Spring 2012

We are having some wet days, so great time to update here!

We said good bye to Lucie and Mickael yesterday. Its always sad to see great woofers go! They are on their way to Vancouver Island, so lucky B.C.! They helped us contain the Hugel bed which was over flowing into the pathways with a border of used 2 by 6s, stacked a huge pile of firewood, cleaned out the goat feeding area (3 feet high in places!) and fixed gates, shelves, and feeders. But the most exciting thing is that once more, woofers are bringing beauty and not just function to our world! They helped us cut and trim a truck load of sapling poplars that were choking each other out on my Mom and Dad's pipeline right of way. Now we will have an effective barrier for the chickens but also a beautiful basket fence. I just need to put them onto the metal T posts. I'll try to remember to post pictures here when its done.

There are some lovely spinach seedlings sprouting which I had forgotten I had planted last fall. What a great surprise! So far there is no evidence of garlic, even though I mulched them and covered with screening to keep the chickens out. Well I guess its early yet.

I forgot entirely about starting onions this year from seed. I guess at that point we were busy looking forward to the Belize/Guatemala trip. So I have bought some sets and will be making seed from the stored seed for next year. I read up on what I had purchased and the storage onion I bought was a hybrid, so maybe that means they won't make viable seed? or at least the genes won't be the same combination once our wind and bees are done. So I guess I am experimenting again. I have also misplaced 15 years worth of my tomato saved seed....ugh I cleaned up too well?? Thanks to Janette, I have some growing in the window sills though.

I also met Mr. Evans of "Evans" Cherry fame. He showed me how to graft with a bud graft at the Devonian Gardens last weekend. There was a Scion Exchange, where anyone who had a great apple, plum, pear, apricot etc tree could bring twigs and exchange with others. Those folks were amazing! Extremely knowledgeable...but only about 15 of them! Mr. Evans gave me some of his tomatoes and has called them Evans Early Tomatoes. Two of them are already blooming. I was also given a Gogi Berry bush, whose parent is growing vigorously somewhere two hours north of here, so should tolerate our cold weather. AND some Swiss Stone Pine seeds, which are soaking as we speak and will be planted in the garden until they can make it on their own in the shelter belt.

(Speaking of Shelter belt: Acckk! stupid government cut backs have killed the PFRA shelter belt program which made thousands of trees available to farmers for planting hedgerows and shelter belts and regenerating riparian habitats. It was over 100 year old program)

Goats should be due any day now. Its five months since I let in the buck today exactly. Yaaay 5 mommas this year. And then there's Vicky and Xixi too.... two more mommas. We are still trying to sell Yodel. He needs to be a daddy!

Soap workshop in a few weeks and maybe cheese after that!