Roundup

... haven't used any, but it has been recommended to us for various projects in the last couple of weeks. From clearing under the pear trees, to killing the invasive and tenacious alder buckthorn which we need to deal with in our woods. We won't of course, preferring, as we do, the hairshirt approach to land management...

What else? 100lb of seed potatoes are in the ground in 3 long rows, 3' apart - we spread horse muck to about 4 inches and disc harrowed it in, then I ran the tiller over it with the furrower on, placed the potatoes with at least 18" spacing, and covered them up to a few inches depth. The furrower is also a hiller, so I'm hoping that when the time comes to mound soil on the growing haulms, I can run it between the rows and do two sides at once.

The Queens County Farmers' Market has been running two weeks now and even when it's quiet, can earn a few dollars - we've just about covered the cost of the seed already, but we've been selling our transplants which do seem to sell well - it'll be quiet now until the veg starts cropping properly (nearly have peas though!). We could easily have sold twice as many tomato plants. It's just finding the time to plant and tend for lots of seedlings... maybe next year we take orders. The market is a bind though, and I have a idea of establishing a small self-serve farm shop here. We could sell eggs and veg direct, have a box scheme pickup, I could try some bedding plants and we could even sell some frozen meat of our own, or from friends locally. For the future...

More pressing is the imminent arrival of this years piglets and chicks. Chicks are due on the 11th, pigs are due for pickup week commencing Sat. 19th. The chicks will be indoors for a few weeks, then out - we have a house and fence for the meat birds, but I have to come up with something for the new flock of layers. The pigs will probably go straight out, but I want to create a moveable hurdle fence to restrict them when they are still small.

We had a run in with a fox. I looked down the farm the other night to see him/her wandering off with a hen in his gob. The following night, we were keeping an eye out, but in a flash he was inside the fence! Jane and I plus two clueless dogs hurtled to the rescue. I got to within a few feet of him, before he shook free of the fence and streaked off across the field. We brought the hens back up closer to the barn and electrified the net - he hasn't been back yet.

We had an interesting walk through the woods with a local guy who won the Woodlot Owner of the Year a couple of years back. It's amazing what we have when you take the time to look, and I feel a blog entry coming about the woods.

There's a gap in IT work this morning, so I think I'll take the opportunity to get out and cut grass in the plot. I've been out with the scythe more, but this is a job for the flail mower!

Spring with a Vengeance

With no further ado, preamble or farting around, Spring, with it's over long task list is upon us. The black flies are upon us too, making the task list into more than chores.

This past weekend, in volcanic temperatures (well, above 30deg anyway), we spent Saturday making a start on pruning the 600+ pear trees in our newly acquired 1 acre pear orchard. A local farmer decided that they were too much work for him, and offered the orchard to us. This is potentially a lot of work, for not a huge monetary reward - so, what else is new, it matches the rest of my life. What is exciting, though, is the prospect of making more pear cider, perry, than we can feasibly drink (ed. doubt it).

I also managed to get the field behind the house ploughed and disced with the old tractor. My ploughing isn't going to win any plooboy laddy prizes, but hey... The field needs a huge quantity of horse muck, and luckily we know a man with immense quantities of horse muck. Then I can plant my potatoes.

The other big task this weekend was felling, logging, drilling and plugging some hardwood logs (ash and maple growing in the wrong place) with mushroom spawn dowels. We have a mixture of shiitake and elm oyster and I have prepared 12 logs. They still need to be sealed with cheese wax and planted end-up in a special grove I have created in the woods, hopefully shady and damp enough for them to develop. Then we wait and see.

The new greenhouse is up and inflated. The beds are nearly finished and we've had the tomatoes out there on a bench for a week or so. Seed planting continues apace.

The horses are on the move; grazing them on smaller areas of pasture but keeping them moving with electric fence in an attempt to lessen the bad influence they have on my pasture. Chickens too, the mobile house is mobile again. This years meat birds (18) and additional layers (24) are ordered, and 2 Berkshire piglets are scheduled to arrive in June.

just stuff

Just a general catch-up, I have nothing earth-shattering to say today...

Spring is with us, and it has been great start to the year - dry and warm. The lakes are open, we have heard peepers and loons in the last couple of days, crocus and daffs are blooming and even the grass in the field has started to come away. I got the top field clipped off, but am still pinching out rocks that the frost heaves to the surface to wreck unwary mowers.

It's easter weekend and it should be torrential rain in a traditional Arran sense, but the forecast is for sun and temperatures averaging 22deg :-)

The new greenhouse is still coming along, but shouldn't take too much more work in time to fill with transplants for sale.

The kids have been very busy. Cameron won his Grade 6 Science Fair and went on to the regional finals where he came away with a prize. Breagh designed a 'peace poster' which went on to Provincial level and was given an 'honourable mention' - they framed it for her and is currently on display in the school. Cam was headhunted to play drums and played a gig at Westfield Hall last week with Billy Martin & Old Country - they want him to sit in whenever he can! Breagh is working on her Heritage Fair projects. They are both in full swing with 4H, in particular the public speaking component just now.

What else? Well, with Jane's work and my interest in woodland, we've been out at a few workshops recently. Last weekend we went to Windhorse Farm in Lunenburg County. Jim Drescher manages a 100 acre block of old growth woodland which has been continually harvested for over 100 years, and serves as a model of sustainable approach to forestry. The woodland with big trees, diverse species mix and regenerating younger woods accessed by low impact sawdust paths, and extracted by horses is a lovely place to spend time, and indeed in addition to selling timber products, they also provide retreat and conference facilities. The whole place was really inspiring and a privilege to visit.

Dream Farming

We've been following 'My Dream Farm' on UK tv Channel 4, and although we're a fair bit ahead of most the participants in that programme, it has made me reflect on how far I need to get my finger out if we are serious about making this farm work.

The principal of the programme is that the presenter, Monty Don, tries to help folk who want to 'get back to the land' put solid business ideas together for the farm or smallholding that they own. I've often thought that this could be a successful commercial venture, in fact, or even better, a free service to be offered by Agricultural Colleges! Unless you inherit an existing farm business, or are an exceptionally focussed entrepreneur, trying to work out what is actually going to pay the bills from the land is daunting.

Monty Don is obviously of the 'do it now and think about the problems later' school which comes of having experience and confidence. Most of the participants have neither and he becomes frustrated with their reticence. It's easy to say "get some cows", but if you are strapped for cash, how are you to pay for them, how are you going to make your fences stock-proof, will they have a roof over their heads, and how are you going to round them up and restrain them for essential maintenance?

Despite this, he's right - it is the right attitude to have, because problem anticipation = paralysis = energy drain.

It's all relevant at the moment. Jane is currently working full-time for MTRI (www.merseytobeatic.ca) and I'm torn between building my web business back up, or concentrating on making the farm pay. Practically, I'm going to have to do both!

So, Farm Plan 2010:

• double (at least) the number of laying hens, need more mobile houses built


• cost out producing meat birds for other people, in addition to our own


• new greenhouse to go up, first concentrate on transplants for sale in spring


• garlic crop went in the ground last fall, research adding value


• ordered a dozen fruit trees to create a new orchard in fall 2010


• need at least one beef creetur for Cam's 4H project


• looking for a jersey / guernsey house cow for ourselves, but there is also an obvious market for smallholder cows - breeding stock?


• more pigs - loved the pigs last year - consider upping the numbers to 4? Breeding sow?


• veg sales - farmers market again, but also develop farm gate sales and CSA


• we have a lovely south facing slope, perfect for grapes or hops - need to research the market


• make the woodland work for us, mushrooms, ginseng, rustic furniture making? Plus our own firewood needs of course.


• acre of barley, for brewing, feed, and straw. Hope for a hay crop too.


• put a system of managed intensive grazing in place to improve pasture. Needs fencing!

That's not everything, but it's quite a lot to be getting on with! Must go and have a lie down...

Happy New Year!

Well, tis the time off year for reflection and contemplation, and so I feel moved to write a line or two about the year past. I haven't quite got round to thinking about the year ahead yet...

It was a busy one, so much so that the blog got neglected and much was missed. So I will tax my brain in order to select some of the highlights, for me anyway...

Triumphant moments for the kids includes Cam's nerve-wracking second gig at a local variety show (see"Cam rocks!" earlier blog entry), followed by several other events through the year. I am thrilled that he has a passion that he has such a talent for. He already has a fan club in the village!

Breagh made us all very proud by being awarded "student of the year" in her grade at school, a testament to her hard work. It's a joy to see her enjoy her school life and friends so much. Long may it last. Both kids did really well in their 4H projects, learning so many new skills and producing some fine pieces of work. Breagh did really well at Exhibition on Brook too, and came home laden with rosettes.

They have both learned to skate, ski, kayak and swim confidently, and ran a 5km race to raise money for the school sports dept early in the year.

On the animal front, there were several ups and one down (well twenty actually....).

Firstly, Whin having pups was most definitely an unforgettable experience for me,

both as birthing partner for her and as chief mopper-upper of puppy shite in weeks to come. Parting with eight of the nine was one of the hardest things this year, but we did keep one yellow bitch, Rosa, who has become the latest addition to the inner family circle, and is very cheeky but adorable and like her mother, pretty smart.

Our pigs, who remained nameless and are now in the freezer (and in me (baked ham for supper - delicious!)) were so much fun to have around. They were utterly content from beginning to end, and a characterful addition to the menagerie. Again, parting with them was hard, but part of the grand scheme, and watching their happy free-range lives made me feel good about eating pork again. They even used to play football which was fun to watch.

We also raised our own meat birds this year, and 3 dozen new layers. However, in late November,we had a less welcome guest - a mink. He/she came almost nightly, beheading a chicken or two per night, for nearly a month. Richard and I were frustrated an depressed by this beast who sidestepped a plethora of traps and seemed to be thumbing his/her nose at us. Just before Christmas we trapped and destroyed it, and it brought such a sense of relief - i hadn't realised just how much

it had been getting me down.

Mocha and Brook are still with us, and one very personal high for me this year was riding at Exhibition, a pleasure I was not lucky enough to have last year. Because it felt so good to be there at all, I really made the most of it, and the fact that over here, gymkhana type races are open to adults too, meant that I had more fun on horseback than I had had since i was a teenager! Both horses did me proud. Specail mention to Claire, who was here for Ex week and who was an invaluable help. I hope she enjoyed it too - I think she did!

Which brings me on to visitors. Judy, Sean and Innes came in July - very special as it was the first timewe had had the pleasure of meeting our new nephew in person. The combination of new puppies, 36 chicks and a two year old seemed daunting, but it was a joy. Innes is a gem, we loved having him around and I soo missed having that little helper at feeding/egg-collecting time.

Claire came in September and got the best of the weather, and Neal, Madeleine, Jess & Rob came again in October, for another fun two weeks. Always so good to see everyone, and sad to see them go, but thanks to Skype, so much easier to keep in touch.

The Farmers' Market kept us busy all summer long, and we managed to sell our veg at all but one of the markets. Hopefully it will continue into 2010 - the seed catelogues are being perused as I write.

Other community ventures must include the skating rink, inspired by Georgie Uhlman. It kept us busy (and fit!) for much of the winter, and was a great resource for all those who made use of it.

OK, enough of 2009 - on with the next!

December 6

December 6
Originally uploaded by rubhadubh

First proper snowfall of the year. The weather was mild and wet when I went to bed! I guess that it had to happen sooner or later - outdoor jobs list on hold then.

4H Pro Show

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.