An evening walk along the pond trail

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The nature of farm living is that it’s tough work. Last night, after a day full of hard labour, my skin was stinging from scrapes, thorn pricks and a pretty decent sunburn.

My muscles and grip strength were gone. At one point, Matt had said, “Pull!” as we were stringing the fence in the garden. And at my response–“I’ve got nothing left!”–he just laughed.

It was after 5 o’clock, and the dog still needed his afternoon walk–a daunting prospect.

But the nature of farm living is that there’s also an incredible setting, right in our backyard, so Baxter and I headed for the pond trail.

Matt cut this trail for us last year. Some of our hard work earlier earlier in the day had been sharpening the mower blades (with help from my parents), attaching the deck to the tractor and mowing the grass.

In addition to doing the lawn, Matt did a pass over the trail, so Bax and I had a lovely space to hike.

We walked alongside the lilac hedge that leads from the house down to the water.

We turned left and followed the trail along the shore towards one of our old apple trees. This tree is a showstopper this year. Absolutely covered in blossoms.

From there, the trail heads into the small pasture behind the barn, following the fence at the edge of the marsh.

It loops around past the manure pile and then up to my favourite tree.

We took a detour by the garden to check out the new fence.

And as I headed to house, Baxter decided he was going to stay out for awhile yet. He laid down beside the garden and gazed back down the trail and across the farm.

The view is fields and forest and trees and marsh, and it’s worth any scrapes, pricks, burns, aches, hard work and exhaustion.

The payoff–this farm–is exactly where I want to be.

Picking up after the litterbugs

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve decided that smoking, drinking and littering should all be added to the list of deadly sins.

Saturday was the annual spring clean up in our area, so I headed out with a roll of garbage bags, two pairs of gloves and, of course, my usual sidekick.

Most of the litter that we picked up was cigarette packages, paper coffee cups and beer cans. Given that most of the trash was thrown out of the windows of passing cars, I’m concerned that so much of it consisted of empty containers that formerly contained alcoholic beverages.

So perhaps to clarify, the deadly sin should be drinking and driving, not just drinking.

The annual litter clean up invariably leaves me feeling disgusted with humanity.

Not all of humanity, though. This year we had professional help from 1-800-Got-Junk. The team was driving around the concessions, picking up the bags that had been left on the roadside.

Baxter was also his usual helpful self. He appreciated the opportunity to spend as much time as he wanted wading in the ditch.

When he tired of getting muddy, he returned to sniffing and sunbathing.

Here are a few highlights of this year’s clean up:

Various car parts–headlights, bumpers, hubcaps, a license plate. Our ditches are very deep, and apparently the stop sign across from the east field is invisible.

SPB, I have your gloves… Well, two of them. The third odd one went in the trash.

We made it approximately halfway around our 2km of roadside. The grand tally over three hours of clean-up was three bags of garbage, three bins of recycling, three hubcaps and three gloves. Oh, and those three new sins.

Have you done a spring clean-up at your house? What’s the weirdest trash you’ve ever come across? What sins would you add to the list if you could?

Summer family

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Recently, I’ve started following a few more farm blogs. Even though we live on a farm, I am definitely not a farmer and there’s a lot that I don’t know.

One of the blogs I’ve been reading is Dinner Starts Here.

Contributors to this site are young farmers from Ontario. They write about their lives on the farm and “how they’re producing everything from berries to beef, milk and eggs to wheat, soybeans, potatoes and maple syrup.” The idea is to help people understand what goes into producing the food we eat and get to know the people who make our food.

Last week I came across a post about one of the farmer’s summer family. She wrote about the migrant workers they hire every year to work on their farm. She said, “Our guys are one of the major backbones of the business. They are vital to our operations successes – we quite literally could not exist without them.”

Photo courtesy of Dinner Starts Here

I realized that after reading her post, I had some misconceptions about migrant workers, so I reached out to the Dinner Starts Here team and asked if I could share her post.

Erin gives a good explanation of the important role migrant workers play on Ontario farms, and it’s a great introduction to the people who produce the food we eat.

Contrary to why a lot of people believe farms hire migrant workers – it’s not cheaper or easier… it’s actually is a lot more expensive and a lot more work for us to hire them than it would be to hire local staff. First – we’re required (as we are required to pay all of our staff) to pay them minimum wage. Some of our guys who have been returning year after year have earned increased wages like all of our staff does when they return year after year. Then – we have to pay for housing, a portion of their utilities, and a portion of their airfare to and from Mexico. We also spend countless hours taking them shopping for anything they need – from groceries to new clothes to take home for their kid… which is a tremendous amount of work, time and effort. But in the end… for us… it’s worth it.

I encourage you to pop over to Dinner Starts Here and read the rest of the post.

Spring thaw

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The calendar now says it’s spring, and the temperature–and as a result the farm–is starting to agree.

What’s spring looking like for you?

A bit of spring

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Just a wee peek of spring today. My Mom bought me a beautiful bouquet of these tulips last year, and I’ve been saving the photos–apparently for a moment just like this.

After about 40 straight days of sub-zero temperatures and the coldest February since 1875, we finally made it to March–the month of spring. Never mind that we had snow and freezing rain all day yesterday, and it still looks like winter outside. Today we’re supposed to hit -1ºC. That’s positively balmy!

Have there been any signs of spring where you live?

How to clean a stainless steel sink

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Whoever coined the term “stainless steel” was stretching a wee bit, in my humble opinion. Or else he never lived in the country. Here at the farm, where our water flows through a chemistry set before it ever reaches the taps, stainless steel is definitely not stainless.

Behold the laundry room sink.

Now, I will admit that I wash more paintbrushes than laundry in this sink. However, beyond the paint spatters, there are watermarks, film and just a general dullness.

In my sparkly new laundry room, this would not do.

I tried various methods to clean it.

Every cleanser I own. Nope.

Every cleanser I own with lotsa, lotsa elbow grease. Nope.

Pinterest remedies like a vinegar-soaked paper towel wrap. Nope.

Nothing could break through the dullness and bring back the shine.

Then, about a year ago, I saw a tweet from Jordana at White Cabana mentioning Universal Stone. I bought it mainly for my silver, which it polished fairly well. However, as I read the back of the container, one phrase jumped out at me: “stainless steel.”

Might as well give it a try.

Gentle readers, the clouds parted, the seas calmed, the heavens shone… and so did my sink. There’s even a reflection!

Turns out my so-called “stainless” steel sink had some kind of tarnish on it.

It still took lotsa elbow grease, and the finish still isn’t perfect, but it’s a heckuva lot better than it was before. Oh, and I still don’t believe in stainless steel.

Do you believe in stainless steel? Any cleaning tips to share? Who else washes more paint brushes than laundry?

And a disclaimer: The Universal Stone people have no idea who I am. I bought my own Universal Stone with my own money.

Conversations on a snowy Saturday afternoon

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

“Jul, it’s me. I’m at the corner in front of your place. I slid off the road. I think I can get it out with the four-wheel drive. Can you come down and direct me?” So said my youngest sister when the phone rang on Saturday afternoon.

Me to Matt as we walked down the road: “There’s no way we’re getting that out.”

Me to the farmer who rents our fields: “Will, it’s Julia from down at the corner. My sister went into the ditch in front of our place. Can you come pull her out?”

His response is garbled, as I can hear he’s already on the move: “The corner? Ditch? Tow? I’ll be right there.”

Numerous drivers, including a patrolling cop: “Is everyone okay?”

The guy at the wheel of a passing snowplow: “I can pull you out.”

Me to the farmer: “Will, it’s Julia. There’s a snowplow here. He’s going to pull her out. Thanks.”

Guy who stopped to help: “What happened? Did you take the turn too fast?”

Matt (offended): “It wasn’t me! It’s my sister-in-law.”

The snowplow driver to my sister: “Put it in neutral and don’t touch anything.”

The motorist who had pulled over to help just happened to know the snowplow driver, so he hooked up the chains to connect my sister’s truck to the back of the plow. Another motorist put on his four-ways and turned his van sideways to block the road.

With a creak and a shimmy the snowplow pulled the truck up the bank and back onto the road. The chains were unhooked, everyone got into their cars and continued on their way through the snow.

It was a nice example of how helpful people can be.

Tractor tag team

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We had a snow day last Monday. A free day. Such a luxury.

Another luxury? Not having to shovel our own snow.

Wiley has his snowblower, but he wasn’t feelin’ it last week. Fortunately, on days when we get a big snowfall our farmer usually comes by to plow us out.

Now I love our little tractor, but I’ve learned that I have an appreciation for true heavy equipment. Any time our farmer comes by is an opportunity to admire a new tractor. On our snow day, it was a huge double-bladed grader.

This thing made quick work of the snow. Quick that is until it tried the bend at the end of the turnaround.

The curve is deceptively tight and there was an icy layer under the snow. The grader ended up stuck. (No tractors or hydro poles were harmed in the plowing of this driveway).

No worries though. This was just an opportunity to admire another tractor. Mr. Front End Loader pushed Mr. Double-Bladed Grader back into alignment, and then FEL finished off the driveway for us.

As of yesterday morning, Wiley is running again. He tidied up the top of the driveway and then pushed back the snowbanks at the bottom of the driveway. We’re all set for the next snow day. There’s another coming, right?

Have you had a snow day yet? How do you handle shoveling at your house?

A different kind of weekend

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This was not a big DIYing or blogging weekend. And actually it was pretty nice.

However, because it was a different type of weekend, you get a different type of post today. Get ready for a view into my life outside of renos.

Somehow, Matt and I both arrived home before sunset and at the same time on Friday evening. We headed out with Baxter for a family walk across the fields, which was a lovely way to start the weekend.

Saturday was lots of family time for my nephew’s first birthday, and then a girls’ night at my friend’s new house. I’ve been friends with some of these women since kindergarten. Our unit of six was solidified before we started counting our ages in double digits. While we don’t see each other as often as we’d like anymore, when we do, it’s as though no time has passed. I am very thankful I have such amazing friends.

Sunday, Baxter and I went for a hike with some of his doggie friends. We’re doing the 21-day dog walking challenge from ThatMutt.com (#ActiveMutts). A two-hour off-leash hike is a good way to get some exercise and training practice. My focus with Baxter this month is “come.” There were some great successes and one epic failure. Baxter abandoned our hiking group to join another group with a Great Dane and two Dobermans. He looooves Great Danes.

Since moving to the farm, I’ve become a huge homebody–and there’s obviously no shortage of things to do. Weekends like this that take me away from the farm are not my favourite. However, it ended up being a very nice time and a good reminder to me that it’s important to make the effort to do something different every so often.

How was your weekend? What did you do? How do you like to spend your weekends?

Winter sunrise

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s been one month since the shortest day of the year. Each day, there’s a little more and a little more sunlight. I don’t love winter’s long nights, but there’s something special about seeing the sunrise every morning.