier on May 14th, “Cloud” our momma hen, is due to hatch eggs.  This is the same hen who tried to kill “Chickie Dudes”…3 times last year when she wouldn’t accept her last born…that I helped out of his shell after cloud left the nest with the other chicks. After a rough start in life, Chickie Dudes is now the rooster and “dad” to all the eggs under Cloud.  Now the white hen (Snow drop), has been slipping into Clouds nest laying more eggs…meaning there very likely will be late hatchers.  May 14th is is also our 19th wedding anniversary.  Quite amazing considering we only new each other 3 months before getting engaged and then married a few months later.  We had our first anniversary living in a trailer, with my step kids, my parents in their own trailer, a boarder collie puppy Boo, our first chickens, pooping in a bucket (before it was legal), and building a mud house.  What could go wrong?  Everything!  But everything also went right.  We are still madly in love, kids are grown and doing well, we’re on our third dog (Pumpkin who followed Nina), my Dad died, mom is still going strong, and soon we’ll have lots of goats.

2nd anniversary…living in the trailer while building our MUD home.

Limits to Goats. Did I mention that our 1 year old Lyka is also pregnant?  Due on July 4th and will probably have 1 or 2 goat kids (hopefully not 3).  That’s a lot of goats.  Anyone want some goats and natures perfect milk?  Seriously, we’ll be looking for homes for all of the new cuddle kids.  We have limits.

Limits to Growth.  This is probably when everyone stops reading, but did you know that Tofino (a tourist town on the west coast) struggles to  have enough water.  It’s a rain forest.  It relies on regular rain.  It’s not raining.  Staff made a recommendation to council,

“That staff develop a scope for a “limits to growth” policy for Councils consideration to address the raw water supply deficit identified in the 2024 Tofino Water Master Plan”.  

This is ground breaking policy.  Gord brought this to my attention when he read the Tofino Water Master Plan for the work he is doing in Tofino.  Here’s a link to my council report from April 22nd…coincidentally also Earth Day… coincidentally also Gord’s birthday.

So, as we brace for what is almost certainly a Hell on Earth kind of summer on our Mother Earth, we are blessed with abundance on this land we call home.  Gord and I are the happiest and busiest we’ve ever been.  Our life is full of friends, family, community, meaningful work, and abundant healthy food.

We have many projects coming up this year including building a small home for Bethany.  We are just working through the municipal process like anyone else and will share more as plans evolve. We’ve had to adjust the proposed building site a bit due to set backs and will have to take our request to council to address the covenant.  The same covenant that we placed on the land in 2006 to protect it.  Oh…the irony…Stay tuned. Oh… and don’t forget the plant sale on Sunday April 28th from 10am-2pm.  Sorry, no tours of the homestead as after 19 years of claims free no problem home insurance, we can no longer purchase insurance because we have a living roof on our house, a small plant nursery, and have goats.  Irony strikes again.

Laughing at the insanity of this world,

Ann and Gord

The power of story

First the advertisement…then the blog post

Spring nursery season is open and ready for business.  Contact ann@Eco-Sense.ca to set up a private appointment.  Plant list is here:

It’s a perfect time to plant fruit trees, hazelnuts, and all kinds of berries…and potatoes (more about potatoes below). If you want to start planting edible beautiful gardens and don’t know where to start…why not contact Bethany at Garden Alchemist to help you plan.  Here’s her website:  https://www.gardenalchemist.ca

Story time

Ann’s Thumb

Gord relaxing with a weighted Husky blanket

It’s cold. Ann loves her wool

Pumpkin checking out Dug’s duck house

Our first crop of walnuts

Endless potatoes

Gord and I are not very active on social media these days…we’ve been busy with so many good things happening…and even a new project we’ll mention later in this post. But once in a while we still post something.  Usually something funny, a farm animal (goats, Husky dog, cats, a fuzzy husband), fruit or veggies, or a 100% farm meal.  The algorithms reward us with a dopamine hit and some fun comments. When we post something serious (like climate or deep podcasts on system complexity) the algorithms are not kind and we observe very few engagements.  Here’s some examples.

Gord’s recent FB post with NO photo:

“Tonight’s discussion at dinner:  Ann says in a contemplative manner “Gord, I think we will become eccentric as we get older”. Gord looks over at Ann with a quizzical look over top of his glasses and says “No shit Sherlock. We live in a mud house, shit in a bucket and have more than two goats”.  Ann responds…oh…and I guess it doesn’t help that two of the goats are pregnant.  Lots of comments followed that agreed that our eccentricity is a present tense. Result: 120 likes

Ann’s recent FB post with photo of salad greens and homemade cider:

I really had to forage for our salad tonight. Not much out there right now… especially after yesterday’s snow. Finding the apple blackberry cider was much easier. Result: 55 likes

Then there was the video of Gord chopping wood and flirting with Ann. (No chest hairs were harmed in this video). Result: 60 likes

 

We also posted this upcoming course by Bethany, our friend and farm helper: Sadly, the algorithms were not kind with only 6 likes

“Permaculture for Ornamental Gardeners” online course on Saturday March 2.  https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/permaculture-for-ornamental-gardeners-tickets-793813817497?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwAR3R2OuNUd2ifd4m8RCqUE4Z2gPiYiZmD69DW7PVfuJWRyclSOZZyxK_abY

It’s no surprise that people love fun stories more than graphs of rising CO2 but the algorithms sure don’t help.

So, what do all these items have in common?  Happiness and potatoes!  Here’s the story.

Last year, Bethany started volunteering here every week and it didn’t take long for us all to become besties.  We are learning as much from Bethany as she is from us. There’s no end to her desire and capacity to learn, her innumerable skills, and her deep love for nature.  She is well suited to live here and amplify the joy and care of this permaculture homestead.

Bethany helps ID Plants

Bethany played with AI to create image

Learning to make cheese

Permaculture delicacies

Expert Kombucha maker (Tea plant in flower)

Helps process roosters to cook in cob oven

helps take goats for a walk

Helps eat real food

learning to milk goats

 

Potatoes: So let’s bring this all together.  We face accelerating climate disruption where tipping points are occurring at all levels.  We are living through what Nate Hagens calls the great simplification…we don’t know exactly how this will play out and in what time frames but all one has to do is listen to the news to know everything is unraveling.  (Ann copes with bad news by planting potatoes – we have a LOT of potatoes).  We are lucky, privileged, and hard working (and well fed with potatoes)…but this doesn’t explain our enthusiasm for life (and potatoes) and our sense of well being. Why are we so damned happy?

We are having so much fun building resilience, laughing at ourselves and this crazy world, learning more skills, mulching, composting, sweating, looking after plants, growing food, milking goats, eating cheese and yogurt, creating beauty, and enjoying homemade berry and apple ciders.  And since Bethany loves milk (and potatoes) as much as Gord we are expanding our small herd to become crazy goat people.

The BIG NEWS.  We have begun planning for Bethany to live here on this land with us are are building her a new small home by the pond…and yes, there will be MUD involved…and more potatoes…and more goats…and more fun…and more love.

Stay tuned,

Ann and Gord

Woohoo…August Rains

With a big sigh of relief we welcome the late August rain…and some thunder too. Not much rain, but it’s damp, the air is less smoky, and it’s finally under 30 deg C on our hilltop homestead in the Highlands. Of course Gord, as the Chair of CRD Water, gets a little anxious when lightening strikes over our regions water shed in the Sooke Hills when the forests are the driest they have ever been.

Nature’s in charge. With the change in weather from desert dry and smokin’ hot to cool and moist we welcome the fall planting season…and the opening of the Eco-Sense Nursery.  This year we are prepared.

Help in the Nursery. For the first time, we have accepted regular volunteer help on the farm and homestead. Bethany has been a gift from the permaculture god of abundance.  She’s coming out to help once a week in the nursery or anywhere on the land we need help.  In exchange for sharing in the lands abundance and some teaching, we have been gifted Bethany’s help and enthusiasm to build upon her many skills and interests…including her patience with our now 1 year old Pumpkin Pie.

Pumpkin Pie on her 1 year Birthday – Bethany’s photo

Bethany has weeded nursery pots, removed grafting tape, done some summer bud grafting, helped install a small grey water system, blackberry removal, milked a goat, and helped with garden harvests.  We are looking forward to her help through the fall season where she will be pruning some of our fruit trees, potting up lots of nursery plants, mulching for winter, and much more.

NURSERY OPEN Saturday September 2nd from 9am to 1pm. Here’s the poster Bethany made for Saturdays big fall sale in the nursery.   We will all be there to help you pick the perfect plants.  We are ALWAYS available for private plant appointments…just email ann@eco-sense.ca to set up a time.

APPLES-PEARS-PLUMS: We are extremely well stocked with a wide variety of healthy large Apples, Pears, and plums all grafted right here by Gord.  Prices range from $25-$45 (including GST) depending on how large the trees are – Gord in his childish way suggests they are well hung.  (Ann rolls eyes)

ON SALE – HAZELNUTS:  We are overflowing with hazelnut trees and have priced to sell. These should be sold in groups of 3 or more for maximum pollination… normally this would be $110 for 3 trees… but we are reducing to $80 for 3 trees, $100 for 4 trees, and $120 for 5 trees.  Please save us from having to pot up all the hazelnuts into larger parts…Bethany thanks you in advance. 

INVENTORY LIST is online and quite accurate (Bethany did inventory too). Here’s the full list.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j-GtX_ufCTWu8muXbCjqAYfc-cIP7WKl/view 

In Other News…

• Age and transitions seem to go hand in hand.  As we navigate through life now in our mid 50’s, we have developed some freedom from judgement.  This has come from a curiosity of different perspectives, and exploration with a deeper dive into the complexity of the human predicament. Not that we always agree with the different perspectives, but we are able to find connection in the commonalities, and enable engagement without becoming all judgy.  Being judgy only degrades our own well-being.  
• Our favourite podcast/video interview series is by far Nate Hagen’s “The Great Simplification”.  The learning and interesting guests have been very rewarding for both of us…even on topics we wouldn’t normally pursue.  https://www.thegreatsimplification.com. We never…ever…run out of things to talk about.  Drives Gord crazy sometimes…
• We laugh a great deal these days.  Even as the daily news can be crippling to one’s spirit, we are living a life of abundant joy and finding such great pleasure in our daily experiences…laughing at pretty much everything.  Here’s one such video where Gord and I are spitting plum pits and collapsing in laughter…and before you ask, no we were not smoking anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GkZcRc0yo 
• We’ve been going to the monthly Highlands’ farm market at the Caleb Pike Heritage site.  Next one is Sunday Sept 11th from noon to 4 pm…at the same time as the Highlands annual Fling.
• Water has become the focal point of Gord’s work, to the point where approval of taking on any new jobs has to be passed by Gord’s red-headed visionary goddess.   We may further select work and clients for those that have maximum impact, change policy, or employ conservation measures such as only working for clients that include conservation strategies in their water plans. (compost toilets anyone?). We heard about a great book out there written by this crazy aging couple that do everything together and live in a MUD house.

At the market

GRAPPLING WITH NEW 

As noted above we are on a continual learning journey.  The more we learn, the more we recognize how little we know.  We started with the idea that we could learn skills and demonstrate mitigation and adaptation for the broader region and the wider world.  Our focus these days is still very similar, yet we are focussed less on mitigation and more of resilience.  Ironically, being more resilient is actually a lower carbon lifestyle.  We dislike the culture that has evolved from fossil energy abundance – yet understand the continued role it plays in all the unseen products, from pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other durable goods – our house and farm would not function without the simple plastic bucket, the wheels for our e-bikes, the technology we type on and communicate with or the pumps that pump our water.  Everyday we have gratitude for something…today…for Ann it’s window screens to keep the mosquitoes out.  For Gord, it’s the first taste from our Rescue Pear tree’s first fruiting, with the thick yogurt Ann’s made from our most precious Gemma and Dabha. 

What are you grateful for today?

Going for evening walks was never so much fun

Our western economies and cultures are beholden to energy, debt, technology and extraction from all the 5 capitals to carry on with business as usual. We have become a society that is too reliant on (or expectant of)  things that 50 or 100 years ago were non existent or a luxury.  As a result, our culture is far from resilient as we face ever increasing stresses and impacts that test our infrastructure and our well-being, our culture is increasingly vulnerable.   Here on our homestead, we’ve extracted ourselves from some of this, though often feel buffered from supply chain issues, the impacts of inflation on food, or the fear of loss from a catastrophic event like fire or earthquake.  The resilience that we’ve built into our systems over the past 2 decades is as much mental as it is physical…we know that we can find joy no matter what.  If our homestead were to experience a massive fire…we would figure it out, make due, and find joy.

A quick and colourful dinner from the garden. Scrambled eggs, beans with garlic, thick yogurt, tomato, broccoli and cauliflower.

As we grapple with the new, we are more intrigued than ever in what tools we have to deal with it – inner tools, social tools or physical tools.  Knowledge and broadening our understanding of those who are more informed on different topics or hold different views is one of our newest tools.

So often in our culture we hear how views/values /ideas separate us, yet what we have recognized is that this is how we bring people together.  This is the philosophy that we employ repeatedly around food, politics and water.  It’s fun…try it!

Gord Installed a sonic well monitor.  Gives us knowledge of how our well is handling a drought and how fast it recharges under different usage conditions.  Tree frog approved!

 

 

 

A sputtering start to Spring

Nursery:

The Pandemic changed how we run the nursery…in a few ways.

• Instead of having open hours on the weekends, we transitioned to nursery visits by appointment only…seven days per week. We love it. Not only is this more flexible for us and plant customers, it provides for more quality time one on one talking about plants…and every other topic. Far more rewarding. Most customers now hear about us by word of mouth.
• Because of this, we now have more people browsing our online inventory list prior to making an appointment to visit. No more disappointed clients when we are sold out of an item as we update the inventory almost weekly. email ann@eco-sense.ca for plant appointments or questions.
• The other way our nursery has changed is that we no longer bring in fruit trees and berry bushes from the wholesalers. The pandemic caused all kinds of ripple effects leading to much difficulty in sourcing plants and meeting minimum wholesale orders when wholesalers have limited stock. The only trees we have brought in were ordered 2 years ago…Local blight resistant hazelnuts. These trees are $35-40 each (including GST) and must be purchased in groups of 3 or 4 to achieve good pollination.
• This has meant that we are propagating and grafting more of our own inventory. However, cold springs and heat domes also add on some challenges. We love the nursery and the people so we have simplified our business by reducing some varieties and sizes. The good news is we have kept our prices relatively low due to our lower overhead.

Some Highlights:

• Hazelnuts
• Blueberries are in stock: Low bush and Highbush varieties
• Lots of pears
• Lots of apples
• Josta berries
• Black currants
• Aronia
• Some perennial veggies
• Sichuan peppers
• Small figs
• grapes
• and more…check out the list: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j-GtX_ufCTWu8muXbCjqAYfc-cIP7WKl/view?pli=1

Goats, cats, and dog update

We love the critters that live here with us. The goat kids have been growing rapidly and we are just starting to wean the kids. This morning was our biggest single milking ever…2.5 litres. It’s cheese season.
Pumpkin is still growing a bit and is starting to mellow. She looks like a big dog, but is still mostly fur…and thankfully, she’s lost her puppy teeth. Pumpkin will eat anything and has grown up with cats and goats. She loves to graze on veggies and eat the cats rodent kills. Her favourites are apple and carrot. When Pumpkin is grumpy with you or excited she will start with her woowoo’ing…she’s very talkative.
We haven’t decided yet what to do with the two young does…Gord wants to keep them…but if we found them a good home we might consider. They are both such wonderful beings.

gardens

We have been starting peas in the greenhouse in toilet paper tubes. This works great to start the seedlings, to easily transplant, and to protect from being eaten. So far so good.

Another abundant shoot season is here with various overwintering hybrid brassicas thriving and sending up tasty tender shoots. We will eat ourselves silly with fresh greens for the next month. One of my other spring favourites are miners lettuce…a native plant that comes up everywhere in my garden and this year I even have a living wall of it on the outside of my compost bins. Despite the hard winter our beets and other root veggies have done well. Just enjoying an amazing borscht with all ingredients local…even the dollop of thick yogurt on top.

That’s all for now…got to go…lots to do…including an afternoon nap…maybe.

Ann

Classes, kids & Pumpkin pie

We have been pre-occupied, but isn’t that our usual intro. We jumped into winter with a new puppy addition to the family, the arrival of goat kids, spring farm duties and then all the other stuff.

Rainwater Harvesting Class

Gord will be teaching an 8 part online series on rainwater harvesting starting April 20, running every Thursday from 6pm-7:30pm PST. The link is https://www.regenerativeliving.online/course/rwhlive2023 . Gord will be teaching rainwater from his perspective as a designer/installer from gutter to tap (or irrigation), including tips and tricks, regulations, filtration, disinfection, pumps and even sharing his design platform and a simplified water balance/budgeting tool.

Example of one of Gord’s designs

Pumpkin Pie (otherwise known as F² – Fluffy Fker)

Pumpkin the puppy, officially a mutt, is also known in her native tongue as WuuWuuWoo, has grown into a husky dog… we had not expected this. We had not expected the vocalizations or the shedding… which tells you we had not considered a husky. She is a sweet being when not chewing on us, prefers staying near home base, and does not view our youngest or oldest family members as food. She is a lap dog both in terms of where she prefers to sit, and what she prefers to do to your face while sitting. Gord hasn’t had to wash his face in weeks.

Ann and Gord finally had kids together

We never dreamt of being able to have a kid let alone two. Especially since that snipping event 17 years ago. But as sometimes happens when not paying attention, BOOM, your doe gets pregnant and drops some kids at your feet. Dabha is a wonderful mom, giving birth to Lena Cream Baird and Lyka Baird, two does. Lena is latin for bright/light; Lyka is Arabic for “Queen of Rocks”. OMG they are so frickin cute and cuddly. We now know why people end up with so many goats – even Gord is re-considering the imposed 2-goat limit.

Solar kicking butt

Our new solar panels are installed, a doubling from 2.4 kW to 5.8 kW array. It is really looking like we will be easily net zero for all our needs (heating included) with this small array. Our updated charge controllers have been on back order for 6 months so we have had to turn panels off to not overload our existing controllers – even on a cloudy day we are bringing in 60 amps at 26 VDC on each old controller. We love heating with electricity.

Feeding time for Stormy, Sparky, and Pumpkin

Nursery

Suddenly it’s Spring. Our nursery has been slow and steady all winter and now it’s the crazy spring season. Our inventory list is online with a good selection of Hazelnuts, Pears, Apples, Grapes, Currants, and lots more. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j-GtX_ufCTWu8muXbCjqAYfc-cIP7WKl/view?pli=1. All prices already include GST. Grafted trees range from $25-$45 depending on how large.

All sales continue to be by private appointment. Please email ann@eco-sense.ca to ask questions or set up a time.

Greenhouse propagation…plants…not kids