Merry Christmas

 It is hard for me to write this weeks blog without feeling some guilt. Christmas this year was so difficult for so many and my thoughts go out to them. But I was very fortunate that my Christmas was filled with love and joy and family. 

The joy started on the 23rd with the birth of 8 bunnies. They are the most amazing, velvety soft, beautiful, little bundles of awesomeness to arrive since the hatching of our chicks last spring. 

Christmas had the potential to be difficult as my son Brandon is still in Ontario and living alone right now. But, as it did for many families, Zoom was there for us and brought Brandon into our living room where he, my parents, Zoe, her boyfriend Navy and I all opened presents together and had a lovely morning. 

After an afternoon of cooking and cleaning, Navy’s family arrived for a evening of gifts, games, and a candlelit dinner.

Zoe pointed out that although this is our third Christmas living in Nova Scotia, it was her first one spending it in our home. I think, despite the world conspiring against us, it was a wonderful one! 

From our family to yours....may you appreciate the little joys and feel the big love that surrounds you. Happy holidays! 

More Life on The Farm

Bill says we look like cult leaders with the chickens. 

I

When we step out the door and they think there is food involved they mob us trying to be first to get a bite. Sometimes if we are not fast enough getting out of the house they come up to the door and wait. This handsome rooster is Carlos with his girlfriend Chickira, trying to hurry us along.

Weather has changed and we have had a very cold day and a very windy one and some snow. 

There was a bad Digby fishing boat accident during the windy day.

Part time  work on the new bathroom has begun again and I believe an assistant will be part of the picture soon. Today the contractor worked on the plumbing and on levelling the floor which is terribly uneven.

Let me describe a day on the farm. This was Saturday.  Leave the house at 8 o’clock. Drive to Upper Clements, well off the main track into a hilly combination of farms and forests. Pick up a truckload of firewood from a farmer whom we visited last year. Go to the winter market in Annapolis Royal and buy tarts, quiche, bread, beer, greens, cookies... Drop Shannon off at work. Come home and unload the truck with help from Zoe’s boyfriend. Have the quiche for lunch. Make a seafood chowder for dinner. Get back in the truck, drive to Annapolis Royal to pick up a rented wood splitter and then pick up Shannon from work.  Position the splitter and then enjoy the seafood chowder, a glass of wine and a market tart for dessert. There is a full day and we loved it. Tomorrow we will actually do the splitting.
Still from Shannon’s Mom
Is she ever going home? you might ask.
Sandy

Farm Work

 Sometimes I feel that there is so much to do that it is hard to get a job done from beginning to end. Many things get started but few get to the completion point because the call of a problem or the call of the outdoors is always there to get one off track. Everything takes much longer than you would anticipate in an old house. Like the sump pump. The big rain was Friday night so Bill anticipated sweeping water towards the pump  on Saturday (poor slope in basement) but on Saturday the pump burned out . On Sunday there was a trip to Canadian Tire to get a new pump, then a second trip to get a new hose. The pump was too tall so a third trip occurred on Monday to get another pump but this one was too wide to work smoothly. Finally on Tuesday, pump #3 was chosen and it all came together. Shannon thinks that our Ontario ways of thinking and list making aren’t part of the Nova Scotia way of life. 

On another note we did get decorated for Christmas and it looks lovely. 

However, Phoenix may have the tree shredded before Christmas even arrives. Shannon has made good progress on creating her Christmas chocolates. It is all I can do to keep from raiding the boxes. Shannon and Zoe are busy designing some artistic creations too.

Finally we took a day off from feeding animals, entertaining the dog, clearing land, installing lights in the barn, and trying to fix a lawn tractor, to go to Annapolis Royal. There was a lovely winter market where we got veggies, baked goods, local beer and cheese. The picture shows the view from Annapolis Royal across the river to Granville Ferry.

Sandy

We are here!

Getting here was a bit of a challenge. We had to fill out safe entry forms for both NS and NB. Then we isolated for two weeks at a lovely cottage right on the bay. 

Finally we are here and loving the chance to be with our daughter and granddaughter.
Shannon and Zoe love their farm, their property and animals but farm life is not always easy.
First some descriptions. The property is beautiful. About five acres are mowed, interspersed with islands of trees, wild roses and bushes. Taming some of these islands has been a goal. Around the house there are some beautiful plantings, flowering and looking stunning in the spring. 

There is also a pond behind the house that requires some taming. The rest of the land is forest, old orchard and scrubland. There are several trails winding through it. Shannon would like to do some forest management sometime in the future.
The outbuildings. Shannon hired someone to do major work on the barn and it houses her chickens and rabbits. 

 She loves these animals dearly and gets up an hour early to feed and care for them before work. That is very early when she is on 6am shift at the Y. She has a workshop attached to the house which is very hard to keep organized as it is filled with tools and many of the purchases for the new bathroom. Attached to the workshop is the garage full of wood for the fireplace and garden tools. Finally there is a building called the market place which will come down sometime in the future.
Lastly the house. The house is old and not in wonderful shape. She has renovated a mud room and a den and almost all of one bedroom (which still needs a closet to be finished, a door to be changed, and some finishing trim.)  The upstairs bathroom has been gutted but the renovator has been pulled away for another job.   
We got a small  picture of what she deals with as we experienced a driving rainstorm which caused a leak where a chimney was not well sealed, and a flood in the basement because mice had nibbled big holes in the sump pump hose. Such are the joys of owning an old house. Yet they love it. They and their pets Dixie, Charlie and Phoenix fill it with joy. Did I mention Phoenix is the new “barn” kitten? 

She is so adorable and small they can’t leave her outside. She is terrified of chickens. We will see if she ever becomes the mouser they hoped for.

Mom and Dad

They are Here!!

Finally, after two weeks of mom and dad being 10 minutes down the road but not being able to see them or hug them...they arrived on our doorstep.

We have already accomplished a lot. We have had some wonderful meals, finished our Christmas shopping and started cleaning out a tree line. 

I am enjoying showing off our animals and I think our animals are enjoying showing off.

I have a list a mile long that I started to write the day they left last year. Although I go back to work tomorrow, I am looking forward to working side by side mom and dad again. They have given me 6ish weeks to convince them to stay🤞

Bathroom Demo

 The upstairs bathroom renovation has begun!

I am so excited to be working on this room. It was basically only good for a toilet over the past two years. The tub was tiny, the floor had been carpeted and had been torn up the very first week after we moved in leaving us with a plywood floor. Overall it was yucky and I hated using it. 

This past weekend I started the demolition and thanks to some help from mom and dad, we have a carpenter in this week putting it back together.

Here are the ugly pictures, pretty pictures will follow in a few weeks!

Mom and Dad

It has been 10 months since I have seen my parents. It has been 6 months since they had planned to return. It has been three months of planning and waiting and changing plans and finally...they are in Nova Scotia🥳

Just as we were finalizing plans, the Nova Scotian government decided to change our COVID protocols and, where one week ago they could isolate in our house with us, they now have to isolate in a space where no one else comes or goes. So they do have a lovely, comfortable cottage right in the beach to enjoy some relaxing time before they come here in 14 days and I put them to work. 

Sorry there are no pictures this week...but just sheer contentment at knowing my mom and dad are so close by!!

Animals

 This week has been all about the animals.

Phoenix has been a new bright spot in our lives. She has been out most days exploring the barn, playing with the bunnies and avoiding the chickens.

We have been having some Dixie behavioural issues. So we finally got back to basics and started training again. She is so smart and I have quite enjoyed not feeling like my shoulder will be dislocated during our walks. This week has been exceptionally hard for our high energy girl since I won’t let her run off leash. It is hunting season and Dixie loves to chase deer. I know there are hunters that set up behind our property and I’m not willing to take that risk with her...so five walks a day is our goal and she is very quickly learning to walk calmly and not chase everything. 

I was very sad to find a dead bunny in Willows hutch. We knew she was pregnant and we were watching every morning for babies so it was heart breaking when we found only one baby that I believe was born dead. Not a great start to our bunny business.

And finally to the chickens: it has been a tough few months for them. I have 18 hens and two roosters. I got 7 eggs today which is a high as lately I have been only getting 2-5 a day. In June they had mites that I treated, then I introduced the babies in August and had to change their food, then they started moulting, now I have changed their food again to their higher protein winter food. I have heard it’s been a tough egg production fall for a lot of  farmers, but I am sure I have contributed some stress to the coop with all these changes that also affected their laying. And now Rachel is not looking good. She was missing too many feathers along her back. I put her in isolation so she didn’t get picked on but that seems to have made things worse. Whether she has plucked them herself or has lost feathers from stress she looks half naked today. 

Phoenix

Our farm has grown by another 4 paws.

Welcome Phoenix. Phoenix is a gorgeous, sweet, cuddly, killer. 

We have a large rodent problem. It is apparently not just us but much of Nova Scotia has been over populated with mice and their larger counterparts whose name I do not even like to whisper.

Therefore we welcome our barn cat. Phoenix is very young so I am not comfortable with her sleeping outside yet, but she does spend time every day in the barn and she loves it! I am very hopeful that she will earn her keep. 

She loves Dixie and thinks the bunnies are her best friends. Charlie however, does not like a new cat in the house and the chickens think she is food. So we have a bit of work in those areas!

Balance

I remembered balance this week. I had some work, some play, some friendship, some beauty, some relaxing, some animal joy.

Zoe and I have started working on her closet finally. When we started to redo that room, there were two very small closets which we took out. We are now replacing them with one big one. I am really nervous doing this job myself. I am most nervous about putting a light in it, and creating a (working) doorway. But...I finally got up the nerve because if I don't try I will never know if I can do it. We started the frame work  and next week, hopefully will see walls go up. 

I also finally (this appears to be my favourite word lately!) got the last piece of wood out of the ditch this week. Two months after we moved in, a tree fell from our property across the road. When the road crew had finished cutting and moving all the wood off of the road we had a good supply of fire wood. However, there was this one piece that we couldn't move. It was so big and so heavy. It has now sat in the ditch for two years...until this week. With some wonderful help, we got it up into the back the truck and offloaded by the barn. Phew! Thank goodness for good friends. 

Speaking of good friends...Zoe and I were invited to Nadine's house today. We enjoyed a cup of tea, were speechless at her gorgeous beach access and ohhh'd and ahhh'd at her daughters most adorable new puppy Win. He is just the cutest, softest, put a smile on your face fluff ball I have ever seen! 

I also took the time to stop and enjoy the beautiful sky. This phenomenal rainbow came and went all Wednesday afternoon.

Finally Finished

This week I have been, finally, finishing storing the last of the harvest.

I have emptied the sunflower heads and collected the seeds for the chickens. I also dried oregano and thyme to add to their food this winter. It’s like vitamins, helping to keep them healthy! Or so I have read. 

I also finally finished processing all the tomatoes. I still had an entire table of them upstairs. I sorted red, green, rotten, and never gonna ripen. I cut, seeded and dried all the good ones and now have 4 jars of “sun “ dried tomatoes in oil, in the fridge. I have also already made a sun dried tomato and almond pesto to go with Brie...yummy!!

And finally I tried rosehip jam. I found a recipe at Christmas last year in a Nova Scotian cookbook my parents friends gave me. Unfortunately, I could not pick enough rosehips at that time of year to successfully try the  recipe. But this year...lots of rosehips! It took three days to prepare them. Between the picking and cutting I thought I would never get to the cooking! I even skipped the de-seeding and removing of the little hairs (which will cause digestive upset) as I found a recipe that shows how to remove them after cooking them down. The finished product is beautiful and tasty, but it did not set. I may take them out of the jars and reboil them. I’m still debating that or using it as is for ice cream topping and in my salad dressings. 

The last thing I have done this week is harvest seeds to replant next year. I have three kinds of squash, basil and sunflower so far. 

Thanksgiving

 This weekend is filled with my favourite F’s: farm, family, food and friends. It is such a perfect combination I couldn’t be more thankful. 

Today Zoe, her boyfriend Navy, and I were farmers! The day started with clean chicken and rabbit coops, followed by cutting hay for the rabbits, and picking the very few apples left on our trees for cider. We then moved into the heavy lifting portion of the day. Navy and I grabbed the chainsaws (Sorry Betty) and Zoe took control of the sled. We headed over to the spruce forest and cut and hauled firewood. 

Two of my favourite parts of the day were breakfast and supper. Zoe and Navy cooked breakfast wraps for us and then chicken parmigiana for supper!! Talk about a lucky farmer!

I could get used to having all this help inside and out. 

To top this great weekend off, we have been invited out for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at Bruce and Bettys (who also happen to be Navy’s grandparents-that’s a story for another day.)

I hope you all enjoy your own F’s this weekend💕

Prepping for Winter

The farm has moved into its next season. We are now preparing for winter.

The chickens and I have rototilled the garden. We will be planting winter rye, both as food for the chickens, but also to help enrich the soil and reduce next years weeds. The garlic will also go in this week, and hopefully a lovely layer of compost. I am thinking this year it will be a combination of pond goo (as I am still working on clearing that out) and chicken poo. 

I was so excited to find a blue egg in the nesting box this week. Our new little white sapphire chickens are laying a full month earlier than I had expected!

And finally, if you recall, we had 10 babies this year between the white sapphire and our born here. Of these 10, 4 were girls, and the born here rooster I am keeping. That left 5 roosters that would not have a place on our farm...but they would fit nicely into our freezer. Our wonderful friends Jennifer and Mark, raised meat king chickens this year and had created a chicken processing unit. Yesterday I took these roosters to their house and over a period of 2.5 hours we prepared my 5 roosters and their 22 chickens. It took me the same length of time to process my one bird last time lol!! We had a great assembly line set up, a fantastic chicken plucker that saved hours of hand plucking time and great company to enjoy while we worked! Guess what’s for supper tonight!

Harvest Day

 I wish my mother was here today. Last year my parents were here at this time of year and we harvested and canned and froze together. She did a lot of research for me finding recipes that could work with what I had and it was great. This year, luckily, I feel I did not get as much out of the garden as we did last year. So I do not have quite as much to do, but I still miss her and wish my parent could be here. Stupid COVID!!

My harvest:

Sunflowers: the birds got about a quarter of them and I do not think they were worth the time. Perhaps for the pretty, and they were easy to plant and grow, I may consider them again next year. But my goal had been to reduce the amount of sunflower seeds I would buy for the chickens in the winter. I do not even have the equivalent of one bag.

Squash: I planted two kinds. Georgia Candy Roaster which were huge and so delicious last year. I did not get as many nor were they as big (lack of rain is my guess) but I still love the taste and will definitely grow again next year. And buttercup squash. First time I have grown this and it was successful and delicious. So again...yes for next year.

Potatoes: I used seed potatoes saved from the potatoes I harvested last year. So the same three varieties. They look delicious but only about one third of the yield I got last year. But still...definitely planting at least the chieftain red and the la ratte fingerlings again next year.

Broccoli and cauliflower: no where near the yield that I had last year. Almost no cauliflower and only one bag of broccoli in the freezer. But again, I love them so I will try again next year.

Peppers: still not great, but better than last year. And I love the little mini red and orange sweet peppers!

Tomatoes: way, way, way better than last year. I had a lot ripen on the vines this year. (if you recall all the green tomatoes recipes my mom found for me because I had only window sill ripen red ones). I have made two batches of spaghetti sauce, two batches of tomato basil soup, one salsa, one failure of a ketchup, and I have a sink full to make something tonight, with a table full of orange-green ones. The ones that will ripen, I will be using the dehydrator and making "sun" dried tomatoes.

Cucumbers: I had to replant the cucumbers and did not get tons this year. I made about 5 jars of sweet pickles and am actually quite happy with that...since I don't actually like cucumbers!

Beans: as I have mentioned before...I got almost none last year, so I planted extra this year and wound up with about 15 pounds of them! Good thing I do like beans.

Peas: I had a good pea season and will grow them again next year. I have to be content with spending a ridiculous amount of time shelling to get a very small dinner portion, but there is nothing like the taste of fresh peas!

Onions: both the red and yellow onions were successful. The green onions, not so much. But the five green onions I did get, were wonderful. So worth a try again next year.

Garlic: I have always been successful with garlic and this year was no different. I have enough to get me through to spring with some to replant for next year as well.

Beets and carrots: both were tasty but neither grew well. I had two replanting and still only got 6 carrots, one meal of fresh beets and two jars of pickled beets. But, I love them both so I will keep trying. Now that I have the garden fence up and it has been tilled for two years. Hopefully I can get out earlier this year and plant them when it is still cooler. That may help?

Now to have a meal of broccoli, cauliflower and baby potatoes...YUM!