A dry spring came early and with it, periods of heat that have literally set Alberta ablaze. It’s not unheard of – in early May, 7 years ago, we saw Fort McMurray (Fort Mac) go up, and in May 2011, Slave Lake lost hundreds of homes and other structures to wildfire. However, the number of fires this year has given…
It has been a whirlwind summer. The garden went in, with many lessons learned through the whole season. In early July, we got enough of the fencing done to put goats in. In mid July, we purchased 8 Boer does and brought them home. We learned about goat bloat, parasites, deworming, and stress induced illness pretty early on. As well…
Back in 2008, in my very first garden blog post, I said that I hated weeding. And that was true for a lot of years. Weeding is not easy on the body, for all the tools available, it requires hard work on the part of your back, shoulders, elbows, hands, knees…. usually all of the above. It’s also often tedious,…
Today was lovely with a thin cloud cover keeping the sun from baking everything, so after work I hit the garden for an hour before dinner. I couldn’t tell if we had seedlings with all the grass and oats coming up! For lack of another option (other than a rototiller, and I haven’t decided exactly which one I want yet),…
Less work = more posting. More work = less posting. Funny how that works. I prefer more frequently posting little bits of news, it’s easier to look back on and see a better timeline of what’s happened, but I can’t complain. I’m finally getting to do all the things I’ve been dreaming about! It’s sitting at a toasty 31c/88f so…
Here we have Tomatoes: Round 2, after I inadvertently murdered half of Round 1 by leaving them outside, defenseless against the upcoming below freezing temperatures. Moms know all about pregnancy brain and baby brain… I guess puppy brain is a thing too *sigh* I meant to bring them in…. combined with -3c that night, meant a bunch of limp, dead…
Last year we put in the new compost bin that we picked up at Costco. It’s made in Canada from recycled plastic and not very pretty to look at, but that’s ok. Functional is good enough, pretty is just a bonus. I left it alone for a full year, only adding material. It has been nearing full, so it was…
I fell in love with Rottweilers longer ago than I want to think about, but only started caring for one, 6 years ago. Our Artemis is a wonderful companion – loyal and stubborn and smart and gives not one care that she’s too big to be a lapdog. Once she got passed her land-shark stage, we started keeping an eye…
I didn’t have time yesterday to do anything more than turn on and back off the “greenhouse” lights. Maybe I should call them “greenshelves” instead. ……I don’t think that will become a thing. Anyway, this morning all my babies got checked on and watered. The herbs were lovely to see – 2 days ago, there was only 2 bits of…
The plants were quickly running out of room, I think the tomatoes are plotting world domination. So, today’s supply run to Grande Prairie included a new set of shelves (only $35 from Costco) and the last 2, 3ft lights from Home Depot (I wanted to buy 4). This gives me 5 out of 7 possible shelves with lighting for my…
I up-potted the tomatoes and cabbages on the 8th, and in 5 short days, they recovered from the transplant shock and are growing very well. It’s amazing how much heat and humidity this plastic wrapped shelving “greenhouse” keeps in! This photo is from the 8th, after just being transplanted (the onions, peppers, and artichokes haven’t been up-potted yet) and they’re…
Well, they took their time, but bell peppers are fickle little beasts and it’s only barely warm enough in my little make-shift indoor greenhouse. Day 15 and I was starting to wonder if I needed to get a heat mat, but the first one peeked up this evening. My little onion starts look a little….. sad, but they’re a nice,…