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...  
 

  

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery...

To our legion of fans who have waited on bated breath for the next installment, we want to say thank you for your patience and our apologies for the delay. The fact that our legion is most likely 2 people doesn't remove the sincerity of the statement.

It has been a while since our last post, and I promise you short of a foreign invasion we will never be away that long again. The reality is you can count on it happening within the next 6 months, but we will try not to. I could go on in this post for awhile to catch up but I will most likely cut it into 2 or 3 mini ones. Mostly just because we all have short attention spans and I like to keep everyone on point.

So in our last post we were heading away to Jamaica. The trip overall as great. Weather was perfect, the food was great, the booze was top notch and everything was smooth and painless. As mentioned before we have been a to Jamaica a couple times so we knew what to expect. The fact language is not a factor and that most of the laws are pretty loose is always a plus for us. I just don't feel as comfortable when there are military personal on every corner or I'm the in situations where I'm not sure if I ordered a beer or traded my wife for a mango. It could happen...

We ended up going to a place that was a little on the plus star side and I couldn't have been happier with how things ended up. Fact of the matter is I let D take care of it all. I show up and get in line like 3rd grader on a local museum trip. If you gave me a fruit drink in a box I'd probably nap while doing a thumb suck.

What made the place really great was how laid back most of the rules were. Usually we go to places where you have to line up in the morning for special dinner reservations and the beach towels are treated like royal jewels. This place was open season in every way and it was just what we needed. No reservations for dinners, the room bars were stocked with everything you could need and if you wanted 10 beach towels to build a fort, all the power to you.

Our room was the best on the whole resort. We came to this conclusion after doing a recon and taking everything into consideration.

• Distance from main lobby and loud entertainment stage
• Distance from food and prime beach location
• Height off the ground in terms of bugs avoidance vs total stairs 
• Fact it had a hammock (only 1 of 12 on entire resort) 
• It over looked the nude beach section of the resort adding to the entertainment

In the end, we had a great time. Retrospectively I wish we had done more things. It seemed by the time we had rested up and were ready for some free water-skiing, the wind picked up a little and the trip was over. I blame myself, as always. D is very accommodating to my boisterous and sometimes laid back personality. I fear she accepts more of my crap than she should but I'm working on that
not happening.

What tips do I have when traveling you ask? Well let's see...

1. Make sure you know the currency situation. We met a young couple who had exchanged a boat load of money into local and also unneeded currency. US dollars worked very well. 
2. Bring your own thermos mug for the hotel bars. Small plastic cups are a pain. 
3. Bring your own toilet paper. Enough said... 
4. Chat up the front desk people, they can get you interesting deals on trips you may not know about. 
5. Save yourself the hassle, no one cares about what your wearing. Bring one pair of sandels and a pair of runners, that's it. 

Actually surfing the net here...

When we got back home all was well. Cooper had chewed a couple chair legs but overall the place hadn't burned down and all the animals remembered us. We looked forward to coming home for sure. The road ahead is so exciting on the new farm. How could we not be just as happy to be home as we were on a beach surfing the net in a hammock...



Life Lesson #559: Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out...

Families are like fudge, mostly sweet but there's a few nuts...

When I was in grade school, we lived with my grandmother for a few years. She lived down the road from the same school my mom and most of her 11 brothers and sisters went to growing up. My brother was 4 years older so he went to school by himself without his snot-nose little brother tagging along. That was fine by me because I had my own companion to walk me. Our dog Kelly was a Border Collie mix and pretty much the reincarnation of Einstein. Every day he'd walk me to school a couple kms. through traffic lights, over a bridge and passed numerous other dogs, cats and scrambling animals and then, at lunch, he'd come back by himself, get me and walk me home. Twice a day he did this, he was never late, never forgot and never complained.

For whatever reason we moved to an apartment and had to give Kelly away. I had no vote in that decision and was devastated, but I never forgot how great that dog was. I vowed to one day get another Border Collie mix and they'd watch over my kids too. (This was reinforced by an article I read recently about BC mixes being best dogs to own) D and I presently live with 2 cats in our condo, both are rescues. Mojo would be mine and BiBi (aka Scarface) would be hers. Take a guess as to which one is the cuddly genius and which one is basically a rug we feed and clean up after...

Bibi "relaxin"

Mojo "chillaxin"

So when D and I were midway through our courtship I casually let her know that one day we would have a BC mix. The idea was to wait til our kids were 5ish and then find a pup. D has had dogs before but we both knew this condo was no place for a K9 so I shelved the idea but brought it up here and there to ensure it worked it's way in like a bad jingle. Again, D takes the bragging rights when she comes home a couple weeks ago and she found a guy who has BC and Blue Heeler cross puppies 2 hours north of us. This is the kind of thing that makes me love her more. I had no idea she was even scouring the net watching for this. 

Obviously when you're just buying a farm and starting a family, throwing a dog into the mix is just a bad idea. However sometimes if you're going to mix it up in life, you might as well get it all over with at once, especially when it carries with it the trifecta of positive points:

1. This guy up north had a fresh a litter of 11, which is important to me. I like to have a choice of many. I'd do a fancy whistle or kissing sound to see which one responds, runs over and ends up being the lucky winner of our family unit. 
2. His price was reasonable compared to most we've seen around. (see previous post about saving $$) 
3. Because of the puppies birth date, we can't even have the dog til 2 weeks after we move into Keltic Kreek, giving us time to settle in before he/she craps all over the place. 

Short story long, we drove up today and went to find our newest family member. The guy was a nice enough older gentlemen farmer type with ducks running wild and a few cows gnawing the fence line here and there. He had the pups all caged up with the parents watching closely nearby. Overall we were pleased that it didn't seem like a puppy mill but my attempt at an ultra primal link with one specific puppy via whistle or kissing sound went out the door because they were all constantly chewing at my jean pants and growling playfully. We ended up deciding we wanted a male which narrowed our choices from 11 to 3. Next I wanted one that stood out in terms of markings and didn't seem too runty. And if they could look like a pirate or little rascals dog that would be a bonus.

And then there were 5... We are happy to announce, to our 3 readers, the newest member of our family, we pick him up in 4 weeks.
**(Name Withheld for Security/Indecision Reasons)

Future Chicken Wrangler

Life Lesson #112: Children aren't that different from puppies. When it comes to raising good ones, start early, be firm and stay consistent.
 







 

A full wallet is not as good as an empty one is bad...

Part of what will help make us successful is our ability to stretch a dime, and making $10 do the work of $25. Saving money is like losing weight, it's all about priorities. I'm 6 ft tall and never been over 199lbs and it's not about a regimented diet and killing myself at the gym, it's priorities and common sense. Statistically artists and musicians live longer than marathon runners and triathletes. You'd expect that to be reversed but the numbers don't lie. Money can do the same thing, if you're creative, do your research and shop right, you can make it seem like you spent a ton but you'll have more in the reserves for the long haul. All of this will not be easy to do this first year because we will be hemorrhaging money trying to get the ball rolling the right way. If I make a big score I let you know... 

We try to buy Canadian

One of the websites I like to visit daily is www.redflagdeals.com. Completely Canadian based and monitored by a group of rabid fans, we can pretty much trust what we read here as being the gospel in terms of best deals on an item/service. There is a rolling, up to the minute 'deal banner' and the usual forum sections for discussions. If you haven't already, bookmark it. We also watch www.dell.ca for their periodic deals, great for computers and electronics. Of course Google is our friend when looking for a coupon code. Anytime we're buying something online we do a quick check for any coupons hiding around the net. Usually www.retailmenot.com comes up with a few choices. Point is don't be afraid to poke around before buying anything. Amazon is great for reviews of almost any items.
Edit: New addition which is right down our alley is www.tscstores.com their flyer comes out online every Thursday at midnight, so we'll be there early Friday mornings to ensure good stock. 

Sometimes, the best way to save a dollar is to be patient young grasshopper. Know what it is we want, find the one that is the best combo of quality, warranty, usefulness and of course final sale price. No point in paying 10$ for a rake that'll be rusty toothpicks in a season or two. Watch the local places that sell both the quality ones and the lame ones, like Canadian Tire. When they good ones go on sale for 25$ we strike. Buying 3 crappy rakes over 5 years or 1 really good one only makes positive treehugger sense. Of course auctions, craigslist and kijiji are always an option but as always, buyer beware. As a general rule, we rarely buy tools or electronics used, we prefer to know what they've been through.

Life Lesson #811: Never buy a tool, product or services of a company that has a notation of quality in their name.