What's in a name?
'Taimi Soil Projects' defined Taimi - Pronounced "Tie - mee"; A Finnish word meaning young tree or sapling. When people from Finland settled the area northeast of Rocky Mountain House, AB in the early 1900's, there had been a fire that had burnt most of the trees. Since most of the trees were then small, young trees, 'Taimi' seemed fitting. The Taimi area had a one-room school house for many years before it was upgraded into Taimi Community Hall. Soil - Soil is a mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Soil contains 90% of the life on Earth. Much of this life is in the form of plants, animals, bacteria, fungus, ciliates, arthropods, flagellates, amoebas and countless other forms of microbes. Soil is the basis for almost all living things on earth. So then, what is dirt? Dirt is what's under your fingernails. It is soil that is out of place in our world – whether tracked inside by shoes or on our clothes. Dirt is also soil that has lost the characteristics that give it the ability to support life – it is “dead.” Projects - Let's not pigeon-hole ourselves by naming a company after what we think we might do in the future. We would prefer to leave the door open for many exciting ventures by specializing in "Projects". |
Juli & Jeff Gillies
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Jeff Gillies Bio
Jeff Gillies is a researcher, inventor, and builder who is finding a way to enjoy meaningful work alongside his family, while surrounding himself in healthy food and healthy landscapes. His goal is to remove the barriers for people looking for positive change, and make it easy and comfortable for them to make the transition to a sustainable lifestyle. Jeff also wants to build some of the most fertile soil the Earth has ever seen.
Jeff grew up on a farm east of Edmonton, just down the road from the Sutter Farm outside of Viking, AB. He loved every minute of his farm upbringing, and spent much of his time working on their farm as well as a few other farms around that needed a hand. He learned a variety of skills and trades on the farm and on his Dad’s residential construction sites. One of the many lessons he learned about modern agriculture is that unless you’re really good at it, already have land, and already have capital, it’s most likely not economically viable. As much as he desired that lifestyle, Jeff heeded the warnings of his advisors and chose to pursue an industry with more potential for earnings. Jeff attended the University of Alberta and earned a degree in Environmental Science, majoring in Soil Science. He figured that if he couldn’t farm in the traditional sense, he could get into reclaiming oilfield sites and turn them back into productive farmland, which involves a lot of the same practices. That career served him well for over a decade.
Jeff’s first reclamation job brought him out west of Hwy 2 for the first time, to a quiet little area near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, where he fell in love with the landscape, the trees and the view. That answered the second burning question in a young man’s journey, which was where to live. After meeting his beautiful wife Juli from Lacombe, they were married, and began building family and an acreage in the Taimi area. The names ‘J2’ and ‘Rancho Relaxo’ soon became common words for friends and family.
With four kids in the house, Jeff questioned himself about what future he should be preparing his kids for. His most recent experience was in oilfield, but he questioned whether that was going to be a booming industry for his kids down the road. After many years of mowing acres and acres of lawn at home, it also seemed like there could be a better use of the land and Jeff’s time spent maintaining it. Permaculture was an idea that seemed promising to answer his questions, and offered hope in solving his problems. This new design system was introduced to him by a friend, and completely changed his world.
Jeff completed a 2-week Permaculture Design Certificate course in 2010 and Juli took her PDC in 2011. Since that time of awakening, Jeff & Juli have been striving to gather more and more knowledge about sustainable living. They enrolled in numerous courses regarding Greenhouse Design, Compost Building, Food Forest Design, SPIN Farming, and Rainwater Harvesting and attended several Alberta Permaculture Convergences as well as the Permaculture Voices Conference in California. In 2013, J2 hosted the Western Canada Permaculture Convergence, and it was a huge success. Each of these courses and events opened new doors and connected Jeff & Juli to a growing network of people who are skilled and enthusiastic about the same goals; living a healthy sustainable lifestyle while preparing our kids for a life of abundance.
Today, Jeff continues to mix Permaculture ideas into their yard services company, Taimi Soil Projects. Through presentations, projects, conversations and consultations, Jeff is helping spread new ideas about sustainable living to the world.
Come join the group. We need your help, and it’ll be a fun ride!
Jeff Gillies is a researcher, inventor, and builder who is finding a way to enjoy meaningful work alongside his family, while surrounding himself in healthy food and healthy landscapes. His goal is to remove the barriers for people looking for positive change, and make it easy and comfortable for them to make the transition to a sustainable lifestyle. Jeff also wants to build some of the most fertile soil the Earth has ever seen.
Jeff grew up on a farm east of Edmonton, just down the road from the Sutter Farm outside of Viking, AB. He loved every minute of his farm upbringing, and spent much of his time working on their farm as well as a few other farms around that needed a hand. He learned a variety of skills and trades on the farm and on his Dad’s residential construction sites. One of the many lessons he learned about modern agriculture is that unless you’re really good at it, already have land, and already have capital, it’s most likely not economically viable. As much as he desired that lifestyle, Jeff heeded the warnings of his advisors and chose to pursue an industry with more potential for earnings. Jeff attended the University of Alberta and earned a degree in Environmental Science, majoring in Soil Science. He figured that if he couldn’t farm in the traditional sense, he could get into reclaiming oilfield sites and turn them back into productive farmland, which involves a lot of the same practices. That career served him well for over a decade.
Jeff’s first reclamation job brought him out west of Hwy 2 for the first time, to a quiet little area near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, where he fell in love with the landscape, the trees and the view. That answered the second burning question in a young man’s journey, which was where to live. After meeting his beautiful wife Juli from Lacombe, they were married, and began building family and an acreage in the Taimi area. The names ‘J2’ and ‘Rancho Relaxo’ soon became common words for friends and family.
With four kids in the house, Jeff questioned himself about what future he should be preparing his kids for. His most recent experience was in oilfield, but he questioned whether that was going to be a booming industry for his kids down the road. After many years of mowing acres and acres of lawn at home, it also seemed like there could be a better use of the land and Jeff’s time spent maintaining it. Permaculture was an idea that seemed promising to answer his questions, and offered hope in solving his problems. This new design system was introduced to him by a friend, and completely changed his world.
Jeff completed a 2-week Permaculture Design Certificate course in 2010 and Juli took her PDC in 2011. Since that time of awakening, Jeff & Juli have been striving to gather more and more knowledge about sustainable living. They enrolled in numerous courses regarding Greenhouse Design, Compost Building, Food Forest Design, SPIN Farming, and Rainwater Harvesting and attended several Alberta Permaculture Convergences as well as the Permaculture Voices Conference in California. In 2013, J2 hosted the Western Canada Permaculture Convergence, and it was a huge success. Each of these courses and events opened new doors and connected Jeff & Juli to a growing network of people who are skilled and enthusiastic about the same goals; living a healthy sustainable lifestyle while preparing our kids for a life of abundance.
Today, Jeff continues to mix Permaculture ideas into their yard services company, Taimi Soil Projects. Through presentations, projects, conversations and consultations, Jeff is helping spread new ideas about sustainable living to the world.
Come join the group. We need your help, and it’ll be a fun ride!
Trade Show Booth
Juli’s Herbal bio
Juli is a mother, entrepreneur, activist, herbalist and localista!
With a passion for the outdoors and healthy living she enjoys a daily walk on her forest trail just outside of Rocky Mountain House AB. The forest trail is where she loves harvesting and drying plants to add to her own collection, to be made into teas as well as a variety of other ointments and salves that can prevent and treat many ailments.
After taking a number of weekend workshops on Boreal Forest Medicine Juli dove into a full year herbal apprenticeship to further her knowledge and excitement of natural medicine and how it relates to the human body.
For the past couple of years Juli has really enjoyed taking city kids on ‘Forest First-Aid’ trail walks in the Rocky Mountains as a part of their year-end school campout at the Centre for Outdoor Education. Watching kids find out that they can eat dandelions is soooo much fun!
If you get a chance, join Juli on a Forest walk to help you re-connect with nature through your heart, your stomach and your soul!
Juli is a mother, entrepreneur, activist, herbalist and localista!
With a passion for the outdoors and healthy living she enjoys a daily walk on her forest trail just outside of Rocky Mountain House AB. The forest trail is where she loves harvesting and drying plants to add to her own collection, to be made into teas as well as a variety of other ointments and salves that can prevent and treat many ailments.
After taking a number of weekend workshops on Boreal Forest Medicine Juli dove into a full year herbal apprenticeship to further her knowledge and excitement of natural medicine and how it relates to the human body.
For the past couple of years Juli has really enjoyed taking city kids on ‘Forest First-Aid’ trail walks in the Rocky Mountains as a part of their year-end school campout at the Centre for Outdoor Education. Watching kids find out that they can eat dandelions is soooo much fun!
If you get a chance, join Juli on a Forest walk to help you re-connect with nature through your heart, your stomach and your soul!
Call Juli or Jeff today at 403-845-7993
If you have a question, please email us at [email protected].
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If you have a question, please email us at [email protected].
Like our Facebook page.