... and it was all going so well :-)
No disasters yet (touching wood), but we woke yesterday to a sick dog, a sick pig, a sick chicken and now sick kids. Good grief.
Whin has mastitis, and warranted a trip to the vet. She looks very sorry for herself, but a bit brighter this morning, though obviously sore. The puppies, thankfully, got the hang of solid food immediately and are generally a pretty happy bunch (shouldn't speak too soon). We're keeping one, though opinion as to which one is a little divided! The breeder was due one as stud fee and came to have a look at them. He has offered to buy all of them, which saves us a lot of effort and trauma, he's a well kent breeder and hopefully has the measure of which homes are likely to be best.
The pigs were doing really well, but when I went out with breakfast yesterday, noticed one was just not quite his usual self, and he then spent most of the day in the pig house. He's back on his feet this morning and fed with a degree of gusto, so hopefully on the mend.
A hen has a prolapsed oviduct, which isn't particularly unusual, but has to be acted upon as the other chickens, in that empathetic way of theirs, peck at it - yowsa.
Cam has incipient man flu and needed to take the day off school. Breagh is streaming with something either cold or hay fever, but trotted off to school regardless. Us men, we are so hard, shrugging off most of life's trials and tribulations, but when we do get cut down, we come down hard like... like, er... something hard. You know what I'm saying.
Showing posts with label general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label general. Show all posts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Signs of Spring?
Slowly but surely, Nova Scotia is turning towards Spring. We've had some lovely warm sunny weather, though if a breeze is present it chills down a lot. There are still patches of snow, but we probably have 90% clear ground.
We had a menagerie of visitors on Sunday, Georgie walking 'Girl', one of his foals, out for the first time and then Jonathan and Mark 'walking' their two bull calves out haltered. I'm not sure who was walking who, but the effort of handling these animals like this really seems to pay dividends down the road.
Yesterday, we put spiles in 4 sugar maples to collect sap for making maple syrup again. It made me look back at the blog entry from this time last year, and inevitably muse on all that has been and gone and dunnit in the interim.
We have loads of seedlings coming up both indoors under the light table and in the polytunnel. Off to a flying start compared with last year. It will be interesting to see how much earlier we start harvesting. The rhubarb has started peaking through, which is always a good sign of the season turning.
I've spent some time in the woods below the house this week, clearing hanging trees, spindly rubbish and dead trees - not that you'd notice! There may be a bit of usuable firewood, but we still need to gather ~6 cords for winter 2010, and get that split and stacked.
What else? We've all had minor illnesses, Breagh got a silver medal for her science project, both kids got great school reports before March break this week. We've all been out for gentle runs as we intend to do the Spartans 5k fun run on April 5. In fact, I may nip out for a 1 mile jog just now. Pathetic really, when you think the distances I was covering a few short years ago...
We had a menagerie of visitors on Sunday, Georgie walking 'Girl', one of his foals, out for the first time and then Jonathan and Mark 'walking' their two bull calves out haltered. I'm not sure who was walking who, but the effort of handling these animals like this really seems to pay dividends down the road.
Yesterday, we put spiles in 4 sugar maples to collect sap for making maple syrup again. It made me look back at the blog entry from this time last year, and inevitably muse on all that has been and gone and dunnit in the interim.
We have loads of seedlings coming up both indoors under the light table and in the polytunnel. Off to a flying start compared with last year. It will be interesting to see how much earlier we start harvesting. The rhubarb has started peaking through, which is always a good sign of the season turning.
I've spent some time in the woods below the house this week, clearing hanging trees, spindly rubbish and dead trees - not that you'd notice! There may be a bit of usuable firewood, but we still need to gather ~6 cords for winter 2010, and get that split and stacked.
What else? We've all had minor illnesses, Breagh got a silver medal for her science project, both kids got great school reports before March break this week. We've all been out for gentle runs as we intend to do the Spartans 5k fun run on April 5. In fact, I may nip out for a 1 mile jog just now. Pathetic really, when you think the distances I was covering a few short years ago...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Woohoo - Cam Rocks!
So Cameron came home from school earlier in the week saying he'd been asked to take part in a Variety Show in the school gym tonight, on behalf of the North Queens Junior Girls Basketball Team. Fair enough, so we encouraged him to put a drum solo routine together with, oh, at least a few days to practice.
We went along to set his drums up this afternoon. Only a couple of the performers were school kids, the others were adults, and you could see his confidence slipping as they mostly ignored the wee 10 year old with the drum kit. Well, maybe that's no bad thing as he won't always be the centre of the show... Anyway, he didn't do much practising just tapped timidly in the background whilst they twiddled away.
Come the show, again, he didn't miss a beat but played very quietly almost to the point of invisibility until the intermission. At the interval we spoke to him and he said that he had decided not to play solo. We encouraged but didn't push him. Back to the second half... and no Cam on stage. Jane went to see if he was ok and he was, but none of the adults had invited him back.
Well, we like a bit of country as much as the next Canadian immigrant, but to be honest, there's a limit. The guys playing were ok, but the sound was crap and after straining to hear the 50th song about Mom drinking meths, Daddies lurv, dog leaving on jet plane, boyfriend being called Sue or whatever, people were starting to filter out. Problem was, Cam's drum kit was on stage, so we couldn't go anywhere, but we'd decided to put the evening down to experience at least. For the last couple of tunes Cam came back on.
The M.C. had asked him to do a drum roll to introduce each of the basketball team, so when the other musicians left the stage, Cam stayed. Then Carl, the M.C. said "So Cam, show us what ya got..." - a momentary blank look followed by fleeting panic, we held our breath; what would he do...
Hurhurhur, what he did was shrug - and played a belter! Man, he just blew them away, the place went wild, and he bloody taught them not to underestimate a young lad! The thing is, he is getting pretty damn good on drums and folks were probably thinking he'd done well enough with what he had played - so it was totally unexpected. But he is playing with style and grace and groove, and my heart soared.
As Jane said, this is the sort of thing you want for your kids - the little successes, the tests and triumphs, at least enough of them to balance out the inevitable knocks and defeats. And it won't hurt his cool rating, and the chance to date the better looking girls either.
Of course, because we are crap parents, we had (again) forgotten to take a camera. Thankfully, there was a proper parent in the audience, so hopefully I'll be able to post a photo soon.
Phew! I need a rum... and the skating rink opens tomorrow, so I'd better not be late, but that's a different story. This is Rock and Roll Radio, stay tuned for more Rock and Roll...
Oh aye, and a happy New Year to everyone!
We went along to set his drums up this afternoon. Only a couple of the performers were school kids, the others were adults, and you could see his confidence slipping as they mostly ignored the wee 10 year old with the drum kit. Well, maybe that's no bad thing as he won't always be the centre of the show... Anyway, he didn't do much practising just tapped timidly in the background whilst they twiddled away.
Come the show, again, he didn't miss a beat but played very quietly almost to the point of invisibility until the intermission. At the interval we spoke to him and he said that he had decided not to play solo. We encouraged but didn't push him. Back to the second half... and no Cam on stage. Jane went to see if he was ok and he was, but none of the adults had invited him back.
Well, we like a bit of country as much as the next Canadian immigrant, but to be honest, there's a limit. The guys playing were ok, but the sound was crap and after straining to hear the 50th song about Mom drinking meths, Daddies lurv, dog leaving on jet plane, boyfriend being called Sue or whatever, people were starting to filter out. Problem was, Cam's drum kit was on stage, so we couldn't go anywhere, but we'd decided to put the evening down to experience at least. For the last couple of tunes Cam came back on.
The M.C. had asked him to do a drum roll to introduce each of the basketball team, so when the other musicians left the stage, Cam stayed. Then Carl, the M.C. said "So Cam, show us what ya got..." - a momentary blank look followed by fleeting panic, we held our breath; what would he do...
Hurhurhur, what he did was shrug - and played a belter! Man, he just blew them away, the place went wild, and he bloody taught them not to underestimate a young lad! The thing is, he is getting pretty damn good on drums and folks were probably thinking he'd done well enough with what he had played - so it was totally unexpected. But he is playing with style and grace and groove, and my heart soared.
As Jane said, this is the sort of thing you want for your kids - the little successes, the tests and triumphs, at least enough of them to balance out the inevitable knocks and defeats. And it won't hurt his cool rating, and the chance to date the better looking girls either.
Of course, because we are crap parents, we had (again) forgotten to take a camera. Thankfully, there was a proper parent in the audience, so hopefully I'll be able to post a photo soon.
Phew! I need a rum... and the skating rink opens tomorrow, so I'd better not be late, but that's a different story. This is Rock and Roll Radio, stay tuned for more Rock and Roll...
Oh aye, and a happy New Year to everyone!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Autumn Frenzy (Get Set for Winter)
We have managed to tick off quite a number of items on the grand to-do list recently, which is encouraging. Most are related to getting ready for winter in one way or another.
That process started with the canning and preserving of a whole range of late summer produce, from cranberries to sauerkraut joining the array of tomatoes, pickled cukes and chutney. We bought half a cow and that went in the freezer with our table birds. We should have half a pig coming this week to round out our meat store. More of the pig when it happens!
The garden and greenhouse are just about cleared and prepared for winter, the strawberries and asparagus are pruned and mulched. We have some experimental greenery in the tunnel, it'll be interesting to see how it gets on, though with Jane's accident, we didn't really catch up on winter planting, so the experiment will have to wait for another year properly. The one and only apple tree still needs to be pruned, but presumably there isn't any rush to do that now. We still have plans to put in a bit of an orchard next spring. We really wanted to have a new propagation / transplant greenhouse up before next spring - maybe we've missed our chance now, but we might get to it yet.
Last winter's manure was tractored to join this year's cut grass in a large windrow compost heap, and we divided the stable into 2 separate loose boxes for the horses - hopefully they'll be easier to manage singly. I made a start brushcutting the rushes and weedy grass in the lower field, where I didn't mow this year - it's wet and boggy down there at the moment, and I thought I would end up with the tractor stuck, but the longer it lies uncut, the worse the tangle will become. I was hoping to cut it all by hand, so the new growth in the spring would be palatable for grazing. We still need drainage though.
When Neal was here, he managed to stack most of this year's firewood, and I have added to that and made an outdoor stack, covered, which may even do us for next year too. For the first time ever, we are actually ahead of ourselves in firewood. I even felled a couple of small trees to make up the cordage.
In the house, we got the insulation done - we have blown cellulose, recycled newsprint into the attic and coombe spaces, which will hopefully make it a little more bearable upstairs for the kids bedrooms. The upstairs bathroom renovation is coming along, albeit painfully slowly. I have stripped the 'den' behind the bathroom. We did the pre-winter chimney sweep, put away the trampoline and the volleyball net and gathered bags of birchbark and kindling for fire lighting.
After a mixed spell of weather, the temperature has announced winter with a vengeance. There are snow flurries today and it has been below freezing all day. We brought the horses in tonight for the first time, and shifted the new chickens into their winter quarters. The latter process involved a cardboard box and a pokey stick - good grief, are we professionals at this?!
So, are we ready for winter? No, it doesn't feel so, but we have managed to do a bunch of pre-winter tasks and that feels fairly good!
That process started with the canning and preserving of a whole range of late summer produce, from cranberries to sauerkraut joining the array of tomatoes, pickled cukes and chutney. We bought half a cow and that went in the freezer with our table birds. We should have half a pig coming this week to round out our meat store. More of the pig when it happens!
The garden and greenhouse are just about cleared and prepared for winter, the strawberries and asparagus are pruned and mulched. We have some experimental greenery in the tunnel, it'll be interesting to see how it gets on, though with Jane's accident, we didn't really catch up on winter planting, so the experiment will have to wait for another year properly. The one and only apple tree still needs to be pruned, but presumably there isn't any rush to do that now. We still have plans to put in a bit of an orchard next spring. We really wanted to have a new propagation / transplant greenhouse up before next spring - maybe we've missed our chance now, but we might get to it yet.
Last winter's manure was tractored to join this year's cut grass in a large windrow compost heap, and we divided the stable into 2 separate loose boxes for the horses - hopefully they'll be easier to manage singly. I made a start brushcutting the rushes and weedy grass in the lower field, where I didn't mow this year - it's wet and boggy down there at the moment, and I thought I would end up with the tractor stuck, but the longer it lies uncut, the worse the tangle will become. I was hoping to cut it all by hand, so the new growth in the spring would be palatable for grazing. We still need drainage though.
When Neal was here, he managed to stack most of this year's firewood, and I have added to that and made an outdoor stack, covered, which may even do us for next year too. For the first time ever, we are actually ahead of ourselves in firewood. I even felled a couple of small trees to make up the cordage.
In the house, we got the insulation done - we have blown cellulose, recycled newsprint into the attic and coombe spaces, which will hopefully make it a little more bearable upstairs for the kids bedrooms. The upstairs bathroom renovation is coming along, albeit painfully slowly. I have stripped the 'den' behind the bathroom. We did the pre-winter chimney sweep, put away the trampoline and the volleyball net and gathered bags of birchbark and kindling for fire lighting.
After a mixed spell of weather, the temperature has announced winter with a vengeance. There are snow flurries today and it has been below freezing all day. We brought the horses in tonight for the first time, and shifted the new chickens into their winter quarters. The latter process involved a cardboard box and a pokey stick - good grief, are we professionals at this?!
So, are we ready for winter? No, it doesn't feel so, but we have managed to do a bunch of pre-winter tasks and that feels fairly good!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
As the dust settles...
Well, it has been a time of it.
The last blog entry was anticipating visitors, and I'm sitting now just an hour after seeing Neal, Madeleine, Jessica and Robin off and contemplating an empty house for the first time in umpteen weeks.
It has been a blast and we have really enjoyed everyone's company, but my last blog couldn't anticipate the fact that in the forthcoming period Jane would spend a week in Intensive Care - just to add an extra level of excitement to an already hectic time.
As most of you probably know, we waved goodbye to Ian and Hilary as they set off to tour the province and left us to get ready for the Queens County Fair at which we were both due to be helping. We had stabled the horses along at the Exhibition Grounds and on that Monday evening, Jane saddled Mocha up to give her a bit of a spin around the riding ring - 5 seconds later she was seriously injured as the horse threw her and accidentally stood on her abdomen for good measure. She was taken 'lights and sirens' to Bridgewater where they scanned her and sent her through to Halifax for emergency surgery fearing that her pancreas, spleen and bowel were damaged.
Yoy, that was a scary night, but by the next morning it was clear that there wasn't any major organ damage at least, and that she wasn't about to peg it! We went through to visit - she had the full range of tubes in and was doped up with morphine, but, as we hoped, out of the woods. That was Tuesday.
My mother brought her flight forward a week and landed on Thursday night. Having her around was fantastic. I'm sure that I would have coped without, but having her here was such a help. The garden was in the midst of harvest and she got stuck right in! Joe flew in a week later and we got Jane home shortly after, albeit with a new 7 inch scar to add to the collection. We were apprehensive as to how my folks would find Nova Scotia and them having to find a new flight with Icelandair plus change plans in light of Jane's accident boded badly for their impression of our new life here. I needn't have worried...
Folks here in Caledonia were just superb. From the first responders on the evening of the accident, to all the people who brought food and cards and gifts, to everyone (some of whom I hadn't met before) who stopped me to ask after Jane and offer help - I thank you all from my heart. You made us feel like we were part of a very caring, inclusive community and after such a short period of time living here it was way more than I, or my folks, expected. You did Nova Scotia, and Canada, proud. All of our visitors have gone away amazed at how friendly and welcoming the people are here, and I'm bloody proud to say I live in Caledonia.
Woo, so Jane missed the Fair entirely, and I was really too busy to lend a hand, but we have managed to limp though harvest, Farmers' Markets and all the rest of it with the help of friends, family and community.
So, I'm sitting waiting for Jane to phone to say she has dropped Neal and Madeleine safely at the airport - she offered to do the driving tonight. I think it's fair to say that they've had a good vacation. Neal did a grand job of getting our winter firewood stacked ready, and we got a new chicken house built. It was great having them around, and they might even come back!
So, as the dust settles on an incredibly busy time, I look back at some of the scariest moments of my life as I honestly felt I might lose Jane, but my over-riding feeling about this period is joy. We have a big circle of friends from all over the place, near and far, family who were there when we needed them, neighbours who were above and beyond neighbourly, and we live on a beautiful farm in a special part of the world. Cool :-)
Stand-out moments: Georgie and Helen's Thanksgiving Dinner in the woods, Cam's 3rd place in the 4H Pro Show for his wooden truck, Breagh's school report at the parent-teacher meetings, getting Jane out of hospital and bringing her home to the farm.
The last blog entry was anticipating visitors, and I'm sitting now just an hour after seeing Neal, Madeleine, Jessica and Robin off and contemplating an empty house for the first time in umpteen weeks.
It has been a blast and we have really enjoyed everyone's company, but my last blog couldn't anticipate the fact that in the forthcoming period Jane would spend a week in Intensive Care - just to add an extra level of excitement to an already hectic time.
As most of you probably know, we waved goodbye to Ian and Hilary as they set off to tour the province and left us to get ready for the Queens County Fair at which we were both due to be helping. We had stabled the horses along at the Exhibition Grounds and on that Monday evening, Jane saddled Mocha up to give her a bit of a spin around the riding ring - 5 seconds later she was seriously injured as the horse threw her and accidentally stood on her abdomen for good measure. She was taken 'lights and sirens' to Bridgewater where they scanned her and sent her through to Halifax for emergency surgery fearing that her pancreas, spleen and bowel were damaged.
Yoy, that was a scary night, but by the next morning it was clear that there wasn't any major organ damage at least, and that she wasn't about to peg it! We went through to visit - she had the full range of tubes in and was doped up with morphine, but, as we hoped, out of the woods. That was Tuesday.
My mother brought her flight forward a week and landed on Thursday night. Having her around was fantastic. I'm sure that I would have coped without, but having her here was such a help. The garden was in the midst of harvest and she got stuck right in! Joe flew in a week later and we got Jane home shortly after, albeit with a new 7 inch scar to add to the collection. We were apprehensive as to how my folks would find Nova Scotia and them having to find a new flight with Icelandair plus change plans in light of Jane's accident boded badly for their impression of our new life here. I needn't have worried...
Folks here in Caledonia were just superb. From the first responders on the evening of the accident, to all the people who brought food and cards and gifts, to everyone (some of whom I hadn't met before) who stopped me to ask after Jane and offer help - I thank you all from my heart. You made us feel like we were part of a very caring, inclusive community and after such a short period of time living here it was way more than I, or my folks, expected. You did Nova Scotia, and Canada, proud. All of our visitors have gone away amazed at how friendly and welcoming the people are here, and I'm bloody proud to say I live in Caledonia.
Woo, so Jane missed the Fair entirely, and I was really too busy to lend a hand, but we have managed to limp though harvest, Farmers' Markets and all the rest of it with the help of friends, family and community.
So, I'm sitting waiting for Jane to phone to say she has dropped Neal and Madeleine safely at the airport - she offered to do the driving tonight. I think it's fair to say that they've had a good vacation. Neal did a grand job of getting our winter firewood stacked ready, and we got a new chicken house built. It was great having them around, and they might even come back!
So, as the dust settles on an incredibly busy time, I look back at some of the scariest moments of my life as I honestly felt I might lose Jane, but my over-riding feeling about this period is joy. We have a big circle of friends from all over the place, near and far, family who were there when we needed them, neighbours who were above and beyond neighbourly, and we live on a beautiful farm in a special part of the world. Cool :-)
Stand-out moments: Georgie and Helen's Thanksgiving Dinner in the woods, Cam's 3rd place in the 4H Pro Show for his wooden truck, Breagh's school report at the parent-teacher meetings, getting Jane out of hospital and bringing her home to the farm.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Yarr - welcome back to the world!!
We have HIGH SPEED internet! Yasss, 5mbps is the estimated speed and at current testing it just seems plenty fast enough. What do we do with it? We immediately sign back up for MSN streaming music, which gives us access to a vast music collection, including currently playing Eels 'Daisies of the Galaxy', checking that BBC Radio 3's 'Late Junction' is still online and playing the trailer for the coming move 'Control' - the tragic story of Ian Curtis and of Joy Division.
Actually, the very first thing we did was play an Avril Lavigne music vid from youtube.com for Breagh - times change, eh?
It's just too good, really. Even though we don't spend all that much time in front of the computer (outside my work hours), the internet was so entrenched with our little recreation - streaming music, online dvd rental, radio. It's bloody good to have it back, and a whole lot faster than it was before too.
Actually, the very first thing we did was play an Avril Lavigne music vid from youtube.com for Breagh - times change, eh?
It's just too good, really. Even though we don't spend all that much time in front of the computer (outside my work hours), the internet was so entrenched with our little recreation - streaming music, online dvd rental, radio. It's bloody good to have it back, and a whole lot faster than it was before too.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Spring Fever...
A whole month has passed in a whirl of manuring, tilling, planting, swatting blackflies, finally getting the polytunnel finished and drinking lots of beer with visitors form the UK!
First things first. With much tweaking, the polytunnel cover is tight as a drum and even meets Richard's high standards. We now have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil and salad planted up inside plus strawberries, raspberries, onions, peas and potatoes, plus a few other bits in the ground outside. Everything is still quite dinky, but despite the hot temperatures during the day, it still can get parky at night, so we're holding off with some of the more tender plants.
The kids have hectic after-school lives, between guides, music lessons, cross country, art club and 4H, and so consequently, Mum and Dad have hectic after school lives too!
Our mudroom is the new nursery - as well as Breagh's latest crop of baby gerbils, we have twelve two week old chicks in a brooder - the layers of the future we hope. Next week we hope to pick up two Berkshire weaners, but they will be housed out of doors!
Spring has taken it's time getting here, the trees bursting reluctantly into leaf within the last two weeks, but the birds are busy (we've had our first hummingbirds), and things are starting to look pretty lush. And the big question - are blackfly as bad as the scottish midge? Our verdict? No. Pretty bloody annoying, but no, and more short lived; they already seem to be waning. But they do come out when the sun is shining, which can be frustrating.
We had two lots of visitors this month; Claire (my sister), Nigel (her partner) and Alex (Nige's son), plus Donal & Nicola and Eleana, Ceile, & Osin (their kids)- old friends from Arran. Having them here has had a number of effects, not least the fabby new propane BBQ which was a gift from Donal and Nicola (we had our usual humming and hawing about buying a proper one), but also we have been inspired to root out the burgeoning music scene on the South Shore and pick up our instruments a bit more.
It's been just great to have them around, and feels a bit empty to see them all away, but back to planting onions I guess....
First things first. With much tweaking, the polytunnel cover is tight as a drum and even meets Richard's high standards. We now have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil and salad planted up inside plus strawberries, raspberries, onions, peas and potatoes, plus a few other bits in the ground outside. Everything is still quite dinky, but despite the hot temperatures during the day, it still can get parky at night, so we're holding off with some of the more tender plants.
The kids have hectic after-school lives, between guides, music lessons, cross country, art club and 4H, and so consequently, Mum and Dad have hectic after school lives too!
Our mudroom is the new nursery - as well as Breagh's latest crop of baby gerbils, we have twelve two week old chicks in a brooder - the layers of the future we hope. Next week we hope to pick up two Berkshire weaners, but they will be housed out of doors!
Spring has taken it's time getting here, the trees bursting reluctantly into leaf within the last two weeks, but the birds are busy (we've had our first hummingbirds), and things are starting to look pretty lush. And the big question - are blackfly as bad as the scottish midge? Our verdict? No. Pretty bloody annoying, but no, and more short lived; they already seem to be waning. But they do come out when the sun is shining, which can be frustrating.
We had two lots of visitors this month; Claire (my sister), Nigel (her partner) and Alex (Nige's son), plus Donal & Nicola and Eleana, Ceile, & Osin (their kids)- old friends from Arran. Having them here has had a number of effects, not least the fabby new propane BBQ which was a gift from Donal and Nicola (we had our usual humming and hawing about buying a proper one), but also we have been inspired to root out the burgeoning music scene on the South Shore and pick up our instruments a bit more.
It's been just great to have them around, and feels a bit empty to see them all away, but back to planting onions I guess....
Thursday, March 27, 2008
egg fun and new vehicles
We held the inaugural 1st Annual Kilbrannan Farm Egg Hurling Competition last Sunday, amid cold temperatures but blue skies.
The idea is that you have half an hour to come up with, design, source and build, a device for hurling a decorated hard-boiled egg the furthest distance down the hill. You can use any material found on the farm. You can't just chuck it, there has to be some sort of mechanical device involved.
We made teams of two, girls vs. boys, and the boys won by a long chalk :-)
Today, we did a rash thing, and swapped our very swanky 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a 1999 Ford F-150 pickup, and a 2003 Ford Focus wagon. Wagon? Surely that's an estate car? Well, it gets very confusing - a pickup is a truck, an estate is a wagon, a truck (lorry) is a tractor, a tractor is thankfully still a tractor, a caravan is a bloody trailer, but a trailer is a trailer too, and folk still think you are talking about a caravan! Woh, 2 countries separated by the same language. It's a wonder we didn't swap our SUV and end up with a hoop and stick - sorry, obscure joke reference in there.
What else? The ground tubes are in for the polytunnel, more on this in another post. I went mad and ordered satellite broadband, haven't got an installation date yet. I got my firearm's certificate, so could go buy a gun. Jane is on the board of the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, I'm on the board of the Queen's County Fair Association. I've joined the local Board of Trade, and there are discussions about me building a new website for Caledonia and area, more on this anon. The kids got great school reports, they are both doing really well. I think that's about it.
The idea is that you have half an hour to come up with, design, source and build, a device for hurling a decorated hard-boiled egg the furthest distance down the hill. You can use any material found on the farm. You can't just chuck it, there has to be some sort of mechanical device involved.
We made teams of two, girls vs. boys, and the boys won by a long chalk :-)
Today, we did a rash thing, and swapped our very swanky 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a 1999 Ford F-150 pickup, and a 2003 Ford Focus wagon. Wagon? Surely that's an estate car? Well, it gets very confusing - a pickup is a truck, an estate is a wagon, a truck (lorry) is a tractor, a tractor is thankfully still a tractor, a caravan is a bloody trailer, but a trailer is a trailer too, and folk still think you are talking about a caravan! Woh, 2 countries separated by the same language. It's a wonder we didn't swap our SUV and end up with a hoop and stick - sorry, obscure joke reference in there.
What else? The ground tubes are in for the polytunnel, more on this in another post. I went mad and ordered satellite broadband, haven't got an installation date yet. I got my firearm's certificate, so could go buy a gun. Jane is on the board of the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, I'm on the board of the Queen's County Fair Association. I've joined the local Board of Trade, and there are discussions about me building a new website for Caledonia and area, more on this anon. The kids got great school reports, they are both doing really well. I think that's about it.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
tragic news
As many of you already know, we were floored last Monday by the sudden and totally unexpected death of Jane's nephew, Kit. All of us with children can only hope that we never have to go through the pain of losing them, as poor Claire is now experiencing. All of our thoughts and best wishes are with Claire and Charlotte this morning.
The funeral is today, in Yorkshire, and Jane flew back to the UK last Friday to be with her sister. We were joking a couple of weeks ago, saying that we should save the proceeds from egg sales for a Funeral Flying Fund, as we realise the inevitability of making that trans-atlantic journey - but, bloody hell, we didn't think it would be Kit, or so soon.
I suppose it's at times like this that you feel a long way from home. Though, to be honest, when you've lived as an incomer on Skye, everywhere is a helluva long way away, and it's probably quicker and easier living in Nova Scotia, albeit a bit more expensive to get back!
So, the kids and I are holding the fort and looking forward to having Jane back on Saturday - I am sure that she is at least as needed and appreciated where she is though.
The funeral is today, in Yorkshire, and Jane flew back to the UK last Friday to be with her sister. We were joking a couple of weeks ago, saying that we should save the proceeds from egg sales for a Funeral Flying Fund, as we realise the inevitability of making that trans-atlantic journey - but, bloody hell, we didn't think it would be Kit, or so soon.
I suppose it's at times like this that you feel a long way from home. Though, to be honest, when you've lived as an incomer on Skye, everywhere is a helluva long way away, and it's probably quicker and easier living in Nova Scotia, albeit a bit more expensive to get back!
So, the kids and I are holding the fort and looking forward to having Jane back on Saturday - I am sure that she is at least as needed and appreciated where she is though.
Friday, February 15, 2008
quick roundup
There have been no dramatic developments recently, but a steady trickle of stuff happening that I thought I would just precis, in case there was anything of interest to anybody!
We went cross-country skiing for the first time last week. The kids were off school because of the snow, but we managed to get out to some folk locally who rented us all skis and boots for the afternoon. It was good fun, in a kind of falling down sort of way, and bizarrely enough, everyone wants to give it another go before the snow disappears.
The weather has been very variable. There was a big dump of snow a couple of days ago and then a day where it started at at -12 went up to +10 and rained. That got rid of most of the ice and snow on the drive thankfully, as it is back to sub-zero again.
Jane and Breagh have started training with the horses. Slowly introducing lunge rope work. It's going reasonably well, as far as I can see.
Our big seed order went in this week. If we manage to turn over enough ground to plant all the seed, then we are going to be pretty busy. Before we get livestock, we are going to have to address the poor state of our boundary fences, but we're thinking we might get away using electric fence for now, and tackle the fixed fence bit at a time. Jane is at a workshop on organic crop rotation today, and I have a chainsaw safety course tomorrow. She was at a spinning workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I passed my firearms safety training and am waiting for a firearm posession and acquisition licence.
We have managed a few days work in the woods, but nowhere near enough. The plan is to thin the areas of woodland edging the fields first. That should give us enough small log wood for fuel, but we need to be accumulating 6+ cords for next year. A cord of wood, for those who don't know, measures 8' x 4' x 4'. We still haven't decided which route to take for heating the house and water, and that will affect the amount of wood we need to store dramatically.
The house renovation started, but is taking a long time to get moving properly. I have worked on new wiring plans with an electrician for the upstairs and the room that will be Breagh's bedroom is completely gutted. I'm waiting for electrical supplies to come to get on with the next bit.
We have been getting fresh milk from friends who have a small herd of dairy cattle locally, so urged on by another friend, we have added cheese-making to the usual yoghurt production. Jane has made cream cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella with great success.
We had a chem-free filter and uv treatment added to our well water system. The water was very iron-rich and smelled sulphurous, but now is drinkable straight from the tap, and no longer do we emerge from a shower dirtier than we went in. It tastes great now - I always wanted a private water supply, and it had been a bit of a disappointment. Mind you, it made me examine the plumbing in the basement - yikes, add re-plumbing to the todo list.
I still don't have a good name for my internet business, despite the best efforts of friends and family! I've had a busy spell recently doing several new website builds and a couple of voluntary projects. One, possibly of the latter type will be looking at a community website for this area - badly needed. I was at a local Board of Trade meeting the other night, at which speakers were outlining the opportunities for business startup and expansion in North Queens. Apparently, we are also in a biosphere designation. Need to look into this stuff more.
Cam has a girlfriend, Breagh has a cold - we trundle on...
We went cross-country skiing for the first time last week. The kids were off school because of the snow, but we managed to get out to some folk locally who rented us all skis and boots for the afternoon. It was good fun, in a kind of falling down sort of way, and bizarrely enough, everyone wants to give it another go before the snow disappears.
The weather has been very variable. There was a big dump of snow a couple of days ago and then a day where it started at at -12 went up to +10 and rained. That got rid of most of the ice and snow on the drive thankfully, as it is back to sub-zero again.
Jane and Breagh have started training with the horses. Slowly introducing lunge rope work. It's going reasonably well, as far as I can see.
Our big seed order went in this week. If we manage to turn over enough ground to plant all the seed, then we are going to be pretty busy. Before we get livestock, we are going to have to address the poor state of our boundary fences, but we're thinking we might get away using electric fence for now, and tackle the fixed fence bit at a time. Jane is at a workshop on organic crop rotation today, and I have a chainsaw safety course tomorrow. She was at a spinning workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I passed my firearms safety training and am waiting for a firearm posession and acquisition licence.
We have managed a few days work in the woods, but nowhere near enough. The plan is to thin the areas of woodland edging the fields first. That should give us enough small log wood for fuel, but we need to be accumulating 6+ cords for next year. A cord of wood, for those who don't know, measures 8' x 4' x 4'. We still haven't decided which route to take for heating the house and water, and that will affect the amount of wood we need to store dramatically.
The house renovation started, but is taking a long time to get moving properly. I have worked on new wiring plans with an electrician for the upstairs and the room that will be Breagh's bedroom is completely gutted. I'm waiting for electrical supplies to come to get on with the next bit.
We have been getting fresh milk from friends who have a small herd of dairy cattle locally, so urged on by another friend, we have added cheese-making to the usual yoghurt production. Jane has made cream cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella with great success.
We had a chem-free filter and uv treatment added to our well water system. The water was very iron-rich and smelled sulphurous, but now is drinkable straight from the tap, and no longer do we emerge from a shower dirtier than we went in. It tastes great now - I always wanted a private water supply, and it had been a bit of a disappointment. Mind you, it made me examine the plumbing in the basement - yikes, add re-plumbing to the todo list.
I still don't have a good name for my internet business, despite the best efforts of friends and family! I've had a busy spell recently doing several new website builds and a couple of voluntary projects. One, possibly of the latter type will be looking at a community website for this area - badly needed. I was at a local Board of Trade meeting the other night, at which speakers were outlining the opportunities for business startup and expansion in North Queens. Apparently, we are also in a biosphere designation. Need to look into this stuff more.
Cam has a girlfriend, Breagh has a cold - we trundle on...
Thursday, January 3, 2008
... and a happy new year!
Ah, another Hogmany, another spirited rendition of Auld Lang Syne by the Family von Krapp. This year saw an increase in both instrumentation and general musicality, despite Janey practising so hard in the 5 minutes before UK midnight that she busted right out of her d-string and had to relegate to playing rhythm fiddle, standing in a slightly ginger manner.
This year, we had Breagh 'fingers' Lane on electric piano and Cameron 'thumper' Lane on a mesh-headed snare drum, in addition to regulars; Janey 'not a full set of strings' Barker on aforementioned fiddle and Richard 'too many fingers not enough space' on geetar. It was a corking session, we flew through our list of phone victims in record time. Methinks it was partly down to it only being 8pm in Canada, so 'not a full set' Barker and 'too many fingers' Lane weren't overtly stotious. Actually, we missed a few folk who I daresay are currently breathing sighs of relief, and we didn't carry out our threat to phone back when it got to midnight in Nova Scotia - a rude 4am awakening for UK listeners.
We started ripping the hardboard off the walls in one upstairs bedroom, so for the bells we had a roaring fire going in the firepit out the back and brought the New Year in under a starry, frosty sky toasting our cockles, or at least preventing them from freezing and dropping off.
Lots to do in 2008, some would say 'too much', and I would probably agree, but in the usual barkerlane stylee we will resolve to continue to make rods for our own backs, sticks to whack ourselves over the head with and generally overextend ourselves. I shall be continuing in my chosen profession of hair-shirt knitter.
Have a good one y'all!
This year, we had Breagh 'fingers' Lane on electric piano and Cameron 'thumper' Lane on a mesh-headed snare drum, in addition to regulars; Janey 'not a full set of strings' Barker on aforementioned fiddle and Richard 'too many fingers not enough space' on geetar. It was a corking session, we flew through our list of phone victims in record time. Methinks it was partly down to it only being 8pm in Canada, so 'not a full set' Barker and 'too many fingers' Lane weren't overtly stotious. Actually, we missed a few folk who I daresay are currently breathing sighs of relief, and we didn't carry out our threat to phone back when it got to midnight in Nova Scotia - a rude 4am awakening for UK listeners.
We started ripping the hardboard off the walls in one upstairs bedroom, so for the bells we had a roaring fire going in the firepit out the back and brought the New Year in under a starry, frosty sky toasting our cockles, or at least preventing them from freezing and dropping off.
Lots to do in 2008, some would say 'too much', and I would probably agree, but in the usual barkerlane stylee we will resolve to continue to make rods for our own backs, sticks to whack ourselves over the head with and generally overextend ourselves. I shall be continuing in my chosen profession of hair-shirt knitter.
Have a good one y'all!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Merry Xmas!
Well, we had a cracking xmas, and we hope that you all did too! We don't know many folk lucky enough to be able to go cut their own hand-picked xmas tree from their own land, but we found a lovely spruce for the purpose. We plan to pick a balsam fir early this year and trim it ready for next xmas.
Cameron had put all of his money into a drum kit and so we topped it up and got him a full-size kit. Breagh is doing a horse course at 4H this year, so we arranged to borrow a horse for her on long-term loan. The kind fellow who is loaning us the horse lent us another to keep it company, so the barn is substantially fuller than it was a week ago! We had a frantic few days before xmas to convert the cattle stanchions into suitable loose box stabling for horses.
Xmas day took the usual format, sherry and mince pies whilst opening presents (after the barn chores are all complete of course), a short walk in the snow and then get stuck in to cooking. We had marinated the locally-produced free-range turkey for a couple of days in apple juice and sage and it was just superb, still is in fact, as it was over 14lb in weight!
We picked up our smoked bacon and hams on xmas eve, so with a freezer full of home grown meat we feel prepared. We have done substantially all the barn conversion work that we envisage for the time being. We need to get out and do some fencing, and a lot of fuel wood timber extraction, with a view to having 6 cords of wood cut, split and stacked ready for next year (and more).
The other big task is the renovation work in the house. We intend to create another room upstairs, but convert one bedroom into a family bathroom. Most of the walls and ceilings will need to come down to re-wire, plumb, then drywall and insulate with cellulose. We have been doing a lot of thinking about the jobs needing done and are still not quite sure about some aspects of the build. Many of the skills we learned building 22 Geary are not actually applicable here, as many things are done differently - back to feeling like a DIY-numpty, sigh.
Plans for next year and a review of this year will be forthcoming in a Hogmany special edition blog shortly, featuring new correspondents, Breagh and Cameron - at least that's the plan.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Busy Times
We're not ones for resting on our laurels, I guess, but this has been a busy week in a series of busy weeks (months, years). All good stuff though.
Jane spent her birthday slaughtering a pig - a third of which is now butchered and in our freezer. We have a quarter of a cow coming soon too. Another steep learning curve was needed to put the theory of what we have been reading for years about dealing with intact dead animals - as ex-vegetarians neither of us have the innate knowledge of beef and pork cuts that many other folk probably have.
Our century farmhouse needs renovation and a good place to start presented itself when we saw an advert for grants available for energy efficiency work. You pay for a whole house audit, which looks at air tightness, insulation, heating systems, appliances - the whole thing. The consultant then produces a thorough report which highlights the work to be carried out, and the amount of grant assistance you can expect. You have 18 months to do the work, after which it is inspected. It was money well spent. We haven't had the report yet, but it sounds like there is a lot of scope for improving energy efficiency, and saving money. We are going to look at changing to a ground water heat pump with wood stove backup and do away with the oil furnace and water heater. More on this as we go along, I imagine.
Jane spent her birthday slaughtering a pig - a third of which is now butchered and in our freezer. We have a quarter of a cow coming soon too. Another steep learning curve was needed to put the theory of what we have been reading for years about dealing with intact dead animals - as ex-vegetarians neither of us have the innate knowledge of beef and pork cuts that many other folk probably have.
Our century farmhouse needs renovation and a good place to start presented itself when we saw an advert for grants available for energy efficiency work. You pay for a whole house audit, which looks at air tightness, insulation, heating systems, appliances - the whole thing. The consultant then produces a thorough report which highlights the work to be carried out, and the amount of grant assistance you can expect. You have 18 months to do the work, after which it is inspected. It was money well spent. We haven't had the report yet, but it sounds like there is a lot of scope for improving energy efficiency, and saving money. We are going to look at changing to a ground water heat pump with wood stove backup and do away with the oil furnace and water heater. More on this as we go along, I imagine.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
First eggs!
Well after weeks of chasing leads on who might be willing to part with a few hens, we finally found someone who was desperate to get rid of loads! Yesterday we picked up 24 hens and 2 cockerels from Diane & Paul, fellow ACLers. 'Picked up' is an understatement. They were loose in the barn and it took a fair amount of cornering and artful diving across chicken shit covered bales of hay to get them all, but get them we did. And a lovely bunch they are too. Mostly young hybrid or white leghorn point-of-lay pullets bar one or two old timers. They seem to approve of their new quarters (a hastily constructed partial barn conversion) and just to prove it laid 10 beautiful eggs in their shiny new nestboxes. We'll be keeping them in for a few days till they get the idea that this is home, and till the snow melts a bit more, then we'll let them out and see how we get on. A couple from further south are coming to pick up 6 hens plus 1 cockerel (rooster!) on Sunday, so we will have fewer. But in the meantime we need to find egg buyers fast!
And as if that wasn't enough to celebrate, we passed our Nova Scotia drivers tests today, something that was quietly bothering both of us. Failing would have been inconvenient, not to mention highly embarrassing. However, all those sloppy habits developed over the last 25 years didn't put the 'driving enhancement officer' (not half as scary as the Uk examiners) off too much. Phew!
And as if that wasn't enough to celebrate, we passed our Nova Scotia drivers tests today, something that was quietly bothering both of us. Failing would have been inconvenient, not to mention highly embarrassing. However, all those sloppy habits developed over the last 25 years didn't put the 'driving enhancement officer' (not half as scary as the Uk examiners) off too much. Phew!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sister visiting
My sister Claire arrived in Halifax on Saturday 20th for a week visit. Today, Nova Scotia was at it's best, temperature climbing to the mid-20s, cloudless and leaves in fall colours. Beautiful.
new country - new scotland - new blog
Having relocated ourselves from bonny old Scotland to Nova Scotia, Canada is enough reason to start a new blog. We aren't doing anything radically different from before, small-scale mixed farming to mop up the funds generated by a sputtering career in website application development, but hey! all the doings of animals, weather and associated characters need to be recorded somewhere...
Mostly for our own benefit, so we can look back and see what happened when in the agricultural year - that way we get a prod to get on with the jobs that need to be got on with.
There are also family and friends who are following what we are up to, and this may save emailing the same damn stuff over again!
Mostly for our own benefit, so we can look back and see what happened when in the agricultural year - that way we get a prod to get on with the jobs that need to be got on with.
There are also family and friends who are following what we are up to, and this may save emailing the same damn stuff over again!
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