Homestead and Folly

As I awaited a root canal at the dentist recently in the city, I was asked "what would you be doing on a sunny day like today if you weren't here?" I laughed nervously and decided to answer honestly "I would be putting up fences and a gate for my meat chickens, weeding the garden and sexing rabbits". Much to my surprise she did not look at me like I was speaking in tongues, but instead this prompted a whole discussion on chickens. My partner had the great idea to fence a corner of our lot and move an existing coop there in the small forested area, under the birch trees, in an unused portion of the yard. They would be let out into the bigger yard to free range  but this would act as their coop area and supply many bugs and plants to munch. I begrudgingly removed my hammock from the area and the family stood looking on, brainstorming ideas about where to situate the gate, the fence and the coop. As we already had a main metal farm fence running the ed

Look closely near the centre of the picture and you can see a deer munching happily away I sprinkled lettuce, kale, pok choi, spinach and romaine lettuce seeds very early this year while it was still chilly. I was too lazy to plant them in rows and so, carelessly mixed the tiny seeds, and sprinkled them in the garden bed. Even though many of the packets said that these greens like the cold, nothing really started taking off until last month when everything came up and the lettuce has been growing like crazy. I confess I cannot say the same for the spinach. I have never successfully grown spinach on this property. There I said it. I have tried different soil, different pots and garden beds. I don't know if it is pests or just lack of green thumb. It is supposed to be very easy to grow. Well, I can't. The kale was quickly eaten by bugs as was the pok choi. The lettuce, however, is perfectly untouched by pests. Normally slugs and leaf eaters like lettuce but not one

It has been a long time since my last post and that is because as I was about to post my latest about our house closing, shopping for a new homestead and preparing to move all of the animals and some of the plants, the deal came crashing down. My family was devastated. Everything was signed and ready to close when the buyer's bank pulled their financing. We are now back on the market but still going forward with this year's garden, animal preparations and firewood processing. After all, if we don't manage to sell our house this year, winter will still come and we will still want good, fresh food and wood to keep us warm. The day the deal fell through, I made a list and when my Farmer's market opened on Saturday I went in and bought eight more tomato plants. As I hadn't started many seedlings indoors this year, I had to buy a great deal. I also bought cucumber plants, basil and Jalapeno for the hoop house This is my favourite time of year becau