Winter Thoughts

There is always a sort of glamour people place on country living. Peace, tranquillity, homemade treats, beautiful night skies, chickens clucking and cooing at each other. Farm living is an amazing, rewarding life but it's a hard one too. Before moving here from the city I knew there would be challenges. I'm not sure I knew how many things would need my attention. My friends still tell me I'm crazy. A woman with 2 kids making a go of running an organic farm, completely renovating a 175 year old farm house and now taking on a part time job managing a boat repair shop to help pay the bills. Goodness, I'm overwhelmed after reading that. This is how I'm able to make things work on my own. Sure not everything is perfect. I have a mile long list and it's all dealt with by their ever changing priority. I just keep moving and doing my best. 

This winter which seems to have been condensed into a month has hit hard and the farm and me are feeling it's effects. I had a leak over the dining room due to an ice dam that formed on the roof. The snow melted above it and then pooled coming in under the shingles and into the house. It took me two attempts to fix it.

The first time I was able to lean out the window with a hatchet. Then when the drip reappeared a couple days later I had to expand my search area for the water. I ended up on a ladder swinging an axe. Ouch, pulled some muscles that day. Still mission accomplished! Always rejoice in your victories no matter how small. Yesterday found me chopping wood to refill the wood box and shovelling as much snow off the roof as possible before the Blizzard hit last night. 

This morning I was shocked when I went to take care of the chickens with the amount of snow down. Already it was almost up to my knees! I'll nab the kids to come help me shovel the patio this afternoon.

5 minutes after coming down from the barn.

There are always a lot of items on my to do list. Most days my house is a mess. I'm happy just to get the dishes done and have the boys clean up their toys. Still it's all worth it. I'm sitting here by the fire with my cat purring next to me, listening to my boys laughing. The wonderful smell of baked bread is making my mouth water and enjoying the view of my farm which has so many possibilities. I have a smile on my face. We all have hard days, tomorrow is another chance to make things even better. Each of us has the ability to realise our dreams. Enjoy those sunsets!

Sledding In The Blizzard

Mommy, Can we go sledding with you? 

Honeys it's a blizzard out there. 

Mom. PLEASE!!! 

Silence. 

OK.

We had at least 6 inches of snow down so far and the wind had whipped it into huge drifts. It was light powder snow, perfect for Wipe Outs. The boys had both received snow sliders for Christmas from their aunt and uncle. These completely surpass the crazy carpets we have. Oh my goodness they are a blast! They are the shape of a body board with the hard styrofoam and a crazy carpet bottom. In no time I had the boys scooting down the slope on their knees with no hands. So much fun. After a number of runs I felt it was time for a bigger challenge.

Anyone want to go up to the field?

YES!!!!

We had been quite sheltered down at the house so the wind was a lot stronger up on the slopes. My only rule was you must fall down at a designated point so you don't hit the fence line. 

The boys did great and I took the prize of the best crash when I caught an edge and went rolling down the hill, snow flying everywhere. Eek!

When the snow turned to ice pellets we started the trek back to the house using the boards to shelter our faces. The last little bit back to the house we sledded down, Anthony on one board and Navarre climbed on with me on the other. I think we were out there for about 2 hours in the blizzard. Crazy Mommy. We were exhausted from climbing back up the hills countless times and our cheeks were so rosy. We all had huge smiles. 

Just another cool part of our farm, fantastic sledding hills.

Pipe Dreams

I'm not sure I would say I've attained a new skill but the plumbing is fixed! That was an experience. I'm happy to say I never lost my cool, however the sanity and judgement of the people who installed the plumbing in the first place was certainly called into question numerous times. 

It was crazy. One joint I'm sure was held together by will alone as when I gently pulled on it to test for leaks it fell apart! During the "operation" I found another leak in the middle of a tangle of pipes which reminded me of an old computer game called Pipe Dreams. 

In the end I had to rip down part of a wall behind the spiral staircase to reach the pipe to cut at a suitable location. This will enable me to later rerun the pipes and reattach the washing machine which had it's hook ups behind the staircase! Comedy of Errors. 

The bad part from all this was realizing just how badly I need to replace the plumbing. Finding out that none of the secondary cold shut offs work with the main one looking questionable is a little unnerving. The good part is I stepped up and dealt with the issue and Voila! It's fixed! Somewhat temporarily, but it's fixed! 

Happy woman. Time for a glass of relaxation.

Is That... Water Running?

We were rushing out the door yesterday when I heard something. It was the sound of water running. Leaning my forehead on the wall I said to myself "Please, please let that be either the toilet running or the tap upstairs." No luck. Groaning I grabbed the flashlight and started investigating. I discovered the shut off the valve to the future downstairs toilet had blown and had a steady leak. Great. 

The really annoying part came when I tried to find a shut off valve. Appearently there is none for that end of the house. Good grief. I turned off the shut off next to the kitchen but alas cold water still flowed freely from the kitchen sink when I checked. Down in the cellar I found the next shut off. Guess what! That one didn't work either! I find myself back down in the cellar looking at the main shut off observing the huge amount of rust on it. I take a deep breath and turn the valve, then head back up to check the taps. Thank goodness it worked.

Heading home today I'll be stopping in at my local hardware store for supplies and then finding the hacksaw. Time to learn something new.

Eggs and the cold

Farmer Tip: When you have eggs in your pocket be careful bending over! 

The weather has been freezing. I've been holding my own in the house with the battle of keeping the boys and myself warm. The wind the other night certainly didn't help. I have the Klachofen burning hot and the oil heat up when we are home. I've plastic'd off the mudroom as the floor isn't insulated, moved a carpet into the kitchen and made great use of duct tape. The kids come downstairs in the morning wearing slippers and sweaters. They are well trained. Hot breakfasts are a must and Anthony is back enjoying tea with his Mommy. The kids love having oatmeal as they can switch it up everyday with some new topping and also that they get to make it mostly on their own. Bonus!

The boys are great little helpers. I bought them snow shovels which they adore. Today they were running around with them after school making snow mounds and having adventures.

The greenhouse is holding up well. The snow is sliding off on it's own and it stood up to the wind thank goodness. I kept checking. 

My evening always includes two trips up to the barn one at dusk and the other around the kids bedtime. The first one is to turn on the light for the chickens and put down some feed in the coops. They have been roosting wherever they've wanted but with the temperatures dropping I've wanted them to cuddle together more for warmth. So usually at sunset you can hear a woman doing her best not to lose an arguement with a chicken. After they are shut in I gather the eggs (I'm averaging 9 per day!) and then grab the water bucket to refill and head back down to the house.

I have yet to get a messy pocket. I know it will probably happen eventually. Perhaps its an initiation to being a farmer. I've had one crack before, just the shell not the membrane. Bending down to pick up the water bucket tonight was followed by a curse word and then slowly standing up and checking my pockets. 

My second trip to the barn is to unplug the light. I've tried timers but they don't seem to work. I enjoy saying goodnight "Chickens". Walking with the flashlight I'm always wondering how freaked my reaction will be when I see an animal. So far this winter no glowing eyes.

Another neat thing was I found an egg up in the loft that was frozen. Shucks. I threw it to the compost pile and it bounced! Cool!

Building The Greenhouse.

This fall we built the hemlock frame and my boys and I installed the hoops. We've built it across from the barn where it will have protection from wind by being below the riding ring and surrounded by trees which are at a distance that they won't obscure light. Friends helped me build the north plywood wall with doors, installing the channel lock and building the south doors. So much work.

The boys enjoyed swinging between the hoops and they said they had a blast installing a ton of lag screws with me.

This weekend two friends came to help. It was time to install the plastic. Saturday was the installation of the doors, the inflation kit, additional bracing and other little odd jobs that seem to take forever. Sunday was crunch day. The strong winds cleared through Saturday night leaving Sunday morning calm and clear. 

We placed cardboard on the ground and then unrolled the plastic on one side. It was one full sheet of plastic which the instructions said to cut up the middle and then lay double layered over the greenhouse frame. Nope. No way was I going to cut anything. We grabbed the mid-line and started pulling it over. Thank goodness there were three of us. That was incredibly difficult. After a ton of work in pulling it over we aligned it straight and what do you know that's when the wind came up.

Immediately I had one person hold onto the plastic on the windward side and the other two of us wire locked one side. What a race! After securing that side we did the other one pulling with all our might to get the plastic as tight as possible. 

Then we secured the north end. As you can see from pictures it's not a little greenhouse the peak is over 12 feet high. Using ladders on uneven ground, pulling plastic with one hand and holding on with the other was... quite a feat. 

The hardest end was the south facing. We secured the bottom and then stretched and aligned the plastic up over the last hoop and under the other plastic. We wanted to only use one layer of wire lock to hold the main plastic and the end. This meant 2 people outside with one pulling the plastic of the main sheet tight and the other installing the wire lock while I was inside pulling like a mad woman to tighten and align the end plastic. Finally once that was secured we wire locked around the south doors and cut away the excess plastic. We were exhausted but thrilled it was on.

After catching our breath we then cut holes and installed the inflation kit hose. At first it didn't seem to be doing anything and we actually started wondering if we had stretched it too tight. Nope, in less than five minutes the plastic layers had separated and stretched taunt as a drum. I double checked all the wire lock and looked for any holes. Everything was great. 

There is still a ton of work to do with it including building a drain outside, installing more support for winter and wind, insulating the plywood, trim work and of course getting the ground ready for planting.

Wow. I have a greenhouse!

Time To Relax... What?

After receiving her last bag for this season one of my subscribers commented that I would now be able to put my feet up and relax this winter. The hard labor must be over. Well... no.

Keeping up with a 28 acre farm and a 4 bedroom 175 year old house in full renovations has shown to be a challenge. Plus being the best Mom I can be for my boys and add to that running my own business.

While the weather is still somewhat agreeable I'm racing to finish the greenhouse. I'm so close! I have a friend coming to help me this weekend and by Sunday afternoon we hope it will be all set to put the plastic on. Attaching the plastic needs a day where there is no wind. 20 knots just ain't going to work. As it's nearly always windy here I'm a little concerned but the site is quite protected so I'm sure it will be alright. After it's done and I've calmed down from dancing for joy ;) I'll be digging the whole thing up, setting up my benches and building the supports for the cucumbers and tomatoes in the Spring. Exciting!

I've done some work in the fields but have been stymied by rain and now the beds have turned to mud. Hopefully they will dry out before frost as I would like to plant some more garlic for next year.

During all this rain my thoughts have turned to the house. Living in the middle of renovations is getting on my nerves. Just one room done would be fantastic. Today I attacked the ceiling in the living room and dining room. I ripped down the remaining tongue and groove and will finish taking down the rest next week. At least then it will all be uniform and I can organize the wires. Whoever ran them must have been having a bad day. My Mom says to stretch fabric across in between the beams as both Jiprock is not in the budget right now and there is no way I'm going to attempt putting it up by myself. Maybe next winter. In the meantime my main goal is to get the living room, dining room and kitchen up to prime preferably for Christmas. I've been told by many that my muding skills leave much to be desired but heck it's a 175 year old farmhouse and I'm doing my best. After saying this though I know something else is bound to come up which requires my attention. That's just what farm living is about.