a little vacation time

Hello friends :) summer is slowely coming to an end. The first leaves are starting to turn yellow. Summer always goes by too fast but like every year I am looking forward to my favourite season, Fall 🍁

No bugs, cool air, cool nights, the first frosty mornings, wrapping up in a warm blanket while enjoying the last nice evenings outside. Fall could last forever in my opinion ;)

We decided to go away for a few daya of camping. Like every summer, we spend a few days at my sister in law's cabin. It is always big fun for the kids and a few days of just putting my feet up for me :)

We headed east and our first stop was Raleigh falls ... we love to visit the falls every time we go out that way .

After a short visit with Gramma we headed out to camp. The first day was super windy. Skyler usually spends his days in a little red paddle boat with his fishing road but that day he didn't even make it away from the shore. 

We had beaautiful weather the while time we were there. The days were sunny but not too hot and at night we had some showers and it cooled off nicely.

Evenings at camp are always filled with the song of loons and beautiful skies. The days are very relaxed ... the kids play in the water all day. I went swimming, relaxed in the sun with a glass of vino and just enjoyed that I had nothing else to do.

After five days tho we all were a little homesick and ready to go home.

Our little red chicken coop was empty when we got home. Our meat chickens had gone to the butcher while we were gone. We have 10 beautiful big chickens in the freezer.  The biggest one weighed in at 4.9 kg. 

So it was chicken coop cleaning day .... inside and out ... everything nice for a little batch of layers that moved in now.

Tonight we cooked our first hone raised chicken ... 

A meal home grown on the farm. Chicken, beets and beans. The potatoes came from the neighbours farm. So good !!! I can't believe what a difference in taste ... I am officially announcing, the raising of meat chickens was a success. We will do it again next year. I want to make some changes tho. I would like to raise them on grass, so I will build a couple chicken tractors that I can move around on the property and only supplement with grower food. 

The turkeys are growing into beautiful birds. Our Tom is so big ... thinking practically here for a moment ... I dont have a roaster that big ... hahah.

The vet was out today to check on Lunas leg. Unfortunately the tendon snapped again. However he says she is doing really good. Its healing very well, she walks good on her foot. He says she will learn to walk without the tendon, she will be ridable ... as well as she dies already, it will only improve from here. She will get another round of antibiotics to avoid infection. 

With time she will learn to walk properly without the tendon, however will probably in the beginning stumble more than usual. So LOTS and LOTS of ground work.  But for now ... no work at all ... continue on with lots of TLC 

Our temperatures are climbing into the 30th again in the next few days ... I think this will be the last heat wave.

U all stay cool and take it easy 🏖

A big scare and a weekend full of hard work

Our week started with a big scare in the pasture. I went for a walk with the kids when I saw that this big girl had crossed the creek and was standing on the " wrong " side of the creek by the fence. We went down to see her ans she visited with us. When she decided to cross the water again she got stuck on something. She had found a very old, overgrown fence wire.

Right away she panicked and started pulling on the wire. I called G. to come with the wire cutter and he hurried to come and help her. When she saw him and the big clipper she panicked even more and ran across the creek , pulling on the wire, which was cutting into her leg, until it finally snapped. 

We brought her into the barn, she was bleeding and we knew right away it wasn't good. It was actually worse ... 

The vet came out right away and what we had feared became reality. 

Luna had cut through a tendon on her right hind leg. Tendon injuries have usually a recovery time of over a year. If they recover. 

The vet stitched her up. She is on stall rest for 2 months. She can walk as little as possible, bandages have to be changed every three days. 

It was a shock ... but after some time I was just glad that she was ok, all taken care of and everything else will be figured out along the way. 

She is doing very well so far. Her swelling is gone down a lot. Tonight is her first bandage change. 

Luna hates her legs touched. She just came to us in June after she had been in someones pasture, unhandled for many years ... she is learning to trust but this is a challenge for her ... and us.

This little guy is Mr Jake. 

Mr Jake came to us Friday morning. I went out to feed the chickens and kept hearing a little crow coming from the bushes. There he was...Mr Jake. 

We have no idea where he came from. We checked with the neighbours but noone was missing a little rooster. 

We are assuming that someone hust dropped him off at the end of our driveway ... 

We cought him and put him in a coop with some ladies but he kept escaping. So now he just wanders the property ... shy but always close to the other chickens and food. 

I am falling in lobe with those geese !!! I want more !!! 

Em is turning into a great bird lover as well. She loves her chickens and is always the first one in the coop to check for eggs. 

This weekend was busy. We had a friend out with some heavy equipmemt ... there were so many projects that needed to be done ...

The first one was this old shed that was falling down and a threat to anything that got too close to it ...

Aaaand GONE !!! 

The second, even bigger project was the old manure pit. An old concrete pit that used to be used for cow manure.

We tried to fill it up with jung that we dug up around the property. We never made a dent ...

This weekend it was plowed under and was gone and forgotten by the end of the day 

We gained so much property ... everything looks so big and roomy.

The third project was our outdoor riding arena. A dream of mine ... 

So this overgrown patch of gravel ...

Turned into this beautiful sand arena. We still have to put up the fences around it but it is already beautiful !!! A dream come true !!!

It's been hot still the last week. The nights are getting cooler and once in a while u think u can smell fall in the air ... I love it ... now begins my favourite time of the year 🧡

Camp out and other updates

Hello all :) we are finally done with the numbing heat. All week we had beautiful temperatures in the mid 20th. We even got some rain and nature just seems to take a deep breath. 

The kids and I started our week with a fun camping night in the backyard. We are in a fire ban right now so it wasn't quite perfect since we couldn't have a bon fire but we had fun anyway, with a movie and popcorn. I just recently bought a 6 person tent at a flea market and the kids have been wanting to camp out since we got it, of course. We all snuggled up and slept peacefully through the night. I love sleeping outside. I love the fresh air, all the noises u can hear at night..especially living on a farm where everything comes back to life after a hot day ... we heard horses munshing, cows moooing, donkey braying ... the roosters started to crow at 5am ... but being farm kids, everyone slept through all the noise until 8am. It was a real fun night. 

The next day we went blueberry picking. We've been enjoying blueberry pancakes for breakfast for a while now. I am not one to pick and freeze. We pick and eat whatever we want to eat and when we have enough we stop picking. Sharing with others and especially the bears that are waiting, just like us, all year for this yummy treat. 

The garden. Well, it is growing but not really. It is such a weird year. The spring was so cold and then it got soooo hot all of a sudden. Everything is dried out and for whatever reason nothing is growing as it should be. This was my lunch from the garden the other day. The cucumbers are still very small and I just picked this one because I was craving it and didn't want to wait any longer. The Kohlrabi was delicious. I only picked one so far. Do you like them ? I love them, raw or cooked, just yummy. 

My first zuccini. There are a whole bunch still growing and I only picked this one because the skinny top was starting to get squishy. I was hoping for some ripe tomatoes to eat with the zuccini but they are far from turning red. I have lots tho. 

The beans are growing but there is just not as many as there usually is. It was the first time that I planted beans and peas in buckets and maybe it has something to do with that, I don't know. 

My kale is growing fine and so is the lettuce. The beets are getting bigger but the carrots are tiny still. 

oh well, every garden brings something new to learn and experience. 

This year I am just grateful for the farmers market. 

Sky took on a big project the other day. Him and his hand saw. I wanted to prune this maple tree and he said he would do it for me ... this little person with his little saw. And look what he did in a couple of hours ....

ta daaaa ... he was so proud and I was so please with the result :)

Baby goats are growing like weeds. Exploring the barnyard with their mommas. 

I have all the babies sold . I am glad they will be going all together to a lady in Thunder Bay who has a wonderful place for them and more goat friends to play with. I am really really sad to see them go at the end of August but happy this worked out like this. 

I have a little buck lined up to rebred the ladies in the fall. He is a tiny little guy and I am not sure if this will work out but if it does the babies will be a whole lot smaller which I wouldn't mind at all. I would like to breed the size down a bit and maybe keep a couple girls of the next batch ... if there is any ... hopefully ;)

pretty girls are getting so big

Our two lady cows seem to have been successful with dating the neighbours bull. Neither one of the two has come into heat which is a good sign that they are both pregnant. 

Our little Calf Belle is not so little anymore. Her, her momma and her auntie Clarabelle love to hang out in the indoor riding arena during the day, laying in the hay, away from the bugs and out of the sun. 

Horses and burrs, will be my fight for the rest of my life it seems. This time it is the minis who all kinda look like Milly here in the picture. This will take lots and lots of baby oil, patience, itchy fingers and lots of treats to get all this nasty prickly burrs out of their hair ... grrrrr

The turkeys are awesome. They are so easy and smart. They know their daily routine so well and never give us any trouble. So ... I just found out when I made an appointment at the butcher for the meat chickens that they don't process turkeys or geese ... actually noone here processes Turkeys or Geese ...

Can anyone guess what that means ??? This will either be our first time butchering ourselves or the Turkeys and Geese will live a long happy life with us, which was not the plan. 

So far we are determent to do it ourselves. We will see whats gonna happen when the time comes ;)

Having a breakfast snack before going to to graze all day 

The geese go out again as well and have not ended up in the manure puddle again. However it is a little hard to leave them in the barn yard . They follow all of us around like puppies ....

Just this morning I found them right outside the door. They went under the gate and came down the driveway ... lol I thought it was funny finding them all sitting on our deck ...

Good thing is they also follow us back to the barn. I guess in a few days they will also know their routine and hopefully stay where they are suppose to be. I think they are just the cutest. 

We have big plans for the rest of the week. Friday our foster son will be moving out. Of course that needs some organisation and celebration. Shopping day on Wednesday, my least favourite day. 

One day of this week we have to make a little road trip , couple hours north from us. I bought a used kitchen buffet that I want to restore and finish for our dining room. I am very excited about the find ... I've been looking for a long time for just the right one. 

On the weekend we will have a friend here with an excavator. There is so many little projects that require professional muscle power .... things need to be torn down , levelled out, cleared out, fence posts need to be set, sand for the riding arena needs to be dug up etc etc ... I am very excited for this and I am sure I will have some pictures by next week !!!

until then, take it easy !!!