The Gift

After three years of a sluggish economy and little action in the real estate market, Ken and I needed to rethink how we spend our days. Yes, we are still Realtors. We LOVE real estate! But, it's not the ONLY thing we love to do, and until the market improves, we need to find, as they say, 'other streams of revenue'.

My passion for years has been training horses, gentling wild mustangs, riding dressage. Folks frequently asked, "Do you teach?"  For years I said, "No". Then people seemed to just come by and need horse time, The Little Wrangler's for example. They so much wanted to learn about horses and horsemanship and so... I began.

This summer I decided to take myself more seriously and advertise 'Horsemanship for Horse-Lover's of all Ages."  The students began to call, and sign up and then one lesson a week turned into two, and sometimes week long intensives. I love it! It is making me think and evaluate what works for each person and each horse.

 Then I got a call from a woman over in Whatcom County - we talked about my philosophy and methods and she asked me if I would come work with her two Halflinger/Quarter Horse mares. It's a long haul to her place, "The River Farm" but I said yes. After four hours with Holly,  her daughter and the two horses, the horses were truely listening, leading well and were relaxed and calm.  In Holly's words, "It was awesome!"

She also told me, "You have a Gift". I have been told I am a good teacher, but somehow this 'you have a gift' really got to me. Gift, I thought... well the gift is I get to do what I LOVE yet again! Yes, how lucky is that! What a gift I have been given. And in the process I get to teach people to understand, bond, communicate and train horses. This work is heart opening and healing. It teaches love and mutual respect and demands focus. It teaches boundaries and limit setting and how the relationship has to take priority over the immediate goal. It's for the good of the horse, and in the end, it's what is best for the people as well.

Orcas Island Yurt for your Island Vacation

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Yurt on Orcas Island for Rent

Our Yurt is now available for visiting Orcas Island. This is an OFF THE GRID experience. That means you can excape from TV, Computers, Phones and truely wind down and re-connect with yourself and your loved one. It's quiet out here at the end of the road in Deer Harbor. Frogs will sing you to sleep.

 You can snuggle down under a down comforter in our Queen Sized bed and truely rest.

There is a table and chairs and candlelight for romatic dinners together.

Bottled water and a one burner propane stove for heating up some tea or a small meal. A warm shower can be found at the Deer Harbor Marina about 1.5 miles away. You can also launch a kayak or rent a kayak there, or go whale watching. (See my blog about Deer Harbor)

Soft light will glow inside the yurt and you can see the leaves gently moving in the breeze.

Love Bird Watching? This is a birder's paradise! Heron Rookery, all types of water birds, gold finches, eagles, hawks and lots of owls.. the list is too long to mention!

Formerly wild mustangs can be watched while playing and eating in the nearby meadows.

This very affordable get away is $55/night if you stay 2+ nights, and $65 for one night. 
Give us a ring or drop us a line, if you want to reserve a stay at our yurt!  We look forward to meeting you!

360-376-4642   or Cell: 360-298-2082  Kate Wood

Eating Local on Orcas

Ken and I are doing our best to eat locally. That's why we garden and raise chickens and rabbits. We believe in sustainability and taking responsibility for what you are eating. That meant last winter we pretty much lived on venison. Too bad it was a tough one. Our solution was to cook it... sometimes all day long, at a low tempeature; 285 degrees. I generally saute some onions, or chives which I have tons of in my garden, add some store bought celery and then brown the meat. We have this natural clay pot from mexico that for some reason cooks so much better than any others we have, and I put all these things together, cover with water or broth and slow cook. About an hour before eating I add carrots and potatoes. This winter we'll have our own potatoes! Ken has planted about 25 pounds of Yellow Finn potatoes..our favorite!

One of our favorite meals is braised rabbits. We cook our rabbit pretty much the same way as the venison but for about 2 hours, but we always add bay leaves. It has a very subltle sweet flavor, not at all gamey and very tender. There is something about the food that we raise or grow that is so satisfying. We are never left wanting something else or eating too much. It's as if the body can tell that food is truely nourishing and it's all it needs.

 Sometimes we eat it with mashed blue hubbard squash from our garden. This squash keeps really well and we were still eating it  a few weeks ago!

Isn't this the most glorious color. These were stored on the steps to our attic... very forgiving.

Some mornings I try to eat mainly from our garden. Here I have chives and beet greens for an omelet, and mint for morning tea.

Living on an Island gives us opportunities to forage for oysters. If you do this too, always check the red tide hotline and be sure to harvest ones that are away from any marinas or potential contaminants. We generally just broil them till they pop open and eat them right out of the shell!

 These guys were huge and meaty!  Yum!  Happy eating!

Living Lightly on Orcas!

I have always wanted a yurt. I can't tell you how many times I have said.. 'Well, we can live in a yurt!'. Truth be told, that sounded like fun to me. The difuse light, low impact on the earth, hearing the night sounds, close to nature, living simply..

So, when a chance to help a friend by buying his yurt came up.. we jumped on it. Our young friends Jay and Megan, who had lived on our farm a few years back had been saying to us how they just wished they could move back to our place.. They were such great help with the horses.. so Jay and Megan will help us on the farm, and live in the yurt.

It was such fun watching the yurt go up. The hard part was building the platform. Ken was very resourceful reusing some 4X4's that had been used for composting bins in the past, and using salvaged concrete form pannels for the flooring. Nice and stiff, and good slick surface! Those came from cleaning up a dump area on a property we sold.

I love the open weave of the basket that forms the yurt. It's like a giant play pen~!

 If the kids are good, we will let them out from time to time!

The first thing on is the roof.. It's like a flower. 

 

Then you wrapped the walls around the frame.. it takes a few hands. 

 

The high side was the most challanging. Must be easier on the Plains of Mongolia, where the land is more level. I do have a thing for those Mongolian horsepeople.. living on mares milk and traveling with their herds. The children riding before they can walk. And those horses.. not pretty and practically wild!

 

Now the lovely view of the Marsh will only be seen from the windows.. 

Ken built a sink.. of course no running water, but we will have a tank..and below a bucket!

And voila!  A home all set to go!

Now, I wish all our houses were this easy to build!

If you are looking for a home on Orcas, drop us a line! We're full of ideas and solutions!

kate@orcasdreams.com

Gardening on Orcas Island

This may be the best spring for gardening I have ever seen on Orcas. Here are my tulips, this was taken about a week ago.. and behind the tulips are my peonies.. those bushes had as many as 75 blooms each last year!  The secret to my success.. well it's 100% pure, organic, composted Mustang Manure!  Yep, and we can supply some to you to- just give us a jingle.

See the heads coming on this Peony already?  So early, weeks early.  Back east in Ringoes I had two Peony plants they were on the south side of my home and I loved those babies, I nurtured them, I fed and watered them and they gave me about 5 or 6 blooms a year. Here on Orcas I put manure on top of almost solid clay and they flourish!

Perfect Tulips everywhere! Tulips thrive in the Pacific Northwest, that is why the Skagit is full of them, the cool nights and warm days make for perfect growing conditions and the blooms last for weeks. Today it's in the mid 60's and feels hotter in the sun. My lettuce are just starting to come up as are our beets and spinach. I have decided to only drink tea I can grow, no more imported tea, so I drink mint tea from the garden. Changes..

My peas are up and this am I ate a veggie omelet from my garden.with beet greens and chives.  If you are looking for a gardening spot on Orcas drop me a line! kate

Spring would not be complet without the return of the Hummingbirds!  Today is the birthday of my most glorious grandson Caleb. Happy Birthday dear one!  He's seven!

Living on Orcas Island

Today as I stood in the arena lunging Black Elk, I watched a pair of Eagles engaged in a mating dance. Their cry was completely different from what they normally sound like, and I stood watching them tumble and fall straight up above me, then over the marsh, up into the woods and back again. I thought this is why I live on Orcas!

And when I went to Coffelt's for eggs and saw these wonderful photo ops.  Wheelbarrows in a pile, shovels and pitch forks, a lake rimmed in pastels.

Perhaps it was the joy I felt when looking down the driveway and seeing Ken and Jay and Megan all digging holes for the yurt platform. Jay and Megan will have housing for the summer, our farm is growing.  Our neighbor, Dan had helped Ken design the platform it and then carved out a path lined with old logs with moss intact.

 Perhaps it was the felling of connection  I felt this afternoon I saw two friends who I helped find their homes on Orcas.  Jim had me over to talk about the market and how to prepare his house for sale. We brainstormed about his next tranisition and swapped a few tales.  Then I ran into Tom at the Post Office. He owns Deer Harbor Charters - and takes people whale watching. He had a fire in his home and yet was so happy with the changes he made with the home he   invite to stop by and see his remodel.  We chatted about his winter which he claimed was colder in Florida then here on Orcas!

 I think it was watching my grand-daughter, Trinity learn how to handle the wheelbarrow that made me happy to be on Orcas.

 Or maybe while watching her sleep...

Perhaps it was the long emails I got from a new friend assuring me that going virtual in our Real Estate Business will work just fine, and her warm invitation to join a oil painting class.

Lots to be thankful for; the beauty and the people and of course the gift of living on this very special Island.To see what kinds of properties are for sale on Orcas Island go to: www.orcasdreams.com

Spring Training on Orcas

I am back to training my horses. Black Elk and I have been walking the trails both on line and at liberty. We're getting back in shape. We have also been working on his giving to pressure in the arena, learning to leave a bit of a loop in the lunge line as he trots his circles. This spring he's learned to curve his whole body as he goes around and around, tipping his nose in and listening. He is very soft and very attentive. While last summer he could barely manage to canter his big body in the arena, now he can canter part of a circle.Yesterday he was trying to buck and canter while playing and he looked like a baby moose! We were in hysterics laughing.

Rascal has gotten so beautiful in his maturity. Now everyone says he is the most handsome of my horses, but this was not always so. You can see the changes that the slow dressage work have made in his body, which was once rather lumpy and awkward.
Dressage = the athletic development of the horse. He is still not as graceful as the others in some regards, like backing up is hard for him, but put him on a lunge and you'd think he's a Lippizan! This spring in one session I taught him to bring in his nose while trotting, as if he had on side reins. He is such a smart horse, he got it right away. I often wonder how he even knows what I am asking for.. he is one of those horses who keeps offering things. and then when he gives me what I want.. I let out my breath and sigh.. YES! He slows and comes in, drops his head and is happy. His other big improvement is being able to canter a 10 meter circle on the lunge, he is also getting so much better at not having to brace as he changes gaits from a canter to a trot. He is a serious hard working guy, when he is working. The rest of the time he is a ham!

I have adjusted how I lunge my horses, and now try to become the pole that they circle around. Black Elk found this so much easier to keep the proper distance and to make the circles really round and accurate. The Vaqueros used a pole and it is said that 30 days of lunging around a still point in the center will develop the horse as much as 90 days of riding dressage. Accurate circles is the key says Jane Savoie too.

On Wednesday I had Abby come over to ride Shaman. With my ribs still sore, I wanted the  wonder girl to ride any surprises out of my youngsters. She is so agile and athletic as well as having nerves of steel, I feel so lucky to have her help.

                        Shaman even got a bit bored while Abby took a phone call!

He had not forgot a thing. Abby was quite surprised, but I know these musangs  -  teach them something and they have it down. He was so happy to see her and always welcomes the attention. He stood quietly for mounting and walked around without any issues, making turns and stops.

                                        We kept it short..ending on a happy note.

Since things went so well with Shaman and we still had a bit of time, I saddled up the Elk and had her pop aboard. He stood like a rock (something I feel is VERY Important) and was just fine. They walked around and backed, he offered some very fancy side passing.  She commented on how he was much more fluid and lighter, giving to pressure so much more readily. I was happy to hear that the ground work was showing up in the riding so soon. My plan was to have her ride him a dozen times.. but already I am itching to get on.. my memory seems to be blessedly short! I am back to training my horses.
If you are looking for a farm on Orcas take a look at our site: www.orcasdreams.com