Vision | 
07 30th, 2009| 
We decided that after our border saga we wanted to do something nice for ourselves, go somewhere that makes us feel good.. That would be Nelson and the surronding Slocan Valley 
Both Curtis and I have spent time there before but always left wanting to be there longer. It is an incredibly beautiful place and the people who are there are just as beautiful! It is full of friendly, earthy, environmentally aware, active people. Everyone who we spoke to about the area LOVES living there and has a very positive outlook on life. We decided to look at property while we were there too. Driving around you see TONNES of gardens, lots of people using their outside place to grow food not so worried about how green their grass is. There are also children everywhere and people and places you go to are very accepting of children. That was a wonderful for us! Also lots of animals chickens, goats, sheep, llamas, donkeys, pigs, horses and cows. For us we have a vision of having a small living space with more outside space to grow food and have animals for food and fiber. There is lots of this “homesteading” going on in the Slocan Valley. We spent 5 days camped at Kokanee Provincial Park 20 minutes from Nelson. So we could drop our rig and drive around, Nelson is hard to park in if you are 50 feet long We spoke to a local real estate agent who gave us lots of maps and properties to look at. Pretty quickly we were able to get a feel for the valley and after speaking to the locals also get an idea of all the little “micro-climates” in the area. One place we LOVED was Winlaw, which is an amazing little community, if you live right in town there you have to be prepared to deal with lots of mosquitos but if you go 5 minutes farther up the valley you have barely any! That is an area we would consider settling for sure, property prices are a bit less than the island in the area there. We did the loop drive up to Kaslo, then over to New Denver and back down through Slocan. We also really liked the area north of New Dever at the north end of Slocan Lake.Curtis he has been playing the Mbira, an African instrument for a year now. He has quickly picked it up and spends lots of time writing songs and playing. A great friend of ours on the island Jennie who was our music teacher and fellow marimba and mbira player recomended looking up a local in Nelson who makes and plays mbira. Leonard Nicoll is his name and here is a link to his website. Ocean like her Dad also has a huge love for musi
It has taken us a while to write this because of the huge amount of stress we went through that day, it took a while to decompress and think it all through!
We had quite the experience trying to enter into the US. We took the border crossing at Osoyoos, first mistake. The smaller border crossings have WAY to much time on their hands!! Every camper and trailer that goes through their gets searched for Agricultural reasons. They took away our seeds that were in the fridge sealed in packages and our potatoes (not allowed because they were from the island). When the agricultural lady came in here, she realized that this is our home.. Went back inside and told the officers that we were living in our 5th wheel. We were then told we were fine agriculturally but would now need to answer a “few” questions.
This is where it got bad.
It was 37 degrees out and lunch time and the kids were not happy. We were not allowed back out in our rig since they were now going to search/inspect it. Two officers headed out to look through it. Curtis asked if he was allowed to watch them, not allowed. We have friends who have been torn apart and have had things broken and torn apart and they don’t have to do anything to put it back together after they are done. Lucky for us it was so smokin’ hot in the rig they didn’t last long in there! And obviously we didn’t have anything to hide!
Then the officer who was dealing with our “case” told us he was going to do some more research and ask us some more questions. Curtis was the first up to the interrogation block. He was first asked his address, his work situation, how long we were going, where we were going. I had to take 3 of the 4 kids to the bathroom and had to get let in through a series of locks to get to the bathroom. I didn’t tell Curt where I was going since he was busy talking. So he turned to Sierra and said “Where did your Mom go?” The officer said “Oh She probably made a run for it :0″ What a brutal comment to make! Sierra corrected him and said “No she just took my brother and sisters to the bathroom!”
When I was back he asked me “Do you have medical insurance to be in the states? If so where from, for how long and what did it cost?” I told him yes we always do and where we bought it from and what it cost, I offered to go to the camper and get the receipt, he said no.. They told us to wait, again, he goes off into the back room to do more searching on us.
Neither Curtis or I have ever had any criminal record or anything!!
At this point we are starting to get worried about what is going on. After about another 30 minutes Curtis is called in and I am told to wait outside with the kids. They separated us from here until we were free to go back to Canada. They make him take his EVERYTHING out of his pockets and follow them into a secure room. They tell him we are being denied access into the US based on the fact that we don’t have enough ties and equities in Canada. Curtis explained his job and how he works contracts and then is able to take time off to be with the family and travel. The officer told Curtis to go and get a “real job” so he can prove he will return to Canada. Curtis offered to give him references of people he has worked with, they wouldn’t accept this either.
He also explained he has another daughter in Canada and that too was not enough of a tie because anyone can fly and many people leave their children behind when they move!
Next it came to the fact that we have money in the bank why does that not count as equity?? Well because we could spend that when we are in the states. and then stay down there and work.
After Curt was told he was not going to be allowed into the US, he asked am I being detained..answer no.. Am I being arrested .. answer no..Am I free to go.. No.
Curt wanted us to go back to Canada with out going through the fingerprinting, facial recognition, retinal scans etc.. Curt told the officer that he was fingerprinting him against his will. The officer said we will do it if you like it or not. So we are now a part of the US “data base” system which sucks and that is probably what we are most upset about. When you are at the border you have NO RIGHTS at all!! They can do as they like with you, if you are a criminal or not! Curt asked him what his rights were at the border, he was told “The 4th Amendment rights that Americans have do not apply to Canadians at the border.” Those are the rights for due process for search and seizure, and needing to have reasonable cause.. It is pretty scary crossing the border when you realize you have NO RIGHTS!!
After he was done it was my turn, Curt was allowed to go with the kids while they put me through the procedure. He was a little more rushed processing me because there was a drunk guy in handcuffs waiting for his turn next!
I went through the same questions, and also had to fill out a huge form, answering questions that I should never have had to answer! I asked the officer alot of questions, first to get some answers and also to see if he was telling me the same thing as he was telling Curtis.
I asked him if there was anyway we could tie our money up in Canada to prove we weren’t going to use it down there, he didn’t know the answer to that.
I also asked him about all the snow birds that come down to the states for the winters. He told me they all have to prove they own land or a home in Canada, and not just a slab he said. I have a hard time believing that we have MET other retired Canadians who don’t own land, who have also sold it all to travel and explore.
Next the officer tells me he thinks we would stay down there and leech off the American health care system! Are you kidding me??? I didn’t say that but I was sure shocked!! I was wishing I had Michael Moore there beside me or at least a video camera to document it all. I explain to him that we know we can only be away from BC for less than 6 months out of a year and that we would NEVER risk losing our BC health care!
They ran me through the same fingerprinting etc, I told him I would not allow the kids to be fingerprinted and added to the American Data Base, luckily he was to busy to pursue this anyways..
We are out of the norm being a young family, living in our rig, not doing the 9-5 job, homeschooling the kids, being out of debt etc. The sad thing is if we did have debt we would now be tied to Canada. Racking up credit cards is not an option for us! lol
When we left we were escorted back, the officer stood there with his hand on his gun to make sure we didn’t make a run for it into the states..
As we were leaving he topped it off by saying ” Oh Ya My friend here in the office is building one of those tire houses”..as if its any consolation.
We were there for a total of 4 hours!
When we pulled back to the Canada office we said what we were told to which was “We were never in the states”, the Canadian officer said yes you were, I know the borders.. ANd in the end we did get our seeds and potatoes back which was good because that was what the kids were most upset about!!
That night we pulled over at the first campground we could find which was on a lake, we needed to decompress and talk and think and make some phone calls.. The next morning I made some phone calls to US customs at other border crossings. In Blaine Washington I was able to speak to the supervisor. I explained our situation and what happened. We had been told the day before not to bother trying again until we can prove we own land, by showing utility bills and land title AND also prove that Curtis has a “regular” job to return home too!
We were hoping there might be some way around it where we could tie our money (equity from home sale) up in Canada in a bond to prove we will return to get it. The supervisor in Blaine told me that wouldn’t work. So would basically be a waste of time and money. So we are coming to terms with the fact that we can’t go down there.. The frustrating thing is we are missing out on the internship building earthships under Michael Reynolds.. and our vacation plans were all screwed up.
Yes we could possibly retry to go across but would most likely just get torn apart and we are now part of their system, from now on we will always pop up as flagged as soon as they scan our passports. We also didn’t want to put the kids and ourselves through that stress again.
So we talked and decided we would head towards Nelson , where we wanted to check out land.. and spend our time traveling B.C., we are meeting Summer on Curt’s parents farm Aug 16 in Alberta. We are going back to Sandra and Chris’ in Darfield for a week or two in the end of August early Sept to help with their build some more! So for know we remain north of the border!
We heard word of mouth about the Earthship going up in Darfield , B.C., which is 80 km north of Kamloops. We planned our route from 100 Mile House down through this area so we could come and meet up with these guys and check out their earthship! Here is a link to Chris and Sandra’s blog, it is http://earthship.darfield.com
It was so great to come here and meet with so many other like-minded people. They have people here helping out right now from all over the place! We are only able to stay a few days because we are on our way to Montana via Washington where Curtis has a Volunteer film shoot on Thursday but we will come back here in the fall to help out again for sure! Chris and Sandra ran a Log Home Business and closed out their business to have the time to spend as a family and build their earthship! We have tonnes of similarities with them and are so inspired by their progress on building their home. Curt spent the day helping move and fill tires then we swapped off watching the kids so I could help too! Sierra was super keen to help out filling the tires with dirt and said that was her favorite part of the day here. Chris and Sandra’s kids were away this week at 4H camp and with Grandma so the kids didn’t get a chance to meet this time. They have lambs and chickens and a whole frog family too. The kids were thrilled to help feed the animals and have been up since early asking to go collect the eggs. Our kids are destined to be farmers I think
On the way here we stopped up the hill at Lac Des Roches which is an incredibly beautiful spot, clean fresh air and lakes everywhere! We spent a few day in 100 Mile House looking at land in the area, there were some beautiful pieces of property and are going to check out this area too where you can get a bit longer growing season!
I am going to get going so we can get at filling tires before it gets too hot out!!
