I’ve been busy all through the weekend working with my buddy Lance to move all my wood piles to one central location: a newly-built wood rack on the north side of the house. All in preparation for the final groundworks to begin next weekend. We did manage to take breaks here and there, and I found a few mushrooms to play with! Happy belated Earth Day!
Ferrying to Port Townsend
The other day I took the ferry to Port Townsend to see a guy about an industrial serger sewing machine listed on Craigslist.
In the kitchen now tinkerers studio!
A carpenter by trade, his handmade home from architectural salvage materials has been completely taken over by his post-retirement obsession: finding and restoring turn-of-last-century sewing machines.
The main room of the house/sewing machine heaven.
After 2.5 hours of eying, trying and drooling over many machines, I chose 2 to bring home to my new studio.
The dining room has been overtaken by sewing machines, ephemera & flowers.
No pics of those yet, they’re already loaded on a trailer in the barge queue waiting for the high winds to subside so we can make the crossing home to the island.
An outbuilding filled with machines.
A decade ago when i began my island journeys, I had to sell my trusty industrial sewing machines. They were too heavy and bulky to move all the time. I’m excited to have them in my life again. I have so many sewing projects lined up for my studio, home and the boat!
Mainlanding
My sailor & I came to the mainland a few days ago to fetch a cargo trailer and fill it with things to barge back to the island for various upcoming projects. The area has had high winds for several days, which we’re waiting out to make a safe barge crossing home. Luckily we have the “mainland condo” aka the boat in the marina to stay in while we wait. Our marina neighbors are always changing! Here’s the current morning views!
Yesterday I watched a sailboat float across the pier…
Garden, garden, garden
The new garden beds and walkways are almost complete, thanks to a neighbor barter for wood chips. Several Truckie-loads later and the garden is shaping up for the season! I just have a few more beds to fill with screened dirt.
Time to plant all my berries! Black Cap berries, Raspberries, Jostaberries… I’m forgetting one…
Still in the garden!
This morning I opened up an exciting package that arrived at the mailshack yesterday from Native Foods Nursery. Bare root California Hazelnuts and Thimbleberries! I’m especially excited about the Thimbleberries. They’re my favorite native berry but not found in great quantity on this island. I’m hoping they’ll love my yard.
Later in the day after working several hours in someone else’s yard, I came home to make my first yard bouquet of the year. Daffodils, kale blossoms, clover, dead nettle, rosemary, fern leaf and a beet leaf.
In The Garden
It’s been a long haul shoveling and lugging one 5 gallon bucket of dirt at a time to terrace the new, final garden beds on my south slope. But the end is in sight!
Above: future squash bed on the left, future berry bed on the right.
I’ve dug out the space for each garden bed to anchor it in the hill, then buckets of dirt go in the walkways between to level them. Cardboard gathered from neighbors is applied to smother the grass and clover. The last step is to add a layer of wood chips.
The circled spot is the last remaining sloped walkway which buckets of dirt will transform into a level walkway.
The beds still need to be filled with screened dirt and compost, but that’s a whole other project! My seedlings are coming along indoors but not ready to bring outside - so there’s still time to fill the boxes! This is year three with this garden. Working with the slope has been a challenge. Next year will be easy breezy when I no longer have beds or paths to create and level. Well, level-ish. Using found materials and limited time, I’m not going for perfection. Yet.
Blue Elderberry, grown from a stick bought on Etsy!
In other garden news, I’m thrilled that one of the five blue elderberry sticks I purchased 2 years ago is thriving. None of the others made it through the extreme neglect that comes with building a home on top of trying to establish a garden and working many odd jobs, but this gal did! Originally a 6” stick, she’s become a 3 foot tall bush. Dare I hope for blooms and berries this year?!
More spring foraging!
Almost daily I’m finding more fresh spring greens!
Cleavers, or Bed Straw. Apparently this plant was used for bedding in the past.
Cleavers is another green I look for in early spring to add to salads and smoothies for a boost of locally produced nutrition. Later in the season it gets hairs and becomes sticky, but now when it’s young it can be collected for eating.
Purslane. A new plant that’s appeared in my garden this year.
This new-to-me plant has appeared in one of my garden planting pots this year. Apparently it’s “a low-growing plant with succulent leaves that are unusually high in omega-3 fatty acids (found mostly in fish and flax seeds), vitamins A and C as well as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium.0 It thrives in poor soil and can be eaten as a cooked vegetable for salads or soups.” Well, I’ll give it a try!
Dead Nettle, a welcome garden addition.
Another new one in the garden pots this year (thanks birds!) is Dead Nettle. After some research, I’ll be adding these leaves and flowers to veggie dishes and salads!
SPRING is here, time for some FORAGING!
SO many new green things in the garden and around the island! Let’s visit a few…
Stinging Nettle. Wear heavy gloves when collecting.
Nettles are my favorite spring forage. They’re packed with nutrition! This time of year I collect the new top few leaves to steam and add to soups and salads. I also dry and powder them to add a scoop to daily spring smoothies to combat my seasonal hay fever. Later in summer, I’ll harvest the whole stalks and add them (along with comfrey and other “weeds”) to a covered garbage can full of water to ferment into a nutritionally dense feed/fertilizer for my garden plants.
Violets. Always welcome in the garden!
Violets, originally cultivated from seed and now spreading in my garden beds, are another edible favorite. This time of year I add them to salads for some spring color. Later in the season I’ll add them to homemade coconut ice cream with lilac syrup and nootka rose petals once those two flowers are available.
Miner’s Lettuce. An old favorite from my childhood in NorCal.
There are a few places on the island where this grows wild. Alas, after trying to transplant them in my garden for a few years with no success, I bought seed last year. But it didn’t seem to take. A few weeks ago though, I began to notice them popping up in one of my potted blueberries, and along the pathway next to it. Hurray! I love a salad of these with a homemade miso dressing, or as a snack when working in the garden.
Chickweed. Ubiquitous. Get them before the flower pods dry out and the seeds pop all over the place!
Chickweed is literally everywhere! When it’s young (pre-flowers), I like to add it to salads and smoothies for a boost of hyper local spring nutrition.
What about you? What are you foraging and feasting on this spring? Let me know in the comments!
Happy New Year, er, April!
I’ve always resonated with the old idea that the year begins with the new life and growth of spring, plus my birthday is April 2. Here’s an early blooming indian paintbrush I found on my favorite nearby uninhabited undeveloped island last week while out on the boat. I’ve named the place “Flower Island” because April showers here truly bring May flowers. Next month this place will be teeming with wildflower blooms.
New Habitat goodies online!
We found a good internet connection on the hook yesterday, so I was able to upload the new habitat mug collection and the new habitat t-shirts collection yesterday! Hurray! I’m so pleased to partner with a print-on-demand service to bring these high quality goods to you while adventuring on the boat.
Been offline a bit!
…or at least not posting on the blog. It’s been a whirlwind time dealing with back issues and cleaning/testing out the new boat!
At one of our favorite anchorages.
Unexpected Spring Harvest!
My neglected broccoli plants from last season overwintered and surprised me with a spindly stalk harvest this week! Yay!
Studio Project: Grand Cascades Hotel, NJ USA
Last year I worked on a project that I can finally share: 3 of my large Medley photographs have been printed on plexiglass panels, illuminated from behind. If you’re visiting the Grand Cascades Hotel in New Jersey you can see these in person!
March Madness continues!
We’ve had 4 rainless days, everyone’s been outside working on projects! More terraced garden beds at my place, helping neighbors raise the walls on their house build, burning a brush pile at another neighbors… I’m actually relieved it’s raining this morning so I can take a break from physical labor. Time to get some seeds going though!
Busy March Day
This morning I helped a neighbor cut wood on his saw mill.
In two hours we went through 3 logs, cutting and stickering cedar siding boards for his upcoming house build. I’ve made a short video that I posted on my telegram channel, since videos don’t seem to post well here.
He’s been letting me forage through his off-cuts for a few years now each spring to make more garden beds. My garden is on a slope, so each year I’ve added another row of terraced beds.
This year I’m making a 40’ long bed for berries. Most of my berries have been in pots for a few years, waiting for me to decide where to put them permanently.
My land is pie-shaped, so some of the beds end up being odd-shaped. This new bed will be for squash and pumpkins. I’m filling the new beds permaculture-lasagna style: cardboard collected from neighbors, wood scraps, not-quite-done compost, screened dirt, then top dressed with purchased soil.
How’s your garden going this year?
It's March!
I’ve been a busy bee working on updating the webstore with new goodies! I’m loving these ultra medley hoodies. I ran into a neighbor at the island mail shack yesterday who spontaneously modeled this one for me. What do you think?
Home Again!
Still recuperating and catching up. It was very exciting to return home to a pile of samples for new spring goodies coming soon! I’m excited to show them off in the coming weeks. If you’re not on my email newsletter list to be the first to know about these, sign up at the bottom of this page (or any page on my website!)
SO EXCITED!
Last day in Mexico!
Heading north in the morning. I’ve been absent here on the blog while recovering from a horse riding injury (sciatica)! Here’s some videos I made while recuperating… Enjoy the colors!
Sea of Cortes Video!
My first video I’ve made since college. It was a lot more complicated then. What do you think? Should I make more?
Green Beach Day
Another overcast morning yesterday and low tide, exposing the mossy-green rocks. These are the treasures I found with Jasper dog while a fishing boat went by and a local fished from shore.