May 30th, 2006

t is the kind of cold drizzly day that makes you want to curl around the woodstove with a mug of hot cocoa or crawl back into bed. I am not sure what I am going to do yet as I have to go get some kindling cut and I am actually tired and it is just 8:30 am.

Got another 1/4 of the garden planted between bear sightings, major thunderstorms and 4 kids. My friend came over and wanted to help me plant, so we got about 138 cabbages, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts planted with a few 'fun things' like Cosmos and Marigolds. I also got the celery planted on the north side of the peas.. and 50 feet of 2 kinds of cucumbers for pickling. My friend brought her 2 month old, her 1 year old and 2 spare kids who are 4 and 6?

I may even brave the rain and go plant corn. I know I am not going to melt.

The guys went out in back with the D-3 Cat with the brush blade and the tractor with the tiller on it to get the pasture areas ready for seeding. I walked back there to check out how the progress is going and it is lovely and parklike, even though there is a lack of grass growing as of yet. My bf is making pockets of pasture and pockets of wildlife habitat, (and the bushland pockets are bigger) so we can all co-exist. It will also give the moose and deer more areas to graze as well. It is a nice surprise to be walking along a trail and then there is a hidden field that comes into view.


I am a little nervous. Apparently some big honcho for a food program from Toronto, Ontario knows someone I know and she read the Fall 2005, Winter 2005 and Spring 2006 issues and is HIGHLY interested in me, my writing and the farm and the person I know and 2 big honchos from Toronto are coming out to tour our farmstead in a few days. I am not quite sure what they want to know or see. We have only the basics done on the farm here and we are taking 10 years of someone else's neglect and trying to turn this place into a nice looking farm, but in reality, after we got multiple (semi) truckloads of debris off this place that had been left here, we really only have 2-3 months of hardcore work into it. However you can see where things will be placed, such as the root cellar which is dug out and all the rock for it sitting there. The poultry pens and barn, the hogs in their pen. The garden.. though not alot has sprung from the earth as of yet... well.. at least the greenhouse it finished, though all the shelving is not up yet and grass is growing on the floor quite well as it has not yet been burnt out. Next year it will not be there.

On getting directions to out place, she was a bit taken aback when I said you cannot easily see our place from the road and we are the small cabin which resembles a shack.. *G*.. she asked !! It will look better once the siding is cut from our trees from it, but that will be late summer I suppose.

On our tour of the back with my bf, we noted more Pine trees need to come down as they have been hit with the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic as well. We are almost toying with the idea of pulling down all the Pine off the property and leaving the Fir and Spruce (and the Alder, Aspen, Poplar and Birch). The Pines look younger and younger that are getting it. We hate to do it.. but it will save more down the road if the beetles are not harbouring in them. Soon he will be hauling the log for the cabin up on the hillside so I can start to peel them. I asked if he could use the brush blade at the cabin site as well, since he took the Cat through there after I wanted to clear it by hand as he parked all the debris where the outhouse needs to go. He asked me how a outhouse is supposed to go into solid rock. I told him I would find a way *S*

On that note, I suppose I ought to light a fire in the woodstove. First one we have had in a week. But I am here wrapped in a blanket and still chilled and I think perhaps the cabin needs to be warmed up a bit and take the damp chill off.