Wednesday, October 25, 2023

 I do not think we will be going on our long eight hour drive each way trip for a memorial service this weekend. Husband has messed up his back and wants to let things heal and calm down, rather than being in a car for that long and standing and sleeping in a spare bed somewhere. I don't blame him and truth be told, I'm rather glad (not about his back...).

I seized the opportunity with this mild weather today to do some cutting back of perennials late this morning. I stop when I have filled my five big "buckets", that way I don't mess up my back.

Here are some pictures of what my neck of the woods looks like right now - still lots of pretty leaves, even with the recent wind and rain.

The above picture is facing south (pool house in background).

The above picture is facing north (neighbouring yard in background).

A couple of you expressed an interest in seeing more chicken pics. Here is one of the whole chicken coop and covered run.

Husband built all of this. The large black container in front of the coop holds a bale of shavings and some oyster shell. I can't store it inside the coop because there isn't quite enough room (and the chickens would just roost and poop on it). 

This is inside the coop. I call this brown chicken "Rover" because she is more like a dog. She always has to be underfoot, wondering what I'm doing (mostly hoping for food). She is old and hasn't laid an egg for about three years. This is a retirement home for chickens.

This girl was in one of the nesting boxes (I get these from Dollarama - sturdy, stackable, and washable). She is a Noiran which comes from the line of Marans (for those of you with poultry knowledge). Her eggs are a lovely dark brown.

Here are some more members of the flock outside in their run. They spend most of their days outside and come in to roost at night. 

This afternoon I am meeting up with a friend with whom I usually go for a long walk when she has Wednesdays off work. I am working tomorrow, teaching in a grade one classroom. I hope you are also enjoying a bit of mild autumn weather wherever you are. 

Regular Life

 The world is crazy enough, so here’s a whole lot of boring old normal:

- I cleaned out the chicken coop today and spread the contents in my vegetable garden to be tilled in for spring.

- Yesterday was Nana’s 86th birthday ( my husband’s mother) and we brought her to our place for supper and watched the Croatia episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” on Netflix. She was born in Zagreb and now has dementia but still has some memories of long ago.

- We drove daughter to a city about an hour away so she could take a train to another city and then finally to Ottawa to see a friend from university. This was her first time doing something like this ( we are very rural and don’t have public transit). The autumn colours were still lovely.

- I finished reading Ann Cleeves new book The Raging Storm and enjoyed it very much. I take books out of the library which is twenty minutes away.

- Why is flea treatment so bloody expensive?? It’s ridiculous.

- I recently discovered the series, Doc Martin. I am now recording both new and older episodes.

- My husband recently did my rear brakes and my parking brake. He does almost all of our vehicular maintenance, being self taught over the years. 

- We are going to a big city about eight hours away for a memorial service/ celebration of life for my husband’s uncle next weekend. Things like this wear me out even if I’m not the one driving. I really am more of a homebody, perhaps even an introvert. 

- This morning I got up earlier than my husband and when I went back upstairs to our bedroom a bit later to get properly dressed ( and he got up), I opened the curtains and looked down at the yard. Within about a minute I saw a red squirrel find a walnut and leap along the rail fence and into the trees with it, a nuthatch hopping head first down our big old spruce tree, and a big cottontail bunny jump up our cement steps to our little front porch. I joked that it was Peter Rabbit coming to ask if we had found his little blue jacket and that husband should go down and open the door for him. He did, but the bunny was gone.

- I made fried eggs, fried mushrooms, and little breakfast sausages ( which I despise but son and husband like) for supper tonight. I’m always looking for ways to use up eggs.

- That’s it. I hope you too have a normal ordinary weekend! 

To My Canadian Friends

 

Whether you are celebrating today or tomorrow, or not at all, I hope you all have a cozy, contented Thanksgiving!

October 5, 2023

 It has been the weather of July lately, but some decidedly October weather is on its way. 

Here is a little autumn chicken picture for you.

I spent a good part of yesterday clearing out my vegetable garden. The girls enjoyed some rutabaga greens.

As well, they received the last dregs of the tomatoes.

They will happily convert all of this into eggs for us. (Except for that brown chicken, she hasn't laid an egg in about three years!)

This is what I salvaged and I'm done, completely done. I don't care if I don't see another tomato for months. The mystery vine turned out to be spaghetti squash (from some that I threw in the compost months earlier). 

I'm not even sure what those squash are like on the inside, hopefully o.k. 

Today we have a technician to come and finalize wiring and set up a proper working internet system in our old house. We recently had an excruciating ten rounds with two providers as we were not happy with losing services and the amount we were paying, only to find out the other provider couldn't even get us internet here. Reliable internet in rural Ontario is still not a given for everyone. We have a choice between two providers. That's it. And neither one is inexpensive or perfect. In order to save some money, we finally dropped our land line. I know, most people who have crawled out of the dinosaur ages have already dropped their land lines ages ago, but change is hard for some (cough husband cough!!). Our problem is due to the physical nature of our home with an addition built on with double brick old walls and a big expanse of metal roof over a car port in between. Our son is in the addition, and in order for him to have a strong enough, fast enough signal, hard wiring has to be put in, and boosters, and other such stuff that I'm not sure I fully understand. Husband and son pulled through some wiring last weekend in order to prepare. 

So how are the other gardeners on here? All done for the season? Anyone else done battle with Bell in rural Canada? 

Autumn Colour

 I took these pictures yesterday but am writing the post today. The weather is the perfect Autumn weather- warm in the day, cooler in the evening. Trees aren’t quite in their full regalia yet but there is certainly colour to be seen.

All over the property, there are swaths of yellow.

Black eyed Susan are aggressive and prolific self seeders but they do provide beautiful colour.

Aptly named Autumn Joy Sedum has a home in most of my beds and borders.

I have various hydrangea, some of which turn a lovely bronzey rose colour. Notice Aristotle peeking out.

Russian sage is still creating a lacy purple effect beside the snowball bush.

This year has been very good for this bunch of Michaelmas daisies. Other years they have barely bloomed. I think it was our rainy August!

Most of the tall phlox is done but there are still a couple of clumps blooming.

The Burning Bush isn’t quite on fire yet, but it’s off to a good start.

Finally, this branch belongs to a neighbour’s maple tree. Just that one branch is showing bright scarlet, the rest is still quite green. I walk past it on my walks and always admire it!

How is the colour where you are? Do you have some of the same plants?

September 19, 2023

 It is a foggy morning this morning. I've been keeping myself busy with supply teaching here and there and the ongoing garden produce. Unfortunately, the little germ factories passed on the "scourge" to me with a sore throat and such. It was inevitable. 

This is still my world:

The Roma tomatoes have already been canned, but the other "regular" tomatoes remain in my kitchen, on my window sills, etc. Today I am going to tackle many of them and I am DONE with actual canning. I think I will just skin them, squish out the seeds and ziplock bag them for the freezer (even though I still have some from last year!). It was a good year for tomatoes, which makes me happy.

I did one last round of pickled beets yesterday, making only three little half pint jars. For the first time ever, I made pickled jalapeno peppers. I had such an amazing crop of them from just one plant.

Here they are in all their glory, prior to the pickling process. I wore gloves to cut them up. Son is very pleased. I didn't think to take pictures of the finished jars, but this made four half pint jars.

I am continuing with my elimination diet (specifically low fodmap) and have successfully reintroduced wheat. Today begins dairy. 

On a different note, I seem to have a broody hen. She is one of the lavender orpingtons. I've always just referred to her as "little comb", for good reasons. Poor thing has lost her tiny chicken mind, staying put in a nesting box, fluffing herself up and trilling every time I go near. She's not even laying (I don't know if that is part of being broody, but seems counter intuitive to me). She can sit there forever, but nothing is going to happen, as I don't have a rooster. I've been trying to gently break her of her broodiness, as I think it is hard on a hen to limit her food and water and not even end up hatching anything out, by lifting her off her nesting box and putting her out in the run a few times a day. Yes, again, I realize I have codependency issues.

Silly bird. 

We have had some excitement in our lives recently. This isn't unexpected, but nice that it is official:

Our eldest is now engaged! No wedding date is set yet but we are very happy for both of them! I will be a mother-in-law in the months to come and have a married child (she's 27, not exactly a child...). It's humbling. 

September 7, 2023

 Here is a picture of a quick 10:30 a.m. gathering:

I honestly think I could have been a great homesteader, if it weren't for the lack of modern dentistry, the outhouses, the backbreaking work of washing clothes, no electricity, and no benedryl...

I'm getting ready to make some salsa today. It won't be super hot, just some jalapenos (no seeds). Son wants it hot, so I might start by filling some jars with the regular, then introduce a hot pepper (not shown in picture - they are little cayennes, turning red now) into the remaining salsa and bottle the rest (labelling accordingly).

(For my own future reference, this is a bit more than six pounds of tomatoes, some Romas and other regular kind - the amount needed for this salsa recipe). 

It was hot, hot, hot here in my neck of the woods for the past couple of days, but then we got a good downpour of rain which cooled things off. I actually don't mind the heat. Let's all remember January and February, people!!

I am ready to get back into the swing of supply teaching. I booked a two day stint on Monday and Tuesday of next week. It is in a 4/5 split, but at this time of year, it will feel more like a 3/4 split, which I'm very comfortable with. I also booked a hair appointment for Wednesday of next week. It is time. I'm starting to get that "you've got long hair and just pull it back into a pony tail and not care what it looks like" hair. I need to change it up and feel good about my hair again (lord save me from frizzy, unfortunate hair --- thank you Scottish ancestry). 

Have a good day, all.