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When I first began writing this Blog, I had no idea really, what I would do with it or what would become of it. I only did begin it, for the simple reason of, "because I could".

One day, while searching around the Internet, I discovered that, anybody, anyone at all, could purchase their own domain name &/or start writing a Blog, through the many available web-hosts out there. It just so happened that, I chose Google.

For $10.00 annually, I invented "www.canadianbackwoodsman.com" & began writing, "100 Acres of Canadian Living". After a while, I allowed Google to place adverts on my website. That pays me pennies & I think, to date, they owe me about $6.00 & change, but I have to send them my tax information in order for them to send me a cheque. Needless to say, I'm in no big rush...

One thing I did do, early on in the beginning of this Blog, was install a "Stats Counter". This keeps track of how many page views I receive from other computers & an approximate location of who's viewing my Blog, all across the world. And this has interested me more than, how many pennies I am receiving from the adverts.

At first, I suppose it was only a few family & friends who were reading my Blog & really, this was all it was originally intended for. I didn't think anyone else out there would be all that interested in what I was doing & where I was doing it. But apparently, I was wrong.

From the "Stats" section in my Blogs dashboard, I see that this Blog is being read in places like, Russia, Korea, Eastern & Western Europe, Australia & most all of North America & other sections of the map view which I just don't know, just yet. But it's pretty well everywhere. And I think that's just way too cool!

On the average, from what I've worked out on my PC's calculator, I've averaged around 38+ page views a day. Now, that includes every day since day one & includes the total of page views shown to date as of today, which is 20,113. I figured the total days I've owned my Blog to be 529. The math was rather easy.

However, because NOBODY out there even knew me, or knew that I had a Blog, in the beginning, those stats aren't exact, of course. It must have taken a little while for others around the world to discover my little Blog. So the number I came up with, is just an average, over all. When I check into my averages, for last month as an example, I see that I have approximately 1,139 page views, which works out to be just a little below my monthly average. Other months have been much more.

Anyways, what I'm driving at here is, I was on another, more popular "Survivalist" website which made the claim that, they were the #1 viewed web-site of their topic, on the Internet & they didn't have many more page views than this, my website. WOW!

So, anyways, here's what's been going on up this way...

Raised beds are to be relocated.

It's been my intention all along, to relocate these raised beds back to the site where I first started the 1st raised bed, closer to the house, back deck & kitchens rear door. The only reason I put them over near the back of the backyard, was to keep them out of the way of my building the greenhouse which butts right up to our back deck. Now that the framing for that structure is in place, the gardens can be relocated to an area much closer to it, the back deck & the kitchen door, for ease of retrieving fresh vegetables while cooking here in the kitchen or at the BBQ on the rear deck.

1st bed is moved.

 The wood I've used for these raised beds was recycled from an old deck that was attached to an old 5th wheel house trailer which I almost decided to accept, for free, because the owners had purchased an new trailer & wanted the old one moved. That old trailer was still in really decent condition, but after a great deal of effort preparing it & arranging the transport, we couldn't find anyone who had a proper attachment for the old style 5th wheel used on this much wider type of house trailer, at a decent enough price, so it was passed on to another person closer by who desired this trailer for his own purposes. I still got all of the deck wood however!

I'm not all that pleased that my raised beds are built from treated lumber, but it was all that I had, at the time. If I do decide to continue gardening this way, at this location, in the future, I will most likely be rid of this lumber & go with all natural logs instead.

Leftover onion from last year!

 When I started to dig out the 1st raised bed, I discovered 3 onions still growing in it from last season & could hardly believe my eyes. Every plant I put in these beds last season, died from being drown in all the rains we had that late May of 2011. Now, here were 2 new onion shoots & 1 ready to eat onion!

2 new onions have sprouted from no where!

The soil beneath old bed site.

 The soils inside of my raised beds are about 50% purchased top soils & 50% composted soils I've made myself, here in the back yard. It was all easy digging & while doing so, I took the time to relocate any of the worms I discovered as well, into my little Rubbermaid Vermiculture bin which I've started. More on it later!

Easy enough relocation process.

Old potato's that have gone to seed.

 This box of potatoes in the picture above, are all homegrown & from our buddy, Ron's, garden in Cameron. I set the box of them up in the grow loft late this past winter & just allowed them to go this way in the dark up there. Now, or very soon, they'll be going into one of my relocated raised beds &/or a couple of other types of containers & hopefully, we'll have a large crop of potatoes early this autumn!

Almost finished with moving the 4 beds.

The last remaining soil to be relocated.

Potatoes & onions to be planted!

Site of old beds!

Because Leighann had decided to have her parents over for our Easter Turkey dinner yesterday, I ran out of time for finishing up with the yard work & relocation of my raised bed gardens & today, it almost feels like snow out there it's so cold. But I'll most likely head out & finish this part off anyhow.

The gardens as seen through the greenhouse window.

 The old window inside the rough opening for my greenhouse framing, came from my friend, A.B.'s home on the Misqua Zibbi River just outside of Buckhorn. It's only single pane glass, but there's LOTS of it. At almost 11 feet long by 6 feet tall, this amount of glass is ALL that will be installed into this small greenhouse.

I've not finished the framing yet, because it's all built from salvaged lumber & I just haven't come across any more peices suitable for the framing of the roof, yet. There are some pieces of lumber out at the job site I've to finish up on this month & I will be sorting through it all before hauling away all of the debris when I do the final cleanup, so perhaps I may come across enough to start some of the roof, I'm hoping. One thing I did do however, was set aside enough of the old roof metal from this job, to finish roofing the greenhouse with!

Location of bark from log splitting.

Another thing I did with the 2 center raised beds, was to clean up a lot of the bark & debris from my log pile here in the back yard & make a layer about 2" to 3" thick of this debris, before placing any soil inside of the raised beds. This layer will begin to compost atop of the grass& beneath the weight of the soil & eventually become just more soil after a time & it was just as good a way to compost it (the debris) as any!

Relocated compost bins.

 The remaing debris & litter that I gather up, after I've finished cleaning up around the log pile, once I find a spot for storing it over the summer, will all go into my composting area in the very back of the yard. So far, I only have two compost bins & one open pile but I do intend to make better use of this area & construct a much better system for the amount of compost I would like to create back here.

Bags of leaves for composting.

 The bags of leaves are what I gathered up last autumn & used to insulate around the foundation of the front apartment attached to our home. It's not really a great method of insulating, but it does help to keep some drafts out of that area where we still have uninsulated plumbing beneath the flooring.

After the last of the nasty cold weather, the bags are hauled around back to the compost area & I split them open & dump them into bins &/or open piles & allow nature to work it's magic on them. All through the grass cutting season, I mix the clippings of grass into the piles & give it a good stir. By being open, rain mixes itself in & starts the compost action which turns it all into good useable soil &/or humus but I do have to add water to my one, black compost bin with a lid. I think the black container quickens this compost action because of the heat it generates inside, but it doesn't really make that much of a difference. I intend to allow all piles to go for at least 18 to 24 months, eventually.

Old site of compost bins.

 As seen above, the compost becomes a rich, brown soil in no time. This pile is only 10 months old approximately & I've dug most of it out as a bottom layer for my new raised bed locations.

Open composting site!

 The open site above can just be left to work on it's own with little attention from me. Because none of this back area is useable for anything else, right now, I'm very eager to clean up all of the garbage which has gathered back here from years of our home being rented out to various tennants & restore this back section to some type of wilderness habitat for the birds & small animalls of the area.

I may at some point in time, put a small chicken coup back here &/or a few rabbit cages so to have some fresh eggs & some chicken & rabbit meats for the freezer each winter & most likely, some type of small, low-impact shelter type of shed for my gardening equipment & seasonal lawn items.

Another feature I would also like to have back here, is a small pond area for frogs & birds & perhaps even a deep enough area inside the pond for a few fish of some kind. Maybe even a few Trout or Talapia?

Overall view of composting area!

The area back here measures around 50' wide by 40' deep, more or less, so that = about 2000 square feet of property which is not being used for anything, really. It's all overgrown with Sumac's & it would be an ideal location for more fruit trees or whatever.

We already have about 4 or 5 Plum trees but I would like to have an Apple & at least 1 Pear tree back here as well & then fill in other vacant spots with some Raspberry bushes!

My brothers lawn mower.

New engine to go in my brothers lawn mower.

New engine fresh out of crate.

Another job I may get around to later on today as well, is to swap out the engine on my brothers old lawn mower, for an new engine I had stored in the basement. I purchased this new engine from Home Hardware about a year ago or so, just because it was on sale at a great price. I never did have any use for it other than one of my big ideas for some type of electricity generator or something & it's just sat down there ever since so it may as well get used for what it was designed to be used for!

As for the Vermiculture Bin I've been putting together, it's just a simple enough thing to do. I used an old Rubbermaid container I had up in the grow loft, that I had originally used as a homebuilt hyroponics system for growing small plants. Now, because I'm shying away from hydroponics, mainly due to the ingredients used for this process, the container has been repurposed for this use.

All I've done is, place some top soil & compost into the bin along with various food scraps & a bunch of newspaper torn into strips & then add whatever worms I find while cleaning up around the log piles. The newsprint was all wetted down with tap water & the lid placed atop so to prevent light from entering. I imagine I will need to continue adding water, from time to time & the occasional food scraps, but thats about all there is to doing this!

I will, sometime soon, cut holes into the bottom of the bin & then place this bin into another one, so to allow all of the "worm tea" to drain away into the lower bin & then use it to make a special mix for fertilizing the gardens.

There are so many methods & so much information available on the web for doing this, that it's almost too confusing. I'm just going with the most simple method available, right now, so to get started. Once I'm more established with the gardens, the locations, etc... I'll put together a much more elaborate system & begin harvesting the castings as well as the worm tea & even the eggs of the worms themself I would imagine. It really can become a complicated & time consuming matter, something I have to avoid right now, until our home & the acreage is set up the way I like.

So that's that, for now!