Monarch magic

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The magic began on Friday morning. One after another, monarch butterflies pushed their way out of their chrysalis and dangled as their crumpled wings slowly unfurled. By the end of the day, we had 11 monarchs in various containers between the kitchen and the mudroom.

Saturday morning, we released them, and the magic began again. Fifteen butterflies hatched.

Our annual monarch tradition has reached a new level this year. We collected more than 80 caterpillars. It’s insane.

Last year we raised a record 32 monarch butterflies, which was phenomenal. This year, after walking through two fields one afternoon, we collected 70 caterpillars. We added to that number every time we went to get more milkweed to feed everyone. Invariably we found more caterpillars.

We added more bowls to the kitchen counter, collected more milkweed, and cleaned habitats every day. Eventually caterpillars crawled up to the screens that cap the bowls, dangled in Js for awhile and then writhed and wriggled out of their skins and into chrysalis. We kept adding more caterpillars and the process kept repeating.

Things have been crowded and chaotic. But also magical. Watching them eat, grow and transform does not get old.

We’ve had to expand our simple bowls and screen (and zucchini) set up to accommodate everyone.

We set up a separate butterfly container, where we could move them after they hatch and once their wings flatten fully. Butterflies are pretty quiet for 24 hours after they hatch, but they still walk about a little bit. We have so many chrysalis it was hard for the butterflies to move around.

We also built a chrysalis frame and moved some of the chrysalis into it. Moving chrysalis is nerve-wracking, but the frame worked really well for hatching. The butterflies had good space to hang, and if they wanted to move around the screens walls and wood rails gave them lots to hang on to.

Raising monarchs is so magical. From caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, the process is amazing. Watching them flutter away year after year is special every single time.

We lost a chicken

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Most mornings, we start our days with breakfast with the animals. I bring the food out to the patio while Ellie walks across to the coop and lets the chickens and ducks out. They follow her back to the house and spend the meal under the table or circling around us begging for nibbles. They know Ellie will oblige. If she doesn’t, the hens don’t hesitate to jump up and peck a bite from her hand or try to perch on the arm of her chair.

Cigo is always there and often Cedar comes down from the barn too. It’s a hilarious and idyllic way to begin the day.

After breakfast, we all move on to whatever it is we’re doing for the day, and as long as Ellie and I are home, we leave the birds to free range.

Letting the birds run has been working well.

They stay close to the house and the barn, so we’re not worried about them wandering away. When they need to lay an egg, they go back to the coop. They enjoy dust bathing where the grass doesn’t grow around the garage. They scratch and eat on the lawn and into the meadow.

I think free ranging is healthier for them. The dust baths are definitely good for their feathers. They have a more varied diet. They have more stimulation and space.

If we’re going out or at the end of the day, I call, “Here chick, chick, chick!” and they come running from wherever they are and follow me to the coop. (There’s usually some treats involved, hence their enthusiasm to return.)

But there are more dangers when the chickens are out of the run and a couple of weeks ago we lost our first chicken.

I’m not sure exactly what happened, since I had gone in the house after breakfast and didn’t hear anything. When I came out to mow the grass, I found a suspicious amount of white feathers by the treehouse. The location was also suspicious, as the chickens don’t tend to spend much time near the treehouse. I searched around but found no other signs of a chicken or violence. I rounded up the other chickens for a count and found 9, not our usual 10.

I questioned Cedar (our very active hunter) and searched his usual hideouts in the barn. There was no sign of a chicken or feathers, and I determined he was innocent.

My best guess is a hawk may have come through, spotted the hen on her own in the more open area between the barn and the driveshed, and carried her away.

It’s disappointing, but not inevitable. Caring for animals means facing death sometimes. Ellie and I both feel the benefits of free ranging outweigh the risks, so we’re going to continue. (This has very much been a family decision.) The birds certainly want to be out and seem happier when they’re roaming.

So for breakfast time and beyond, the birds will be out.

Odds & sods

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As August comes to an end, I’m looking back at our summer holiday with so much joy. We have had so, so much fun.

We had our annual cottage getaway with my family. Watching Ellie, my siblings and their children in the water, out behind the boat, playing with each other made me so proud. They value family as I do and are patient and kind. They work hard at learning new skills, like waterskiing. They goof off, make up games, have fun and are so joyful. It is such a special experience to share together.

The cottage was a big highlight, but we’ve had simpler fun as well. Weekly lunches with Matt’s Dad, swimming in his pool with Matt’s aunt, his brother and nephew. Harvesting the garden. A beach day with my friend and her kids. Hosting Ellie’s friends at the farm for a day.

We’ve tried new things like a visit to the African Lion Safari (amazing) and kept up with annual traditions, like our end of summer fancy waffles (so much ice cream). We repeated some favourites, like a week of art camp and a performance of Cirque du Soleil.

This summer has been a wonderful blend of big, small, new, old, away, home adventures and special moments.

I don’t have links to share this month. I have one quote from the book I read at the cottage.

“You are right about what you said–we are thirty in our hearts, before all the disappointment, all the ways it turned out to be so much more pitiful than we thought it would be, but then again, it has also been magic.”

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Life is so much more than we expect. It is magic.

New tool for tree management

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This is my review of the Extractigator Classic tree puller. This is not a sponsored post. I bought the Extractigator with my own money.

Tree management is ongoing at the farm. Usually that means picking up branches that fall down, pruning and, at least a couple of times a year, a few days with Matt’s Dad and his chainsaw. This deals with established trees.

One type of tree I have not dealt with very much is the seedlings and saplings that pop up all over the property. Whether from squirrels or just nature, we have lots of little sprouts everywhere. Maple, walnut, buckthorn. Some of them are fine, and I leave them alone or I’m even happy to see them. But lots are not welcome. The meadow that goes down to the pond is being overrun by walnuts. The swale toward the backfield is filled with buckthorn (an invasive species).

This spring, I decided to take one small step to tackle the growth. I often buy myself a new tool for Mother’s Day. This year, I bought an Extractigator.

The Extractigator is a tree puller. With it, you can pull out unwanted plants, roots and all.

I learned of the Extractigator from a local conservation organization that does a lot of invasive species removal at their nature sanctuaries. There are lots of different tree pullers available, but the Extractigator is their go-to–and it’s made in Canada.

When it arrived, I took it straight into the meadow and quickly cleared a small patch–and realized there are so many more seedlings and saplings than I realized.

Since then, I’ve used the Extractigator in the gardens, down the driveway and at the pond. I’ve pulled out buckthorn, walnut, lilacs and more.

It is a very helpful tool to remove the trees completely, no shovel needed.

The Extractigator is easy to use. The jaws naturally rest in the open position, and you slide them around the trunk as close to the ground as possible. Then you pull the handle and lever it down toward the ground. Through the magic of physics, exponential force is applied to the tree and the Extractigator pulls it out of the ground. (The Extractigator website says “apply 10 lbs to end of handle, and 120 lbs of pulling force is applied to plant.”)

The Extractigator is not effortless. It takes some muscle to push the handle, especially if you have a more stubborn tree. There’s also some coordination required to get the jaws around the trunk, depending on how crowded your area is. The tool itself weighs 12 1/2 pounds, which can get a little heavy after working for a while. But it’s much easier and faster than a shovel.

The Extractigator website says it will remove woody plants up to 2 inches in diameter. I have found it works best on smaller trees, and it depends on the variety. Walnuts with their deep tap roots are most challenging. Even those smaller than 2 inches wouldn’t come out. Lilacs, whose roots twine just below the surface, popped out more easily.

The Extractigator is a good addition to my tree management toolkit. I hope it will help me to tackle more of the invasive growth that has spread through so many spots on the farm and be a better caretaker for this property.

Have you added any new tools to your toolbox this year? Anyone else dealing with unwanted plants? What invasive species are there around your property?

Our first broody hen(s)

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We have returned from our annual cottage holiday. And we have come home to a broody hen. Our third broody this summer.

Broodiness happens when a hen’s hormones tell her it’s time to hatch eggs. Even if there are no eggs under her (the case with our three broodies), she will stay on the nest day and night.

Hair-Do started us off this summer. (Broodiness is often triggered in the summer when the weather is hot.) She sat in the nesting box, puffed up her feathers, made a distinctive grumpy rumble when we disturbed her, and stopped laying eggs (counterintuitive, I know). We would pick her up and move her (broodies can be aggressive, but ours haven’t) and she would be so focused on sitting she wouldn’t stand up when we set her down.

Sometimes, farmers want a broody hen. For example, if you have eggs to hatch. Other times, a broody hen is not a good thing. For one, they’re not laying eggs. The lack of eggs was less of a problem for me than Hair-Do’s overall health. Broodiness elevates a chicken’s temperature–not a good thing in the summer heat. Plus I worried she wasn’t eating and drinking as she needed to.

Thinking about Hair-Do having a fever helped me understand some of the techniques to break the broodiness. Broodiness will eventually go away on its own, but it can continue for up to 7 weeks, so there are lots of techniques to try to break a broody hen.

First I took away the nesting boxes. Hair-Do and one other hen were the only ones using the boxes, so it wasn’t a big sacrifice. Everyone else lays on the floor in the exact same corner. For Hair-Do, that was a dream come true. A ready-made nest full of eggs. So that didn’t work.

Before having my own broody, I had read that one of the solutions was to soak the hen in a bucket of cold water. That sounded terrible to me, and I couldn’t imagine doing it. But thinking of ways to lower her temperature, I hauled out the hose. Poor Hair-Do had several baths over a couple of days.

We also put her in isolation. We have a vacant pen in the coop, so we moved her in there. We gave her food and water, but no straw or other bedding (nesting) materials. Most of the advice online recommends using a wire cage for this isolation stage. You can elevate the cage on some bricks or hang it so that the hen gets full air circulation all the way around. I don’t have a wire cage so I just used the empty pen.

For awhile, she sat in the corner, still fluffed up, still growling at us. After a few days, she was back on her feet and pecking around. So we put her back with the flock and all was well.

Until Boss-Boss went broody.

Boss-Boss is our big barred rock, and she is, as you might guess, bossy. While she wasn’t aggressive, she was madder than Hair-Do at being disturbed. So with Boss-Boss, we skipped the baths and went right to isolation. After a few days of an angry hen yelling at everyone through the walls, she was no longer broody.

Within a week or so, we had a few 10 egg days, which was a great sign that everyone was feeling good.

Then we went away. A few days in, I had a text from Matt’s Dad (who was sharing egg duty with a friend of mine) that we had a hen who wouldn’t get off the nest. When we returned home we found Hair-Do back in the corner sitting on everyone’s eggs. As with Boss-Boss, we spared Hair-Do the baths and tucked her into the vacant pen.

This time around, Hair-Do is very committed to her broodiness. After a week in isolation, there’s been no change, so yesterday I gave her a bath.

After her bath, she stayed outside with the other hens and even had a dust bath. With her wet feathers, things were a bit more muddy than dusty, but I was pleased to see more normal behaviour from her.

But by the end of the day, she was back in the coop, huddled in the corner, sitting.

So, Hair-Do is back in isolation and back on a regimen of baths.

Here are some sources that helped me with broodiness

Odds & sods

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Summer is my favourite time of year, and we’ve been having such a good summer so far. We’ve had lots of relaxing time at home with the animals, the garden, crafts, books, baking and projects. We went up north camping for a week. We’ve met up with friends and family. There’s been strawberry picking, haying, bonfires, kayaking and swimming.

As I wrote last month, my goal is to do summer. We’re filling it with as much fun, relaxing, play and memories as we can, and there’s more to come.

Here are some of the other things that have been part of our summer so far.

Source: John Cialone

This North Carolina mountain home feels rustic, traditional and comfortable. A lovely getaway.

Our camping week highlighted how little I need social media. I came home and purged my Instagram. I’m now following only family, close friends and a few organizations that are doing work that’s important to me.

This artist’s silhouette drawings say so much.

Source: Sergio Duce

Seeing all the wildfires happening (and experiencing the smoke ourselves) has given me new motivation to finish my death binder. If we ever have to evacuate, having copies of all of these important documents will be helpful.

On the topic of wildfires, The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells was a tough, but informative read. “We are still building… committing ourselves blindly to generations being punished by natural disasters… We tell ourselves we are “developing” the land… What we are really building are bridges to our own suffering.”

Other gentler summer reads so far have been The Music of Bees and Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin. The Library of Unruly Treasures by Jeanne Birdsall was amazing for both Ellie and me.

“If we go through life assuming everything will be complicated, and then it is complicated, doesn’t that make us better prepared? … If we expect life to be complicated, and life is complicated, then life is simple, right?”

The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers
(Another good summer read. Though more life philosophy than a children’s book.)

How has your summer been so far?

Water in the barn

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We have not had water in the barn for the whole time we’ve lived here. (By water, I’m meaning running water flowing from a tap. Not a leak. We have some of those.)

It has not been a big deal because for 13 of those years, we had no need for water in the barn.

When the chickens and turkeys arrived, they needed water, but I could easily keep them supplied with a small bucket. I filled it from the hose on the patio and carried it out to the barn. Even their big waterers weren’t a big deal to carry back and forth a few times a week. In the winter, I had a clean bucket that I filled at the kitchen sink and dumped into a barn bucket.

But ducklings are another matter. Ducks need water.

We started the ducklings with a small barrel in their run. It took a 5 gallon pail to fill even this small tub. Hauling a full 5 gallon pail out to the barn every morning was more of a workout than I wanted.

I made it a week and then I called the plumber.

We had water in the barn, kind of. The issue was to figure out if it worked.

When we first moved to the farm, all the water was in the barn. The well flowed to the barn, where the pump then sent it to the house. Everything was in an insulated box, heated by a lightbulb. The equipment was old and some was not working properly.

The set up was questionable, so we drilled a new well and installed a new pump and treatment system in the house. Then we ignored all of the equipment in the barn, figuring it was a problem for another day.

Well, the ducklings moved to the coop and another day arrived.

When we installed the new well, our contractors connected to the old pipe that ran from the barn. The idea was we could reverse the flow and push water from the new well back to the barn. So my question to my plumber was, “Can we do that?”

The first step was to figure out which pipe was the right pipe. The pump, tank and pipes in the barn were a mess. Four pipes disappeared into the ground. Which one was connected to the house? The plumber took a guess, cut a pipe, and I ran back to the house to open the valve labelled “barn.” (At least I knew which pipe was which at one end.) The plumber was able to see where the water came out, so that told us what pipe to use.

Then we had to get from the end of the pipe to the coop. Completely on the other side of the barn. I bought 100 feet of waterline and strung it across the barn, screwing it into the beams as I went.

Gratuitous picture of my cute work crew. Note, the ducklings, the instigators of this work, are not present.

The plumber came back and tied into my new waterline. He gave me a tap at the coop side, where I could install a hose that would fill tubs outside in the run or buckets in the pens. Back at the old pump box, he gave me a new shut off valve and two clean out taps, so I can drain the line for the winter.

It has been so nice to have water at the barn.

It also enables me to upgrade the ducklings’ tub. I’m on the hunt for a bathtub. If you hear of anyone getting rid of an old tub, please let me know.

Growth and harvests in the vegetable garden

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The garden is growing! I know that’s what it’s supposed to do, but it hasn’t done that for several years, so it seems remarkable.

We’re picking raspberries every day and at dinner yesterday we ate our first zucchini (of what I’m sure will be many). We’ve had lettuce and garlic scapes. We’re watching tomatoes, watermelon, beets, carrots, onions, spinach and grapes get bigger. The asparagus has fully gone to seed. We’re hoping some of Ellie’s flowers bloom.

I’ve repaired the tomato trellises, ignored the squash trellis and am experimenting with green plastic (IRT mulch) for the watermelons.

We’re weeding regularly, which feels like less of a chore when we’re so excited by the growth and prospect of harvests.

First zucchini. We grilled it for dinner. It was delicious.

Beets.

These onions are Ellie’s special project. She’s been so diligent about weeding them, even when they were as small as blades of grass and our compost had sprouted millions of miniscule weeds. Lettuce is in the background.

Carrots with garlic in the background.

Raspberries are a little sparse after not being pruned for several years. We’re picking about a pint of berries every day and lots of new canes are shooting up.

So many tomato plants. Lots of blossoms. Fruit starting to grow. Very helpful to grow them on a trellis.

Watermelons on IRT mulch. The vines are starting to go crazy. The plastic is supposed to warm up the soil, helpful in our shorter growing season. It’s also suppressing weeds better than I expected.

Teeny tiny baby watermelon.

Asparagus gone to seed. Grapes going crazy tangling themselves in the ferns. My ancient tarp still hanging around.

So, so many grapes.

Slide the centre bar to see the garden grow.

There is more work to be done and more harvests to come. I’m looking forward to it all.

Home Goals 2026 mid-year report

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I started 2026 with a small list of home goals. Just three.

I really enjoy setting home goals every year. I like planning my projects, being organized with my time, working towards something, achieving what I set out to do. Even with a smaller number of goals, being clear about what I want to do helps me feel focused.

We’re already halfway through the year, so it’s time to check in on how I’m doing so far.

Ellie’s playroom

Ellie’s playroom was the first project of the year. And it’s done! There was a bit of construction and a lot of decoration and organization. This was a pretty fun project, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. This room is the perfect representation of Ellie.

Catch up on the playroom:

Playroom makeover plans

Playroom progress

Loft reading nook in the playroom

Colourful, cozy, creative playroom

Garden(s)

The vegetable garden has been my major focus this year. After years of neglect, it was very overgrown, and it’s taken a lot of work to get it to a useable, plantable state. I’ve successfully cleared–and planted–half the garden. Ellie and I have been diligent about visiting and weeding it pretty regularly, trying to give it the attention it needs.

We have tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, onions, carrots, zucchini, beets, watermelon, raspberries, grapes and lots of flowers growing. We’ve eaten asparagus, garlic scapes, lettuce and raspberries so far. I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished and am optimistic we might be entering a new era for gardening at the farm.

Catch up on the garden:

The year of the garden begins

Progress and planting in the vegetable garden

Prepare for the worst

I feel like I’m finally making progress on preparing for the worst, after having it on my to-do list for many years. I’ve updated my will and put all of my important documents together in a “death binder.” I have more to do, but I’m feeling much more comfortable with where I’m at.

I feel the same about my 2026 home goals list overall. Comfortable with where I’m at. With having a smaller number of goals, I’ve been able to be very focused and I’ve made good progress on all of my projects.

I’m feeling pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished and that gives me some excitement to see what else I can do with the remainder of the year.

How are you feeling about 2026? What’s your biggest accomplishment so far this year? What are you most proud of for the first half of 2026?

Canada Day

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“From a historical point of view, “Canada” is a changing thing.”

A History of Canada In Ten Maps by Adam Shoalts

I recently read A History of Canada In Ten Maps by Adam Shoalts. It was one of the most engaging explanations of Canada’s history that I’ve experienced. The book reminded me that Canada–any country–is not fixed.

From the Indigenous nations to the Vikings to the French, English, Americans, fur companies, and explorers, territory was always shifting. Even in my life, borders were redrawn when Nunavut became a territory in 1999.

Beyond the physical environment and official boundaries, attitudes and opinions change.

Shoalts wrote, “If there’s been one constant throughout Canada’s history, it’s been our wilderness… Unspoiled wilderness… is the bedrock of our country–the harsh but beautiful reality that gives meaning to our national identity.”

While wilderness may be part of our national identity, I’m not sure many Canadians feel wilderness at the heart of their personal identities. Many exist so distant from nature, let alone wilderness.

While the farm is far from unspoiled wilderness, we live closer to nature here than most people do. We feel the rhythms of the seasons, pay closer attention to the changes in the weather, see what is happening in our environment more clearly. How low or high is the creek? How hard is the ground? How green are the fields? What colour are the trees?

With global warming, those observations are weighted with anxiety. But they are also lifted with possibility. This property has the potential to grow food, filter water, hold carbon, make oxygen, provide homes. I feel a responsibility to care for this small section of Canada. To do my best for the land and everything that lives here. To do my best for Ellie’s future.

Shoalts ends his book with a plea to preserve wilderness.

“The Haudenosaunee concept of “Turtle Island”–the idea that all North America is a fragile, interconnected ecosystem that humans share equally with plants and animals–offers one such possibility. Perhaps the revival of… Indigenous knowledge holds out the hope that we’ll recognize Canada’s remaining wild lands and wildlife for the irreplaceable gifts that they are.”

On Canada Day, this feels like a good wish for our country.