Mini-Hoop Houses

The urge to garden got to me!  After weeks of reading through my seed catalogue until it was dog eared, and checking out Pinterest and Facebook for fresh ideas, I needed to get some dirt under my nails! 

After the torrential rains of Friday and Saturday, Sunday was a perfect day, balmy and bright, warm enough to work outside with just a light sweatshirt on.

Chuck and I got busy and made some mini hoop houses for our raised beds.

 Hoop houses are now trendy, as full sized greenhouses and as what we used to call cold frames back in the olden days, when I was a kid.



The Materials Assembled
 

 

Taking shape

 Using some PVC tubing, poly and scrap wood from the ongoing workshop project, we made covers for three of the beds.  In a couple of hours we turned the raised beds into little greenhouses, into which I have now planted Endive, Grand Rapids leaf lettuce, Kale and Peas. 

Adding the Poly
 

 

It's a bit early, I admit it.  However, there's a 50 50 chance by my estimation that we could get through the rest of winter without another freeze, so I think these little crops might work out, and soon we could be munching on some fresh greens.

And if not, well I had a marvellous time with my sleeves rolled up, in my gum boots, digging in the dirt with the sun on my back and Bogey chasing the odd stick I stopped to throw!

Garlic sprouting
 

A quick trip to the back garden yielded this great news - the garlic planted in October is all up now.  We can look forward to another (bigger) crop of garlic this year.  I am going to put more in this spring to see how it performs alongside the fall planted crop.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This week the kids have gone back to school, and I am sure many of them will be writing the obligatory "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay.  Here is my version!

Just spent another busy weekend at the country estate, finishing up the painting and getting ready for the movers to bring our furniture over this coming Saturday, it seems a good time to recap the progress made on the big life change so far..

The new house front steps

Here's the whole list of what was/is entailed:
Purchase Suitable Property
Sell City House
Move Household to Property
Move Business to Property
Find Tenant for City Warehouse Business Currently Occupies
Enjoy our New Life on Country Estate


Purchase Suitable Property
Mid-May we put in an offer on the country estate, and after a minimum amount of haggling it was ours!  We took possession of it May 31st.

During that same period of time I got sick- the sickest I have been in my adult life - causing me to  miss singing in my choir concert, cancel a trip to Prince George to see my nephew graduate from UNBC and cancel a trip to New York with a group from my choir. I think my body was letting me know that now that the big life change was happening it was TIME TO FOCUS!

So focus I did.

Sell City House
The month of June was spent de-cluttering the city house.  Countless trips to the Sally Ann, packing boxes of stuff we don't use on a daily basis and moving it to the country estate, stripping wallpaper, painting rooms, and painting the whole exterior of the house ourselves!

Chuckles doing the prep work before painting the city house exterior

 In between, I laid on the couch, as I was still not very well, but was determined that I was going to help Chuckles to get the job done!  By the end of June it was completed and we listed the house the first week of July.

Every weekend in July was spent at the country estate.  The weather was marvellous and we cleaned up the gardens, entertained visitors, gutted the barn, and generally busied ourselves outside.  During the week we would be in the city working and doing our best to keep the house clean, polished, mowed and clipped to look good for the open houses each weekend.  Then, Friday night we'd drive out to the country estate spend the weekend and drive back to the city Sunday night. The Monday of the August long weekend, we got the call we had waited for from the realtor.  Not just one, but two offers!  They were presented the next day, and one was clearly the best.  We accepted - house sold!

Move Household to Property
August was all about the interior.  After my initial solo attempt at the painting, Chuckles threw his weight into it and together, in four short weekends (LOL) we have painted nearly the entire interior of the house.

 It is so much better we cannot get over it.

Dark paint

 

Finished in our choice of paint colour!

 

 It was originally Dark Chocolate brown, accented with Marian's Meadow green, colours which completely absorbed the light that came in through the windows, making the house extremely dark and dungeon-like.  We have left the hallway and foyer those colours for now, as the furniture movers will be in next Saturday, and in likelihood there will be some bumps and scrapes on those wall, so we will paint them after the furniture arrives.

So officially Saturday Sept 7th the furniture will be moved and although we still have possession of the city house until Sept 19th, none of our "stuff" will reside there any longer. 

That's where we're at.  Next up is moving the business, but we need to renovate the barn first.  That construction begins on Sept 9th.   Chuckles will be doing some of that work himself, as well as using some contract labour.  Still, we expect it will take a couple of months to complete.

Meanwhile, we will still be working in the city during the week, and at the country estate on the weekends, except  now it will be roughing it in the city and living in comfort on the weekends, the complete reverse of the past three months!  We plan to bring our travel trailer in and park it at a nearby RV park on the river, which will be a nice spot to live, close to work and all amenities, trails and the beach. 

One of our two apple trees, in need of pruning but still producing!

Now that the bulk of the painting is finished, I can turn my attention back to the gardens, the apples that are ripening now, and putting some of that delicious Chilliwack corn into the deep freeze before it's all finished for the season. 

Thanks to all of you who are following my little blog, I sure do enjoy writing it.  It allows me to savor the little experiences that make up my big life change!

An Unexpected Visit

Last weekend Chuckles went to the country estate on Thursday evening, the night before I went.  He arrived at dusk and everything was just as we had left it the Sunday before.  He hit the hay early, having big weekend ahead of him dismantling the barn stalls.

 

 

Here's the barn that is being converted to our workshop.

 

Here's the interior when we purchased the place.

 

 

And here's the interior currently with stalls down.

 

 

When he awoke Friday morning, he took his cup of coffee and went outside to enjoy the cool morning air, and survey his new empire.  To his astonishment, a large section of the landscape fabric we had laid the week before, complete with rocks around the perimeter to anchor it against wind, had been pulled up and bunched into a perfect little nest!  In the center of the next, there had been a small hollow dug, and the fabric was gathered around the hole.

 

 

 

This is the way the landscape fabric was left last weekend.

 

 

 

And here's a couple of pictures of the little nest!

 

 

 

Jenn and I put it all back together again, when we were bark mulching  but this area of landscape fabric is still exposed, because we are going to cover it with driveway material when we bring that in, as it will be a little parking spot.  So, I hope the critter, whatever it was, doesn't do this again, as now the edges are buried under the bark mulch we laid down.  Since we hear coyotes yipping and howling  most nights, it's likely that is what bedded down here. 

 

 

I went out to the barn late in the day on Sunday to call Chuckles in for a piece of .... blueberry pie, and he snapped this photo of me with the disassembled stall front walls.  That's about the extent of my help with the barn reno so far!