Last blog was in June, seems almost a summer away... lots of shrubbery under the sod since then.
It has been a very busy and somewhat up and downy sort of a season. The Farmers' Market has run every Saturday with the last scheduled this week. It started off well, transplants sold, lulled until until we had good supplies of produce and tailed off strongly after the cottagers went home. Support from the community is strong, but there are only a handful of regular customers who actually buy from us. We need to look at the viability of continuing next year, as weekly boxes are a more reliable, easier option for us.
Jane has taken a part-time job now that the veg season is coming to an end, the extra cash will be welcome. I'm terribly bored doing what I'm doing and am contemplating changes.
The farm hasn't changed much since June, the pigs have another 2/3 weeks to go before slaughter, the laying hens are up to ~50 and the new ones have come into lay so we are awash with eggs. The meat birds went into the freezer - we were slicker than last year. 4 horses in the field. Both Jane and Breagh rode well at Exhibition this year.
Talking of exhibitions... this weekend was the 4H Pro Show, standing for Provincial. Each county within NS has it's own agricultural exhibition at which the local 4H club members compete for places in their chosen projects, Cameron was doing Outdoorsman and Woodworking, Breagh doing Sewing, Photography and Light Horse. The winners at the local show can go on the Pro Show where they compete with winners from all over the province - so it's quite a big deal. The Pro Show itself moves around each year, and this year was in Bridgewater.
Both Breagh and Cameron had projects that went through to Pro Show so Friday night we went to put them in for judging, and Saturday we spent the day the exhibition grounds watching the show. Cam's whirligig didn't place which we were surprised about, Breagh's sewed skirt did well and she placed in photography competition and sewing judging - well done to them. Two things impressed me a lot about Saturday - one, it was really busy and probably 50% of those were teenagers or younger - 4H is vibrant and such a good institution, many of the kids, strangers, will engage you in conversation, and two, the standard of entries livestock and otherwise was incredible. The cattle classes in particular were amazing, Jersey calf seems a popular class, with some beautiful animals on show, but also Guernseys, Swiss, Belted Galloway, Ayrshire, Holstein, Hereford, Angus, Simmental, Limousin and more.
The weather was great and we had a good day all round. One of those days where you really appreciate living in Nova Scotia.
