twenty two below

On our trip into town the other day, we see the shops are setting out their racks of seed packets and spring planting supplies and, the catalogues are arriving in the mail. Stokes seeds, Richters Herbs and the Lee Valley Garden catalogue... It will be a few months yet before we can think about popping our seeds in the soil. She's a frozen world on this high plateau! This past week was looking rather promising ~ like the beginning of the end of winter but not so... The willows bushes at the creeks edge had begun to show their soft grey buds and tiny blades of green grass were appearing at the edge of the shop and next to the house where the sun beats down... But it's gone cold again and we've had more snow. We've been keeping the wood stoves and the furnace cranked. This morning the thermometer read 22 below and it's supposed to get colder tomorrow. David was up on the roof of the house yesterday to clean out the furnace chimney while I cleaned out the wood stove in the kitchen. The colder it is, the more wood we burn, the more upkeep required tending chimney's and the accumulation of ash in stoves. We have a big old Enterprise Savoy in the kitchen - she's the heart of the house to be sure. In the out of doors, the sheep are content - they have their shelters and their summer hay and their warm winter wool coats. The girls; Missy and Mrs' are the two BIG ewes on either side of 'Sunshine'. We expect a lamb or two any day now. We'll post some pics of the big event of course and the days and weeks following... And so it goes ~ we work to stay warm and dream of spring while enjoying every incredible moment of this winter wonderland. The skies are spectacular! The moose wander in and out of the meadow, the coyotes too... leaving tracks that tell stories of their nocturnal wanderings. Life is good. We build our wood rings and get to know more wonderful people from all over the planet! There are wooden rings winding their way right now to Germany, Australia, Denmark, the UK, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey, Texas, Kansas, Virginia and Florida. It's 7:30am and the forest of trees surrounding the meadow cast their morning shadows sharply against the frozen ground. Truly spectacular. It promises to be a bright sunny day! Shine on and power up!!

yodi visit

A couple of quick pics of our resident coyote and his latest visit ~ January 31st.

The first week of the new year

Windy today and cold!! Hurricane force winds were predicted just northwest of us on Haida Gwaii ( The Queen Charlotte Islands). We are tucked in safe and warm and happily at work with the wood furnace cranked. Constantly stuffing more wood in the kitchen stove too, keeping the kettle on the whistle. The animals have all been tended to, David generally feeds the sheep and the fires while I tend to the chickens and water the critters.

Our two dear dogs love to accompany us on our rounds. Jenny the collie is especially fascinated - she loves the sheep of course and feels that all the animals are her personal responsibility. Kali, the little one, always comes with me when I'm looking after the chickens. She and one of the hens had a good visit today when the hen slipped past me and got loose in the greenhouse. David is finishing rings today for shipping on Friday. Shipping means a trip into town - it's a perilous journey on icy logging roads and one we make only a few times a month during the winter months. It also means getting supplies in for the next few weeks and once we get this close to 'town day' we are getting awfully low on things like fresh produce and milk. It's biscuits and beans for lunch today :)

Arriving safely home from town is always the best part of the trip. It's a full days journey. Preparation for the trip is intense too. We pack extra winter clothes, blankets, tools, anything we might need in the event of a breakdown on that long, cold, seldom travelled road.

But, another day at home before our town trip. Another quiet day on the meadow coming up.

January 1st, 2006

We are the only two human beings for miles around. It should have been a quiet new year's day on the meadow but instead we had a steady stream of welcome visitors. Here we are on this new years day and there arrives on the meadow not one, but two moose !! 'Our' two moose... A very welcome sight!! About 2 months ago, a cowboy friend from down the way had told us that a hunter had shot a moose about 3 miles from our place. We were sure it was one of our 'resident' moose because since then we had seen only one of them. Then, there they were this morning - the two of them, looking healthy, and happlily munching on willow bushes at the edge of the meadow. Yipee!! Not 10 minutes later we watched our 'resident' coyote wander out into the field pouncing on field mice as he likes to do, nearly every day in the winter . . . then, his partner showed up at the edge of the meadow!! We haven't seen the two of them together before! We had seen the one coyote calling and answering and we've heard them howling many a night but this was a rare sight. The two horses that are sharing the place with us this winter like to play games with the wildlife ~ they are quite comical. We had two ravens visit today as well, first one then the other landed in the middle of the meadow and proceeded to take long and luxurious baths in the snow. Just like chickens taking a dust bath. One of them spent a great deal of time over with the horses, bathing close by and conversing, we're sure. We feel so blessed by the company of these birds and animals . . . and what a magical start to the new year.

Winter cometh

Well it's been a few months and winter is beginning to move in on the meadow. We had our first snow a few weeks ago and the forecast is for snow today so it sounds like this is it. Here she comes.

A few came to say so long

Saturday, August 13th. It's been a hot, smokey day on the meadow with forest fires just south of us and strong winds. We've had 6 hard frosts this month. Thankfully our garden is mostly contained in a greenhouse. The hummingbirds arrived on April 26th this year. For the past months we've had probably 30 hummers with us every day - dancing and drinking at the window, sipping on the flowers in the little garden below the kitchen window, hanging out on the fence and in the trees that David planted by the house in May this year ... This morning our wee feathered friends were conspicuous by their absence. Doing the breakfast dishes today I was struck with the sad realization that the hummingbirds had gone. David came into the kitchen from his workshop and we were comisserating when one, two, three little hummers appeared at the window as if to say 'so long'. We refilled the feeders with some high test sugar water for those who lingered and still had the long journey ahead of them. Still, it was a quiet day at the kitchen window. This time last year it began to rain and didn't let up for weeks.

Critter Count

A picture we took tonight at about 8pm from the porch. Here is one of 83 swallows we just counted perched along the fence. And some notes from David tonight at 1:45 am . . . Wildlife count - About 10 oclock this morning the mated pair of redtailed hawks flew all the way across the meadow, the lead hawk burdened down by something almost larger than he/she could carry, followed by the excited mate all the way back to the nest high in the tree on the bench above our house. Next a great blue heron flew down the creek landing on the old bridge about a hundred yards from the kitchen window. In the late afternoon a doe quietly browsed her way down the creek that runs by the house, totally unconcerned about our presence or the presence of our dogs. All this amidst a constant flurry of swallows, hummingbirds and blackbirds punctuated with occasional giant circle of an eagle which called a temporary all quiet to the meadow several times today. The heron appeared twice more during the day floating lazily down the creek looking for lunch then dinner. And that's just what we noticed in our busy day.

It's a good life.

Welcome to the Homestone. David and I (Nicola) live very remote in the Cariboo-Chicotin area of British Columbia. We live in a kind of surrealist paradise that a friend described as 'our solar powered idyll'. We live off the power grid and without telephone. We rely on satellite internet for all of our communications. David's handcrafted wood rings have connected us with folks all over the world - people we are proud to call friends and because of our remote lifestyle, we don't see our family as often as we would like. "The Homestone" seems a good way for us to stay in touch with friends and family.

We live a blessed and mostly uniteruppted life. It's just the two of us here and the things we do. Our nearest neighbour is 10 miles away down the old logging road that leads to town. Our nearest small town is an hour down that road.

Our life and our work is powered by the sun. We heat our home and our outbuildings with wood. We cook with wood and we work with wood. The wood we use in our home comes from the wind-fall and bug killed trees on our 50 acres.

The animals we caretake and those who wander wild through our lives are sometimes the only other creatures we see for months. Our sheep have names and distinct personalities; they give us the best fertilizer and create fire breaks around the property. And they give us their delightful lambs in the spring. The chickens (our baker's dozen of 13 hens) look after our kitchen scraps. They give us beautiful eggs in return. Our greenhouse and gardens produce a short but spectacular season of fresh organic vegetables.

We have each other and the work we do. We are blessed with wonderful families and friends. We thank God and all our angels. It's a good life.

Welcome to our world.