Memories of Muriel

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve said that I didn’t do any gardening last year, and that’s not entirely true. I planted one thing: this lilac.

This lilac came from our first house. It had lived for six years in the flower garden Matt and I made in the front yard. It never bloomed. It didn’t really grow very much. But I nursed it along because this plant is another one of my special treasures.

This lilac was a shoot that I transplanted from a beautiful bush my grandmother had growing in her backyard. She was always very proud of her lilac and its prolific double blossoms. A few of the grandchildren took shoots to plant in their own gardens.

Last spring as we sold our first house and moved to the farm, I carefully dug up the lilac, cleared a space in the overgrown garden at the front of the house and transplanted it.

Over the past year, it has finally started to thrive. It’s grown taller and bushier. And for the first time ever, it’s blooming.

This is a banner year for lilacs at the farm and it turns out we have lots: a large bush outside our bedroom window, others scattered around the gardens, a hedge stretching nearly from the house to the pond. However, this, our smallest plant, is my favourite.

Battling the litter bugs

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

Our property is situated so that we have three road frontages. What this means is that we have about 2 kilometres of ditches that to passing drivers apparently look like one large trash can. A recent notice in the mailbox for a community clean up was the motivation I needed to pick up after all of these litter bugs.

The saddest thing about this photo is that I didn’t stage it. I simply set the notice down amongst the trash.

Outfitted with my rubber boots, work gloves and multiple garbage bags, I headed out. I had two bags on the go at a time, one for recycling (mainly cans and bottles) and one for garbage. I could have probably separated the garbage a bit more, but two bags was about all I could wrangle. The most common finds were takeout coffee cups, plastic water bottles and cigarette packs.

There was lots and lots of plastic.

We have a creek that runs along the front of the property, and while it is set farther away from the road, it was still full of trash as well.

These particular pieces of plastic turned out to be a very big sheet of bubble wrap and a large jug which had formed a dam.

Some of the more unique finds included a shoe, two gloves (not a pair) and the remains of a wine glass.

Sometimes, I wasn’t sure what things were right away. As when I first spotted this item a few feet back in the reeds along the west side of the property.

It turned out to be a small photocopier. Yup. Someone went to the effort to carry a photocopier out of their office, put it into their car, drive it to our property, pick it up out of the car, carry it across the ditch and heave it into the marsh. They didn’t even just open the car door and push it out. They put work and planning into this–I know, because I climbed into the marsh and dragged it out and it was heavy and awkward.

Fortunately, I was able to leave the photocopier, other large items and even the full bags of garbage on the shoulder and our amazing garbage men took them away on our regular pick up day. The recycling I carried home and dumped into our bins.

The final tally on the clean up was

5 1/2 hours (over three days)
7 1/2 bags of garbage
5 bins of recycling
One awful sun burn
Multiple scratches
Numerous ant bites
One ruined pair of gloves
A general feeling of disgust towards my fellow humans

Some people were encouraging–one driver honked and gave me a thumbs up as he drove by and another pulled over to say how great it was that I was cleaning up. However, I probably was not as gracious as I could have been to them as I spent most of the clean up being royally ticked off. Who finishes their coffee and decides the correct action is to roll down the window and pitch the cup into the ditch?

My irritation went to another level when Matt and I went out and passing by two of the garbage bags I’d left on the side of the road I saw that someone had pitched a Blizzard cup and two plastic spoons onto the shoulder–and they’d obviously aimed to get them right beside my bags. Who is that rude?

Fortunately, our garbage men are incredibly considerate, because not only did they pick up all of the trash bags and larger items I’d left on the side of the road, they also picked up the cup and spoons.

Out of the whole clean up, I only found one item worth keeping.

You better believe I tucked that 5 cents into my pocket and brought it home with me. I need some new work gloves!

Finally forsythia

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

Our forsythia is finally in bloom. It’s more than a month later than last year, which shows just how long spring has taken to arrive. I think with the appearance of the bright yellow blossoms we can safely say that spring has finally arrived.

For rent: pond (feathery young couple with family aspirations preferred)

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our tenants on the pond seem to be changing daily. Everybody seems to be looking for the best spot to set up housekeeping.

Our usual guests are Canada geese and mallard ducks–or both as seen in this picture from a few weeks ago.

I went down to the pond to get a more up to date picture on Saturday and only succeeded in spooking a very large solitary Canada goose. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I also succeeded in catching a nap, as I got tired of sitting quietly on the shore waiting for a bird to show up and laid back in the grass where I fell asleep. I also succeeded in getting my first sunburn of the year as a result of laying flat on my back with no shade.

Anyways, back to the uncooperative birds.

They mostly show up in pairs, although we have hosted singles as well as three mallard drakes for a bachelor party–perhaps the word on the wing is that our pond is the neighbourhood mixer?

Everybody is pretty spooky. I can’t get too close without them springing from the water and flying away–as my Canada goose did on Saturday. I am hoping that a nice young couple comes our way soon and decides that our pond is the perfect spot to start a family. I promise, I won’t take anymore naps on their lawn.

Having a blast

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

I suspect that the universe is trying to tell me that it’s not yet barbecue season. When I fired up the grill for the first time this year, I had a bit more fire than I expected.

Further investigation revealed additional flames around the pipe fittings on the underside.

Fortunately, the combustion was confined to fire and nothing actually exploded. Unfortunately, barbecue was not to be on the menu, and we had to rely on indoor appliances to salvage dinner.

Our barbecue is an old hand-me-down, so it may be time to replace it. However, I don’t like to give in that easily. Do you think it can be fixed? Tightening the fittings or maybe adding some teflon tape is a lot easier and cheaper than buying a new barbecue. Has anyone else had a problem like this? I’m open to advice for repairing barbecues or for grilling steaks. Any suggestions?

Frozen out

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

Winter isn’t going down easy this year. Spring had made some gains over the last week with four days straight of rain and above zero temperatures. However, today, winter struck back, driving the temperature back down below freezing and turning the rain to ice.

Fortunately, Matt and I made it home before the roads got too slippery. Unfortunately, that wasn’t soon enough for our gate, whose padlock was frozen solid. My poor little car was locked out.

Matt and I each keep a bottle of lock de-icer in our cars specifically for this situation. However, smashing the ice that had frozen the chain to the post, chipping at the ice around the lock with my car key and squirting most of my bottle into the keyhole had little effect on the lock.

Abandoning my car, I headed off on the long, cold, windy, wet walk to the house. Did I mention it was cold? Fortunately, I’ve learned some things since moving to the country and was already wearing my rubber boots–with my nice suit trousers attractively tucked into the top.

I was able to get into the house much more easily than I was able to get into the property. I changed into warmer clothes, ate some Easter chocolates and contemplated my life while I waited for the kettle to boil.

This new country life I lead sees me outside with the wind blowing the freezing rain nearly horizontal, trotting down the driveway carrying a steaming kettle.

It took just a few splashes of hot water to release the lock.

Soon enough I was inside, warm and dry. The lock also got to spend some time in the house warming up and drying out.

Hopefully the padlock recovers and there’s no issue getting into the property tomorrow night–I don’t want any delay in starting my weekend!

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?

Strawberries for dinner… and breakfast

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It turns out that one thing that can cause a traffic jam on a country road faster than a slow-moving tractor or a run-away cow is the start of strawberry season.

Ruby red strawberries just waiting to be picked.

Friday afternoon, a farm near us opened for business.

A lot of people had the same reaction that I did. “That sign said strawberries!” Hard brake, sharp turn, park the car immediately. “I have to pick my own? No problem. No, don’t worry about my pretty office shoes. Shall I just pick them into my purse, or can you sell me a basket?”

Mmmm… strawberries for dinner.

Yesterday morning, I decided to stop in before work. This time I was a little more prepared. I wore my rubber boots and brought my own baskets.