holy moly - FINALLY some good weather! the first river dip of the year and some catching up....

finally we have gotten some good weather and have been able to work on the greenhouse! more on the greenhouse later - first up - some breakfast - a great way to start the day!

some kimchi, olives, pickled onions, pickled artichokes, homemade salsa, homemade guacamole, brie cheese, feta cheese and some sliced tomatoes. some fresh bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar - that's a great breakfast right there!

here's some spaghetti and homemade meatballs - yummeh! want to know the secret for making great meatballs? use meat! like ground hamburger. and don't put any filler like crackers or bread in there for heaven's sake. just meat! and spices! and make a killer sauce with lots of fresh garlic and herbs! 

see all of the little frog babies at the bottom of the picture? they are growing healthy and strong! come on frog babies - we need you to eat the mosquito larvae and mosquitoes!

here's a little bunch of pretty flowers that came out of nowhere...sooo pretty!

to my friend Mystic Mud.....STOP READING NOW! i do not want to rub my new swimming pool in your face! i know, i know - i have a river, an ocean and a hottub - what on earth do i need a new swimming pool for?!?!?!?

kids, it's because i can. oh yes, i can! Please...no drooling...have a gander!

that baby is going to get plugged and given a home somewhere in our junk-filled, redneck, white-trash yard and then i will be able to dip into it in order to cool down in between the painting jobs that the man gives me!

you don't think our yard is full of junk...have a look-see:

geesh....one of these days i just know that i will have a beautifully-landscaped yard...properly maintained by someone named Jesus (pronounced Hay-Zoos). actually, we don't have any mexicans on the island...

teehee. here is the first part of the roof going up on the greenhouse. is there anything more lovely?

i just noticed that all of the pics of the greenhouse are slanty....it's because of all of the slanty ground around here! that and the fact that i take slanty pictures!

here's some pretty moss....

and some fiddleheads...which will eventually turn into ferns. have you ever eaten fiddleheads?

some pretty purple flowers...

some tiny-tine blue flowers...

a gorgeous dawn for my mole sister Helga...

another shot...

out front....this is at about 5am in the morning...

out back again...

it eventually became like this...

what do you do with leftover spagetti and meatballs? you make a meatball sandwich for lunch of course!

woohoo - finally a bright sunny day after 4 straight months of non-stop rain! maybe we can get some work done on the greenhouse!

the man working on the roof below:

Strachan's Brook is slowly draining into the river:

a delicious qunioa, green olive, multi-coloured pepper and avocado salad with an avocado dressing:

mmmmmmmm. it was yummeh!

and here's another day's breakfast - zucchini fritters with garlic, turmeric and cayenne sour cream...and of course, a generous helping of kimchi - yummeh!



dinner that day was some delicious roasted chicken, smashed and gravy, steamed carrots, wild rice and cranberry stuffing and some pickled beets.



however, by noon last friday we were hitting waaay above average temps - it was like 24C (76F)! it was so out of season and such a treat....i didn't care if we still had a greenhouse to build. i wanted the river!!!! jambaloney did not want to down greenhouse tools...remember, it has been raining for 3 straight months and we need to get this thing built! but i was adamant! i wanted a dip in the river! try not to trip all over the windows and crap and let's go down to the river...

woohoo! look it's the beautiful ocean-filled river! i love my river!

oh it was so beautiful...and the air so warm!

jambaloney said "babe. it's gonna be waaay too cold. you'll never get in".

he does not understand a woman on a mission. wearing one of his pirate bandanas. and some panties being that this blog is rated PG13.

but geesh. will he never learn? probably not. he's a man and all. (just teasing with you babe. i loves you and all of that!)

heading out into that beautiful, salty, mineral-filled, delicious river. the river temp is about 12C (55F). i screamed a little walking in.

i screamed A LOT going in! it was freakin freezing!

 jambaloney didn't scream....

 


















he just dove right in....he was screaming under the water...i know it!

after our first dip of 2013....can you believe we were swimming on May 31?!?!?!!? woohoo! i can't wait for more dips! but after our dip - it was time to come home and keep working on the greenhouse!

although the yard is full of junk and our crap-*ssed cottage really is slanty - look at our beautiful greenhouse! it will be gorgeous when finished and i will enjoy painting and decorating it and starting all of our food out there!

more greenhouse updates coming soon. Helga - have you noticed all of the green? woohoo! the green is back and i am loving it!

more greenhouse...and more sucky weather!

no beautiful, blue sky pic for my sweet Helga in this post - it has been foggy and grey all week! that's when it hasn't been raining! it is driving us crazy as we can't work on the greenhouse -arghghghghgh! i know this pic of the greenhouse doesn't look any different than the last pics from previous posts - but here it is with a coat of exterior, water-proofing paint on it. this coat of paint took forever to dry because it is so wet outside.

jambaloney got the frames built for the 2 biggest sections of windows for our roof. he built these 2 weeks ago...and only a few days ago was it dry enough to finally prime them and then get a coat of exterior paint on them. when i say "dry enough" i use the term loosely. look at how grey and wet it is in these pics - arghghghgh!

because we have no work area for anything, we have to use the yard for building and work. once the greenhouse is built, jambaloney can start working on a workshed.

besides painting the whole frame with primer and exterior water-proof paint, we had to prime and exterior paint 40 railings....an easy job when you have the sun to help.

we had some good eats though. here are my loaded nachos with organic chips, homemade salsa with chopped tomatoes, green onions, a ton of garlic, a large splash of olive oil and a dollop of apple cider vinegar (with the mother). also homemade guacamole made with the juice of a lime, an avacado, sour cream and another ton of garlic (we eat a lot of garlic!!!) and some chopped peppers to top them off.

jambaloney's had the same ingredients plus some hot banana peppers and some hamburger.

yum. below is some homemade kimchi soup. i take homemade broth and boil up some rice noodles, chop up some homemade kimchi and add it, then add chopped peppers and green onions. it is so spicey it near blows your head off. but delicious and so good for you!

and some yummy chicken and cauliflower curry with rice, pickled artichokes, olives and fresh pineapple chunks. that's some good eats right there.

my tomatoe seedlings have grown to almost a foot tall and i had to transplant them from their starter cups into pots and put a bunch of them on the porch. soon i will have to do it with all of them as they are outgrowing my little kitchen greenhouse thingie. same thing with the peppers! come on weather - co-operate please!!!!

at least tomorrow it is not forecasted to be too wet so jambaloney can work on the roof of the greenhouse. and hopefully it will be dry enough for me to paint about 40 1 X 2's. and all of the OSB for the walls. ack. we need some sun and dry days!!!!

building the greenhouse - part 1

jambaloney here!

i had planned on a bunch of posts - but time has dragged on and kymber already showed you the frame, so here is the stuff that happened before the frame went up...


well first off - an ancient sky pic for helga - winter and vandura!!!

back to the greenhouse - once i had all the free and scavenged railway ties cleaned up, i was ready to lay them down, first step was "planning" some were longer than others and some wider... but i had enough overall...

before i laid them down, i had to level and trench the floor so the water would run out...

in between that digging, i took windows out of the frames and casements. initially i was temped to put the casements up, but they are a lot heavier than the windows and take up more space... here is the trim..

and here are the empty casements... they will make great hot boxes when cleaned up and stacked!!!

here are the leftovers all double-paned... you will see a few casements. in the greenhouse there will be one window on every side that opens..

i am laying them out as a crude plan... i never made a plan on paper, just in my head and trusting in math ;-))

etc....

after some awesome help from the boys next door (N & H - thanks guys!), we got the railway ties in place - it was hard getting them set and leveled! now to fill it!!

my plan was to get some free sand and stones from the beach, the idea being to fill the floor with sand to level and then stones for drainage. i got the truck stuck on the beach in march trying to get sand, so i brought 2x6s, a wheelbarrow and a shovel - harder work, but safer! the boys were a big help getting the sand!

bonus seaweed fertilizer!!

3 loads of rocks later - the floor is filled  - the rocks will keep ambient heat in...

and let water out - there are 3 drains in the greenhouse..

free stones - gotta love it!

lumber bought for framing and roofing..

here is the door frame..

and the outline of the west wall - i started all the frames with an outline..

finished west frame...

finished east frame..

this is one of two south frames 6 feet tall - i did the framing by placing the chosen windows in place...

then filling in the gaps!

on misty/drizzling days, extension cord covering is a must!

tools too!

other south planning....

and filling..

now the north/backwall - it is 9 feet tall..

bottom 4 feet or so will be osb..

and the rest windows ...

one...

and two - they are narrower than the front as the door frame goes in the middle

that's the background before the frame went up and got painted - kymber worked so bloody hard and fast that day she is hired full time as a carpenter now - we will make quick work of the rest together!

pioneer p - the top trout are yours - the big one at the bottom is for sweet sandy ;-))

cheers all! jambaloney

(note: this post was re-posted by kymber as it is not showing up on any blogrolls. hopefully i've fixed it!)