What a difference a year makes

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This is not this year’s forsythia. This time last year after a mild winter and an early spring, the forsythia behind the driveshed was in full bloom.

This year, as the snow is sticking around and spring is dragging her heels, the buds are closed up tight and no blossoms have arrived yet.

Two weeks in a row now, my mid-week post has been my “be on the lookout for spring” post. As we’ve moved into another cold snap over the past couple of days–complete with daily snow streamers–the search is still on.

Matt the lumberjack

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Like Good Friday dinner and chocolate bunnies, lumberjacking seems to have become an Easter tradition for us. Last year on Easter weekend, we spent pretty much the whole time cutting and splitting firewood.

This year, it was only one tree, but traditional logging techniques were Matt’s method of choice.

This spruce tree has not been doing well. It needed to be taken down, and now was the time before the sap started to flow and the trees around it came into bud.

We don’t yet have a chainsaw of our own, but Matt’s been looking for an excuse to chop down a tree with an ax, so he was quite enthused to go to work.

The trunk, now stripped of boughs, is laying beside the fire pit. We’ll cut it into lengths and split it one day when we can borrow Matt’s dad’s saws and splitter–the novelty of lumberjacking lasts only so long.

How did you spend your Easter weekend? Did the Easter bunny pay you a visit? We had lots of chocolates, including my favourite Cadbury cream eggs. Are there any other wannabe lumberjacks out there? Do you have any unique Easter traditions?

Spring?

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A week into spring, we’ve finally had a few days in a row with above zero temperatures. Until now, however, spring has been slow in coming.

Most mornings last week–including the first day of spring–fresh snow dusted the ground. Although the sun now melts the driveway every afternoon, by evening it’s frozen again. Water flows in the creek, but the ice on the pond was still thick enough that fresh animal tracks crossed the surface as recently as this past weekend.

However, on the softening shore of the pond, a small sign of spring pushes up through the mud.

Despite walking back and forth along the water’s edge a few times, this was the only flower I found. I’m choosing to think of it as a harbinger of warmer days, rather than a lone over-eager sprout.

Have you seen any signs of spring where you are? Matt’s Dad has spotted some robins already, but I haven’t yet. What spring flowers are you looking for?

Danger from above

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Some fairly impressive icicles have formed along the edge of the barn roof.

However, they are fairly dangerous as well, as they don’t stay on the edge of the roof.

This particular one landed straight up right outside the cats’ door (the gap cut out in the barn boards). If you imagine a cat fitting through that hole, that might give you an idea of the size of these icicles.

The roof edge above the human door was clear thankfully, but Matt rightfully thought that all creatures should be safe, so he went to work removing the daggers. As the edge of the barn roof is about 20 feet in the air, this was a bit challenging. Heaving things at the icicles seemed to be the most effective.

He was successful in the removal, but we now have a hunk of wood on the roof of the barn. Not quite sure how we’ll get that one down.

Sunrise special for breakfast

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

With the switch to daylight saving time last weekend, the view from my breakfast table has changed a little bit.

Yesterday, a week of cloudy days gave way to a beautiful pink morning.

As I watched the sun come up, I thought of my Auntie Anne, a great cheerleader, a loyal blog reader, a sometimes commenter and a sunrise watcher. When we first moved to the farm, she asked if we got sunrises and sunsets. Yes, Auntie Anne, we do.

And then this happened

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You realize it’s inevitable. But still you want to believe it won’t happen to you. After avoiding it for 10 years, I thought I might escape. But then one day, driving along minding my own business, it happened.

This followed soon after:

My little 10-year-old car has turned 100,000 kilometres.

I realize she’s a little late to reach this milestone, but walking to work for five years meant very low mileage.

Since moving to the farm, the kilometres have been rolling over very quickly. Along with higher mileage comes more trips to the gas station, more oil changes, more tune-ups and more money.

Small price to pay when my drive home ends at the farm.

This is last March’s picture looking up the driveway. The scene this year is still snowy heading into extremely muddy and very, very grey. Yoo-hoo, Spring? Are you coming?

Odds and ends

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

Thanks everyone for all of the comments, likes and hits on last week’s posts about our one year farmiversary and blogiversary. I have lots of updates and projects on tap for year two. Today, some smaller updates all at once.

To start, some very exciting news:

Yes, the woodstove is finally sold. In the end, kijiji came through for us. My roadside sandwich board probably generated the most inquiries, but no one followed through. The saga is not over though. The guy who bought it didn’t want the chimney or the heat shields, so we still have those to get rid of. Will we ever be done with this woodstove and its associated parts?

A year into farm ownership, and we’ve finally had our first overnight guests. I won’t say the guestroom is fitted out particularly well, but we do have a bed. That it was set up mere hours before our first guests arrive is just SOP for us. Oh, and I did patch the hole in the wall from where we fished the internet wire. I didn’t paint it, but it’s patched.

Poor Wiley had to do a balancing act for a few days while we had his tire repaired.

You may recall he came up lame while plowing the driveway after our snow day. The tire was extremely flat–and folded and frozen. Matt’s Dad took care of the repair for us, and fortunately was able to just get a tube to go inside the tire. We reused the original tire and rim, which saved some money.

And in news unrelated to farm living or home renovating, I’ve started sewing another fancy dress. My youngest sister is getting married in two months, so that means I need another bridesmaid dress. If this one goes anything like last year’s, I may have another most-read post coming up.

In the course of writing this post, I’m realizing that what I originally thought are little accomplishments actually highlight tasks I still have to complete. For the year two to-do list, I need to add

Sell the rest of the woodstove parts
Fix up the guest room to be a little more hospitable
Finish sewing my bridesmaid dress

Well, at least Wiley’s good to go… although I’m not sure how proficient he is with a needle.

Year one theme: Go big

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

For me, our first year of farm ownership can be summed up in two words: big and more.

Everything we’ve done, every experience we’ve had has been bigger and more than I expected. It’s been amazing, frustrating, awful, exhausting, expensive, testing, uniting, surprising and wonderful–all to an extreme degree.

As this week is the one year anniversary of the farm becoming ours, I thought it would be a good time to look back at some of what we accomplished and a few of the lessons we learned over the first year. Click here for the two-week and six-month wrap-ups.

We started big, installing the new geothermal system the very first week. The excavation was bigger than if we’d been digging a foundation for a new house.

Upgrading one central system for the house was quickly followed by another, when we decided to redo the entire water system, including a new well.

Our original plan for the basement to patch the walls, move a couple of things around and redo the bathroom quickly grew to a full gut job that involved reframing, rewiring, reinsulating, redrywalling and recarpeting.

Eventually, we did get to painting, furnishing and decorating. We still need art and furniture in most of the basement, but the TV area is done. And it’s awesome. We spend every night here–if we’re not working on one of our other projects, of course.

So far, the basement has turned out even better than I envisioned.

The bathroom, which was the most disgusting room in the whole house when we moved in, is now one of the best thanks to new plumbing, marble tile, dramatic dark paint, extra storage, a shower bench and a big mirror. After breaking the concrete floor, running all new waterlines, marathon tiling and grouting sessions and, oh yeah, the snake, we ended up with a bright, clean, shiny, functional and modern space.

While the basement has been our longest project and most dramatic transformation, it wasn’t our most difficult. The hardest project was definitely the roof. Over five days in the middle of the summer with average temperatures around 30ºC, Matt reshingled our house. For him, this project is his proudest accomplishment for year one. For me, this project taught me my most memorable lesson: roofing is not a DIY job.

Away from the work and the projects, there’s been a few other big developments in our lives over the past year.

First, the property came with other occupants already living here: most notably, Ralph the barn cat. Sticking with our theme of everything being more than we expect, Ralph kept things interesting by turning out to be both female and pregnant.

Her four kittens were a fun addition to the farm for the spring.

Gratuitous kitten cuteness

Three went on to new homes in suburbia, but one, Easter, stayed on at the farm. Learning that I’m a cat person–as long as they stay outside–has been my most surprising lesson from year one.

Ralph and Easter pay a visit to the dining room window sill. This is Easter’s “meow–let me in!” face. Ralph knows better.

In addition to our feline family members, our family expanded with the addition of Wiley, our tractor. He’s been quite handy for the various jobs we’ve had to do, from mowing the grass to blowing the snow. Tractor maintenance and how to use the front end loader are lessons we’re still in the process of learning. Lesson from last weekend: a hairdryer can be used to get a tractor to start.

Outside, we’re still learning how to manage a large property. We’ve had the paddocks and run-in shelters removed from all of the fields, added a gate to the driveway, cut down a few trees, put in a flag pole and cleaned up the property a bit. We’ve eaten apples and raspberries from our own land, and watched two hay harvests. We’ve spent hours walking the fields, admiring the pond, hiking the woods and even managed to go tobaganning on our own hill and skating on our own pond.

When I imagined living on a farm, I envisioned lots of friends and family around, fun parties and big gatherings. This vision has absolutely come true, whether it’s the fun days we’ve spent with nephews, the relaxing nights we’ve had with friends, or big family parties we’ve had for Christmas, Easter and just because. Most rewarding of all, though, has been all of the help our friends and family have given us to make the farm ours over the past year.

We’re still in the process of putting our own stamp on the farm. We know there are more projects and more lessons to come.

Between rural living, a farm, a large property and DIY home renovations, we’ve chosen a somewhat unique lifestyle. And it’s exactly the life for us.

The first year has been more than I ever expected. I’m excited to see what comes next.

History lesson

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A new flag is flying over the farm this week.

Forty-nine years ago, when Canada was deciding what its national flag should look like, this was one of the options.

Prime Minister Lester Pearson put out a call to Canadians, asking for them to submit ideas for a Canadian flag. Pearson’s own suggestion was for a flag with three red maple leaves bordered with blue bars on either edge–symbolizing Canada’s position as a sea-to-sea nation. Artist Alan Brookman Beddoe drew the actual design, which came to be known as the Pearson Pennant.

Throughout 1964, the government and citizens debated what was the best design for our flag. Eventually a submission from two men, George Stanley and John Matheson, was chosen as Canada’s official flag. Today, their design of a single red maple leaf between two red bars has become an iconic image, and the Pearson Pennant has become historical reference.

Feb. 15, 1965 is Flag Day in Canada, the first time the maple leaf flew as our nation’s official flag.

While it seems a bit backwards, this week we’re commemorating the flag debate by flying the Pearson Pennant.

As a history buff, Matt has a special affection for the Pearson Pennant. For his birthday last year, I had one made for him, knowing that we’d soon have a flagpole and be able to fly it ourselves.

We’ll go back to the maple leaf soon enough, but for this week I don’t mind a little history lesson.

Thanks to Matt for helping to write this post. Happy Flag Day everyone.

Snow day

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Friday brought a record-setting snowfall, a day off work for both Matt and me and lots of unusual happenings, like going back to bed at 7am, eggs and bacon for breakfast on a weekday and movies in the afternoon.

Some of the other unique ways we spent our time included rescuing a not-so-bright kitten who decided she was bored in the barn, but then spent some time cowering under Matt’s car when she realized there was no one outside to play with and the snow was too deep for her to return to the barn.

In this oh so flattering picture, Easter is being de-snowed over the kitchen sink.

We returned the kitten to the barn, which was definitely more sheltered than under Matt’s car but still slightly snowy. Lots of light and fluffy snow combined with strong winds meant drifts were everywhere, including inside the barn.

We traded the kitten for Matt’s GT snow racer, picked up a crazy carpet that came with the driveshed and headed out across the fields.

Snow was deep and the field with the best hill is farthest from the house. The walk was a workout, and rest stops were required.

The quote of the day came from Matt: “I don’t remember tobogganing being this tiring when I was a kid.”

A tip for anyone else who’s no longer a kid, yet still wants to ride his GT snow racer: the best way to “fit” on the sled is to ride in a mostly standing position.

Kid or not, a snow day is a pretty good deal–an unexpected free day. No excuse needed to stay home, break from the usual routine and have some new experiences.

Who else loves a snow day? Have you had one yet this winter? Anyone have a pet who’s not too smart? How about a GT snow racer? Matt figured out that his is about 24 years old. Have you been tobogganing this year?