Enchanted Forest , by Kira

 

 

Fairy Spud

 

 

 

 

 

Red Trillum

 

 

 

 

 

Maiden Hair Fern

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow Bellworts

 

 

 

 

Caped Fern

 

 

 

 

Dutchman's Breeches

 

 

 

 

 

Leeks

 

 

 

 

 

Leatherwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankful. by Kira

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was snake catching, water play, and fort building followed by snacks from the garden.

This was how the kids spent most of their day.

When the kids were occupied, I worked on the gardens.

We're starting to prep some pasture and gardens for next year.

Although it seems that everything had a late start,

my gardens are starting to thrive.

Most plants are in bloom and starting to fruit.

The pollinators were busy buzzing from flower to flower.

The sun was hot and the breeze was cool; prefect for being outdoors.

There was talk and thought of next year's projects, pasture, animals, and gardens.

There was rhythm to our day as we worked, played, and rested together.

For days like this, I'm thankful.

 

 

 

 

 

Lady's Thumb has taken over, by Kira

 

 

This plant is called Lady's Thumb.

It is from the Polygonaceae (Smartweed or Knotweed) family.

It is an annual and only spreads by seed.

Lady's Thumb can reach up to 1 metre high.

It's leaves are narrow with a brown or black spot on each leaf.

The flowers vary from white, pink to red and flower early summer into fall.

It will grow in any soil types, but will thrive in moist areas around and near ponds. One more interesting fact; this plant can produce up to 3000 seeds per plant. Yikes!

 

 

 

This past spring we decided we would plant our vegetables on last year's pig pasture. The ground was already cleared and fertilized thanks to the pigs.

In late Spring, Andrew ploughed the land to flatten it out so I could plant.

In this particular garden I planted beans, squashes, corn, onions, peppers, and basil.

At the same time that my seeds started to sprout and the started plants I put into the ground started to take root, another plant started to sprout and grow.

Before I knew it, this plant was choking out my seedling and crowding out my started plants.

Lady's Thumb.

 

 

 

I'm not much of a weeder to begin with.

I usually leave the weeds until they reach a fairly large size then cut them down leaving them where they lie and covering the whole bit with straw. This method has worked well for me in the past. Not with this weed I'm afraid. There is way to much of it to pull out by hand and it is nearly impossible to cover it all with straw. I tried covering a small area with straw and had no luck.

The plant just pushed its way to the surface.

 

 

 

But this weed has not defeated me!

Yes I have some of my squash plants and replanted in other areas,

but I have plans for this area.

We will grow a small pasture.

Within the next couple of weeks we will disturb the soil again and plant it with grasses and legumes, preparing the land for next year.

Not another chicken pasture either!

This will be for something or things a little bigger. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Building Permit

Now that Christmas has passed and Winter has settled in,

I have run out of excuses to put off completing my building plan application.

If you aren't up on old news, we were caught building the schoolhouse without a permit.

The neighbour complained and had the inspector come down here to set us straight.

Fortunately, I followed building code and the structure is well within our prescribed property line setbacks.

The building inspector was relaxed and only asked that we file a proper application.

The cost was never an issue, but the permit requires a site plan and building drawings.

Both take desk time and I had no intention of spending more time than necessary sitting down during the good weather before Winter.

I kept going with the building despite the visit from the inspector.

He never told me to stop.

The roof needed to be finished and walls closed in before Winter.

So that was done.

But to carry on, I need to cover walls up and hide the structure.

It's best if I get my permit done so that there can be a formal inspection.

It's understandable to finish the roof, but perhaps I should leave the walls open until I get the green light from the municipality.

That means getting the permit application done.

It's taken two days of measuring, and calculating,

drawing, and cursing.

Building a structure according to drawings is one thing.

Doing it the other way around is more frustrating.

The site plan was a tricky piece of work.

There are long measurements and strange orientation.

If the building layouts were all square, it may have been easy.

But alas, everything is on a crazy bearing.

I have a few new grey hairs to show for trying to orient everything as correctly as possible.

Now it's done.

I hope.

The application has been submitted and now I wait to see what happens next.

There shouldn't be any major problems other than omissions in content.

I realized afterwards that I missed a few details.

But it's not like a school project.

The municipality simply needs something on file to show that there has been due process.

The schoolhouse is properly constructed and we're not even close to crossing any property lines.

This isn't the city where a few inches of error could mean a major court battle.

To be honest, I will feel a great relief once the permit process is through.

Even though I made a calculated decision to not apply for a permit,

the fear remained that I would be found out.

Now that I have been, the pressure is off.

It's all for the best really; having been caught.

Perhaps I should thank my neighbour for that.

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping Warm

Winter has set in quickly here.
Alternating days of snow and cold have provided a real Canadian Winter.
And though we managed to finish up most of the outdoor projects,
the house has yet to be prepared for the cold.

Our home was originally intended as a three season cottage.
There's enough insulation to keep us alive but it takes some extra steps to make it cozy.
Also, the windows are single pane sliders that do little more than keep the snow and wind from blowing in.
They even lack the proper plastic tracks intended to give good action and some weather seal.


So the windows need to be locked and sealed with weather stripping to cut the draft.
Shrinking plastic over the whole window adds an extra buffer against the really cold nights.
Without any attention, the cold air pours in through the window edges.
New windows are on the list of things to do.

The screened-in porch also gets plastic over the screens.
This helps keep the snow out so that our coats and boots have a dry place to stay.
It's nice to have somewhere to strip off Winter clothing before going right into the house.
Adding the sheltered space also adds insulation to the house by protecting the south wall from the prevailing winds.

Of course, we haven't done any of these chores yet, having just finished with some more important jobs.
But the weather forecast is calling for a cold spell and the winterizing tasks have suddenly become more pressing.
The less we do to keep the cold out, the more wood we burn, which is another issue in itself.


But we have come a long way since moving into our home.
The first Winter was not only cold but also wet from the ice dams on the roof.
Escaping heat melts the snow and it runs to the eaves where it freezes.
After the ice builds up, any water begins to accumulate and then creeps into the roof and down into the house.
We had water pouring through windows frames and even into the kitchen light fixture.
Steel roofing and some ventilation changes helped solve that mess.
Those were the days before we put a proper foundation under the house.
The wind would whistle underneath and freeze the shower drain in addition to making for really cold floors.

Regardless of how the indoor climate is,
our home is our shelter.
It kept us safe even when conditions were at their worst.
And though it's still a challenge during the Winter,
we're thankful to be indoors and protected from the wind and snow.
Even if some of it sneaks in through the cracks in the windows.









 

Home Built

Well before we bought our home, I had always wanted to build my first house.
I had plans drawn up even though I had yet to do a reality check.
When I did look into how to go about building my first house,
it was instantly apparent that the cost would be prohibitive.


Instead, we bought what we could afford.
Fortunately, what we could afford was mostly not a house,
but a basic building that could offer us shelter.
The advantage has been that we could still build our own, but doing so by adding to and improving what we started out with.


Eight years later and we have accomplished a great deal.
As each year passes, the house grows and changes with us.
It feels like something that we have built, and much of it we have.
There's a long way to go,
but that's something we always have to look forward to.


Of the current house projects underway is a new room.
We only have two bedrooms right now, and we're overdue to have a spare room available for guests.
It's a small room, but it has a window and will be cozy.
This is the first real room to be built in the basement.
There are two other framed in spaces, but their purpose is temporary utility and will be changed eventually.
The newest addition has a well insulated floor and walls, and is a prototype for the remaining rooms that are part of the grand plan.


You may think it would be nice to do the whole job at once in order to live in a finished house,
but I believe it is better to accomplish this slowly.
That allows ideas to be digested and discarded if you find they don't work out.
The floor plan for our basement has been set for a few years, but now it has been changed to accommodate a different plan for the space available to us.



When our house is finally complete, it will be a reflection of our changing lives over the period of many many years.
The design features will have been very well thought out and tested.
Customizing your home is a form of creative self expression.
You can follow the norm or you can make your space suit your personality and lifestyle.
And as much as I look forward to the completed product,
it is the act of building that I find most satisfying.
So to be honest,
I'm in no hurry to finish it up.

Pioneering Renaissance

There's a disheartening irony to the fact that the number of people farming has dropped dramatically for decades.
The farmers are leaving and so are their children.
You would think that with the local food movement underway that there would be lots of people to take over for the families that are leaving the farms.
The irony is that while farming is unpopular as an occupation, the farm land is highly sought after.
And that excludes many of the aspiring new farmers because the prices are normally beyond the reach of young people starting out.

I do hate to disparage the folks who have bought up farms to enrich their lives, but in most cases, the properties become hobby farms for pets and horses.
I've read blogs where people wax romantic about beautiful walks on their two hundred acre farm, which in most cases is left fallow to be enjoyed as a private agricultural reliquary.
Often it is a professional couple who both work and have no children who have the financial resource to buy up the vacant farms.
Some choose to farm the land; many do not.

In the mining sector, you cannot hoard valuable land for long without extracting resource.
Claims must be followed through or they expire after some time.
This ensures that natural resources continue to add to the nation's GDP and that land does not sit idle.
One day, this same regulation style may be necessary for farmland to keep arable land in rotating production.
Until then, there is another solution.

Land that is north of the Canadian Shield line is notoriously rough, rocky, and desolate.
There are pockets of farmland in use, but most of the rugged north is barren of settlement and food production.
But,
land is much more affordable.
The trade-offs are consistent.

Small communities.
Few jobs.
Even fewer good paying jobs.
Infertile land.
Biting flies.
Sparse market opportunities.
Short growing season.
Minimal agricultural infrastructure.

Although, you would be surprised by the number of old farmsteads that dot the near north.
It's just that people gave up trying to farm the land years ago.


The disparity between central and southern Ontario is considerable.
It is however, important to consider more than just the differences within Ontario.
Consider how we differ from the rest of the world.
A little research will show you that most of the world survives in less than perfect places.
One of the great advantages that North America owes it's status to is the fact that much of the continent is excellent for food production.

Back in shield country you will notice that despite the apparent lack of fertility,
trees and plants and animals thrive in abundance.
So why couldn't the land be made to grow food for us?
The problem has been trying to transfer agricultural methods from the south to the north.
It simply isn't the same land and cannot be farmed in exactly the same way.
When markets were more restrictive due the the limited culinary preferences of the U.K. immigrants, it was difficult to sell unusual produce.
Now that our population is more diverse and the collective palate has moved well beyond english staples, there is the opportunity to cultivate produce that best suits the land instead of growing produce that best suits the markets.
Coupled with easier access to global agricultural methods and cultivars, the options for bringing marginal lands into production have multiplied.

Even though the government is no longer giving land away, there remains a viable direction for the pioneering spirit.
The challenge is coping with the financial demands that come with the western standard of living.
Keep in mind that the cost of living is lower once you get beyond the shield line.
That is especially true if your mortgage is one-third of what it might be living in southern Ontario.

If you wish you could have been a settler,
moving into shield country comes with far fewer risks than those brave souls faced hundreds of years ago.
Start by looking at the real estate listings.
Look at the prices and features.
Forget about job propects for now.
You are not looking for a career.
You are looking for a lifestyle.

Settling.

Once you're ready to settle down,
finding that perfect place may be one of the greatest decisions of your life.
It's not too easy to change your mind once the deal is done, though your home is only a prison if you allow it to be.

Most people think they know what they want from their home.
It may be a big kitchen, or an ensuite bathroom, or a urinal in the workshop.
The challenge is looking forward to anticipate the needs of the future.
This is especially treacherous during a period of change.

When we were looking for our first home, the choices were few a far between.
With a modest pre-approval of $125,000 and the need to keep the commute to work within forty-five minutes, the options were depressing.
We did have a priority list that helped us thin out the already thin choices.
The most important was to be far enough away from the main roads as we could.
Many properties in these parts are right on a busy county road that was once a quiet goat path.
I was looking for an outbuilding for a workshop, and we also hoped that we could find a place with some water on the lot.
The short story is that we found almost everything that we wanted with our home.
The trade-off was that the home itself, though well-appointed, lacked most of the modern amenities that are considered basic in any dwelling.

I am going to talk more about our home and which property features that we consider most beneficial.
The aim is to help any of you who may be planning a move and may benefit from our insight.
So there is a new label choice available on the blog side bar.
Use these categories to help find the blog content that suits you best.

We were blessed to find the perfect property in our first home.
With some careful planning and careful consideration, you can too.