Blink and you’ll miss it

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This is our second fall on the farm, yet I feel like I didn’t notice the leaves changing colour this year. This weekend walking around and actually looking around, I was surprised to notice that most of our trees are nearly bare. The colours are gone, and I didn’t even see them.

It feels like time is moving so fast these days. Friday was my last day at work. I’ve spent 11 years at the same organization, starting as a student intern, moving to different departments, trying different things, meeting different people. It was a great place to begin my career. I’ve been very nostalgic this fall as I prepared to leave my job. I have a new job to go to at a different organization, which I’m very excited about, but first I have a two week break.

I’m hoping over the next two weeks to slow down a bit and savour my time at the farm, with family, friends and Baxter, working on my projects, relaxing here and there.

How do you slow down? Any suggestions for how I should spend my two weeks? Any advice for handling a job change?

Snapshot

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Fall sunset along the creek.

Paving paradise

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I love the town that I grew up in.

That town doesn’t exist anymore.

It’s not like the economy collapsed and everyone moved away. The opposite happened: everyone moved in.

New housing developments on the north, south, east and west edges of town have caused a population boom. And more houses are being built everyday. In fact the population of my formerly small town is forecast to double to more than 36,000 people over the next 10-20 years.

The result of all of this growth is predictable: traffic gridlock. My parents, who still live in the house I grew up in, make a point of not going out during dinner time because they spend all of their time sitting in the car not moving.

Last week, our local paper reported that plans for a long-debated bypass road have been approved. The road will be constructed on the north edge of town and is designed to funnel people around the town core.

Great in theory. Obviously much needed. However, the north end of town is a wetland.

The article in the paper said that the provincial environment minister “was satisfied the city had developed measures to mitigate the impact on a wetland.” Ummm, you’re building a road through wetland. I don’t think there’s any way you can mitigate the impact of that.

Watching all of the new houses being built in my town was one of the things that solidified my decision to move to the country and to buy the biggest piece of property I could. I didn’t want to be part of suburbia. I wanted to preserve the world and protect it.

Half of our property is wetland. It is restricted by the local conservation authority. So is the land where this new bypass road is going to be built. Governments and municipalities put these protection measures in place and then ignore them in the name of convenience and progress.

Everyday I drive past my childhood town. I see the massive construction developments that are adding thousands of new houses. I see the power centres that have pulled shoppers away from the independent businesses in the town core to the big box stores on the fringes. I see the roads that are paralyzed with more cars than they were meant to handle.

I see little thought to intensification, public transit or (sub)urban planning.

I am disappointed that this road has been approved. But looking back even further, I’m disappointed that so many houses were approved for construction. I realize that nothing stays the same, but this isn’t progress to me.

Bidding war

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Anyone curious how the farm auction turned out? You’ve already heard about the auction on the farm and my good fortune in finding the items I thought I’d lost. But what about the auction of the farm?

Remember I mentioned that the whole property–the stone farmhouse, the big barn and all 17 acres–were going to be sold? The big day was a week ago.

I’ve seen one house sold by auction before, but never a whole farm. Auctioning a property is a bit different than other auctions in my experience. Terms are spelled out very, very carefully before any bidding starts. For this sale, the only thing up for negotiation was the price. The winning bidder was making an unconditional offer to purchase the farm–no home inspection, no financing, no sale of their own house, no negotiation on the closing date. And they had to hand over a $50,000 deposit as soon as the auction was over.

Once the sale got going, things moved much more slowly than a typical auction. The auctioneer of course started high. He got no action and slowly lowered the price until people started bidding. He stopped the bidding a couple of times–he’d given us a heads up that he was going to–giving people a chance to talk things over and hopefully talk themselves into bidding.

Matt was not one of those people. He spent the whole auction trying to stand completely still and not make any motion that could be construed as a bid.

As the numbers climbed, it got down to just two bidders. Finally, the one shook his head. He could go no higher. Having lost a few farms in more traditional bidding wars, I felt badly for him, knowing how painful it is to come so close but still walk away farm-less.

The auctioneer took one more break, but the second bidder truly had reached his limit. When the auctioneer started again, it was to slowly and deliberately say, “I have [magic number] once. I have [magic number] twice. I have [magic number] three times. Fair warning.”

There was no climactic, “SOLD!” I expect that the bid was still under the reserve set by the sellers. Instead, the high bidder went into the farmhouse with the sellers to negotiate a final price–which of course was kept secret. The crowd stuck around until the auctioneer came back out onto the porch to announce that the deal was done.

Have you ever been through a bidding war or seen a whole property auctioned off? Have you ever accidentally bid on something or do you make like a statue like Matt?

What once was lost now is found

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So remember the other week when I went to an auction and missed out on a couple of items because I was too slow on casting my bid?

Remember how I mentioned the farm itself was going up for auction?

Well, a week ago there was a preview where prospective buyers could tour the house and the property. We’re not prospective buyers, but we are nosy neighbours, so of course we went over to take a look.

The house is beautiful. It’s a great stone house that’s been beautifully restored and updated. Amazing thick walls, stunning wide plank floors, surprisingly big bright rooms. But the house wasn’t the highlight for me.

Browsing through the barn, I saw the metal boxes that I’d wanted to buy at the auction. They’d been bundled into a lot and sold, but obviously the buyer hadn’t wanted the extra items. Seeing them made me wonder what else had been left behind. I wandered over to the other side of the barn where I’d last seen the wagon wheel hub, which I’d also wanted. Under a metal barrel lid and amongst some of the smallest kittens I’ve ever seen was the hub. Score!

I trotted back to the house, found the owner and offered him $5 (the two lots sold for just $2 each at the official auction). After a quick check with the auctioneer to make sure the buyers probably weren’t coming back for their items, the boxes and the hub were mine. And even better, the owner gave them to me for free!

Everything needs a hit with the hose. My plans right now are for the hub to simply be a decoration, perhaps on the fireplace hearth. The metal boxes might hold jewelry or office supplies.

What would you do with them? Have you ever struck gold after you thought you struck out?

Going once, going twice…

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Looking at this picture, you may be thinking flooding. Natural disaster. Neighbours banding together to help each other.

You’d be wrong.

The event that draws such a crowd on a stormy Saturday morning is a classic country auction.

The community became very close knit during the event as everyone crowded into the barn to take shelter from the rain. I climbed up on the hay bales trying to get a picture of the crowd, and then the auctioneer (far left) sold the pile–300 bales for $1 each.

This was a true farm auction. Light on collectibles. Heavy on the equipment.

Even the livestock was auction block. The poor brown gal wasn’t enthused to hear she was for sale.

It’s been too long since I’ve been to an auction, so I wasn’t as quick as I should have been. I’m still thinking about that wagon wheel hub and the small metal cabinets that ended up being thrown into lots when they didn’t sell the first time. I could have had them both for less than $5.

However, my Dad had no hesitation about bidding and was able to come away with a decent haul of a cart, a pair of small mechanic’s ramps, a drill and a handheld grinder. The soggy umbrellas were ours.

I love a country auction, even when I end up slogging through mud and who knows what else up close and personal with 200 of my closest neighbours. I’ll definitely be back in two weeks when the whole property–the stone farmhouse, the big barn and all 17 acres–go on the block.

Anyone want to buy a farm?

Who else loves auctions, rain or shine? Does anyone else suffer from non-bidders’ remorse? Any tips for successful bidding? I usually like to wait to jump in until bidding has slowed down a bit, rather than driving up the price by bidding too early. Would you buy something as big as a house at an auction?

A different kind of vacuum

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So I had a new experience in country living last weekend. A big vacuum on wheels showed up on Saturday morning. Except rather than vacuuming up fluff and fur like our new Sebo, this particular vacuum sucked up the contents of our septic tank.

(Yes. I have actually written a post about our septic tank. Feel free to skip this post if your stomach just did a little turn. Rest assured that the photos don’t get more graphic than this).

We never had the septic inspected or pumped when we bought the house, so when Matt’s Dad had his septic pumped by a new local company, we decided to hop on the septic pumping bandwagon. (What? You didn’t know that’s a thing?)

Pumping was as simple as taking the lid off the tank, sticking a big hose inside it and waiting until pretty much all of the contents were removed. (Seriously, people. You have no idea how carefully I’m wording this post).

Lessons learned during my first septic pump:

It’s not stinky. Don’t ask me to explain why, but taking the lid off the tank and even pumping out the tank released no foul smelling odours into the air.
We need to do a better job of mowing the jungle behind the house. Accessing the tank required Matt to do some serious bush-whacking, and apparently the weeds and little trees that have sprouted up on top of the septic bed could do some damage if their roots grow deep enough.
We have an older model cylindrical concrete tank, about 4 feet in diameter (this is more a note for myself so I remember). It’s working fine and has been upgraded with a plastic outflow valve and a riser (where the lid is).
It had been a little too long since our tank had been pumped. We should pump the tank every 2-3 years.
Rocks and septic pumpers do not get along. There appeared to be some hunks of concrete in the bottom of the tank, likely from the old outflow valve. Our contractor didn’t see the rocks at first that and unfortunately a few got stuck in the hose.
We apparently don’t use enough soap. Apparently the top layer in the tank is usually foamy with suds, but ours was not. On the upside, there was also no cooking grease. There was however a granola bar wrapper and a sock (not ours).

As a girl who grew up on city water, moving to the country has made me a lot more aware of where my water is coming from and where it’s going.

Rather than being grossed out, I actually found septic pumping pretty interesting.

While Matt made plenty of inappropriate comments, and I made numerous statements about the need for boundaries in a marriage, I also did say, “A sock? Let me see!”

Who knows what this Saturday has in store for me? What’s on your agenda? Have a good weekend everyone.

Opinions on farming from Baxter

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed last week’s guest posts as Matt and I enjoyed a little vacation. We’re back to our regular routine, but apparently there’s one most guest post yet to go. It turns out that Baxter has something to share with you all (or, as he says, y’all), so I’m turning the blog over to him today.

Now, I know I’m new to Canada, but I do have some experience with farms (remember Kentucky and the chickens?), and there’s been something bugging me ever since I came to live with Julia and Matt.

There’s no other way to say it. Our fields were a sorry site.

Sure a couple of them had seen the mower this year, but three of them hadn’t. And two of them were at the very front of the property for everybody to see. The grass was so tall it had started to fall over. And after a rain, well golly, then we had these huge matted down areas in the fields.

Our farm was looking downright derelict.

The grass was so high that we would walk to the edge of the field, but we couldn’t go through it.

And never mind sniffing. Do you know how hard it is to sniff over grass, rather than follow a trail right along the root?

It wasn’t fit for man, woman or dog.

But, finally someone decided to do something about it, and I have to tell y’all it is marvelous.

Not only does the farm look better, but it smells better too. Whole new worlds have opened up.

Seriously.

I’ve walked on ground that I never walked on before. I’ve sniffed smells I never smelled before. I’ve watered grasses I never watered before.

So far, I’ve attended to the perimeter and inspected the hay on two new fields.

I saw some signs of the other doggies that I hear at night–the yippy howly ones named Coyote. As much as I’m curious to meet these doggies, they have to know that this is Baxterland, so I sprinkled some of their markings.

Sometimes, I’m near overcome by the twitching in my nose, and I have to just sit down and sniff. Don’t worry though, I always get up and finish my patrol.

After all, this is my farm now. It’s my job to look after it.

Cottage living

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Living at the farm is a bit like living full time at a cottage. There’s lots of fresh air. I can see the stars at night. There’s lots of opportunity for fun activities.

However, there is one particular activity that I cannot do at the farm.

That’s waterskiing.

Waterskiing is pretty much my favourite sport, and I only get to do it a few times a year.

So, I’m playing hooky today and spending another day at the lake.

Thanks to Danica and Diane for guest blogging this week. And thank you for stopping by while I’m savouring my last few days of vacation. I’ll be back next week with a return to our regularly scheduled, waterski-free programming.

Savouring summer

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Fresh-picked corn symbolizes summer for me. Sure you can get any food any time of year now, but corn on the cob is something that I eat only in the summer time.

Pair it with zucchini from the garden and burgers from the barbecue, and you have summer on a plate.

Although my eyes are perhaps bigger than my stomach in this case. I ate my vegetables, but Matt and Baxter had to help with the burger.

What food do you wait for every summer? Anyone else a fan of corn on the cob? What’s on your barbecue these days? Any special meals on the menu the weekend ahead? Wishing everyone a wonderful summer weekend.