les tomates

Patrizia and I set up string and wire for the heirloom tomatoes. The wires had to be pretty tight as they will be holding hundreds of pounds of weight in tomato plant!

Planting the tomatoes, they were put in on an angle, 2 feet apart, with half the plant buried as the stem roots up when underground. Pretty cool stuff.

Patrizia is a volunteer here from Switzerland. She is always smiling and reminds me of a fairy.

berriesberries

The strawberries, planted two springs ago have received alot of attention. Sea soil, which is in the wheelbarrow, then some organic fertilizer (green sand, alfalfa, kelp and some other natural shit). You have to wear a SARS mask while spreading the fertilizer bc if you inhale it makes you cough alot, its a really fine powder. The blueberries and raspberries are also given sea soil which is a bit acidic, and they like that.

This guy is Yoni. We were born on the same day in the same year, I am 4 hours older than him. We use the same community bike, have similar grey fleece sweaters, black curly hair and we giggle at things that aren't funny all the time. He is slowly becoming the Jewish brother I never had. He likes to check his horoscope in the morning to see if we will get along that day.

Cuban Tractor

This is Raj. He operates the tractor which is decades old. It looks like a tractor they would use in Cuba. Unfortunately the tractor broke down, so a nearby farmer came in with his new and shiny John Deere which was blasting Shania Twain "I Feel Like a Woman" from its radio as he plowed in.

A side note about Raj, he is a pretty cool person with a very 'hippie' lifestyle and lives close to land etc. his children though are apparently not. One works for the government and likes money, and the other one enjoys heavy metal. But he doesn't mind.

Potatos have eyes

Prepared some potatoes that were sprouting EYES. You chop them up and let them dry out a bit then we are going to plant them in a couple of days.

Also we picked the shit out of some kale that is going to be plowed in.

Seeding

All the vegetables and cut flowers are started from seed, mostly in trays in the greenhouse. Different varieties of swiss chard, heirloom tomatoes, basil, tons of stuff. Sunflowers, larkspur, asters...

Screens with wooden frames are put on every evening to prevent rats from eating them. Once they grow into proper mini plants the rats are not interested in them anymore apparently. Every evening the seedlings are also covered in plastic tarps to keep them nice and warm over the cool nights.

Queen of Naniamo ferry

Wouldn't it be so fun to participate in the testing of the life rafts and the inflatable slides? It's only once a year. How do you get to be a tester, is there a recruitment involved? Is it b.c ferries employees only? Maybe family and friends come. Next time Im on the ferry I will ask.

Vancouver is really clean

Before going to Salt Spring I went to Vancouver for a full day and night. It is really pretty and clean, more than Toronto with better planting design. but, there is a grimy, industry feel to Tdot that I really like, that Vancouver doesn't really have. This is a really nice building in gastown, I want it to be my home. It has shiny tiles and nice broadleaf evergreens planted IN it.