The irony wouldn't be lost on Dr. Pavlov...

Meanwhile, back at the farm... Christmas is approaching quickly and we've just passed 2 months since we moved in. We thought this would be a good time for a catch up as to how things are going in general. not sure how much detail to put in, I always battle with having so much to share but not writing just to read my own words. The last post about Jamaica could've been 3 times the length with what happened but... 

|Great time of day for a tea/coffee...

In terms of the farm; things are progressing as much as can be expected. Montego has been cleared and graded for water run off. The amount of contamination from the previous owner is more than we hoped for but basically what we expected. If this was the 70's, a Native Indian would be standing on my back plot with a tear running down his cheek. It'll be constant battle over the next couple years to get that plot 'clean', but I get the impression the rest of the land should be relatively clear of garbage and what is there, is large chunks of stone and old interlock bricks so nothing poisonous or radioactive. I had a neighbour skim off the topsoil of next years plot and pile it in the corner. We'll either have it screened or just add it to the 'get to it later' pile located over near the 'some day I'll deal with that' stack.

We've started looking for the seeds for our first years harvest. It will be a menagerie of test items and general interest edibles. The choice of seed suppliers is a little over whelming and somehow not unlike mattress stores. They all seem just different enough in what they offer, it's difficult to truly compare. In the end we've decided to choose our suppliers based on a very elaborate scientific equation including factors of:

• zone location
• variety offered (heritage, heirloom, non gmo, organic)
• quality of review 
• bulk price enticements 
• bell curving for specialization of specific items grown.         

We'll end up ordering from 7 or 8 different suppliers at least, most within southern Ontario and all within Canada. Our sweet potato supplier will be on the east coast, and our asparagus is coming in from the Niagara area. We are getting potatoes from a couple different places. Just gotta make sure we can keep them organized for when it's time to reorder. We already have some from last years test growing and family gifts. Total variety count so far even before we have ordered anything: 32. We'll post a full seed list once the final orders are in.

There are 2 ponds just behind our house, between us and the farm plot. One is fed by a culvert running from our neighbour to the north and the other, the larger one, is only fed by only rain and animal sweat. D is a great figure skater, training kids in her past and a brush with an Olympic dream which was dashed after the great Canadian figure skating scandal. That's when they started testing for steroids and licorice. She had to retire before the media got word of her need for Twizzlers. The point is, she loves to skate, so I put a sump pump in the culvert fed pond to fill the larger one which will almost double its surface area when done. Plus it will drowned out the amazon of bull rushes the owners let grow over the past few years. I'll let you know if anyone falls through the thin ice, unless it's a neighbours kid...

In terms of Cooper things are ok. He's still a pain with the nipping and house training is proving to be a continual challenge. I'm sure the issue is us not him, and we just aren't getting the right tricks down to get in the proper rhythm. The bonus is he learns very quickly everything else and we have signed him up for some basic training. It's with the local Petsmart, which I'm not too happy with after the first class, but these are just for the basic tips. I'll get into a full review after a couple more classes. If it comes down to it I will ship his a$$ off to a boot camp for a couple weeks to have him reprogrammed, but I don't think that will be necessary. He comes when called 90% of the time, knows the basic tricks and we recently taught him to ring a bell hanging at the door when he wants to go out. The issue being he only rings it when he can see us. He hasn't figured out we can hear it even when we aren't looking at it, but its a start. Dr. Pavlov would probably find it amusing the dog is ringing a bell for us to react. If I start to salivate the dog is out of here...

Life Lesson #82: If you're always trying to be like someone else, who's ever going to try to be like you...