It would seem that after the Holidays everything just went someplace in the basement... out of sight, out of mind.  I had about a 3ft path to bring the wood and knew this was something I need to tackle, just needed the courage ;o)

I took a couple of before and after pictures so I remember never to let it get to that state again.  Although I still have a bit more to go, I ended up bringing 3 bags of books for donation to the library, donated 3 bags of winter clothing for adults and kids, 2 garbage bags of junk, a list of items to sell on eBay/kijiji and some piece of mind. 

The first picture is from the landing looking to my left where we stack our wood.  On the right is a stack of shelves we built using strapping and old closet doors.  Have a better view of those in the after pictures.  These are great and sturdy shelves deep enough to store our camping gear, coolers, suite cases and even our rotational pantry.  It's amazing how neat everything is when packed properly on the shelves!

Basement After

Once I got started it wasn't so bad. Even my son pitched in and made a bag of toy donations, even though he played with them in the basement more then clean ;o)  It feels so good now to go downstairs and there is a place for the wood, recycled bottles and cans, tools, pantry is packed away, camping gear is packed away, Halloween and Christmas decorations packed away... just neat.

The lessons learned from this was one, we hold on to too much stuff and two, we have too much stuff.  What's hard is deciding what to part with and what to keep.  I'm one of those "I'm sure I could use that someday" guys and need to change that and stick to the necessities. 

We have some plans for the basement and the first step was to

Basement After2

declutter.  This summer we plan on putting in an egress window or a storm door so it's easier to bring in the wood in the fall.  I also have an ambitious plan of building a corner of the basement in to a root cellar so we have a good cold space for preserves and root crops.

In the last picture you can see a better picture of the closet door shelves.  Behind the wall on the right is another closed off section of the basement that was used as a wood working shop by the previous owner.  I didn't take any pictures of that room yet.  I just need to get my own tools to fill it up I guess ;o)

On to the next project for now...

I had both the pleasure and disgust of watching Food, Inc.
 this weekend and it was an eye opener.  Although I was aware of most of what the film had to say, the message was really driven home as to how far removed we are from our food in our "modern society".

Filmmaker, Robert Kenner, "lifts the veil" on the American food industry exposing the industrialization of food production and the powerful companies that control it.  And when I mean control it, I mean through brute force and intimidation, they can keep farmers under their thumb and seem to be concerned only about profit, not the product or the people for which they supply.  A few scenes that bother me are the fact that farmers seem powerless to fight the large conglomerates that run the meat industry and the fact that the US Supreme Court allowed a company to patent seeds. 

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not watched it yet, but it is well worth the view and I would highly recommend it.  It is a bit graphic at some points and if you are tender at heart, you might shed a few tears.  One thing is for sure, you will "Never Look At Dinner The Same Way Again".  It certainly changed my points of view and we will make more changes in our choices.

For more information on the film check out the official movie website: www.foodincmovie.com

Food Inc. Movie Trailer

Backyard Garden 2009

For the past 3 years we've planted a traditional type of row garden in a 14' x 40' and 20' x 6' sections of our backyard.  When we bought the house from my parents, there was a large ornamental flower bed that we slowly converted to a full vegetable garden.  Not really knowing what we were doing, we started slow, learned along the way and know there's much more to learn. 

This picture is the only one I could find that showed the entire garden.  Even though it's a bit small you can see the rows and the 2 apple trees in the back that we planed last spring.  The large tree in the top left corner will be moved as this year we want to move towards raised garden beds.  We want to go down that road for a few reasons:

Dogs: We have a 3 year old and an 8mth old pair of black labs.  They are great but the little one is a digger and chewer, so this is one of the main reasons for the change.  She already chewed up my raspberry bushes planted last year, which was my fault for putting her out where she could reach them, what was I thinking??  More on my remedies for this later.

Square Foot Gardening: The last few years we basically bought our seeds on a whim without much planning.  This worked out OK, but we didn't space our our plantings and ended up with too much lettuce or cherry tomatoes all at once, not enough potatoes, beans or carrots to carry us into winter, etc...  This year we are going to plan for preserves and follow intensive square foot gardening practices to increase our yields and maximize the space we have.  Also want to try companion planting of mutual beneficial vegetables and flowers.

Extending Growing Season: I've seen a few articles on using 8' pvc pipe and cover to create nice row covers to extend the growing season here in our Great White North when frost comes earlier then we want, so want to test it this year along with possibly experimenting on a few removable "Cold Frame" cover for the beds.

Ease of Management:I've never worked with raised beds before, but from I've read and feedback I've received from others, they are easier to keep up and work on.  Ours will be hemlock, which will match our fence when it goes up.  Everything is at an arms length away and the paths in between give you ample room to move about, also important for the dogs and kids ;o)

Esthetics's:I honestly find raised beds more neat and esthetically pleasing to the eye.  Since my wife is a photographer, we have a few other backyard projects to create good photo ops, which will tie into the beds as well.

I'm still playing with the design and layout, but we can easily go with eight 4' x 12' raised beds in the main area and another two 4' x 8' in the back.  This year we're going to test growing potatoes in a "potato stack" so that will be in addition to the raised beds and another post all together.

Putting money away for this project already and will purchase the hemlock for the raised beds in end of April or start of May depending on how the thaw goes... can't wait and will do a follow up post including pictures ;o)

Sometimes I feel like I have A.D.D.  When I start researching a topic through books and/or online, one thing leads to another, then to another, and before you know it I have 10 new projects on my to-do list.  I always have a notebook with me to try and keep my overzealous  plans in order and in check. 

I am doing research on winter gardening in my climate for next year.  We live in Eastern Canada just north of Maine, so we get cold snaps and lots of snow.  I got started reading a couple books that touch on the subject: "Intensive Gardening Round the Year" and "Solar Gardening", that I picked up from the Library.  I've done research on Cold Frame Gardening which was the route I was going before I stumbled on a few very inspiring YouTube videos about Dome Greenhouses and people actually using them to grow during the winter months in Northern climates and in the mountains.

One of the sites I'm checking out is Growing Spaces.  There are a few kits out there, but I like theirs so far and they have a lot of information available.  Here is their introduction YouTube video:

Here is another great video by PeakMoment that goes through a large 52ft year round growing dome project 6000 ft above sea level in Colorado.  Pretty sweet, but a bit large for my backyard ;o)

I am building or buying a greenhouse this year for sure, and was leaning towards traditional passive solar ones, but now I'm really liking the dome design.  It has a fluid nature to it and the dome design is perfect for our windy winters and snow loads.  I would love to buy a DIY kit, but cost is an issue and shipping is $$.  If I can find a design to piece it together and find some place local to purchase and cut polycarbonate panels, it is doable... dream dream dream ;o)

If anyone is currently winter gardening in a similar climate I would love to see and hear your experiences.

I had the opportunity to watch Les Stroud's documentary called Off The Grid.  It's a great film documenting how Les Stroud, Sue Jamison and their 2 young children bought a 150 acre abandoned 1930's farm land in Northern Ontario and started what a lot of us dream of: living a sustainable life closer to the land.

Les Stroud is probably better known for the TV series Survivorman where he spends 7 days marooned and surviving in various hostile locations throughout the world.  He filmed this documentary between seasons when he and his family decided to take the leap into this great adventure. 

I like the documentary because of its personal approach.  If you follow Survivorman you will see it follows the same format of narration and self interview.  I wasn't really sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised that it is not a be all end all film of latest technology stuffed with technical data and crap.  It's really a story of how and ordinary family can accomplish living a more simple life, off-grid and without a deep pocket book.  How the move affects different aspects of their lives and the overall pros and cons of this lifestyle change.  One of my favorite parts of the film is how they go over their concerns with how the move will affect their children.  Being a father myself, I could relate to their struggles of trying to have the best of both worlds: Urban activities and Rural lifestyle.

I would recommend this great documentary to anyone wanted to see an overview of what it would take to rebuild a homestead and live off-grid.  You can only fit in so much  in an hour and 10 minutes so it's an overview not a step by step blueprint, however there is a ton of great information packed in.  I watched it 3 times and still goign through notes of things to research myself. 

I would love to see a follow-up to this film where there is more detail in the rain water harvesting System and well, update on the new cabin, update on the integrated solar/wind system such as how they calculated their electrical consumption to size the system and how close they are to their numbers analysing their actual use... but most of all it would be great just to have an update on how the family is adapting to the move ;o)

If your interested, you can purchase a copy of the full documentary or if you're lucky you can catch it in 2 one-hour series from Canada's OLN (Outdoor Life Network) or and affiliate.