the haircut that never happened...and having a fantastic "girl's day out" with my big sis C!!!

finally a beautiful day for planting! i did a bunch of herbs in the greenhouse and planted 100 yellow onions - tomorrow i will plant 100 reds.

kids - i had a fantastic day yesterday with my big Sis C - we had a hoot but not without any mishaps - apparently i'm "bad luck schleprock"!!!!! my big Sis C took me into the city to get my haircut - it hasn't been cut since we moved here if you can believe that! so, off we went on our adventure! we made a couple of stops for a variety of things and then went to my haircut appointment. i stopped in the bathroom and a teddy bear was on the handtowel dispenser. i thought "oh great. now i have to bring this to lost and found". but it turned out that if you found it, you were to return it to the photography section and get a coupon or something. i promptly gave it to big Sis C so that she could give it to her other sister E...to use for baby pics of E's grandchildren. turns out it was a total bust - something like 5% off of a $500 dollar bundle. BURN number one!

BURN #2 came when we went to the salon and the hairdresser who was supposed to cut my hair (big Sis C's niece) wasn't in, but the only hairdresser in the salon, who was cutting a lady's hair in the most horrific and terrifying manner possible, said that the manager would be back in 5 and could cut my hair. i sent big Sis C off shopping while i waited.

BURN #3 came when while i was waiting, 3 little old ladies came in, one after another, almost in tandem. i wondered did they have appointments??? then the manager showed up, explained that she had me booked for the following tuesday and would i mind to wait while she did the 3 old ladies. she said she would be done with them in about half an hour! i explained to her how long my hair really was (it was up in a bun) and that i would need consultation time. her eyes bugged right out of her head. when she reacted like that i just decided that i was not to get my hair done that day because there was no way i was letting her touch my hair!

then me and big Sis C did some more various and sundry and then decided we were going to Swiss Chalet for a treat for her. she knows i don't like to eat at restaurants or eat any food that is processed but i can handle it once or thrice a year.

BURN #4 came when we were seated in Swiss Chalet and i drooled over the hot roast beef sandwich! my sis had the chicken sandwich which she just loved. anyway, when our food arrived, mine came on a huge platter with fries and veg. and a big giant side order of gravy - i looooove gravy! my sis and i hadn't started our meals yet when the waitress ran over and explained they had made a mistake - they had given me a hot chicken sandwich instead - with beef gravy on it!!!! the waitress asked if i wanted to send it back but i just said "no. it's fine. no worries." it was loaded with chicken - i'll give you that but i really did want the roast beef! big Sis C gave me no end of trouble for not sending it back!!! the iced tea i had, though, was to die for!!!

we laughed, ate our food, chatted and just had some girl day fun! here's a pic (with my sis's permission) of us having a hoot together:



she is such a generous, kind and caring friend - i love her to death!

and another pic of us (please don't pay too much attention to my deviated septum):



there was other mayhem that happened that i can't mention - just know that it had us in fits and starts laughing to kill ourselves!

but the day wasn't a complete failure though! SCORE #1 - a pink mermaid tail blanket that i got when we were doing some shopping:

it's a real beauty and i can wear it on cooler nights in the summer when we sit outside in our rocking chairs.

SCORE #2 was a new fruit bowl for jambaloney to put beside his comfy, tv-reading chair. we have a bigger fruit bowl in the kitchen but never think to reach for some fruit at night when we're snacky. but if the fruit is in line of sight, we'll snack on them all night.

all in all it was a great day out with my big Sis C! i am making another appointment in our nearest town - i've been in to that shop run by a very fastidious lady whose shop is immaculate. so now me and big Sis C will have another "girl's day out" and i am sure that much mayhem will ensue!

thank you gorgeous may 18th!

who knew that may 18th was such a historical day?!?!?!? you can read about it here.

but may 18th is historical at Framboise Manor as that is when we see our first hummingbirds.



my friend R (who has since passed) told me years ago that the hummingbirds never show up until may 20th. but jambaloney has been tracking them for 3 years - and ours show up on may 18th. but our friend R did live about half a kilometre away so maybe the hummingbirds stopped here first - bahahah!

hey kids - guess how many potatoes got planted? 200 potatoes are in the ground. oh joy!

and we also got 150 peas planted!

we are using a new bio-mulch from vessey's this year and if it works we'll let you know. 

you know who is working on his contract while we "take a break" from planting. he's always working kids and the canoe isn't even down at the river yet.

looks like i am going to strap it onto my back and get it down there. then strap him on my back and make him go fishing.

but if that's what it takes - i'll do it!

hoping you are all enjoying may 18th too!

a windy, windy day...but stuff got done!

it's been a really windy day! but blue and sunny so we just grin and bear it!



my scoby - flower325b came through again! the first time i used her with green tea. this time i used red rose tea. look at how beautiful she is!

look at the beautiful kombucha she produced for us.

it amazes me that a living organism can provide us with such delicious healthy stuff for our bodies!

we moved the overwintered pepper plants to the greenhouse and found these little babies had already grown!

and there is nothing like getting out your seed potatoes and suntanning them.

how gorgeous are those? we got 60 irish cobblers, 50 yukon gold, 50 red chieftains and 40 russets ready to go in the ground. they just like to suntan a bit before hand.

jambaloney cleared the area for greenhouse number 2 and got the pea bed ready. pics of both of those coming tomorrow.

right now - we are a little tired - been up since early o'clock and worked our butts off. jambaloney is working on his contract - has been throughout breaks in the day - but i am putting my foot down in a bit and bringing us to bed for a nap. we need it.

sending love out to all of you.

finally - a sunny day!

we've had a lot of rainy, grey days so far this spring. so today finally felt like spring!

we canned up 16 jars of straight vegetable broth, another jar is in the fridge and a litre and a half went into the freezer.

i think we are good for stock for the rest of the year - we also have 14 pints of straight beef bone stock, we have 12 pints of chicken stock and 8 of mixed poultry. it is so rewarding to make your own stock. check out the colour of this veg stock.

pure 100% veg stock made with ...you guessed it! vegetables! we buy mostly organic vegetables and then save ends and other parts and put them in the freezer. and of course we save bits and pieces of everything that we grow. this stock was made with pretty much every veg known to man - except for aubergines (eggplant) - we really don't like aubergines. but we love veg. and veg stirfries...sometimes with rice...sometimes without!

i always get my sauce ready ahead of time - soya, fish sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, horseradish, fresh-squeezed garlic and fresh-squeezed ginger. i prepare all of the veg and then line them up in a big container in the order that they go in to the pan. at the last minute i add the sauce and voila!

those gorgeous looking chives are from the lawn. we have chives growing everywhere!

you know what else we love? we also love meat pie!



this one is our infamous patee brisee - to die for! liver and kidney with a ton of veg and a gravy made from our home-canned beef broth. and washed with an egg yolk. here it is out of the oven.



we can never wait long enough for it to sit so that it won't crumble on the plate like this.



crumbly or not - it is deelish! and reheated a day or two later - deevine!

 i tried to capture the sun bouncing off of the water at Strachan's Brook.

it has been a great day and tomorrow promises to be another great day. we are looking forward to jambaloney finishing his contract work today and then climbing in our comfy chairs and watching something on netflix. we are planning to be in bed by about 9 - i know you all think we are party animals but we need long bouts of just being alone on the hill doing our boring stuff that we call living between get-togethers.

no worries kids - they'll be a party coming up soon and we'll be out reveling! and fill you all in. sending love.

one of the best "survivalists" out there!

my friend Wendy from Little House in the Big Woods has always been an inspiration to me and jambaloney...example: the department of natural  resources in ontario has You (being Wendy) on speed dial for whenever they come across a road-kill bear. Wendy can field strip a bear and get enough meat for the family and her animals! and she can do it on the side of the road!!!!

any of you who have "the smarts" already have her in your blogroll. she hasn't been blogging for over a year now but she is back with a vengeance! and does she have info to share!!! and i thank Mrs. S. for letting me know that Wendy was back!

her homestead burned to the ground in March 2017. she started up her blog again on april 30. her post ssince then have been nothing short of heart-breaking, inspiring and if you want the details on what to do if you lose it all to fire - no one has written better, detailed info than her.

her first post is about losing the homestead to the fire. she lost one of her dogs and 2 kittens - thank The Lord that the family is safe. you can read that post here.

this post is pretty devastating showing all of the destruction but she and her family just shoulder on!

this post about solar power and all that they learned while trying to set it up AND live in trailers is a must read.

this post is about dealing with insurance and after reading it jambaloney and i got out our house insurance to figure out exactly what all of the words really mean. and we are now talking to our insurance company and fixing our policy. please if you only read one of her posts - read this one!

and in this post she reviews getting a new washer and using amazon prime. we have amazon prime too and we love it!

every prepper/survivalist/homesteader/ as well as every person should read her posts on what they have been going through since this terrible disaster happened! Wendy is very articulate and is exceptionally good at describing all of the details. we learned so much from her last few posts and we are glad that she is back to posting as we learned so much from her over the years.

i think we are going to learn a lot more as she and her family dust themselves off and get back on their feet. we send our love and prayers to them and ask that you all do the same.

go over and leave her an uplifting comment. and learn.

sending much love to you Wendy and family.

(i have Wendy's permission to do this post and link to her blog)

super friends

back in the early 90's i had 2 girlfriends and we called each other "super friends". i had never had super friends before. it got a little crazy.

one night we met an ottawa roughrider at a stoplight. he was the running back and none of us knew what that meant. he brought us to several football games for free and we tried to love the game. except none of us loved it - we all 3 found football boring.

but we loved that the three of us we "super friends". we felt so powerful!

so now i got a bunch of internet friends who feel like "super friends" some of whom are female, male, some of whom are christians and some of whom are - take a big breath here - survivalists and or preppers. i certainly don't want to say that me and JUGM AND MY SWEET SANDY are people that make me proud to say that i have super friends again. and then there's the kind like ed who makes beautiful furniture and Rain who makes beautiful paintings. dear me...has the idea gone to a whole new level - bahahahah!

i don't know. ask one of my super friends Harry or TB. they are the only ones who can answer that question properly.

i just want you all to know that i got "super friends". and i hate bragging. teehee.

it's "meep-meep-meep" time of year and i love it!

although, as a trained and an UN-certified linguist (korean) i can't help myself but go out there in the evenings and try to get those frogs to learn another word. i've been trying for 7 years. they still just say "meep-meep-meep". i'm not a very good teacher!

here's a pic of all 4 cats. click to enlarge.

in order of appearance that's the Rat on the hutchy thing, Mankley Spontoonch on the bottom stair, Moby Shamby at the top of the stairs and Noodie-Noo on the ottoman. jessh louise it is not easy having 4 male stray cats...3 of whom came from the woods!

i outdid myself on this bone broth kids!

i really don't recommend it for the frail or children. this stuff can be used in place of concrete to hold up 50ft poles! that's a broth that i boiled a ton of bones in for 10 full days, added every herb known to man and a bucket load of apple cider vinegar, with the Mother, of course!!!

then felt i had to outdo myself with a veg broth since we were low.

jambaloney almost choked when he took a tiny sip. there is a ton of parsley, kale, dill, cabbage, swiss chard, brussel sprouts and every other thing that was in the freezer that even looked remotely green.

and this kids is how i do my cooking. it's not bad enough that i have a small kitchen and a barbie fridge and stove. no, i have to work around cats who sleep on all of the extra space that i have in my kitchen!

my man was in to work today. he came home fried. he has worked every day since september. he thinks that if he works on his contract for 4 hours and then goes out in the yard and prepares the garden for 3 hours - he thinks that is a day not working because he hasn't actually gone into work. then he works another 4 hours on his contract. then when he goes in to the plant he runs around for 8 straight hours. then comes home and works another 2 or 3 hours. he works every.single.day.

kids - the buck stops here. when i left my last job, i didn't have a single ounce of energy left. Framboise Manor has helped me bucketloads in that department. i know what over-worked looks and feels like.

he went to bed at 4pm. he woke up at 7pm, asked me what time it was and said he would get up in 5 mins. it's 10pm. he's still in bed. and he will stay there until he wakes again on his own. he is soooo freakin tired. i will stay up until he wakes so that i can feed him when he does wake.

there is NO work for him tomorrow. NONE.ZERO. i will not allow it. he needs rest. he needs so much rest. i need to take care of him.

and i will! i will fight off ninja turtles if that is what i need to do to take care of him! or maybe i will make him a breakfast of poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and lobster. oh ya - that's what i'll do. ninja turtles be damned!

hoping you all are having a good start to your week! and sending love.

the reason why we love Framboise Manor so much!

yesterday i did a post that showed you the interior of Framboise Manor. our little house is a little crappy but we have done everything we can to make do until we have saved enough to build an addition. a sunroom - to be built off of the kitchen. i can't wait.

but do you know why we really love Framboise Manor so much? i will tell you. this is out front and we see it every day.

this is out back. same thing - we see it every single day.

beautiful clouds always.

rocking chairs to sit in and stare at the sky and Strachan's Brook. every day.

another beautiful sky day.

more beautiful clouds.

then there is the river.



sometimes the river backs up.


that's a nekkid jambaloney going to check on our canoe - bahahahahah!

whenever i am making food, i make it on the table. that's Edgar Houdini's (aka the Rat) towel. he likes to sleep on it. this is my view when i am making food.

this is the view from the living room/dining room. that's noodie-noo's little blanket.

here's out back. if i stand on the back deck on my tippy-toes i can see the river.

here's the back deck with our patio set, swing and hottub. i love this area!

and there is the monster greenhouse! jambaloney has a little thing for overkill on all of his projects!

tractor-dura, van-dura and the shed made from junk.

not quite as junky as the shed made from the top of ftruckdura v 1.0!

oooh! caribou-dura!

we've never owned a new vehicle before and this baby is a dream! notice how far back the driveway goes. and here's looking at the other end of the driveway.

can you believe my man spent 7yrs shovelling all of that mostly by hand with a little help from atv-dura????

here's my favourite tree - i call him bonsai.

who ami kidding? every tree on our land is my favourite tree!

here's my beautiful pond...aka really overgrown sink-hole.

but every year the spring peepers lay their eggs in our pond and we get the egg sacks out and take them to the river. we love hearing "meep-meep-meep" every night!

and ted's beautiful bench and the old tree roots that jambaloney turned into legs. our tires, our greenhouse, our laundry blowing in the wind. these are the reasons that we love Framboise Manor so much.

oh ya. i forgot to mention our beautiful beach, 5 mins away, and nobody ever goes there!



our little house is a little crappy but we have done the best we can with it and we are happy! our land brings us such joy! sometimes we can go a week without hearing a vehicle and when we do hear one, we get a toot which means it's one of our friends.

 Framboise Manor is a very special place. we give thanks every day for finding this piece of paradise. when we say our prayers, we hope that all of our friends can be in a place that provides this much joy.

our funny little house

i had been thinking about this post for a few days. and then finally decided to do it. even tho the day i chose to take the pictures was rainy and grey. but i realized how much i enjoyed looking at my blog friends' houses. some are renovating, some just put up pics of certain rooms or some such thing. and i realized that i had never done a proper tour of Framboise Manor. no worries kids - it only costs 5 bucks and we accept paypal, visa, checque or money order for your convenience. click any of the pics to enlarge and see all of the dust and cat hair!

Framboise Manor starts at the deck that jambaloney originally wrapped in plastic and then built walls and windows from stuff he found in the garbage in order to enclose it like a proper porch.

i love it and so do the cats!there's a door at the front and back and 4 cat doors. there's my sister C's cabinet on the left and matching white shoe rack just beside it. the bins are for dirty dishes as at this time of the year the dishwasher is still in the basement. it's coming back up to the porch this week - HALLELUJAH!

here is one side of the kitchen with the barbie fridge and stove. i can't wait to have regular-sized appliances!

here is the other side of the kitchen with my table that works as extra counter space with K ampersand J carved into it. oh and Munkley-Spontooch with the devil eyes.

jambaloney built that extra cupboard space for me. i love the way it looks!

here is the kitchen past the table. with the greenhouse in the house for starting seeds. normally the white hutch thingy is up against the back wall beside the door but for seed-starting purposes it moves out front of the other cool hutch thingy that jambaloney built me. and that's the back end of Edgar Houdini aka The Rat.

this is the kitchen from the upstairs...not very big but with the two hutch things that jambaloney built it has been livable.

this was a section of wall that really wasn't doing anything. jambaloney built me a floor to ceiling place to put all of our dishes and our pots and some pans hanging off of it.

this is the funny little hallway from the kitchen to the bedroom and bathroom. notice the handle on the wall?

this is another unused space that jambaloney built me another floor to ceiling storage cupboard. my sister C told another friend that jambaloney had built me a cupboard out of a wall. needless to say, a funny conversation ensued. here is the wall-cupboard.

thank The Lord for these wall cupboards that he built for me!!! opposite the wall cupboard is our bedroom. and by bedroom, i mean a room full of bed! have a look-see:



i am a bed hog. i roll and toss and turn all night long sometimes ending up upside down. so that is a queenbed smashed up against a doublebed. and it fills the whole room. jambaloney built the frame and we have 8 long rows under the bed for prep storage.

this is the entry to the bathroom.

it is L-shaped so this is looking at the sink from the toilet area. and there's another wall-contraption-cupboard that jambaloney built. also good for bathroom prep storage.

and here is the toilet area.

this is looking up from the kitchen stairs to the living room.

the torn-up box on the stairs is "The Rat Box". we left the box there one day and he started scratching it and so we left it there for him.

here's a bit of a better picture of the living room/dining room. all of the wood furniture refinished by jambaloney. of note, all of my collected encyclopaedias.

here's looking at the other end of the living room/dining room. more encyclopaedias.

this is the little shelf on the stairs is a collection of our most useful and relied on books.

this is the strange little hallway between the living room, pantry and computer room.

here is a pic of our preps area that jambaloney built.



i removed a bunch of our preps so that you could see how deep it goes.

and finally our computer room. we're still working on it. all of the cables and cords that you see are not normally placed like that.

but as we lost our internet for a week, jambaloney did a full diagnostic and wanted all of the cords/routers/etc. available for the technicians.

and here is the other side of the room.

this house was built in 2 parts and is very awkward space-wise. we are planning an addition, a sunroom which will be built off of the kitchen. it will allow for moving things around and give us, and 4 cats more room...and cat doors.

well, i have showed you our little crappy Manor....now it's your turn!