ADVENTURES OF THE CANADIAN FAMILY ROBINSON http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:51:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Pasture Raised Chicken for Sale.. Pre-Order Now http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/pasture-raised-chicken-for-sale-pre-order-now/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/pasture-raised-chicken-for-sale-pre-order-now/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:51:44 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1903 we are starting our first batch of tasty chickens early March.. will be ready for early May fresh or frozen.. Anyone wanting to preorder let us know how many birds! Pasture Raised, Non-Gmo, AMAZING meat!! $4/lb Our Birds usually average 5 lbs
Email kimnrobinson@mac.com

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/pasture-raised-chicken-for-sale-pre-order-now/feed/ 0 Hello!! http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/hello/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/hello/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:53:03 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1891 We are here still :) Its been a LONG time since I last posted.. 6 months can fly by fast!! How to sum it all up.. We had an amazing garden harvest this past fall. Our apple trees did great this year too and we canned and froze hundreds of lbs of apples! We picked 140 lbs of blackberries to freeze, jam etc.. We also got 179 lbs of meat off our 37 meat chickens. The meat tastes incredible! We have had lots of people buying our meat birds so this season we will be taking preorders and doing a batch every month. We also had great success with our turkeys this year! We grew 6 turkeys with a total of over 100 lbs of meat and had no loses. I had been warned that they were hard to keep alive but we had no issues! We will be doing orders on turkeys this year too! We have 4 pregnant goats who are due to start kidding in less than a month so we will be milking all four and will venture into cheese making fun this year too, can’t wait! Big news for us too.. we have been approved for our farm status, we were able to grow enough off our land to sell to qualify. Very exciting! Now that the house is mostly done we are focusing on working towards our goal of growing 85% of our own food.. I will update more often now and post pictures soon too :) Kids are all doing wonderfully!!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/hello/feed/ 4 Eco-Video Contest http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/eco-video-contest/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/eco-video-contest/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:40:01 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1893 Sierra and Ocean entered a video contest for CVRD environmental contest in December through http://www.12things.ca/12things/index.php
They placed second! Here is their video!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/eco-video-contest/feed/ 1 House and Farm going ons.. http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/house-and-farm-going-ons/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/house-and-farm-going-ons/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:50:52 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1883 We have finished (well mostly) the interior of the house and have also finished our exterior brown coat.. We decided to cover the north wall ICFs with local cedar shakes.. We are really happy with how it turned out! Still a bit more plastering needed above them and also exterior pigmented lime coat to come in Sept. Garden wise we have been happy with our new fence we put up and have put veggies in 8 raised beds as well as pots and berry patches.. We sold the 5th wheel too so now have an empty greenhouse which we will finish closing in to extend our growing season even more! We have been raising meat birds (chickens) for ourselves and to sell this year as well :) We have also been building more chicken tractors to rotate our layers through fresh grass areas.. Kids are all well, loving their animals and the long summer days!! Here are some pictures!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/house-and-farm-going-ons/feed/ 3 We are back! http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/we-are-back-2/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/we-are-back-2/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:31:33 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1878 Its been so so long! We have been loving our house and have been spending all our extra time in the garden and on the farm and on finishing exterior on the house ! Its about time for some more pictures!! Some of these are from a few months back already!! Some are of our first breakfast in the house, oiling the cob bench and some of celebrating Summer’s 13 th birthday!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/we-are-back-2/feed/ 0 After Colloquium Brown Coat Work Party http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/after-colloquium-brown-coat-work-party/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/after-colloquium-brown-coat-work-party/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 04:29:27 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1871 Here is a post from our lovely friend Kata at Earthen Built! Its all the info for our Browncoat work party Monday and Tuesday.. We have the 5th wheel available for camping in too.

After Colloquium Brown Coat Work Party

The Robinson’s have done it folks…they have received a thumbs up for a mortgage!!!! Big deal right? Well, it is in the world of Natural Building. That’s right, this is a load-bearing cob and light-clay infill house that has been approved for a mortgage!!!!

The catch: they need to have it DONE. Yup, all done. What’s missing you ask? The exterior plaster.

So, for all you lovely natural building enthusiast that are attending the 2011 Natural Building Colloquium at OUR this May, why not stay a few extra days out on our lovely island and help this family of 7 (yup, 5 little ones) get the brown coat up on the outside of their house.

And, for all you lovely natural building enthusiast that are not attending the colloquium, but are interested in trying your hands out plastering, or just want to help out for any ole reason, come on over too!

Oh, and if anyone would like to help Kim with the cooking, she could use a hand feeding all the hungry mouths as well.

Camping on site, or down the road (at Mossy Banks) is available. Meals will also be provided. And, but of course, a bon fire if it isn’t pouring at night!

Be a part of this awesome family’s journey and help them secure this mortgage for a natural building!! This will help our movement so much, making natural building that much more accessible for people who would build with these materials if only they could find financing. Well, here it is!!!

This event is scheduled for two days, yet there is an option for a few people to stay on for a few extra days if they wish.

Please RSVP here or at earthenbuilt@gmail.com

Many thanks and hope to see you out there!

Blessings

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/after-colloquium-brown-coat-work-party/feed/ 2 Occupancy and Moving in!! http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/occupancy-and-moving-in/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/occupancy-and-moving-in/#comments Sat, 30 Apr 2011 02:09:59 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1866 Longer post coming soon but we passed our occupancy inspection on Wednesday and are moving in tomorrow!!! Last sleep in the home with wheels :)

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/occupancy-and-moving-in/feed/ 1 Cabinets and Earthen Counters http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cabinets-and-earthen-counters/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cabinets-and-earthen-counters/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:32:12 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1860 We have been so busy, we haven’t had time to update the site !! We are almost in the house just finishing oiling and waxing the floor!! But here is some pics to try and catch you up a bit!
Curt worked with a friend Adam on kitchen cabinets, Adam is a GREAT guy, super talented in many ways and awesome person too! They built the cabinets at Adam’s shop then brought them to the house. We are not doing anything fancy for now due too lack of time and money!! We built them so we can add the doors later but for now will have funky “Costa Rican” style curtains over the fronts :)
We built the countertops out of 3/4 plywood topped with metal lath then a layer of earthen material that is then oiled, polished with a stone to close the pores then waxed! So you get a very durable waterproof non-toxic surface! Here are some pics!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cabinets-and-earthen-counters/feed/ 4 Interior Finish Plaster http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/interior-finish-plaster/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/interior-finish-plaster/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:54:46 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1854 We have been working on the interior finish plaster for just over a week now.. We are really happy with the progress! Here is our recipe we used for south and East walls. Our bedroom was a bit different color combo. We experimented with different fibers a bit and went back to good ‘ol horse manure, there is a reason it has been used for YEARS and YEARS for plasters.. And no it doesn’t stink once it dries.. The straw was hard to get on thin even after very fine filtering.. We bought Kaolin Clay from the pottery store in Victoria since it is light colored and doesn’t need any filtering, filtering our own clay through a window screen takes a very very long time! We started with a washed sand and then went down to an even finer washed masonry sand.. works even better. We have about 3 more days to finish the interior plaster, wahoo!

6 L Kaolin Clay
9 L Fine Masonry Sand filtered through window screen
1.5 L Calcium Carbonate
3 L horse manure or straw filtered through 1/8 screen (dry if doing a light color like this)
225 ml yellow iron oxide
30 ml brown Sierra coloring
some mixes we also used flour paste and some a capful of linseed oil

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/interior-finish-plaster/feed/ 2 Tadelakt Shower http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/tadelakt-shower/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/tadelakt-shower/#comments Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:49:37 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1849 I can’t believe it’s almost been a month since I last posted!!! WOW.. lots has been going on here thats for sure! We have been making amazing progress and are so close to moving in!! One of our big projects we have been working on is the Tadelakt shower/minitub. Tadelakt definition from Wikipedia… :)

Tadelakt or Tadellakt is a bright, nearly waterproof lime plaster which can be used on the inside of buildings and on the outside. It is the traditional coating of the palaces, hammams and bathrooms of the riads in Morocco. Its traditional application includes being polished with a river stone and treated with a soft soap to acquire its final appearance and water resistance. Tadelakt has a luxurious, soft aspect with undulations due to the work of the artisans who finish it; in certain installations, it is suitable for making bathtubs, showers, and washbasins and confers great decorative capacities. Traditionally, tadelakt is produced with the lime of the area of Marrakech.

Tadelakt is beautiful and SUPER labor intensive!!! Here are some pictures of our progress.. First came the tub base made out of wood and reinforced with metal lath. Then we poured a concrete shower base in two layers with an EPDM waterproof membrane along the bottom and up the sides. Then came 2 lime plaster coats then the final pigmented lime plaster.. Which is then polished with a stone and soap.. Gord Baird who lives in an amazing cob home and has his own Tadelakt shower got us going on ours and Curtis has been polishing away since then!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/tadelakt-shower/feed/ 2 Cob Bench http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cob-bench/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cob-bench/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:23:59 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1819 We were thinking we would wait and do our bench once we were in the house BUT we had some awesome friends offer to come spend the weekend working on it with us so we figured now was the time to do it! We dry stacked rocks for the base of the bench and we put wood cubbies along the floor to put books, toys etc in.. Curt shaped the “throne” looking area to fit his back exactly.. We also added some blue and green bottles for color and light to come through..We also embedded some book shelves into the back of the bench in the kids rooms. We also made a yellow cedar shelf on the front under an arch. Some neighbors who have land let us take some of their arbutus trees that came down in the wind, they look great in the bench :)

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/cob-bench/feed/ 1 Interior Finishing http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/finishing/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/finishing/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:39:33 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1815 We have been working away at some fiddley finishing parts on the west entrance to the house. Curt put plaster stop/trim up around the closets to prep them for plastering. We also have a wall that has water lines behind it so we can’t staple up metal lath for the plaster to adhere to so we made our own glue/ sand paste to paint on, this will help the plaster to stick to the plywood. We also finished up the ceiling in the bathroom and prepped the wall that will be lime plastered for the shower.. now just need to do the concrete base before we can start the shower. We also made an awesome bench out of one of our cedar logs that we found on our farm when we bought it, still need to take a picture of it though!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/finishing/feed/ 0 Sculpting http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/sculpting/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/sculpting/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:25:27 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1806 While we were finishing up brown coat we took some time to work on some art for the walls before finish plaster.. here are a few pictures. We have done some arched shelves as well as a turtle and a tree.. We call it The Robinson Family Tree since it has 8 roots, one for each member of the family.. Eric Anderson and Kata Polano were here helping Curtis with the brown coat/ sculpting and they did an amazing job!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/sculpting/feed/ 0 Brown coat pictures http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/brown-coat-pictures/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/brown-coat-pictures/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:42:35 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1802 Here are some more pictures.. We have had a chance to add some shelves and sculptures and are about a day or two away from being finished brown coat! WAHOO!!

]]> http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/brown-coat-pictures/feed/ 0 Plastering begins.. http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/plastering-begins/ http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/plastering-begins/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:28:18 +0000 Vision http://canadianfamilyrobinson.com/?p=1797 We are onto plastering now.. We have started our brown coat! It took us a bit to get the right mix down but we seem to have a great mix now and we are super happy with how it is going up. We are screening our clay slip and sand to 1/4 inch for the brown coat and keeping fiber lengths fairly short. Our mix going up on the lathe walls is thicker. The next plaster will be our finish plaster and where we can add some pigments for color :) A few areas like the lathe walls, arched doorways and cables will need second coats of brown coat to prevent cracking into the finish plaster.

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