Tag Archives: community

building the pig pen

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A week and a half ago, we built a pig pen and fencing with the help of some of the local 4H crew in preparation for the pigs they’ll be boarding here. In exchange for giving them space (and helping them care) for their pigs, they’re gifting us a pig and, as you’ll see in the photos, helped supply us with the materials and labour to build a pig pen living space on our land. In addition to building the actually pig house, the crew pulled our old trailers out of the way (see video below – kudos to our pregnant helper!) and started putting up fencing (whic
h was completed today). We’ve since painted the pig house and set up the food and water system. More photos coming in our ‘work party’ blog post.

Sidenote: as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I don’t actually know the proper(?) language for pig living spaces. What’s the difference between a pig pen and a pig sty? Does ‘pig pen’ include the ‘house’ or only the fenced-in graze and play area? Hmmm… sounds like we may need a name for our pig abode (kinda like our rabitat for the rabbits). Any suggestions?

PS – the piglets arrive tomorrow!!! We’re VERY excited. Stay tuned for photos and video footage.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsYXHNQPn-w?wmode=transparent]

fathers & sons

Photo

I passed these good looking farm fathers and sons yesterday as I was driving to work.  A little jealous that everyone else has already started their holidays, but not so jealous that I can’t be happy when I see the farm boys enjoying morning walks together. 

This whole ‘living in community’ thing is seriously wonderful and I continue to feel blessed by it.  Instead of just getting up in the morning and heading to work, I get up, swing by the house to have a morning coffee with whoever is awake, hug a baby or two, and then hop in the truck to go to work, sometimes passing more farm members out enjoying the crisp December weather along the way (like Chris, Matt, Kai and Canaan yesterday).  Not sure if it gets any better than this!

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!