Spring Forward!

Spring is almost upon us here in the northern hemisphere.  The birds are busy preparing nests for families and the dormant plants are waking up and popping through the earth. 

I have been busy as well just trying to keep up with the impending arrival of Spring.  Getting the new trees planted has been a bigger project than I anticipated, but it is getting done.

It's time to get the wooden deck chairs out of storage and start putting potted plants back on the front porch.

What are you doing for Spring?

Plant a Tree - Save the Earth

15 trees to be exact.  

I am delighted to finally bring home my new trees from the native plant sale through our county conservation district.  What a wonderful program this is!  They send out a lovely order form a couple of months ahead of time (mine is via email) and the selection is varied, from native brush to fifty foot trees!

This year I purchased five Pacific Dogwood, five Red Osier Dogwood and five Pacific Crabapple.  They come in packs of five, which seemed like a lot to me, but the prices couldn't be beat.

photo courtesy freepicturesweb.com

 

 

First up is the Pacific Dogwood.  Best (free) photo I could find on the web (tree trunk not included!)  It can grow to fifty feet!!  These are native to the Pacific Northwest as well as many other places.  The flower is sweet and intoxicating in spring.  

They like their solitude so will do nicely on my hill with good drainage.

courtesy wikipedia

Next up is the Red Osier Dogwood.  It's a bush that is bright red in winter - which is stunning against the snow!  It will be a nice screen for the hot sun come summer when they are full of leaves.  They can grow to fifteen feet and spread their roots underground.

courtesy wikipedia

I couldn't find a definition for a "Pacific" crabapple, as there are possibly thirty species of crabapple.  But since it too is a native for here, it will only need northwest sunshine and rain.  

Now all of these are tasty delights for deer, but will be protected with fencing while they mature.  Meanwhile the blossoms will draw even more hummingbirds and butterflies to my yard!

Yesterday I walked the lot (less than an acre) to scope out good planting spots.  I took plant stakes with little flags on them to pound in the ground for markers.  This way as the next few days go by I can look out my windows at the stakes and decide if they are indeed good places.

My goal is more than just planting trees for the environment.  That is a wonderful goal, and everyone should do it, but I also am thinking about the future of my home; it's value, and the benefits of having trees, for both myself and the wildlife.

Deciduous trees provide wonderful shade in the summer, but allow the much needed (and sparse) sunshine in winter.  So the large dogwood trees will live on the hill behind my house - between me and the southern sunshine.

The other two species will dot the landscape and just add a more northwest feel here.

While it will take some years before they provide that shade, it will still be a joy to know they are there.

New Calendar!

The new 2013 wall calendar is out!  I have used MagCloud, my trusty book making company, to compile the top 12 images for this years calendar.

This is a nice size, 8x8, not too small, not too big.  Beautiful color images, and only $12 plus shipping.
Here's the link:

In the Dark

Western Washington has been hit with a series of rain and snow storms this year.  Last week my area on the Hood Canal was hit with a surprise snow storm that wasn't forecast.  

Two feet of snow at my place in less that 24 hours.  It was heavy snow and took down branches and trees and power lines.  The ground was already saturated from the earlier rains so some trees just fell over at the roots.  Chunks of earth broke off of bluffs and hillsides.

I live at a higher elevation on more level ground, so no worries of slides around me.  The tall pines here have also been more exposed to heavier snow and the ground has good drainage.

Trees and power lines came down across our only access road in and out of the development and we were basically trapped for two days.  However the highway was closed as well from Hoodsport to Mount Walker.

The world as we knew it had just stopped.  As I sat alone in my house I did what I always do in a power outage;  put water on the wood stove, set out the camp cook stove and find a good book.

By the evening of the first day I knew there must be major trouble along the main road.  So I prepared some more.  I put the fridge food in a crate on the front porch mud-room where the temperature was a perfect 34 with an outside temp of 32.

I put the freezer foods in an ice chest with the ice I keep made up for just such an occasion.  

I got my exercise by shoveling the steps, walkways and driveway.  Since there was no warning that this storm was coming I hadn't been able to get my car down the 50 foot driveway, so all I could do was keep it dug out of the snow so it might be a little easier later.  (It wasn't though).

Day two was about finding new things to eat that were nutritional.  Egg omelets somehow just taste better in a cast iron skillet on the camp stove.  The aroma of beans simmering on the wood stove is also delightful, and comforting in a storm.

Now I never claimed to be a survivalist on this blog, it's not in my tags.  I'm not homesteading in Alaska and I'm not off the grid.

I am more of a minimalist, with a modest lifestyle and income.  I don't mind living alone as long as I have the freedom to leave once in a while.  I do have neighbors so I'm not completely isolated, although there are fewer of them in winter since this is more of a summer recreational area.

Surprisingly, there are even some year round residents who do not have back up heating, but there are others who are fully equipped with big generators.

So a storm with this much snow and a prolonged power outage are not common place here. 

(By the way, the photos I've included here were mostly shot early on.  It just got depressing to shoot after a while.)

By day 3 I was a little surprised that no one had come to the house, although I did check on my next door neighbors while I was shoveling the driveway.  They had gotten out in their 4x4 truck and discovered the road block on our entrance.

About 1pm a friend did arrive but he lives ten miles south.  I got the full report of how much damage had been done along highway 101, which was now open after two days.  He said the power company trucks were working on the lines on our entrance road and it was being plowed.

I was so grateful to see a familiar face!  Thank goodness for caring people.

When the power and phones were working again, I had two other messages from friends in the next town.

I have been through some major storms here and some pretty deep snow, but two and a half days is the longest I've gone without power in a snow storm.

I'm grateful to our development to have installed generators on our two community wells in recent years, or we would have been without water as well.

So my food was saved, but in another day I'd have been cooking up the thawing items.

I count my blessings on one hand though, and have decided to make a list of improvements I would make when this happens again, which could be as soon as March with the prediction of solar storms knocking out entire grids.  Then where would I put the fridge food??

I could get a generator, but I would have to lift it in and out of my car, find a place to store it and keep gas on hand to run it.  Not to mention running the extension cords outside.

 I think I will start with a more practical and long term solution approach.  A pantry of dried and canned goods.  This may be a time to learn to can, or just add to my shopping list each week.  There are a lot of websites where you can buy things in bulk, or emergency essentials.

Communication is high on my list also.  I will be upgrading my cell phone in hopes of having service at my house - which I don't currently get.

I've contacted our community's office and volunteered to head up a phone tree with a back up plan for checking on people when the phones are out.

This was a challenging time for me.  I don't usually blog about my limited income or resources, but it became pretty apparent to me that I need to make some changes in my lifestyle if I want to continue living remotely.

I usually try to keep it more upbeat here, but I just felt the need to reach out to others who may be in similar situations or even temporary challenges.  

Us fringe-dwellers like our solitude and independence, but it often comes with a price.

As we near the end of 2012 and look to a new year, I vow to improve my circumstances as well as reaching out to my community so no one feels alone or stranded in rough weather.

I encourage you to do the same.

Rediscovering My Environment

For the past several weeks I have been on a mission to freshen up the appearance around the outside of my home.
I decided to take down the fence (which wasn't really quality to begin with) to open up the area.

Wow!  What a difference that made!
Then I moved on to trimming up the brush along the borders of my property.

That lead to a grand adventure on the small hillside behind my house.  This area is very over grown and wild.  Some big trees were removed in the late 90's when the mobile was brought in, and the area had only been trimmed up once, in about 2005.

Needless to say, many weedy pines grew out of those old tree stumps, not to mention the ever expanding huckleberry bushes.  It was a jungle and all the trails were over grown.

In two weeks, during my days off, I methodically removed the pines and forged new trails.  I discovered lovely old stumps with moss, uncovered crowded wild rhododendrons, long needle pines and trimmed up those six foot tall huckleberries.

What an improvement!  I feel like I just got a whole new yard to play with.
My future goals are to clean up the trails a little more and place some benches along the way.

This slope, on my very small piece of property, is the only place you can really see the sky - to the Northeast.  It would be great for star gazing I think.

I'm not sure what caused my latest surge of energy, but it always seems to happen at this time of year.  I'm thinking all that late summer sunshine contributed its dose of serotonin!!

Meanwhile, the local deer have returned and are thoroughly enjoying the huckleberry harvest.

A handsome coyote stopped by last week, checking out the bird feeding area (for a meal I imagine).
I got this video of him (or her) gobbling up the bread crumbs I had just put out for the gray jays.



The rains have finally arrived here in the Olympics, ending our 77 day drought, and after about a week we're back to looking like a rain forest again.

Visitors from the Forest

Mom raccoon and her two youngsters stopped by today.  They were so cute playing in the trees near the house.  Of course just earlier they were cleaning up the bird seed on the ground.

 Night before last the two kids were playing just outside my bedroom window on a branch.  I could hear them chattering to each other.  Probably daring the other to climb out on it!