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bear attack

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Photo taken last summer by Murray when the bears were after the scraps in our old compost pile.

For the second time in two weeks, a bear got into our chicken coop last night and took off with one of our chickens (we’ve lost two chickens in total now to this bear). We haven’t seen him ourselves, but our neighbour across the street saw him in her yard and our neighbour to the north had a fence destroyed by him. I suppose it is that time – hibernation is over and the bears are out to play (and eat).

The first time the bear got to our chickens, he came around the north side of the coop (just to the right of where the bears are in the photo above) and climbed over the fence that lines our garlic patch. He pulled down the door to our nesting boxes and pulled a chicken out that way. I discovered the destruction and the remaining features in the morning. I also discovered a trail of chicken feed that led out to our back meadow. The bear had grabbed a feed bag and dragged it out back, along with the chicken’s body – the remains of which weren’t far from the mangled bag.

I nailed up the nesting boxes and until last night, that seemed to have helped (or perhaps the bear just hadn’t tried again until last night). When I went outside this morning, it was like the same scene all over again – ripped open nesting boxes and lots of feathers scattered about.

I’m thankful he has only managed to get one chicken each time and that the other chickens haven’t tried to escape through the open nesting boxes after he leaves (hopefully they’ve been scared into staying where they’re safe – far back in the coop away from the bear’s claws). We do have to do something though – we don’t want to lose any more chickens (I love our chickens!).

I’ve renailed up the nesting boxes, but clearly he’s strong enough to rip them open if he wants to. Time to do more – I’m going to sprinkle cayenne pepper all around the nesting boxes in the hopes that it will deter him if he gets all over his nose. We’re also revisiting the idea of getting another farm dog to help keep watch and scare intruders away. And I think we’ll figure out some more secure fencing options. Cayenne pepper alone probably won’t do the trick.

Now that mr. bear knows we have yummy, free-range chickens, he’s sure to keep coming back…

RIP little chickens.

farm progress report: bit by bit

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So, it’s mid-May now. It’s been over 8 months since we officially started this farm transformation project. We’ve gotten a lot done, but we still have a lot to go to reach our goals for this first year, most notably the planting, growing and harvesting of some vegetables for all of us. Our extra long, extra cold (for west coast standards) and extra rainy winter and spring, along with our own busy schedules means that we haven’t gotten around to the bulk of our planting yet. Yikes! On the flip side, it sounds like we aren’t alone. This weather means late planting times for a lot of gardeners and farmers around here, other than those that have decent greenhouses or are just way more organized than us. We did attempt to start seedlings indoors in planting trays (since we don’t have a greenhouse yet), but most of the seedlings haven’t survived the trays. Oops. Well, this is a learning experience after all… We need to order some top soil for our deep beds. I’m hoping we can get the soil in place and our seeds planted in the ground by May long weekend (is that this weekend or the following? See, unorganized…).

But despite the slow start to some things, when I reflect on what we have accomplished so far, it’s pretty awesome:

  • fixed up the chicken
    coop and filled it with chickens;

  • rototilled a
    vegetable patch beside the chicken coop which has been planted with
    garlic, beans, peas and flowers (the flowers were recently replanted
    to other areas of the farm to make more room for bean and pea
    seeds);
  • built four deep beds
    and did what we could to prep the clay-heavy and weed-heavy soil;
  • dug out the drainage
    ditches;
  • planted wildflower regeneration seeds along the ditches;
  • planted raspberry and blueberry bushes as well as multiple fruit trees;
  • built a composting system;
  • got rabbits and built a rabbit hutch above the composting system to utilize their manure as much as we can;
  • built a pig pen that now houses 6 pigs;
  • chopped tons of firewood;
  • tidied up parts of the property;
  • felled trees that needed to come down;
  • expanded the pond and stream in the back meadow;
  • created a water catchment and storage system;
  • built a chicken tractor;
  • ordered seeds (well, actually Cary did :);
  • built a herb spiral and mapped out a planting plan for it;
  • planted numerous decorative bushes and trees that will pretty the place up and create a more diverse plant environment;
  • planted kiwi vines and laid down a brick pad for our future outdoor feasting table;
  • hosted two work parties where old friends and new came out to help;
  • made new friends with other farmers and like-minded folks in the Maple Ridge and surrounding areas;
  • had many awesome farm family meetings around great food, coffee and wine;

I’m sure there’s more I could add, but that’s what comes to mind right now. In addition to those group accomplishments, I’ve personally become fairly adept at trailer living – fixing leaks, living without heat and hot water sometimes (or any water at all), not to mention getting used to living with an outdoor composting toilet. I’ve also come to love driving a truck, even when it does come with it’s own list of fix-it problems.

So for now, we keep moving ahead with our plans, bit by bit, slow as it may feel sometimes. This past weekend was rainy again (surprise, surprise), but I managed to get in a few projects here and there when the downpour lightened up. I gave the pig pen a good clean and filled it with fresh, dry sawdust (THAT is stinky work), transplanted flowers from the garlic patch to pots and other areas around the property to make room for edible stuff. In their place, I planted peas and beans, as well as more sweet peas along the fence line. I scattered wildflower regeneration seeds along the ditch beside out deep beds, stacked a bunch of freshly chopped wood and spread woodchips all along the east side of my trailer. Now, instead of looking out on gravel and dirt, I have nice consistent wood chips that lead to where the grass starts. Looks a bit nicer. Now to burn away all of our junk wood pile and move that trailer that is parked between me and the pig pen off to the side. Like I said, pretty-ing this place up bit by bit.

Chris also did some work this weekend, cutting down armfuls of comfrey and layering it in our compost bins to help create a balanced, healthy compost pile.

Some photos of things I captured over the weekend above, including a couple trailer interior shots on rainy days (taken from my reading chair where I was curled up with a cup of tea, resting my feet on my little heater). Hopefully my next blog post will involve us getting all of our veggie seeds planted under a blue sky!

a farm wedding

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Congratulations to Melanie and Ryan! Mel has spent most of her life living on the farm and yesterday she married the love of her life Ryan in a beautiful celebration at Whonnack Lake Park in Maple Ridge. The ceremony was gorgeous and very special and we can’t wait to welcome the newlywed couple back to the farm where they will be spending the first part of their married life together. We love you guys! xo

I didn’t take too many photos, but a few of the bride and groom and Chris, Julie and Kai above.