December on the farm

Fortunately, nothing nearly as stressful as losing cows happened in December! It has been a busy month, some of which was getting work done around the farm, but mostly involved lots of family gatherings.

This month a cow shelter with feeding trough was halfway built, greenhouse endwalls were constructed, including building doors for the endwalls. Orrin and his dad are out there as I write this, finishing up the second endwall door. We cut lots of wood this month, after realizing that the wood that we had been burning in our Kachelofen is not as dry as it needs to be, so Orrin had gone in search of a dead, dry tree on the property. He found one pretty close by, and Elva (Orrin's mom) and I were entertained one afternoon as Orrin and Dave (Orrin's dad) used come-along's to fell the tree in the right direction. It had been leaning pretty heavily over the pond, but they managed to re-direct it so that it fell in a place they could more easily cut the wood (which would not have been the pond!). The big cracking sound that trees make when they come crashing down is pretty impressive, and this tree did not disappoint. Additionally, Zane has drawn up some plans for the second house for us, and we hope to start framing in windows soon, to get the ball rolling there.

Orrin's parents are in the area for a total of 4 months (one of which is now past already), so they've been helpful with coming over occasionally to help us work and take care of Oliver. We also had my parents visit for about 5 days. We celebrated an early Christmas with them, and enjoyed some really delicious dinners while they were here.

We hosted our first Solstice Celebration, having a bunch of family over for a nice meal, and plan to make this a new holiday for us, as we look forward to longer days and our first growing season on the farm.

I'm happy to have had a few minutes to jot down our last month of 2010 on the farm, and hope you all have a fabulous holiday season with your families and friends.

Just Another Saturday Night in the Sticks

Yesterday Orrin was working in the cow enclosure, building a winter shelter for them. He purposely left the gate open to see if they would go out and wander around a bit. Turns out, they did. They walked out and happily ate grass that they found around both houses (mostly there are old weeds and trees in their enclosure, so the grass was much more welcome). At one point, Orrin lured the cow back into the pen with some hay, but when the calf didn't follow, she turned right around and left again before Orrin had a chance to shut the gate. A little while later, the calf decided to make a break for it, and started trucking down the driveway. The cow wasn't going to be anywhere the calf wasn't, so she quickly went in pursuit.

At this point it was about 5pm, and Orrin ran into the house to tell me they were heading down the driveway. He grabbed a flashlight and a handful of hay and ran after them. Oliver and I jumped in the car and took chase, hoping we could get around her, and then stop her from going any further. I did get around her, and stopped her from heading down the part of our road that is more populated, but she headed the other way, down a rough one-lane track only usable by ATV's in that section. There was only forest in that direction for several miles, before one would reach the next community. Oliver and I sat in the car for about an hour blocking the main road, as the sun set and visibility went to nil. I kept the headlights on low, and kept hoping to see the cows heading back towards me (at which point my plan was to start honking to get them to re-direct back down the driveway instead of try to get past me). Unfortunately, the plan never happened. I called Zane around 5:30 and let him know what was going on, then called him back around 6 when there was still no sign of Orrin. I didn't really care about the cows by now, I just wanted to know that Orrin wasn't lost or hurt in the dark woods.

Shortly after 6pm, I decided to head back to the house to get a bunch of warm clothes, as Zane was heading over, and we thought we'd walk down the old track to go see if we could find Orrin. I had just finished throwing clothes in the car, and started driving back down the driveway when I saw the flashlight heading my way. Orrin had made it back in one piece, but without the cows. He and the cows had headed through a swampy area and were almost to Farmville when darkness came, at which point the cows decided to stop running.

Once Zane and Dave (Z & O's dad) showed up, we all drove around to the south side of Back Cornwall Rd, and Zane and Orrin headed out into the woods and down the road (back in the direction of our house) to find the cows. Orrin hoped that they would have stayed put for the night, but unfortunately that was not the case. Between the darkness and the steady snow falling, they were unable to find them.

We had a fitful night of sleep, wondering where they had ended up, and hoping that they would not be accidentally shot by a hunter mistaking them for a deer. In our area we have seen quite a few hunters this month, and thought that could be a possibility.

Orrin headed out around 6:30 am this morning to drive back to the last place he had seen them. Oliver and I woke up a little before 8 am and I tried to reach him on the cell but there was no answer. Around 9 am, a man dressed in hunter's clothes drove up in his ATV and asked if we were the folks missing a couple cows. I confirmed that we were, and he said he had just seen them on the south side of the swamp, on Back Cornwall Rd. After thanking him for the information, I walked back into the house to hear Orrin leaving a message on the machine. I managed to grab the phone before he'd hung up, and asked if he'd seen them. He hadn't, so was happy to hear the update.

He called back a little while later, having located them, and was trying to lure them with hay back up the road towards home. At the swamp, she decided she didn't feel like going that way right then, and turned back towards Farmville! I called Zane again, and he and Elva came over. Elva stayed with Oliver, while I grabbed some apples, carrots and more hay, and Zane and I hopped in the car, planning to get to the end of the driveway, and then walk south, in the direction of Orrin and the cows. Halfway down the driveway, once again there was Orrin, with both cows! I pulled over, parked the car, and grabbed some hay. With Orrin and Zane coaxing them from behind, I somehow ended up leading the way, trying to stay ahead of the cow and giving her hay once in a while to keep her interested, as the calf trailed along beside her.

Shortly thereafter, we had the cows back in their enclosure. Phew! Such a relief. Orrin met several of our neighbors on the other side of the swamp, and they were all as helpful as they could be. The man in particular who came to tell me that he'd seen them was incredibly kind, as without his information who knows how much longer it would have taken Orrin to find them.

The moral of this story: don't trust that a little bit of hay is enough to get a 1000 lb cow (and her calf) back into her enclosure, because if she doesn't want to come, there's no forcing her. Leave them there in the first place!

November on the farm

It is hard to believe over a month has passed since I last wrote here. Nobody appears to be paying us, and yet we are so busy working around the farm. Not to mention the time it takes to look after a little one. Oliver seems to be figuring out some new thing every day, and it is getting harder and harder to keep up with him!

So much has happened in the past month. We finished planting the rest of the garlic, for one thing. Then the greenhouse parts finally arrived a few weeks ago, and within a few days we had the frame up, with the help of Zane and a friend, Jake. We've continued to tighten things up, attach the various pieces to the frame that will hold the plastic, and build the endwalls. We hope to gather some folks together on Monday morning for a couple hours to get the plastic on (we've been told "the more people the better!").

We built an A-frame shelter for the pigs, out of wood from an old deer blind that we found on the property, and we plan to build a shelter for the cows soon, as well.

We've also acquired 3 pigs and 2 cows in the last couple of weeks. We got both types of animals from two different farmers locally, who sell at the weekly farmer's market. The pigs were about 10 weeks old when we got them, two boys and a girl, and are a heritage breed called Berkshire. The cows are a mama and bull calf, and the mama is pregnant with next year's calf. We plan to keep the mama cow to breed, as well as the gilt (female pig), but the other's will be food at some point, so we won't be naming them. We think we'll name the cow, but haven't come up with one yet.

I've had some interesting emotions associated with getting these animals. I was immediately intimidated by how big the cow is (Orrin thinks she's about 1000 lbs), but in the week that we have had her I have seen how docile she is, and am not as scared of her as I was at first. Also, the only thing keeping her in her fenced area is a thin line of electric wiring. Fortunately, she's respecting the wire and has stayed put (the calf has gone under the wiring and gotten out a couple of times, but goes back to his mama at the end of the day, so we're not worried about him being out as long as she's inside). The cow has also cried a fair bit this week, we think because she misses having other cows around, and she cried a lot when the calf got out of the fence and she couldn't go with him. I felt bad for making her sad! It hadn't occurred to me that she would have emotions too, and be lonely. With the pigs, I have found them to be very cute, so I'm hoping they lose their luster as they get bigger, since we are going to be eating them. I think the idea of eating these animals is a bit of a challenge for me, but I like meat, so I will need to come to terms with it.

It is really starting to feel like a farm, now that we can look out the window of the house and see the animals up on the hill.

We are also starting to think about getting to work on completing the other house. Orrin has been finding some great deals on windows, doors, sinks, a wood stove, etc. through Kijiji, so we are gathering the pieces we will need. Once the greenhouse and cow shelter are complete, we will be more focused on getting windows set and siding on, to start.

We want to name the farm at some point, but inspiration hasn't come yet. We may not feel ready to name it until next year, after we've been here for a while.

Garlic Planting Begins

While I spent last week making food with all the tomatoes, etc and canning and freezing, Orrin was preparing new garden beds in what will be the main garden area (a separate area from the greenhouse location). Today we began planting garlic. We planted 7 different types of garlic, for a total of about 120 cloves planted, as well as some bulbils (those will be ready in 2 years). We still have 5 more types to plant. It feels good to start getting those into the ground for next year, as we can never have too much garlic!

  

Moving Companies are Ridiculous

We finally got our furniture delivered to us at the end of September. It was bittersweet, as we were very happy to see all our worldly possessions after 2 ½ months apart, but also felt pretty abused by the moving companies that we had to deal with (Two Small Men with Big Hearts who took our stuff from Salt Spring to Victoria, BC, and AMS who took our stuff from Victoria to our new home in Nova Scotia). Customer service from both places was non-existent, and both companies tried to scam us. In one case, we called them on it, but in two other cases, we got the short end of the stick. In particular, we had to pay more than what we'd agreed to or else we would not have received our stuff at all. Pretty crummy. We have filed a claim for some damaged furniture (which they will probably not pay, but thought we'd go through the exercise anyway), but plan to file with the Better Business Bureau once we're done having to deal with them. All I can say is – if you are moving across the country, DO NOT use these companies. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having a good experience with a mover, so you may be better off renting a uhaul and driving yourself, but I know there are con's with that too.  

A Bountiful Harvest, Thanks to a Friend

We have become friends with a woman who came from away specifically to farm on the south shore this season. She leased some land, and has been selling her produce at a couple markets a week. She just left town to go home this past weekend, and needed help pulling all her plants before she left, to leave the garden area in good shape for the owners. On Friday, a week and a half ago, we went over and spent an afternoon helping her out, in exchange for any plants that we wanted to take home and transplant, as well as any veggies that she hadn't sold. It was a fun afternoon with her that didn't feel like work at all, until I got into the car to head home and realized how tired I was. We took home a bounty of plants and produce, of which I am so thankful to her for. We brought home about 100 different types of kale and chard that we transplanted into the greenhouse area that we've been preparing, about 12 basil plants (not transplanted, just pulled), several hot pepper plants (matchbox, cayenne, jalapeno and habanero), lots of tomatillos, and an incredible amount of tomatoes. I couldn't even estimate just how many pounds of tomatoes we brought home, I can only tell you what we've done with it so far – filled a 9-tray dehydrator 4 times, made 4 batches of pasta sauce, and made 12 pints of salsa. And that's only about half of them, the rest are ripening as I write this!

When we decided to move to Nova Scotia in early spring, one of the hardest parts of the decision was recognizing that we were not going to be able to have a garden. All the food that we brought home that day more than made up for that loss.

Planting our fall greens

We have now planted 3 beds of 25' with 5 rows of greens in each bed. The first greens we planted are coming up very slowly, and unfortunately we don't have any compost yet to help improve the soil. Our dream of having greens all winter may not work out as we had hoped, if the soil is not healthy enough to grow the greens right now. We're crossing our fingers, and working on a back-up plan. Stay tuned!

Working on the Chain Gang

Our driveway is half a mile long. It's a bit strange, since all the other houses on our street are within 100 ft of the road, but we kind of like the privacy. (Although, ask me again after our first winter, and we'll see if all that snow on the driveway changes my mind!) The driveway is a one-lane gravel road, with potholes on it. I figure, if we're going to be driving back and forth on this road on a regular basis (which we already are), I wanted to try to level it out some. So I flexed my muscles a bit, loaded up a wheelbarrow with a shovel and heavy-duty rake, and headed out to go fill in the holes. There is large gravel/dirt/shale pile on the property that I used as filler. I went and filled my wheelbarrow with as much as I could heft, and started filling holes. I'd dump some dirt in a hole, rake it level, then stomp on it with my feet to pack it down a bit, and maybe throw more dirt on there if it still wasn't level. Then I'd head back for more dirt and move to the next pothole. At one point, Orrin and Oliver came and helped for a bit, which mostly meant that I held Oliver while Orrin gave me a break with shoveling and raking. Then Oliver and I did the “pothole dance” to pack it down.

The more holes I filled, and the further I got from the pile of dirt/gravel, the harder my arms had to work to heft that wheelbarrow. A few hours later, I had spaghetti arms, and most of the holes were filled. I probably need a couple more wheelbarrows worth of dirt to finish the job, but was pretty happy with what I'd gotten done. It was a pretty basic kind of task to do, playing with dirt and shovels, but very fulfilling. I got to enjoy our forest, with the leaves starting to change color now, and a warm, cloudy fall day.

Farmer's Market: On the Other Side of the Table

We've been spending about a day a week gardening at a local farm. We help out doing whatever needs to be done that day, in exchange for fresh veggies at the end of it. It seems like a pretty good deal for both parties. For us, it prolongs our having to get “real” jobs because we're not spending as much money on food. The farmer recently asked if we wanted to go to market for her to sell, as she was going to be away for a few days and didn't want her produce to go to waste in the fields.

We took on the job. We went over to the farm the day before market day to harvest, picking cucumbers, zucchini's, tomatoes, herbs, greens, and the like. We harvested amounts that she recommended, based on how items had been selling in previous weeks. The day of the market, we went to Mahone Bay and set things up. It was fun to lay things out on pretty tablecloths and in baskets to make everything look nice.

It was a great day! Not particularly financially, but for so many other things. I really enjoyed chatting with customers, hearing what they liked, and seeing some of them being open to trying new veggies. When it was slow, I chatted with some of the other vendors. There was a nice comfort there, of all these people coming together to sell their local food. I could sense the pride in them, selling what they had worked hard for. It was a little different for us, as we hadn't been involved in growing that food to the same extent, but I know I will feel similarly when we get to the point where we are selling our own food.

It got us thinking about things like how to harvest, how to care for greens so that they don't wilt before they get to market, and how to present the food at market. I'm so glad to have had that opportunity.  

Digging up (truck) body parts

At first we thought it might be a car bumper

But it kept growing!

We'd levered it up so it was standing up on end, with logs and rocks behind it

And finally dug it all out and pulled it out of the hole!

This is what we think is either the hood of a truck, or the top of the cab of a truck. Either way, it was a lot of metal to dig up!

Getting started

note: this was written on Sept. 9, but it took me this long to figure out how to blog

This is the story of a city girl who thought she fell in love with a city boy, but it turned out that he was really a farmer in disguise.

We got together almost 5 years ago, and at some point thereafter I looked up at him all starry-eyed and said, “I’ll follow you anywhere.” A couple years into our relationship he decided to take me literally, as we moved from our big city life in California (approx. 1 mil people) back to his home province of British Columbia, first to a city that had about 80,000 people, and then 3 years later to a smaller community that had about 10,000 people. Are you catching the theme here of less and less populated places that we seem to be living in?

All along the way we were becoming more aware of our culture’s effect on the environment, both from conversations with people and from books that we read. We started to realize that we didn’t really like the direction things were going, with our culture using and abusing the planet and not giving much, if anything, back. We aren’t big protester’s or violent in any way, but wanted to find a way to make our mark - to reduce our impact on the planet, and maybe even have a positive effect instead. Green marketing is very focused on reducing consumption, but not on actually stopping mass consumption (and I’m talking here about things like the oceans of plastic that are clogging the real oceans and wreaking havoc on marine animals, just as one example).

My now husband, Orrin, has a love for soil and plants. (I suppose it should have been obvious to me at the beginning of our relationship that he would turn out to be a farmer, but the way I learned of his love of plants was by him wooing me with beautiful English roses from his personal collection. And let’s be honest here – what girl doesn’t fall for roses?) I’ll admit that I have always appreciated plants and trees, too, but more in the big picture sort of way. Like, “Oh, that tree is beautiful”. Whereas Orrin can tell me the name of the tree in Latin.

But I digress. We were trying to figure out how to minimize our impact on the planet, possibly even have a positive effect, and wondered what would that look like to us? We thought, if the world ever falls apart around us, one of the most important skills we would need is to be able to grow our own food. We have had small veggie gardens the last couple of years, but that would certainly not have been enough to live on. It was only enough to augment our standard grocery shopping, which was mostly done at farmer’s markets in the summer.

So then we started looking at property on the west coast of BC, hoping that we could buy a small farm, grow our own veggies and maybe have a few animals too. It turns out that, at this point in the history of the world, property on the west coast of BC is insanely expensive. This is where it really starts to get exciting – if we couldn’t afford land there, where could we go to make this dream a reality? We didn’t want to move somewhere where we didn’t know anybody, as we had already gone through an adjustment moving to BC and making new friends. We finally decided to move all the way to the east coast, to beautiful Nova Scotia, to be close to Orrin’s brother and family. It was a huge decision, but once we realized we could actually afford to buy land and a farm there, and that we would have a community to be a part of, it suddenly felt like the right thing to do.

So in July, movers took our worldly belongings to storage, and Orrin, our then 13-month old son, Oliver, and I packed ourselves into our truck and tent trailer, and drove across the country. I have ALWAYS wanted to drive across the country. Since I was American, I figured eventually I would do it in the States, but was perfectly happy to drive across Canada. We enjoyed many parts of our drive, but were ultimately very ready to settle down when we got to Nova Scotia. We found “our” farm right away (we had done our homework ahead of time), came to an agreement with the sellers, and spent August doing the necessary house-buying activities (getting water and septic tested, home inspection, etc.) all while dreaming about what we would do once the place was actually ours. Oh, and by the way, the population of this area is pretty sparse – something like 47,000 people in the whole county. I guess we really did want to be in a rural area.

We became landowners (or “land barons” as I like to say) on August 31. We have 90 acres, most of which is forested. There is a cute, recently renovated cottage that is perfect for the 3 of us (and our 2 cats) and a second building that needs to be completed. It has Tyvek paper around it and a solid roof on top, but is only framed inside. It needs to be sided on the outside and finished from top to bottom on the inside. I dream of having a yoga studio in there, and part of it will be a guest suite, as well as a root cellar and workshop in the downstairs section, which are built into the hillside.

We moved in on a Tuesday evening, and the next morning we were already out hoeing up weeds in what will be our first veggie garden space. It will be the home of our first greenhouse, which will be 20’ x 50’. Can you imagine hoeing up that big of a space by hand?? I haven’t even done the bulk of the work – and there is still about ¼ of it left to do – but I have lost the skin on the inside of one thumb from wacking that hoe so many times. Of course Orrin hasn’t gotten any blisters, but that’s because he’s the farmer and I’m the city girl.  In my vanity, I’m hoping for some nice arm muscles out of this job…

On Monday (as in, 3 days ago) we prepared our first garden bed (there will be a total of 5 beds in this area when we are done), and planted 5 rows of 5 different greens – red leaf lettuce, pac choi, swiss chard, arugula, and another asian green I can’t recall the name of. Just this evening we noticed that lots of arugula are up already, as well as some of the chard and the pac choi. Woohoo – we are farming now!

We also have had a bit of excitement as we have been digging this area out. First off, this is the site of an old barn, which we know from old aerial photos. We have found lots of old pieces of metal, like horse shoes, a spoon from the ‘40’s (we googled the name on the back, so that’s how we know its age), random hinges and other unknown parts. The most exciting thing we dug up took us about 3 hours – because it was the top of a truck cab. Can you imagine? I joke that the rest of the truck is down there somewhere, but I’d rather not know it’s there, so that we don’t have to dig it out. It was like an archeological dig – removing soil, trying to find the edges, prying up what we could, and repeating it all over again. It was actually pretty cool to dig that sucker up.

Our farm is on its way!