Loving Life On The Island

A quick hello from Front Porch Farm!  We've been settling in and getting ourselves oriented to the lay of the land and the somewhat different pace of life here.  Things are a bit more spread out than we're used to, and although we have basically everything we need within 45 minute's drive of the house, not everything is in the same direction! Running errands tends to be a bit more time-consuming than we're accustomed to, and we do try and make our time and trips worthwhile. It hasn't been unusual to be out of the house for 5 or 6 hours as we organize flooring, painting, and 'house' supplies, purchase tools, and simply explore.  We've had to do a bit of searching for particular items we need, including a chainsaw and a ride-on lawnmower.  2 days, and almost 5 hours behind a lawnmower for my first pass on the property showed how important a lawn tractor and a gas-powered trimmer was going to be - just to maintain the property already cleared.  We now both have steel-toed boots, several pairs of work gloves, respirators with air filters, and the basic equipment we will need to see us through until the winter. Speaking of winter, we arrived to find the woodshed had been emptied, so we need to work on that very soon!

We've been settling into the property as well, and getting used to the house and garden - and the quirks that come with each.  The garden soil is oddly barren, and I've started to stockpile rabbit manure, kitchen waste and grass clippings - but have yet to site and build a proper compost pile.  The spot I have in mind is currently overrun with bracken fern and other wild growth.  I have my work cut out for me, as I think the previous owners were accustomed to throwing Miracle Grow at their plants, rather than feeding the soil.  There are some lovely (though rampantly-growing) raspberry bushes which have been keeping us in fresh fruit, and I do have carrots, peas, greens, some root vegetables and other assorted veggies seeded to the existing garden beds (which had been full of chickweed, hawk weed, and plenty of raspberry volunteers when we first arrived).  I've focused on planting for the fall and winter, so I'm seeding carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, chard, collards, cabbage, kale and lettuce in hopes of having some small amount of harvest after the heat of summer is over.  I also planted a short-season corn, beans, and some tomato plants just for the hell of it. 

I managed to plant out my blueberry, black currant and honeyberry bushes during our first week (and then discovered I will be needing to net them off against the robins next year!). Most of the perennials and herbs which we had potted up and brought over with us have been permanently planted to the beds around the house, or to the "fenced" kitchen garden.  The fence is merely a visual deterrent, as a strong wind could currently push over many of the old posts, and the wire sags fairly heavily.  Fencing is on our priorities list, somewhat behind replacing our 20-year-old well pump and adding a 2500 gallon cistern.  We've run out of water multiple times - which we were assured by the listing realtor was never a problem with 5 adults and garden irrigation for 20 years prior..... *sigh*

On the bright side of that, we've been told that there is supposed to be an undeveloped spring in the low-lying area we are thinking of as a future pond site.  That's an interesting project for next summer - one step at a time.

We've had visits from the local wildlife - a deer in the orchard, and a cougar sniffing around the rabbit cages on one of our first nights here.  Luckily, I had just picked up net fencing from 'up-Island,' and a farming friend was on a day trip for new rabbit stock.  She popped in for a visit and gave us a crash course on setting up our own little electric net area for the bee hives and rabbit cages. No sign of problems since!  

Currently, we're working on the house interior before we unload our shipping container full of furniture and assorted belongings.  The carpet has been ripped out - all but 2 bedrooms on the second floor - and we are prepping, priming, and painting the main floor in preparation for some new subfloor, vinyl and carpet flooring, and low-flow toilets. Vinyl goes in this week, and new carpet the week after that.  We're painting ceilings, walls, and trim in advance, so that we only splatter paint where it doesn't matter. 

Where To Start? A New Beginning...

I finally have an internet connection, access to my laptop (though where my camera is at the moment is anyone's guess), a moment of time where I'm not working, eating, or sleeping, and therefore I will post a brief update on the beginnings of Front Porch Farm...

Though the planning for a move was in the works for several years while we searched for a "suitable" piece of property, we knew the actual move itself was going to be a major undertaking.  As the date of our move became imminent, we began to realize just how major an undertaking we were looking at; after all, we had turned our sixth of an acre in the city into a mini farm, with mason bees, two honeybee hives, 14 rabbit cages, various livestock equipment, assorted plant cuttings and potted divisions, a rather admirable workshop, a very well-equipped kitchen to allow for all of our food preparation and preservation, and a pantry which was sizable - despite our eating the majority of our reserves and emptying out our two small chest freezers in preparation for packing. We had arranged for a 20-foot container, to be dropped, picked up, and delivered to our new address.  There was a 17-foot Uhaul truck rented, and reservations made for the truck on the ferry trip to our new home on Vancouver Island.  I thought I had everything in hand.

As we had a group of friends help us with our final packing of the container, I began to have some serious doubts about being able to find room for all of our remaining belongings.  Thinking it was best to be safe, I consulted with the ferry regarding our reservations, and called UHaul to upgrade our truck to a 26-foot model, actually measuring 34 feet from bumper to bumper - the largest truck I could legally drive without a commercial license.  The reservation was necessary, because we would be transporting the beehives and rabbits, and we therefore qualified for priority sailing on BC Ferries.

The weekend before our move, Adrian had finished his last day of work, and now the packing continued with our undivided attention.  The UHaul was picked up soon after the container was hauled away on Monday (full to the brim thanks to the hard work of many awesome people), meaning we had until first thing on Wednesday to load the remainder of our household goods, the workshop material, and finally the livestock just a short time before we pulled out of the drive.

By Monday evening, it had become glaringly apparent that there was simply not enough space to fit all of what had at this point become known somewhat disparagingly as 'stuff.' I lay awake that night, while Adrian got a few hours of rest, trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do to make our deadline for the new owners to take possession of the house.  It would have been difficult to go back to the buyers and ask for extra time - but added to that, we had the complication of a ferry ride to get where we were going.

Tuesday morning, I woke Adrian with the declaration that we needed a second truck.  It was 6:30 in the morning, and I had no way to contact any reservation desks, but we started the day - Adrian with a bit of rest, and me with fraying nerves and an upset stomach.  As soon as I could, I began to make calls to find us a truck - any truck really,....to find that UHaul had nothing available, and Budget wasn't even answering their 800 number (silly me, heading into an end-of-month holiday long weekend!).  I finally managed to put my name in for a truck with a company I had never heard of, and which required that the truck be returned to the Mainland.  At that point, we were happy with any additional moving ability, and so began the story of Adrian's 5 ferry crossings in 3 days......

We picked the truck up early on Tuesday, and with the help of a couple whom we ourselves had just helped move (karma!), we managed to completely fill our second, 16-foot moving truck, park it out front of Adrian's parents' house, and recommence the loading of our original, upgraded 26-foot truck.  That may have been one of the most stressful experiences of my life.  The day seemed to go on forever, and after our friends had left for the night, Adrian and I continued to move boxes as darkness closed in.  We lay on the floor for an hour and a half around 12:30, then started to load everything that we could fit into the truck in a desperate rush, maneuvering in the hives and the rabbit cages, knowing that we had to be at the ferry at 7:15, a half hour before departure.

We made it with four minutes to spare.

On the closed commercial ferry deck, I opened the back of the truck to give the rabbits fresh air, listened to the sound of annoyed bees and watched as, one at a time, bees stumbled towards the light of the open door, and took flight inside the ferry.

Crap.

I couldn't do anything about the bees, since the hives were wedged in well back of the rabbit cages, blocked from rabbit messes by a wall of plastic, and surrounded by all of that 'stuff' we had managed to squeeze under, around, and over them - so I spent the 2 hour ferry ride cracking the door for the rabbits, and then closing the door when too many bees started to find their way out of the truck. When we arrived at our new home, we very carefully unpacked the rabbits and found that the lids of the hives, though tied down, had tipped and shifted during the drive, allowing some bees to go exploring.  We lost some of our girls, but an inspection shows no damage, and brood in both of the colonies.

The 26-foot truck was emptied on Wednesday, and returned to a local dealer early Thursday.  Adrian took the ferry over that afternoon, to bring back our 16-foot truck, which we proceeded to unload that night in order for him to return in on Friday.  His 5th trip on the ferry was him bringing over our pickup truck, and he got home after eleven.  Then, we slept!