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.

Flail Mowing

... just to remind myself really.

This week I got a flail mower for the BCS tractor and mowed the winter rye which had reached 5'+ but hopefully before the seed heads had matured - not that it matters too much on that area. Half of the plot was then churned over with the tiller and sweet clover sown. I haven't done the other half yet, but am thinking of maybe drilling kale or something that the pigs could eat off later in the year?

The small hay meadow was also flail mowed, there are a lot of weeds and herbs in it which would make poor hay yet, so better mulched back into the soil and I just sowed some Timothy #1 at 2.5lb/acre. No idea if it will germinate, but there is rain forecast so hopefully it will wash in. Again, if I caught it before the weed seeds were viable then next year maybe we'll have a useable hay crop.

Both areas really could have done with liming / wood ash, but I have no way of spreading it.

all fun and games (until someone loses a...)

... 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.

And then there were four; and then there were 10; and then there were sixty four...

Well spring is here again, with all the noises (see last years posts), the loons and peepers being joined this year by snipe drumming and owls hooting in the broad light of day. We also have a pair of Canada geese hanging around the field, making us feel like proper Canadians.

Now spring is a time of multiplying generally, and the farm is no exception. The field looked awfully big with just two iddy biddy horses in once the grass started to grow, so Mocha and Brook have been joined by Fred and Kamanchi, two more of Georgie's herd. Four looks so much nicer than two :-)

Big big news was that Whin, after a successful trip to a local Labrador breeder, gave birth to 9 (yes, nine!) beautiful puppies two weeks ago. Their eyes have just opened and they have just started tottering about. They are totally irresistable. Whin looks both very proud and generally exhausted, but other than that is doing really well.

Also in the nursery (the mudroom) we presently have thirty six chicks, our laying flock of the future, in a large box under a heat lamp, waiting to go out into the barn. Like I said, it's a noisy time around here...