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January 1, 2019. Goal. Visit all 5 Great Lakes!   Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution. For more information, click HERE. These guys are awesome! Sandra
 I love winter. It's cool and snowy and quiet. I completely understand hibernating bears. I can get a little anxious to start spring and summer chores like; beekeeping, gardening, and Airbnb. But I just remind myself to appreciate every moment and start winter chores like; knitting, spinning, and learning. Winter is a big learning time for me. I learn online from YouTube, Udemy, Skillshare, and from a variety of teachers with websites. My favourite learning platforms are:
1. Skillshare. Click HERE for two free months. 2. Dirtpatcheaven. Click HERE to visit. 3. Little Bits of Heaven Homestead. Click HERE to visit. 4. Carolyn's RV Life. Click HERE to visit. 5. My Self Reliance. Click HERE to visit. Let me know your favourite learning platforms! Have a great day! Sandra  Spring
1. Thrift (Armeria maritima): Bright pink clusters of flowers make this a welcome addition to any garden. It does particularly well in dry, sandy soil. 2. Chives (Allium shoenoprasum): Easy to grow, great in salads, chives produce purple flowers in spring that will bring bees flocking to your vegetable patch. 3. Bugloss (Brunnera): This early perennial produces bright blue flowers in April that continue for several weeks. Give it a shady spot and keep it watered in summer. Summer 4. Rose (Rosa): Who doesn't love a rose? Keeping your garden rosy is a sure-fire way to please the bees. 5. Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea): A good choice for those shadier spots in your garden, the foxglove's bells provide a welcoming space for bees in the summertime. 6. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida): A great pop of colour that lasts throughout August and September, this summer perennial produces s bright clump of blooms, highly-addictive to bees. Fall 7. Helen's Flower (Helenium autumnale): Make sure you water this tall plant plentifully and it will reward you with beautiful daises case in yellow, gold and rusty reds. 8. Autumn Joy (Sedum var): This compact perennial will give you the most bloom for your buck, beginning in mid-July and continuing until the first frost lands. 9. Bluebeard (Caryopteris x clandonensis): A real bee favourite, this low growing shrub likes dry, sunny spot. Winter 10. Christmas Rose (Helleborus orientalis): Blooming from January to April, this evergreen perennial performs well in shady sites. 11. Oregon Grape (Mahonia): Growing six to eight feet tall, this evergreen shrub blooms as early as January through March, giving your winter garden an attractive splash of colour — and the bees a warm winter welcome. source: CBC  October 29, 2019. It appears to be snowing all around our townhouse in the city and at the homestead but no snow in town. I love snow! Everything hibernates giving me pause to think and plan for the future. I'm still unable to do "regular" work. My health is far too inconsistant for that, but I'm working on it. After spending almost 2 weeks at the homestead last month, I lost 25 lbs as a result of working on the property. That's an excellent step in the right direction. It does get frustrating to have plans and not knowing if the day will be a "good" health day, a "bad" health day, or an "in bed all day in pain" day. I do the best I can. Working on the homestead is a labour of love. It's good that I can work for 20 minutes, take a break, then return to work. Things go slow and can be unpredicable, but I love it there.
When I have a good day, I am able to spend time on my laptop writing knitting and crochet patterns, planning vermicomposting, apiary, and garden ideas. Emily's last cardiac appointment was a little scary. Her cardiologist is proceeding with the heart transplant meetings. The plan is to list Emily around February. Once she is listed, she could be called any time for a new heart. We are fortunate to live rather close to the hospital (other than the disgraceful Toronto traffic). We will live life as "normal" as possible. Emily will continue to go to school, Gary will continue to work, and I will continue to build our nest at the homestead. If everything goes well, Emily will get a new heart, spend a few weeks in hospital, and then recover at home. I receive a couple of emails from Wwoofers who want to help on the homestead and Airbnb, I can't guarantee them work because of Emily's heart health. (click HERE for Wwoofer info) My worm farm (vermiculture) is growing. It's in my townhouse basment because it's too cold for them at the homestead during the winter. I am learning everything I can about beekeeping. Hopefully I'll have beehives in May at the homestead. I will be starting an indoor greenhouse in the townhouse this winter. I planted raspberry plants at the homestead and so far, no bears. The wild blueberries should do well when the bees arrive. Herb gardens and micro-greens are all ready for next season. Thanks for reading my blog. It's like my "Dear Diary" time. XOXO Sandra  October 17, 2018. Now that our Airbnb tiny cabin is empty of art supplies I can focus on decorating. I'm taking a minimalist approach to every aspect of the cabin. The living room walls are light green and the bedroom walls are soft blue. As you can see in the photo below, the living room seating is blue and green. I like the existing colours so I'll stay with the soft green and blue pallet. As a minimalist anything I add to the cabin will be well thought of and likely handmade. I'll be sewing a few duvet covers starting with this camping fabric. The bedding I make will be unique to the cabin. The duvet cover themes will be taylored to the guest. Before I order this camping theme textile I would like your opinion of the back of the duvet. Which do you like best? A, B, or, C? Thanks! Sandra   October 16, 2019. Earlier this month I got serious about moving things forward at the homestead. Being a part-time homesteader with health issues makes everything move at a snails pace. With Emily's heart transplant appointments coming up, I decided that I would devote a couple of weeks at the homestead (alone most of the time). I made a TO-DO list, listed supplies (free or inexpensive) I needed, and drove the 2.5 hours northeast. Gary and Evan came up on weekend.
Monday: Airbnb Prep. Our tiny cabin behind our house had been my art studio for years. Now that I have to spend more time in Toronto it made sense to move all my art supplies to one location. I emptied the tiny cabin and took more photos for the Airbnb description. This is an exciting project for us! Tuesday: Haliburton, Ontario. With the Airbnb tiny cabin being off the grid I need to find ways to provide comforts, like coffee, tea, cooking, etc.,. So I spent Tuesday looking for an off te grid coffee maker for guests. I found two! Wednesday: I had planned to spend today fixing the outdoor stone oven but I didn't realize how high the chimney was and didn't think it was wise to work alone on a ladder. So I'll wait for Gary to come and help. Thursday, Friday, Saturday: LOTS of tree trimming for the meditation platform near the pond. I can't wait to stock fish in the pond for guests to feed and enjoy. Weekend: Gary and Evan came up so we all worked together fixing the stone oven and enjoying the Autumn colours on the trees. I have to take a lot of breaks to rest my bones, but eventually I got many of the projects completed. A wonderful side effect of working at the homestead was losing 20 lbs. and feeling more fit! Stay tuned for more updates.  .September 21, 2018
Not many of you are old enough to remember the tv show Green Acres. It was about a wealthy city dwelling couple who, upon the husbands request, move to the country. The wife, Lisa, played by the glamorous Eva Gabor (Zsa Zsa's sister), went along with the simple life to please her husband, Oliver (Lisa pronounced, Ol-lee-vr). When we bought our off-grid property I knew my "Inner-Lisa" from Green Acres would occasionally emerge. Spring mosquito season is one of those times. Every Fall I anticipate Spring planting and working around the homestead. And every year I dread the mosquitoes and avoid outdoor work. Our 2.5 acres is wooded, rocky, and full of water sources that mosquitoes love. Standing water is their favourite place to lay larvae. Our medium sized frog pond is over populated with mosquito larvae. The frogs, birds, and bats are awesome and do their best to eat the mosquitoes, but we still have too many mosquitos. This week I started my annual Spring mosquito deterent research. I had always wanted to try putting more fish in the pond. Our creek is full of fish. The creek was the source of water for the pond, however, a previous owner of the property dammed off the pond so no new fish enter the pond. (We are grateful to him for creating the pond.) My research lead me to a fish called, gambusia (mosquito fish) that love eating mosquito larvae. I can't find information on these fish in Ontario. They appear to be tropical pond dwellers. I will never introduce a potential invasive animal on our property. (see below *). Gambusia fish look a lot like the minnows in our creek. This weekend I will move a couple dozen creek minnows to the pond and see what happens in the Spring. I don't anticipate that this will solve all our Spring mosquito problems, but I think it's a good start. I have plans to thin out the overgrown branches around the pond, create an Earth Loom, and sitting area for meditation around the pond. It would be awesome if we could enjoy the pond area in Spring 2019. I'll keep you posted. Sandra XOXO * Mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) - Aquatic Invasive Species. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. The virtues of the mosquito fish, Gambusia affinis, have been extolled by many mosquito control organizations. However, the species can be a major pest when introduced outside their natural range.  September 19, 2018
In recent years, I started watching several Homestead YouTubers. I narrow downed my favourites to: Dirtpatcheaven, Off Grid With Doug & Stacy, and Fouch Family Off Grid. Through Dirtpatcheaven, I learned about WWOOFers. WWOOF is an acronym and started out in the early days as Working Weekends On Organic Farms. This changed in time as it was realised that people wanted to volunteer and host anytime. Now various WWOOF organizations use a variety of meanings: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Willing Workers On Organic Farms. A couple of years ago, when we started talking about formally becoming a micro-farm, we assumed that we would be doing all the work ourselves. However, both Gary and I have health issues that severely slowed down our progress. I started to talk about WWOOFers more often. We have so much knowledge to share.
We are in the process of creating a tiny cabin Airbnb from what was formerly my art studio. With Emily about to be placed on the heart transplant list, I decided to move my art studio back to the city leaving the art studio cabin vacant. It's too adorable to leave empty, so we decided to share the experience on Airbnb. In October, I will be spending several days moving the art studio and designing a tiny cabin Airbnb. IKEA here I come! The tiny cabin will also serve as the WWOOFer(s) home while they are here. The application process is detailed. WWOOF Canada and I have been emailing each other all week. It's exciting and a little scaring to move forward with this. I am completely confident that WWOOFers will learn and we will have a mutually beneficial relationship. The scary part is actually seeing our vision come to be. This could be a "be careful what you wish for" scene. This will be hard work. But it's part of our dream. I'll keep you posted about the WWOOF Canada application results! XOXO  Hello, My name is Sandra Clarke. I am a part-time homesteader. We (my husband Gary and I) bought our homestead (just south of Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada) in 2010 when our two children were 10 and 16 years old. Our intent was to relax and enjoy the property on weekends while working in the city (Toronto, Ontario). However, we quickly grew to see the homestead had potential to be more than 2.5 acres and two off-the-grid cabins in the woods. Our plans expanded to create an organic homestead, eco-retreat for artists, writers, and nature lovers.
Gary and I are in our 50’s. We have a part-time city life and part-time homestead life. Gary still works full-time and I am a textile artist, both in the city and on the homestead. Our 24-year old daughter, Emily, was born with complex heart defects that cannot be repaired. She’s had three heart operations and is currently in the process of being listed for a heart transplant. Emily is a brilliant writer (I’ll post some of her short stories on this blog). Emily attends college in Mississauga (near Toronto, Ontario). Our 18-year old son, Evan, is also in school. He has a creative soul like Emily. Evan is a photographer and videographer. He specializes in nature films. Our children are our priority. This is the primary reason why we are part-time homesteaders rather than full-time. Once Emily receives a new heart and is stable, we will be able to move permanently to the homestead. Our homestead is about a three hour drive to Emily’s hospital, so it’s best that we keep our little townhouse in the city to be closer to the hospital. So that’s us! I wanted to keep my first blog short and sweet. I hope you come back for more. Thanks for your time! Sandra xoxo |
just keep swimming
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