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.
In January, Instagram was filled with people sharing photos from 2016–10 years ago. Though I didn’t do an Instagram post, I did take a look back through the blog. A whole year of posts and projects from a decade years ago.
It was interesting to remember where we were and some of what happened. Some things are the same. Some things are different (the number of projects being one).
It was really fun to look back, so I thought I’d share some highlights with you. I know some people have been here since 2016 while others are new. Whether these are familiar to you or not, I hope you enjoy some of these memories.
The basement was a big focus in 2016.
We did our major renovation in 2012 (continuing into 2013) when we first moved in. But four years later the closet under the stairs still needed shelving and we decided another closet in the laundry room instead of cabinets and counter would be more useful for us.
I also added some fun stuff to the basement, like a large chalkboard, oversize scrabble tiles, and the shower curtain I’d been hunting for in the bathroom, which allowed me to write the long overdue reveal post.
Amongst the small adjustments we had a bigger issue. The basement was leaking. So we had to undo some of our renovations and have it properly waterproofed.
Upstairs, I made over the guest room, which was a lovely space while it lasted. This room is now Ellie’s bedroom. I also posted floorplans for possible future renovations. It’s neat to see what’s come true (garage, mudroom and a new bathroom) and what’s still on my wishlist (porch, kitchen, principal bedroom).
It was a big year outside in the vegetable garden. The gardens are my major home goal for 2026, and it was neat to see that they were in 2016 as well.
To get the garden in shape, Sarah in Illinois (remember when Sarah used to write for the blog?) and I kicked off the season with a DIY duel. I built trellises for the raspberries, squash and tomatoes, and Matt and I trenched a waterline out to the garden. I’m hoping some of that 2016 energy carries forward to 2026.
Seeing how clean the garden was was a bit shocking. It is so overgrown now. We have a lot of work ahead of us. But seeing how productive it was gives me hope.
2016 was our first maple syrup season and first monarch hatch. Those are traditions that continue and are so much fun for us every year.
Also a tradition, someone missed a stop sign, skipped the ditch, crashed through the gate and ended up in our east field (it still happens every so often).We had a grass fire in our ditch that fortunately did little damage (and has not happened again), though the little tree still has some bare spots ten years later.
I started my shift to freelancing and consulting in 2016 when I switched to working four days instead of five. I am so grateful that I made this move. I say often that time is the most valuable thing I have. Time gives me Ellie, Cigo, the animals, the farm, my projects, writing. Freelancing and teaching give me control over my time. My work has shifted several times since 2016, but the flexibility and prioritizing time has continued.
The blog is special. I had no idea when I started it how long it would continue and how incredible it is to have a chronicle of our life here at the farm. Ten years ago, it was Matt, Baxter, Ralph, me and the farm. Now, it is Ellie, Cigo, Cedar, the chickens, me and the farm. Reflecting on the journey from where I was 10 years ago to where I am today is meaningful.
Life builds and changes, sometimes in ways we can never predict. It was a good life 10 years ago. It’s a good life now.
Thank you to everyone who’s been along for the journey. Whether from 2016 or today, I appreciate you being here.
If you’d like to browse the whole 2016 archive yourself, you can access it here.
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