An Unexpected Blizzard

Today started off like any other rainy springtime day but by afternoon had morphed into an unanticipated and very much undesired blizzard.

There is not much one can do about such yucky weather so we simply holed up inside with homemade pizza and peanut butter brownies.

If nothing else, this late snow reminds us to be grateful for the unseasonably warm weather we have been so lucky to have had for most of April.

A Duo of Worm Hunting Novices

Ian is highly anticipating his first walleye fishing excursion this coming Saturday.  In preparation for the trip, he invited me to participate in Gael Glen Farm's first ever earthworm hunting expedition.  No kidding.  I never in a million years thought I would go hunting for worms but here we are.

As soon at it got dark we donned our headlights and we headed out into the backyard for the hunt.  It was tough going on the path to the chicken coop with nary a worm to be found.  We managed to catch our first juicy one after flipping one of the stones used to hold down the plastic sheet greenhouse over my pallet garden.  Flipping all the rest of the rocks yielded only one more worm that sucked itself so quickly back into the ground that we hardly had time to reach for it.

Just when we were about to give up and walk back up to the house, we passed my work-in-progress tea garden.  Low and behold, hanging out on top of the newly spread mulch was a plethora of earthworms!  

Even better is that when they tried to disappear back beneath the dirt, their escape plans were foiled by the layer of cardboard under the mulch.  The unexpected cardboard barrier gave us just enough time to grab a hold of the fattest ones and PULL!

We ended up catching about a dozen of the juiciest earthworms you have ever seen.  Not bad for a duo of worm hunting novices.  

Who would have thought that worm hunting would be so much fun!  Hopefully, this fresh bait will score us some fresh fish on Saturday.  I am in the mood for a good fish fry.

Foraging Fun

Foraging expeditions are one of our favourite spring past times.  We headed out in search of wild garlic leaves and fiddle heads.  Liam is turning into quite the foraging expert and happily taught his younger brothers about sustainable foraging.  I love seeing my boys find wild food but I love their desire to protect these edible resources for future foragers even more.

Baby fern

Fiddleheads

Fiddle head and ramp omelette topped with salsa.

The boys devoured their "catch" for lunch.  Yum!

Fire Fun

With all the manual labour going on around here, it was time for some fun.  The burn ban has finally lifted so we took the opportunity to use some of our gigantic pile of yard waste as fuel for tonight's supper.  Some homemade hot dog buns and fire roasted wieners later, we had some very happy kiddos.

We are now absolutely certain that Alistair's favourite meal is hot dogs and marshmallows.   He loves them so much you have to watch him closely because he'll steal the wieners right off the plate and stuff them into his mouth without waiting for them to be roasted.  Ew!  He also loves marshmallows and has zero problems asking for them and then asking for "more, more, more, PLEASE!"  Lucky for him, he has a few big brothers who are happy to roast him up a bunch.

More MULCH

It is about as difficult to get excited about another blog post about mulch as it is about bringing home another trailer full of mulch, but here we are.  

We spent another day mulching the tea garden.  After scavenging enough cardboard to lay a weed blocker in all the required places, we trucked wheelbarrow full after wheel barrow full of mulch and spread it all around.  It is tedious work but we are making progress!

Once mulching is complete, we can move on to weeding between the patio stones, gluing down the loose rock border and spray painting the patio table and chairs.  So close....

Gobble, Gobble, Mulch?!

Today was Turkey Opener and our very excited turkey hunter was up at 3:45 am.  Ian's early morning paid off with him bringing home a good sized bird that will provide at least three meals for our family.   The breast meat is currently ageing in the fridge but the legs have already been slow cooked and are destined to become wild turkey tacos for tomorrow's supper.

For the remainder of the day we continued to work on mulching the tea garden.  We successfully scavenged some more cardboard from a neighbour (They even dropped it off!  Thanks Michelle!) and got another trailer load of mulch spread.  For a kid who loves puzzles, placing the cardboard pieces under the mulch was the best job ever!

We still have a lot more work to do but things are starting to come together.

Giving Ourselves a High Five

We have had our share of productive days here on Gael Glen Farm but I think today might be a record.  After yesterday's day off and in advance of tomorrow's predicted rain storm, we started today with a truly epic to do list of outdoor chores.  I am not quite sure how we managed it but after a non-stop, whirlwind of a day, we checked every single item off our list.  

So, here we go...this is what we got accomplished today:

• water vegetable gardens, fern glen, strawberry, asparagus and rhubarb patches
• rototill kitchen garden and potato patch
• muck all barns and clean out nest boxes
• repair chicken coop door
• fix leak in pond waterfall and fill pond back up
• install a drain on the boat
• repair broken panels on the pig barn
• spread remainder of the load of mulch on the tea garden
• lay out new cardboard in tea garden in preparation for next load of mulch
• clip goats' hooves
• plant multiplier onions
• plant lettuce, cabbage and kale and install hoop greenhouse above
• pick up dog, sheep and chicken food, scallion bulbs and grass seed at the feed store

Freshly tilled dirt is so beautiful until all the weeds grow in.

Mulch mania!

With all of our energy focused on outdoor work, the inside of our house now looks like a tornado hit.  The good news is that if the April showers predicted for the upcoming week are correct, we will have plenty of time starting tomorrow to get our inside affairs in order.  

We hope you had an equally productive Saturday.  What did you check off your to do list today?

History, Geology, Phys Ed & Fun!

Today was awesome.  We took homeschooling outside for a history and geology lesson coupled with some physical education and lots of fun.

The boys and I headed to the Silver Queen Mica Mine today.  We learned all about the small scale apatite, mica and feldspar mining operation there in the early 1900s.   There were excellent educational placards at each point of interest that explained the who, what, how and why of the mine.   There was lots to see and it was so interesting!   Both the boys and I learned a ton.  Apparently, the open pit portion of the mine is accessible by guided tour during the summer (presumably post-Covid) and Liam begged to come back.

The second part of our adventure was the exercise portion where we hiked three loops near the mine.  

We stumbled upon an offshoot mid way through the hike to an old homestead.  Seamus begged to check it out and I am so glad we did.  It was amazing!  The homestead, though now abandoned, was in good shape and the boys were able to go inside both the shed and the main house which contained educational information about the homestead.

In our journey we crossed a cool bridge over a waterfall and found ruins of the Burgess Mill. The boys were thrilled with these surprise treasures. 

On the hike back we came across four deer who stood totally still right next to us until we passed. It was incredible to see them at such close range.

The only downsides were the snakes we ran into while hiking. The black snake we saw was huge! I am not a fan of these slithery creatures. I also did not enjoy the tick I felt crawling up my neck on the drive home. I squished it before it could bite me but yuck!

We also managed to pick up our bee supplies in Carleton Place on the way out to the mine and our seed potatoes in Burritts Rapids on the way home.  It was an A+ of a day.  I look forward to more good days like this one.