Hello readers! My best intentions to write regularly always fall apart when life happens and I have things to write about. We have been steadily getting ready for winter, like the new goat waterer, secured to the fencing and ready to have the floating water de-icer added when the time comes. For this winter, it’ll be kept full by hauling…
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…
Used to never be able to use the wifi at my farm until I moved my router to the barn. Now I have a stable connection. I have never been one for wanting large enclosed places of any sort, unless I have the money to hire someone else to clean it for me. LOL that’s funny, don’t we all wish…
Once the does were settled and healthy, it was time to search for a buck. I’m aiming – as crazy as it sounds – for January kids. With a 5 month gestation, I’m pushing it a bit at this point, but we’ll make do with whatever nature throws at us. I contacted several people, many fell through, but then this…
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…
Up here in central-western Alberta, summer is often just a suggestion and more accurately called “mud and construction season”, and spring and fall are unofficially known as “late winter” and “early winter.” To add insult to injury, our soil consists of an inch or so of decent top soil and then concrete. Well, not literal concrete, but it’s such compacted…
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…
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,…
It’s the best time of the season – the days are getting longer, and we have spurts of spring mingling with snow, but hard winter is done. The water and septic line heat tapes are unplugged – the next electric bill will be considerably lower! Last year, I’d thrown this leftover vapor barrier plastic over an extra set of shelves,…
It’s common knowledge among those who know me, that I’m a little a bit of a nerd and geek. I love technology. I love watching how the collective intelligence of humanity is making lives easier (somehow life still feels quite hard, doesn’t it, though?), life spans are longer, work is easier, and play is more often and more enjoyable. The…