Barnyard Therapy

Despite waking up this morning with a weather-related headache, after an Advil and a few hours outside in the fresh air I feel mostly better.  As an added bonus, the animals now all have clean barns with fresh straw bedding, topped up minerals, fresh hay and water, and new wood shavings in the hens' nests.

While I was using barnyard therapy to cure my ills, Liam and Ian were off rabbit hunting.  Upon their return, they worked on preparing the materials I will need to winterize the bee hives tomorrow.  Ian made up sugar patties and taped up the hive wraps that we had taken apart to dry out last spring.  I will fill pillow cases with dry wood shavings later this afternoon to make insulated cushions for the tops of the hives.  Tomorrow I will head out to the bee yard to wrap the ladies up and put them to bed until springtime.

This afternoon Ian has headed back out, this time for some solo walleye fishing in the east end.  The boys and I have a busy afternoon scheduled full of laundry folding and building block tower construction.  But there is just enough time for a cup of my new favourite tea, Vanilla Bean Black from David's Tea, and a slice of Liam's latest culinary creation, Roasted Walnut and Date Loaf, before Alistair awakes from his nap.

Happy Saturday everyone!

That's All Folks

Today, on what may well be the last warm day of November, Gael Glen Farm's food gardens closed up shop for the 2020 season.  It is hard to believe that our first seeds for this year's garden were planted way back on February 8th.  That is almost ten months ago!

Baby carrots

Kale

Cabbage

More kale

Broccoli and cauliflower greens

Parsley

I am delighted with the super long growing season we had this year.  We managed to grow three full crops in many places in our garden.  For example, in one of my raised planter boxes we got an early crop of spinach, a mid-summer carrot crop, and then a second late season spinach crop.  Three successive crops in a single Ottawa growing season is pretty incredible!

Baby spinach

With 15 cm of snow predicted for Sunday evening and near freezing temperatures from here on out, it was finally time to harvest the last remaining vegetables from our gardens: baby spinach leaves, green cabbages, parsley and baby carrots.  I plan to leave the cruciferous plants and kales in the garden to hopefully harvest from all winter.  I figure that the frozen leaves can be steamed or chopped and added to stews or curries as long as they are still accessible above the snow.

Spinach and broccoli florets

Ali wants to be just like his big brother.
Liam with his parsley harvest and
Ali with his "harvested" sticks from the walnut tree.

One of the things I love about our farm is that nothing is wasted.  Charlie and the sheep enjoyed crunching on the outer cabbage leaves and carrot tops.

The hens were ecstatic to finally be granted access to the chicken coop garden after being locked out for most of the growing season.  They feasted on the wilted lettuce leaves and leftover broccoli greens.  The garlic is planted deep enough this year that they should not disturb it with their scratching, they might even help it with their fertilizing!

While the end of gardening season is always bittersweet, I take solace in the fact that we have canned a mountain of our home grown food which we will be eating all through the winter months.  And really, it is time for a break.  I am looking forward to the comfort and quiet of long evenings and cold winter nights to reflect, relax and refresh.  Winter is coming and after such a long and gorgeous spring, summer and fall, I am ready to embrace it.

Making Life Better

This afternoon's beautiful weather was the perfect time for a long forest walk followed by some barnyard animal snuggles.

The boys were thrilled to discover that a new tiny lending library has popped up on our "special path".  We stopped for an impromptu mid-walk read and then each borrowed a book that we will read at home and return on our next stroll.  Thank goodness for libraries of all sorts.  They simply make life better.

On the subject of making life better, animal snuggles are also excellent for the soul.  Pecky Becky is always game for a cuddle but today so were Charlie and the lambs.  I think that like us, their spirits were also buoyed by the warm afternoon breeze.

Thank goodness for days like today.  It is knowing that there are more good days than bad days that make it easier to get out of bed in the morning.

Liam's Culinary Accomplishment

Today we harvested some of the last remaining greens in our autumn garden: fully frozen chard leaves and heaps of bite sized broccoli florets.  These steamed up nicely for an Asian-inspired side dish with sesame sauce to accompany our supper of roasted Pekin duck on rice.

Before it was time to prepare dinner, Liam took the reins on today's baking.  He is learning about the importance of following directions/instructions precisely in home school.  We also are continuing to work on fractions.  So, following baking recipes is turning out to be an excellent and enjoyable hands-on application to these lessons.  I initially thought that he and I would bake together but it seems that Liam finds great satisfaction in undertaking baking projects independently.  He is 7 and a half, I suppose.  Sigh.  They grow so fast.

Today, Liam baked up a Lemon Tea Loaf with whole cranberries.  He did absolutely everything himself except grate the lemon zest (the zester is sharp!), cut the lemons in half (the knife is also sharp - though he did juice the lemons after) and place (and remove) the loaf in the oven.  I can honestly say that it was one of the best loaves that I have ever tasted.  He must have added extra "love" into the recipe because whoopee!

We had only one snafu right at the beginning where Liam got "distracted" by Seamus' antics and began to follow the recipe on the opposite page to what he was supposed to.  To save Liam's head from exploding (and Seamus' premature demise because apparently IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT!), I suggested that Liam just put the flour, baking soda, baking powder "mistake" aside and start over.  As such, I was required to whip up a second loaf later this afternoon not to waste the mistake ingredients.  I settled on a zucchini crab apple pie loaf.  It also turned out nicely but did not hold a candle to Liam's lemon loaf in the taste department!  It is going to make exceptional toasted loaf slices for breakfast tomorrow, though.

Liam's culinary accomplishment was received with great fanfare from his brothers (and Daddy and I, of course) - complete with lip licks and joyous hand claps!

Well done, Liam.  Well done!

So Very Different

Our two eldest boys, Liam and Seamus, love each other intensely though often you would think otherwise since they spend so much of their time trying to throttle one another.  I find it amazing; however, that despite being raised exactly the same, they are turning out to be so incredibly different.

Liam is intellectual.  Today I taught him how his eyes got to be blue when both his brothers' eyes are brown.  He then worked out the odds of his future children's eye colour in the case of a blue eyed or brown eyed mate and then proceeded to work out if he could still have grandchildren with blue eyes even if all his children had brown.  It is incredible to see his mind at work.

Seamus is a builder.  While Liam and I worked on rudimentary genetics, Seamus was so perfectly happy in his "workshop" in the garage constructing himself a bench.  Number one on his Christmas list this year is his very own pile of wood scraps and a big box of screws.  He actually asked me if I thought his Uncle might come over to give him carpentry lessons.  Seamus is going to be one heck of a craftsman when he grows up. 

I returned from checking in on Seamus to find Liam downstairs teaching himself to play the piano.  I am pretty hard pressed to help in this department since I do not play at all myself, but at least I was able to direct him to middle C and encourage proper hand placement instead of tapping notes out with one finger.  Since discovering this interest, I have bought him two beginner books which he is employing in his self directed learning though I frequently hear him working melodies out by ear.

I am in awe of my two wonderfully unique not so little anymore boys and their diverse interests and talents.  They are such cool kids.

One of Those Days

Oh my goodness.  Today was one of those days.  Everyone (including me) had a meltdown at one point or another;  Alistair just emotes it best.

Ali's issue here is that he did not like that the cherry tomato exploded when he bit into it.  Note the gigantic tears streaming down his face and the tomato seeds splattered across his favourite moose sweater.  This photo was followed by a truly epic fit of howling.  I guess we all have our triggers, lol.

Thank goodness tomorrow is a fresh start.

Prize Worthy Pizza

To celebrate the end of deer hunting season, we treated our exhausted hunter to his favourite supper - pizza. 

Recipe: Gael Glen Farm's Pizza Dough

6 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups warm water

For the first time in four years of hunting, we ended the season without a deer to fill our freezer.  While disappointing, it sure was not for lack of effort.  Ian hunted his butt off.  He did all the necessary prep work before the season started.  He was up at 4:30 am and in the forest by 5:30 am every single day of the two week season.  Ian is not a morning person.  He also hunted several afternoons until dusk.  Even so, hunting is never a sure thing.  We are lucky to have more than enough meat already in our freezers to last us until next deer season.  Deer or no deer, we are all really proud of Hunter Papa.  He totally deserves a pizza party and a long sleep in tomorrow!