August 15, 2008

Pot Of Gold.

Posted in Gardening, Nature, Weather at 8:33 am by Ryan

Rain, rain and more rain. For all of July and so far this month is has rained at least once and sometimes several times during the day. We’ve had everything from little showers with just a few drops to raging thunderstorms where the thunder shakes the ground. I think the most consecutive days without rain we’ve had is two! Luckily everything here is tile drained and staying fairly dry so of course things could be worse. Even the garden seems to be surviving although I’ve sure a few more sunny days would move things along quite a bit. Now I could keep typing and complain about all the rain but as with most things there is usually something beautiful to accompany the ugly. In this case we were treated to a giant rainbow (with a little half double one as well) after one of our thunderstorms. In town when you would see one the view is so obstructed that it loses it’s effect and seems so distant and small. On this day it seemed like it stretched on forever and the pot of gold was right in my back field. Perhaps it was?

August 12, 2008

Dill Weed.

Posted in Canning, Farm Life at 9:54 am by Ryan

Canning season continues around here. Corrie is knee deep in peaches and I have several batches of the dill spears in both cider and regular variety as well as beets put up already. Next up is some green tomato salsa along with beans, beans and more beans and shortly after that batch after batch of tomato sauce. I think by the time the poultry and lamb make their way to the freezer we may need a larger model. I also found a book about preserving foods without freezing or canning which sounds a tad out there but people have been doing it for a long, long time so there is no reason we shouldn’t give it a try as well. I’ve gotten a ton of radish this year (more than you can really eat) and it seems silly to waste them all so I’ve attempted to store them. I’ll take some pictures and include the recipe soon.

Beyond that work continues pretty much all over the farm. Uncle Brett and I have felled several large trees that have been left standing dead for who knows how long and have a little bit of wood put away. We’ll still require more but every little bit helps. We did save this log from the chainsaw to cut down the middle and fashion a bench for the campfire area. I’ve discovered that I desperately require a proper splitting axe and that has moved to the top of my must have list. Trying to split wood with a regular axe just makes things more difficult than they really need to be. But beyond the canning, cutting, gardening, feeding, grass cutting and all the million other things we do each day there has been allot of reading as well. I’ve probably read more books in the last month than I have in the last year. This probably explains the lack of updates around here…

August 3, 2008

Life In The Barnyard.

Posted in Chickens, Farm Life, Sheep, Turkeys at 11:25 am by Ryan

Life in the barnyard moves along at it’s own pace and all you can do is grab hold and follow the flow. The sheep are getting bigger as the summer goes along. I don’t see it too much myself but visitors comment on how much bigger they are. We moved them to the smaller paddock closer to the house and now you can see them grazing from pretty much any window in the back. there is something very relaxing about seeing animals graze no matter what type of animal it may be. We have reached the magical time I was discussing with Mike from the TinyFarm when you are focused on this year but the thoughts and plans for next season already start to seep into the back of you mind.

The turkeys are rapidly turning into the ugly beings they are pre-destined to be but they still hold a special place in my heart. Much like the sheep when I come into their pen the turkeys come running over to peck at my boots and look at me with many questions that only another turkey could answer. They are now out of the hover and have the run of the full room to themselves and are happy as can be. They must have some sort of natural growth pattern that won’t let them get larger than their surroundings will allow. As soon as the hover was removed and they were given free reign of the brooder room you could almost see them grow on an hourly basis. Each evening as I tuck them into bed I marvel at how much bigger they are then they were in the morning. The outdoor pen is almost done and in a few short days they will move outdoors where they will be free to scratch the earth and other things that turkeys do.

Finally the chickens have settled into their coop and I’ve spent the last few days reclaiming the run from the last few years of neglect. There were weeds well over six feet tall and some with stalks as big around as Sidney’s arm. It was a steady assault of the trimmer, rake and pitchfork which finally turned the tide in our favor. Now the pen is ready for the birds and my last job is to build a little ramp for entering and exiting the coop and they are ready for the great outdoors. It is hard to get a current photo as in the time it takes me to take the picture they have already sprouted more feathers. They are now pretty much fully feathered out and sorting out some sort of pecking order. It already feels as if fall is creeping into the air so I must leave the computer and spend some more glorious hours in the yard.

July 31, 2008

Words Of Wisdom.

Posted in Books, Farm Life, Hobbies at 9:46 am by Ryan

A friend of mine recently was visiting and brought a great book that he thought I might enjoy. Was he ever right! The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon is proving to be a very entertaining read. Part informational and part storytelling he mixes anecdotes and country wisdom together seamlessly. I’m about 2/3 of the way through and hoping that perhaps someone will send me one of his other books for my birthday coming up in a couple months.

Not that there has been much time for reading lately with all the building, moving, renovations, gardening and animal care going on but I have managed a couple minutes each night after the kids and creatures are tucked in and everything is quiet. I think I’m really getting it, this different life. It’s hard work but fun work and it is for yourself and your family so it seems easier for some reason. Though your body is tired your mind seems more refreshed at the end of the day. The other night I was doing my evening rounds and found some tent caterpillars in a couple trees. So a quick prune and a little bonfire and that job was taken care of. The best part of that job was Corrie wandering out to see what was going on and we just stood around the fire pit and talked about our new life. It was the best part of my day and how can you consider standing around a fire with your wife work?

July 27, 2008

In A Pickle.

Posted in Canning, Food at 7:36 am by Ryan

That time of year is in full swing. You know I’m talking about canning season when there is always some sort of produce stacked in the kitchen waiting to be processed so it can be saved for winter. So far this year we have doubled the amount we put away last year and there is still lots of time left to do more. The rough count so far is 20 jars of strawberry preserve, 24 jars of raspberry jam, 3 jars of blueberry jam (just for Olivia), sweet bread and butter pickles (pictured below) along with bags and bags and bags of frozen blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries and red currents. We have been going to the pick your own farm for raspberries and not only is it fun according to Sidney but about half the price of buying it from the farm gate and about a third of the cost of buying it at the grocery store. That’s a heck of a savings for a couple hours work. Next up I have some baby dills for dill pickles. I think this year I’ll start with spears or slices rather than whole dills and if it goes well I’ll tackle actual dills next year as they seem far more complicated.

What’s in your freezer or canned and ready on the shelf this year?

July 23, 2008

Peeps.

Posted in Chickens, Farm Life, Food, Turkeys at 9:20 am by Ryan

We stopped by one of our neighbours place the other day for a visit with the kids. We normally chat on Saturdays at the market so when we found out they live just up the road we had to stop by to say hello. They have red polled cattle, goats, ducks and chickens at their place so we were very interested in seeing all the animals and how everything all worked together. It was a nice visit even though Miss Hannah was a little tired and I look forward to visiting again.

Our ever expanding farmyard grew by 21 day old chickens and 11 little turkeys. The girls love helping me give them fresh water and checking the feeders. All seem to be doing well and are feathering out already and seem to be growing on fast forward. They are about a week old now and look like real little chickens and turkeys now. I think the turkeys may be my favorites as they all rush to the edge of the brooder when we come in and crane their necks to look up with their prehistoric looking heads. I’ll have to get some new pictures of them looking dorky being half feathered out. With all the new animals there has also been a steady flow of visitors stopping by so Corrie and I joked that we were going to have to set up a schedual of tours. We’re only kidding of course so if you are in the area and want to drop by please do.

 

July 20, 2008

Harvest Begins.

Posted in Farm Life, Food, Gardening at 2:19 pm by Ryan

I’m tickled pink as we just recently harvested the first vegetable from the garden. The lovely little fellow pictured below was started from a seed many months ago in our old house and upon the verge of death transplanted to our new garden. A couple weeks later and they all perked up and are ready to harvest. We have had a few chopped up in salads and one or two eaten raw (after a quick rinse in the rain barrel). The great thing about radish is that we can still seed more even this late in the year. It’s magic I tell you, pure magic.

The work of reclaiming the farm from the nature that was taking it over continues as we chip away at a new spot each day. With each area that we beat back the overgrown from the bugs dissipate and the whole place looks better and better. Today I was hacking through the six foot tall weeds that had taken over the hen house and what did I find but a gigantic black raspberry bush bursting with ripe berries ready to be picked. So of course I dropped everything grabbed a bowl and spent the next hour picking berries. The ladies were understandably excited and promptly gobbled up the majority of them. There are still lots of not quite ripe ones that will need picked in a few days. Now the dilemma is what to do with this gorgeous fruit bearing bush in the middle of my chicken run? I’ll have to do some research at the shop (where we have high speed connections) and see what I can find out about transplanting raspberry bushes. Along the same vein the red current bush has finally surrendered the last of the years bounty. I’ve probably picked about 5 times and got between 3 and 5 cups each time. Needless to say there is allot of currents in the freezer right now.

July 16, 2008

Don’t Lose Your Head.

Posted in Farm Life, Food, Gardening at 10:26 am by Ryan

The veggies from our CSA are coming fast and furious each Saturday now. As opposed to lettuce mix, spinach and beet greens we are actually getting real beets, carrots and scallions. This means most of Saturday afternoons are spent washing produce and filling the fridge. Once we get a bit further into summer it also means canning time! This past Saturdays haul was such a filthy bunch that we had to take a picture of the murky wash water aftermath.

Between the fields and the yard I’ve been spending some time on the old tractor pulling the bush hog around and being alone with my thoughts. Luckily my head wasn’t still in my hat when it blew off and got ran through by double blades spinning at 540rpm. They say there are more accidents on farms than anywhere else but I challenge that this is only because of the sheer volume of equipment being used. I recall my safety classes at school in regards to tractors and the instructor calling the 3 point hitch area the “triangle of death” and then showing us some pretty gruesome PTO shaft injuries. I’ve had some close calls in my younger days when working on a golf course in Toronto. My glove got snagged by the drive belt of a fertilizer spreader and sucked through the pulleys. It happened so fast that it was over before I could blink or make a noise. The pulley and belt cut the fingers right off my gloves and pulled me off the unit. If you are familiar with this type of equipment you know that you really should have a kill switch hooked up as the machine doesn’t really care if you are on board or not and will continue to go until it crashes into something. In this case I hopped up, chased the machine down, pulled it out of gear and then checked to make sure all the digits were present and accounted for. I guess the lesson is accidents do happen but we all need to be as vigilant as possible to try and avoid the big accidents.

July 14, 2008

Sunrise. Sunset.

Posted in Farm Life, Gardening, Nature, Sheep at 9:39 am by Ryan

There are many things to learn and none of them can be learned in a week or a month or perhaps even in a year. So many different skills and knowledge are needed for this new adventure. We aren’t even at the one month mark yet and already we have had some surprising successes and some failures to go with them. I think they all balance themselves out and in the end you take the lessons learned and move forward. On the sunny side of things I couldn’t be happier with our little garden plot. The soil is rich, retains water well and get copious amounts of sun all of which combines for happy little plants. All the transplants are doing really well and are starting to show flowers which will soon turn into miniature versions of vegetables. Even the direct seeded ones are sprouting like gangbusters and I have my fingers crossed for a long season to give them the time they need to mature from the late start we had. Even the small amount of harvest we’ll get this year will make me immensely happy. There is definitely something special seeing something grow that you planted yourself and I’m sure this will multiply again when you eat it as well.

As the saying goes into a each life a little rain must fall. We had just such a lesson this week as the smallest of our lambs went missing with a little help from the local coyote. All four were in the pasture around noon but in mid afternoon when I went to check we were short one woolly body. I searched for well over an hour and walked every inch of the field but failed to find either the missing lamb or any indication of foul play. After a break for dinner I searched again but this time on the other side of the fence. Back in the woods behind the pasture I finally found the evidence I was looking for but not really wanting to find. All that was left was the stomach of the poor little guy and nothing else. Now from what I know of coyotes this is pretty strange and there was no other signs of a struggle which still strikes me as pretty strange. Now of course immediately I’m filled with something resembling guilt that I wasn’t able to protect my lamb and angry at the money lost. Also some anxiety knowing that now that said predator has a taste for lamb he’ll be back over and over again. I think I’m a little ticked at Mr. Coyote as well from not going up the road three farms and helping himself to one from the flock of 300 sheep rather than taking one of my four little guys. So of course I sent out an email to my sheep mentor Becky and some of the other sheep raising friends at the market all of who had some very encouraging words. You can’t fight nature and I know that. The first animal you lose is always the hardest but if you put it into perspective it can always be worse. It could be your stud ram, your prize ewe or your favorite baby lamb and it happens to everyone no matter the size of their flock. Every person I spoke to had lost multiple sheep this year to predators even with more experience and better equipment that us. Lesson learned and we move on. The electric netting has been ordered to keep our remaining three sheep in a bit smaller area and give any nosy coyotes a jolt should they come sniffing around.

So now I’m back to getting the brooder pens ready for our little chicks and turkeys. I’m sure both of them will bring their own special set of challenges and provide me with some other lessons I wasn’t really expecting.

July 9, 2008

Chugging Along.

Posted in Farm Life, Gardening, Kids at 7:30 pm by Ryan

Here we are again. We’ve been spending more time doing things instead of writing about the things we have been doing. Where should I start? The garden is doing lovely and beans, peas and beets that were all direct seeded just four or five days ago have already sprouted which makes me incredibly happy. All of the transplants are also flourishing and from the looks of things we will have quite a few yellow banana peppers before too long. Even most of the seedlings which spent entirely too long in their early spring homes have bounced back and seem to have grown in the last couple days. We have already harvested a whole batch of red currents and from the looks of things the rest could be picked in the next few days. The first batch were frozen whole as we aren’t really sure what to do with them. This way we can just eat them as is or thaw them and make some jelly. We have about 24 jars of frozen strawberry preserve (basically smooshed berrys and sugar) which is infinitely easier than jam which none of us really like anyway.

Our sheep are doing well and adjusting to their new home quite nicely. There is a great mix of grasses, flowers and weeds which they seem to enjoy sampling. Today I caught them in the ultra deep grasses and had to look for a few minutes before I could even find them. Sidney is my sheep helper and comes and helps put them to bed each night and makes sure they have fresh water. She fills all the pails for me and carries the empty ones back to the shed. A couple people have given the warning that they aren’t pets and not to let the kids get too attached to them. We have already had that talk several times and I think they get it. We explained that the animals are very important to us and it is our job to make sure they are well fed, watered and cared for and when the time comes they will provide us with lots of food. Now of course you filter this through the mind of an almost six year old and you get Sidney requesting that Clyde (the largest one) be made into sausages since those are her favorite and he is the biggest therefore we’ll have more sausages to eat!

Next up..baby chickens and turkeys…and more interesting pictures I promise.