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.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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....
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Loons and Peepers
What a racket! It's like living in the middle of a rainforest here, at night, at the moment.
The Spring Peepers are little tree frogs with big gobs and bobbly toes and there's thoosands of them all chirping at the same time. You can hear them from inside your car as you drive the highway!
On top of that, we have loons on the lake and they have such a distinctive call.
We were sat on the deck the other night with a glass of home brewed wine, under the stars, drinking it all in...
The Spring Peepers are little tree frogs with big gobs and bobbly toes and there's thoosands of them all chirping at the same time. You can hear them from inside your car as you drive the highway!
On top of that, we have loons on the lake and they have such a distinctive call.
We were sat on the deck the other night with a glass of home brewed wine, under the stars, drinking it all in...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Caledonia in the the Spring
We've gone from snow cover to sunburn in a few short days. Those in the know reckon '3 snows after Easter' and I think we've had them. The weather forecast here is pretty reliable, Environment Canada, the last frost date isn't until early May, but the temperatures are now forecast consistently above freezing. Fantastic - time to get doing...
You may know that one item we brought with us from the UK was a 18' x 32' polytunnel (term not used here, folk look at you blankly - it's a greenhouse, or a hoophouse). We had bought the tunnel not long after we moved to Skye, but never found the time to put it up - that's five years or more that we've had it, making that a very long erection indeed (sorry).
We could not find any flat ground at all! 76 acres, and not enough flat ground for a wee polytunnel. So, we've had to be inventive. You'll see from the photos,that we dug one corner in below ground, and I bought some tubing and made my own 5' ground tubes for the other end. That is going to cause other problems with fitting the plastic, opening doors, bed layout, but I think we have it sorted.
I can't remember if I mentioned the Hun yet? He's a 13hp BCS 2-wheel tractor with a 30" rotovator attachment. Beast. Why the Hun? Well, he's 'a tiller' - boomboom. The Hun cost us a fortune, but will handle most of the land cultivation. We do have a tractor with single furrow plough and disk harrows, but for small beds, and small turning circles, we feel the compaction and damage the tractor would cause isn't justified.
So, we now have 56 x 30' rows cultivated, plus some rows for fruit bushes. Working on the fences around this plot, so that we are ready come the last frost date to get a whole load of stuff in the ground.
Yesterday, and today, there was a frost first thing, but the thermometer (in the sun) had reached 34deg. by afternoon - wow!
You may know that one item we brought with us from the UK was a 18' x 32' polytunnel (term not used here, folk look at you blankly - it's a greenhouse, or a hoophouse). We had bought the tunnel not long after we moved to Skye, but never found the time to put it up - that's five years or more that we've had it, making that a very long erection indeed (sorry).
We could not find any flat ground at all! 76 acres, and not enough flat ground for a wee polytunnel. So, we've had to be inventive. You'll see from the photos,that we dug one corner in below ground, and I bought some tubing and made my own 5' ground tubes for the other end. That is going to cause other problems with fitting the plastic, opening doors, bed layout, but I think we have it sorted.
I can't remember if I mentioned the Hun yet? He's a 13hp BCS 2-wheel tractor with a 30" rotovator attachment. Beast. Why the Hun? Well, he's 'a tiller' - boomboom. The Hun cost us a fortune, but will handle most of the land cultivation. We do have a tractor with single furrow plough and disk harrows, but for small beds, and small turning circles, we feel the compaction and damage the tractor would cause isn't justified.
So, we now have 56 x 30' rows cultivated, plus some rows for fruit bushes. Working on the fences around this plot, so that we are ready come the last frost date to get a whole load of stuff in the ground.
Yesterday, and today, there was a frost first thing, but the thermometer (in the sun) had reached 34deg. by afternoon - wow!
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.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The sap is rising!
It's time for the first harvest of the year, and one I have looked forward to for a long time. I remember a fellow tapping birch trees in Lochranza when I was Breagh's age and have harboured a desire to do it ever since. Since we now own our own woodland, including several sugar maples, I have been waiting for early Spring to get doing. Jonathon came over the other day to say he reckoned the time was right - several warm sunny days with cold frosty nights, and the sap should be running.
We helped him put the taps, or spiles, into several of his trees and dashed off to the hardware store to buy some for ourselves. A brace drill, 7/16" (none of your metric nonsense here!) auger bit, 4 spiles, 4 small buckets, 4 plastic bags plus ubiquitous bundle of baler twine were required and off to the woods we went. Luckily, we have several sugar maples at the edge of our woods, at the top of the main pasture and because the buckets need emptying, we looked no further for larger trees. It's recommended that a tree should be at least 7 inches in diameter, but most folk wouldn't tap anything less than 12". We drilled a hole about 6cm deep (a 6cm hole with a 7/16" bit - hey! I'm ambidextrous), on the south side of the tree, about a metre (note, euro spelling) up. After cleaning the hole, the sap was already dripping out and tapping the spile into the hole with a bucket hung on in the center (sorry, couldn't resist), resulted in a satisfying steady drip. Plastic bag over the top in case of rain.
The sap is only 2% sugar, or so, but tastes nicely sweet and can be drunk fresh, used to make tea (note to self: could do with some mint leaves next year) or, most famously, boiled down to make maple syrup. It takes about 30-40 : 1 reduction to make good syrup, so a lot of boiling. Jonathon pointed out "it'll take the paint of your walls" with the steam, so we'll try to put the jeelie pan over the firepit and do the boiling outside.
In other news, Jane has been working with the horses on a daily basis and Mocha, especially, is coming on really well. Kids are doing fine, Breagh has applied to go on a week-long vet camp in Prince Edward Island in July. Cam won 3rd prize in a moose-calling competition! I've just about decided on a new business name, more on that in another post.
We helped him put the taps, or spiles, into several of his trees and dashed off to the hardware store to buy some for ourselves. A brace drill, 7/16" (none of your metric nonsense here!) auger bit, 4 spiles, 4 small buckets, 4 plastic bags plus ubiquitous bundle of baler twine were required and off to the woods we went. Luckily, we have several sugar maples at the edge of our woods, at the top of the main pasture and because the buckets need emptying, we looked no further for larger trees. It's recommended that a tree should be at least 7 inches in diameter, but most folk wouldn't tap anything less than 12". We drilled a hole about 6cm deep (a 6cm hole with a 7/16" bit - hey! I'm ambidextrous), on the south side of the tree, about a metre (note, euro spelling) up. After cleaning the hole, the sap was already dripping out and tapping the spile into the hole with a bucket hung on in the center (sorry, couldn't resist), resulted in a satisfying steady drip. Plastic bag over the top in case of rain.
The sap is only 2% sugar, or so, but tastes nicely sweet and can be drunk fresh, used to make tea (note to self: could do with some mint leaves next year) or, most famously, boiled down to make maple syrup. It takes about 30-40 : 1 reduction to make good syrup, so a lot of boiling. Jonathon pointed out "it'll take the paint of your walls" with the steam, so we'll try to put the jeelie pan over the firepit and do the boiling outside.
In other news, Jane has been working with the horses on a daily basis and Mocha, especially, is coming on really well. Kids are doing fine, Breagh has applied to go on a week-long vet camp in Prince Edward Island in July. Cam won 3rd prize in a moose-calling competition! I've just about decided on a new business name, more on that in another post.
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