2011 came in with a bang (of champagne corks) and a crackle (of burning wood).  The farm crew, along with some very special friends, brought in the new year on the farm amid friendship, laughter, stories, card games, great food, great bubbly, an unexpected haircut and an invigorating bonfire.  The evening turned into a slumber party in the trailer and January 1st was brought in with a frosty, beautiful hike in a nearby park and the dismantling of a very curious, Kai-friendly Christmas tree.  I couldn’t wish for a better start to 2011!

Of course, new years come with new resolutions and we here at the farm have come up with a list of our own, as well as a to-do list to keep us on track for winter-spring farming activities.

Personal Farming Resolutions:

Chantalle resolves to spend more time strategizing and planning for a farm that makes sense, exploring cool ideas such as bartering farm food with neighbours who produce different foods than we will.  She also wants to figure out how to harvest the many walnuts from our walnut tree that currently don’t seem to serve any purpose other than to drive her crazy by covering her patio in walnut debris.

Matt is really excited to research forest gardens so that we can create our own forest garden in the back section of our already-forested land.  He also wants to build covers for the deep beds – glass ones for starter plants and wire mesh ones that will allow our chickens to explore the veggies patches safely (for the chickens and for the veggies :).  Lastly, Matt is keen to figure out how we can make all our of land workable, in particular our really soggy, buttercup-filled areas.

Julie’s resolution is to get outside more to do some actual farm work.  Maintaining the house, hosting endless brunches and dinners, taking care of Kai and pursuing more schooling while working a demanding job has made ‘getting out in the garden’ trickier for Julie than for the rest of us.  She’s most excited about our future vegetable gardens and hoping she’ll be able to spend as much time in them as she’d like to.

Chris’ farm resolutions are a little more philosophical than the rest of ours, but that’s very Chris.  Although we joke that they’re harder to hold him accountable to, there’s certainly a lot of value in them. Chris resolves to be aware, to pay attention, to learn about connections and relationships and to graciously accept our successes and our failures. 

As for myself, I’d like to spend more time researching permaculture practices – on both a theoretical and practical level.  I’d also like to devote more time to farm labour and increase the amount of networking I’m doing with other like-minded individuals.

January – March to-do list:

January – finish building deep beds (weather dependant), research and order seeds, build a better composting system & pick up a donated rabbit hutch that is waiting for us. 

February – build the kiwi trellis and take care of any January jobs that weren’t able to be completed due to weather conditions.

March – build a pond in our front pasture for ducks, set up water barrels and a water collection system that re-routes collected rain water to the pond.  Also build a potato bed plot.

***  We’re planning on hosting some more farm work parties to help us get kick-started on all of these plans.  Stay tuned for details and think about joining in on the fun!  ***