Whirlwind

The Two Girls and a Dream Farm is going to undergo a change in the new year. It will become, temporarily, The One Girl and Her Dream Farm. Zoe has decided to return to Ontario to complete her high school diploma. It is a decision, that while I am very sad, I understand. I will support any decision she makes that will bring her closer to graduating high school.

Step one in this process was delivering her car to her dad and brothers house before too much snow accumulated on the roads. I was able to get three days off of work and Wednesday morning we left home. Twenty-three hours later, we pulled into my parents driveway. While still not an easy drive, it was much better having two drivers that could take turns. Zoe has had her licence for less than a month, but I was very impressed by how she handled herself during that long drive. By fluke timing, she was behind the wheel during the worst of the rain, through Quebec, Montreal, and the tail end of Toronto! Talk about trial by fire!

After a short nap, I enjoyed a lovely afternoon with my parents. Simply relaxing and talking and enjoying the face to face time. That evening we unofficially celebrated Christmas with Aunt Judy, Aunt Pat, Uncle Tom, my parents and Brandon (thanks for bringing the Chinese food Brandon! I had been craving it!!). This will be only the second Christmas in 48 years that I will not be home with family. I will not be alone during the holidays though. Mom, Dad, and Zoe will all be here for two weeks surrounding Christmas, then they will all go back to Ontario together leaving me here...alone...by myself...one girl. (cue pity-seriously hear the laughter in my words!). I have always enjoyed time alone. There is so much work to do year round on the property to keep me busy, and, by choice, I am working at the YMCA more and more lately. I also have developed terrific friendships and will, by no stretch of the imagination, be lonely!

Friday I had planned to surprise my friend and previous co-worker Sandi and take her out for lunch. I have never liked surprises, and this was a prime example of why. Sandi was not at work!! She was across the border doing her annual pre-Black Friday shopping trip! I did, however, surprise Laura and Dr. Hennig and enjoyed a lovely if short visit with both of them.

Wrapping up the whirlwind, Brandon drove me to the airport. We had lunch together (he benefitted from Sandi's absence), and we were able to spend some much enjoyed one on one time.
And just like that, 67 hours after I left, I was back home.

Chicken note: when I arrived home, I did not unload the truck, I did not go pee, I did not go inside, I went straight to the chicken coop. When I went in, their food trough was full (they had not been eating) and four of our girls were sitting on the floor. In the past this has meant the chicken was sick and she would die within a few days. I was very sad but walked around the coop petting everyone, cooing to them, being a ridiculous chicken mom, and just like that, one by one, they all got up walked over to the trough and started eating and clucking. When they finished, they all flew up to the roosts and settled in for the night. As crazy as it seems, I think my girls missed me as much as I missed them💗

Lori...This is not Goodbye

Lori was our After School and Youth Director at the YMCA and one of the loveliest, sweetest, kindest, hardest working, gentlest souls that I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

Lori has made the very brave decision to leave a job that she worked tirelessly at developing into something to be proud of. She made the decision to leave the career path that she trained for. She made the decision to leave her (awesome) co-workers to follow her heart. Having followed that path myself - I could not be more proud of her or happy for her. Sometimes the path to happiness involves very difficult decisions and it takes a special someone to take that leap of faith.

As I was forced to sit smiling saying goodbye to Lori, I was reminded how 18 months ago the tables were reversed and I was forcing friends and family to say goodbye to me.

Lori is me in reverse. I left a growing town, I left my family, I left the optometrists office. Lori is moving to a larger town, Lori will be spending more time with her partner, and Lori will be working at an optometrists office!

As I sit here being very selfish and crying (again!) I know Lori was put in my path for a reason. She makes everyone she meets better just for knowing her. And, as I have discovered...leaving does not mean goodbye. I love and appreciate all of my friends and family who have maintained contact with me since I made my big move so Lori...this is not goodbye.

When I left Ontario, my dear friend Sandi gave me card that I keep on my desk to remind myself that someone believes in me. I am going to pass on her advise to you Lori:
"...pull up your big girl panties, pull your hair back, straighten up your crown, and go get 'em."💖

I Can't Believe It's November

Like our friends and family in Ontario - we got snow this week. I am definitely not ready for winter to  settle in yet, so I hope this was just Mother Nature's idea of a joke. But if not, I am at least loving having the fire burning again in the living room.

I did finally get the last of the tomatoes in out of the garden realizing that even though many were not ripe, they would not ripen any more outside. My windowsill is full of the last harvest in hopes that some may still turn green. I got the garden rototilled and the garlic planted. For my first Nova Scotian garden, I was overall pleased with the final results. Although most of my beans and squash were eaten by animals, my peas didn't grow and my tomatoes didn't ripen, I did get fantastic red onions, potatoes, hot peppers, beets, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, blackberries, basil, thyme, oregano, and lemon balm. My garlic grew despite being planted in June, the asparagus looks promising for the coming years, the blueberry bushes, rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries also survived the weather and animals and hopefully with continue to grow and fruit for years to come.

The person putting the roof on the barn has started and it is already looking so much better. The barn as a whole will not be finished until next year as it still needs some new flooring and stalls built, but I am thrilled with the progress and am so excited by how great it is looking.

Last October (a year ago) I purchased the first window in the long task of replacing all the windows in the house. This October I purchased the second and this weekend they were installed. Our friend Dave came over Friday and Saturday and taught me how to remove the old and install the new. They look fantastic and now I just need to pull out my carpentry skills and finish the interior trim.

Zoe was asked by a friend to housesit for her so it has been very quiet around here with just Dixie, Charlie the cat, the chickens and I. Zoe has told me she is going to return to Ontario for the next semester of school as the difference between the Ontario requirements for high school and the Nova Scotian requirements were so different she thought it would be better for her to complete her OSSD. This time of her absence while housesitting has given me a taste of what life is like with just One Girl and a Dream and her 31 animals. While the house is quiet, and I have to do all the cooking (yuck) and I will miss Zoe and our adventures tremendously, I do have great neighbours, great coworkers, great friends, property I love, and I am happy to report that it will be okay!

Progress

This past week we saw a lot of progress in many areas.

After many calls to different people and companies, I have finally heard back from someone who will remove the limb that fell on our power lines during the hurricane! So eight weeks after the fact, we should be a little more comfortable in the fact that the power line won't snap, and that the potential for imminent fire will be removed. Tuesday he should be here and that is one more thing off my plate.

We also had a gentleman at the house looking at the barn roof. The back of the barn was in very bad shape when we moved in and we lost some metal roofing panels on the front side of the roof during the hurricane. I had hoped to have it repaired/replaced before winter, and I was gratefully told that this was possible! He will be starting later this week and fingers crossed he doesn't run into too many issues and it can be completed this month.

For those of you who are my facebook friends, you will know that Zoe took her drivers test this past week and passed! That puts her ahead of her momma who failed her first time out! I am so proud of her and wish her safe driving.

I did the last of my harvesting yesterday. The potatoes came up. I had tried so many times to grow potatoes in Ontario with absolutely no success. The most action I ever got out of the potatoes was being swarmed with the bees who had made their home in the straw I planted in! I was shocked, amazed, thrilled and soooo happy when I dug up bucket after bucket of potatoes. I filled the sink and started on the bathtub with Ratte French Fingerling, Red Chieftan, and Classic Russet. I had a lovely meal with some of the teeny tiny ones and they are so delicious. I am beyond happy at this successful crop!

We had a fantastic day Saturday enjoying an auction. I was thinking of how much I would have loved for you to be there with me Aunt Judy! We bought lots of fun stuff, from planters and tools, to a wok and pizza stone. Our best purchase however was a small kitchen table with four chairs. The table has flip up sides so we can even eat sitting down with company in the winter (when we close off our very cold dining room). Up until now we had been using a very tiny two seater outdoor bistro set. As we were leaving the auction house the auctioneer approached us and told us what a great deal we got on a Duncan Phyfe table. I am not at all knowledgable on furniture so I said thanks and went home to research. This is a lovely specimen with the tell tale brass claw feet from the 1840's.

Finally (gotta have a chicken update), the ummm girls? are doing great except that one of them crowed yesterday!?! We had a feeling that one of the young ones we got in August may have been a male. The scary part is it is not the one we thought was a rooster that was crowing yesterday. Which means, we may have more than one rooster in our coop. I wasn't ready for a rooster yet, but since he's here we will go with flow, do some more research and see what happens!