Home Exchange

One of the many HomeExchange sites.

I first heard about Home Exchange a few years ago and thought that it sounded like an incredibly fabulous idea! At the time though, we were living in Burnaby. Still Vancouver, but no one on the exchange boards was exactly chomping at the bit to head into the burbs. Or so I thought. In retrospect it might have been the exact place someone wanted and needed to be for a visit to the Lower Mainland for all kinds of reasons. I should not have put our little townhouse in a box.

Anyhoo. The time is here. I finally finished making a photo tour of our home and we are going to take the plunge into an international home exchange site. I have no idea which one. I am thinking the ones that you have to pay for are best after overhearing a girlfriend talking about her online dating experience. She described paying as being an incentive not to dick people around. Good advice.

One of the many reasons we love this little town is that living here affords us the ability to travel. We want to travel once a year. And, bonus, Rossland is the kind of place that other people will come around the globe to visit. I meet them on our streets everyday! What with worldclass skiing in the winter and being the mountain biking capitol of Canada in the summer, amongst other things. Huzzah :)

There are some pretty incredible destinations available in the exchange and it cuts the cost of travelling in half. Great, because we have two tiny bums that get charged full price for plane/train seats everywhere we go. Rossland is two hours from the Spokane airport and or we would drive to Vancouver to find the best - read cheapest - flights (leaving one car for the exchange family). Now enrolling does not mean we will find a match immediately but many of the sites do guarantee that you find an exchange within the first year, or the next years listing is free. Sounds good to me.

Have you tried a home exchange? Which one?

Toby goes for a Ride

Well, that was quite a hiatus! Thank you for all the kind words and support over these past few weeks as I worked, studied and researched. I loved hearing that ag.gray.gate's daily offerings were missed. For those of you who have been waiting...I handed in my completed business plan for the Boomtown Brewing Company last Monday and by Friday I had the news. It was accepted. Yay, for this Mompreneur and for this little family!!!! 2011 is gonna be a BIG year. I am equal parts excited and scared.
Other than me being fully engrossed in the brewing world, it has been life as usual. Since moving to Rossland six months ago my husband Mike commutes quite a bit back to Vancouver. On a good trip he goes to film something, on all the other trips he goes so that there is food on the table. Sometimes he crashes with friends and at other times he sleeps in the Cavallac. When he is able to take Toby (the Chihuahua) with him I am so grateful. Toby, our first baby, gets some serious one on one time with Mike, and I have only three beasts to take care of here at home.

One of Mike's most recent trips was for the explicit purpose of an audition. The audition was at 3pm. It takes roughly 7 and a half hours to get to Vancouver. Afterward, he would turn around and drive back to Rossland. He wore his costume in the car and didn't think to bring a change of clothing. Why would he? The trip was there and back again in 16 hours.

One of the things we have most enjoyed about life here in Rossland is the lack of traffic. Life here is super chill despite Forbes Magazine repeatedly giving us a spot on their top ten ski resort list. In fact, an article was written about our sleepy little town, labelling us the most laid back ski town in North America. Oh, and the Lonely Planet warns visitors about our erratic jaywalkers. Like I said, there is no traffic.

Anyhoo, 7 hours and 25 minutes into Mike's Vancouver trip, he was stopped in traffic two blocks from the studio. Suddenly, Toby begins to panic. Like, PANIC! He runs in tiny panicky circles in Mike's lap, pausing only briefly to put his paws on the window ledge and peer longingly outside, then resuming this frantic cycle. Michael barely has time to process that all three pounds of dog is in the throes of a man sized emergency. He says, "Just a sec Tobes and I'll find a place to pull over". Apparently Michael's reassurance was too little too late, for it was then that Toby placed his paws on the window ledge once more and shat helplessly all down the front of the only outfit Mike had.

Gagging, he found an ever elusive parking spot, and he struggled to figure out how to make this shituation better all the while managing to not strangle Toby. Mike went straight for the washroom inside. He washed out as much as he could which left little time for his still rank clothing to dry. Now he was wet and smelled like poop. Upon entering the audition room he says to the director, "Now, I know what this looks like, but it isn't pee. It's shit...but it's not mine". What an ice breaker.

Wordless Wednesday - First Real Skiff

Photo by www.tourismrossland.com

Somethings Gotta Give...

I have some fantastic news...wait for it...wait for it... I am officially enrolled in the Self-Employment Program here in Rossland (well, Greater Trail I guess)! Now I have kept fairly mum on this whole subject but with this latest development the cat is out of the bag. This is the news we have been waiting for!

Both my husband and myself have long dreamt of owning our own business, we just never knew what that was going to look like. Then just over six months ago, in the few days between putting an offer on a house here in town, but before listing/selling our Vancouver home, we decided to start a brewery in Rossland. Then we packed up our old life in Vancouver and began our new life here.

Here is how the idyllic dream looks: We (me funded through Community Futures and Michael as my unpaid man servant) establish Rossland's first brewery since prohibition put the Le Roi Brewery out of business at the turn of the century. Then we are on our own. We have a smallish store-front, on-site craft-brewing, retail and tasting room on Columbia (Main Street). Our little Company begins to support and sponsor all the fabulous events that the wonderful people of Rossland create, host and attend. Investors come out of the woodwork to throw money at such a fabulous idea enabling us to grow and prosper. We build an entirely green, zero waste, incredibly efficient brewery which truly reflects Rossland and our communal values. We even employ some local farmers to grow our hops which is mutually beneficial. The Brewery garnishes heaps of local support, and because it is easily one of the best beers anyone has tasted word spreads like wildfire and our Brewery becomes a tourist attraction as well. From there it is all up.

Currently I find myself writing, researching and developing a business plan under the tutelage of the Program. Michael is in Vancouver again this week, (hopefully he'll have and audition and book a another part before Christmas!) which means in addition to business planning I am the sole parent here for a week. YAY! Sarcasm, that was sarcasm. Which brings me to the point where I ask your understanding and allegiance. Please bear with me if I miss a day here and there over the next few months, keep coming back - I will not be going anywhere!

Thank you all so much for your love and support, for your readership and comments. Oh, and if you have a half million kicking around, I know just the place for you to invest it :)

Wordless Wednesday - Flying Steamshovel

The Flying Steamshovel

Thursday Throwback

After meeting some pretty incredible women here in Rossland due entirely to having two wonderful poppets, I thought I would re post this article from June. I wrote it with my heart open, and expectation high, a few weeks before the actual move itself. 

Baby Mommas

There are always been those BIG moments in life when one worries about making new friends. For example changing schools or, ahem, moving.  

Making new friends is something I have taken for granted in the past. Always being in one form of institution or another, the same people day after day, has its advantages. In retrospect school is sort of a give in the friend-making department. Thrust amongst a thousand peers for years one is bound to find at least one like-minded individual. Extra-curricular activities from K-12 are the proverbial friend-making icing, being a concentrated pool of similarities and shared interest.

After graduating from University and moving out of the city where I grew up I found myself, for the first time, with no real friend generating systems. I had to pursue friend-making. It was hard. There was more baggage. Ugh. But then something miraculous happened. I pushed out a baby!!!

Having children have afforded me that coveted "in". Babies are like an institution in and of themselves.  I find spending hours on playgrounds and in playdates fosters discussion and openness with my new peers. Suddenly making friends seemed easy again. We swapped poop stories and labour tales, shared laughter and tears. The walls came down and I have become friends with some incredible women. Women whom I will miss dearly, but are the special kind of friends that no time nor distance seems to pass between.

I am banking on Jack and Isla to get me through the Mommy-door in Rossland! They really are great little icebreakers and the kids are still at that invaluable age when my friends children are their best friends as well.  I know this luxury will end one day soon when Jack and Isla begin making their own friends, but by then I should be well imbibed in Rossland mommy-culture!

Homage Monday - Trish Dyer

Trish Dyer - Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company

London Fog

Trish Dyer is a Chocolatier. The sheer declaration that you are a chocolatier is weighty one.  Upon hearing this fantastical word my heart quickens and the corners of my mouth turn upward. I must admit I feel a bit like I am in a fairy tale to say I know a real Chocolatier! It is no small feat to harness the magic and potential that chocolate carries within itself - for many cannot. As an artist Trish boasts the uncanny ability to take a good thing and make it better. To take a dark shapeless mass and transform it into an exquisite, whimsical delicacy.  

Starry Night

Here in the picturesque Monashee Mountains Trish is inspired to create. She is rooted here and draws from the land where she herself has grown. Among the local organic ingredients she uses are Rossland garlic, Oso Negro Coffee roasted in Nelson,  and honey from the Creston valley. Trish is a local artist who actively supports other local industry. She is an avid gardener who is passionate about real-food and a believer in the roles of the baker,  the butcher,  and the candlestick maker. Her creations are really an extension of her person; lively, exciting, complex, mischievous and fun.
Most recently Les Dames d'Escoffier awarded their prestigious scholarship to Trish in recognition of her work and a fellow blogger and foodie The Well-Tempered Chocolatier sought out the Nugget on a trip to Rossland. 
If you happen through our happy little town the shop is a MUST! And if you are unable to make it to Rossland then you are in luck because Trish is making the rounds, peddling her rich morsels at fairs and festivals around BC. 
Be sure to Follow the Mountain Nugget on Facebook so you don't miss a thing!

Joe

Mountain Nugget Chocolate Company
2076 Columbia Avenue
Rossland, BC
250.362.3338

   

On the Road Again...

For the past ten years my husband and I have shuttled back and forth from the Coast of BC to visit our loved ones in Calgary. From Vancouver, the journey always begins in the wee hours of the morning, travels through several majestic ranges, up and down passes hemmed in by picturesque mountains, then we are finally pushed out into the breathtaking Big Sky Country that is Alberta.

It is a remarkable trip that we have down to an unremarkable science. He drives, we sleep (which is a nice change from "Isla screams").  We drive from full to fumes, sometimes rolling into gas stations just to make the very best time we can. Before kids the trip took around ten hours. After, it could take upwards of twelve. Rossland is smack in the middle, almost a perfect 600km bisector between Vancouver and Calgary. It now,  in theory, takes half as long to get to either end.
















I always envy my dear friend who stops. She stops in Osoyoos and lets the kids play a round at the mini golf. She stops at parks and she lets the kids out to play, completely disregarding how this effects the "time" she is making from point A to point B. As much as I "know" life is about the journey and not the destination somehow I never was able to make the literal jump!  We decided to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Frank Slide sits at the foot of Turtle Mountain and neither Mike or I had visited the site for the better part of two decades. We left the dogs in the truck and went in with the kids to the lovely new interpretive centre. It was a wonderful digression. We watched documentary films, played with touchable exhibits, read heaps of first hand accounts and relearned about this historic, and preventable tragedy.

90 minutes later we returned to the vehicle ready and eager to get back on the road. Mike opened the door and was met with a terrible stench. Velma had unleashed an epic and entirely preventable tragedy of her own. We had left her out of her kennel. It was all over Isla's car seat and everything surrounding it. Not unlike most trips into the city we were returning at capacity and the kennel needed to be collapsed to fit Santa's booty into the wayback. That was a mistake. The mess only seemed to have hit porous, absorbant surfaces. Ughhh. I think we used an entire box of baby wipes to little or no avail. We lamented the remaining hours in the reek. As it turns out, nothing gets rid of that new car smell like a dog with diarrhea.

Learning To Fly

This morning Jack came out of his room smiling from ear to ear. He had had a dream that he was Astro Boy. I am pretty sure that this was a direct result of his younger sister having declared she is Astro Boy and introducing herself as such. All day, everyday. Which is a change from when she decided a few months back that her name was Missy Pie. When we ask about "Missy Pie" she says that it is still her name but that she is now "Isla AstroBoy MissyPie..." "What about Meat-a-saurus" I ask. When Isla started solids we began to call her Meat-a-saurus at mealtimes because of her affinity for all things flesh. "Meat-a-saurus" she says pointing to her temple, "lives in my brain". I almost peed.

Now Jack is dreaming he is Astro, he hears about him a lot! I wondered if that meant he had dreamt his first flying dream. It hadn't. Too bad, I cannot wait to hear about these.  I used to dream so vividly and flying dreams were by far my favourite. I scarcely remember my dreams now, unless they are guilt-filled and at that point I would rather not since I have a hard enough time forgiving myself during the day. Anyhoo.

Jack had another first today though. A wonderful neighbour and friend passed along a bike to us. Now Jack has been riding a Strider for the past 6 months and he was ready to make the move. In less than 10 minutes he was up and riding! No training wheels or anything. His dad and I were pretty much elated! 15 minutes in he has mastered his new ride and tomorrow is his first bike race at the Rubberhead - we are in Rossland after all!

Little House on the Mountain...

Slippers are definitely in order today. And a hoodie. And maybe some mittens. But, under no circumstances am I going to turn on the furnace. 

Today is the last day of August and there is frost on my (over-turned-but-at-least-it-is-still-tied-to-the-tree) composter. Ouch - I forgot to cover my tomatoes. Well, maybe not forgot, but I procrastinated because I could not believe that fall has come so quickly. It literally has fallen on us here in Rossland. I hope that maybe this observation is premature, due to my living in Vancouver for almost 10 years I am prone to complain about the weather as soon as it happens, so maybe I shouldn't worry about covering the tomats tonight because it might warm up again right?! Did I mention the forecast is calling for snow showers on Red Mountain (located slightly up the hill and to the left of our house) tonight?

Ughhhhhhhh, sometimes I wish I was gifted with a disgusting amount of "go get 'um". I didn't dry any of my herbs, nor do I know how, I have no idea when I should be planting bulbs for next year, the garden is still mayhem after the last few windstorms and there is a never ending list of to-do's inside as well. Some of these include: a new furnace, a hood over stove, a new water tank, replacing single pane windows...then there are the wants (like a garage) that I will not even get into!

So I guess I'll take the poppets to the park before I need a sled...I'll be the one in my Uggs complaining about the weather!

Wordless Wednesday - Gold Fever Follies

Gold Fever Follies 2010 Program

CBC

I have a longstanding love affair with CBC Radio 1. It began innocently enough as a young girl in my grandparents home where it was a constant not-so-white-noise in the background. On hot summer days the sounds from my grandmothers antique 35 watt Motorola radio could be heard drifting out of the kitchen. The wonderful cadence and vocal tones of their hosts and story tellers, every half hour the regular musical cues aloft in the house. The sound of the 10 o'clock count takes me back there everyday. To Jintie's garden and afternoon tea in the seat that was my mother's when she was young.

On road trips with my parents we would listen to Radio 1 as long as we could get a signal. A signal was good, it meant postponing the inevitable Glen and Jeanie duet to Blue Rodeo/Conway Twitty/Johnny Cash/... or the like that I dreaded as a teenager. Life is funny that way. I would give almost anything to sit in that backseat and give an audience once more.

Later, at my husband's family cabin, the summer CBC found me all over again, rekindling the passion. My grandmother had since passed away and the infamous radio had been bequeathed to me. It sat patiently and quietly in my basement room at my parents house. Years passed and I finally brought the 6X12U to Vancouver where it found its new home on my kitchen counter. The radio became my young family's morning ritual with Jack and Isla chiming in excitedly, "he/she said Canada lives here, we live in Canada too!".

Now in Rossland, on the living room side table, my beloved radio sits silent once more. There are no AM signals here nestled between the mountains. Instead I have added an app to the iphone. Streaming FM radio live over the internet ushers in the old tradition of a radio-coloured backdrop in a new way, ensuring our home is filled with story telling and music from across the land.

Return of the Rainy Day

When I was a girl growing up in Alberta rain was always so romantic. First there was this amazing smell. Then smell of ozone my parents would always say. Giant towers of cumulus clouds would roll in, usually with a breathtaking thunderstorm in tow, and the sky would open up in a spectacular fashion to unload its heavy burden. Then as quickly as the storm came it would be gone. Making Rainy Day plans is a tradition I have cherished since childhood. Saving up ideas for rainy day art and games, staying inside to snuggle up with a snacks and a movie. Bliss.

I travelled to Europe as a teenager and in France I was thrilled to feel truly warm rain for the first time. Later I visited Bali in the rainy season (at 99% humidity being dry was a relative concept) and the sudden rain would fill the streets, careening between raised sidewalks designed to channel the deluge. And despite its coastal perch, Perth Australia  reminded me of my Alberta home, hot and dry with spectacular summer storms.

In the fantastically green, fertile and lush city of Vancouver rain is different still. There is, except on the rarest of occasions, a distinct lack of that fantastic rain smell. There is no fanfare to herald the arriving wet. Thick dark clouds crawl across the city lingering for hours, days and at times even weeks. The winter Isla was born I swear it was 6 months before she felt the sun on her face. A lifetime. As much as I adored the Rainy Day ritual from my childhood, implementing it in Vancouver would be a great way to become a fat hermit (instead, Vancouver grinds to a halt to celebrate the snow day!). There were mornings that Jack would wakeup in the looming darkness and wonder out loud at the breakfast table if it were night time already. It would seem that, despite being native Vancouverites, my poppets were never thrilled by the Pineapple Express.

Shortly after landing in Rossland there was a sun shower. A sun shower! It was brief, it smelled fantastic and the sun shone the whole time.  Jack just about had a panic attack, "Mommy you told me it didn't rain in Rossland!". "Jack" I said, "I never said it wouldn't rain here, but the rain here is not like Vancouver and it'll be over soon." And like that it was gone. On Friday we had our first rainy day, and even that didn't last the whole day. I told the kids about why rain smells the way it does, just as it was explained to me by my parents, and I am so looking forward to finally passing along the legacy of the Rainy Day.