Contemplating Life's Marvels Over a Huge Can of Kidney Beans

We spent another rainy Sunday in isolation contemplating life's marvels.  Isn't it amazing that we can predict the weather days in advance?

Liam and Seamus don't care about the weather. 
They got soaked playing with the animals outside
in a downpour and couldn't have been happier.

Isn't it incredible that gigantic metal planes can fly?  Isn't it fascinating how store bought sweet peppers almost always have weird baby peppers inside but homegrown ones rarely do?

And because this type of pondering did not occupy us for the entire day, we also made an absolutely enormous pot of venison chilli.  From grinding the meat in the morning, simmering it all day long and chowing down at our family dinner, it was a treat to slow down and actually get to cook together.  Ian and I used to cook together all the time before we had kids.  I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Ian bought this humongous can of kidney beans close to a year ago because it was "great" deal.
We finally used it!

Homemade venison chilli con carne with grated cheese, sour cream and onion tips.
Warm corn bread on the side.

We now have five jars of chilli in the pantry, four in the fridge and three in the freezer.  Heat and serve, but still homemade, meals may not qualify as one of live's marvels but they do sure make things easier when balancing homeschooling, farm life, and fun.  Actually, come to think of it, food preservation through canning is pretty fascinating....but maybe that's just me....

More of a Tango than a Beeline

Today was one of those days where you do not stop walking even though it is not always in the right direction.

After breakfast, we delved straight into a family whirlwind of house cleaning.  A spotless house is soothing for the soul.  One step forward.

We caught another rat.  Zero steps because even though we caught one, there are still more.  Boo.

Ian chainsawed down some trees and branches that did not survive the winter.  One step forward.

We cannot burn anything because of the total burn ban so there are now even more piles of scrap wood laying around the farm than there were before.  One step back.

Charlie had her appointment with the farrier.  She got a significant hoof reduction and is already walking better and venturing further from the barn.  This is a weight lifted off me.  Two steps forward.

Martha and Mellie got milked and none got spilled.  One step forward.

Seamus had an epic temper tantrum because I vetoed his plan to refill Daddy's (already full) water bottle from the outdoor tap used for the livestock.  One step back.

Ian and Liam worked on building the Swine Shed and got the foundation done.  One step forward.

The chickens got loose and scratched up all my planted gardens that were not covered with hoop covers.  Sigh.  Ian split his comfiest pants trying to round them up for me.  Two steps back.

Alistair wore real boots and walked outside on the grass for the first time.  One (wobbly) step forward.

I picked up our online grocery order and two large bags of flour from a friend.  Yippee!  We are all set to hunker down for another few weeks and I can stop worrying about not being able to make our daily bread.  Another step forward.

Final tally: 4 steps forward.  Today's progress was more of a tango than a beeline but I suppose that as long as we are still dancing together as a family, everything is gonna be all right.

Acknowledging the "Suck" and Moving On

Everyone here on Gael Glen Farm was feeling a bit out of sorts today.  

Mellie and Abbott were both feeling particularly ornery and freely allocated head butts to their barn mates, even the smaller and pregnant ones.  

Liam accidentally locked himself in the goat barn while playing with the goat kids.  He did not take to being in "goat jail" well and it put a bit of a damper on his day even though Mama rescued him almost immediately.

Ian has had a challenging week at work and found himself working well into the night tonight.  

Charlie's hooves are bothering her and she desperately needs a post-winter visit from a farrier.  Unfortunately, after waiting several weeks for our usual farrier to return my messages, it turns out that he is unwilling to visit us over concerns regarding social distancing.  After being quite sad about this for several days, I was beyond lucky to be able to get in touch with our back up farrier who agreed to treat Charlie tomorrow during a break in her schedule.  I think the status as our "usual" farrier has just changed hands.  I hope that Charlie will be back to her usual self soon after having her hooves cleaned and trimmed.

I found myself annoyed about several different things today.  Everything from the fact that we are still catching rats at the consistent rate of one rat per night (how many freaking rats are there living under our chicken coop?!!) to all the stores being out of all purpose flour and Alistair's size of diapers to running out of popsicle sticks (which I use as plant markers) and being unable to simply run out to the store to buy some.  These issues, while all minor, seemed especially aggravating to me today.  

Most of it worked out in the end.  I was able to source flour through a bakery friend and another friend offered me old blinds which I can cut up and use as plant markers.  And I was able to add a box of diapers one size larger to my grocery store order scheduled for pick up tomorrow evening.  That will do.  I have no words for the ongoing rat problem except for "cellulose from powdered corn cobs"; desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sometimes just the act of admitting that certain things suck about how the world is right now is enough to help one move on and focus on the things that are good and the people who are kind in our lives.  Like our neighbours, who called to ask if there was anything I wanted them to pick up for us during their trip to grocery store; how very considerate.  

I am so grateful to be surrounded by "good" and "kind" that the occasional "suck" is not so very difficult to move beyond - even on days like today.

A Botany Sit In

My grumpy old house plants are in the process of staging a sit in in my upstairs hallway.  They are protesting the commandeering of their sunny living room real estate by rowdy vegetable youngsters.

The vegetable seedlings are completely oblivious to the problems that they are causing with their unrestrained ambition.  The tomatoes have potted up and a second batch of herbs were seeded today.  They argue that you can never have too much of a good thing (specifically oregano, basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, thyme, lavender, dill, borage, sorrel and lovage).

Sadly for the house plants, there is not much room for compromise on this particular real estate issue.  They will simply need to bide their time until the vegetables graduate to greener pastures (or gardens, as it were) and then the house plants will be free to move back home.  Until then, I am resigned to share my hallway with some crotchety jade plants and a precocious shamrock.

We Are Growing Despite the Snow

It might be snowing outside but our small farm still abounds with new life.

Our baby ducks are growing!

Our hop plants have sprouted!

Our first crocuses of 2020 are up!

We simply choose to ignore today's intermittent snow flurries and instead focus on things that make us think of spring.  Mother Nature you will not bring us down!

A Special Kind of Crazy

You know you are a special kind of crazy when you find yourself kneeling in the muck planting seeds while it snows.  Yet, as my dissertation supervisor used to say, "And there we are."  It is exactly two weeks since my last planting and so it was time to get the next iteration of seeds in the ground.  

Since ramping up vegetable production after starting our CSA three years ago, I have found that keeping up with successive plantings is key to maximizing production and making the most of our relatively short growing season.  Planting everything on May 24 is fine for one great harvest of each type of vegetable, but then once something is done, that's it.  Whereas if you start planting cool weather vegetables as soon as the soil is workable and keeping planting them every two weeks, you can harvest pretty continuously throughout most of the growing season.   It is easy to plant every two weeks in the spring when you are excited to see things popping up, it is much more difficult in early August when you are in the middle of weeding and harvesting but also need to start planting seeds again for fall crops.

Today I planted more lettuce, endive, peas, spinach, chard and three types of radishes.  I also experimented with a few warmer weather herbs inside a hoop garden: arugula, lovage, borage, and dill.

I stuck my head under one of the hoop gardens to check on the crops I planted on April 1st.  They are up and looking green and healthy.  There is lots of green grass looking pretty healthy under there too but weeding will have to wait until the vegetable seedlings are a bit more established.

I also curbside picked up my baby eggplants from Richmond Nursery.  I have difficulty germinating eggplant seeds.  They are fussy and need high temperatures to sprout.  The plants I received from the nursery are beautiful and healthy.  I am very happy with them and have placed all five under the grow lights with the pepper plants.

All this considered, it is indeed possible that I might be a bit crazy about planting vegetables but at least I know that we and our 2020 CSA families won't go hungry on my watch.

An Alphabet of a Day

Our day started off with a rat. 

I recognize that for most people, a rat before breakfast would not be a good thing.  In our case; however, the more rats in my trap, the fewer under my chicken coop.  As such, a thumbs up on the boys' morning rat check signals the start of a good day.

Stormy rain showers pretty much sums up what went on outside here today.  It simply poured rain.  Our paddocks and gardens are saturated and look more like ponds than fields.

The foul weather did not stop us from taking Ava for a somewhat sloshy perimeter stroll, nor mucking out the stinky goat barn.

Our afternoon was spent hosting a rainy day pyjama tea party for Liam and Seamus' stuffed animals.  Who says that Day 32 of social isolation cannot be super fun and extra special...even if you do not manage to get dressed?!

Red currant drop scones with sunflower jelly.

Making fruit and vegetables fun!

Seamus ate that entire plate of food!

Alistair's new favourite food is oranges.
Sadly, I can't grow those either.

I think Franny the Flamingo had so much fun that she passed out from all the excitement.

There you have it, from R to T(ea) with a little S in between.  It sure has been an alphabet of a day!