Life on Salt Spring

September 2009 - Preserving the Harvest...

With this many tomatoes and lots of other fruit we did some preserving - or canning as it seems to be called here in North America.

From left to right:

Peach Jam, Plum Jam, Tomato Ketchup!, Green Tomato Chutney, Bramble Ketchup

September 2009 - Harvesting... Delicious!

The green things you might not recognize are Edamame! Yum!

 

 

 

September 2009 - The Carpenter Ants are Back!

Will it NEVER end???

Well, at least I don't stress about it like I used to. Now I think this is just part of living in the forest and country in Canada...

September 2009 - Rental Renos Main Bedroom Before & After

Main Bedroom

1) This doesn't capture the dirty grey, rucked up 80's carpet, bizarre stove in the corner on a concrete platform with fake brick backing, unlockable patio door, uncovered fluorescent light fittings, 4ft deep cupboards all along one wall (right hand side) with green wood panel doors that were supposed to be on rollers and didn't move, plus the washer, dryer, hot water tank and 3 legged laundry sink in the cupboard with holes in the floor so you could see down into the garage.

Click on the pic for a (slightly) better look.

 

2) Carpet gone. Wall cupboard gone (see line on ceiling on right of photo), green wood (& brick) panelling on the way out...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Ceiling painted, light fittings replaced, walls painted, laminate flooring underway (with help from my wonderful brother James) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Almost finished. Slider door replaced with new double glazed (windows on the way), flooring in, curtains up. New entry way was also created with washer dryer cupboard on right and laundry storage cupboard on the left

 

 

5) New ensuite bathroom - just awaiting mirror! Shower and new hot water tank off to left.

September 2009 - Lord and Lady Elsey...

Or so our wonderful new tenants call us...

When we moved to Salt Spring we downsized and the plan was always to buy a rental property so we could have some income. It's notoriously hard to make a living on Salt Spring - with a population of 10,500 and a largely tourist economy.

And finally, the right property at the right price (thanks to our fab Realtor Chris Hobbs of Sothebys) came along. Our amazing Mortage Advisor Rishel of Custom Mortgages got us an awesome fixed rate and it all came together at the end of July. So, now we are landlords...

Of course to get such an amazing deal on the property there was a 'price' and this has (so far) included:

• a new roof
• a brand new septic field (that actually works)
• new windows to replace the (some) broken and (all) single glazed windows and patio doors
• new carpet / laminate flooring to replace the icky 80s-tastic faded beige textured carpet in the living room/hall and the 1980s jazzy blue/grey patterned carpet in the master bedroom.
• a new bathroom for the master bedroom
• replacing uncovered fluorescent and broken light fittings
• organizing a more efficient fireplace insert for the living room/getting the chimney swept
• Cleaning out smelly insulation that had 2 dead rats in there (previous rodent infestation was disclosed on sales sheet)
• and that doesn't even include the much needed interior painting over brick and also green wood panelling and gloss black paint effects, never mind minor fixing (eg. of dodgy plumbing/electrics), tidying, cleaning etc.

And we did all this in one month! AND that's just for the upstairs! I have never worked so hard physically in my life. We worked full days, evenings and weekends - right through in the last couple of weeks. I learned to mud, tape and sand walls as well as just fill holes and paint. We had some help - much appreciated - from my brother and our new tenant Rod. Thank-you very much!

See photo album (coming soon) for before and after pics.

August 2009 - Various updates

I can't quite believe how busy August got.

Our own fault. Part of our plan to stay here was to downsize and also buy a rental propertyfor income/long-term investment. So we did it. At the end of July 2009. And then gave ourselves one month for some pretty major renos - as we cleverly got some very nice tenants who wanted to move in August 30th! I'll save the details for another post.

Also, it has been an incredibly dry and often hot summer. This has meant a lot of watering our various veg patches/plants. One (big) thing we learned is not to have your food growing all over the property if you need to water it on a regular basis. We're hoping we can still rescue our native hazelnut trees, as we forget about them way over there... Next year we cluster our growing areas together!

And speaking of hot - phew! It's been such great weather that we've got a really good crop of peaches (see the biggie at right!) coming from a tree we're still in the process of rescuing... And we have two melons from plants that have been OUTSIDE and never seen a greenhouse! Our tomatoes have gone wild, ripening nicely! But many of our winter crops are struggling in the heat. Let's hope they make it.

We also had the great idea of turning our hot tub into a cool tub - which worked amazingly! We turned it down to just below body temperature and would wallow in it or paddle our feet. It made a HUGE difference on those 35-40 degree celsius days.

Other things we've done in the last month or so include 2 trips to Vancouver 1) for a friend's wedding (congrats to Trev and Charmaine!) and 2) to see AC/DC (who were awesome!). I became an auntie for the first time to a wonderful little boy called Rupert Edward (luckily my brother also moved to Canada and lives on Vancouver Island so I will get to see my nephew grow up!). We've also had a few visitorsto keep us on our toes and of course as well as renos on our home and the rental property we also had finally got the permit for our guest cottage and had the foundation poured/got the ball rolling there!

So I hope you excuse my lax approach to blogging of late. I'm making up for it now!

August 2009 - Rats!

Found during renos on our rental property...

ICK!

This is NOT a Rat on a Stick.

It is a dead dried rat that Duncan is holding by the tail!!!

August 2009 - Zucchini Overload!

There is apparently a saying on Salt Spring. That if you can't get rid of all your zucchinis - you don't have enough friends... I bet they don't say that about apples in the fall. But there you are.

So, this little haul of Zucchinis - held by our dear friend Christina - is all from one plant... She needed two arms to hold the basket while I took the photo!

And although we've given lots of zucchini away, we've eaten a lot too. Zucchinis are very versatile - so I thought I'd share what we've (mainly) been using our zucchini for.

1. Pasta with roasted zucchini, onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.
2. Moroccan Vegetable Tagine. Couscous with zucchini, carrots, parsnips, turnips, chickpeas, dates, apricots, tin of tomatoes, cinnamon and cardamom. Yum!
3. Zucchini brownies. Yummier!
4. Fast zucchini soup. Onion, grated zucchini, vegetable stock, turmeric and curry powder, natural yoghurt.
5. Grated raw zucchini with carrots and fresh ginger
6. Zucchini, Apple and Potato bake with a yoghurt/nutmeg/cheese topping.
7. Slug bait...

Oh - and did I mention Vegetable Curry?

Interestingly none of these recipes have meat or fish in them - I think (especially) when you add lots of flavour (aka herbs/spices) to the dish and cut the zucchini into big chunks you don't need meat!

July 2009 - Bees in my pants...

OK.

So it was just one bee.

And it was in my trousers not my pants (pants in England would be my knickers or as Canadians call them panties). Anyway, enough about underwear.

And sorry, I don't have a photo of this.

And thankfully I was not wearing a thong/g-string that morning or my mother-in-law would have had a fabulous view of my butt-cheeks.

So, what happened was pretty simple. I was heading towards the house after giving my hard-working mother-in-law (chopping rogue blackberries down) a nice cup of tea.

Buzz. Buzz buzz. In my pants. At my knee and heading north.

PANIC! I strip off my pants - in the vegetable patch. I turn the pant leg inside out and THOROUGHLY check for bees. Or wasps. Anyhow it was gone. Phew.

Head towards the house again.

Buzz. Buzz buzz buzz. PANIC. EVEN MORE!

Strip off again. And found it this time. A big black chap, luckily quite sleepy. How I didn't get stung I don't know.

LESSON: Don't wear flared pants in the garden. And mow the grass before the flowers grow.

July 2009 - Our 10(0) mile diet...

We enjoyed a fabulous roast dinner recently. Our very own 10(0) mile diet - and our own seasonings too - rosemary, thyme, garlic and mint sauce.