Monday, end of a work week...

This is a different week, only one workday as we are off on our travels tomorrow, a vacation from the vacation, so we decided to empty the left side of the compost heap today, which was quite easy as it was ten easy wheelbarrows full, another yard of soil/humus for the new shrub bed near the hedge.

That is almost the end of the process for the compost heap cycle, the left side is excavated except for a couple of inches of humus as a starter layer, the right side has about eight inches of transition zone that will be incrementally shovelled to the other side each time we have a foot of fresh weeds, clippings and kitchen scraps, the starter layer, new materials and transition layers will then be the engine of the process all over again, all we have to do is feed it and wait a few years.

The new bed is ready, new soil for the influx of the shrubs and plants in September. The photo looks basically the same as the previous blog except there are ten more wheelbarrows dumped on the top, another cubic yard moved and no compost left, which means that the wheelbarrow has now been parked back in the shed for the season, no more mulch or soil to move this year.

Time for a short vacation! 

The new bed, morning shade, afternoon sun.

Today, five more wheelbarrows full of soil from "the other side" and a few rocks to define an extension to an existing path, a fork in the road that will be a project for another year. The new bed is destined to hold some of the shrubs and plants that we will buy in September during our yearly pilgrimage to Russell Nursery up near Sidney.

That represents 24 wheelbarrows full of soil, about two and a half cubic yards moved at the end of our "working week" of Monday to Friday half-hour sessions in the garden. The right hand side has been heavily weeded during the week by the good lady, yet there are still more weeds to be removed, to be relocated to the compost heap and I estimate five more wheelbarrows of soil will finish off the job, but that will all have to wait until Monday, because we now deserve our weekend.

The left hand side of the compost heap has amazing fully composted humus, rich in nutrients, after finishing off this bed I will need to remove the rest of it, probably to a temporary heap on a tarp and then onto another new bed which has not been imagined yet, if we define where it will be, then we will cut out the middleman (tarp) and move it right to the job site. I will post a photo of the left side of the compost heap completely empty before we start filling it up again with weeds and kitchen waste.

The sun is shining, life is good, make the most of it.

Compost heap, Step Two

Today I took the last of the soil from the right side, it was another five full barrows, bringing the total on the new garden bed so far to nineteen. Once I was satisfied that I was at ground level, I started dragging the upper loose material, using a rake, from the left side. It was hard work on a hot day, there was a lot to go in the empty space and from time to time I would compact the compost down by stomping on it and wet the right side down with a hose, to keep dust down, but also to help with the composting process.

Apparently it is good to urinate on a compost heap to add nitrogen and other goodness, I tend not to do that though, you know, neighbours and all that.

We now have the right side filled up, new material will go on top of that until I have excavated the left side down to the ground level, then any new stuff will go to the bottom of that side. In the process of digging the left side, some of the upper material will be retained and moved to the top of the right side on a temporary basis, this is because that material is partially decomposed, not quite ready as soil for our beds, so I will drag it back into the left side at the end.

If you want a technical explanation, a three-stage composting system is essentially a biological conveyor belt driven by time and microbes. At the top layer, fresh organic inputs like kitchen scraps, weeds and yard clippings are introduced; this raw material is highly energetic, recognizable, and rapidly consumed by initial bacteria. As these materials break down and sink, they enter the middle layer—often called active or semi-mature compost—where the intense heat of initial decomposition has subsided, leaving behind a fibrous, dark transition zone where fungi and actinomycetes slowly break down tougher fibers. Finally, at the very bottom layer, the process reaches completion, resulting in finished humus: a rich, stable, and dark, crumbly soil-like material that is completely unrecognizable from its original forms and fully ready to nourish the garden.

In the late 1960s, my grandfather, John Edward Edwards, or Jack to those that knew him, understood all of that, no need for google or AI, he knew stuff without the internet, how could that be possible?

It also helps to have worms and other insects in the compost heap, worms consume and pass the composted material through themselves as they bore through it, they tend to live at the lower levels of the heap, creating tunnels and aerating the pile, every time I walked away from the heap with those nineteen wheel barrows of soil, our local robins would swoop in to snatch a worm or two, which is why when we are digging in other areas of the garden, if we find a worm, it is abducted by "aliens" and moved through time and space to the new planet called the compost heap. 

The yearly cycle. Compost heap.

It is more like every two years that the compost heap gets really full and in the last couple of days we have been moving some of the excellent soil out of the bottom layer of the heap, it is being moved to the front yard where we are creating a new shrub bed for the planting phase in September.

The process is hard labour, basically moving material about, the exposed lower level, on the right, has very good soil and it is being transported to the new bed, when I hit solid ground and empty all the corners, the newish upper layers of the left hand side will be moved over to the right hand side, exposing the great soil underneath. In just two days, during our half-hour sessions, I have moved fourteen very full barrows of good soil from the right which I estimate to be one and a half cubic yards, that would be about twenty-four 50L bags.

The cost is zero, besides physical labour, and we have had many lots of good soil out of this compost heap since we built it back in March 2017. 

As they say Aardvark never killed anyone.

In the days to come I will continue the cycle, it means that the upper material on the left is moved to the lower of the excavated side, then if needed, I will remove the good soil from the bottom of the left hand side and we will start adding new compostable plants and peelings to that side first then both sides, in about two years time, we will have more good soil to use, the only problem being is, where will we use it?

Photos of the newly constructed bed will follow in the next week I expect.

Princess Auto

I have a buddy out in Nova Scotia, he notices that when something breaks or is needed, Canadian Tire often have it on sale that same weekend, in a similar fashion, after the wheel blew up a few days ago, I was browsing the vastness of the interwebs and noticed that Princess Auto had a 13 x 2-1/2 in. Solid Rubber Wheel Assembly with 32% off, usually $21.99 and on sale for $14.99 and it was a stars aligned moment as we were down in Victoria on a mini break, so a visit to the smelly place was required, a warehouse full of forever chemicals and foreign goods, to hopefully buy one, and we were not disappointed!

So, the old wheelbarrow is now back in business, all I needed to do was cut the spacers to the correct dimensions, apply lashings of grease to all the old bolts, add bigger washers to the bed connections (the bed is split in four places, this old "spare" wheelbarrow will live the rest of it's life on light duty) and I oiled the wood, which is in surprising condition for the age of a "lower shelf" unit.

In the next few days, three more yards of alder mulch will be delivered, moved and spread, which fundamentally gives us a break from gardening for the rest of the year.

Wheelbarrow, sort of...

The end of the month of April brought lots of weeding, as usual, and a delivery from Sooke Soils of some alder mulch, a dark, almost black mulch that we lay an inch or two on top of our weeded areas, it has been a fun week and of course, the old wheelbarrow was dusted down again, the tire was inflated and another year in the long life was to be started.

It was today that I was moving the last of the first lot of mulch about that I felt the inner tube go, I found that out afterwards, when it happened I just thought I had hit a bump. It was another issue in the life of a garden object, originally bought from Gibsons Building Supply, and I considered I would repair it again, so taking it apart I noticed that indeed, the inner tube was breached at the root of the valve, the tire and wheel seemed good except for the rusted out bearing, time to consider options.

Usually, taking my time and repairing things, while saving money, is the approved approach but at the moment, we are on a timetable with the mulching and need to finish phase one (more mulch arriving soon) so I replaced the old wheel with an "in stock" smaller diameter one which was sufficient but made the wheelbarrow a little more unstable and difficult to tip up over the larger rocks. In addition, overall the entire thing was in need of triage as the old bed of the barrow had previously split in four places, the handles needed attention and of course, now the tiny wheel, so perhaps it was time to replace the whole thing, although of course, logically I would keep the old one for a future repair or even if it is destined to be a planter.

The research online took no time, a new inner tube would be $20, a new wheel would be $30 which included an inner tube, no contest there, and then a whole new barrow, with two pneumatic tires would be $80 and after a little thought we had a trip to Home Hardware and a new sparkling one was bought and assembled over the period of an hour or so.

It is more of a garden cart type of wheelbarrow, more suited for bringing all the items to various job zones in the yard :

It is always a strange thing to move on from something so familiar, as I have said, the old 'true" single wheel barrow will not be discarded, I will bide my time and take it apart, maybe repair the split bed, oil the handles and brackets and keep my eye out for a full size replacement wheel or inner tube.

After all, storing useless stuff, that's what garden sheds are for. 

Nine Years, give or take.

There are almost nine years between these two photos, the one with the deer was taken around the 24th November, 2016 and we had been in Sooke for about a month. I think we had just got into the car to go to the Prestige Hotel for happy hour, nine years today.

This second one was taken about June this year, quite amazing how the trees and shrubs have grown. Well, the only one that was planted then is the town maple tree, looks to be perhaps seven foot tall in the first photo and now probably five times as tall. A great proportion of the shrubs planted were obtained from Russell Nursery, up in Sidney, bought with a gift card from the mother in law. 

The garden is quite a tracker of time going by, many planning jobs, the delivery of rocks for borders, multiple loads of mulch and gravel, stepping stones and, along the way, some plants failed, or were eaten, or as with the douglas Fir tree, broken at the header by another roving bunch of deer when it was just three foot tall.

It too has become a little monster.

Vittles

The years go by and the Panasonic breadmaker still does a great job of banging out a whole wheat loaf while we are outside in the garden. 

Here we are a decade or more later and the price of a seven hundred gram loaf is still about fifty cents to make at home, but in the supermarkets, despite all the outcry about "bread price fixing" between the big companies, bread is more expensive than it ever has been, yet strangely, the cost of bulk flour is only about ten percent more than it was back when we lived in Gibsons.

The jar is a rescue effort for some mixed peppers that were in the fridge, we do our utmost to conserve all types of food and the bell peppers were chopped and blanched in our proprietary pickle juice (water, vinegar, sugar) and they will now be fine to be consumed over the next few weeks.  

The appliance in the background is the new air fryer which, despite doubts, has become an excellent alternative to heating up the big oven and actually makes food tastier by not stripping all the moisture out.

We have been converted, resistance is futile.

The yearly pilgrimage

This year we took a two night break up to Sidney, which is about an hours drive from where we live, usually we just go for a single night, but we wanted to enjoy Sidney more this time and explore the area.

The reason we go there in September, usually after labour day, is to visit Russell Nursery for more plants and shrubs, financed by Karen's mum and brother, it is a tradition, a yearly pilgrimage and we attempt to maximise the bang for the buck by saving some "orphans" along the way.

All mixed up, we bought a total of 18 plants at the nursery, which are going to keep us busy over the next week in the garden, in the photo above there are also 5 other orphans from Canadian Tire, so I believe we have 23 plants to find spots for.

The trip to Sidney was quite wonderful, we went to see the second location of "The West Coast Grill" and chatted to the owner, Val, who bought us a pint, we had a great long walk along the coastline and visited several pubs (of course) and on the Thursday evening it was the street market which was interesting, as usual, nothing to buy but plenty of happy dogs to distract us from the overpriced scones.

Half an Hour

The pair of us came up with a cunning plan this year, it is so simple, Monday to Friday we go out in the garden at 10.00am and do thirty minutes of gardening each, which we have found gives us focus, plus by the time the half hour is done we have a quick review and then go back to our day and have not tired ourselves out.

The front yard had a lot of this attention before we went on a trip, weeds of course love this environment and once we had removed most of them, we laid the path of stepping stones at the side and then our attention shifted to the long neglected back yard and of course the first order of business were the weeds again and that wobbly post at the start of August, however, we never expected to do this :

We always say this, we wish we had taken a before photo, although taking one would have brought shame upon us because the back yard was in a terrible state, three or four years of neglect, however, all that has been reversed in the last four weeks and also enhanced with the removal of a ton of wild grass, an old tarp that had been grown through, rocks and weeds everywhere, all gone during our thirty minute shifts.

The path to the left with the island is new and we just had enough screenings left to complete it, the two shrubs in the foreground were saved from the Canadian Tire garden centre at the end of the season, little bargains here and there and in a few days time we will be visiting Russel Nursery with our gift card from Karen's mum, Pat, and will buy more plants for the front and back yards.

It is approaching that time of the year when we start thinking about the next season, we have those loose ideas of what we will be doing and then of course, we will surprise ourselves with stuff like this that we did not intend to do, all sparked off by a wobbly fence post repair, that is the fun of gardening.

Holiday Monday Fun, mixing concrete

During the winter we noticed another of our fenceposts had gone wiggly with the base probably rotten, this at the side between our back garden and the neighbours. It was staked up on a temporary basis just to stabilise it through the winter and spring winds but I suspect that would not last another November. Today it was time to complete a longer term fix to see if we can achieve another three years of not costing much to keep the garden enclosed.  I was expecting to be thwarted by existing concrete footings, but this was one of the posts that was simply compacted into the soil, hence the rot. That was a mixed feeling surprise as I dug the hole with a lot less resistance, but also realised that a lot of the other posts would be in the same condition.

I managed to dig a good hole about seventeen inches deep last week, scrounged a two by four off one of my buddies, well it was more a barter type situation, I swapped some home made hot sauce for the piece of wood. This was then cut to length and I attached a six inch piece at ninety degrees about six inches from the bottom for more concrete contact and fore/aft stability, then I made a frame to add another two inches of depth to cater for a couple of bags of Quikrete. Last week Quikrete was $8.49 for a 30kg bag at Canadian Tire, which seemed like a deal, so I bought a couple and we managed to get them into the back of the car without dropping anything or turning each other into grey powder covered ghosts. This morning starting at about 9.30am with great help with the heavy lifting from the forewoman, everything came together in less than an hour, including full cleanup, it feels like a weight off my sore shoulders.

As you can see, the post is close to the California Lilac bush which delivered many insects and bits of stuff onto my head while digging the hole, two bags of ready mix, a bit of tamping down and the job is done. I'll go and check later this afternoon to see if the fascinating process of concrete setting has taken place. 

The job will be finished off later in the week with a lick of paint, but for now, it must be time for lunch.

Memory Box One : J.F. O'Neil and Phoenix

In the first year of going out with this young lady from Wigan who became my wife, I had some bad luck with cars in general, wrote one off, had one stolen, made silly mistakes with other cars and needed to change the engine on a Hillman Imp, so as a stop gap measure, I bought a moped.

Karen had just started working at Phoenix Video in Wigan Town Centre and once a week I would meet her there on her evening shift and keep her company, we would have a meal that she had bought, sometimes goodies from Marks and Spencer, Scotch eggs or something else yummy. I would usually give her a lift home or walk her to the bus stop after she locked up and made sure she was home safely.

I strolled in one night after parking my new acquisition and delivered the news that I was back on the road, well, she gave me the trademark 'what a daft bugger' look. Karen was right, the pressure of the Hillman Imp being off the road and the long train journeys to my job at APPH in Speke had finally made me snap, I bought this thing without thinking it through, I should have just had the car fixed or replaced, but as we know, we do what we do.

The Honda Melody, with 50cc of raw power, would be my curse over those winter months, probably the worst decision I have ever made with a vehicle (and I have made a few terrible choices) and it soon became clear that this exact replica of Steve Zodiacs Fireball XL5 Hovertron would be my undoing.

J.F. O'Neil was a small electronics-related business in two locations, 78 Market Street in Wigan and eventually Smithy Green in Ince and there is almost zero information online about the store. There is nothing about Phoenix either, which occupied the same property on Market Street, but today, accidently after being triggered by another Wigan memory, I searched for Market Square and found this gem.

There it is, large as life. I bought the moped in November of 1982 and that puts a press pin into the corkboard about when this photo was taken. I recall like it was yesterday, proudly parking the hovertron in the market square car park, in front of the store.

I will add some more information about the two companies, J.F. O'Neil rented and sold TVs and Video Cassette Recorders, what we called VCRs and in both formats at the time, VHS and BetaMax. The rental and repair business was also in full flight around that timeline, a large proportion of British people did not own their TV sets and some would rent for decades, even refusing free upgrades to colour TV sets when their ancient black and white sets needed constant repair, refusing because they did not want to pay extra for the colour licence or just liked black and white.

Phoenix Video, the Video Centre, shared the premises and stocked a broad range of VHS and a limited stock of Betamax, plus the usual adult section of videos, although in the UK at that time, adult videos were pretty tame (if my memory serves me well) and the main video store was in the back room with a stockroom upstairs. The shop was run by a chap called Steve and his wife, Jennifer who saw an opportunity when the video industry was really taking off.

It was a weekly event at Karen's house, video night, watching the latest releases, the perks of working at a video rental store, my particular perk was going out with someone who worked at a video rental store, I was never that interested in the movies, just liked sharing a couch with the young lady.

When the VHS business faded, just within a few years really, either from dwindling demand or just plain old bad management, Karen would move jobs to the J.F. O'Neil location in Ince and when she moved in with me in early 1987 we would rent a lovely Tatung TV and VCR and cuddle up on our own couch on movie nights until we left for Canada. 

“I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive, I’d fly around the Universe, on Fireball XL5"

Bed Day

Yesterday was a very interesting day, and it was a bed day.

On marketplace we noticed that a place nearby, the Grouse Nest off Gillespie Road in Sooke, was selling off some old furniture and one particular bed caught our eye, mainly because it had solid wood baseboard and headboard, the bed spring was covered up by a mattress, so we had no idea what we would find.

The Grouse Nest has been many things over the last 100 years, a massive waterfront mansion and out buildings, 80 acres now but has been much bigger in it's history, well worth checking out on the internet if you have the time. It was a home to millionaires, a resort (more than once as it burnt down) and over the last few years has been a refuge for displaced Ukrainian refugees, unfortunately the owner recently died and it is now up for sale again, hence the estate sale.

There were two beds, serving as a basis for a much larger bed, once we had uncovered them, this is what we found, rock solid bed frame, tool free design and an intriguing bed spring arrangement as can be seen. As we had a future need for another single bed, we bought the frame and transported it back to the house inside the Acura.

We were not sure about the bed spring and just bought the frame, however, after some consideration later we drove back to the Grouse Nest and picked up the extra bit, the lady had also found an unused Sealy Posturepedic mattresses in the storage area, so we picked that up too. It was quite the exciting (if that is the word for it) drive back home with the bed spring and mattress strapped onto the roof rack, the bed spring being a significant weight and the mattress was flapping at the front as other drivers tried to push our speed on the highway, impatient people, wanting to get places faster.

I tried to do some research on the design of that bed spring, it does seem to be potentially a hundred years old, perhaps they were used for servant's beds back in the 1920s, quite remarkable to be in such good condition and a high quality, solid wood and steel bed with a lot of life left, try buying something like that from the Brick nowadays and expect it to last.

All safe and sound in our house now though, it was an odd thing, we had not realised that a bed day could make you feel so tired.

How the gardens grow

It has been quite the thing over the last eight or so years to watch our garden evolve, this time of the year is perfect for creating new features, the weather is good, not too hot and even a little shower is welcomed during our daily, short, gardening adventures.

The latest addition is a short path of stepping stones that make access to the left side of the garden a little easier, these little concrete pavers were less than five dollars each and look quite neat snaking across to the gravel path and beyond.

It is also quite amazing how much the right side of the garden has grown over the years, with most of the shrubs being provided by yearly nursery gift cards from Karen's mum and brother. The shrubs were originally small enough to get about five or so in the back of the car, now it would be impossible to squeeze one of them in, although we're not rushing to dig any up to find out.

It is impressive how the small shrubs grow into monsters and especially so as this portion of the garden was basically a patch of scorched grass and earth when we first moved in. There are more projects planned for the next few months and another gift card available to buy more shrubs and ground cover plants, which will of course provide more opportunities to be out in the fresh air, weeding and watching our garden grow.

Snow Days

It has been about three weeks since we had that amazing weather that allowed our roof to be completely done and the cash, that was in the bank, is now a distant memory, but it is lovely to have a new covering to the house. I would take a photo to show it, but it is currently covered in snow.

Everything is covered in snow and there will be snow days, good job we have provisions.

This is turning out to be a rather strange start to the year, for a week or so there we had a big dumpster parked on our driveway and there was disruption, then I was sick with a quite impressive wheezing and creaking set of lungs, plus having blood tests for other phenomenon going on in my body, and now snow everywhere and we're not going nowhere.

Which means we are somewhere, which is here, indoors, looking outwards.

And so it begins....

Our contractor contacted us last week and asked if we were ok with starting the roof project today, mainly as there is a forecast for three or four days of suitable weather for the crew, and for the customer. It was of course a big yes as it will be great to get it out of the way and move on with the year.

The shingles are being delivered as I type.

This is only the third roof we have had replaced in our time in Canada, but by far it is the most complicated. Somewhat similar to the one you can see in the background but with the garage to one side, prices have certainly gone up over the years, in 2002 we paid less than three thousand, in 2009 less than six and today it is just over seventeen.

It's only money.

Part two, Calgary

There was a flurry of people arranging to go off to places left, right and centre and I think we felt that we should be doing something. It is usual at this time of year, when we both have our birthdays, to arrange some hotel, perhaps in Victoria, and then go and have a steak and a baked potato at the Keg. this October we sort of instantly decided to fly off to Calgary for four nights, and it really was an amazing little holiday in a place we had only ever driven through on our way out west back in 2007.

In the last year or so, a fair bit of our investments have been in Alberta, so we were both really interested in seeing what one of the big cities was like, before the coldness crept in, and so we booked our flights on Westjet, stayed at the Best Western, downtown and had four lovely days there.

View from the TC Energy building towards the Petronas building. It was the day that TC Energy had split their company into two pieces, the new one called South Bow. This was the night we went and had happy hour at the Keg and that steak and baked potato, that was the great thing about doowntown Calgary, the happy hour with a lot of happy people, good food and great beer.

It was a marvellous walking holiday between all those bars and restaurants, easily 20,000 steps a day and we were impressed with the city, there is a lot of construction going on there, typical, but a great transit system, clean streets and fair prices. 

We will go back again.

Year in review, part one

The year is closing down again, we had some interesting weather over the last few weeks, and another repair on the roof, so it is now time to have the roof on the house repaired in the spring, we knew it was going to happen, and happen it will.

A little catch up on the year,  we took ourselves up to Sidney for an amazing afternoon, evening and night, one of our favourite bars has gone, it is no more, but in the tradition it has quickly been replaced. the old bar was called the Rum Runner, the new one is Jack's by the Sea and we hit happy hour, then continued at the Surly Mermaid just around the corner.

Life in Sidney goes on, even though things change, the fish market is still there.

Along with the bored cormorants having perhaps a happy hour of their own.

Just waiting until they have set it up....

Retired water bomber Hawaii Martin Mars arrives on Victoria International Airport land on Wednesday night, on its journey from Patricia Bay to the B.C. Aviation Museum in North Saanich, where it will be an exhibit.

We are looking forward to visiting the museum in the next few months, it should be spectacular!

Like something out of Thunderbirds.

A nice Surprise in August

Just two weeks ago, our good friend Lynn had messaged that she and John would be having a birthday trip to Canada, starting in Toronto and going around the houses, Whistler, Banff, Vancouver and Victoria.

We arranged to align with their plans on Wednesday, meeting up at Butchart Gardens and then spent a dozen hours enjoying Victoria's restaurants and bars, it was a brilliant day, full of laughs and giggles, gin and tonics, pizza, fish and chips and everything else. It was a fantastic surprise and it seemed like we blinked and it was over.

 

It really brings it home how we are all indexing through this life, all of us around our sixties now (with John not quite there and me the old man of the group approaching the other big one) but we are all still healthy and on the right side of the carpet. Lynn and John are now in Banff, experiencing the Rockies before they fly back to Manchester quite soon, back to less mountains but more beans on toast and cornflakes.