This past weekend was a really fun and productive one here on the farm.  My last post documented saturday’s activities and this one is all about sunday – with even more productivity and more people pitching in!

The weather this weekend was PERFECT for farm work.  It was classic fall weather – a little chilly but absolutely lovely to be outside in.  The cooler temperatures just made the coffee that Julie delivered and the piping hot, homemade soup that neighbour Shelly delivered even more satisfying.

In addition to involvement from the usual crew, brother Ben spent all day outside helping us and my sister Stephanie drove out to spend the day with us and pitch in.  That’s her (left) in the photo above.  I love that photo of us – thank you Julie for taking it!

So, in addition to just having lots of fun together outside, here’s what we accomplished:

CHICKEN COOP
Chris and I finished the interior of the chicken coop!  Well, really it was mostly Chris.  He took the measurements and cut all the wood (power saws scare me).  I assisted by holding the wood and helping nail it in (not always that successfully).  It looks great now (for a chicken coop) and we don’t have to worry any more about our chickens digging around in insulation.  Yay!  Oh – and we saw a HUGE spider in the coop while we were working.  The biggest Chris has ever seen on the farm apparently.  *shiver*  Very appropriate for Halloween…

TREE PRUNING & CHOPPING
We did some major pruning to our big willow tree whose branches were pretty sickly.  Hopefully it will grow back strong and healthy.  The boys also pulled down some alders in the backyard which had an unstable root system and were threatening our neighbour’s fence.  We’re going to use the cut alders to grow mushrooms in (apparently alder wood is ideal for growing mushrooms!). 

RAKING & YARD TIDYING
Stephanie and Ben took on this job with gusto – dragging the cut willow branches to the firepit and raking up wheelbarrows-full of fallen leaves and delivering them to the compost pile.

POTTING PLANTS & BULBS
Julie, Stephanie and I got all of Julie’s herbs potted for indoors as well as potted some of her outdoor plants and tulip bulbs for her deck. 

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And that, I think, completes the work we did on sunday.  The list doesn’t look long, but things took time and we got a lot of visiting time in while outdoors too.  The tree pruning and felling definitely drew an audience :) 

Overall, it was just one of those really great days where it feels good to be alive, outside in the fresh air with great friends.  Loved it!

Stephanie and I concluded the evening with some scrabble and gin & tonics in the trailer.  Thanks for the visit Steph – come out again soon!