Tag Archives: autumn farming

an awesome farm weekend

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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! 

our first official farm work party!

 

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This past weekend we hosted our first official farm work party and it was a great success!  After a week of rain, the sun came out and gave us perfect weather and a great group of friends came out and gave us the manpower we needed to get this farm up and running.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined our work party!  Your support was a really big encouragement to us and made us realize how achievable our dreams for this place might be.  It was awesome to get the big kick start we needed with all of your help. 

Although we didn’t get everyone in the group photo above, we did capture everyone on film at some point in the day, so check out all the photos for a visual record of the work we did.  Thank you Cary & Tommi, Mike & Brie, Shirlea & Keith (mom & dad), Dan & Jeannette and their three lovely daughters, Zach, Melody, Matt C, Bob, and of course the farm crew members Jordan, Melanie, Matt & Chantalle and Chris & Julie.  We definitely couldn’t have done it without you!

And now for our list of work party accomplishments:

  • built a gate into the fence that separates the backyard and raspberry patch from the field where we plan on building our deep bed gardens;
  • insulated and installed the interior walls of the chicken coop;
  • put a new door on the chicken coop;
  • mowed down all the long grasses in the field where we plan to build the deep bed gardens;
  • mowed down all the long grasses in the smaller plot area between the barn and the chicken coop;
  • dug up and rototilled the plot between the barn and the chicken coop, prepping it for the garlic and other fall veggies we’ll plant there;
  • cut down excess blackberry brambles in the field where we’ll put the deep beds;
  • pruned trees alongside the ditch;
  • cleaned and dug out the drainage ditches;
  • weeded, thinned and transplanted the raspberries;
  • completed the roof on the composting toilet building;
  • sealed up the leaky windows on the motorhome;
  • began burning wood from our big pile of ‘wood to be burned’ that’s been building up for the last few months;
  • painted the house address numbers (that are nailed to our fence post at the start of the driveway) a fresh coat of bright white;

There was probably more that I’m forgetting at the moment, but all in all, a VERY successful work party at the farm.  I think the coolest thing about the whole day was the vibe.  It was really relaxed and fun and very productive at the same time.  For those of you who came out, we hope you had fun and we hope you’ll come out again!

 

Autumn farm plans

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Yesterday afternoon, we had our first official farm meeting now that everyone is back from holidays and settling into life on the farm. Matt (pictured) sketched up a visual birds-eye view of the farm and we began brainstorming about what we want to do with the land and where we want to put things (plants, animals, greenhouse, compost, etc).

The meeting resulted in a long to-do list that included:

Autumn farm neccessities:

  • reading through parts of John Seymour’s Self Sufficient Gardener book;
  • planning gardens and inviting gardening mentors over for advise and consulting;
  • rototilling the land we want to plant on;
  • fixing fences;
  • completing the chicken coop and building two additional chicken run areas;
  • scanning craigslist for materials and usable freebies;
  • digging out the weedy drainage ditch;
  • researching, buying and planting winter vegetables;
  • fix up composts;

Autumn farm dreams:

  • building a duck shelter, digging a duck pond and buying ducks;
  • building a fence and shelter for pigs;
  • building a greenhouse;

Autumn family neccessities:

  • figure out weekly chores (garbage & recycling);
  • fix lean of feed bin and propane tank;
  • fix gable siding;
  • paint house;

And making a plan for a big work party for a weekend in late September. Work party invite coming soon for those of you interested in getting your hands dirty and helping us out!