Christmas and Turkeys

Our first Christmas on the farm was beautiful. As always my favorite part of Christmas is watching the boys race down to see if Santa came. The cookies and carrots are eaten and 2 specially wrapped presents are always awaiting them under the tree. We had breakfast looking out at the falling snow. Even the cat got a special breakfast! We kept the animals in the barn as we were off to the city later for Christmas dinner with the family.
We had a fabulous turkey dinner, each of us eating way to much. The turkey was fantastic! I bought it from my friend Dave who had crossed heritage breeds: Bourbon Reds with Beltsville Small Whites. It was over 15 lbs, but the easiest one I've ever carved.
I've chosen to raise the Beltsville Small Whites as I keep being told many people only want small turkeys. Dave told me he ran out of the small ones right away and was hard pressed to sell the larger 20lb birds. I'll be breeding them and I'm happy to help a breed on the conservation list, unfortunately Beltsville Small Whites are still listed as critical. Bourbon Reds thankfully have moved up and are now listed only as vulnerable. These breeds and many others don't fit the criteria made by factory farms which is why many have become endangered. If interested please check out www.rarebreedscanada.org
After dinner we went for a walk in the park with the dogs and looked at the Christmas lights. Then we came back and played some music. Paul and David on guitar, I played the violin, and the others sang along. We were all impressed at how much we had improved since last year, which was hilarious.
Boxing day morning saw us coming home to the farm early. The chickens and turkeys acting overjoyed to see me happily clucking, cooing, and many other indercipherable noises. The pigs were also super excited and looking big and happy.
Those darn turkeys are now on our porch, being quite annoying. It's time for them to go into the freezer. I'll be talking with someone next week to set up a time. As they will be for us or friends I'm able to "do them in" here at the farm. I'm not looking forward to it but I feel it's something I have to do.
This Christmas has brought me so much joy and hope for the future. Achieving the dream of owning a farm with huge prospects ahead has made it that much more enjoyable.
Warm wishes to all of you this holiday season!

Icy Out There

Yesterday brought heavy rain showers which thankfully took away a lot of the accumulated ice. However, in the evening it changed to freezing rain and once again everything is coated. Going up to the barn holding a bucket in each hand proved to be a balancing act. I need to call one of my friends who runs during the winter to find out where he gets his crampons.
After taking care of the animals and coming back down, I was quite impressed I was still on my feet. When I reached the last little hill from the barn to the house though I decided I shouldn't test Mother Nature and surrendered. I sat down and off I went. Wow I got up some speed! I have a crazy carpet out for tonight if I need it. Way better then ripping my jeans or my Carhartts. Plus it sounds like fun.

Another New Find

I went snowshoeing with Anthony and found these prints in the lower pasture. It's a set of mother and baby Lynx tracks.

Close Encounter

This morning brought another snowstorm. We received about 3 inches of snow and then once again it turned to freezing rain. Yuck. After which it went back to big fat snowflakes. I went up to the barn just now to check on the birds. Upon entering as always the count begins and I unfortunately found 2 chickens are missing. The hunt began, under the hay bales, behind the feed bins, up on both sides of the loft. Thoughts of those coyotes came to mind and I started to become concerned. I checked outside the barn door again, nope no prints in the snow.
That's when I saw them perched over on the fence. Both fluffed up and looking quite pathetic. I circled round and encouraged them to fly off to the warm barn. Both flew away, one where I hoped, the other shocked me by flying right back around and landed on the fence no more then a foot away. This is new as the chickens know me as "the food provider" but usually keep their distance. I reached for her and she just stayed still and looked at me. I thanked her for the moment, snapped a quick pick for you all and told her I needed her to go inside now.

Slowly I reached out and took hold of her legs and gently brought her under my arm. Surprising me again she didn't struggle at all. Now I was a little worried but the temperature had only gone down to -2 degrees Celsius. I took her inside the barn, put her down and watched her for a few minutes. Happily she joined her fellow chickens and pecked around completely fine. Of course I'll check on her again later, but all seems well and I appreciated the trust.

My first snowshoeing trip on MY farm!

Today was super exciting. I finally went out snowshoeing on my very own farm. Mine! This is me ready to go with one of the turkeys giving me a send off.

It was beautiful as I walked the fence line. I was happy to find I wasn't the only one roaming around, others had certainly been there. I need to find a book on identifying tracks but here are some of my best guesses:

Mouse. This little one went all over the place!

These looked like huge cat prints, almost 3 inches across. 

Not sure what type of big cats I have in the area yet so we'll see.

Coyote play area. 

We've been hearing them nearly every night for the last 2 weeks. 

After seeing their tracks only in the far pasture I feel a little better. 

I'll be monitoring how close they come.

Here are just some of the rabbit tracks I found. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

This was a wonderful walk. There was a thick inch of crust on top of the snow, which sounded incredibly loud in the wintry stillness. Absolutely no chance of sneaking up on anything. The sun was starting to go down behind the trees and I had a huge smile. Time to go feed the animals. Tomorrow I'll get the kids to come with me before they tire themselves out sledding. Hopefully we'll finally pick out our Christmas tree too!

Our first snowstorm!

The snow started early this morning and we were completely excited! Paul volunteered to feed the animals and I made a pancake breakfast with the boys. Their Aunt Cathy had brought us some crazy carpets yesterday and the boys and I were out of the house ASAP! We made a few different runs before settling on one behind the house. The others quickly disappearing in the falling snow. With the wind pushing up the drifts we can only guess we've had 6 inches so far.
Sledding with the boys is an absolute blast. Our procedure was Mommy would set up the run and then be their assistant at the top, launching them down the hill. Then I'd get my turns! The boys even convinced me to go head first a few times. Too fun. We even tried a double and a triple run with the boys and I all going down together on one sled. I even managed to get Paul to go down once. It was great, we crashed into drifts and snow went everywhere! After 2 and a half hours I talked the boys into coming into the house.
While they were finishing up I did a quick check in on the animals, let them out of their coops and cleared the snow away from the pigs electric fence. All are well.
Now the boys are asking for hot chocolate and I have none so I'm off to find a recipe to make it from scratch. Wish me luck!

Winter Is Here

Winter has arrived to the farm and a light blanket of snow covers the ground. This morning the chickens and turkeys couldn't wait to get out in it. They love running around in the snow and scratching down to the grass. After about an hour they all went to roost in the trees behind the barn.

With the cold temperatures I'm so happy our house is finally warm. I'll be attacking more of the upstairs this week, which will mean people changing bedrooms but at least it will be done. Next comes gyprock. Over 30 sheets needed. Yikes! I'll do the mudding out, sanding, priming and painting later. I just want a semi uniform wall surface for Christmas. Also I should be able to get half a kitchen in 2 weeks! Counter space, yea!
Today I promised the kids we would get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. We'll start with the outdoor lights. We have blueish white LED ones. This will be our first country farm Christmas and it's been tradition to always decorate the 1st of December.
Another wonderful Christmas tradition for me is having my Annual Christmas Cookie Swap. This was the 6th year and Paul's brother loaned me his kitchen in Halifax to host it. Over a dozen of us each brought a double batch of either cookies, fudge, bars or other sweets to share. After doing some rounds and amounting our yummy selections we mingled with our tea and coffee. I'm always amazed at the selection and we've never had anyone bring the same thing.

Chicken Wrangler

So tonight putting the animals away was a little more interesting.

I had gone up to the barn, let the turkeys and chickens into their pens when I realized I was missing one chicken. Paul was here and said he would get her as he saw she was just outside the barn. OK. Frankly I didn't even think this would take a minute as I've never had any issue. So I loaded up the pig bucket with grain and grabbed a bucket of water and was off for the pig pasture.

On my way back the sight before me was phenomenal! Paul was running around the barn waving his hands and starting to yell, with the chicken squawking its' head off speeding along in front of him. She's dipping and weaving all the while Paul is being a maniac! He chased her around the barn 3 times! I was in shock. I finely got a hold of myself and was about to intervene when the chicken flew through the barn doors and Paul followed her in. Thank god.

Now all I could think was "Close the door!" Oh my god he didn't close the door! I ran for it but before I can get there she comes flying out with Paul hot on her tail. Are you kidding me? I told him to just stay there, stop and just watch her. I grabbed the net out of his hand and went into the field to get her, I flushed her out of the bushes and got her inside. After which I looked over at Paul and he said "So how did I do?"

"Well..." I said. "There might be room for improvement."

Tea time

Yesterday I had a wonderful unexpected visit from a friend of mine. It gave me a great excuse to get out my nice china and share some fresh baked cookies. We sat amongst the chaos of torn down walls, bags of insulation and tools and just talked and laughed. I must say it was a wonderful morning.

Enjoying a moment

I’m sitting at the window with my mint tea enjoying a few moments this morning. I have a view of a doe and 2 little ones eating the grasses outside and Belle one of my cats, sleeping next to the wood stove. I just got back from the Farmer’s Market in Lunenburg with our bounty.

I am very excited for next season when we will be growing here. Our greenhouse is to arrive in a few weeks. I know it’s late, some say Winter has started but I know we’ll get it up before the deep frost sets in. Garlic planting on the other hand… I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this weekend.

Yesterday with the cold it showed us just how badly this house is insulated. Thank goodness the attic will be done today and we can continue with the main floor walls. We have a wonderful wood stove called a Kachelofen; however we feel we are currently heating the outdoors. I have also been sick this week so I haven’t been much help. Thank goodness my friend has been here to do all this with me. Anyway, somehow I need to do a wash. I see drying racks in my dining room’s future. Bungee cords rock!

How to spot a farmer

I'm sure there are many ways to spot a farmer but one in particular hit home for me today. It was a light rain this morning but cool so we had on our winter jackets and boots, as usual. However it didn't occur to me until we reached the school it was the same outdoor clothes we wore yesterday building the pig pasture.
I frantically grabbed a rag out of the back and wiped at the now glaring mud on my jacket, which just ended up spreading dirty water all over. That was the moment I looked at our boots. Wow, I couldn't even see the colours on my Bogs. The kids were worse. Through the parking lot we walked through every puddle I could find. This at least cleared off the mud from the soles so we were slightly incognito going through the school, slightly. Later at the Building Supply Store I did get a lot more respect though.
So I'm counting it as a win and smiling.

The photo is after mine were washed up a bit and the kids had gone out to play by the pigs. I know what I'm cleaning tonight!

New pasture for the pigs

So today's forecast was for scattered showers in the morning and then sun, well I wouldn't call them scattered or showers. It was rain. Unfortunately, it had only just started when we set up to fence in the new pasture for the pigs. It sucked but we all knew we had to get the work done today, all of us wanted them off of the mud. The kids came to help, as did the turkeys.

We were all slipping and sliding at times with the pigs grunting their pleasure at watching the show. Finely we were ready for them. Amazingly it was quite easy to move them in. Follow me I've got food.

I'm very proud of how comfortable they are with us now. When they first got here they had very little human contact and now we can rub them all over and a few times today they even approached for a few scratches on the forehead.

They started digging their new digs right away! I had just lugged a pail of clean water up and within a minute they had turned it over looking for grubs and other delicacies. Mental note: put a rain barrel up there! I love the new pasture as it's much more of a natural environment for them with a few trees and shrubs. I'm hoping it will be big enough for them for at least a couple months? We'll see, this is all a new experience.
Also with today being Rememberance Day we stopped for the moment of silence at 11am. We then shared with each other our families stories. It will be a special  memory for me of remembering our past and working together for our future.

Back to the Farm

Sometimes you need a break and I had a great one this weekend. I went to Hal-Con with a bunch of friends and was able to try out my new Steampunk outfits. I did discover wearing a corset for twelve hours can become quite painful! I got to see so many friends, meet new ones and also talk to Jewel Staite (Firefly), Richard Hatch (Batlestar Galactica) and J. August Richards (Angel). It was awesome.
Last night I got back to the farm in time to feed and put the animals to bed. Refreshing their water, filling feed bowls and topdressing their bedding. Also I gave the pigs some new hay as they've finished their job of tilling the area for the greenhouse and they were tracking in some mud. Frankly I think I was more worried about it then them. Next job is to fence in and move them to the new pasture.

Nesting Boxes

Nesting boxes have proved a test in patience for me. I thought it would be easy, just stick some square boxes on the wall and put some bedding in for padding and voila! Not so much. As we were only able to get a mixture of breeds this fall a few "clics" started. Some chickens were quite adamant about trying to roost and poop all over the nesting areas instead of being with the others. So I eventually just took the boxes down and then suddenly the chickens started to lay. Awesome, but good grief what am I going to do?. The first two eggs were found behind the water dish.
Thankfully, the chickens have figured out a solution. They made a nest behind the hay bale. Two eggs were there last night and another tonight. They seem to lay in the afternoon which makes life easy.

Frankly the nest looks pretty cozy especially after the heavy rain and wind today. Running up to feed the pigs while slipping and sliding and almost losing a boot was an experience. The pigs seemed oblivious to us kicking and poking desperately at the clumps of sod obstructing the electric fence . I swear they do it for dinner theater.

3 Essentials for Next Year

3 essentials for next year. Butternut squash, Acorn squash and Kabocha squash. These are a few of the squash which will be grown on the farm next season. Each have their own unique flavors and range of dryness.
I remember when we first received a Butternut from a local farmer friend. Anthony, age 6 was so excited as it was given to him! I've always been a fan and decided to go simple and bake it with dinner. Well what a shocker. The difference in taste from the usual store bought "conventionally" grown was amazing. This local "natural or traditional" grown squash tasted like candy! It was sweet, melt in your mouth goodness. Yum. Yum. Yum. The kids loved it, "More please!" We went right back the next day for more and were quite disappointed when we ran out for the season. Unfortunately the store bought just could not compare.
So if you are able to get to your local Farmer's market check out their squash. It's easy to bake, just cut in half, scoop out the seeds, place cut side down in water and bake at 350 until easily forked, roughly 45 minutes depending on your size of squash. Serve with butter, salt and pepper. Once you find the variety you love there are many other recipes out there, this is just the easiest "go to" I know of.

The Clothesline

The clothesline, every farm seems to have one. Ours is a necessity as a 200 year old farmhouse wasn't made to fit a dryer, barely a washer. I've been advised by friends I can use it all year round, which in this age of convenience seems absurd. However what other option did people have before electricity? So I'm willing to try it as I have enough renovations going on now. The kids are great helpers, turning darks inside out and passing me the clothespins. Also, hanging up the clothes makes me take a minute to have a break actually today was half an hour, so many socks! I have a hard time staying still as there is so much to do but today I found myself wondering what the heck it that noise?
It sounded like a toad screeching or coughing. What on earth? It turned out to be a crow. Crazy. There are a lot of weird noises on this farm in the country. The other weird one was the deer woofing at me. Seriously it sounded like an elephant!
Well wish me luck with the weather. I need at least 2 days a week without rain or a gale blowing. Tried that, I don't recommend it.

Frosty Morning

Another frosty morning. The animals were quite happy to come out, chickens and turkeys fluffing their feathers. The pigs emerged covered in straw. My adventurous cat Keisha will probably have a present for me later.

My concerns this morning are to continue insulating the house. Thankfully we have already seen improvement when yesterday's short snowfall stayed on the roof. Yea! I also need to set up the next pasture for the pigs as they are almost done tilling their current one and I'm hoping the ground will dry up enough before the ground freezes so I can get the fall garlic planted.
Hopefully the skies will stay clear for stargazing tonight.

Moments

With buying this farm there have been many "moments" some either good, surprising, freaky or fabulous. Tonight we had an awesome one that every new farmer experiences. We got our first egg! We found it tonight after putting the chickens and turkeys in for the night. It is one of the cutest egg ever and so tiny! The chickens are pullets, basically they are still adolescents. The kids, Paul (my partner) and I are very excited as we were warned they may not lay until spring due to the cold. Well guess what breakfast tomorrow is going to be? Awesome!

Our Berkshire pigs are also doing wonders with their pasture. They are tilling the area for our greenhouse, and loving being outside. Here they are chowing down their grains and extra veggies.