thanks, giving, etc.

Stuff here has still been pretty busy, but the end is in sight. I am half uber stoked to have all winter to hang out and work on whatever projects I feel like, and half slightly terrified at that much free time stretching ahead of me. More because I'm unused to it than because it is actually a terrifying prospect ... I am mos def aware of how lucky I am to be in this situation. It's pretty crazy how close we are to winding up all the gardeny/farmy stuff and how close winter is to descending as well. The montains nearby have epic snowy tops already, and the snow is descending down shockingly fast. We already had a few flakes blustering around one morning last week, so more can't be too far away. The weather has been the kind of classic autumn I've really missed after three years of living in Victoria, the land of wishy washy seasons. It's freezing when we wake up, the ground covered in hard frost, the ducks' water crusted over with ice, but by the late morning when we're out working it's incredibly sunny with that amazing fall light, and it gets so hot that you're peeling off layers pretty quickly.

We are pruning raspberries, hauling away irrigation lines and hoses, mulching the buttloads of garlic we're planting, setting the crawlspace up as a makeshift root cellar, filling the freezer full to the top with lots of tasty protein for the winter (a pig! chickens! ducks! all raised by us!), eating lots of homemade pumpkin pie, and generally doing a last push to get hunkered down for winter. There's still a fair amount to be done, but we've had lots of rad and helpful guests, and it's been going quickly and smoothly. I have had to really really gear back on the amount that I do because of the whole full of babies scenario, and that's been a surprisingly hard adjustment for me. On the plus side, it makes me realize that I usually do a hell of a lot of work, which is a good feeling. On the minus side, it definitely reminds me that I am somewhat neurotic about how much I am accomplishing, and I'm not great at setting limits for myself, even when it is logical and necessary to scale back. I'm starting to look and feel a lot more pregnant now, though, and my mobility is starting to be a bit limited, which is a good reminder that I just can't do what I used to. My belly is definitely way bigger all of a sudden, and bending over is getting to involve a bit more effort and huffing and puffing, which is crazy.

I added a picture of the ducks hanging out in one of their inexplicable favourite spots, under the truck. The drake with the black head and funky red stuff around his beak (Bill) in front is still with us, but the other two are gone. We slaughtered last Saturday to make more space for the winter confinement in the duck house. We spared Bill and two ladies (Dolored and one lady who has yet to be named). It was actually uber hard to give them the big chop. I was pretty bummed. They were just so nice and friendly and lovely, y'know? I didn't feel weird about this stuff with any of the other animals, not even the pigs who I totes loved, so it was kind of surprising. Anyway, it had to happen and it went smoothly, so what can you do. Bill and the ladies don't seem to be too traumatized, so that's good.

Tonight we're off to a friend's place for epic Thanksgiving dinner, and this week should be filled with sweet bro downs, work and lots of time for chilling as well. Good stuff!

harvest!

Yeah, I totes need to update this thingummy more often, but in my defense, I am busy containing a human baby and having a giant garden and stuff. Regardless, I will make an effort to blog it up like nobody's business marginally more often. Sorry, pals.

We are once again super busy around here. Tomatoes are kind of going crazy, so I have also been going crazy doing a lot of picking and canning and all that good stuff. I have quickly overcome my fears of feeding everyone botulism or some other sort of poison I've never ever heard of. Apparently everyone who told me that canning was max easy (probably the same sensible folks who told me that gardening was easy, another thing I refused to believe before this year) were correct. We've got tons of salsa, tomato sauce, applesauce, pickled beets, and frozen corn and tomatillo salsa so far, and I'm hoping to get a bunch more done while there is still fresh food around. Our giant box of garlic arrived in the mail (our rad post office lady said she was sorry to see me pick it up, as she'd been wandering over to smell its garlicky goodness every few minutes), so that needs to be planted pretty soon, and we're going to be transplanting a buttload of strawberries into the garden for next year, so right now we're just trying to get everything pulled out and make space in the garden. I've been pulling out finished beans, corn, broccoli, peas, and winter squash, and Devin has been working on getting our borrowed tiller fixed up and ploughing through the garden with it. My sister is living in Nelson now (!!!!), so she is being awesome and fun and helpful and things and pulled out a million squash vines with me this morning, as well as aiding and abetting the cooking of delicious foodstuffs all weekend. I am stoked that she is here.

Right now everyone is outside working on the garden still, and I am dealing with the fact that I am four months pregnant and can't do everything I used to do all day anymore. I know this should be obvious and easy and all that, but it's really hard for me. I tend to feel like I'm not doing enough anyway, and when I can manage way less than my normal workload and still feel all out of breath and wonky, then I end up feeling totes lazy. Absurd? Hells yeah, but that is how I roll. It's nice that I know some other ladies who have had kids who are good about telling me in no uncertain terms to stop throwing the damn bales of hay around and go sit down because I'm being ridiculous. All in all, pregnancy is good stuff so far. I am in my second trimester, so I have way more energy and way less inclination to puke. I'm starting to show, which is cool, although I am still at that weird in between stage where it's unclear whether I have a beer gut or a future human baby. My midwife is rad and posi and tells me that both the baby and I are healthy and doing well thus far.

In animal news, the pigs are getting dropped off at the abbatoir tomorry morning in preparation for the big chop on Monday. I am stoked. I have really enjoyed taking care of them and spending time with them, but I am also max excited to start eating them. I got a lot of expired dairy for free from the rad grocery store down the valley, and we were given a ton of apples and pears, so they've been eating well for their last week and should taste pretty good (apple finished pork is apparently pretty awesome). Also, we now have ducks! Muscovy ducks! I will take pictures of them soon and maybe even write another post on here without waiting a whole month, and then you can all see the radness that is ducks. They are really friendly, and will also be tasty times. Devin was pretty stoked about how soft and velvety they are, and I must concur on that point. We got them in Victoria last week, and after a small incident with them breaking free of their improvised cage in the backyard of our old house (thanks again for the epic duck catching Jen and Vrinda!), they made it home just fine. Devin drove back in a truck full of ducks and dogs, and I had a more peaceful drive back on my own in the car. We are also getting some more Icelandic sheep for the winter, which is rad. They are pretty boss to hang out with and look at, and they will provide lots of shit for the garden in the spring, so a good deal all around. Plus they are tasty and fleecy.

And that's about it, I think. Stuff is busy and challenging and exciting and posi ... a damn fine combo, in my opinion. Rad to see friends in Victoria again last week, but just as rad to get home and start eating out of the garden and working on projects again. I feel more and more settled in and more and more stoked on our decision to stay. So come visit, everybody.

decisions

This morning I dropped Devin off at work for 8. We'd lazed around having breakfast and reading for an hour or so first, partly because it feels good to keep getting up early, and partly because the little banty rooster is insistent that no one must sleep past when he decrees. Some days he starts crowing before five and I start cussing him out, other days he chooses a more reasonable hour and it's actually a pretty nice way to wake up. Anyway, it's now just past nine and I've already had a good talk with one of the friends whose farm Devo is working at today, had a leisurely drive home down the back roads, got suited up in my official farm overalls to feed the pigs and chickens and move the chicken tractor along for the day, and done some stretching (the latter without official farm overalls). I guess what I'm getting at is just how much I've been liking it here lately. I feel calmer and calmer and more settled in, and I dig that. Right now we're in the throes of trying to figure out if we should stay here or move back to Victoria, so how I feel about being here is closer to the front of my mind than it often is when I'm simply buoyed along by routine. I think most everybody has heard this already, but I'm two months pregnant, and we're going to be having a baby in the spring. So, this is pretty surprising and exciting and all of that good stuff, but it definitely leads to some big decision making. We really can't decide what the best option is. Our rent here is crazy cheap and would get cheaper if we signed on for a longer stay. The house is pretty much perfect for two dogs, two people, and one human baby, and it's amazing to be out in the country. However, it can be pretty isolating here as well, and we haven't made a ton of friends yet. We have lots of family and friends in Victoria, and there is definitely a lot more potential to make money there (although also a lot more expenses and the near impossibility of finding an affordable place to live with a baby and two dogs). I guess I at least have a strong sense that either option will be rad and will work out well, it's just a question of buckling down and deciding. Which we need to do intimidatingly soon.

All in all, all is well, however. I have my first appointment with my midwife next week, and I'm already embroiled in the battery of family history taking, blood tests, pee tests, physical exams etc etc etc that baby having seems to entail. I've been to the doctor more in the past couple of weeks than the past couple of years, and it promises to only accelerate from here on in. I feel really good about the whole thing, though. It's funny how that stuff works out. I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to have a baby, and we sure as hell didn't plan on me getting pregnant right now, but as soon as we found out, just going with it felt like the exact right choice to both of us.

Other than that, things are rolling along smoothly. Lots of visitors lately, which has been awesome. The above photos are stolen from Shane and Tannis, actually, as they was semi-permanently attached to their cameras while they were here, with epic results. But, yeah, the last slaughter went well, the garden is pumping out an incredible amount of food (it is doing so much better than we thought a first year garden would ..... it's ridiculous), there are a jillion adorable tiny fawns around on the roads and paths still sporting their spots and huge pixie ears, various family members have been passing through and getting stoked about upcoming human child, Devin has lots of work right now, I'm trying to get into school for as soon as possible, and we're eating a buttload of good food from the farm.

stuff, things, etc.

Again, sorry about the lack of updates. I feel like I end up on farm time a lot, and all of a sudden can't believe how late it is in the month or how much time has passed or whatevs. It's been almost four months since we moved here, but it actually seems like a lot longer. It's funny how subjective time is.

The garden has been doing really well ... it was looking kind of hurting for awhile, just because of the not so amazing first year garden soil and the struggle to keep it watered enough. But we got a few days of really heavy rain (and epic thunderstorms, which is something I've been really missing, living on the island), and also got in and did a bunch of side dressing with all purpose fertilizer and feather meal, and everything is looking a lot better. The tomatillos are starting to fill out (as you can see by the photo above), the corn is frickin' huge (the photo above is taken holding the camera at eye level), the potatoes are small but edible, there is all the kale I could ever eat (that's right ... living the dream), and if I have to eat any more snowpeas, I think I might puke. The summer squash and cucumbers are really starting to go nuts, and the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are all ready to eat as well. So, we're managing to eat really well and ridiculously healthily and spend virtually nothing on groceries. The level of work on the garden is feeling really manageable again, which is nice. We're pretty much just working on bits of weeding here and there to keep things under control, harvesting, and trying to build up a buttload of compost for planting strawberries and garlic in the fall.

The bookcases I've been building for my friend are pretty much done, and came together well, if I do say so myself. They're the first really big project I've done all on my own, and I feel really good about them, which is exciting. I was initially kind of worried that I was taking on more than I could handle by myself and in a semi makeshift shop, but I'm actually starting to feel like a for reals semi-competent journeyman. When I come back from Victoria I'm going to install the bookcases, build the simple captain's bed, and then it's on to finishing shingling my house, the workshop, and framing out the windows in the workshop. Devin and I are going to work together on all those projects, which will be cool. I haven't done any framing or shingling, so I'm a bit intimidated by it but also stoked to learn new stuff.

I started feeling a bit restless, and then realized that now that I'm not being run ragged trying to keep up with the garden that I miss getting exercise. So I started going for big bike rides, and that has been uber posi. I can bike to the post office to check the mail and get groceries and stuff and it's only about an hour round trip on the beautiful trail by the river. One of the last times I headed down there I passed an old man walking along with an accordian, playing and singing to himself. Radness. So, yeah, basically I'm feeling like things on the farm are under control, and that leaves me time to start meeting people and doing things outside of the farm, and doing all that other settling in stuff that I didn't have time for when we first moved here and were shackled to the garden. Good stuff!

Slackass.

p

Slackass = my blog updating schedule, not my life in general, although things have slowed down a bunch, which is not too pretty bad. Trip to Victoria was max awesome ... so rad to see everyone and help in the garden at my old house and get to actually go to a show and all that good stuff. I'm gonna try to make it back to town sometime this summer, but we'll see how that works out.

The garden is actually, finally, kinda sorta under control. The potatoes look pretty damn boss, as you can see from the photo here. We're pretty much wishing we planted the whole thing with potatoes because they grow so well in a first year garden, and they're so easy to take care of. We're definitely starting to get a sense of how little we will yield this year, which is to be expected because we're just starting to build up the soil. The spinach all bolted way early, and the broccoli and basil are doing their best to do the same, although we should get a bit out of them. The tomatoes are doing pretty well, as are some of the peppers, and a decent amount of the squash should be fairly decent. So, we're eating well between this garden and Judi's garden and not having to spend much on groceries, which is a huge relief to my brokeass self. Unfortunately, all the lettuce we planted in the new garden didn't grow fast enough and was too bitter to eat. I pulled it all out this morning and chucked it in the compost, which was a bit of a bmmer. It sure took a lot less time to take out than to seed, anyway. Next year it will all be easier.

It is starting to get super crazy hot here (35 degrees yesterday), so we started waking up at five so we can finish the garden work by ten. I'm trying to divide up my day so I spend the morning in the garden and the afternoon in the workshop. It's been hard to tear myself out of the garden because there's always so much to do, but it's really necessary for my own productivity as a woodworker and sanity in terms of not being chained to the garden. Besides, there just isn't a ton to do in there right now besides harvest, so that's pretty okay. I'm starting a new project for a friend here .... doing a set of built in bookcases and a little captain's bed. I'm really stoked on both endeavours ... it should pay okay, and they'll both be a lot of fun to build and really good for my portfolio. The woman I'm doing the work for is an absolute sweetheart as well, so that's always a bonus.

And, yeah, other than that everything is good. We officially bowed out of doing the market, which is a huge relief. No more hawking lettuce to hippies for basically no money. I'm working on selling to a couple of grocery stores in the valley, which seems both promising and unlikely to drive me completely bloody insane. There's still some folks that we met at the market that we'll end up hanging out with, but no more wasting all day Saturday in bongo drum hell, which was really getting to me. In other news, Gretchen got stung in the face by a wasp and had some crazy face swelling, as pictured above. She looked like Popeye on half of her face for a few hours, but she didn't seem bothered by it. Also, Devin's mum came to visit, which was totes sweet and a fun couple of days. She took the goofy family photo above. In pretty much every picture either Devin or I managed to look like a total dullard. I have generously chosen to post one where I look as though I'm halfwittedly trying to figure out what's going on while Devo strikes and epic pose. Yup, we are max photogenic.

uber busy.

Well, sorry it took me awhile to update this thing again. It has been a busy week full of going to a punk show for the first time since I moved here (!!!!!!) and hanging out with pals and doing another stinkin' market in Nelson and killing 150 chickens and that sort of thing.

The photo above is of the pigs devouring a bunch of raspberry goop. Said goop is the pulp and berries and stuff left over when Judi makes raspberry juice, and next to watermelon rinds, it is their all time favourite food. It's rad for me because it's healthy and they like to eat it, but perhaps more importantly, it makes them look all bloody-mouthed and badass, which is always a bonus. As for the other picture ... Gretchen is neither farm related nor news, but she is cute, even though she just threw up on the floor.

We spent most of the last three days doing the chicken slaughter, which was a lot of work. Getting the cones (metal cones that you put the chickens into head-down, then cut their throats and bleed them out in), the giant pot of hot water (to dunk them in post bleed out so their feathers loosen up), the plucker (a magical rubber-fingered device that thunks the chickens around frantically for a couple of minutes and removes their feathers ridiculously fast), the gutting table (I'm sure you can puzzle this one out on your own), and everything else set up took quite awhile, and there is, of course, a lot of cleaning up to be done afterwards. I did a bit of gutting, no killing, lots of chicken catching, and mostly worked in the kitchen. The kitchen is the quality control zone where you are equipped with tweezers to pluck out any stray feathers that escaped the rubbery clutches of the plucker, a stack of towels to pat the birds dry so they aren't frozen full of water, and a scale and plastic bags to get 'em weighed and tucked away. I think next time I'd like to try some of the killing, just so I can do all the different parts, but it's definitely pretty intimidating. Devin killed all the birds this time and vastly preferred it to the kitchen work because pulling out stray feathers makes him pukey, so it worked out well. All in all, I think I like the pigs better ... you don't have to eliminate as many lives to get a lot more meat, and it seems to be far more profitable. We are still deciding whether we'd like to do meat birds after this year. Part of the issue is just the way the birds have been bred. They are disgusting beasties that smell ridiculously bad, have no personalities, and can't lead very good lives. I feel a lot better raising animals that I enjoy being around and that I can provide with a good life.

On a non farm related level, some Victoria pals played a show here, and that was super rad. I also ran into an old friend from Calgary who's living here now and also met some punks from around here. All of this is very encouraging ... it's starting to feel like there are good folks around to hang out with, which makes me uber stoked.

The market is still frustrating. I think I just plain hate the market, actually. It's the worst combination of wanky Nelson hippies and wanky tourists, and it's just not an efficient way to make money. We are now starting to sell to a local grocery store, and I think that will go way better. We spend less gas money to drop off the produce, and don't have to stand behind a table schmoozing and hoping things will sell. We have little enough free time and time off the farm ... I don't want to waste it all doing a crappier and less rewarding form of work. It's good to be getting a sense of what is working and what isn't, even if it's frustrating at times. I am loving living in the country, the work of farming and keeping animals (with the exception of chickens), being outside all the time, living with Devin, and getting to do some woodwork on my own. Working on a farm that will never be ours is frustrating, though, just because we work really really hard every day and in the long run we won't see much out of it. We are starting to seriously think about finding a way to buy land on our own. I don't know whether that would be out here or back on the island, and there are advantages and disadvantages to both, but I think that will be our next big endeavour.

So, yeah, all in all, stuff is good. Occasionally frustrating, but good. We leave for Victoria the day after tomorrow, and it will be rad to see friends and get a bit of a vacation, and it'll be good to come back again too feeling a bit more energized.

lambs and rocks and other stuff.

Devo was saying the other day how much he liked living somewhere where you see animals all the time. I sort of generically agreed, thinking of all the creatures you see hiking and all the farm animals we have and all that stuff. He said "no, but really, you see animals all day every day. It's pretty rad." I've been thinking about that more and noticing how true it is and how much I dig it. Obviously there's all the times I'm weeding or seeding or prepping beds and look up to watch a chicken who has escaped from the poultry netting wandering around the garden or when I catch the pigs running around in their hilarious way out of the corner of my eye, or when the sheep run down the edge of the field to follow me as I walk by. But there's also having a snake race across the path in front of me a few times a week, being able to look up at the mountains and see mountain goats on the way into town, or even just glancing out the window as I was drying off from a shower today and seeing a deer with an impressive set of antlers moseying by on the other side of the fence. It is indeed pretty rad.

Dinner tonight was a giant salad because it was too hot to cook and I got distracted with woodworking anyway and ran out of time. I thinned some spinach beds this morning, so we had fresh picked baby spinach mixed with local lettuce, tomato, cucumber and peppers from the greenhouse in the next town down the road, parsley and radishes from the garden, and a farm egg. Not bad local meal considering the season is only just starting.

As you can see from the picture, the farm now has a couple of lambs. Judi got them just to raise for the summer and eat. They are Icelandic sheep and damn but they're awesome. They have badass horns, sweet dispositions, and they're great animals for milk, meat and fleece. We are kind of batting around the notion of getting some. I have yet to realize my goal of having an animal that will yield me milk and let me start cheesemaking experiments. Maybe next year, obviously, as I think we've taken on enough new projects for this year. Still, it's encouraging to feel as though everything is going well so far. I feel like I'm learning so much every day, but it's getting less and less intimidating and more and more exciting/empowering/whatevs. It's just posi to feel like all my daily work (and there is a lot of it) is going directly to meet my essential needs. Or at least, that's what I tell myself when I am digging out giant rocks like the one pictured above. For the record, I unearthed it and pried it up myself ... Devin just helped me roll it out of the bed and apparently this yielded him picture rights. Also, contrary to the evidence of the photo, he still has eyes. I'm not really sure what happened there.

Anyway, I'm gonna run ... gotta feed and water the new chicks and shut 'em up for the night.