a rainbow, my brothers and holy moly - sick as crap!

here's a beautiful rainbow that jambaloney got a pic of a few mornings ago. he was out screeching at the ravens to get off the roof. they just squawked and jumped up and down harder. he pointed and clicked. so beautiful! minus all the raving squawkings that had us up by about 4am - arghghghghgh!

this is me and my gorgeous brother B in our fire truck. it says L'Ardoise on it because we bought it from the town of L'Ardoise for 10 bucks! he was teaching me and jambaloney all of the different parts. he's qualified in using/running it and he has been doing training sessions with it. we really appreciate that! he is going to teach us everything about that truck and have us both driving it in no time!

here is me and my brother B standing outside of my brother G and sister C's house:

my brother G and sister C were tearing down a shed on their land, then planning to burn it and a bunch of brush and needed a permit (sorry CC!), and a licensed member of the VFD had to be there with the truck. much fun, and many black fly bites were enjoyed by all. i got sick out of my mind for about 4 days!!!

next up - our brother G and sister C were up to visit for a week and to put new siding on their house. our brother B and our other brother D, as well as jambaloney helped out. i helped my brother D make the cuts in the siding - it needs to be very precise measurements! but here are my 2 amazing brothers and jambaloney acting like goofs. they work so well together and can get an amazing amount of work done in a short time. i love them all!

and i find it incredibly refreshing that my brother G yelled "come on kymber. we're going to ganormans!". i will explain how people are called what they are called here in another post. it's hard to learn unless you grew up here. i was going to need my new work boots for this job! see my new work boots below that my sister C gave to me. awesome eh?

she also got me some new slippers on this trip up. but they aren't slippers - they are more like little fancy dancing slippers and they come with a little gold bag. i will only use them at dances - they are just too fancy! but anyway, on the drive out to ganormans, my brother G called me sister for the first time. and then when we got to ganorman's, he called me sister a few more times. holy eff that felt so good!

at ganorman's i met R. i told him my name and told him where i lived and he said "wait. i think i know your husband. he gave me a lift from sydney (the city) a few weeks back." i gave him a big giant hug and told him that my husband had nothing but good words to say about him and he told me that my husband was a very courteous gentleman...i love hearing words like that.

anyway - some background on all of these brothers and sisters that we are accumulating like royal dalton china. my brother B...he was there when jambaloney got sucker-punched in the head. when i fell down crying - he and his wife, C, and his mother V were there to console me in seconds. but he was the first. and when we were doing the siding and i was getting eaten alive by black flies and deer flies - he kept waving his hat and saying "honey. you have to go in. you can't get any more bites". he always hugs me with the most warmest hugs. i love my brother B!

i love my brother G because he has spent an entire career in the canadian forces and the man knows everything about everything. i love him most tho, because of the talks that me and my sister, C, his wife, have about him. she sings his praises to high heaven and i gotta admit - based on what she says - the man is a second Jesus. yep - walks on water and the whole she-bang.

do you have any idea what it feels like to finally have family that truly care about you? i do. it is the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Edited - woops - that's how sick i am. i didn't even mention that getting eaten alive at G and C's, plus being out around here in the garden and getting eaten alive - yo dudes - i  have been sick for over a week! it's truly awful! but i am on the mend and hopefully have been able to hit up your blogs at least once or twice. give me a few days eh?

jealous as oh heck...but really happy, too!

check out this beautiful sunset from the other night...

the sunrises, sunsets and skies in general are always so beautiful here. me and jambaloney sometimes spend hours just staring at the sky.

anyway, why i am jealous as oh heck? well, a hundred years ago, or so it seems, when i was involved with the cpn and apn, i met some really good friends. SciFiChick and i were like sisters. she and i were in almost the same place in regards to our prepping. i have talked about her many times on this blog. and if she isn't on your "must read" list, she should be. anyway, her and i had a bit of a "prepper" crush on 2 ladies who talked the talk, and walked the walk. that would be Phelan and MMpaints. i have spoken about both of those great ladies on this blog many times.

anyway, just this weekend past, SciFiChick had some visitors. holy moly - she had Phelan, Phelan's husband and 2 sons, as well as our own sweet Sandy and her husband come for a visit!!! they actually all got to meet! i have it on all of their trusted authority that they are all fantastic people! i also have it on good authority that Phelan is as awesome as she seems, that sweet Sandy is the sweetest person ever, SciFiChick is an absolute darling, Mars makes the best ribs on the planet and that everyone was very happy to meet up. you can read SciFiChick's post about meeting here, sweet Sandy's here and Phelan's here.

ya, i am jealous that they all got to meet but i am also very happy for them. it's a wonderful thing to finally meet people who are already your friends. and they have all been there for each other, and for me, all this time. they are a great group of people who can be counted on through thick and thin!

another great person is our friend mmpaints. although she has had a pretty tough couple of weeks, you can read more about it here, she is going to reach her farm project goal through the help of very kind strangers and friends. you can check her progress here. i thank all of my friends who helped out, not only the people who donated, but the people who shared her story. you are very generous people and it makes me feel proud to call you all friends.

up next - mist rising off of Strachan's brook. the mist rises like that when the water is warmer than the air. it's really cool.

oh...did you notice all of the beautiful roses on the rose bush? the rose bush is really putting out roses this year - so beautiful to look at!

here's a yummy vermicelli salad with cucumber, pineapple, shrimp, fresh mint and coriander, chives, green onion and lettuce. accompanied with a "belt-you-in-the-head-so-hard-your-kids-will-feel-it" lime/chili dipping sauce.

and i hate bragging but bragging i must!

teeheeeheeheee. that's my first baby tomatoe. is that awesome or what?!?!?!?!?

garden update

well, this year's garden is nothing compared to SciFiChick's beautifully weeded and maintained rows, and it's certainly not as "sexy" as Pioneer Preppy's, and we have had some hits and some epic fails, but we are still pleased with some of the progress.

here check out this beautiful sunrise. it was taken at about 4:15am.

yes, we are early risers but not at 4:15am!!!! but that's what time we have been getting up, every single day for the past few weeks. a family of 5 ravens, all of whom are the size of a dog (think lab not shiaztu!), have been showing up every morning, landing on our roof, jumping up and down and squawking their fool heads off!!! arghghghgh. jambaloney gets up and goes and shoos them away, sometimes they listen, sometimes they just jump up and down harder. if they listen, they just sit in trees near the house, squawking and squawking! we try to go back to sleep but it is near impossible!

first up in the garden update - check this out!



 that is a baby pepper!!! all 40 of my pepper plants are covered in flowers and they are loooooving the heat and humidity in the greenhouse! i already have a baby pepper and it's only the first week of july - wooohooo - score!

another score - almost all of my tomatoes have gone to flower - again - in the first week of july?!?!?!? oh it looks like we will be having a bumper year with tomatoes and peppers!



one of the reasons they are doing so well is that this year we are noticing tons of bumble bees, solitary bees and a variety of flies that look and act like bumble bees. we have been very concerned for the past 2yrs as we weren't seeing any bees. but by allowing the land around us that had been cleared to just return to it's natural wild state, and not mowing all of wildflowers and clover all the time - there are bees everywhere!

another reason why there are soooo many bees is this:

that's comfrey, a very useful medicinal plant. you can learn more about comfrey here. be careful if you plant it as it spreads and spreads. comfrey leaves make great mulch for around your plants and comfrey is excellent in your compost! we have allowed the comfrey to spread wherever it wants and i am allowing this plant to go to seed to gather seeds and then plant the comfrey in strategic places all around the yard.

the reason why is because of the bees!!! no matter what time of day, and no matter which plant you are looking at - the whole plant is covered in bees!!!! and all different kinds!!! honey bees are not native to north america and if you have a diverse population of solitary bees, then you don't need the honey bees for pollination. i am so glad that the bees are back! also, hummingbirds love comfrey too, so it is a very fun plant to grow! i love my comfrey!

another score for the garden - garlic!

just look at those babies!!! we have 8 tires planted with garlic and another half-bed besides the one above. we eat a lot of garlic around here! i guess that's why we never have problems with vampires!

how about i brag some more about the garden. thank you. i will. check this out!

oh ya, baby, potatoes!!! we have planted a ton of extra potatoes all over the place not just the ones you see here. we will have a definite bumper crop this year and we'll be eating potatoes until the first ones are ready next year! woohoo! score!

another score - check out the baby tadpoles!

they are just so cute to watch! and once they become toads or frogs or salamanders or whatever they are - they will eat all kinds of mosquitoes!

the peas are doing awesome this year - sorry no pic - i'll get one for the next update! the beans are so-so at best. the melons, squash and pumpkins - eh - it's anybodies guess.

now for the epic fails! my beets have been in the ground almost a month and still haven't grown! my french breakfast radishes which i should be harvesting, taste woody - like all of them! thank goodness that the easter egg radishes and cherry belles are ok - but we love french breakfast radishes!

the even more epic fail than the ones listed above - i transplanted 36 cucumbers and i have 1!!!! that's ONE!!!! ugh. i was getting crazier and crazier every morning when we would take our first morning walk and i would see that the slugs had decimated the actual stalks of the cucumbers! same thing for the zucchinis - i  transplanted 36  and have 3 and a half - the half is a little guy that looks like he is really trying but i don't think he's gonna make it - arghghghghgghgh! all of that work for nothing! and now i have to start all over again! i might see a zucchini or a cucumber in october! geesh, eh?

all of the herbs are planted and seem to be doing well - we love fresh herbs and now with the greenhouse built, we can fresh, homegrown herbs probably through to december! it's gonna be awesome.

how about a food epic fail? i am always tweaking recipes and trying different things but man do i hate it when what i thought was going to be the most awesomest pasta salad ever, turns into a bland piece of crap!

that up there is my infamous tuna, apple, mayonnaise and wasabi pasta salad! (i also put garlic, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, cumin and cayenne in it) - THAT pasta salad is one of our favourites! but i got to thinking - "hmmm, how can i add more punch. what would knock that pasta salad out of the universe?". and then i came up with it! AVOCADO!!!! what in the world doesn't taste better with avocado in it?!?!?!?!?

EPIC FAIL! normally the pasta salad belts you in the head with the flavour of the wasabi. i used twice as much wasabi as usual and twice as much of the other spices. BLAND! oh man were we disappointed. and i made a ton of it because we like to have something in the fridge to snack on when we don't want to cook. and we ate it. and groaned. and had to finish the big, giant pot for days, groaning.

but since i like to finish posts off in a positive way - check out another score.

that's our first full meal from our garden! we have sporadic things here and there but this is the first delicious breakfast straight from our garden - beet greens, garlic scapes and green onion. cooked until slightly wilted in a big 'ol chunk of butter! with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. DEEVINE!

happy canada day!

woohoo - it's july 1st which means it's also Happy Canada Day!



i hope that all of our canadian friends are having wonderful celebrations! and for any american friends interested in knowing more about canada day (yes, Linda, i mean you! bahahahahah!), here is the wikipedia entry.

Happy Canada Day to all!

a big thank you and a bunch of other stuff!

first up - the obligatory sky pic!

 

it sure is pretty eh? next up - a big giant thank you to all of you who helped my friend, mmpaints. i call her my "driveway chive". you can read more about why i call her a driveway chive here. now have a look at my beautiful driveway chive:

 

that chive needed a little love and a little pot. just like my friend. so many of you were so generous to my friend, at a time that she really needed it, and i thank you from the bottom of my heart. you can check on her project progress here. and you can get an update on how she is doing emotionally at her blog here. she is sounding pretty upbeat despite the crappy situation she is in. i think it is because of all the love and support she has been shown. she's a trooper and i just know that she will get her commercial kitchen up and running.

to all of you who showed her love and support, either through donations, leaving her comments of support on her blog, and posting about her situation on your personal blogs - i can't thank you enough!

next up - my friend W is always inquiring about Frankie Blue Eyes. so for W, i present Frankie, Frankly, Mankly, Stankly, Stankly Patoonch in a box:



W is the person that called Frankie "scrutty". he is so right! Frankie always looks scrutty. and jambaloney and i have a new word that we use regularly between ourselves - bahahahahah! poor little Frankly - he really IS scrutty!

i know that you are all wondering about my baby frogs. here's a pic:

they are doing so well and growing so big - soon i'll have two thousand baby frogs...all of whom will be named frog. stay tuned for pics of the frog houses i will be building.

here's some pretty daffodils blowing in the wind:

and here's where the fighting for the trouts start. our dear friends, Sweet Sandy and Pioneer Preppy will have to duke it out. my money's on Sandy!

how about some yummy bruschetta?

or a tiny shepherd's pie? i say tiny cuz we made it in a small pan.

want a really filling and delicious pasta salad? try making it with apple, green onion, tuna, mayonnaise and get ready for it - WASABI! oh it has kick, let me tell you! but so delicious!

our sister community, Fourchu, had their annual crab leg supper. it was awesome. for $12 you got 2 big scoops of potatoe salad, coleslaw, a fresh bun and a whole crab. plus pie for desert! because we helped with the cleaning up, they gave us a ton of crab to bring home - yummeh! here's some quinoa salad and crab legs - deelish!

how about some delicious vegetable shish kebabs with rice and pineapple? i marinated these veggies for hours in olive oil, garlic, turmeric, cumin and cayenne. they melted in your mouth. especially the mushrooms!

and some more grilled vegetables on another day. we george forman-ed these - they were tasty but not as tasty as on the bbq!

well that's my update for now. stay tuned for an update on the garden. my garlic is gone mad, the tomatoes are in their tires and flowering, the peppers are flowering, we have our bug net tent up and things are going well overall. we've been eaten alive by black flies and the deer flies are already out - 2months early!!!! arghghghghghghghgh!!!!

a friend needs help!

a pretty pic of some beautiful apple blossoms for my friend!

i have a friend who is in dire straits right now. some of you probably already know her and follow her blog, she is mmpaints from the blog, Self Sustained Living.

some background on her - she has been living a self-sustained life since 1995. she grows her own freakin tobacco!!! she loves her goats and although i have never eaten her cheese - i have it on fine authority that her cheese is to die for!

she and i were involved in the early days of the American Preppers Network and the Canadian Preppers Network. she put in many hours helping the networks out as well as providing all of her experience and knowledge, for free, for any person in the world to learn from! she has been blogging at her blog since 2008 and she is one of the people who always encouraged us when we first started taking prepping and self-sufficiency seriously. we had never grown our own food before and were idiot newbies. she was one of the ones who not only talked the talk and walked the walk - but she never made us feel silly or new. she encouraged people from all over the world to get out there and try - to make mistakes, but not feel bad about your mistakes, and then keep going. she is like a prepping cheerleader. curses like a sailor, has a few strong opinions, but a cheerleader none the less.

she is tough as nails, and in all honesty there is nothing that she can't do! she has managed to survive through a whole ugly pile of life....kind of like this little chive growing in our driveway. jambaloney must have driven over this little chive a million times. we only noticed it the other day. thriving and surviving, without much notice or attention. kind of like my friend.

 

i appreciated all of her help and advice. and now i want to return the favour to her. she is in a bad situation. a domestic violence situation. you can read more from her about the situation here. it is bad. and she may lose her farm. we can not let that happen!

even after all she has been through in the past few days, she has come up with a business plan on how, with some serious hard work on her part, she can save the farm and continue babying her goats and other animals. you can read more about her plan here. and donate.

she needs help. she needs support. she needs to know that all of her hard work has not been for not. she needs people to appreciate her willingness to share her knowledge. she needs people to corral around her and show her it has not all been in vain.

yes - she needs money. even if you can only donate a dollar - that would help. but if you can not afford to donate, but can share her situation with your friends on your blog, twitter or facebook accounts - you will be doing a wonderful thing for her. in my mind, if you share her situation with other people who can afford to donate - well, that is worth a million bucks!

if nothing else, i ask our friends here to just go and check out her blog if you don't already have her on your "must read" list. there is a ton of valuable information there. you can learn more about her situation there. you can leave her a comment of support - she will appreciate that.

we saved the little "driveway" chive, and potted him up. he lives here now. he is so tough, he has already gone to flower and will be providing next year's seeds soon. he is like my friend. tough, and keeps on giving!

 

can you help my friend? can you visit her blog and leave her a comment of support? please do. just tell her kymber and jambaloney sent you.

thank you.

the greenhouse is finished....for now

finally...after another rainy, grey week we finally got the sun and the blue sky back. obligatory sky pic for my sweet sis!



being that is has been so rainy and we can't finish the greenhouse properly, we are calling it done. have a look-see:



she's a real beauty eh? oh i love my greenhouse! the area in the centre with the osb on it is there because the window that filled that space broke! but jambaloney was able to finnagle another window in it's place. i'm pointing this out because his original plan had the whole front be all windows.

anyway - here's the back - woohoo!



as you can see, due to all of the rain we have been having jambaloney decided to finish off the back with plastic. it works like a charm! we will wait for the less rainy days and jambaloney will continue working on the greenhouse. but we have other jobs that are catching up to us around the homestead so this will work for us until we have the time to get back to it.

with all the rainy, grey days we have been having, i felt like some stick-to-your-ribs steak and kidney stew - yummeh!

and on a lighter note, a dinner of vermicelli, apple, cucumber, shrimp and chives with a hot, sweet, salty, tart chili lime dressing. so spicey!

here's one side of the greenhouse. i moved all of my tomatoes off of the porch in order to be able to get the peppers out of the house and onto the porch! these tomatoes will be put in the ground as soon as i am sure of 3 straight days of sun. no worries tho, they are thriving in the greeenhouse!

here's some more tomatoes.

and here's all the rest!

as you can see, i am slowly decorating the greenhouse with my little bits of stuff. once the tomatoes are in the ground, jambaloney is going to build me a whole pile of shelves on the front and back of the greenhouse. i plan on putting the peppers in the greenhouse and leaving them there all season. we have several windows that open, one on each side of the greenhouse as well as automatic venting window things. the peppers will love the heat and humidity out there.

it's been a lot of work but that greenhouse is going to pay off in spades for extending our growing season. oh and sitting out there in the winter, bathing naked in the sun, is not the least of it's uses. i love my greenhouse!