Summertime and the Living is Easy.........

(I've posted lots of pictures, if you want to see any of them clearer, just double click on them)

Well the month of June kinda went by in a blur. Work has been slowing down as all my clients take off for summer holidays and prepare for weddings, graduations etc. I'm torn between wanting to have lots of work = money for material, so I can get started building the house or taking time off so I can enjoy the weather. I'm such a sun slut. I can't help it, as soon as the sun comes out, I just want to drop everything and go to the beach. I don't mind working when it's raining and cold, but once it warms up, I just want to be outside. Unfortunately, I don't have two nickels to rub together, so some work is needed if I want to eat.

For years , I have been attending a big Summer Solstice party in the interior of BC. I didn't think I would make it this year as funds were non-existant. I missed it the last few years as all my energy and attention was down here at the marina and really,really wanted to go this year. At the last minute, David got a couple of very large boats come in to lease water space and figured we could afford to go.

So with a great flurry of packing, phone calls and a million stops along the way , we finally got out of town Friday night. We drove through the night and arrived exhausted at 2 am Satuday morning. A quick jaunt around the property to the fire pit to say hi to everyone, then it was off to bed for some sleep. The next three days were a huge celebration of life. A couple of hundred people came together and played music,danced, put on skits, dressed up in wonderful costumes,played silly games,celebrated Solstice, the births of new babies and reconnected with friends and family. I had the time of my life and a grin from ear to ear. Just what the doctor ordered.

Happy faces on both of us


Big grins as they wait for the mile long banana split eatin contest(no hands allowed!)


Some of the beautiful drums played over the weekend


The Ceasar girls come by with tasty libations to cure our morning hangover's


The Cross Dressing soccer tournament

I wish I looked this good in a dress!


Some music to entertain us


Making masks before the nighttime parade




David carved his mask out of bark

A very out -of- focus picture of my costume and mask


Hula hoops are the new craze this year. The girl with the orange one, gave me one to take home as long as I promised to practice and be in the hoop contest next year. In the picture you can see the outdoor stage behind and the peanut gallery also known as Hecklers Row to the left


I think I have a way to go before I can do this!

So I took on spin on the hamster wheel to get some exercise



Before dinner we did a blessing of the lamb and the sun


Which resulted in this sunset on another wise cloudy day


The carving of the lamb which had been slow roasted over an open fire all day


Food that everyone prepared was then brought into the circle to the fan fare of drums for a huge potluck dinner


The food is prepared in this outdoor kitchen which is the back end of the theatre


The next day we had the baby naming ceremonies which was preceding by a creation play



Some Solstice friends









The owner of the property, Laurie with one of his many admirers

Laurie, has the best hobbit house ever. His creed is "if your going to build something, don't make it just functional, it has to be pretty to look at as well". With that in mind, every aspect of his house is a work of art. He is a potter by trade ( as well as an author) and has built some amazing structures on his 50 acres of land. He encourages the artists among us to build art installations on his property, so there are all kinds of things to delight and amaze you as you walk around the place. There is an outdoor theatre with a kitchen attached as well as a full size labarinth planted from trees that is a couple of acres in size. We had a candle lit parade through the labrinth on Saturday night that was an amazing and beautiful experience. I always leave his property feeling reborn, rejuvanated and inspired. A great start to the summer.

A small meditation cabin or office sitting out in the middle of the pond


A large statue dedicated to Astarte makes a fun place for children to hang out


The firepit, a giant mushroom and Hecklers row


The entrance to the Grove of Forgiveness. This is where the parade ended and we let go of all of our grudges from the past year and give thanks to the universe for all our blessings



This structure holds the pumphouse for the cistern which holds his water supply


The pottery shed and some of the artwork on it
The dragon's legs are the door handles






The pump house for the woodfired hotub


The Hot Tub


The door to the sauna


The cold plunge pool between the sauna and hot tub


The Haul of Shame aka the garbadge/recycling center




Pictures of the house





Every beam has something carved on it




The part of the house that is made of logs is the original homestead, the rest Laurie added on over the years














Interesting squat toilet imported from asia with mosaic art


The bathtub set into a bay window



Banister carving


Beautiful doorway


Jar storage in Kitchen




Wall covered in cedar shakes, using the natursl shade variation to make a face



Cosy entrance to the home




Doorway detail



On my way home I recieved a call from the cousin of a good friend, who has just opened a new massage clinic. She was wondering if I would be interested in working there. Again, Im torn between jumping all over that and not wanting to be locked indoors for the summer.I can't really afford to turn this opportunity down tho, so will have to grab as much sun as I can the next few days before I commit to anything.

My pile of material continues to grow. I now have about 2000 feet of beautiful hardwood flooring, a kitchen cabinet with glass doors for the dishes and a pile of cedar shakes. Ive run out of room to store stuff which is a problem as I'm not quite finished collecting yet. I'm mostly needing framing material now and I can get started. Once I have some kind of structure in place, I have most of what I need to do the interior and some of what I need for the exterior. Not bad for two months and most of it for free. I cant wait to move in, I can picture it clear as day.

My cache of hardwood flooring


Yesterday was Canada Day, so I kidnapped David and dragged him to the beach. It was one of the busiest days, I have ever seen down there, must of been well over 5000 people. Although the sun was shining, we had gale force winds that had a cold bite. That didnt scare anyone away tho, they just bundled up and kept partying. All the musicians were down in full force and kept the beat going.


Playing in the wind


Impromtue beach sculpture, another random act of beauty


After the beach we went downtown to the waterfront and watched the fireworks.



All in all , a lovely day, Happy Birthday Canada, may you have many,many more.xxoo

And where would Canada be without the beaver? Here is our national symbol in our backyard enjoying a snack. For once its not our house he is dining on.

Full Circle

Well its my 100th post and yesterday I saw the floathome that started all this for me 15 years ago. I had just graduated from massage school and had my own business that was doing very well. I saw a listing for a beautiful wood floathome and went to check it out. I fell completely in love with it. It was a log cabin with tons of stain glass everywhere. I went to the bank to organize a loan, but they wouldn't consider it, even with a 25% downpayment. Their reasoning was that someone could cut the ropes that hold it in place and their investment would just float away. Without land they wouldn't give me a dime. I was heartbroken. I never thought I would ever be able to afford this lifestyle and grieved that house for many years.

Yesterday, David and I went out to a marina up river to check out the situation with a floathome that was in need of more floatation to keep it from tipping over. We ended up having a very interesting and informative conversation with the owner of the marina for a good part of the afternoon. While sitting there, I was admiring a beautiful floathome that is moored there. I love swans and a mother and her chicks were dining in our little bay right in front of this house. As I was taking pictures I kept getting a sense of deja vu regarding the place but couldn't figure out why.

As we were getting ready to leave, we went back to take one last look at the problem floathome. While standing on the dock, a woman came out of the other home and walked towards us. I asked her if she lived in the beautiful wood house. She said she did, and would I like a tour? Of course I did! As soon as we walked inside, I recognized the place. She has done quite a few changes to the place which improved it even more but I knew it was the same place. I fell in love with it all over again. It was such a delight to be there again and the swans came right up to the front window while I was there admiring her river view. It couldnt have been more perfect. It was great to see how she was able to create such an amazing space on a 16x40 float. I have been struggling with trying to vizualize my lifestyle and furnishings in a limited space. Her home gave me a good insight into how to accomplish that.

She graciously allowed me to take some pictures but as she was on her way out, I felt pressed for time so just fired off a bunch of quick ones. Unfortunatly they didn't all turn out but here are some that did. It hard to capture this place on camera, hopefully I can go back and try again with more time.

The swan and her babies


My dream home( the tipouts,gables and back deck were new additions..part of why I didnt recognize it straight away)


Standing in the living room looking at the kitchen on the right with bathroom in back , stairs in the middle and entrance on the left


The living room with some of the many stain glass windows



Ceramic fish inlaid into the kitchen floor


The upstairs consists of two lofts connected by a bridge. The master bedroom on one side and a bathroom with a clawfoot tub and a guest room tucked in behind that on the other side. A cute window seat makes a nice nook to hang out in.


The bridge leading to the bathroom as seen from the master bedroom



The window seat



The guest bedroom



To cap off a wonderful day, our friend Mike who lives at the other end of Mitchell Island, dropped by in his cool speedboat and took us for a sunset cruise on the river



Life has been good lately. We have been having an awesome year as far as weather goes. A short mild spring, tons of sunny days and a June like no other so far. Ive been to the beach quite a few times already this year and my tan is well under way. The long days have completly changed my sleep cycle and for the first time in my life I am up and about at 7am every day. I know, dont fall over in shock! Im usually not seen about until noon so this is big news.

Im still collecting stuff for my home. I got all my kitchen cupboards the other day as well as an overhead light for the kitchen and a breaker box for my electrical needs. I did end up hearing back from Sandy( the guy with all the plywood for free) and 3 long drives out to the valley to pick it all up and I now have 40 sheets of wood. Thanks Sandy , your an angel! The rest of the stuff I need to start the building process is fairly specific to the job, so not sure how much more I will be able to scrounge. Now what I need most is an infusion of cash to buy the hardware and framing lumber so I can get started.

In the meantime, I have finally had a moment to play with my creative side for a change. We had a friend coming over who was using the shop to build drums. He showed me how and I made six so far in total. Heres the first two with paintings finished on them. The others are still being worked on. The big one is made of bear skin and has the most amazing sound. The design is a tattoo that was found on a mongolian shamaness that was found frozen in the ice. The bear claws around it are from another tattoo that Ive always liked because of its celtic look.
The design on the smaller drum is the local Native design for "thank you" or "Welcome"



It feels great to be doing something creative again. I can't wait to have my own shop and get all my tools and craft supplies out of storage and set up so I can use them.

So a rough start to the year, but at mid-point I see light at the end of the tunnel and am full of hope for the future. Menopause be damned, its full speed ahead.

Ok, So this is the Plan

Now that the dust has settled, I have a plan. I bought the 20 by 25 foot concrete float from Steve and bought another 20 by 25 ft float from Roger. When I am ready to build a house , I will attach the two together for a 25x40 ft foundation. I am still in the planning stages so may even add some more concrete pods to have 48 feet in length. I wanted to build a couple of stories high, but got worried about the tip-over factor, so I'm trying to keep it to one story with living space in the attic. A good size deck space is important to me, so I have to leave some real estate for that.
I would like to build something that looks sort of like these houses




I have rented a second 20 foot container and have been scouring the free section on Craigslist for everything I need to put this house together and storing it there until needed. I am on a roll!!! So far I have aquired;
-a complete matching bathroom consisting of a jacuzzi soaker tub, toilet and two sinks with all the hardware, a steam shower unit, another toilet, the propane cookstove, a stacking washer/dryer, an under-counter dishwasher, four old-fashioned heavy- as -shit, water radiators, 20 french style wood frame windows, 4 interior doors,all my salvaged light fixtures from the boat and apartment, and about 60 bags of insulation.

Not bad for only three weeks into this. So far I have spent in total for all of the above $2,440.00 Most of that was $800 for the floats and $1,100 for the steam shower ( original cost over 3,500.00, I got it new in the box for a third of that, so great deal as far as I'm concerned).It's a shower/steam room and has jacuzzi jets to massage your back! I can't wait to try it out.
The bathroom fixtures were only used 3 times and are worth around 10,000( for free...they didn't like the colour...pale peach. I can live with that, no problem!)

So as it stands now, I need plywood and 2x4's, vapour barrier, black tar paper, cedar shakes for siding and roofing,drywall, some kitchen cabinets, a fridge, two bathroom cabinets, two exterior doors, a wood cookstove, a propane water tank and an electrical box and wire along with some plumbing. Some of this stuff I can get for free, the rest is affordable.

I'm thinking I can build this house for under $10,000. That's my goal anyway, it will be interesting to see if I can pull it off. Finding the insulation for free today was a super bonus. There was an ad for 60 sheets of free plywood the other day. Haven't heard back from the guy, so it might be gone already but that would have been enough to build my cabin for sure. Im still keeping my fingers crossed that it comes through.

Now that we have moved into Davids floathome full time, he has been putting tons of hours into fixing the place up. Things are coming along nicely. He hooked up the jacuzzi tub I got last year and a new stacking washer/dryer. The bathroom sink got plumbed in and the tool room super organized. The loft bedroom is now a reality. It still needs some insulation, the hardwood floor nailed down and a window installed for ventilation but its a wonderful space already with an awesome view out the main windows in the living room. We found a free hot tub on craigslist and finally got it running out on the deck. Its so awesome to sit out there after a hard days work and enjoy the sunset from the tub.

All the wildlife is back in full force. Bridget the duck and her beau come by daily for a feed and a visit. The geese parade their babies up and down the river. The little birds that were living in the boathouse when David first got it, now have a nest in the eves and we watch them building it from the living room. The river otters hang out on the deck and have staring contests with the cat. Every now and then the beaver comes by and takes a bite or two out of the house for old times sake. I really love having all these critters around, it makes living in the city more tolerable.

Some Things Never Change

I have been back down on the water for a few days now and since then the list of challenging problems grows by leaps and bounds.

David is a master of many things but electricity is NOT one of them. Somehow he managed to rewire something so that we were getting 240 power running through the house. Needless to say, the appliances wern't too happy about that at all, so in a few days we fried the fridge, 2 microwave ovens, one toaster oven, a toaster, a 26 inch tv, the satallitte reciever,and the water cooler. I just bought a months supply of groceries yesterday and am sitting here waiting for high tide so we can bring down the fridge from the apartment and keep it from all spoiling. I am on the hunt for cheap new appliances to replace everything we lost.

We finally got rid of the the last of the non- paying squatters who were living down here. They could have been such nice people but got so addicted to crack that it took over their lives and made them most unreasonable to deal with. Stuff went missing down here all the time and they stayed up all night doing drugs and looking for ways to be a nuisance. They moved their house to another marina last week and it's so nice and clean and quiet down here now. Their house held Davids out from the shore and with them gone, we tightened up our lines on the house and docks. This resulted in being in too shallow water during low tide and putting a ton of stress on the house, so they were up till 3 am moving stuff around and loosening off the lines in the pissing rain last night. We are sitting pretty now though.

After much thought, David has realized that keeping the shop is a huge expense that he doesnt need at this moment in life, so he is letting it go at the end of the month. I had stored everything I salvaged off my boat in there filling an 8x6 room to the rafters. I also have a stove ,bathtub and bicycle stored there so now have 2 weeks to figure out where Im going to put all this stuff. My storage locker is already full and I don't want to pay yet more money to store stuff off site. I'm loathe to get rid of anything until I know for sure what my next place is going to be. You never know what will come in handy. David has his work cut out for him, he has the whole massively huge building stuffed with tons of tools and equipment, a mobile home, his office furniture, two forklifts, a bunch of building material,tons of his artwork etc. I have no idea were he is going to put it all but I'm sure the next few weeks will be very interesting as we scramble to get this all done.

My poor cat has been so stressed out with me packing and moving every two weeks. He was an abandoned cat and I am wondering if the people had to move, packed everything up and dumped him because they couldnt take him to the new place. He hates the moving boxes, scratches them to pieces, climbs inside and pees on things and generaly runs around screaming at me while I pack. The last few days he has taken to the loft in Davids house and barely comes down to be sociable. Not like him at all.I hope he can forgive me soon, I feel so bad for putting him through all this.

This year seems to be all about moving for me. Don't know if I mentioned how much I hate moving. Growing up in a military family we moved every year of my childhood. By the time I was 30 I had moved well over 50 times. They say moving, death and divorce are the highest stress factors in people lives. Well I have been pretty much packing and moving non-stop since mid-January and no end in sight just yet. I am praying for the day when I can unpack for once and all, hang up my hat and call myself home at last.

I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

I dont know how to say this, so just pulling the band aid off and here we go....I'm NOT moving to the Queen Charlottes! After a week of emails and phone calls, I finally got to meet Patrick. We went out for dinner, had a lovely not wierd meal,talked about the best way to transport everything, made tentative plans to hang out on Saturday......and I never heard from him again! I finally sent him an email asking what was up and a day later got a reply that if I still wanted to come and be a cook I could but he wasnt interested in pursuing any kind of
relationship with me. Not that I expected anything in stone but he had gone on for the whole week about how great it was he found me, just what he wanted blah ,blah ,blah so quite a shock to be dissed like that for no apparant reason ( he had met me before and seen pictures so I wasnt a surprise). Anyway, I dont need to be stuck in the bush with no promise of pay, no love life, and no job or home to come back to in September, so I passed on that.

In the meantime as I had told David I was moving mid month, he had already rented out my apartment, so once again, I have moved, this time in with David at his float home. Not how things were supposed to go at all. Maybe the universe wants us to be together for some reason. I keep trying to leave and get thrown back here every time.

Since this all happened, Ive had a new idea every day about what to do next. One day I was going to buy my friends van and live in it. A good nights sleep on that idea and I decided it wasnt really feasable with the cat.

Then I was going to clean up the boat that sank here at Christmas and live on that , but it sank again the next day, so I passed on that too.

Then Steve offered me a 20x25 foot concrete float that I could put a trailer or something on, until I sort myself out. Ive been looking into the idea of putting shipping containers on it and bulding some kind of house out of them. Not really keen on living in narrow metal boxes tho, still trying to wrap my head around that.

I heard about a boat a guy was desperate to move and sounded like he would sell for very cheap. I just talked to him and found out he is making payments on 17,000 still owing on the boat....ouch, too rich for me and I told him so. He mostly just wants to not deal with the moorage fees right now, so has offered it to me as a free place to live if I move it here and pay the moorage on it. I wont own it, but will have a home for the time being while I work on what to do next with my life. I am supposed to go and see it on Monday, so will have a better idea then if I will go that route. I am getting a little leary of the whole boat senario.

I have been in such an emotional turmoil the last few weeks, I didnt want to post here, but then I thought, oh well this is my life, such as it is. Some day I will look back on all of this and think something about the way I handled it all. So I decided to take this all with a laugh and not stress about it anymore, its one day at a time, with things apt to change at a moments notice.

Stay tuned for the inner workings of a menopausal mind as I try and sort my life out.

A Preview of my New Home(stead)

A map of Haida Gwaii (The Queen Charlotte Islands),located on the West coast of BC. If you click on it you can see it full view. Queen Charlotte City is our first destination to pick up supplies. Then its down to the National Park (the area outlined in green)Gwaii Haanas and Rose Harbour where we will be staying.


A view of Rose Harbour, the location of the homestead



A view from Rose Harbour looking out to the ocean



The same view at sunset


This is the Guest House where vistors stay



This is our house where we will stay and the meals will be served






Some of the local wildlife


The carved totem poles that the visitors come to see


Can't wait to get out there and try my hand at pioneering!~

I WON THE LOTTERY!!!!

Well, not the "heres a check for a million dollars" lottery. Something much, much better. I won the "heres the life you always dreamed of on a silver platter" lottery. For all those who dont believe in coincedence or fate ( like my Dad), check out this story, its just too unreal.

So let me back up a little bit. If I could live anywhere, my dream house would have been a funky hobbitty hermit house in the woods, next to the ocean, off grid with a nice garden to feed me and a Daniel Boone kinda guy to do the hunting ,fishing and wood chopping. I was despairing that at my advanced age, that scenerio had passed me by in life and I was doomed to fade away in the city.

Since my boat is gone and after two years of trying my hardest to have David fall in love with me only to be regected in favor of some unknown "perfect woman" that he continually searches for, I decided it was time to move on. The way things have been going in my life lately it seemed the cosmos has been doing eveything in its power to get me ready for a complete life change. Well my instincts were dead on! I am about to start a brand new exciting adventure of a lifetime.

Last week I answered an ad on dear old Craigslist written by a man seeking " a hippie chick to go and live at his homestead eco tourism wilderness getaway in the Queen Charlotte Islands (also known as Haidaii Gwaii)". I thought that sounded right up my alley so sent him a picture of me and said "if your still interested , get back to me".

Well he was and did and sent some pictures and a more detailed description of himself, his business and what he wanted /expected from a woman joining him on this venture. Something about his name and location rang a bell for me and when we finally got to talk on the phone, I asked him if he had a brother named Benoit?

Well , yes he does,and how would I know that? Well, Benoit was a roomate of mine years ago and at some point his brother Patrick came to town and stayed with us for a few days while he was picking up a new boat to take back to his eco-tourism guiding thing in The Queen Charlottes. We hit it off very well and enjoyed each others company while he was here. Nothing came of it as he was happily married but I think we both felt we had met a kindred spirit in each other. He left town and I never heard from or saw him again.

Now,years later here he is again. His wife sadly passed away from cancer a few years back and he had moved back to Vancouver to get his electricians ticket. Apparently he has been posting ads for quite awhile trying to find a soul brave enough to go into the wilderness and homestead with him. He has to leave to go back there in 3 weeks and time was running out to find someone suitable.

Well not only do I want to go, but as the universe tumbles I was serendipiply( my own word ) totally ready to go at a moments notice. My stuff is all packed in storage, my boat has been dealt with,I am barely working these days, so finding someone to take over my clients was easy and I had finally accepted the fact that David was never going to be mine and am ready to move on.

So a mad flurry of activity is taking place as I decide what to pack, do last minute shopping, say goodbye to everyone and tie up any loose ends.

David has been a brick about all this. He is happy for me and willing to look after my vehicles and storage locker etc until I get a chance to see if this is going to work out and if it doesnt, I am welcome back here, where he will still try and get me a barge or floathome if it comes to that.

So with that bit of security to cling to , I am off. I will be leaving April 17th. We will drive over to Vancouver Island in his jeep towing a trailer full of our stuff. At the top of the Island we will be catching a ferry to Haidaa Gwaii.Once there, he has a house in Queen Charlotte City ( really a small town) and we will stay there for a few weeks gathering supplies for the homestead. When we are ready everything gets put on a barge and towed for a few days to get to his location.

When we arrive we have to clean out the main house and guesthouse(holds 8 people) , plant a garden and get things ready in general. The house is a solar powered, satallite for internet, composting toilets, wood fired hotub kind of a place. He runs a guiding operation from there, where people get to experience the homestead, organic garden type of lifestyle and he takes them fishing, boating,and exploring the national park during the day.

I am blissed out to say the least. This is a lifestyle I have dreamed of forever and now I finally get to give it a go.

So please stay tuned as I am sure I will have many interesting stories to go along with this new adventure. Thanks to everyone for their messages of hope when I was going through my meltdown last month. Im glad to say all is well, Ive dusted myself off and am ready to go forward into the unknown with an open heart and open mind.
I cant wait, I am absolutely giddy with anticipation. This is a thousand times better than a check for a million,.... you can't buy happiness.