Every once in a while the email inbox offers up a gem.
In April I heard from two lovely people in Creston, BC who in their own words, “finally bought the old farm of our dreams.” Attached to their statement of their farm was a call for support, “Can you help us link up to hardworking, land yearning young couples who may want to try working with us on the land?”
Ummm, wow, and yeah I’ll do what I can.
Multiple emails later, images and conversations I’m please to present their request to you the potential hardworking, land yearning young couple(s) who are looking for land. Email permaculture
Without further adieu Ellen and Mike and their dream in Creston, BC. Enjoy their story and their request you might just find yourself imagining their land as your own. – Javan
The People
Mike has been a computer programmer all his adult life and it wasn’t till we spent a 2 year sabbatical in the Kootaneys that he became a confirmed country lovin’ guy. The next 10 years in the city were torment for his quiet nature, he longed for those star filled nights, a warm wood stove, and true blue country folk.
Creston, BC, Permaculture
He has never been a physical guy, much more into inventing, playing his guitar and reading yet he knows there is a price for living in the country which includes pushing himself to help Ellen create some of the things she has longed for.
Ellen is a dirt girl from way back, her favorite things include trees and plants, animals, people of all sorts, natural healing, making yummy food and sharing her surplus.Her background was in nursing which suits her nurturing mother mindset. Mike calls her the social convener though she does treasure quiet times alone with Mike or rip roaring fun times with some of their 9 grandchildren.
Mike and Ellen are very close, but they work at it for they are also very different personality types. He is cautious, she spontaneous, he is reserved, she is instantly on.
They have learned to accept and appreciate their difference. Both are fairly creative and love exploring, are kind people who appreciate others and who value integrity, and generosity.
Permaculture
Attempting to live out a genuine faith is very important to Ellen and interesting to Mike the intellect. Many evenings are spent around discussions and debates but defused with Mike’s wit or Ellen’s sense of fun.
In general Ellen is more driven to get things done and need to back off sometimes, and Mike is slow and tenacious—he called her the humming bird and himself the turtle.
All in all, they are like all couples: slightly unbalanced and imperfect but willing to accept those things and work together to make life the best possible.
Contact Ellen and Mike via their email at canukpeach@yahoo.com
The Land
The garden is almost tilled enough and getting ready to plant, we have planted many fruit trees and bushes, and rebuilt the barn roof which was close to falling down. We have much fencing that needs to be done and envision a retreat one day (value added income) that will be open to those in need of de-stressing. We would like to set up a couple of cabins on the 10 acres beside some of the 3 streams that meander through the land.
Animals in the plans are pigs, dwarf goats for milk and cheese, ducks, chickens (meat and eggs) and an alpaca or two for fiber, oh yeah, bunnies for fiber and meat. Our neighbours are pasturing their horses on the land this year but we plan to have years to rest the land and return it to more a natural rhythm.
We hope to try out a green house and are interested in aquaculture and vermiculture as well as growing our own mushrooms (another value added endeavour).
When we first began to watch DVDs and read about permaculture it just made a world of sense to us. Strawbale homes and cob ovens etc excite us too. We built a pizza oven from cob once which worked beautifully. We would also like to get off the grid as much as possible so are looking into solar hot-water and power…a lot depends on how innovative we can be with the resources we have.
It feels like the possibilities are endless but the workers are too few!
So we began to think about sharing our land, and its ability to produce a good supply of food. There will not only be food stuffs to sow and care for but much to harvest.
Organic Produce
Our biggest need is to have others with some of the same interests but different abilities and a lot more energy than we presently have. The first years here are the building years, the middle years may be quite different.
My beloved, being a wise and cautious man, would like us to start slowly, getting to know a couple, seeing where a season takes us first before making permanent commitments to life long partner ships. We basically are seeking like-minded persons, who are not pushy, but kind and creative, fun and maybe even musical (we are somewhat). Honest, hardworking and committed characteristics will also be essential.
Our new (old farm) is located just 10 minutes from Creston, a temperate growing climate. We sit up the mountain on the West Creston side and look out at a mountain behind our rolling hills, or out the front toward the valley and eastern range on the other side. It is truly a lovely place.
Its not quite as wild a place as we would have chosen a few years ago, but is convenient to town, a wonderful community of growers, artisans, and other good folk.
We lost our camera in the move and are still very disorganized because of the multitude of things to get done. We would like to begin a dialogue with those interested as we open the doors to sharing what we consider to be a real gift.
Contact Mike and Ellen via their email at canukpeach@yahoo.com
The Dream
If you have ever had a 20 year long dream finally come to fruition you will be as startled as we are to find that reality is not half as easy or romantic as you thought it would be.
Many years ago we had an 18 month opportunity to get a taste for country living, with all its charms but none of its commitments. We fell in love with the people, community and church, the peace and the natural beauty all around us. When we had to leave to find work in the big city, the only recourse was to begin to enjoy and learn from books and magazines on a huge variety of topic relation to a more sustainable, natural lifestyle.
We hungered to get our fingers dirty but besides a small garden, life was just too hectic to engage in much more.
So here we are, grandparents now to 9 wonderful kids from the city, thankful for the opportunity we have before us, but certainly not in the kind of shape we were at 30.
We have some head knowledge, but after only a month on the old farm, we are finding ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs doing for this spring and summer.
So far in our 100 year old farm house we replaced a very stinky old living room carpet, but we feel our resources need to be focused mainly on improvements that will aid is in our quest for a largely self sustaining lifestyle.
Eventually we’re looking to live in the cycles of what the land can produce and what we can produce in terms of our own energies.
Sustainable living means different things to different people and thus our wee synopsis of how we envision it.
Thank you for reading and we hope to hear from you soon.
On the farm
Ellen and Mike
Please be in touch with us at canukpeach@yahoo.com