Tomorrow is promised to no one...

In some ways I wonder if the idea of starting a 'homestead' blog was a little premature considering we are just entering into the throws of winter. What I mean is, there isn't really much to discuss in terms of self sufficient living when you haven't really planted anything and aren't going to for another few months. On a personal level there are things to share but how interesting is that to anyone who aren't family and friends, and they don't even read this blog. We can keep you up to date with renovation or dog training progress, maybe just a blog like variety show of what's happening on the farm. Read if you wish, comments are always welcome but the true farm angle of things will be in low key until spring.  

To make things worse in terms of content this week, we were basically kept indoors because of the

Cooper: Cutest dog ever...

remnants of Hurricane Sandy. It was a lot of wind and rain for us but nothing over the top damage wise. It set us back a bit with the puppy Cooper, he wasn't a fan of the rain and the house training has been hit or miss. Thankfully we are planning on changing the flooring soon so he can do his worst with his ninja like poop bombs. There are some nipping issues with D, and because of coyotes we are going to need to keep and eye on him until he's big enough. Locals keep telling me to get a donkey for the farm to keep the coyotes away from the chickens etc but not sure D would be on board for that. Plus a donkey breaks the farm rule of no animals so big we can't bury it or stuff in a neighbours mailbox if it dies...

So far no sprouts on the garlic patch yet, a minor disappointment. We have all the leaves piled up and ready to cover it after a couple good frosts. The next week is suppose to be decent weather so I'll keep an eye on it and hold off on the mulch cover as of yet. No progress on the Montego plot yet, the 5 days of rain have put everyone on hold. I'll be buggin' the neighbours for sure to get things moving before the winter sets in. The trampoline has been taken apart and moved to the shop for transformation, hopefully have that up for spring. And for whatever reason I ordered some seeds off Ebay as well. In the grand scheme of things not a lot, $40 worth of what would cost us $80 online at seed stores. Overall a good investment/source if they germinate, it's the tunnel vision thing at work again mostly...

All in all things are going well, we are still happy and progressing enough. We're leaving for our honeymoon next week and none of the locals have left a burning scarecrow on our lawn, so we are doing well so far. We've noticed a few things since living on the farm vs the city, some good some bad...

Wormzilla

1. Everyone seems to smile a little more. It sounds cliche but it's true.
2. The stars at night are mesmerizing and because we live on a slight hill, the sun rises are very intence.
3. Stringent deadlines seem like more of a suggestion to locals.
4. A lot of things are closed on Sundays, a fact I don't mind really. I appreciate the old days of everything being shut on the holy day.
5. Things which are gospel in the city, ie anti monsanto and non-GMO seem shrugged off to most here. One neighbour actually told me it was 'safe' to drink Monsanto's Roundup weed killer.
6. Worms grow very large. I thought someone lost a finger while digging the garlic patch. 
7. Morning tea tastes better. 
8. Raking the yard is an all day ordeal. May be time to cut down some trees.
9. It takes the same time to get to and from Tim Horton's here vs in the city.
10. Mouse bait seems to be a staple in decorating. 

Life Lesson #876: Better to have people think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt...

It's never too late to catch up with old friends... unless you owe them money...

When you start doing a blog it's not uncommon to psych yourself up to be a Hemingway of sorts. You anticipate that your poetic ramblings will be quickly adored by thousands and it will be nothing at all to rip off poignant thought rivers daily. The fact of the matter is unless you put tons of time into pumping your blog, very few read it and the daily thing is a pipe dream for anyone over 25 with any kind of life. I will do my best and appreciate your patience. Not sure who that is directed to but if you read it, than it's you...

It's been a few days since the last post, my longest hiatus I think. If you were going through withdrawal I apologize but I'm sure it will be fine, this post may be a long one.

The garlic patch is in and growing. Things didn't really turn out like I had planned but hopefully it all works out. I borrowed my uncles dump truck and he gave me a few cubic yards of quality top soil to drop off at my place. I had wanted this "Max-gro" stuff from a local topsoil provider but ended up with one a step down (in my ignorant opinion). However it was much cheaper and I added a bunch of quality compost etc. so hopefully it works out. We'll know next fall if you can hang in there. Oh, I also planted a couple dozen bulbils but I'm not expecting much. If the whole thing craps out I won't be surprised. It's a first shot and I will be working right next to the garlic plot over the next couple weeks prepping Montego for next spring. 

Good to have great neighbours

Big side note bonus, when I pulled in with the dump truck, my neighbour, the old guy with all the tools, was in my yard mowing down my 5 foot hayfield of weeds in Montego. The whole thing was laid out flat from his industrial mower. It was a such a great lift, even D gasped when she saw it all cleared. In a way it took a mountain and made it a large annoying hill you'd hate to have to climb but can... oh he also had a bucket on the mower and dropped all my soil right into the garlic hole. Saving me about 3 hours of lugging a lame wheelbarrow back n forth. Country neighbours, so far, are great. Another neighbour, a young silver spooned kid a few doors south came over to say hi and offered a barter of some of our trees for some excavation work via his company. We do have too many trees which I will have to get rid of for planting but if we can sell some or at least trade them off for man hours/items than all the better. We still haven't sold our condo yet so money is tighter than (insert hillbilly one liner here)

The puppy, although cute as hell and full of life, has been a handful. In hindsight not sure it was the best idea to get him this quickly but I may say that at anytime. Once he's house trained and a loyal companion I'm sure it will be all great. He already knows how to sit and comes when his name is called. When he can use an abacus I'll call the media. By the way for those of you out there betting, we named the puppy Cooper. 

Future Greenhouse

All in all we love it so far. The property is huge which makes it all the better. We're still finding out new things about the house, hidden passageways and perks here and there. Something not so nice is the cost of everything. Things we need to buy for the farm business, things we need to buy to maintain/fix the house and everything in between. Most importantly D is happy and always has a little pep in her step regardless of what's going on. It's nice that we can be getting into our groove so quickly. I am however getting a little worried about pulling this whole things off. Just the small amount of work involved in getting the garlic patch going was a little tough. What am I going to do with a 60 x 80 plot, or even 4 acres. Hopefully by then aliens will have sold us slave robots that run off carbon monoxide or Twinkies... 
   
Life Lesson #17: To master your 9 X multiplication table hold up both hands palms up, fingers fanned out. Always starting with the number 9 in your head, try 9 x 3. The 3 being the 3rd finger on your left hand, put it down. The number represented by your fingers still up is the answer to 9 x 3  (2 and 7) 27. Try it with 9 x 5, the 5 being your pinkie finger on your left hand. Once you roll that down, the 4 fingers remaining on your left hand and the 5 on your right is the answer. 9 x 5 = (4 and 5) 45   
    

Call it what you wish, it's still home...

Week 1 of the move is now complete and we have started work on the first planting bed for next season. An advantage of the fall move is plenty of prep time for the growing season. On the other hand its a full winter of busy work which may or may not become a Shining situation. We have no red rum in the house at the moment.

We have decided to name our planting locations based on different places we have been to, or would like to visit. So far we only have two,

1. Montego: Name significance: First place we ever met while on vacation. Farm Significance: the initial planting location for next years first crops. It's a 60 ft-ish by 80 ft-ish plot of land right on the front corner of our overall garden lot, closest to the house and the only spot without a forest of trees and stumps.  
2. Eden: Name significance: The place everyone would want to live. Farm Significance: the back 2.5ish or so acres of our property separated from the front section by a creek and some trees. Ultimately it will be where we plant an orchard of various fruit trees. Probably 2+ each of apples, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches etc etc. Anything we can get our hands on will be grown and tested there. Most likely also the beehive hangout...

 Why name them you may be wondering?

• A just for fun 
• B for easy reference when discussing any given location
• C in case one has to look for the other it would be an easy find 

After 1 hr with a shovel? really...?

Anyway, we will have a heck of a struggle trying to get Montego ready for food planting. As mentioned before we were happy that the previous owner ran a landscaping company. Now we're seeing a negative side effect of that, tons of debris and stones mixed into the soil. After an hour of plain shovel digging I found way too much garbage to be optimistic about the whole ordeal. So for the time being we are focusing on the garlic patch. We have about 180+ cloves consisting of 8 different strains and a handful of garlic bulbils as a test. The bulbils won't pay off for about 3 years but economically it much better than plain bulbs.

Semi Interesting Factoid: Bulbils are small garlic seeds that grow in the flower of a mature garlic scape. A scape can have 60 to 400 bulbils, the average garlic bulb has 6-8 cloves.    

 

Garlic slave at work

On to the planting. The old owners still have some items left here he has yet to clean up. We're being patient with them for various reasons. So after my hour long wrestling match with their garbage in Montego, I flagged down one of the workers he has cleaning up the mess. Following a quick chat, I picked a spot at the NW corner of the Montego plot and he drove his bobcat over and cleared me a 6 inch deep plot 5ft wide and about 15 ft long. Just enough space for the garlic patch. It's got full sun and it's enough out of the way I can prep the rest of the plot over the next couple weeks for next year. As you can see from the pic on the right, it's all a nightmare of weeds, but the potential is there. Main priority is getting the garlic in the ground and once I have the 3 yards of special soil dropped tomorrow, Sunday becomes planting day. And not a moment too soon. Good thing D got me the farmer overalls with leather knees...

Life Lesson # 104: Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will
look 85.

Oh we get puppy tomorrow too... can't wait. Overheard a helpful clerk at the TSC Store saying for a puppy you need a ticking clock and hot water bottle in their bed to help with mommy separation. Got one for puppy and for myself. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then...

So it's been a couple full days since we moved in and things have so far been great. D is over the top happy, telling me every 10 mins or so. I don't mind it really, as they say "happy wife, happy life."and the alternative would be a nightmare. We hit the ground running and have basically all the important stuff set up. The kitchen is functional, the office is up and downloading movies, the shower is hot but the garage is still full of boxes and that's ok for now.

In terms of farm work we bought a few key tools, mostly shovels and rakes, I've located the spot for the garlic to go and cleared much of the overgrown vegetation around our deck. Halfway through my battle on the deck jungle I thought for a minute Jane Goodall was studying me, but it was just a shadow.

Weepin' Willow

Our twin 50ft willows are now trimmed and no longer sagging to the ground. Some may think the willows could have waited but the trimming had ulterior motives since we needed some sort of ground cover for the garlic bed once they are planted and after a couple light frosts have it. Covering them with 4-6 inches of straw or leaves helps to regulate the ground temp and stops the bulbs from being dislodged during frost heaving. See there are things to learn here... Once we plant the garlic we are trying different combinations of additives and soil enhancements to see what benefits work. I'll let you know the final choices and ultimately the outcome in a later blog(s).. so stay tuned...

We pick up the puppy in 5 days, he'll be 8 weeks and ready for a new home, the cats will not be thrilled but they'll live. They haven't really adapted to the bigger house yet, both them and D are pretty jittery with the new noises. I sleep through anything, literally. In our old condo, the fire alarm would go off right outside our bedroom and it wouldn't even phase me. Hope that's true when the puppy (and kids) are whining/crying... I may fake it anyway... 
  
Life Lesson #76: What ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s...










      

I love it when a plan comes together...

The move into Shanghai-La couldn't have worked out better. Originally it was scheduled for 830 am with the movers, but because the garlic festival didn't open til 1pm, I postponed the movers till 10 am. The idea was to line things up so no time was wasted waiting around for the festival to start and the movers would be on sight dropping things in the wrong place or running over the neighbours dog. The resched worked out perfectly, truck was loaded by 11:30. By the time I loaded my truck and cleaned a bit it was 12:30. The movers were already heading up to the farm with D in tow to make sure it was handled properly.

Got to the festival at 12:50, found parking right out front, even tho it was an illegal parking spot, it was so packed I knew I could get in and out. The festival was good. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I guess even with garlic there are only so many farmers and specialty chefs going around. There was maybe 10 farmers tables, 10 general items sales places, like sauces and garlic presses etc. A few informational places about health and beauty and a camera crew from a local tv place meandering around. Knowing I was parked illegally and that my home was awaiting I rushed in, met with the farmers I had contacted previously, scooped my items, visited a couple others for a few different strains of bulbs and a pack of bulbils and scrammed.

Yep, that's a loonie next to the bulbs...

I know what you're wondering, did my idea of pre-contacting the farmers for speed and special treatment in terms of better product pay off? Boy did it! Not only was I in and out in 10 mins, but the bulbs this one farmer gave me, luckily the one I was getting the most product from, set us up with the biggest bulbs I saw in the whole festival. Not only were they super nice and helpful, but we bought 4 bulbs each x 5 strains of garlic weighing 5.5lbs costs us 40$. When growing garlic (and finding a husband), size matters. The bigger they are when you plant them, the bigger the next harvest will be. I'm sure as time goes on we will find cheaper sources, but for this crop now, I was satisfied with the price and farmer supplying it. Maybe in the spring we will get some asparagus from them as well. I'll give them a plug Cobblestone Farm

So I ran like a bat outta hell from the fest with no ticket on my window and the traffic was clear. By the time I got to the farm, the movers were done, the furniture we ordered was delivered and the satellite TV was installed. To top it off, some of my family had stopped by to visit and were waiting with cookies and baked goods as a move in treat. It was a great scenario all around and we are very happy. The previous owner is going to take the time to walk us around the property to catch us up on all the things two virgin farmers would need to know to keep the house from imploding. Because he was a pretty decent landscaper, he has done tons of things to make the place farmer friendly including an irrigation system, pond pumps and electrical outlets hidden all around the property. Think I may try to scoop a trampoline they have sitting out there to make a hoop style greenhouse, but that's another blog...

So far so good and we cant wait for what's next...

Life Lesson #914: Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself...