Lets start at the very beginning, its a very good place to start. The year was 1998. I was a single woman, living in the big city, searching for clarity in my life. It was a time before computers, well it was a time before I owned a computer. Nobody texted, some had cellphones, there was no twitter, no facebook, a little emailing was happening but the social electronic revolution was a few years away yet. I was on the beginning years of my herbal journey having recently returned from Vancouver Island and an awakening of sorts. I had discovered in this journey that I craved to go ‘back to the land’, to live with nature and grow and nourish a gentler, quieter way of life for myself. I had been gardening in my large garden in the land of bridges here in the Big City, connecting with the soil, bugs and birds and my life was changing.
Fast forward a few months to the hot late days of July, mix in a little reggae at a night gallery in the Big City with a few cold ones to wash it down. As the sounds of Tosh and Marley reverbed on the walls, in walks a pal of a pal. We sit for a few minutes, get introduced and then the big question is asked: What did you do today? Who me, oh I was gardening. It was love at first sight. That was the beginning of the amazing connection that has grown and matured into a ten year marriage this summer.
Husband and I began our journey to finding ‘The Land’ in 1999. We traveled everywhere, all over BC and Alberta to get a feel for the areas. Northern BC, out to the Islands, all over the interior, the southeastern regions into southern Alberta and north into mid central Alberta.
In the summer of 2001, there was one such trip where clarity came in the form of nut butter. As we were heading down what would eventually become the valley we found land in, we entered into a sleepy mountain village. Being that I was pregnant with the Little Pickle at the time, my appetite was large and very specific. I had a craving for tahini. Where on earth was I to find tahini? We stopped at the gas station to fill up and I went inside thinking no way, they won’t have it. And YES, they did!!! They had tahini at the gas station!!! We were obviously going to check out this village, the area, this valley. And so our discovery and exploration of this valley began.
A few years later after The Pickle was born and we all recovered from that life change we went on another adventure to the area. This time we were lucky enough to stay with some friends who at the time owned a wonderful piece of raw land in the valley. They have since moved to another property and created an amazing life for themselves. We journeyed all through the valley on that trip to find the areas where our hearts sung the loudest. That trip marked the time where we found the area to which we wished and hoped to find land. We left and went back the Big City and actively began the property search. This time through the ‘nets and the wonders of MLS.
We eventually found our land, mid summer 2005, and through a series of serendipitous events we signed the paperwork for this 10.5 acre parcel of magic mid December 2005. We travel often to our land and stay for sometimes days and sometimes weeks, always coming back to the Big City to maintain our life, jobs, friends etc here. This is the year we are hoping to make the leap and integrate into the amazing, loving community and finally see our dream of Sustainable Homesteading become reality. Here are a few photos of ‘The Land’ aka ‘Ferngully”. Thank you for reading today!!
