So this is where we live. Few have made the journey out here; maybe they are intimidated by that last 10km stretch of rough road that brings you to our lil oasis?
I think the few who have made the trip will tell you it is well worth it…even having to suffer the Dunny out back.  Yup, it takes a bit of an adjustment, that’s for sure. You have to think of it as Glamping, that’s the best way to describe it? Luke and I are just so used to being out here, are in sync with the Earthship that we don’t even think about it anymore.
I may bellyache from time to time; I am used to having everything clean and tidy and I have found that I have to turn a blind eye to dust, pet hair everywhere, an often overflowing laundry hamper, muddy dog prints EVERYWHERE but I get the job done when the Batts are well charged. Imagine, I get excited because I get to use the Vacuum Cleaner!!! How many people are EXCITED to vacuum? Crazy, right?

To date I have not had much success with growing our own food. And that saddens me. But I certainly have not given up! I look forward trying again next Spring and hope and pray that the growing season will not be interrupted by wild fires. In the meantime I can try my hand at growing fruit and veg in the Greenhouse. Last year, when we came up, I brought a crap tonne of seedlings from a Chilliwack nursery. I planted them with such hope! Hah!  So you know how Winter days are super short? Turns out  plants really like the sun! And it’s not like I can flip a light on to give them fake sun because, you know, that takes power and we guard that stuff with our lives!

Our lovely lil Earthship sits there on the hill. Well, built into the hill actually. Now, to be clear, we did not build it; it’s often the first thing I am asked when I tell people we live in one, “Did you build it yourselves?” Luke found the listing for an Earthship and since he has always wanted to live in one, here we are! Likely when he first dreamed of living in a such an abode it was to escape the Australian heat; here we burrow into the earth like a bear in a den, to settle for a long Winter sleep. The nights are so long! But as Luke pointed out to me, from December 21 onward, we gain 40 seconds of daylight per day!

The appliances in the kitchen leave a lot to be desired but we must be thankful to have a propane stove,  fridge and the propane to operate them. Now you  have heard me go on and on about conserving electricity, right? Well, you will also find, in my kitchen, a hundred small electrical appliances! The current fave is my InstaPot; my ALL time fave is the coffeemaker. So the deal is, when the generator is running or the sun is shining use ALL the power you want! That’s when I get super excited because, as stated earlier, it is when I get to do all the housework!

I have to say that the thing I love best about the kitchen is that it is a floor unto itself. Well, I share it with Billabong but he only takes up a small corner over by the table so I am cool with that. When living in civi I often lamented that the dogs were constantly underfoot in the kitchen and left their fur everywhere!  Obviously they still shed like crazy but not in my kitchen anymore! And I love that! I sorta, kinda miss having them underfoot but not enough to invite them in the back door. Okay, okay, I have invited them in the back door! You caught me out! Neither one of them like the steps into the cold room or the cold room itself and since they would have to pass through there? They prefer to keep out. In the collage above you will note the … stairs… Ladder Stairs, really; well, they sure can’t climb up those though I think if Sammy had the right motivation he would find a way up them! He stretches his lithe lil self up the bottom four steps but that is it.

The wrap around views from the kitchen are absolutely amazing! Though the basic landscape remains the same there are subtle changes that occur daily and they are fun to watch for. Obviously watching for wildlife and seeing them is the BEST but another thing that completely inspires me is to see the work that we do. The pushing back of the saplings, clearing the debris, the peekaboo glances of the trails we have built on the east side of the property, the knowing that we cleared the blowdown from a trail down at Moose Hollow, cleared all the saplings from the Boathouse Trail…it’s all back breaking work but so worth it. There is something about working on the land that brings such peace. If only I could coax said earth to sprout forth an abundance of fresh vegetables, we would have it made! I am hoping for a better year in the garden this Summer…one thing I have already learned – Do NOT plant in May! Not at all! We got a frost in early June that did not do my lil seedlings any good, at all! I was going by my paternal grandmother’s rule of thumb to plant after the May long weekend…doesn’t work where we live! I think this year I may start seedlings in the Greenhouse and on the ample kitchen window sills before I set the lil fellows out to bask in the outdoor world.

Okay, so one of the biggest drawbacks to living out here, off the grid, is that dang Dunny out back! I’m going to be frank here so stop reading and skip this paragraph but I am gonna spell it out! Now I have not counted the actual steps to the Dunny …weird, actually that I haven’t!…but that is a long fricken walk when you GOTTA go! You’re fine if it is just water works that are screaming at you because, you know, we have a bucket at the far end of the Greenhouse for that; we usually only use that in the dead of night when you can’t see your hand 15 centimetres in front of your face. During the day, you will often find Luke just peeing over the edge. Oh, hell, I am not opposed to doing that either! Beats trying to run up the hill with a bladder, ready to burst! Okay, here comes the messy bit. You get up, you have that morning cuppa coffee, you’re settled in front of the fire all cozy like and then it hits you…I gotta go. The first nudgings are subtle but we have learned that you get up and start acting on that PRONTO! You see, in the Winter? Well, first off you have to brave that ice cold toilet seat which your legs often stick to! So you have THAT mental block but again, those first subtle nudges you get up, you get dressed, you layer up, you put on your boots, hat, gloves  then pry the frozen door open and you want to run, because now you really have to go but you can’t run because, well, because it’s slippery and icy or knee deep in snow that needs to be shovelled when the sun comes up and here’s the most important reason why you can’t run…if you do, you just might not make it! Trust me, I have had more than my fair share of close calls!

If you skipped that paragraph, it is safe to continue reading the remaining missive. So anyway, to combat the Dunny run, Luke’s dad built us a lovely, convenient lil Dunny to house the composting toilet. It’s a work in progress. It WAS so lovely the handful of times that we did use it before it all came unglued….not literally, just we’ve had a few hiccoughs we have yet to work out…one of which is to build a false floor for it to rest upon so that we can get proper drainage. Live and learn, right? I look forward to the day I no longer have to a) have my legs frozen to the toilet seat b) no longer have to attempt a run to the dunny when bursting to go. Project One for Spring/Summer 2018

We bought a lovely second bed. If you’ve read previous posts or you know me you know that I do not sleep well. It’s a Schmidbauer thing. It’s been a lifelong battle. My dad, bless his soul, would ALWAYS say, “If you’re awake and you can’t go back to sleep in 30-60 seconds then get up and DO something! Be productive! Don’t waste valuable time laying around “in the fart sack” <- his words, not mine! Dad would often be up at 3 or 4 in the morning, drinking his black coffee, smoking his Sportsman Filters, wrapped in his bathrobe, yellow notepad on the table, pen in hand, and writing, writing, writing; one page of his musings would be his ominous To Do List for the day and then he would carry on and write about? About what? Once both my parents had passed away I found, tucked away, a letter my Dad wrote to my Mother about the perils my life would succumb to if Mother didn’t have THAT talk with me. She didn’t. I survived but I suppose my life may have been a bit easier if someone had had some kind of talk with me. S’all good, I sorted it out soon enough. PS Dad, it’s okay for Dad’s to have that TALK with their daughters too, you know. Just saying.
Oh yea, I was talking about sleep! So yea, I don’t sleep well. Maybe 3 – 4 hours, tops; then I find myself beating up the pillows, tugging the blankets, this way and that, kicking my feet and generally just being impossible to sleep next to so I get up and you know, get productive! Okay, that worked in civi but I can’t just start doing stuff out here because most of what I enjoy doing requires power: turn the lights on, knit, read, cook/bake, clean…yes, clean, in the small hours. Being limited, I do what I can: get the coffeemaker ready to run, make a fire, light a bunch of candles and settle into the recliner with my Kindle or iPad to read. Oh, and play Scrabble! Now if I have had only 1 – 2 hours sleep I will often try to go back to sleep but not in the bed. Prior to the purchase of the second bed I would try to curl up on the loveseat and though I am short, I’m not that short! I moved to the recliner which was heaps more comfortable but kind of bumpy and lumpy in all the wrong places. Now I have a second bed to retire to;  even if I don’t go back to sleep, at least I am resting and Luke says that is important.

So the final two shots are of the Chilko River where we collect drinking water. We do have a great well out here but it’s not the best TASTING water. The Chilko water tastes heaps better! We were diligent about collecting drinking water from the river until the forest fires happened. It seems like a switch went off after the fires and we have not had water from the river since. When we came back to the Earthship once William’s Lake was allowed back in, we brought water with us. Every time we went into William’s Lake after that, we got water at one of the water outlets. And then we were back in the Fraser Valley for Bear’s operation; we brought water back with us again. And then all the post operation vet trips – easy enough just to fill the water bottles when we went into town. I reckon once we have truly settled back into life at the Earthship and Bear is well and truly on the road to rehabilitation we will return to the Chilko for our water.  In the meantime, I suppose Luke is enjoying the break from having to put his hands into the cold running water of the glacier river.

With that, I will bid you, Adieu. I have truly neglected this blog. New Year’s resolution is to write more often even if they are only short posts. Until I get caught up, they will be photo compilations with a bit of writing.

Happy New Year, everyone! Treat each other, and Mother Earth, with love and respect, always.