It's that time again...

Keeping a roof over our heads and our bellies full

Last weekend, Jordan and I took some extra time off from our town jobs to work on the house.  We got a ton of work done!  As we were finishing the sanding, Jordan noticed this sawdust-covered bat between the logs.

It seems like we haven't quite evicted the bats like we thought we had!

After we finished sanding, we used the air compressor to blow off the majority of the sand and sawdust, then we had to wash the house.  As the house is down to bare wood, this seemed to go against our gut instinct to protect the house; we had to mist the logs with the hose, spray on the Log Wash solution, wait five minutes, then spray the house with the hose again.  Just after we had gotten the sandblasting done, I had sprayed the back corner of the house with the hose, and it took four days to dry - we thought washing it would lead to the same results, but luckily the logs dried within 36 hours with no discolouration.

The male half of Team House Washing, with the backpack sprayer

Once the logs were dry, we started filling the checks and then we took the leap and started chinking as well.  It's easier than we thought it would be, and it actually looks pretty good!

It turns out that the chinking is pretty much a one-person job, so Jordan has taken over these last few days and has gotten quite a bit done.  The weather has done a complete reversal on us: after two months of almost no rain, it has now rained every day since Monday.  We've tarped the back deck and are almost done the two walls along that portion of the deck, and the weather was decent the other day so Jordan did the wall with the big window, as that would be difficult to tarp. We'll likely keep that pattern, and work on the exposed walls on nice days while saving the deck-facing walls for rainy days.

While Jordan was working on the house, I took turns either helping him or working in the kitchen.  Over the weekend, I made:

1 dozen pumpkin muffins;

7 250mL (small) jars of pickled beets, and 2 jars of "cloves carrots" (sliced carrots in the brine I had left over from the beets);

5 small and 4 extra-small (125mL) jars of saskatoon jam; 12 small and 5 pint jars of pickled carrots;

and, half a large freezer bag of peas.

The beet recipe is Mom's top-secret recipe from when we were kids; the saskatoon jam recipe is here; and the pickled carrot recipe came from a book titled Put 'em up! by Sherri Brooks Vinton.  The peas were simply blanched, dried, then packed into a bag (I used a straw to suck out as much air as I could) then popped into the freezer. The beets, carrots, peas and saskatoons all came from our property; the fresh dill and fresh garlic were purchased from a local farm at the farmer's market. Jordan helped with the canning too: he pulled and cleaned the beets, shelled the peas, and provided moral support as I laboured in the kitchen.

Our canning equipment consists of an enamel steamer pot (one where the insert is as tall as the pot, so we can't use that pot alone to can anything bigger than the tiny 125mL jars), a large stock pot, and a circular cooling rack. I discovered two different configurations I can use while canning: putting the cake rack in the enamel pot, and the enamel insert in the stock pot, allows me to have two canners on the go; and by using the stock pot and insert, I could can 5 small jars, put the cake rack on top, and put 4 extra small jars on top, which allowed me to can the whole batch of saskatoon jam in one pot.

I have enough saskatoon berries left that I can make another batch of jam.

And, completely off-topic, I found the following book at the library:

Chickens are the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus Rex, as evidenced by a study analyzing collagen from soft tissues in a T. Rex skeleton.  This study proved that the T. Rex is closer related to chickens and jungle fowl than it is to alligators and crocodiles. That's awesome :D  (That study is behind a paywall for the majority of you, dear readers, unless you click the link using a computer at a public library (you might get access) or a university (you will likely get access).  Here are some links with more info: "Evolutionary history of the chicken," "T. Rex is cousin to modern-day chickens.")

We have more company this weekend, and there's no telling what trouble we'll get in to...

Can you help?

After yesterday's post about some 'unfriendly' visitors, I happened to be outside last night when they started up a chorus.  Can you help me identify these critters?

I think the yipping is a coyote, but I'm not sure about the deeper howl - is that also a coyote?

On a different note, Zim recently had a swollen ear and face, and started vomiting.  We figured that it was an allergic reaction of some kind, but we weren't sure of the cause.  But last night, on the way to visit the chickens, we walked past two trees that had a slight humming around them, and Zim started to dance.  He stomped his feet, jumped around, rolled in the grass, and frantically scratched himself.  Based on this evidence, I suspect he was stung by something, and is allergic to whatever that was.

He's now back to eating small amount of rice, and we'll manage his food quite closely over the next few days.  The swelling has also gone down to the point that it is barely perceptible, and requires much ear and face rubbing to detect.  Luckily, his breathing and bloodflow weren't affected, and he's still just as energetic as always, even though at the time I took this video he'd only eaten 1/4c of rice in over 36 hours.  All in all, he's on the mend.

Visitors

Work continues on the house - Jordan is mostly done sanding, and we should be washing the house by the end of the week.  I've not been much help, unfortunately, as we've had a few visitors lately, which means a few weekends off for me!  (Jordan has some time off coming up, so he'll get his chance to relax as well!)

My friend Steph came up from Ye Olde Stomping Grounds for a weekend in July.  We hit a few of the local parks, played a round of mini golf, made kale chips, and lazed about.  It was a wonderful time, and the timing was great too - we'd had a busy few months, but work on the house was on hold as we waited for the sandblaster, so a weekend off was both needed and permissible.

Waterfalls!!!

This past weekend, some of my extended family came up for a visit - my grandfather, aunt, and a cousin from my mother's side of the family.  We spent Saturday at the farm, generally taking it easy with a game of "guess that tree" (we couldn't identify it, other than that it's a kind of pine), a wander to the berry picking spots (we found some highbush cranberries, discovered that the birds have eaten the rest of the saskatoons, and braved the wild roses to pick some thimbleberries), some lounging on the deck, and finishing with a fabulous dinner outside as the sun set and a fire.  Sunday we ate breakfast at my favourite restaurant, enjoyed a round of mini golf and a few laps around the go-kart track, and had another delicious supper outside.

My Aunt raiding our peas

Dinner!!!

Foghorn behaved very well for my cousin

Giant tires after mini golf and go-karts

Why be 28 when you can be 6?!!

We've also had some not-so-friendly visitors.  We've got a pack of coyotes hanging around, and they're brave enough that they've been out during the day to pick a fight with a neighbouring dog.  As such, the chickens haven't been outside in weeks, as we don't want to risk any getting snatched while our back is turned.  We suspect that the coyotes have one den in the field behind the barn, and another den in the adjacent field to the north.  They start howling around sundown, and we've seen a few wandering between the suspected dens; all of this activity drives Zim crazy so we've been keeping a very close eye on him as well.  Coyotes spend their whole lives scrapping, and I don't think Zim's ever been in an earnest fight in his life, so we don't want to rake any chances.

Also, something took a wander through the garden this past week and ate the tops off the beets.  So it looks like I'm canning this weekend - I'll borrow Kim's pressure canner and hopefully do all the canning inside.  If that doesn't work out, I can move out to the longhouse; it has no running water, but we can plug in the old stove and bring water in buckets from the house.

We also went on a visit last week!  We popped over to see the neighbours and the four of us had a wonderful chat.  They were able to provide us with more history of our farm and our neighbourhood, and send us a few aerial shots of the farm from 2009.  They are pretty fabulous people, and we are so lucky to have such friendly and helpful neighbours!

(c) belongs to our neighbour.  Wish the photo was bigger?  Give it a click!

Gardening - not just for home!

We have cats.  Two of them, in fact.  And these cats aren't fond of plants.  As such, I can't keep any plants at home, so I keep my plants at work instead!  Last Friday, I brought in the unused half of our computer desk and set it up so I could get all the plants off the windowsills and the various stands coworkers have donated.

Various plants on the desk, aloes below it, and fuschias off to the right.

Aloes!  The large one on the right came from Mom's aloe, which she's had for as long as I can remember.  It's sprouted another baby, and the other pots originated from this plant as well - on the top is Kim's, and to the left is one for our former landlord, which is now sprouting a baby of its' own!

L-R: Striped spider plant, ; the top of "Princess", now dubbed Princess Two, a parrot's beak; Kim's donkey's tail; Princess, the original parrot's beak; and a normal, solid green spider plant.

A bit of history on these guys:  The striped spider plant came from one plant downstairs here at work.  Princess the parrot's beak and the donkey tail both came from an event here at work, in which our greenhouse brought plants to teach us about propagation by cuttings.  Princess got pretty tall, so when she sent out a side shoot that started flowering, I lopped off her head and planted it in another pot (to try to discourage any more upward growth from putting her further off balance).  I named her Princess because she was very wilty when I got her, but she spruced right up if she had a semi-opaque bag over her to great a humid little greenhouse; whenever I took the bag off, she'd wilt again until I put it back on.  She eventually hardened sufficiently to no longer need the bag, which has now been pressed into service as Princess Two displays the same neediness.  The solid green spider plant came from a silent auction fundraiser at a previous employer.

Princess Two

Princess

Two fuschias, picked up for free - bonus spider mites included!  I'm still battling the mites, which infected Princess for a time and resulted in two other plants meeting their untimely demise: a kalanchoe and a Welsh onion, who were too infested to surive (and the onion is the suspected source of these little buggers).  So this is Mite Villa, and the fuschias can join the others once they get a clean bill of health.

I'm not currently growing any edibles at work - that's what the garden at home is for!

Peas behind the pumpkins

Two huge pumpkin plants

Red Acre cabbage

Potatoes in flower, then more cabbage, then another pumpkin

Carrots in back, then beets, then yet two more pumpkins

I want to save all the seeds from the peas that came from the seeds we planted last year, and this time I'll store them correctly - they sat in a pie tin in a window all winter, and still managed to grow, so proper storage should really help!!!  Then there are about 14 more feet of double-planted peas for us to enjoy - and some are ready for harvest.  The potatoes have been quite successful at out-competing the weeds, and the beet tops have made a few wonderful salads!

Greenhouse photos to come - our cukes are producing!!!

Naked house

The sandblasters were here on Tuesday, and our little house looks AMAZING! We also finished the two pieces of fascia that were left (with huge thanks to Kim and David for their ladder and contact extender thingy!) so we've started sanding and have purchased almost everything we need to finish the house: log wash solution, pump sprayer for application, check filler, stain, airless sprayer for application, log end seal, top coat, chinking, and the majority of our backer rod. And (hopefully without jinxing it) our weather is supposed to be very hot and very dry for the foreseeable future. I anticipate we'll encounter a challenge or two - what home improvement project would this be without a hiccup?! - but at this point I am confident we can finish this before the snow flies.

Angry people on the internet, in a round-about way

This post is not exactly farm-related, but since some aspects of farming, homesteading, animal husbandry, etc are controversial and get some folks really worked up, I just want to put this out there.

Two years ago, my friend and coworker Liz bought me a book for Christmas: Chick days by Jenna Woginrich (this link goes to Indiebound, who works with Jenna for signed copies).  This book is about raising chickens from hatch (or delivery) to six months old, and coupled with Storey's guide to raising chickens by Gail Damerow, really spurred us along our chicken journey so far.  I refer to both of these books very often.

I adore Jenna's writing style, so I was tickled pink when I made it to the end of the book and discovered she has a blog.  I've followed her blog ever since, and learned that she transitioned from being a vegetarian living in the city to an omnivore on her own 6.5 acres raising assorted veggies, chickens, goats, pigs and sheep.  She's very passionate about how she farms, and has been a great inspiration to me.

She is honest about the slaughters of her animals that are raised for meat.  She does not include graphic pictures, and doesn't provide a 'how-to' style post.  However, she gets some emails and comments from folks that she calls "angry vegetarians" who can be downright nasty to her.  She received one such email earlier this week, and this is her eloquent, thoughtful response.

I also have no problems with vegetarians, or carnivores, or Jainism, or rednecks, or any other person or group of people who have a set of beliefs that may or may not be similar to my own.  We're all diverse, and I think that's pretty darn awesome.  So long as you are not pushing your beliefs on me and trying to change me, I am quite happy to 'live and let live.'

What I don't appreciate, however, are people who search the internet for things that make them angry, with the intent of 'putting the author straight' and 'enlightening the author to the error of their ways.'  Three cheers for anyone if they are passionate about a topic, but I don't understand why someone would choose to channel that passion and energy into bringing other people down.

I used to get angry about some things - things I found in books, things I saw on TV, and yes, things I found on the internet.  But I realized after a while that even though I was learning more about these topics and becoming more educated to different sides of the controversy (because I have a habit of falling into the rabbit-hole that is the comments section...), I wasn't any happier for this knowledge and turmoil.  I did not feel that I was expert enough to add my opinion to the fray, and the energy other people projected really just sapped my own energy and made me jaded and suspicious of everything around me.

So one day, I decided to just stop.  If I am not enjoying what I am reading, if I am getting worked up about a show on TV, if I find myself in a conversation that is becoming more like a confrontation, I will just bow out.  I will no longer engage in something that just ends up making me angry.  I have a finite amount of energy to put in to each day, and I am refusing to throw it away on avoidable situations that make me unhappy.

And this includes anyone who decides to school me in the 'murder' that is slaughtering chickens that have hatched here on the farm, and were tended to and raised thoughtfully.  I do not tell others how to live their life, and I ask for the same respect in return.

Teenage chicks, luscious gardens, and progress on the house - oh my!

Chickens!

Our baby chicks continue to grow at what seems an amazing rate.  Check out their progress:

June 16 - left to right: 3, 2 and 1

June 23 - 1, 3 & 2

June 29 - 1, 2 & 3

July 9 - 3 & 2

July 17 - 1, 2 & 3 all in a row

We've now turned off the heatlamp. They are nearly indistinguishable, and are close to the same size. 1 is fully feathered and still the largest by a very small margin; 3 is the smallest and still has a bit of baby fuzz; and 2 is between them for both size and feathering. 1's distinguishing feature is some trailing wing feather on his right wing that just don't quite line up. 2 seemed to have a slightly prolapsed vent for the first two weeks which resulted in sticky butt that needed to be monitored and cleaned, but that has completely cleared up and they all seem to be doing great! I haven't weighed them yet, but I've been meaning to - I need to find last year's weight sheet for comparison.

In the neighbouring stall, the adults are in great shape as well. They're still in the barn as we haven't fixed their run yet, but when we're home and it's nice out we kick them out of the barn completely and set up their waterer outside. They are evicted to protect the chicks, who aren't yet big enough that I feel comfortable with a potential run-in with the adults. But they wander around the barnyard and the barn itself and generally have a great time, especially in their dirtbath that they've wallowed out between the barn door to the stalls and the big door to the main barn.

Foghorn perfect his Covergirl head toss

Foggy and three of his girls checking out the pea support

House!

As always, we are working on the house. As I mentioned, last-last Saturday was the huge work party at the house. Scott, who owns a local log home company and has built log homes for over 30 years, came out to replace another log end and install our new front door. While he was out, he trimmed some overhanging logs for us so Jordan wasn't up on a ladder with a chainsaw.

Scott, our go-to log home guy, taking his chainsaw to the peak of the roof

New front door!

The door will be painted red to match the roof. This lets in so much more light that the living room and kitchen are much more delightful during the day - they seem much less like dungeons, even with the curtains and blinds closed on the big window.

Jordan checking the fascia while David holds it in place

Our clever concealment for the junction box in the soffit

Various parts of the house, ready to burn!

Garden!

The gardens are thriving, and so is the greenhouse. This year I picked up two Italian Parsley to add to the perennial garden - it is typically hardy to zone 4 but can be coaxed through a zone 3 witner with a few feet of mulch, so I will drop a hay bale on them after the first hard frost and see how they look in the spring. It is near the lemon balm, so while it came back this year, I am interested to see if it shows benefit next spring from the hay bale treatment. The strawberries started producing a few weeks ago, and I ate the first raspberry of the year this past Friday, so I anticipate I'll be spending some time each morning collecting berries.

Jordan was working on weeding the big garden this morning when I left for work - I am excited to see how it looks when I get home! The peas are big, so I have been working on building pea trellises and one is almost ready to go down to the garden (see photo above in the chickens section) - keep an eye out for a How To post in the near future! We also have to thin the carrots - what a nice problem to have after the trouble we had last year! - and the beets. I plan to make salads with the beet tops as I thin them; I tasted a leaf two weeks ago and it was very similar to spinach, which I enjoy for salads. Our pumpkins are starting to flower as well, and I'm very excited! I'll take some photos of the big garden once we get it a little cleaned up.

Blooming lilies in a bucket

Swallowtail in the greenhouse

It's raspberry season!

In the greenhouse, the zucchini is big, and the cucumbers and tomatoes are all looking great! I am very excited as this is the first year that our cukes have germinated, survived to transplanting, and then flourished. Last year they didn't germinate when we tried to start them early, and they did no better when I tried starting them in the garden. This year they are unstoppable!! We have a lot of tomatoes too: two Amish Paste, about 6-8 Azteca, and the rest are Black Plum. I am really hoping we get enough to sauce - I think we have over 20 plum tomato plants! They just started flowering last week.

Saskatoons, zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers, with lilies in the foreground

Hanging cukes

More tomatoes!

Random!

Here are some other bits and bobs from the past month

Swallow chicks - "You don't have food for me, go away!"

The swallows had 5 chicks in the deck birdhouse this year, and they fledged almost three weeks ago. I am already looking forward to their reappearance next May!

LoW map, circa 1880

I have lots of family on the Lake of the Woods, and Kim found this old map for me. It's from 1880, when Kenora was still known as Rat Portage. I'll be mailing this beauty to Dad for his perusal and enjoyment :)

The house was like this for over a week

We had a huge heat wave that finally broke late last week. For two weeks we had highs in the high 20s and mid 30s. This was what the thermometer looked like every morning: at 7:30 it is already nearly 20 degrees out, and it' still in the mid to high 20s from the night before, even though we had the fan in the kitchen window and the living room ceiling fan both running all night. I love summer, and heat, and sunshine, but by the end of the heat wave I was surly if I was inside (and especially if I was trying to cook supper and it wasn't working out - I'm looking at you, udon noodles...).

Beautiful moonrise!

The clear skies did make for some wonderful sunsets, when I was up late enough to see them!

The day of the smoke - I woke up to a very sepia-coloured world

However, the hot weather did not help our forest fire situation. There were a few burning before the heat wave rolled in, but the dry weather helped the spread of the fires. There weren't any near us, and only small fires near the city, but one very large fire was to the southwest of us. On Thursday, the smoke rolled in with the rain, and as the morning progressed the skies got darker and darker. The photo above is from 7:23 am, as I was leaving for work. It got darker as I got to work, and around 8:30 to 9:00 it was black outside, darker than it has been at midnight since early May.  The photo below is from 9:33, as the sky was starting to lighten again.

The day of the smoke - then it started to rain...

It was very creepy, and many of us commented on how eerie it looked outside. Luckily, the rain knocked down some of the smoke and particulate, so by 10:30 am the sky colour had stabilized. Note that these photos aren't that great and don't capture the true colour of the sky (it is just an Android phone, after all...)

Cuddling kittens!

And, to counter the creepy, here are the kittens having a nap in the front window. Molly (closest the window) has yet to really get along with Mander; usually she just tolerates him. This near-cuddling was just adorable :)