COVID

Covid finally found our household. Zoe brought it home and was down for 7 days. Nasal and head congestion, loss of taste and smell, and exhausted. Then it hit me. Chest congestion, cough, body aches, chills, icky stomach, exhaustion. When I could find the energy to care, I found it fascinating that we could have such different symptoms in the same house at the same time. 

Unable to work for any length of time outside, I have been relegated to rest, read and putter inside. 

My parents gifted me with Mother Earth News magazine and it’s archives dating back to 1970 for my birthday. I have enjoyed reading through the archives, gathering great tips and realizing that although the world is a very different place than it was in 1970, the ideas of farming haven’t changed that much. Or maybe it’s that we are now looking back 50 years and realizing how right the methods were then and implementing them again?

I have almost all my seedlings started under the grow lights. I still have to plant the peppers but ran out of soil. And since no one wants my germ infected person in town, they will have to wait another week to get planted. I was very excited to peek in today and already see tiny brussel sprouts, cabbage and broccoli coming up!! 

I want to put out a huge thank you to the Troup’s❤️ I received an amazing package in the mail from Charissa and Dean containing some of their farms maple syrup which I am saving to enjoy with my father. He is the only person I know who loves maple syrup more than me! This package also contained some seeds Charissa saved from her garden. The seeds, the variety, the handmade paper labels, everything, was so amazing. I believe she just added another “farm goal” to my list! I really am so appreciative-thank you!

Here’s hoping for a healthier week ahead.

Baby Season

Baby season has successfully begun. 

The incubator is up and running with our first hatch completed. We had one duck egg which was fertilized but did not hatch and 13 chicken eggs. Of those, 12 were fertilized and 9 hatched. So what does this mean?? It means my roosters and drakes are doing their jobs, but I have to do mine better. I have the incubator temperature and timing down pat and am getting better success rates, but still struggle with keeping the humidity levels at an ideal percentage. 

We have 5 ducks eggs in right now (all fertilized yay) and 19 chicken eggs but I won’t know their fertility until Wednesday when I do the first candling. 

It’s wonderful to be hatching these tiny adorable babies but I do feel badly for the big girls. Between the fox that I still see regularly in the back yard and the avian flu which is wiping out flocks across North America, they remain locked up in the barn for their safety. That is not the life I want for my animals, so I am moving ahead with the fenced in area and Tillie is spending more and more time in the barn learning her guardian dog skills which will at least help with the predator problems. Unfortunately time is the only thing that will help with the avian flu problem.

The puppies are growing although not as fast as I had feared. They are gaining about 2 pounds a week putting them at 44 pounds right now. We are doing our best to expend their puppy energy by running in the back field a couple times a day. Scouts idea of running is chasing me to get a treat while Tillie runs circles around us🤦‍♀️ We are also ramping up the training and doing a lot of recall training as I learned the hard way with Dixie…for their own safety, the dogs need to be perfect at coming to me when I call them.

The cats have been the concern this week. Phoenix, our primary barn cat (who comes in the house a lot) had a tapeworm. Poor guy must have been so uncomfortable. But one trip to the vets, deworming pills for all our cats, one gross worm in the litter box and we are happy again.

Another slide show for you. Love all my babies💖

Grateful Happy Sad Proud

That’s a lot of feels for one week!

My 51st birthday happened last week. (WHAT??? Say it isn’t so- I don’t feel 51 anyway. Maybe a strong side of 49, but not 51!! Haha)

I am very GRATEFUL for all the thoughts and well wishes that came my way. It was a day I paused and reflected, ate good food and drank cheap wine. I worked all day and talked to many family members in the evening, played with the puppies and snuggled with the ducks. Overall a quiet but lovely day enjoying the gifts from the fam💖

I am HAPPY that I went to the airport and picked Zoe up after her week back in Ontario. It was only one week but it sure is quiet when she’s not around. 

I am SAD that my beautiful, fun, lovable Winnie went to the butchers. Winnie was purchased for meat. This was always the game plan. What I hadn’t counted on was how much I fell in love with him. But I have been concerned over the past few months with his aggression towards the other two pigs. I am also hoping Ellie is pregnant and felt she needed a safe conflict free space. 

I learned a lot through this process.

First: I have provided my pigs a great home. The butcher, Steve, loved the set up, shelter, forested area and size of their space.

Second: Winter is not the time to butcher an animal. Too much of his fat stores had been used to keep warm and foraging was reduced by the amount of snowfall we had this year leaving me with a pig on the small side. 

Third: I am PROUD to say that I am an excellent sausage maker. I made sausage pattie’s since neither Zoe or I like the casings for links and I made:

Greek with sundried tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese (yummiest of yums!)

Salt and pepper(tried and true delicious).

Maple breakfast pattie’s (with our own freshly boiled maple syrup.)

Hot Italian (not my favourite but a classic nonetheless.)

And sweet Italian which I made into meatballs. 

I enjoyed a sample plate for supper! (note the mushrooms on the side - I ate a lot of mushrooms while Zoe was away!)

I loved the experience of raising Winnie as a loved member of our family knowing we were giving him the best life we could, and in return he would give nourishment to us. 

Progress Feels So Good

I had a great week. I went back to basics and wrote a list. The past few weeks have been hard to find my rhythm so with a list in hand I got busy. 

Dad helped me lay the floor joists in the barn but I have not progressed any further. One of the things holding me back was the barn cats. They access the barn from underneath and come out in this dirt floor section. To ensure they still can get in and do their job I had to create a cat door. It could have been so simple, but I did not like the idea of cutting a hole in the wall so…After weeks of thought and contemplation (fancy words for procrastination) I built a “hut” and attached a cat flap. I then enlarged an already weakened part of the floor, screwed the hut on top and…voila. A cat only (no weasels or others allowed) entrance. 

I am closer still to reaching goal #5. I split the wood that I had cut from two apple trees, two spruce trees and one birch tree. I now have one quarter of the wood I’ll need for next winter haha!! A long ways to go but I have never had this much cut by the first week of March so I am really happy and positive I will meet this goal. 

Finally, I took advantage of our above zero temps today to tap the maple trees. If you recall from previous years, this is a “for fun” project that has never been very successful starting with the fact that I have only four maples that are large enough to tap and ending with me properly identifying maple trees. But I love doing it and this is the act that heralds in the season of growth and harvest for me.

Incubator Season Begins

 I love this time of year!! The incubator came out of storage, got a good cleaning and is set up in our spare bedroom.

After all our losses last year we moved into 2022 with 2 ducks. A male (Lucky) and a female (our first hatchling Little Duck). Little Duck started to lay eggs just over a month ago and I collected one last week and popped it in the incubator. On examination today, it looks like it is developing!!! I am so excited and hopeful. Tomorrow we will add a dozen or so chicken eggs. Duck eggs take 28 days to hatch and chicken only take 21. So this staggered start ensures the hatch date is the same and our single duck (I know-don’t count your eggs before they hatch…but I belong to the camp that says-believe it into existence) will have little friends to grow up with.

I finally stopped waiting for good weather and just went ahead and had a much enjoyed bon fire today. It was so lovely and needed. Dad and I had cleaned out the garage and barn and had accumulated a lot of boxes and scraps that needed to be burned not to mention the brush pile that had gotten very large and was encircling the fire pit again. It didn’t reach the heat or size of other bonfires, but it was a good start to the season.

And for good measure: some animal pictures💖

Inspiration and Acceptance

Firewood, firewood and firewood. This has been my week! I have cut down 3 trees and am so happy with the progress towards my goal #5: collect enough firewood for next winter. Zoe and I will be renting a splitter soon and that will give me a better idea of how close I really am.

As I have made abundantly clear, last year was tough for me. Throughout the months I gathered quotes from different sources that rang true or gave me strength or hope or simply, importantly, made me laugh. I will share some of these with you from time to time:

“This year I survived, next year I want to live”-Via (Dark Secrets)

Yes, yes, yes, yes

“Nothing is really lost until your mom can’t find it”-Unknown

My son had moved to a new place which I was unable to see or help with. He called me one day asking where his car insurance slip was. It was a week later that this was written on the white board at the YMCA and I laughed and laughed and laughed. Since, never having seen Brandon’s new place or room, I was still able to help him find his car insurance 😂

Finally...

It has been such a wonderful week! We got a good melt and lots of lovely above zero temperatures. I feel so happy to have gotten a lot of firewood cut in this short reprieve in between storms. As I sit today in front of the fire reading my book watching an expected 20-30 cm of snow fall, I feel so much less anxiety having had the week outside working. 

That feeling is two fold. There is always so much to do around the farm that having a month like January where I could barely get outside is enough to cause anxiety but more importantly is how being outside, breathing fresh air, working hard and getting dirty makes me feel “right”. Recharges my soul. Brings me such peace and calm that I wonder if I ever took a deep breath living in an urban environment.

In September of 2019 we had hurricane Dorian blow through and the
winds knocked an apple tree into a second apple. Last week I finally made great progress in cutting it down and sizing it for next years firewood. 

As far as the animals go:

The chickens and ducks also got some much missed time outside, the dogs are growing before our eyes (literally! According to their latest vet checks they are growing at almost a pound a day😳) and hormones are running rampant in the pig pen!