Fab Friday.

Had the BEST sleep last night. Slept from around midnight 'til about 8 this morning. It was fantastic. Woke up SOOOOOOOO refreshed. It's a wonder I don't do some tai chi before bed EVERY night. LOL

Spent some time this morning pondering what I want the outside of the finished cob oven to look like. I'm considering somehow incorporating some sort of blessing and also some way of honouring or depicting the compass directions and the elements, etc. I came across a picture or representation of the Ba-Gua, which has Feng Shui elements and the meanings.... For example, South:Fire:Red:Eye:Fame .... you get the idea. The direction, associated colour, associated body part, and so forth. So possibly some sort of representation of this on the finished plaster. The alternate I came up with was grass along the bottom edge of the oven, with ladybugs, dragonflies, a bunny rabbit, fairies, pixies, flowers, toadstools, a brownie and elf... things like this on it. I think that would make a lovely finished oven as well. Which do you prefer? Or do you have other ideas?

But before I get to plastering, I need to build first!!! So I'm off to mix up cob. And it's cloudy today. What's up with that?! Nearly 3 weeks of daily sunshine and now clouds?!? wtheck?

And ds just came back from the mailbox with a parcel tag marked Heavy. Although I hadn't been planning on going into town, I might just go pick it up. I *think* it's the raw food order I placed earlier this week, which would be very exciting. 5 lbs of brazil nuts, 5 lbs of walnuts, 1 lb of pecans, 15 lbs of medjools, 30 vanilla beans, a bottle of nama shoyu, 1 lb of maca powder, and some other items. Yummers. :)

Signing out.
~n~

Evening update: yep, the parcel was the delicious raw food. So happy it arrived. I mixed up two very small batches of cob and began trying to level out the foundation for the next step. My GOSH it's going to take me FOREVER to build this oven alone!!!!! Many hands make light work so either I grow more arms or put the word out there to people in the community. I also painted a little bit of the house - the East wall of the front entry and also part of the top deck railing. I'm getting it done, bit by bit. Again, it's taking forever, but I'm only one person and I am always multitasking - parenting, painting, etc., so it takes me a while. It's getting there. DS has his buddy over for their first sleepover tonight; hopefully they don't stay up toooooooo late. LOL (they're 9; I should expect at least 11:00, I guess).

Today's food intake:

• 08:00 2 raw coconut macaroons, warm from the dehydrator
• 08:00 1 pizza crust with 1T raw ranch dressing on it (the pizza crust is 1/16 of a dehydrator tray)
• (throughout the day) some wild salmonberries from around the yard. they're so good!!!!!!
• 3L of water throughout the day (108 oz, actually)
• 11:30 2 raw pizzas with 1/2T ranch dressing, 1T guacamole & 1T salsa (all raw) as well as a couple mushrooms and some red pepper on it... and a little fresh basil. Deeeeeelicious. I ate more than 1T of guacamole though; I ate an entire avocado's worth, it was so yummy.
• 11:30 bowl of organic salad greens with Annie's Papaya Poppy Seed dressing (not raw)
• 3:00 3 organic medjool dates
• (throughout the day) 1c organic strawberries
• 5:00 a bowl with 1 organic banana sliced, 2 org strawberries sliced, 1/3c of crumble topping (raw) and 1/3c of vanilla creme sauce (raw)
• 5:00 2 organic collard wraps with red pepper, mung bean sprouts and 1T of raw ranch on each leaf
• I seem to remember at some point I had another 2 coconut macaroons and also 2 flax crackers with a little salsa.

No green smoothie yesterday or today and I'm missing them something FIERCE so I'll be brewin' one up first thing in the morning... right after 1L of water. :)

Thursday's Musings...

... although we're inching towards Friday very quickly here.... nontheless, here's what's new in my part of the world...

• Protective Mama Black Bear with 2 cubs in the neighbourhood. Haven't seen her myself (and don't expect to). Our neighbourhood is home to black bears, cougars (aka mountain lions), black-tailed deer, raccoons, zebras (LOL just checking if you're paying attention), squirrels, MANY different types of birds, including California Quail (LOVE those!) and bald eagles, sea otters, and probably other animals I'm not familiar with.
• Home phone line was out of service for just about 72 hours. While someone mentioned to me that I must've found it "liberating", on the contrary, I found it quite isolating. No cell phone coverage at home, we don't get the newspaper, and the phone line being out meant the internet was out as well (we're on dial-up; no, not by choice), and no local radio stations come in clearly (except for one American station, NPR, which plays Jazz and the other NPR station that plays classical). This all added up to one mama feeling cabin feverish for a couple days, despite getting out in public for a quick fix each day. Completely filled with gratitude that the phone company came this morning and repaired it.
• Loving the new Excalibur dehydrator!! Made fruit leather today (strawberry-banana), coconut macaroons, and some raw pizza crusts. Love it, love it, LOVE IT. Thinking it will become indispensible very quickly... quite like the VitaMix, which is used EVERY DAY around here. Worth the investment. Totally worth it.
• Did soil tests yesterday for the cob oven and today made test bricks. Will do more tests on those tomorrow and then hoping to start mixing up small batches to proceed with the cob oven. One friend laughed heartily that I won't be eating any of the goodies that come out of the cob oven, nor will I be eating any of the potatoes we planted last weekend. (There's a good question: can you eat potatoes raw? I think the excalibur manual has a recipe for dehydrated (soaked) potato chips. What's your take on this one? You sure don't see many recipes calling for raw potato)
• Gardens are doing very well. The plants are *loving* the comfrey compost tea I've been watering them with. Many seeds have sprouted (which is promising!) and we are looking at more sunshine long-range, so it's all good. All good.
• Went to chiropractor & tai chi today. But now it's nearly midnight and I think I'd better get to sleep. I've been getting up pretty early lately (like 5-ish), but a few days managed to sleep in 'til 8.

Heading off for what will surely be a most rejuvenating slumber and wishing you likewise,

~namaste~

Cob Oven

Today I officially started building the cob oven. The foundation, which stands about 35" high, is made with sandbags filled with concrete. They were being thrown away after being in use for about 30 years on our local water system, so I snatched them for free.

Next step, I filled the centre with about 15 wheelbarrows full of the really rocky subsoil we had trucked in 2 weeks ago. Again, got that for free. Tamped it all down as I went by stomping on the subsoil. I'll let it settle while I figure out what the next step is. Actually, I already know... I need to make some clay slip or cob and level out the base and then make a ring of bricks, put a bunch of empty glass beer bottles in it for insulation, and then more sand... probably silica. Level it off, and then I think I'm nearly ready to place the fire bricks down for the hearth floor and then we can proceed from there. I'm hoping to coerce someone into helping me mix cob for the next step. LOL

So far the oven has cost $50... for 2 yards of road-base which it is sitting on. It made a good level ground on which to build, and covered the salmon berry roots which will shoot up through pretty much anything (except 6" of roadbase, I'm hoping).

Alright. The computer says 30 seconds left.
Namaste
~n~

SUNNNNNNNNSHINE!

It has been GLORIOUSLY sunny the past week here... inspiring me to spend as MUCH time outdoors as possible. (Last week we had a couple 30+ degree days, and although we're close to the ocean, it was still a heat wave here. HOT HOT HOT!!! It cooled off on Friday to mid 20s and has been low to mid 20s since then, I think. Just beautiful weather we're enjoying.) Yep, I'm usually outside by 6 or 7 in the morning, letting the hens out of their coop (they moved in last monday and seem perfectly content in their new digs), watering the various garden beds and hanging baskets, and generally just doing yardwork. The yard is starting to look really great; I wish our computer was fixed so I could share some pictures with you. I picked up 2 yards of SeaSoil (somposted forest fines & fish, organic) and have been top-dressing all the gardens with it. The plants LOVE SeaSoil, and it's locally produced on the Island. I *had* been buying bags of it, but bulk is much cheaper. So lots of gardening going on around here.

Went to a raw food potluck Friday night with guest speaker Vesanto Melina, co-author of the books Becoming Vegetarian, Becoming Vegan, and Raw Food Revolution. Really great company, fantastic food, excellent presentation by Vesanto... an all-round glorious evening! :) Loved it. I took Mediterranean Kale (recipe in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People) as well as Tropical Fruit Tart (mango pudding in a coconut crust, recipe also in Jennifer's book). Delicious.

Planted 200 lbs of seed potatoes in the field at my in-laws on Sunday morning. THANKFULLY (and I am SOOOOOOOO grateful for their help), my dh and ds both helped, and we had it done in 3 hours (what would've probably taken me 10 alone). I cannot thank them enough. Working with someone is so much more delightful than working alone, imo... when it comes to back-breaking labour and repetitive tasks, anyways. LOL 3 bodies kinda-sore is better than 1 body completely incapacitated-sore, don't you think? LMAO

OHHHHH!!!!! Guess what just arrived in the post this morning? Okay, okay, you'll never guess. My new Excalibur 9 tray Dehydrator!!!!!!!! OMGosh I'm SOOOOOOO excited. I can't wait to go into town and pick it up this afternoon.

I'm going to put a small raw food order in and then get the kids some lunch.

Wishing you some sunshine, because it feels really REALLY nice. My dd and I snuggled on a deck chair this morning around 9. It was so soothing to soak in some early morning rays. One of the cats came and snuggled with us, too, which dd found hilarious. Lots of giggles.

Sunshine and happiness to you,
~n~

Canada's Hot Spot

It was apparently 28 degrees here today. Sure didn't feel like it. But then again, we live very near the ocean, and the breezes off the ocean make it seem about 22 instead. This means you have to be extra cautious to protect yourself from sunburn. Just because it doesn't FEEL 28 doesn't mean the sun isn't going to get you good if you're not careful. Everyone in this house is fair skinned and burns easily. So on my list of things to do is to pick up a straw hat I can wear when I"m working out in the yard.

Today I spent most of the day in the shade, working on the chicken coop. I'm really excited about it's siting. It was sort of a fluke, but in the summer it is shaded by the alder trees and in the winter, those trees will drop their leaves and the winter sun will shine on the hens just perfectly. Really, it's got good siting. Yep, today I worked for about 6 hours on the hen's pen, finishing the fencing around and above (to give them some protection from eagles/ravens/other predators). It's quite the work of art. The coop is now finished, apart from the siding which we are going to put on (so it matches the house of course, LMAO). Oh sure, we might live in the Sticks, but that doesn't mean your chicken coop can't be artistic. LOL

Now that the coop is kinda done, I can turn my attention back onto the gardens. Now is the perfect time to be sowing seeds of winter crops - both ones that will feed us during the winter (like beets, kohlrabi, parsnips), and others that are very early spring crops (like purple sprouting broccoli, kale, collards). Now's the time to get them in. And the 28 degree weather is seriously drying out the gardens. I watered tonight but am hoping to water again in the morning to make sure they get a good soaking (I'm terrible at remembering to water my gardens. They frequently suffer from gardener-inflicted drought).

Let's see how I did today:
- exercised? yep - not only did I do 6 hrs of work out on the coop/pen, but I also rowed 5 kms tonight
- nourished my body with raw live vegan foods? yep - had 1L of green smoothie this morning (spinach/banana/mango), some raw crudites & raw ranch dip in the afternoon, a chocolate pudding popsicle for a snack (I froze the chocolate mousse recipe from jennifer cornbleet's book into the little tupperware popsicle molds; one batch of mousse (which uses 1.5 avocadoes makes 6 popsicles, so each popsicle has the equivalent of 1/4 avocado, 1 date, and 1T of raw cacao powder, basically), and a collard leaf with mung bean sprouts in it and a little raw mock peanut sauce, and a banana later. And over 3L of healthy, healing water (108 oz). :) And I want to point out that none of my meals today required more than 5 minutes to prepare (I'd made the ranch dressing & mock peanut sauce ahead of time). I *love* quick-to-prepare meals.
- mental stimulation? i'm off to read Busy Bodies or Flow as soon as I'm done this post. That counts. All the self-reflection I continually engage in must count for something to, LOL.
- love? - i felt the love today, definitely. When my daughter gave me a kiss and then we pressed our cheeks together before she ran off to play... the way her eyes met mine so unequivocally. There were definitely moments of flow... moments the Divine was clearly felt in my day. The way the sunlight dappled through the alder leaves as I worked on the coop. The green-ness of the leaves. It was stunning. The little peeps of happy hens scratching and pecking in the earth. True happiness just being with them. And when we were driving into town this morning, the sun was shining through hazy high clouds, and you could see the radiating light from the sun so clearly in every direction. Absolutely beautiful.
- compassion? well, i feel like i was lacking in compassion towards my children today. they just wanted to play computer games all day, and I didn't think that was a healthy way to spend the day, so I wasn't too yielding to their desires. That's tough. Sometimes you just have to lay the law down as the parent, and to be truthful, I hate that. I'd much rather they self-regulate, but that doesn't always happen. And I suppose I wasn't overly compassionate towards myself, either. I really wanted to get the coop pen done and was single-mindedly focussed on that task most of the day, to the exclusion of much else. Boy it feels good to have it done, though. There is a definite sense of accomplishment there.
- laughter? not enough, i'm afraid. but, being compassionate towards myself, it's all exactly as it should be. :)
- remained mindful? hmmmm... i feel like i'm falling a little short on this one, but again, being compassionate, it's all good. :) the journey is filled with bliss.

All in all though a very very good day. I'd better sign off though if I think I'm going to be out watering the garden by 7 in the morning. :)
Namaste'
~n~

Checkin' In...

Just a quick check-in. Our computer is still down so I'm using the back-up, extra-slow computer (and we're on dial-up internet which makes anything like this painfully slow)....

Today was moving day for our hens. At 8 weeks old they have officially been moved into the new coop. The kids and I worked on it most of the day (about 8 hrs) and this afternoon we were able to move them all down into the new coop & pen. They seem happy enough down there, although right now I hear a few worried peeps about their new abode. Still learning about perches and just the unfamiliarity of a new space... it's worrying for a few of them. The others seem to be fine with it. :) They've been so happy today, pecking and scratching around in the pen. Lovely to watch.

Apart from that, I've had a crazy busy past week. Just crazy. But I've been getting so much done!!! Funny.

Anyway, there's so much more to share, but alas, no time right now. Priority is getting children to sleep. :)
Blessings to you this beautiful late spring evening,
~n~

Happy. Very Happy.

Ahhhhh... Pretty blissed out today. I've been reading Mihalyi Csizkentmihalyi (it's spelled something close to that) - his book called "Flow"... HIGHLY recommend it. Also reading a book called Busy Bodies concurrently and the two of them together are really intellectually challenging me to examine life, in a good way. :) My brain thrives on that kind of intellectual stimulation. So I'm diggin' em both.

I had the most delicious, beautiful raw greek salad for dinner (thanks to Sherri for the recipe). I took a picture but have no way of uploading it at the moment with the computer being kaput. It really was made with such loving intention. On a bed of salad greens was the greek salad (sweet onion, yellow & orange bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, a few raw sliced olives, and evoo, balsamic vinegar, italian spices incl fresh basil), topped with a few walnuts. Yummers.

And I had a really satisfying liter of green smoothie earlier in the day (no that's not all I had today - just the salad & smoothie; other food was consumed, LOL)... The smoothie was mystery greens from the local farm (LOL - I'm sure if I looked at the box list for this week I could find out what it was), a banana, frozen blueberries & raspberries, 4 khadrawi dates & some almond milk and some water (2:1 water:milk). I have been LOVING some nut milk in my smoothie lately.

I am so grateful to have dh home. We've been having really pleasant, connected conversations. *bliss*
I had a great swim today with the kids. Everything flowed so well today.
And I had a great row as well. I'm a mere 15 kms from my goal of 100 kms for the month, so right on target, despite taking more days off rowing earlier in the month than I had intended to.
I have come across some materials for the base of my cob oven I'm building this summer, which is fantastic. Free is always good. :)
I am grateful for Reiki's healing light as I heal all these bruises on my body - my forearms, biceps & thighs are all bruised after moving the kids' swingset earlier this week. I look live I've been in a nasty confrontation, yet nothing could be further from the truth. LOL
I am filled with gratitude for the beautiful sunshine we've enjoyed today. Just beautiful. Yay for sunshine!!
I am enjoying listening in on dd playing in her imaginary world with her dollies. Soooooo cute. Love this age!
Also enjoying listening to dad & ds play Pokemon together. It's a bonding game for them.
And I'm grateful I have a few uninterrupted minutes here to just be on the computer. :)

The kids & I saw 3 black bears on our way into swimming today! Although we definitely live in bear country, we don't often see them... and certainly not in the middle of the day!! We saw a mama and cub crossing the road about 8 kms from our house, and then we saw a big (probably male) bear crossing the road about 17 kms from our house... about 3 kms from town. So we saw these 3 bears within 15 minutes of each other. Pretty special.