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WAVING AT STRANGERS BLOG
Jim and Tricia Bowen
tandjbowen13@gmail.com
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Our new path in life
Not free but almost! We picked up these 9 used pavers at a local garage sale and decided to start our transformation from dirt paths to green grass. Jim jumped right into it and within a couple of days it was seeded.
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| Figuring out the placement took some time but it works. |
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| Trying them out for size... |
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| Adding a thin layer of somewhat 'better' soil we mixed up. |
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| Jimmy-Grass-Seed at work |
And before you can say Jolly Green Giant, we have grass!
We figure we only need 30 or so more pavers to do the rest of the paths around the veggie garden but it's a start! The grasses will absorb the rain instead of creating muddy paths. Some instant gratification.
Cheers
Tricia and Jim Bowen
tandjbowen13@gmail.com
Sointula Sights
From time to time we actually leave our property and explore Sointula and Malcolm Island. Here are a few of our best shots and memories of life around Sointula in 2022.
In addition to the sights around our island, I've been taking lots of shots of our new garden, sans deer! What a difference the deer fence makes. Our clover is taking off, the newly planted berry and apple guilds and garden beds give me great joy and I'm thrilled to share our macro garden space pics with you too.
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| I feel like I have the beach all to myself all the time. This was an extra low tide. |
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| Junior Crow, our lofty neighbour |
Junior hatched a couple of weeks ago in one of our trees, a few feet above our head. We never saw the nest but we sure knew of its existence. It's been fun watching them explore our zen pond and teaching Junior how to bath and drink for the first time. Let's just say he wasn't exactly elegant! We watched Mom (or Pop) swoop down to the pond area carrying a piece of dry bread, dip it a few times to soften it, peck at it to break it up and then stuff it all back in its beak for Junior to feast. Meanwhile Junior is sitting in the tree, like yesterday, waiting not so patiently for parents to come with food. So far we're enjoying the space together, in harmony. They'll be around til the cherries ripen then they'll all feast together.
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| Mother Nature is an amazing artist....who knew she etched kelp. |
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| This is red clover flower. Red clover is often huge, compared to white clover. We call them mutants. |
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| Just another day at the office |
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| I wonder what day this was....... |
We had three Easter egg hunts, split by age groups. Volunteers from the fire department were on hand, along with the Easter Bunny of course. Kids, pets, grandparents, aunts, uncles and those who just wanted to be around kids at Easter all converged at Harmony Campground for the wonderful afternoon occasion.
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| It takes a brave teen to be the Easter Bunny. Thanks, Wyatt! |
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| Our three-sided plastic greenhouse, along with a little cold frame on top, gave us a few early blooms. |
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| Perfection in nature. |
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| Have you met Spot? Spot's our watchdog...but he's not very fast and his vision's shot. Other than that... |
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| NO We're not opening a hair salon! We picked up 9 glass panels through Craig's List for our future greenhouse. We expect to build it in the next couple of years, and replace our current tomato plastic greenhouse. We know that having a greenhouse will increase our food production hugely. |
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| Future chimney, currently...holding reflections of the spring sun. |
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| OMG I'm so excited! Mom would be thrilled that I have two fuschias. They were her favourites. |
We call our patio our outdoor living room. We spend time every day outside taking in the sounds of our feathered friends while watching summer's warmth transform our outdoor space into a lush paradise.
It's June 21 today. Enjoy summer.
Tricia and Jim Bowen
tandjbowen13@gmail.com
Sunday, February 13, 2022
House Projects and a New Fence
Once upon a time there was a princess who loved hot baths. The princess was a free spirit and spent many years as a gypsy, often on a sailboat with no bathtub, alas. The princess never gave up her dream of luxuriating in a jetted 6' tub in her new home. And it is slowly happening.....
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| Jim made a wheeling dolly so we could move the tub around easily. |
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| First test fitting. OOOOOOO! |
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| Of course, nothing is easy, especially when you're ensuring the tub sits properly. |
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| Roll the tub away and start working on drywalling. |
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| It's hard work! About this time that we decided that someone else will do the rest of the drywall in the house when we finish the bedroom, office and art studio. Last fall Jim primed and painted the long corner boards, which will be mounted outside. |
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| Ramp is now well attached to the house. |
Our latest project involves putting a deer fence around the perimeter of our property. This will allow us to uncover our zen pond, plant apple trees and blueberry bushes, grow flowers and enjoy more of our land. Jim's back is injured again so he can't do a lot of physical work right now. He's pretty frustrated but we work at things as we can. The fence is labour intensive and time sensitive but we're getting there. It won't be long until it's growing season again.
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| It's 120' across the lowest part of our property. We cleared a lot of brush to make room. |
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| It takes about 1.5 hours to dig a 24" deep post hole. I'm the fence hole queen. This fence will have a gate in it. Jim and I work together on this project, as usual. |
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| No more alder! We're going to move the bamboo (on the right) into the space where the alder was. We're also going to add more soil to the lowest areas to create more land for a food forest. |
Life continues and we enjoy what we're creating.
Cheers, until next time.
Jim and Tricia Bowen
Clowning Around, Art Abounds, October Gardeners, Fresh Fish
Besides running into clowns, we enjoyed a fall full of artistic endeavours, the great outdoors, harvesting veggies in October and watching unbelievable sunsets. Enjoy.....
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We bought two halibut from our local fishermen. Jim butchered the fish so we had 16 meals wrapped. |
We also purchased two huge tuna. Jim set up a youtube to learn how to butcher a tuna.
Another 16 meals! These days we eat either halibut or tuna once a week these days. Yum!
But wait, there's more. We also bought the juiciest fresh spot shrimp a couple of weeks ago and ate like there was no tomorrow!
The garden provided us with cucumbers right into October. We also pulled parsnips in November.
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The new home of our mock orange. 
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| As part of the fence changes, the left part of the cedar slats with the pots underneath will be taken down and the cedar slats on the right will be extended to our cherry tree and beyond. |
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| Full moon over Rough Bay, while waiting for an 8:00 a.m. ferry in winter. |
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| We brought seaweed and kelp back from the beach to add nutrients to our soil over the winter months. |
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| We added grass clippings in October to also add nutrition to our soil. |
We made a bit of time for art in early November, before Jim's heart attack. We both donated pieces to the Sointula Resource Centre annual on-line auction and were very pleased to help with the fundraiser.
Here's a salmon that Jim created. You can see his tools and sketches. And there's the whale's tale, which I painted and donated for the auction. As spring approaches we'll see how much time we have for art...
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| Jim backed it in right next to the driveway where it'll spend the winers. We'll likely pay for moorage for a month or two in the summer. |
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| I enjoy creating small pieces of art as well as big. |
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| We had a white Christmas this year! |
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| Trying to root dew berries in the window for planting out in the spring. |
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| Love the sunsets! |
Until next time!
Tricia and Jim Bowen
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