The month began with Easter and an epic egg hunt and outdoor games with my whole family here at the farm. We all had so much fun. I spent an evening at a dinner theatre with my friends–a different activity for us and a nice night out together. Yesterday, we went to a community breakfast with Matt’s whole family. It is so special when everyone makes it to a gathering and we can all spend time with each other.
We also spent a day with my brother helping him prepare for a big renovation at his house. It’s been a while since my brother and I have worked together, but we fell into our old rhythm easily. It’s a family rhythm all my siblings share. It comes from years of working with my Dad and my Mom. From being one of six. From sharing what has to be done and balancing everyone’s needs.
I love feeling that rhythm. I enjoy construction and hard work. I love contributing. My brother’s renovation is a big and important thing for his family. It’s exciting and a bit nerve-wracking. Supporting him, his wife and their kids and doing a little bit to make things easier is meaningful.
Showing up, whether it’s for celebrations or for work, is important to me. Earlier this year, I came up with a “life razor” inspired by The 5 Types of Wealth. The idea is to develop a “single, identity-defining statement” that describes how you approach your life. Mine is “I am a person who takes care of the people, places and things that matter most to me.”
I use this statement to make decisions about what I’m going to do, whether it’s hosting a get-together, spending a Saturday swinging a sledgehammer, mowing the grass so the farm looks nice (soon), texting a friend or having a quiet “home day” with Ellie.
Here are some other things I am caring about this month
Cleaning up litter from the roadside is one of the ways I take care of the farm each spring. One of my favourite storytellers shared his unique perspective on littering.
We’re ending April with some tree cutting with Matt’s Dad, a great example of us caring for each other and the farm. I’m going on a field trip with Ellie. And we’re preparing to host Matt’s aunts and other family this weekend. Lots of care.
Who did you spend time with in April? Any crafty inspiration to share? Does anyone else have a life razor or personal vision statement?
One year ago we brought 10 fluffy little chicks home. Adding chickens to the farm was my dream long before we moved here, and I’m so happy it came true.
To celebrate one year with the chickens, I’m looking back at some of the highlights.
The benefits of day-old birds
We chose to get day-old birds, rather than ready-to-lay, hatching our own, or adopting someone else’s flock. Because we’ve been with them since they hatched, holding them, feeding them, caring for them, our chickens are extremely used to us and super easy to manage. They are calm (as chickens go), comfortable being handled and want to be with us.
Hair-Do (a favourite hen) will ride on Ellie’s lap on her saucer sing. Clucker (extremely opinionated and food motivated) comes running anytime we’re out. All of the birds come to the fence when they see us drive in the driveway or heading for the coop.
Chickens are fun on their own, but the real reason we got them was eggs. Our first egg arrived mid-August when the hens were about 16 1/2 weeks old. We’ve not had a day without eggs since. Laying decreased a bit in the winter and when the birds molted (more on this below), but now we have many days where everyone lays.
An extra bit of fun with our chickens is their different coloured eggs. We have 3 barred rocks (brown eggs), 3 azure blues (blue eggs) and 4 olives (green eggs). I’ve not noticed a difference in production between the breeds.
On the topic of eggs, all of our ladies lay on the floor. All in the same corner. Meaning there are frequently line-ups and pile-ups. For a human to access the corner and collect the eggs requires ducking and contortions. The eggs get stepped on and sat on and are usually quite dirty. It’s awkward for everyone. I installed 3 nesting boxes when I built the coop, but the hens don’t care.
We’ve tried plastic eggs in the boxes to demonstrate what they’re for. We occasionally stuff a hen in the box. They usually hop out.
But we have recently had some success. One day I showed up during a contentious competition for the favoured corner. I scooped up Hair-Do, one of the combatants, and popped her into a nesting box. She stayed in and laid an egg. Since then, she’s been laying in the box every day. Another hen has recently followed Hair-Do’s example.
I’m thinking I might try adding some herb cuttings to the straw in the nesting boxes to see if this encourages any other hens to check them out.
The magic of the poop board
A part of the coop that’s been working exactly as intended is the poop board. This is a wide shelf or floor that I installed under the roosts. The idea is to catch the poop that the chickens make when they’re roosting–and they make a lot. Once a week I scrape the poop into a large bucket and dump it on the manure pile. The poop board keeps a ton of manure out of the straw and helps me keep the coop much cleaner.
The unending thirst for water
I’ve been surprised by how much the chickens drink. In the warmer weather, they have a large waterer in the run along with a bucket in the coop. In the winter, they had just their indoor bucket, and I had to refill it at least once a day. I bring a large bucket of water out every morning and top up their drinking water as needed. We don’t have a tap at the coop (yet), but it hasn’t been onerous to carry buckets from the house.
The worst timing to molt
Molting is the process where chickens renew their feathers. Usually it happens about once a year around the end of summer. Our chickens started molting after Christmas. Terrible timing as temperatures were very cold. Along with losing a lot of feathers, one hen’s comb and wattle shrunk dramatically and turned a very pale pink. We started calling her the pale hen. We added a daily ration of meal worms to increase their protein and waited. Pretty much everyone bounced back really well, and our pale hen is back to normal.
The problem with picking
One side effect of the molt seems to be some picking, where hens pick on certain birds and pull out feathers. Anything that’s different will cause chickens to peck. We watch out for wounds or spots that might inspire curiosity. Picking happens for several reasons, including lack of space, protein and boredom. We have a couple of hens who have lost some feathers around their rear ends. The worst case is a hen (Cinnamon) who is missing a lot of feathers on her back. I think she may have been mounted by another hen and bullied.
We’ve been letting the chickens free range when we’re outside to keep an eye on them. This helps to relieve boredom and give them something else to pay attention to. Unfortunately, our bare naked ladies are not likely to grow new feathers until they go through another molt.
I’m planning to make a cape (official chicken term is saddle or apron) to cover Cinnamon’s back to protect her until then.
Space constraints
Overall, the coop and run are working well and I’m really proud of what I built. During the winter, the hens spent a lot of time in the coop. While technically the coop has enough space for 10 birds, it feels small when they’re all inside for multiple days. This could be another reason for the picking. We’ve given the chickens a double run, but even it feels tight sometimes. In addition to free ranging occasionally, we’ve talked about using poultry netting to expand the run.
I also want to add some features to their existing run to make it more interesting. Right now the run is flat, bare dirt (or mud thanks to all the rain we’ve had). We built a swing when we moved the chickens outside, but no one has been interested in it. I’m going to try some other perches or structures to give them some other things to do.
I also have some changes in mind before next winter, so they can be outside more easily.
We have hung vegetables and even a small container of scratch mix from the roof of the run as a kind of chicken pinata. These have provided some entertainment for all of us.
(There are holes cut in the bottle, so the scratch falls out when they peck it.)
The past year with our chickens has been fun. I love seeing Ellie’s confidence, care and responsibility with the birds. It’s not been too much work to add them to our family, and the joy we get from them is worth it.
Caring for anything is an ongoing process of learning and adjusting. We are continuing to do that with our chickens.
Renovating our main bathroom was the project of the year in 2025. I love how the bathroom turned out. I got the clean, traditional, farm look I wanted, and I did it pretty affordably. I feel like I found a good balance between high and low when it came to the budget.
Today, I thought I’d look at three splurges and three saves.
Splurge #1: Marble counters
I love marble and I really wanted real stone for the bathroom. I knew I was doing undermount sinks. This meant I had to do a solid surface countertop. I chose a beautiful marble, then added a custom edge, sculpted backsplash and sidesplashes and a ledge in the tub. All of these details were not cheap, but for me they were totally worth it. The marble is a statement for the whole bathroom. The backsplash and edge profile add a lot of traditional character to the room.
Cost: $4,500
Splurge #2: Heated floors
Our house does not have great insulation, so many winter days, the floor in the bathroom was cold. While I fixed the insulation in the walls, I wanted extra coziness with heated floors. It is such a nice feeling to step onto the floor and feel the heat under my feet. As someone who is usually cold, I will take any opportunity to be warm.
Cost: $1,245 (includes running a new circuit to the bathroom)
Splurge #3: Taps
I knew I wanted very traditional looking two handle taps. My plumber recommended Moen and looking through their inventory I found only one tap that I liked. When I saw the price, I questioned myself. Any taps I’ve bought in the past have been very inexpensive. $100 is usually my threshold. These were beyond that by more than a bit. I wasn’t willing to compromise on the look I wanted, so I decided to go for it. I have no regrets.
Cost: $1,220 (includes both sinks and the tub)
Save #1: Layout
Aside from bumping the tub out slightly to accommodate a new storage ledge, I kept the layout of the bathroom the same, which helped to save money. Plumbing and electrical didn’t have to move dramatically. Walls didn’t move. The window stayed where it was. The renovation stayed within the walls of the bathroom.
Save #2: Lighting
Lighting is very simple in our bathroom. There are two over the mirror vanity lights. That’s it. While layered lighting is popular in high-end design, the cost can quickly add up. We didn’t have wall space for sconces. I didn’t feel we needed potlights. I found two lights I liked and called it a day. The lights came from a big box store and were not expensive ($140 each).
Save #3: Thrifting, reusing and DIY
I felt like I was renovating two bathrooms in this project. The double sinks meant a bigger vanity, larger countertop, two sinks, two taps, two mirrors, two lights. Doubling the costs adds up quickly. So saving wherever I could was important. That meant the toilet that we installed 14 years ago went back in. It’s already low flow and still works well. The black metal hooks that hung in the old bathroom worked in our new design, so they went back up. The wooden towel rings, toilet paper holder, towel bar were a combination of thrifting and DIY. The shower curtain I sewed myself. The baskets in the hutch I’ve had since our first house. They fit and still look good, so I reused them.
Tip #1: Shop around
Sourcing everything for the bathroom took a while. I visited lots of shops, sent lots of emails, did lots of online searches to find exactly what I wanted.
The wood arched mirrors are a good example. I looked for years to find mirrors in the style and price I wanted to pay. When I finally found them, I knew they were a good deal and ordered them right away. When they arrived, I discovered they were on sale online. I called customer service and got a price adjustment.
For the hutch and vanity, I met with a few custom cabinet makers and received some exorbitant quotes. I regrouped and found the vanity I liked at Home Depot. (I discovered its price also fluctuated, but HD was not as accommodating about a price adjustment–lesson learned: pay attention even after you’ve bought something).
For the hutch, I found a local Mennonite builder that was pretty affordable. A large custom, solid wood cabinet designed to my exact specifications was $3,400.
Other choices were affordable without a lot of effort. My tile–the only one I liked at the tile shop–was $6 a square foot.
Tip #2: DIY versus professional help
Obviously, the fact that I was able to do so much work in the bathroom was a big saving. I was general contractor, carpenter, painter, seamstress and designer on this project. While I love DIY, I didn’t hesitate to bring in professional help where I needed or wanted it. The plumbing, electrical, tile and counter were all outsourced. I also worked with a consultant at a bathroom supply store to order most of the elements for the room.
I first went to the store for research. I thought they would have a good sense of what was available, but I assumed they would be waaaaaay out of my budget. When the consultant sent my quote, it was at or below any big box price I could find. They gave me “contractor pricing” on taps, tub, sinks, drains–everything I needed–and they included all the parts I needed. I didn’t have to go searching for the right drains and fittings because they supplied them all. Also, there was no fee for the consultant herself.
While I’m not anti-big box stores, I highly recommend visiting a store that specializes in what you’re looking for. They know the options and materials that are available, have great advice and often good prices. Along with the bathroom store, my other go-to specialists are my local lumber yard, my favourite trim shop and now my cabinet maker.
Total cost
The final cost for the bathroom was about $35,000. This is not an insignificant amount of money, but I feel like I did pretty well managing my budget. I had saved for this renovation and had the money to cover everything I wanted to do.
I believe the point of budgeting is not to spend as little as possible. It’s to spend your money wisely. For me, that meant buying the expensive taps, but saving on the lights. Hiring the professional tiler, but saving on the tile.
I have two goals with renovations: get what I want and do it as affordably as possible. Affordable doesn’t always mean cheapest. I want to finish my renovations feeling like I haven’t compromised. That’s exactly the result I achieved in the bathroom.
How do you balance splurging and saving in your life? What budgeting tips do you have? What’s most important to you in a renovation?
One of my goals for this year is to prepare for the worst. An item that’s been on my list for a long time is to make copies of all my important documents.
Reading about fires and floods, documentation is always something that people discuss. As well, having been through Matt’s death, I know exactly how much paperwork is involved and how helpful it is for my executor to have it all in one place.
I know why I should do this. But it’s overwhelming to think about getting it all together.
Then last year, I saw an article about a “death binder” in our community paper. The author wrote, “a death binder is a comprehensive collection of documents and information that can help your loved ones manage your affairs in the event of your passing.”
He listed all of the items a death binder should include: personal and financial information like your social insurance number and bank account details, as well as important contacts, passwords, pet care instructions, messages for loved ones and more.
It was a clear, simple list. It felt doable.
Even better, it was divided into seven different sections. So I came up with the plan of doing one section a month. I also invited my Mom to do it with me.
January was for personal information. February was financial. In March we did properties and assets. Now we’re working on accounts and passwords. May will be funeral and burial wishes, June letters and messages, July any other considerations.
I’m making hard copies as well as digital copies of everything. I’ll keep one set for myself and give another to my executor.
Working through it piece by piece feels manageable, and I’m glad to finally be making progress on this important task.
Does anyone else have a death binder? What information do you think is most important to pass on?
How is it almost April? I feel like I blinked and March was done. Wow.
Spring is sneaking into the farm. From snow at the start of the month, we’re now seeing little green shoots popping up in the gardens. We’ve started a few seeds inside and have been boiling lots of sap for syrup. Cranes are hanging out in the fields and red winged blackbirds have returned to the pond.
There’s been lots of fun with our domestic animals and family too. St. Patrick’s Day, March Break and birthdays gave us reasons to enjoy being together with everyone. The chickens are laying steadily, and I made my first batch of devilled eggs for a party with my friends. They were good, but it’s a lot of work for a two-bite snack. We marked Matt’s birthday as well.
We’re looking forward to more fun as spring settles in.
Here are some of the fun things that caught my eye this month.
My friend has started Whiskers and Books. She makes “blind date with a book” bundles, where you don’t know what book you’re going to get. When I was struggling to find a book I liked, I bought a package from her and her choice was a good one.
These adult Easter activities are hilarious. We did the money egg hunt a few years ago and it was a lot of fun. (The post also makes a convincing case of why it’s a good thing for kids to see adults having fun.)
I love the wood cabinet in our bathroom. I’ve seen a few in kitchens recently, and now I’m thinking I should do something similar.
We’re ending the month with a dentist appointment–which I’m bundling with lunch with my Mom to make it more fun, more progress on the playroom and preparing for Easter. Easter is my favourite holiday, and we will be hosting two get-togethers. The farm is the absolute best place for egg hunts.
Did March go fast for you? What did you celebrate this month? What wildlife have you spotted at your home? Any fun Easter recipes to share? Any good book recommendations? Any interesting videos to pass along?
Last post I shared plans for Ellie’s playroom makeover. Today, I’m back with an update. Thanks to March Break, we’ve made really good progress.
The biggest milestone is paint. Look at these walls. Ellie couldn’t decide what colour she wanted. Then she spotted a pink, purple and blue cloud-like shoebox and said, “If I could paint the walls like that, that’s what I want.” We took a look for wallpaper, sought advice from staff at a couple of paint stores, searched for tutorials online, collected lots of paint chips, tested some samples and then went for it. She loves the result.
We also started building a cozy corner. High on the priority list for this room is a reading nook. Ellie loves an oversized chair, so we considered a few options and then decided to build a loft nook. This way, she still has a lot of floor space for other activities. The platform is in place and next up is cushions (and a taller ladder).
On the topic of cushions, while she was off for March Break we also went fabric shopping. Ellie picked out a bunch of beautiful fabrics that all coordinated really well with the walls and with each other. We’ve recovered the desk chair already. Other fabrics are going to make curtains and a cushion for the cozy corner and cover a large bulletin board that we’ll hang over her desk.
We’ve already started putting the room back together a little bit. Shelves and bins are set up in her closet, and we’ve loaded them up with crafts and dolls (note the welcome message on the mirror). The desk is in place, curtains are hung, and we reorganized her main craft shelf. The dress-up zone is back with hooks and a big basket of outfits. Matt’s nephew helped me carry in some bookshelves that we had stashed in the barn, so I’ll be redoing those to give Ellie more storage. Some pillows and blankets have been added to the cozy corner and we’ve already snuggled in with a few chapters of her current book.
This is turning out to be a really fun project. Everything is designed for Ellie and what she likes and what she does. We’re really enjoying working on it together and seeing it come to life.
Imagine you are a creative young child. Your mind is brimming with ideas for drawings, stories and crafts. You’re inspired by everything you encounter and want to try so many things.
Now imagine the perfect space to fulfill all of that imagination and creation.
That is my goal in making an amazing play space for Ellie.
This project has been on my wishlist for awhile, and we’re finally making it happen.
The space we’re using is Ellie’s old nursery. This room has gone through a few different phases.
When we first moved in, it held boxes that we hadn’t unpacked… for about five years. Then it became my office. Then Ellie’s nursery. Then a shared office-sewing-creating-playing space for both her and me… but with no real functional or decorative changes.
Now it’s time to make it Ellie’s own room again.
The first step was a bit of construction. Some readers may recall that there was a pocket door between this room and my bedroom. It was helpful when this room was Ellie’s nursery, but not necessary any longer. So I wanted to fill in the doorway. Normally this would be straight forward, but I decided to make it more complicated. Beside the pocket door and behind the door to my bedroom, the wall bumped out by about one foot. If I was going to wall-in the doorway, I might as well straighten the rest of the wall at the same time. (The floorplan below might help to clarify my description.)
I removed the little bump out. This involved stripping the drywall, taking out the old studs, relocating some electrical, framing the new wall and hanging new drywall.
I finally finished the drywall on the weekend, so we are now ready to officially begin the playroom makeover.
First up is paint, and Ellie has picked such a fun design–pink, purple and blue water colour tie dye. We have plans for a little loft in one corner, which will serve as a cozy reading nook on top and a secret fort below. My DIY knock-off Eames hang-it-alls will return for a dress-up zone. Matt’s desk will remain to give her a good crafting and creating spot. And we’ll be adding lots of storage for all of her toys and supplies.
We’re both really excited by this project and are enjoying working on it together. I’m sure we’ll be even more excited with the result.
That night I wrote my very first post on this blog. It was brief. There was no picture.
The beginning
We bought a farm. After two months of waiting, a year and a half of looking and at least half my life dreaming, it’s ours.
This is the start of something.
“Something.” Do you feel the possibility in that word? I had no idea what might happen.
Now, “something” feels small to describe the past 14 years. My memories are full of people, projects, places, moments.
I’ve been thinking recently about time. When I tucked Ellie into bed on her birthday, I thought, “She will never again be seven.”
Never.
Time goes only one direction. When a moment is gone, we will never have it again.
I can’t go back to 14 years ago. I can’t bring back my Dad and all of our Saturdays working on the house. I can’t bring back Matt and our evenings together. I can’t bring back the parties, the walks with Baxter, the scratches with Ralph, the harvests, the sunrises, the snowfalls, the millions of moments that make up our life. I can’t go back for myself to the younger version of who I was. For me too, life goes in one direction.
But I can look ahead and do everything I can for this property and for Ellie and for the future.
Each day is a start of something. This property and the people who are part of it are so full of possibilities.
February is the month of love, and that is amplified in our family. We celebrated Valentine’s Day, Family Day, Cigo’s gotcha day and several birthdays. The biggest celebration of all is Ellie’s birthday.
Ellie is helpful, loving, thoughtful, enthusiastic, kind, careful, sensitive and happy. Most of all, she is fun. I never expected to have as much fun with her as I do.
To celebrate Ellie, here are a list of fun things we’ve been up to recently.
There are those that hunt monsters to harm them and there are those that hunt monsters to help them. Which one are you? We are definitely on team help after reading The Trouble with the Two Headed Hydra. We’re looking forward to the other books in this series.
We loved watching the Olympics together. The “Out of Shape Olympics” series was a fun addition to the competitions.
This week marks the one year anniversary of our new eavestrough on the barn. A momentous occasion, I know. So momentous I didn’t share it a year ago when it happened.
But it is an important project.
Adding eavestrough to the barn had been on my list for awhile. The eavestrough that was there was in pretty bad shape. Lots of pieces had fallen off. A few downspouts were still in place, but they were full of holes or not connected to anything.
And eavestrough matters. The barn is more than 100 years old. Moisture seeps into the old stone foundation and weakens it. Without eavestrough, the rain pours off the roof and drips right next to the building. If I want to preserve the barn–and I absolutely do–I had to get the water away.
But putting eavestrough on a barn is a bit different than putting it on a house. Our barn is big. It’s tall. Part of the roof is covered with solar panels. It took me a bit to find a company to do it. (I went with Siderman and highly recommend them.)
Then we had to work through the options of how to do it. The barn has a large roof that sheds a lot of water. We needed large trough to handle the volume. I ended up choosing a 6 inch trough (an inch bigger than standard residential eavestrough).
I also chose a dark grey colour for the aluminum to try to blend into the weathered barn wood a bit.
The biggest consideration was not the barn itself, but the pines right beside the barn. These trees are super tall and lose a ton of needles. The needles fall onto the roof and clog the eavestroughs. On the house, I clean the gutters several times a year. But the barn is super tall. There is no way I’m cleaning those gutters.
Most gutters these days have built in guards to protect against leaves. I needed something that would work for teeny tiny pine needles. My contractor felt that they had a solution, so I went with their recommendation.
The size of the barn presented another challenge in the form of the budget. I was looking for about 250 feet of eavestrough, which is not cheap. To save money, I eliminated one length of trough. On the back of the barn, we have an addition. So I decided not to put trough on the upper roof. Water can simply drip off onto the lower roof of the addition. The addition did get trough and downspouts, so the double volume of water will still be carried away from the barn.
My contractors tried to squeeze me in at the end of 2024, but the schedule ended up not working. By the time they could come, it was the start of February and snow had arrived. Not ideal weather for eavestrough, but they made it work.
They removed the old trough. Then they replaced the facia boards and wrapped them in aluminum for extra protection.
They put up the new trough and downspouts. On the front of the barn, the roof was so sloped the gutters flowed to the middle. So we have two huge downspouts spitting out onto the centre of the bank. On the back, the downspouts are at either end of the addition.
A year later, the barn roof is covered in snow and everything is frozen. But I know when it melts the water will be routed safely away, the foundation will be more protected and this beautiful structure will be a little more preserved.
Home on 129 Acres 