Tuesday links and general Farmhouse news

Sorry for missing last week’s update, cats and kittens. Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the week for me to get everything done! But to make it up to you, you get two super-double-plus-awesome posts today.

 

I sat down for a brainstorm with the housemates the other day (okay, it was like two weeks ago) about just what’s been going on at the Farmhouse. Here’s the latest from the team:

 

• the potatoes are getting huge … they sprouted in the pantry over the winter
• Ander and Sara built a new trellis with peas in the back
• drying kale for seed
• lots of sprouts in the greenhouse
• there’s a new container garden on the patio (it’s so amazing, need pictures!)
• planted corn, squash, and beets along the side fence
• lots of cut flowers for the house
• borage and touch-me-nots are sprouting everywhere there’s bare soil
• seriously, if you want a borage plant, let us know
• Sara developed a kickass recipe for hot sauce based on things in our garden (TOP SECRET)
• parsnips are ready to be harvested
• mint is recovering after being transplanted (I did that!)
• there’s a new dish line on the counter made of two kinds of tape … if the dishes cross it, you wash the dishes … if it’s not kept to Max’s standards, then he’ll take away the nice pots; if we keep it up, Max will make tasty treats
• lots of group eatings, including impromptu brunch one lovely Saturday and a house dinner yesterday
• quinoa and lentils sprouting right now
• discussed the correct pronounciation of quinoa (which, in the Farmhouse, is kee-NO-wah)
• harvested the burdock root … it’s surprisingly tasty according to the roomies, “sort of artichoke-y”
• scavenged some stuff from a house that was torn down on our block, including an old-school oven that Sara’s going to convert into an outdoor cooking surface
• oh, and we GOT A NEW ROOMMATE WOOT WOOT!

 

Yeah, life at the Farmhouse is kicking ass and taking names.

 

This week in the links, MAIN STREET CAR FREE DAY! It’s one of several car-free events happening in Vancouver on June 20, but it’s the closest one to our house. They’ll be shutting down Main from 33rd to 16th from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The organizers are still looking for volunteers so if you’ve nothing else to do on Father’s Day, consider helping out a good cause.

 

Great news out of California: the state assembly has voted to ban single-use plastic bags in retail stores! It’s not officially law yet until it’s passed by the state Senate, but it’s looking like a done deal. California currently uses 19 BILLION single-use plastic bags each year. San Francisco has been plastic-bag-free since 2007.

In light of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster—now the worst in U.S. history (if not the world)—I’ll take any eco-friendly victory I can get.

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Photo post: Farmhouse Animals play in the yarden

Sorry to overwhelm everyone with photos today but I wanted to post some happy ones in the hope they’d cheer me up. I spent hours crying last night and have remained in a foul mood all day, but these pics are full of joy and light. Hope you enjoy and have a beautiful weekend; maybe we’ll see you out on Sunday!

Pretty, pretty yarden.

Things are growing!

This is our wheelbarrow.

Its wheel is the worst.

Oh, hey there onions.

The refurbished fairy altar.

Yes, that cactus's name is Quagmire.

Seriously, please do.

Sara rocks it out.

My double chin and I are way too cool for school.

And now it's Max's turn to play us a tune.

Max and the illusive Sam chill on the steps.

Ander works way harder than I do.

Our yarden has hidden flowers everywhere.

We don't always play guitar. Sometimes we drink beer, too.

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What the hell?

Wow. After all that, our landlord has sent a crew to rip up the boulevard right now. So awesome.

My home is no longer my home.

UPDATE (11:36 a.m.) This sucks so much because we’ve always had an incredible relationship with our landlord. Always been supportive and kind and patient with our hippie ways. The Farmhouse is so appreciative of our landlord.

The City of Vancouver has been communicating with our landlord on this issue without including us in the discussion and I have no idea what was said between the two parties. It totally feels like the City has completely sabotaged our relationship with our landlord and it’s a punch in the gut to know he’s angry with us.

I can understand our landlord’s position 100 percent but we still have until May 15 to negotiate with our neighbours … and we only had one more to talk to.

We were so close to winning this fight.

Ander called to let me know that there’s nothing left of the boulevard garden anymore. They managed to save some of the plants but they might not recover.

And now I am broken.

UPDATE (12:13 p.m.) Max called to let me know Ander spoke to the landlord. Managed to smooth things over somewhat. Landlord did leave some poppies growing in the boulevard next to the tree but the rest is levelled.

However, the rest of the yard will NOT be touched. That in itself is a massive, massive victory.

Damn, I wish I had photos right now. So glad I took pictures last night.

Also, the Museum of Vancouver mentioned us today in their blog! I’m totally stoked that the issue is out there and other people are just as interested in food security issues as we are. Greater good has come from this. We’ve found new community. We’re raising awareness. And in a few months, we’ll have food.

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Work party … success!

So this weekend’s work party was a resounding success! We had five or six people stop by over the course of the day and Ander did a fantastic job educating passerbys on our yarden. We had a bunch of people sign our petition to keep our yard exactly the way it is and we’re so much closer to getting a block party organized!

It was really nice to connect with the neighbours, actually. One told us tales of how people would come by our house with empty strollers and steal our pumpkins. One guy who works as a landscaper was fully in support of us and promised to bring us clean grass clippings, plants from other sites, tools he doesn’t need, and topsoil as well as offering to help fix the tools we have. So much love!

Kiko was a total jerk and did not help at all.

Fun story: The tenants previous to us used to use the front yard as some sort of trash can. I made the champion decision to tackle the one bed we’d never bothered to dig out previously because it’s full of trash. Ander pulled out two baby carriage frames from it weeks ago. I managed to dig out a garden hose, three bags of garbage, a fully-inflated basketball, a used diaper (ewwww), an army man, a plastic Viking figurine, and numerous pens and pencils. Seriously. Disgusting. Who buries trash in their yard when we have a weekly trash collection service?

Max was a champ and not only fixed up the greenhouse and finally (FINALLY!) got all the Christmas lights off the house but he tackled organizing our garage. We have cleaned that bastard out at least six times in the past two years, and yet it magically accumulates stuff. I think there’s some sort of vortex in there which allows for remote garbage dumping for aliens or perhaps time travellers. But it’s more organized now. Just need yet another dump run.

Sara was fantastic as well, hauling woodchips and tackling the out-of-control back beds. The whole yard is really starting to come together!

And … OH GOD we totally terraformed the boulevard. Now it has five nice neat ordered rows for planting. We’re going to put yarrow, flax, borage, and … I can’t remember what else in there. Should be neighbourhood friendly.

I definitely need to spend more time in the garden. I hauled dirt and dug weeds for almost eight hours on Saturday and my poor body is still aching today.

Special thanks to Razan and Erik for playing in the mud with us all day and to Tristan and Lina for bringing us much needed nourishment.

Photos to come whenever Ander gets them to me!

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Inter-roommate communication

Sometimes you're just a meat popsicle.

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Coming soon: The Farmhouse Dictionary!

So, whilst conducting my semi-annual room clean last night, I came across a gem of a project that Rin, Caterina, and I started three years ago: The Farmhouse Dictionary, a compendium of all the words, phrases, and nicknames commonly used around the house. Most of them are slang terms from Caterina but we’ve all contributed a little.

I swear to the house fairies that I will get this typed up and posted in the next week. There is definitely some comedy gold in there!

Fun non-dictionary-related fact: Between the four roommates who enjoy adult beverages, we can ring up a $74 bar tab in one night. Tsk tsk. So now we’re crafting a plan to brew our own ale! Our last roommate was a brewer and she made some delicious home brew. We just need some equipment and a reliable source of hops …

Rin made some delicious (but sludgy) blackberry mead before she left and we were gonna drink it on the Winter Solstice but someone (*cough* Max *cough*) may have drank it before we got a chance.

What else is on the Farmhouse’s future agenda? Chickens!

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